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news
Turkey comes to
Long Beach
By Jeanne Hoffa
On-line Forty-Niner
Mehriban Apple
saw the flier for the event taped to a grocery store window
in Huntington Beach.
Nazli Salimi, who drove in from the Valley with her husband,
found it after typing the words "Turkish organizations"
into her computer during an Internet search.
Asli Tekdis could not speak English well enough to say how
she ended up at Turkish Night, only that she, like the others,
had never been to Cal State Long Beach before Saturday.
She must have felt at home, though. Before the night was through
she was dancing on top of the tables.
The 35 members of the Turkish Students Association were somewhat
taken aback by the unqualified success of their campaign to
invite the community to Turkish Night, an event intended to
share their home culture, music, food, and dance with the
community.
The fact that the University Student Union Long Beach Ballroom
could not seat the more than 300 guests did not deter anyone.
People dragged in tables and chairs from other parts of the
USU and let the party flow out to the hallways.
Many were too busy chatting, poring over trinkets, looking
through maps and dancing to sit down to eat anyway. Students
came from USC, UCLA, San Diego State, Cal State Dominguez
Hills UC Riverside, and Long Beach City College, said T.S.A.
secretary Nelay Erten.
The Turkish trivia was in abundance.
• Santa Claus originated in the southwestern portion
of Turkey, although it was unclear whether the tradition or
the actual man was being referred to.
• Saint Paul, often considered the founder of the Christian
Church, also came from Southern Turkey, in the town of Tarsus.
Rather than focus on the irony that Paul's county is now 99
percent Islamic, the Turks in attendance saw it as a point
of unity between the United States and Muslims.
• Turkey is home to two of the seven wonders of the world,
the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, and the Mausoleum at Halicarnasus.
Turkey also gave birth to the architect of a third wonder,
the Taj Majal. Guest Apul Faki Ozlen, who lived in Turkey
for more than 50 years, said he thought it was pretty neat
that a fourth wonder, the Wall of China, was built to keep
the Turks out.
• Comparatively few Turkish Muslim women wear a veil,
particularly in the South and West.
"Are you kidding?" said Hakan Kilic who stood behind
tables lined with plates, hats, pipes and candy. "The
women in Turkey, they swim topless," he said with a grin.
Kilic was the third person there to divulge this particular
piece of trivia.
Anyone who did not go missed getting a wallet full of phone
numbers and addresses along with invitations to come stay
in Istanbul, Caracas or Ankara for free.
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