FIRST OASIS: BATMAN
After the descent through the Bitlis Pass, we encountered flatlands that were to continue through the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and beyond. Our first stop was the city of Batman. Tekin’s mother and sister live in this modern town and our agenda was rest. I spent much of the time putting captions on photos as I expect my memory would fade and sights would lose meaning if I didn’t get to them quickly.
We arrived at what appears to be the most recent addition to the northern end of the city and spent a day and a half secluded there before my impression of Batman as po-dunk was corrected. It turns out that Batman is quite a large oil industry boom town. Turkey produces very little of its own oil but oil exported from Iraq through Turkey is refined in Batman.
Our time in Batman was also about spending time with a wonderful family and enjoying great food. Tekin’s brother in law is a true Turk. He talked of his hunting adventures and taught us to barbaque. The dinner was incredible—lamb kabab well balanced with eggplants and hot peppers cooked directly on the coals before being peeled.
Nobody in the family speaks a English aside from Tekin but they spoke Arabic so I was able to communicate—I realized in Palestine that a little Arabic goes a long way but I didn’t realize the extent to which this would be the case in certain sections of Turkey. I continued to benefit from this through the next three cities until we left the Mesopotamia region. Unfortunately the 80-some year old aunt didn’t seem to understand that I am a novice Arabic speaker so many times she lost me. When we were able to communicate we mostly talked about family history and I floated the idea of Tekin writing down a short biography of some of his aging relatives’ fascinating life stories. Tekin liked the idea so I’ll have to follow up with him later.
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