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National Geographic : 1977 Jul
Contents
Black ieMediterranean Sea Greek and Turkish Cypriot sectors divide Cyprus, once a British crown colony but an independent island nation since 1960. Cypriot extremists- with Greek military support- overthrew the government in 1974. To protectTurkish Cypriots and ward off union with Greece, Turkey then occupied the northernpart. be dispossessed. Knowing this well, the countryman locates a piece of vacant land in a squatter village. With help from friends some likely preceded him from the old village -he erects his walls. Then, overnight, the roof goes on. Life begins anew. He and his wife raise their family, adding rooms as necessary. She tends her garden and looks after her cow and chickens. He seeks work as a laborer, door keeper, shoeshine man, waiter. I asked the mayor what he was doing to help the newcomers. Bureaucracy can move as slothfully in Turkey as in the United States -I have heard government officials wryly refer to Ankara as "Yavagington," yava meaning "slow." Mr. Dalokay snorted. "I do not have much money," he said, "but I do have 6,500 workers and many bulldozers. With these I am by far the largest contractor in the city. "As fast as we can, we bring electricity and running water to the gecekondu-meaning Nicosia 'e. /X 'built overnight.' We put in streets and schools. Some schools already are on two and three shifts. Other cities are growing rapidly." Today Ankara is the country's fulcrum, as Atatiirk intended. He created the Republic of Turkey in 1923 and made Ankara the capital. Then a sleepy little city of about 25,000, it rested in the heartland of the Turk, Anatolia (map, above). He ruled out cosmopolitan Constantinople, now Istanbul, with its heri tage of Byzantine intrigue and Oriental ways. Atatiirk was a man for his time. A soldier, he came to the fore as World War I struck his vulnerable homeland. He defeated invading Greeks in 1922, preserving Turkey's inde pendence and restoring its pride. The savior of his country then worked to point it from East to West. He would-he sounded the word as a clarion-"civilize" his people, linking them to Europe economically, culturally, and diplomatically. Atatiirk led the movement to depose the sultan and broke the Muslim clergy's hold on National Geographic,July 1977
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