Our Trip to Turkey

Our wedding program (which you got today!) mentioned that we would be going to Turkey soon. Most of you probably know a little about that, but we thought a little more information might be helpful.

J and I are going to studying at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey for the next nine months. If you look at Turkey on a map, you’ll find it right in the middle of the country. It’s also the capital.

J and I are incredibly excited to be able to study at Bilkent. First, it is an excellent school (it is actually ranked better than OU). Second, we both really want more of a non-Western perspective on the Middle East. When we took “Politics of Islam” in Morocco, we somehow managed to wind up with a Spanish and non-Muslim professor. The most common source he provided us was the Washington post. After getting that (IN Morocco!), we’re really looking forward to having Turkish professors teaching about Turkish topics.

Third, Turkey is a beautiful country with just about some of the richest history you can find. Troy, the Ephesians, the Hittites, the Galatians, the Byzantines, and the Ottomans all left their mark in this land. Just this past year, archeologists found a probable site for the tomb of St. Phillip the Apostle. So we’ll probably be able to find something to do there.

Of course, those reasons are all secondary to primary objective and attraction of Bilkent: language. J and I have both been studying Arabic (which most of you know), and while we’re in Turkey, we’re also planning on learning Turkish. Turkish is good for J because Turkey is a rising star in the Middle East. It has the 15^th largest economy in the world. It has strong diplomatic and economic ties with most of the major players in the region. Basically it will be a major player in Middle Eastern politics, and its ties with Europe have already made it an economic powerhouse.

So learning Turkish will give J an advantage in whatever she wants to do in the region. For me, Turkish will be a good first step to learning Ottoman. Ottoman is like Turkish, except that it’s a dead language which used Arabic characters like these هذه instead of Roman numerals like those used by modern Turkish.

I’m interested in studying North Africa, and since a good chunk of North Africa was ruled by Ottoman speaking soldiers for several hundred years, I figured it would be a good idea to get a base in Turkish.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on with Turkey. We’re leaving for Ankara this coming Thursday, and we won’t be coming back until next June (Unless we fly home for winter break sometime at the end of January). We hope you’ll follow along on our blog to see how it goes.