Are our cities becoming urban or what?

The democratic revolution that Turkey has been going through in recent years has very strong sociological foundations nourishing its political ground. The rise in the level of education, universities opening in every part of Turkey, and urbanization are the most striking developments. It can be said that the AK Parti's coming to power was both a result of developments in both of these areas, and that under AK Parti rule the way was opened still further for both developments that carried it.

The rise in the level of education is one of the most important channels of moving from the periphery to the center, and the AK Parti's rule is in a sense the story of people carried to the center through education. It is precisely for this reason that the elements of the old center showed resistance to the development of higher education. This resistance displayed against people carried to the center through the channel of education was entirely class-based. The headscarf ban, the coefficient practice, and the opposition to the opening of new universities or departments should always be seen as manifestations of this resistance.

On urbanization too, the negative attitude of the same circles showed itself at every opportunity. The problems created by the people whom the process carried to the cities were exaggerated, and as they were seen as insoluble, discomforts were projected onto other areas. An anti-urbanization jargon was insistently circulated with terms such as reaction, secularism, lifestyles, distorted urbanization, arabesque, lack of aesthetics, and peasantry.

Yet there were sociological dynamics forcing Turkey toward urbanization, and these dynamics could not be blocked. Had the discomforts they created been treated as opportunities, instead of displaying ideological opposition or antagonism to these dynamics, we could be in a very different place today.

Actually, the subject I wanted to come to is related to this but somewhat different. I wanted to share the thoughts I fell into yesterday while touring the stands allotted to cities at the 17th EMITT (Eastern Mediterranean Tourism and Travel Fair). All of Turkey's cities are in something like an uprising. At this fair ground one can see, all together, the race that cities are running to first find their own identities, then to work and develop that identity, and to create difference and awareness from it.

In this uprising of consciousness among cities one can also see, in all its beauty, the traces of the development Turkey has recently been going through. The necessary reforms on local government have still not been made, and when they are made it will certainly be much better, but even as it is, it is very interesting to see the talent of our cities, which cannot fit within themselves and strive to spill outward. Every city has prepared and is exhibiting its local products in a way that can best be presented to today's market conditions.

Van displays its herbed cheese, its historical and touristic regions, its cat, its geographical and human beauties. Right across from it, Elazig displays, beside its products such as grapes, mulberries and roasted chickpeas, a taste of the conviviality of its sira nights.

Siirt presents a demo of the light show that Ibrahim Hakki, the student of Fakirullah, built with love, while serving its visitors zivzik pomegranate and its juice, and those who arrive in time eat of the delicious buryan, which ran out within a short while and which the governor Ahmet Aydin himself carved and served. A little further on, at the Bitlis stand, one lovelier than the other of the region's products are offered. Meanwhile, on the buryan, a sweet dispute-rivalry between the people of Bitlis and Siirt, the fact that no buryan was served at the Bitlis stand gave rise to jokes that this debate ended in favor of the Siirtis.

A little ahead the Afyonkarahisar stand highlights its thermal springs, and of course does not withhold its kaymakli lokum from visitors. Diyarbakir, Konya, Usak... within a few hours you have an interesting travel experience of all of Turkey.

Let us not pass without noting that the regional development agencies recently established have a very important share in this revival of cities. Every city is slowly finding itself through the development strategies carried out by these development agencies.

You know how, at one time in Turkey, there was talk of the Five Cities that we picture in Tanpinar's exquisite descriptions later becoming victims of urbanization. Perhaps an even faster urbanization is being experienced lately in that direction, but it seems that in parallel there is also a development toward cities finding their own identities. Both through each city finding and developing what is unique to it, and through reviving the historical heritage present in every city, especially through restorations, our cities are coming back to life. For that, go to Nigde, to Odunpazari, to Ankara's Hamamonu and Haci Bayram, to Malatya, to Tokat, to Konya, to Ilgin and Kadinhani, and see the historical heritage coming to life.

So alongside a side of us that sheds its leaves, we also have such a spring-garden situation.