TWO SIDES OF ANKARA

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 47, 24 August 1939, Page 15

TWO SIDES OF ANKARA

THE CITY OF ATATURK

CONTRAST TO NATIVE AREA

The death of Kamal Ataturk made Ankara an international centre for a brief spell, when a brilliant invasion brought Europe's homage to a lost leader, writes Neville Hart in the "New York Times." But the Turkish capital soon relapsed into everyday life, and the everyday in Ankara usually means monotony. The Turks are among themselves once more. Practically all the social life of the city is constituted by the members of the diplomatic corps, who are to be met at every turn here. With a population of 123,000 souls all told, and so few places to go, one inevitably meets some known face, whether one will or no. Ambassadors and Ministers have most of their time taken up with Balkan problems, but it drags considerably for the young secretaries and attaches, who suffer the boredom common to the majority or roreign residents, to whom tennis and bridge are specific time killers. The Turks who are in a position to receive in their own homes may be counted on one hand. Thus- those of the same small circle revolve around one another, meet continually, and soon lose the blessing of novelty. EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT. The whole atmosphere of Ankara is one of evolution and development; everything is in course of construction.; The city, a concrete illustration of the term "creative," is soon known by j heart. Europeans gravitate around the principal thoroughfare, wide and modern, which the French -element flatteringly terms the Champs Elysees. Karpitsch, the city's . most fashionable restaurant, is rim by a Russian emigre. At the luncheon or dinner hour a long queue of diplomatic cars may often be seen drawn up there, for it is the only international rendezvous in the city apart from the Ankara Palace. The Turkish restaurant Siflik is popular too, but the Station Restaurant iS the cheapest, and from this angle possibly the best. One soon gets used to Turkish cooking and discovers much that is commendable. Chicken and goose are often excellent, but curiously served, cut up in minute pieces suited to the nursery. Needless to say, the coffee is a pure delight. In restaurants only Turkish is spoken as a rule, and the menu remains a sealed book to the foreign visitor. Occasionally an effort is made to print a French menu, but it is hardly distinguishable from Turkish and has little relation to the Gallic tongue. In "a purely Turkish restaurant in the old town, where foreigners are practically unknown, a visit to the, kitchen, helped out by pointing, proved the only solution. NO PERMANENT THEATRE. There is no. permanent theatre in Ankara, which boasts of only one or two cinemas and a cabaret. But there are "dancings" of varied repute. Ataturk himself was a great dancer, but the Turkish youth he fashioned has scant enthusiasm for mundane life. Courteous, patient in effort, and immensely industrious, it is possessed of a vast thirst for knowledge and a serious outlook. Mustapha Kemal inspired these young people's devotion to their country, and the pride with which they point out the progress of their new capital is charming. Turkish taxis are the last word in modernity. All homogeneous, in the same tone of green, they are worthy of any European capital, and put Lon-! don's out-of-date crawlers to shame. But business is bad, for most of.the population are impecunious. Possible clients are run to earth assiduously. The new city lies on the plain below the old Ankara, which existed centuries before Ataturk decided to build a new capital. The walk from the plain to the hillside is the transition from Europe to Asia. Nothing in the old town has changed throughout the ages. Here the Orient is static. The squalid, little tumble-down dwellings are falling to pieces, there is filth and destitution on every side. Naked bodies may be glimpsed through tattered rags, which have their picturesque side, but photography is forbidden in this quarter, precisely where its appeal is greatest.