Original subtitles

(light airy music)

As a reporter, I've traveled the Middle East

for many years.

It's an area that has always fascinated me.

But in my work, I've mainly covered its war zones,

its crises, and its tragedies.

This journey, which takes me down the Silk Road

in the footsteps of Marco Polo, gives me the opportunity

of exploring the great historical and cultural

significance of this part of the world,

its ancient melting pot of peoples and civilizations

that have contributed so much to our own.

(light music)

Asia Minor, or Little Asia as it was called by the Romans,

was, for the Turks, Anatolia, which literally means

"The place of the rising sun."

In other words, the East, which is where Marco Polo

and the other traders on the Silk Road were headed.

(birds tweeting)

Several of the biggest caravanserais to be found

along our routes, approximately 12000 kilometers,

are in Anatolia.

For example, the 13th-century Sultan Han caravanseray,

built by the soldier Turks in the province of Cappadocia,

right in the middle of the country.

(light string music)

Since caravans were a valuable source of income,

the soldier Turks did everything

they could to incite traveling merchants to take

their portion of the Silk Road across Anatolia.

One way they did this was offer them three days in a row

of free lodging in caravanserais like this one.

They even went as far as to set up an insurance system.

If a merchant had his goods stolen along a certain segment

or if one of his animals died, he was reimbursed

for the goods or for the animal.

(light string music)

Originally from Central Asia, the Turkish

soldier-sultans ruled over a large part of Persia

and then Asia Minor up until the 12th century.

They were former nomads who became masters of an empire,

and they learned the importance of trade from the Iranians.

Measuring a total of 4500 square meters,

the Sultan Hani caravanseray was built by al-Dimashqi,

a Syrian architect.

(vocal music)

The use of growing vaults and red vaults shows the influence

of Western architecture in this area

throughout the period of the Crusades.

Although vulnerable to invasion, Cappadocia was also

a region where roots and empires converged,

a major crossroads for the civilizations

of the ancient world.

(shoes crunching in snow)

Playing right in the middle of Anatolia

north of the Torres Mountains, the region

of Cappadocia had a strategic location on the caravan route

that linked the Mediterranean to the East.

This region was first controlled by the Hittites,

then by the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire,

Byzantine Empire, before it was sacked by

the Mongol warriors and then annexed by the Ottoman Turks.

(horse trotting)

Considered one of the most beautiful regions

in Turkey, Cappadocia continues to attract

hordes of tourists who come in particular to visit

its stunning rock formations called Fairy Chimneys,

which are situated around the village of Goreme.

Taklum, a small Arabian thoroughbred mare,

provides a great way to explore the maze of Chimneys,

which were created from very friable

sedimentary rock deposits as a result of erosion

by wind, rain and frost.

From time immemorial, the inhabitants of the region

have used the area's unique geology

to create cave dwellings.

These naturally carved or manmade excavations

also house some of the oldest churches in the world.

After being forgotten for centuries,

or as turned into stables, hundreds of rock-cut churches

were rediscovered in the 1950s by a French Jesuit priest

named Guillaume de Jerphanion.

The priest excesses have created an association

called The Friends of Cappadocia, which is overseen

by Ahmet Diler.

How are these strange rock

formations connected to the many churches found

in the Valley of Goreme?

[Diler, Translated] We might say that Cappadocia

combines the work of nature and the work of human beings.

It is even said that the Hittites dug and used parts

of the underground cities.

So it goes very, very far back.

Some cave dwellings in the area

were used by the Zoroastrians.

The fire worshipers who came from Iran.

The fire worshipers, that's right.

The Persians came here and they even

gave the region its name, Cappadocia.

In ancient Persian, Cappadocia means

"The land of beautiful horses."

The Zoroastrians, the Medes, the Hittites, and then?

Then the churches.

The first Christians settled here and started digging.

At first, the chapels were quite small.

The ceilings in the beginning were flat,

with crosses carved into them because there was a real cult

associated with the cross.

Later on, the Christians added the paintings,

barrel-vaulted structures, and frescoes that we find

in many of the churches in Cappadocia.

(birds tweeting)

(light music)

This is such a strange place,

such a strange city to find monasteries and houses.

Was there also a defensive or secretive aspect to it?

The hermits were the first Christians

to come here.

They lived in seclusion in the Cappadocian cones,

called Fairy Chimneys.

Below, they had a little chapel.

Their sleeping quarters were above,

and around it, a vineyard.

Later, the Cappadocian fathers would try to group

the secluded hermits together in order to found

a cenobitic community.

Cenobitic, derived from the ancient Greek words

"Koines" and "Bios," means "life in common."

The cenobitic rules are basically the rules

that regulate monastery life.

This type of monastic organization originated

in the East and spread to Europe in the Middle Ages.

(light music)

Why did the hermits

and then the monks choose

such bizarre locations to build their cells or monasteries,

for example, with the doors situated 10 meters

above the ground?

The purpose was, in fact, to conceal themselves

because the area was often invaded,

often raided by the Arabs.

So they made narrow tunnels leading to

the sleeping quarters or the chapel,

which could then be blocked off with a millstone

or another object.

Since the valleys in Cappadocia are quite steep,

they could seclude themselves, as well as congregate

in the monasteries or the churches in Goreme.

The area containing the most beautiful rock

churches of Goreme has been turned into a national park,

and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site,

an entire monastery and a nun's convent concealed

among the cliffs.

In addition to the churches and monk cells,

other highlights include this refractory,

with its table and benches sculpted into the rock.

(light music)

Built into the limestone and then painted,

this magnificent fresco, dating from the 11th century,

depicts various scenes from the Bible.

In the apse, we see the figure of the Archangel Michael

holding the orb of the Earth in the form of a ball

decorated with a little cross.

This is a symbol of power, similar to the orbs

that Charlemagne or the Byzantine emperors

often hold in their hands.

Can we also find traces

of how Cappadocian culture and customs might have traveled

up and down the Silk Road?

There are geometric patterns in the architecture

of the churches that are also found on the fronts of houses.

We can see the same pattern in the kilims, carpets

that are flat-woven, a weaving method that has been used

since time immemorial.

(light string music)

If Ahmet brings up kilims, it's not by chance.

When he's not looking after old churches,

Ahmet is, in fact, selling Cappadocian carpets.

He comes from a family of weavers, and has become

a specialist in the history of the designs

found in the carpets.

Ahmet, can we say that carpets, and in particular,

the kilim, originated here in Anatolia?

That's right, between Konya and Cappadocia,

in the Neolithic site of Catalhoyuk.

So about how long ago?

6500 B.C.

So could the kilim possibly be the oldest kind

of carpet we know?

It's the oldest form of weaving.

And in terms of the motifs on the kilims,

do they spread to other places along the Silk Road?

For example, are there traditional designs from this area

that, for some unknown reason, pop up hundreds or thousands

of kilometers away from here?

Human instinct and weaving methods create certain forms.

Forms that reappear, as in Plato?

Certain forms that reappear that may be found

in Africa, in South America, or in Anatolia.

People spontaneously come up with the same forms?

Sometimes, yes, the same forms.

Now, that's interesting.

And they also have a meaning.

If we're talking about kilims, for instance,

there are three recurring themes that we see all the time.

First of all, female fertility, which is associated

with the motif called "Hands on the Hips."

In Turkish we say, "Elibelinde."

It's a geometrical form that suggests a head

and a body with the hands bent.

(upbeat music)

A second motif that we very often find

is the Ear of Wheat, which is related to the theme

of the fertility of nature.

Another subject of concern for people was protection.

Protecting against diseases, bad weather, earthquakes,

any sort of disaster that can still occur even today.

A typical example of this is the eye motif,

which guards against the Evil Eye,

and it's found everywhere in Anatolia,

so we also put protective signs on kilims.

These amulets against the Evil Eye,

called Nazar Boncugu, date back to the early Turkic people,

who were originally nomads who roamed the Step

and worshiped Tengri, the God of the Blue Sky.

(dramatic music)

The heirs to those nomadic ancestors are to be found

in the mystical Alevi-Bektashi Order.

A very powerful but generally rather secret community,

the Alevi are thought to represent nearly 20 percent

of the Turkish population, or at least 15 million people.

It was the religious order of the jannissaries,

the elite fighting core of the Ottoman Empire.

The Alevi are followers of Ali,

the prophet Muhammad's son-in-law.

And that's close to the Shia branch of Islam.

But they've inherited many Shamanic practices and beliefs

from the Turkic nomads of the Steps.

They don't pray in mosques, but rather in cemevi,

or houses of assembly, consider the

Christian Bible, the Jewish Torah

and the book of Psalms as sacred texts

just like the Quran.

The spritual leader of the Alevi is a Sayyid,

a descendant of the prophet,

with certain aspects of Buddhism also incorporated

into their beliefs.

Their prayer in the form of dance, the Sema,

symbolizes the movements of the universe.

(string music)

The Sema is a religious dance

to music in which the difference between the

earth and the sky, matter and spirituality,

men and women disappears.

It's a form of religious practice.

You say the ceremony symbolizes equality

between the sky and the earth, between men and women.

Is that really true among the Alevi and the Bektashi?

The Alevi and Bektashi believe there is no difference

between men and women.

Everyone has the same status.

Of course, within the family structure,

women and men have different tasks.

They are divided up differently.

Our life is collective, but women are not oppressed

and not excluded.

Your movement is both a mystical

and a socially active movement that leans

very much to the left in Turkish politics.

How do you reconcile these two extremes?

Perhaps for the first time in the world,

at the time of Haji Bektash Veli,

we can say that people experience collective life,

community life, social life, respectively

in the right way.

Everyone took what they needed

and brought back any surplus.

So it was all distributed to the Alevi-Bektashi

and to people in need around the world.

The belief is that salvation

cannot be obtained alone.

Salvation can only be obtained together

and it's not only for human beings.

The Alevi-Bektashi believe that respect

should be given not only to humans

but also to trees, to all living beings.

We do not kill any living thing deliberately.

According to our beliefs, we never prune

any tree without permission.

If we cut down a tree, it is necessary

for us to plant another one to take its place.

(string music and singing)

What's the meaning of the dances you do

during the Sema?

We see the Creator in everything,

sometimes in the cranes, when we are in a certain

state of mind and the dayi, the songs talk about it.

There is the flapping of the wings of the cranes.

We take three steps in the name of God,

Mohammed and Ali.

On the path toward God, Mohammed is our guide.

The Alevi have long had the reputation

of being a powerful, progressive force

in Turkish society, but today, they're viewed

with suspicion by the governing Islamist Party,

led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Rising to the east of the Anatolian plateau

are the Caucasus Mountains.

At the far end of Anatolia, near the border

with present-day Armenia, lies the city of Kars.

At 1700 meters above sea level, in an area

populated by the Kurdish people of the mountains,

it was for a long time an object of dispute

between the Turks and czarist Russia.

There are still remnants of Russian architecture

in the city, as well as former Armenian churches

turned into mosques.

Prosperous caravans have always gone hand-in-hand

with prosperous empires.

In fact, when the Silk Road was at its height

in the first century, the Roman Empire

was at its height in the West, while on the Eastern end,

the Han empire was at its height in China.

Over the centuries, there was also the Pax Mongolica

during the period of the Mongol empire,

which controlled an entire chunk of Asia.

Then there was the Ottoman Empire of the Turks,

the largest of all, stretching from Hungary to Mecca,

from Algiers up to here, to Kars,

on the border with Persia.

But unfortunately for the Turks, when they were

ruling over this vast territory, the Europeans

found a way to bring back spices from the East

by going around Africa by boat.

The establishment of the great maritime trade routes

of the beginning of the 16th century,

thus dealt a fateful blow to the Silk Road

and caused cosmopolitan cities like Kars

to decline and become mere garrison towns.

But there are many cultural influences

from the Silk Road that persist in Turkish culture.

The Turkic peoples originally came from

Eastern Siberia, not far from China,

and their migration routes paralleled

those of the caravans.

The venerable Kurdish luthier, Sali Sahen,

still makes most of the instruments

that come from central Asia.

The saz, the oud, the zither are stringed instruments

from the Silk Road.

How did you become a luthier and how did you

learn to play the saz?

I learned to play the saz from my father.

He became interested in the saz and in folk songs

when he was very young.

We learned to play music from our father.

My teacher was my father.

How do you make a saz?

What kind of wood do you use?

In this area, the saz is made from the mulberry tree.

The best is carved mulberry.

A saz of the highest quality is made

from wood that's allowed to age.

In other words, after the body of the instrument

is finished, you have to wait three or four years

before moving on to the final phase

and being able to play it.

(string music)

If the saz is typically Anatolian,

how did the instruments that are related to it

travel down the Silk Road?

The saz comes to us from Central Asia,

from countries like Iran, Azerbaijan,

Georgia and Turkmenistan.

The city of Kars is the city where it

originally came from in Turkey.

Then from Kars, our instruments spread to Europe.

This is because some 20 civilizations settled

in Kars as they moved westward through Turkey.

Those civilizations left their culture,

their music and their traditions in our city.

(singing)

You're a luthier, a musician

and you're also a poet.

That's why they call you "sher."

Where do you get the inspiration for your poems?

When I compose music, the words for folk songs,

it's a way for me to keep the culture

of our region and the traditions of the past alive.

(singing)

Is this love poem, "My Doe" about a symbolic

woman or a woman who actually exists?

That's a very good question and I can answer

it very easily.

Before, according to our customs,

men and women could not openly express their feelings.

It was a tradition connected with the Silk Road.

You couldn't tell the person you loved your feelings.

You had to use an intermediary, a go-between.

So I use the doe here in place of the person I love.

I pretend I'm talking to a doe

so that my feelings are not revealed.

(singing)

I'd have been very sad if I hadn't ever played the saz.

If I were born into the world again,

I would play the saz.

(string music)

It was near Kars that the former kings

of Armenia chose to establish their capital

despite the extremely harsh climate.

This windswept step takes us to Ani,

which lies on the border between Turkey

and present-day Armenia.

Once a republic of the Soviet Union,

Armenia gained its independence in 1991.

It's 15 degrees Celsius below zero this morning,

but that doesn't stop Hussein, an old Kurdish

shepard and his kangal, a guardian dog

trained to fend off the wolves in the area,

from going out with the herd.

A very large Armenian population once lived

everywhere in this region

until the genocide of 1915, in which more

than one million people were killed.

At the time, in the middle of World War I,

the Turkish regime suspected its Armenian minority

of treason and incited the Kurdish tribes

of the Caucauses to go after them.

Turkey refuses to consider what happened

as a genocide and today, relations between

Turkey and Armenia are still strained

and the border between the two countries remains closed.

The ancient Armenian capital, Ani, is situated

just a few meters away from this border,

but it lies by the terrible truth of history

on the Turkish side.

Once a bustling market town on the Silk Road,

it was ravaged by Tamerlane in the 14th century

and in the end, completely abandoned.

It stands as a witness to the great kingdom of Armenia.

Allied with the Roman Empire, then the Byzantine Empire,

then with the crusaders and the Mongols,

Armenia was the first state to officially convert

to Christianity at the beginning of the fourth century.

The bridge built over the Akhurian River,

a river that still serves as the border today,

made Ani a very important crossing point

on the Silk Road.

The Armenians were wealthy merchants and traders.

They were also known to be mercenaries hired to protect

the caravans, says Turkish art historian,

Elsmen Elgoustan, who is part of the conservation

program for the city.

In its hey day, how many people were there in Ani?

How many caravanserais and churches?

In the middle ages, in the period around the year 960,

we're speaking of a population of close

to 100,000 inhabitants.

During that time, it's estimated that Ani

had a higher population than Istanbul.

It was called the City of 1001 Churches.

It was also said at the time that Ani was the world,

but the world was not Ani.

We now find only one caravansery here dating

from the time of the Seljuks.

In the area, there are about 30 sesame oil making

structures and caravanserais with their

accommodation spaces.

Why is it that Ani became such

an important city?

It was mainly due to the Silk Road bridge,

which was built in the 10th century.

This bridge enabled the land route from Asia

to cross over into Anatolia

and as a result, the big caravans as you know,

would first come to Ani as a stopover point

and launching place.

So, because of that, Ani prospered during that period.

What role did the Armenians play with regard

to the Silk Road?

The Armenians were not only soldiers

but also merchants and the people of the region

who were already living here.

The city was in decline for a long time

but what was the fatal blow that left

it empty and in ruins?

It can't be explained by one single thing

because the emigration didn't happen all at once.

Some of the people left after it was destroyed

by Tamerlane, others after the earthquakes.

But, the main reason was because the

land routes were replaced with sea routes.

Ani flourished because it was a major trading

and commercial center.

If a city loses its importance for trade and commerce,

economically speaking, the people have nothing

more to do there.

(soft music)

Do you think the past, for example,

the history of the Silk Road can teach us things

that are useful for the present?

Of course, history is a light for the future.

That is how we must look at history.

And as you know, these days, there's now a new

agenda for the old Silk Road.

In order to give new life to the structures

on this road, we're planning to reopen it.

Perched up on the bare and glorious

expanse of the Step, Ani almost seems

to have been forgotten.

Here, the customs watch towers outnumber

the tourist guards that patrol the spectacular

archeological site where herds of wild horses

are still free to roam.

(upbeat music)