Week 3: Kapadokya and AK Party

Merhaba all!
Hope you're all doing well.
So the last time I posted, we were getting ready to go to Kapadokya; over a week ago! Still can't believe I've only been here for three weeks.
Kapadokya was amazing, as it always is. I would post all the pictures I took, but, in all honesty, they're pretty much the same as the ones I took last summer, especially the ones in the rock churches. If you want to see them (WHICH YOU SHOULD) look at the entry from last summer; this is the same blog after all.
But we did go to a few more places in Kapadokya than last summer; last year we pretty much stayed in Uchisar, but we did a fair ammount of driving around the entire region this year (excepting the Ilhara Valley). The views in this place are just amazing:

This is the view of Uchisar from another town; at the foot of that mountain (into which a honeycomb of houses and chambers is carved) is where we stayed last summer.

View into Kapadokya from Uchisar.

William, striking a particularly heroic pose and surveying Kapadokya.
So Kapadokya was great, but no major surprises. Except I got sick again- gonna blame the hotel's open buffet for that little gastrointestinal episode. When we got back to Ankara on July 4, I was feeling horrible, and went to bed almost immediately. I was still not feeling well on Sunday, but my family had a cookout:


That's my host dad Kadir, grilling out. Even though I was feeling bad, and knew that it would be a bad idea to eat anything except bread and rice (let alone some barbecue), I couldn't help it. I at a TON of lentil soup, grilled mushrooms, borek, and kebabs. The best part? I felt fantastic the next day, and have been fine ever since. Also, last Sunday I met the family's new kitten. Everyone, this is Ayıcık (EYE-uh-juk), which means 'little bear' in Turkish:

Also an incredible sunset that night. I just can't help myself! When I took a picture of this one, this woman walking by yelled 'What are you doing!' are me. I guess she thought I was CIA or something. Definitely worth it though:

The rest of the week was good: just class every day so not too much to report. On Friday though we had a surprise trip to the headquarters of the AK Party, the political party that has been in power here since 2002:
So pretty much every Turk I've ever met is terrified of this party and thinks that it is a crypto-Islamist party that aims to turn Turkey into Iran. My family in particular HATES the Turkish president (Abdullah Gül) and Prime Minister (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan), both of whose wives wear the traditional Islamic headscarve. The headscarve, as you might know, is one of the major flashpoints in Turkish politics. The parliament (controlled by AKP, which won about 47% of the vote in 2007 elections and has a huge majority in parliament) passed a law allowing the wearing of headscarves in universities in 2008, a law that was quickly annulled by the staunchly secular Constitutional Court. In fact, in 2008, the country's top prosecutor brought a case to the court accusing AKP of anti-secular activities and asking that the party be banned and that 70 of its top leaders (including Erdoğan and Gül) be banned from politics for five years. It was, as you might imagine, a political storm that both the party and Turkey weathered. This episode is an example of the considerable, thought now reduced, power of Turkey's secular establishment, the same forces that brought about three coups in the past 50 years.
Because my interaction with Turks is generally limited to those who speak English, live in America, and/or are fairly affluent, I've only met people who tell me really scary things about AKP. After Friday though, I'm not really scared. True, AKP is conservative, and some of its members have histories of participation in Islamic parties, but the party, as it stands now, is fairly moderate, especially compared to how it is usually portrayed in the West. Additionally, AKP is staunchly in favor of Turkey's membership in the EU (a fact which alone does much to combat 'AKP is secretely Islamist' rumors) and has done more than any other party in Turkey's history to make this dream a reality. Also, the party has stabilized the economy and improved the financial prospects of many Turks. Finally, the party has brought many ordinary, previously marginalized, Turks into the political process; in fact, many AKP leaders point to this as the reason that secular elites ('Istanbullus who speak perfect English and have never been east of Ankara' as someone put it) despise AKP so much. We talked to the party's head foreign relations expert, an extremely enlightening conversation. Of course, when I talked to my host mom about it that night, she said 'Well yeah, he's a politician. AKP wears a mask; it has two faces," and proceeded to give me the same talk I've heard from many Turks in the neighborhood. Maybe I'm just naive, but the visit really allayed my concerns about the threat AKP poses to Turkish secularism. Plus they gave us lunch, served on AKP china:

After visiting AKP, we went to the parliament, a frankly unremarkable building, though the grounds of the mosque in the parliament complex were really nice:

The next day, Saturday (yesterday) we went on our trekking expedition, basically a 6 hour hike around a park an hour outside Ankara. Though it doesn't compare to most national parks in the US I've been to, it was a really nice hike and had some really beautiful views. Plus it was nice to be in the woods:




That's about it. Right now I'm drinking Turkish coffee, watching my host dad and the neighbor play tavla (backgammon) lightening fast; I can barely see the pieces. Also, I need to go pick the family's cherry tree; they're making cherry preserves later this week. The program's going to Istanbul Wednesday (!!!!!), so probably no updates for a while. But you're used to that. Love and miss you all!