I am visiting Izmir, Turkey this week for an accreditation visit of a school. This is my third visit to Turkey, or Turkiye as the government wants you to pronounce it. I see why because of the English word turkey. I’ll call it Turkiye while I am here. This is my first time outside of Istanbul, which I visited in February 2014 and September 2019. Istanbul is stunningly picturesque but increasingly crowded as Syrian refugees and people from Central Asia, the Middle East, and Russia have moved in.
Izmir is the third largest city in Turkiye with a metro population between 3 and 4 million people. It is an ancient city with a recorded urban history of over 3000 years. It was the Greek city of Smyrna in antiquity. After the Greeks lost the Turkish-Greek War, 1.2 million Greeks left Smyrna and 400,000 Muslims living in Greece moved into Smyrna. This was done peacefully through the League of Nations and looking back, more violence was probably avoided. Some scholars criticize it as “legalized mutual ethnic cleansing” but when I think about what happened in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, perhaps this would have avoided a lot of deaths. On the flip side, it would have made Turkey richer to have a large Greek population in the city and it would probably have driven even more tourism and business. In America, large ethnic enclaves are everywhere in big cities and they bring diversity and cosmopolitanism to urban areas. The friction of different cultures and ways of thinking living close together can lead to entrepreneurship and higher living standards for all.
I have not had a chance to explore the city yet. I am excited to see my beloved Mediterranean Sea again! This is one of my favorite regions in the world as you can read from past posts in this blog. I spent two lovely summers on the island of Mallorca in the 1990s which got me started as a big fan of the cuisine, weather, beautiful views, and laidback lifestyle. My last visit to the Mediterranean was in June of 2023 when my family and I spent a week exploring the western side of Sicily. I will try to blog more about Izmir and Turkiye while I am here, although accreditation visits are always busy.
The flights were smooth yesterday. I flew Turkish Airlines from Tashkent to Istanbul and then connected to Izmir. It was my first time in the domestic part of Istanbul Airport and it is as beautifully designed as the international sections. I wish American airports were as nice as many airports internationally. It was a 5+hour flight to Istanbul and after a two-hour layover, a short 1-hour flight to Izmir. I got in around 11:00 PM. Interestingly, the airport splits baggage into domestic and international claims. I wrongly went to the domestic claim area, thinking that I was coming from Istanbul, on a domestic flight. However, luggage is categorized by origin, not by connecting flights. A polite young man explained my error, and I and 4 other people who made the same mistake, walked over the international baggage claim area that was a long way away. Turks like large airports I guess!
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