Rating: 
Summary: Turkey preserves its cultural heritage
Review: The Armenian from the USA says, and I quote: "Turkey has wasted much of its Greek, Armenian and Kurdish heritage."I honestly don't know what he is talking about. Some Kurdish people live in houses made of dirt even today in the 21st century. They have the highest rate of illiteracy in Turkey, a country that provides free public education to all its citizens through college. It is interesting to claim that Turkey has destroyed 'masterpieces by Kurds' when the people in question continue to live in shanty-towns, and sewage strained streets today. Their elected officials, all of Kurdish ethnicity, are perfectly at home with the conditions of their cities, and towns. I am aware of only one ancient mosque built by the Kurds. It stands in the Southeastern Turkey in a Kurdish town. If anything is in need of repair, that would be because of Kurdish neglect as these cities are almost 100% Kurdish with Kurdish officials overseeing all government work. As to the Armenian 'masterpieces', we simply don't have much. The reason is not, as the Armenian reader claims, because they have been destroyed. Just like their Kurdish comrades, the Armenians were not as productive or creative in Architecture. There is one monestary in the North East that is worth mentioning. Other than that the Armenian contribution is very, very mediocre. Next in scale is the Greeks. We have many, many Greek artifacts today in Turkey. Nobody has destroyed them and in fact, we, as the new generation, take pride in our history, and are committed to preserving all of our architectural gifts from the past. However, as a person who is very much interested in archeology, when you compare what the Greeks and Romans built, the Romans win hands up every time!.. The amphitheaters builts by Greeks are very simple, and small in size. Then you have the Roman amphitheaters. Take for example the Aspendos theatre, a beautiful structure recognized as a true masterpiece by archeologists around the world. No Greek theatre can even be compared in complexity, detail, size, engineering of this Roman theatre. At least the ones in Turkey. That's just the facts. It has nothing to do with the so-called Turkish attitude because we don't exactly consider Romans as our bosom-buddies. We appreciate all our archeological heritage along with our Ottoman Imperial past. The only problems we have had with our arheological sites are those by foreign treasure hunters, especially those of German origin. They frequently smuggle Turkish archeological pieces out of our country, to display them in their European museums. Turkey has started getting tougher with these criminal Europeans and we successfully litigated and got some of our stuff back. The Armenian reader also talks about us showing these architectural sites to tourists who come into our country. What shall we do then? I thought she was accusing us of destroying them. It seems to me like we can never please Armenians. They are sad people stuck in the past, with Turkish hatred ruling their lives. I remember a story told to me by my aunt about an old Armenian lady a Turkish family befriended. The Armenian lady was so old and frail the family decided to let her live in their basement since she did not have anybody to take care of her. The day she was dying she produced a dagger which she was keeping underneath her clothing. She told the family that she was not supposed to die before she took at least 'one Turkish life'. She could not accomplish her purpose but she burned with the desire of killing a Turk every day, even while she was being shown kindness by a Turkish family. This pretty much summarizes our relations with the Armenians. We, as Turkish people, are afraid of them, and their intense hatred of us. We would prefer that they leave us alone and go on to live their lives. I would urge all the American, and the other International readers to be very wary about opinions posted by Armenians as they will always be extremely biased against Turkey. Armenians are not interested in the truth, all they want to do is to spread their hateful agenda, and propaganda.
Rating:
Summary: a good read
Review: The Armenian reader from Amsterdam, Holland claims that they have lived in the territory now called Turkey (his writing) for more than 2500 years. This is, of course, patently untrue since the Armenians lived in what now constitutes the northeastern of modern day Turkey. That's not ALL of Turkey. Then he/she is outraged that a 'tourist' guide would not talk about the so-called Armenian Genocide at the hands of Turks? Hello??? You can pretty much determine if a book on Turkey and the Turks is any good by checking out the Armenian/Greek/Kurdish reaction. Man, their hatred runs deep!.. If the buffoons are outraged, that means the book is UNBIASED. Maybe it has a few positive comments on Turkey. In this case, Settle has distilled her experiences in beautiful prose and introduced us to a mysterious, and distant country.
Rating:
Summary: Would Have Been A Most Wonderful Book...If Not For the Typos
Review: The first thing that attracted my attention during my read was its unfortunate typos. In one place, entry of Turks into Anatolia is moved from 1071 to 1097; in another case, conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque is moved from 1453 to 1532. There are some other dating mistakes... But in general, the book has been written with an avowed commitment to fairness; its approach to the demographic structure of the country is worthy of consideration. Because, you know what: that little redhead in Central Anatolia is truly of Celtic origin! This makes him, and indirectly all Turks, the descendants of first Christian Celts! After all, whom do you think Paul was talking to in the Galatians? Ironically, he is likely to end up being a relatively pious Muslim and a nationalist Turk! But then again this is Turkish History and it is no easy stuff! To summarize, I can say that it makes a perfect reading for your transatlantic flight to the country. But if you like something heavier, I would recommend you to go for something else. Here is the Internet and here is the horde of historians wasting Amazon Forests to explain Turks to the world! Power to the search engines!
Rating: 
Summary: In Turkey non-Turks are always wasted by the Turks
Review: The review just above refers to the author's statement that "in Turkey nothing is wasted." How can this be said of a country and culture which masscared 1.5 million Armenians giving a 20th century meaning to the words genocide and holocaust? And how can we regard the destruction of 3,000+ Kurdish villages in Turkey as an attempt to save (rather than waste) something? Sure, go there as a tourist and you will be shown what remains of the Greek, Roman and Byzantine treasures. But you will not be able to see the traesures that were wasted over the centuries and the Byzantine mossaics that were covered up with stucco (wasted) in the great church of Haghia Sophia (Divine Wisdom)in Istanbul. Turkey has wasted much of its Greek, Armenian and Kurdish heritage. The fact that so much still remains is a monument to the creativity and energy of those preceding cultures which inhabited the land mass now called Turkey.
Rating: 
Summary: Personal journey
Review: This book is a travelogue of a retrospective trip the author took through Turkey almost 20 years after a short residence there. Settle sets the scene by describing the events that originally took her to Turkey in the 1970s and what Turkish village life was like for her back then. Then she proceeds to describe the details of a tour through the country in 1989, beginning in Istanbul, then traveling for several weeks or months throughout Anatolia. In each location, she provides some historical detail, as well as observations from an outsider who is nevertheless familiar with the culture. I didn't find the book particularly engaging, with the exception of the Istanbul chapter, which had special appeal to me because I had recently visited the city myself. Indeed, this book may be most interesting to those who know Turkey well, have visited it in the past, or plan to visit in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Personal journey
Review: This book is a travelogue of a retrospective trip the author took through Turkey almost 20 years after a short residence there. Settle sets the scene by describing the events that originally took her to Turkey in the 1970s and what Turkish village life was like for her back then. Then she proceeds to describe the details of a tour through the country in 1989, beginning in Istanbul, then traveling for several weeks or months throughout Anatolia. In each location, she provides some historical detail, as well as observations from an outsider who is nevertheless familiar with the culture. I didn't find the book particularly engaging, with the exception of the Istanbul chapter, which had special appeal to me because I had recently visited the city myself. Indeed, this book may be most interesting to those who know Turkey well, have visited it in the past, or plan to visit in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Tolerant Turkey?? What about the Armenians and the Kurds?
Review: This book is highly disappointing in its approach to contemporary Turkey. It is well-known and is well documented that the Turks committed a major genocide earlier this century against the Armenians, something which they deny and which they continue to attempt to cover up at every step, each year removing more and more Armenian relics and holy sites in a concentrated effort to remove from history all traces of the existence of these people in Anatolia for thousands of years. Similarly, they are conducting an armed war against the Kurds (so-called "Mountain Turks")in the Southeastern part of the country even today. And, yet again, the Turks continue to forbid the development of Greek Orthodox theological schools, hoping once and for all to snuff out the existence of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul by means a cynical "war of attrition". A more realistic and revealing portrayal of what is actually happening in contemporary Turkey can be gleaned by reading William Dalrymple's From the Holy Mountain or Michael Arlen's Passage to Ararat. But unless one has complete utter blinders on, it is difficult, if not impossible, to believe that this book is anything other than a hopelessly romanticized vision of Turkey based on a lack of real knowledge of what life in Turkey is like for the minority groups which have lived there in the past.
Rating: 
Summary: In reply to "A reader from Virginia, USA, 8/26/99
Review: This book reflects personal experiences and insights of the author, which is done very sincerely and poetically. It is not a history textbook nor carries a political agenda. I do not know if the reader had read the whole book but pages 66-67 contain references to Armenian genocide. I can also tell that this reader's knowledge of modern Turkey and Turkish people and their relationships with Armenians, Greeks and Kurds are limited to few subjective publications. If he/she ever lived in Turkey and observed how those people from diverse backgrounds live, go schools and work together, become best friends and marry each other, he/she would not believe every opinion so naively. Every country has its own unique disparities and ways to deal with them. Turkey regionally and politically has a very strategic position (historically much diverse compared to many countries in the world); hence, it experienced and continues to experience many uproars for claims of land. This situation is not unique to Turkey and I strongly believe that most countries would do the same to defend the integrity of their land.
Rating:
Summary: Lyrical veil
Review: This is a pleasant little book, easy to read, and thought-provoking at times. I read it on the plane on the way back from Turkey, having visited many of the places mentioned in the book. I like the combination of site description, anecdote, and history, but I often find the lyricizing a tad too much. Much of Turkey is pure poetry, and does not need a lyrical veil.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, great country
Review: This is an excellent and clear-headed book about Turkey before the dynamic capitalism of the 1980's really set in. As such, it is somewhat anachronistic as all books about Turkey quickly tend to become. On the other hand, the general portrait and the beautiful writing make this the best and truest introduction to Turkey yet written. Read it to understand this unique country, a veritable mosaic of ethnicities, customs and histories; spawning a bridge between the East and the West. For people who see the world through narrow eyes, Turkey might be a paradox: the most secular country in the world, with a solidly modern orientation and a predominantly Muslim (but secular!) population. Not a paradox for Settle who has an open mind. Recall also that Turkey is a country that suffers an unjustly bad image, mainly because of fanatic Greek-Orthodox fundamentalists (e.g. see the one or two silly reviews below by Greek-Americans with no idea of Balkan history!). Mary Lee Settle has done more than anyone else to rectify the balance. She is uniquely qualified to do so because she clearly has no political agenda to settle with the past or with the future... One can only hope that Mary Lee Settle writes another book covering the breathtaking changes in Turkey in the last 20 years or so with the same clear vision.
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