Bye Bye Hagia Sophia, Bye Bye Turkey

Turkey was one of the places of visit in my bucket list. I had a chance of a five day trip many years ago. My wife and I went through the brochure and found the cost quite affordable and more importantly the timing was perfect. The tour was planned to match with the national holidays of the middle eastern country where we were residing at that time. As I was working with a Government organisation, I had nine days of holidays, including two weekends. Quite enough to extend the holiday beyond the five day itinerary if needed.

I always wondered at the grandeur of the imposing Hagia Sophia monument. A friend of ours, who had visited Turkey, raved about the place, especially the monument. Since then, Turkey has been one of the important destinations in my list.

We went to the travel agent, took all details of dates, cost, visa procedures and the forms to be filled. As I scanned through the brochure, I thought to myself, "now here is the chance I was waiting for, to finally make that long pending visit". The prospect of the tour looked good.

During the national holidays, one of the most common topics of conversation with friends was, the holiday plans. I was so excited about the tour that I started sharing my holiday plans with my friends. And that turned out to be a mistake. One of my friends asked me "Did you check out the weather prediction?". I said "No. Why?". He said "You better check it out. It is usually quite cold out there this time of the year".

And, the prediction turned out as my friend had warned. I don't generally like extremely cold weather and extreme weather was predicted for the days of the tour. My wife and I deliberated over this disappointing finding for a few days and finally decided to call the trip off. Instead, we spent the holidays in Dubai, our usual weekend/holiday getaway.

So, Turkey remained in my bucket list until a few days ago. It was reported in the news media that Turkey's President had passed a decree to return the status of Hagia Sophia museum building to that of a mosque. Various reasons were given for this bold move. It was hailed by many Islamic nations. There has also been a lot of outrage and criticism from various quarters of the world. However, the government of Turkey looks intent on implementing the president’s decree.

As for me, would I still be interested in visiting Turkey? The answer is “no”. Turkey is off my bucket list of places to visit

An incident happened when I was a kid. I was always wary of passing by mosques, especially during prayer times. Most mosques had high rising walls around them and a bunch of kids would sit on the walls with heaps of stones placed next to them. Their purpose was to keep the “Kafirs (Infidels)” away from coming anywhere close to the mosque. To me that picture was always quite unnerving. So I stayed away from going anywhere close to mosques.

I had a friend, who was my neighbor and one of my best play buddies. One day, I don’t know what came over him, he invited me to go with him to the mosque for the prayers. After all his unrelenting coaxing, I agreed with lots of hesitation and apprehension. That was a big mistake, one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

We walked together to the mosque, with my friend leading. As we approached the entrance, a barrage of stones were pelted on me. Luckily the stones did not find the intended target, except for one which came quite close to one of my eyes. I ran from the place clutching my face, which felt like it was on fire. Luckily no harm was done to my eye or any part of my face except for a deep gash very close to my eye which took many days to heal.

That day I vowed never to take a chance again to go anywhere near a mosque. I lived in the middle east for over 37 years and during all those years, I kept away from going anywhere close to a mosque. Couple of places where we stayed were quite close to a mosque but I made sure I kept away whenever it was time for prayer.

I had visited mosques a couple of times for offering condolences to colleagues on losing their loved one’s or to attend marriage parties. But during all those visits I was on tenterhooks. The stress I went through cannot be put into words. But I successfully maintained a poignant or happy look, depending on the occasion.

There were many beautiful and grand Mosques around the country. Many a time I was tempted to take photographs. I did take few photographs, stealthily, from a distance, through my window, especially on a rainy day when the sky was filled with thick clouds in the background of the mosque or when the dome and minarets of the Mosque looked beautiful with the full moon shining brightly in the background.

Some of the Mosques allowed visitors irrespective of nationality and religion. But I never dared to visit any of them. Getting anywhere close to mosque scares the hell out me even today.

So, as far as I am concerned, it is Bye Bye Hagia Sophia, Bye Bye Turkey!