FOOD AND PUPPETS PULL HEART STRINGS
By Fazile Zahir
Asia Times Online
Aug 13, 2008
Hong Kong
FETHIYE, Turkey – Despite the gradual improvement in relations between
Greece and Turkey over the past decade, it seems that there is still
much to squabble about.
Both countries are laying claim to the origins of the shadow theater
show known as Karagoz (or in Greek Karagiozis) after the name of
its main character. Newspapers reported this week that the Turkish
Ministry for Culture and Tourism will be making a wholesale effort
to repel Greek efforts to appropriate the traditional Turkish drama
which was popularized during the Ottoman period.
Their efforts will be part of their attempt to register Karagoz on the
planned 2009 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible
Cultural Heritage. They are planning a large range of actions
including preparing a dossier of historical research proving that
Karagoz originated in Turkey, naming office buildings, parks and public
squares after him and encouraging TV producers to make program about
him and his sidekicks.
They will also be trying to revive the tradition of touring shadow
theatre companies performing across the nation by employing actors and
training them in the art of puppetry. A Karagoz Research Institute
will be founded, a book of Karagoz images published and his stories
will be reprinted.
Karagoz – the puppet that everyone wants a piece of – has six or seven
centuries of history behind him; the Ottoman equivalent of Mr Punch
(though somewhat less violent) of the duo of England’s Punch and
Judy. The plays are popularly thought to be based on the lives of
two garrulous laborers – Karagoz and Hacivat – whose comic chatter
slowed down the work on a mosque construction in Bursa, after their
execution they became folk heroes.
Karagoz is the not-too-bright representative of the common man
and Hacivat is a low-ranking official of sorts. Generally, whatever
scheme the two come up with during the course of a play, Karagoz ends
up ruining it through his buffoonery and Hacivat ends up as a long
suffering Oliver Hardy dealing with the incompetent Stan Laurel.
The shows were incredibly popular in Turkey, but the advent
of television has almost wiped them out (except at cultural
festivals). However the cinematic release of the popular costume
drama Who Killed Hacivat and Karagoz? in 2006 sparked a new interest
in Turkey and across the sea in Greece.
Three months after the film came out, Turkish papers were reporting
that Karagiozi was playing to packed houses in Athens houses telling
the story of Greek suffering under the Ottomans. Turkish theater
artist Emin Senyer said that the Turkish governments unwillingness to
invest in keeping traditions alive was allowing the more active Greek
government to present this particular shadow puppet to the world as
if it was their own.
In Greece, some are happy to accept that Karagiozis made his way to
the county via the Turks but there are also alternative theories
that Greek merchants brought shadow theatre from China or that a
Greek created the folkloric art during Ottoman rule to entertain the
sultan. Despite these differences, experts agree on two things, first,
that in the 1880s the stories and adventures were adapted for a newly
independent Greek society by inventing numerous local characters,
and were mostly completed by 1910.
Karagiozis flourished from 1915 until 1950, a time of major
tribulations for the nation in the form of wars and social
unrest. The puppet hero was a continuous inspiration for the poor,
an uncompromising protagonist who tried in vain to change his fate
and protest against social injustice. The character is still regarded
with great affection.
Of course these are not the only elements of culture that the two
nations and their peoples joust over. The comments under the recent
news story make that very clear: Enis Ilhan Icten (Let’s not wake
up to the danger too late, we need to be ever vigilant) … they’ve
taken yoghurt, taken feta and baklava, we lost doner and helva too,
none of these are known as ours anymore."
Should UNESCO choose to get involved in the intangible area of cuisine
they may never extricate themselves from the arguments. Several dishes
are fiercely contested: Dolma/sarma – the Turkish word dolma means
stuffed and can be used to describe any vegetable with a mince and rice
filling, whereas sarma is used for vine leaf or cabbage leaf version
(sarma means wrapped). Called dolmades by the Greeks it’s probably
OK to infer that if the word actually means something in Turkish the
dish originated here. There are variations of dolma throughout the
Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Baklava – the Lebanese, Armenians and Greeks all claim they invented
this sweet sticky pastry and they probably derived the early
variants. But the form we know today, with its syrupy nutty filling,
was devised in the kitchens of the Ottoman court and the word means
"diamond shaped" in Turkish.
On May 16, 2006, Turkish baklava producers held a demonstration
and press conference in Istanbul supported by the state minister
for finance and European Union chief negotiator, Ali Babacan. They
were protesting Greek Cypriot claims that baklava was their national
creation. Their placards read "Baklava is Turkish, we will not allow
the Greek Cypriots to feed it to the world."
Feta – the Greeks won this battle, not just over Turkey but against
the whole of the EU. Under a European Court of Justice ruling feta,
like Champagne and Parma ham is protected. As of 2007, producers of
this crumbly white cheese who do not actually make it in Greece cannot
call it feta or even feta-style cheese. Turks call their version of
this beyaz peynir – white cheese.
According to cookery expert and chef Hulya Erdal, "Feta cheese can
only be the creation of Greece and any other cheese that remotely
resembles this delightful fare is really only an imitation and cannot
be called anything other than white cheese."
Yoghurt – also known worldwide as Greek yoghurt – was probably a
spontaneous appearance caused by wild bacteria in animals’ skin bags
used for carrying milk. There are records of 11th century consumption
by nomadic Turks in the Diwan Lughat al-Turk.
The Greeks call it yiaourti. The name may be derived from the
Turkish yogurmak which means "to knead", but the etymological link is
tenuous. Hulya Erdal has her own view, "If you know anything about food
then you’ll know that yoghurt was without a doubt invented, cooked up,
made, produced, however you want to call it, from Turkey. Forget what
anyone else tells you, it’s an original Turkish food product and always
will be. Of course, that’s not to say that ‘Greek-style yoghurt’ or
‘French-style yoghurt’ isn’t original but notice the clever use of
words, let’s make sure that we all understand, it’s just a variation
on an old tried and tested Turkish recipe."
Doner – Outside of Turkey and Greece this roasted spitted meat
dish seems to be equally well known as a Turkish and Greek dish. In
Britain and Ireland it is predominantly recognized as Turkish; in
Sydney, Australia, they are Turkish doner but 800 kilometers away
in Melbourne they are Greek souvlaki and in Adelaide they are gyros
(this means "rotating" as does the word doner).
In America they are mainly called gyros but in Canada doner. In the
Netherlands they call the Greek dish gyros ( pronounced geeros with
a Dutch, throat-searing "g") and the Turkish dish doner. In Moscow,
it’s a sheverma.
Whomever first made the food – or created the puppet – seems by and
large irrelevant provided we can all enjoy them. It’s not like putting
meat (or a puppet figure) on a stick ranks up there with the discovery
of the Theory of Relativity.
Still, the debate rages on. Take, for example, the cuisine of Cyprus:
despite the two ethnic groups here having had a long history in
close proximity to each other’s kitchens each side still tries to
distinguish one food or another as their own.
According to chef Hulay Erdal, it’s more complicated than that. "There
are some food items that sit on a fence, cross a very fine line
and can cause nations to come to blows over their ownership," Hulay
Erdal said. "Cyprus, an island with a troubled history and full of
fascinating stories, has a culinary culture not unlike a vast fruit
bowl. It is extremely colorful and tasty, with recipes originating
from far and wide. The food derives from a blend of the Middle East,
Greece, Turkey, Italy and Africa."
The chef mentioned recipes such as molohiya, a green leafy herb,
long known to only grow in Cyprus and on the banks of the River Nile
in Egypt. Or the dish kolokas, a stew of a large brown-skinned yam
that probably started out in Sudan or thereabouts.
"The food of Cyprus cannot be laid bare for one nation or another to
lay a claim on. In fact, this is a cuisine that mixes old and new,
and what makes it truly unique is the fact that the recipes are
available in both Greek, Turkish and English," Hulay Erdal said.
Perhaps the best solution to some of these culinary quandaries is how
the European Union plans to handle the long-running Cypriot cheese
debate. Last year Nuno Miguel Vicente, in charge of Cyprus at the EU
Directorate General of Agriculture, made a statement declaring the
best-case scenario for everyone would be the bilingual registry as
both hellim and halloumi.
Fazile Zahir is of Turkish descent, born and brought up in London. She
moved to live in Turkey in 2005 and has been writing full time
since then.