Thursday, 8 April 2010

Flas Haberler

Flaş Haberler:


 

UNESCO 2011 yılını "Evliya Çelebi Yılı" ilan etti!


 

Evliya Çelebi (1611–1683/84) doğumunun 400. yıl dönümünde yaşamı ve eserleriyle birlikte anılıyor. Bir Evliya Çelebi Yolu -ve aynı zamanda da sürekli kullanılabilecek bir turizm yolu- saptamak üzere yapılmış olan 2009 Evliya Çelebi Gezisinin bu karara katkı sağlamış olmasını umuyoruz.


 

Şimdi siz de Ercihan ve onun şahane atları ile Eylül 2010'da Evliya Çelebi Yolu'nun bir kısmında seyahat etmek için yer ayırtabilirsiniz! Detaylı bilgi için www.akhal-tekehorsecenter.com adresini ziyaret ediniz, 'Great Anatolian Ride'ı tıklayınız, ve daha sonra aynı sayfanın alt bölümünde yer alan 'itinerary' yi (güzergâh) tıklayınız.


 

British Council, yürütmekte olduğu Paylaştığımız Avrupa programının temel bir figürü olan Evliya konusunda, Young Foundation'na bağlı Maslaha'nın ortaklığında (www.youngfoundation.org; www.maslaha.org) bizimle çalışmayı tercih etti www.oursharedeurope.org.


 

Şimdi 2011 yılında başlatacağımız başka bir Evliya Çelebi Yolu Gezisi için sponsorlar arıyoruz. Gaziantep'den başlayıp güneyde Halep'e kadar devam edecek olan ve dönüşte Urfa üzerinden geçerek Gaziantep'te son bulacak olan bu gezi, "Evliya Çelebi Türkiye-Suriye Dostluk Gezisi" olarak adlandırılacak ve iki ülke arasındaki sıcak ilişkilere ve sınırların açılmasına işaret eden önemli bir etkinlik olacaktır.


 

Evliya Çelebi Gezi Yolu Grubu olarak 2011 yılında Evliya'yı anarken gerçekleştirmeyi düşündüğümüz çalışmalar şunlardır:


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

Şu forumları takip ediniz:


 


 


 


 

  • Ercihan ve Susan 2009 turumuzu takiben İznik'in kuzeyinden Kütahya'ya kadar uzanan 10 günlük bir binicilik turu düzenlediler. Böylelikle ilk turist kafilesi Evliya Çelebi Yolu'nu 2010 Eylül ayında kat edebileceklerdir. Detaylar için 'Great Anatolian Ride'ı ziyaret edip aynı sayfanın alt bölümünde yer alan 'itinerary' yi (güzergâh) tıklayınız www.akhal-tekehorsecenter.com.


 

  • Donna ve Mac Türkiye Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı'nın Londra Ofisi ve Redmint İletişim ile birlikte çalışarak Evliya turlarını tanıtmaya ve medyanın ilgisini bu konuya çekmeye çalışıyorlar.


 


 

  • Caroline, Donna ve Tricia'nın Cornucopia dergisi için hazırlamış oldukları gezi günlüğü derginin gelecek sayısında yayımlanacak.


 

  • Caroline, Royal Asiatic Society Newsletter'in gelecek sayısı için gezi hakkında bir yazı hazırlıyor.


 


 

Caroline, Türkiye'den gelen maddi desteği artırabilmek için çalışmalar yürütmektedir ve bu amaçla Gaziantep'i ziyaret etmiştir. Bütçe gereksinimlerini karşılanabildiği taktirde 2011 yılında yapılacak gezinin anısına bir film ve bir gezi rehberi hazırlanacak ve ayrıca bir turizm rotası ortaya konulacaktır.

Wednesday, 3 February 2010

News flashes!

UNESCO has announced that 2011 will be 'The Year of Evliya Celebi'! Our man lived from 1611-c.1683, and we reiterated in many press interviews during our Evliya Celebi Ride that 2011 should be his year. We hope we might have contributed to the decision to honour Evliya with a 400th anniversary.

You too can now book to ride part of the Evliya Celebi Way with Ercihan and his fantastic horses in September 2010. Go to http://www.akhal-tekehorsecenter.com/, then click on Great Anatolian Ride, and then click again at the bottom of that page for itinerary details.

The British Council have chosen to work with us on Evliya as a key figure for their Our Shared Europe programme, http://www.oursharedeurope.org/, in collaboration with Maslaha and the Young Foundation, http://www.maslaha.org/ and http://www.youngfoundation.org/.

Sponsorship is now being sought for the second Evliya Celebi Ride, a 2011 'Turkey-Syria Friendship Ride' from Gazientep to Aleppo and the environs of Urfa. The expedition will produce a Guidebook to the route and a documentary film as well as scholarly and pedagogical writing.

Further works in progress by the Evliya Celebi Ride and Way group to commemorate Evliya in 2011 and after:

* a guidebook to the 2009 route of our Ride for riders, walkers, and cyclists, the English version to be published by Upcountry (Turkey) Ltd (http://www.trekkinginturkey.com/)
* an illustrated academic book, Evliya Celebi's Way: Expedition and Re-enactment, authored by Mac, Caroline, Leyla, Andy, and Donna, on what re-enactment as a mode of research can teach us from different disciplinary perspectives, edited by Donna Landry, University of Kent, and Gerald MacLean, University of Exeter, UK
* a documentary film about the 2009 expedition and Evliya, introducing the first Evliya Celebi Way trekking route
* an illustrated oral history of horsefolk of Western Anatolia, recording the stories of people who have lived and worked with horses in their everyday lives in the past and continue to do so in the present, edited by Leyla Neyzi, Sabanci University, Istanbul
* obtaining permissions and sponsorship for the 2011 'Turkey-Syria Friendship Ride' to mark the renewal of warm relations between these two countries and the open borders familiar to Ottoman travellers
* a documentary film based on the 2011 Ride

Watch These Spaces!
* a report by Donna to the Long Riders' Guild is online at www.kent.ac.uk/english/evliya/index.html
* an interview with Caroline about plans for the 2011 Ride has appeared in Hurriyet Daily News: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=on-the-footsteps-of-evliya-celebi--2010-01-28
* Ercihan and Susan have prepared a riding tour on a 10-day stretch of our 2009 route, from north of Iznik to Kutahya; the first tourists may ride the Evliya Way in September 2010; see http://www.akhal-tekehorsecenter.com/ for 'Great Anatolian Ride'
* Mac and Donna are working with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, London Office, and Redmint Communications on promoting future Evliya Rides and generating media interest
* Caroline, Tricia, and Donna have written a Diary of the 2009 Ride to appear in a forthcoming issue of Cornucopia magazine
* Caroline is preparing a piece on the Ride for the Royal Asiatic Society, to appear in the next issue
* Caroline is endeavouring to raise further Turkish sponsorship, and has already visited Gazientep for this purpose; one-third of the budget for the 2011 Ride has now been promised; we welcome futher contributions from sponsors.

Friday, 15 January 2010

koyun kaçırmak: Not the Evliya Celebi Way . . .


no wonder some villagers thought we were sheep rustlers as we passed through on the EÇR. this picture, which accompanied an article in a Turkish daily on an actual attempt, shows what can be done:


Wednesday, 23 December 2009

Tomb of Hersekzade Ahmet Pasha at Hersek


Titiz and Sarhosh tethered at the Baghdad Restaurant


The Evliya Celebi Ride: Logistics, Details, Maps

The expedition accomplished its mission of covering Evliya's route between Hersek and Kutahya, a ride of some 1300 kilometres.

All horses finished up sound and well. None was ever lame, and nobody even lost a shoe.

Dramatis Personae

Horses (all Turkish-bred mares supplied by Ercihan):
Anadolu, Akhal-Teke Thoroughbred cross, completed the ride
Titiz, Thoroughbred who looks like an Akhal-Teke, completed the ride
Sarhosh, Arab-Anatolian cross, completed the ride
Ilos, Arab-Anatolian cross, completed the ride
Elis, Arab-Anatolian cross, no rider for last section of ride
Asya, Arab-Anatolian cross, no rider for last section of ride
Hidalgo, purebred Arab, no rider for last section of ride

Humans:
Ercihan Dilari, Akhal-Teke Horse Centre, Avanos, Cappadocia, Expedition leader
Metin Aker, Artist, shaman, chef, driver
Sedat Varis, Horseman, logistics expert
Donna Landry, FRAS, Professor of English and American Literature, University of Kent
Caroline Finkel, FRAS, Honorary Fellow, Edinburgh University
Gerald MacLean, FRAS, Professor of English and Co-Director of Turkish Studies, Exeter University

Susan Wirth, Photographic editor of Der Spiegel, New York
Therese Tardif, Advertising executive, Montreal, Canada

Patricia Daunt, Writer, wife of a former ambassador to Turkey
Andy Byfield, Botanist, PlantLife International

Ayse Yetis, Vet, Turkish Jockey Club
Ozcan Gorurgoz, Entrepreneur, restauranteur, Cappadocia
Alper Katranci, Entrepreneur, balloonist, Cappadocia
Pinar Durmaz, Trekkist and academic, Istanbul Kultur University
Ramazan Bey, Muhtar of Ucbas

Route and Maps:

The initial idea had been to follow Evliya's route from Istanbul to Izmir (see first map on blog). However, research revealed the importance of Kutahya as his ancestral town, and the appeal of the city itself as a final destination for sustainable tourism, rather than urban Izmir. The thriving rahvan (ridden pacing racing) community is another important feature of Kutahya, alongside its historical restoration projects and interest in Anatolian and Ottoman heritage culture. Hence the second map on the blog. This one shows the route Evliya took, and which we followed, a route that is indeed a typically Evliyan circuitous route from Kutahya through Afyon, Usak, and Simav, before heading back to Kutahya.

A second change of route was made during the ride; this change too proved felicitous. There was a problem or perhaps textual crux in Evliya's description of his route between Afyon and Banaz. He appears to have gone in two entirely different directions and we could not see a way of combining them but hoped to choose the better route. Instead of following Evliya from Afyon to Suhut and Sandikli and thence to Banaz as originally intended, we decided to ride from Afyon to Boyali, Sinanpasa, and then Banaz. Evliya's descriptions of these latter places are much richer than what little he has to say about the plain between Sandikli and Banaz. Since we discovered some of the most fascinating horse country and stunningly beautiful landscapes of the expedition during this part of the ride, we think it was the right decision.

Shortening the route in this way also meant that the expedition was completed before the coming of winter.

Following Evliya has proved to be a more rewarding research exercise than any of the expedition party had ever imagined it would be.

Thursday, 10 December 2009

a radio spot for the EÇR

Here is a recent radio interview in English that Caroline did for Turkish Radio, San Francisco. It is 17 minutes long: http://turkradio.us/k/evliya/.
The interviewer's father was once the chief veterinarian at the Karacabey Arabian stud near Bursa (http://www.tigem.gov.tr/)—horse habits are for life!
We will soon be posting links to the various TV and press interviews we have done in English and Turkish.
Happy listening!