In and Around Hatay

Hatay, the current incarnation of the biblical Antioch, is one of the most cosmopolitan regions of Turkey. Straddling the Syrian frontier, the Hatay is home to communities of Sunni Turks, Sunni Arabs, Arab Alevis (Nusayris), Arab Orthodox Christians, Armenians, Kurds and any other host of migrants or conquerors that have been attracted to the region's mineral wealth and fertile soil over the millennia. The last state, of course, that was attracted to the region's mineral wealth and fertile soil was of course the Turkish Republic, who rested control of the semi-independent Sancak of Hatay in the leadup to WW II. The fact that the Hatay is now Turkish has failed to register with the Syrians, who continue to publish official maps (whether to delude themselves or to amuse foreigners I'm not sure) that show the Hatay as part of Syria.

But despite the seemingly fractious ethnic makeup of the region, the area has been remarkably free of civil and ethnic strife through the years: Indeed, while Armenians and Turks were busy slaughtering each other in Eastern Turkey in 1915, that terrible year passed relatively without incident in Hatay --- visitors can still visit the last remaining wholly Armenian village in Turkey a short drive from the provincial capital of Antakya.

Of particular interest is the city of Samandağ on the Syrian border: While it's never going to win any architectural awards, Samandağ has one of the highest education rates in all of Turkey, while its population is almost entirely Christian or Nusayri.

For the heterodox Nusayri sect (an offshoot of Shiism and vaguely related to the Alevis of Central Turkey), few sites are more holy than the Ziyaret (visitation site) found on the Meditarranean Coast that commemorates the meeting of Hızır (cf. the festival of Hıdırellez found elsewhere on these pages) with Moses in the Qur'an. The holiness of the Ziyaret is set against the site's incongruous location: Located in the middle of a sea-side square, the Ziyaret forms the traffic circle, around which no dolmuş fails to circle three times before departing on any journey.

A pilgrim to the Ziyaret in Samandağ circumambulating the holy rock while making prayers.

The Monastery of St. Simon the Stylite near Samandağ. St. Simon, unamused at the rampant corruption and 'worldliness' of the Byzantines took to the mountains, constructed a column, climbed it, and then spent the rest of his life contemplating the sins of the world

The vegetable market at dusk in İskenderun. Home t o one of the most educated workforces in Turkey, İskenderun also has the country's largest ironworks plant.