Turkey Trove

By Rob Walters

Copyright 2006

Rob travelled through Turkey during 2004, met many interesting people, saw lots of interesting things and had a series of adventures. Turkey Trove is a collection of stories which draws on this rich experience, each tale is based upon something that actually occurred, though the finished article is fictional. The stories span a wide variety of subjects that delve into Turkey, the Turkish character and Turkish culture without becoming a travelogue. The average length of each story is around 5,000 words. Part of The Secret Garden of the Dogs has been placed on line for you to sample.

 

The Tales

  1. Culture Clash
  2. The Last Ottoman
  3. Fisher of Folk
  4. The Tourist Touch
  5. Abduction
  6. Shop Club
  7. The Stoning
  8. The Fallen Frenchman
  9. The Missing Minaret
  10. The Secret Garden of the Dogs
  11. Rutting Bulls
Summary of each story

Culture Clash
A night in a Turkish pension, the fractured love of a western woman for the pension owner. The impasse which love cannot overcome, cultural isolation from her man and from his women. The attempted escape, initiated but not fulfilled. The journey goes on.
The Last Ottoman
A casual meeting with a fellow bus traveller leads to a startling discovery - the man is still yearning for the pre-WW1 world of alleged gentlemanly conduct and intellectual aspirations. The last Ottoman lives in an artificial world of his own construction and his aristocratic superiority leads inevitably to rejection, and ejection.
Fisher of Folk
A glimpse into the mind of a Turkish tourist tout. How the bait is prepared and displayed. How his flexible mind can encompass a sense of duty and a duty to exploit. Western women as fair game, Turkish women belong in the kitchen. The couple who see this man so differently, yet are confronted by the same image.
The Missing Minaret
Turkey is a land of symbols, not the least of these is supplied by the thousands of minarets that reach up from its many mosques. The minaret is itself a symbol of success, here size does matter and the attempts of the village to improve its endowment are quickly rewarded. But easy come may become easy go. The mystery of the missing minaret is not solved in this story, but its peripatetic nature gives a clue to Turkish entrepreneurism.
The Tourist Touch
This is a cyclical tale of the rise from agricultural primitivism to dollar dependency, and then the fall. Tourism brings riches and good living to the village - and food to the nearby ant colony. As contact grows it also brings corruption and dependency. When the tourists move on their corrupting influence leaves desolation and death - but the ants live on.
Abduction
Ascent to a mountain tomb, a brief meeting with an anarchistic group of youngsters, and later the dreadful mistake of taking a lift with them.  The horror of a journey where all control is lost and madness reigns, when adhesion to the group rejects Muslim hospitality. The dreadful outcome of a vengeful act that goes too far, regret and loss.
Shop Club
The delight of admission to a local community at a moment when company is really needed. The warm glow of instant acceptance. The gift of natural Viagra and the adventure of early trials. A cathartic event which proves the efficacy of young potatoes, reunites a couple and establishes the supremacy of mind over matter.
The Stoning
Attacks by groups of children in this city are not rare, but they are very frightening. How fortunate then to meet to meet the local Director of Tourist Information immediately afterwards. A half-hearted tour of the city leads to a cultural evening of reparation, but climaxes in a sexual surprise.
The Fallen Frenchman
 A miraculous survival and a conversion to Islam and the rural life - all enticements to an interview redolent with mystery. Yet the results can be quite different to expectations - detailed examination usually shows that things are not what they seem, or what people want them to be.
The Invitation
The behaviour of the inhabitants of a city in the extreme reaches of Turkey vacillates between kindly welcomes and teasing taunts. A walk to the castle, a chance meeting with a disabled young man, an invitation to lunch with two young women, all of this leads to an encounter with one's worst fears. A reversal of mastery contrasts the friendly and the feared, the fit and fine with the infirm and ugly.
The Secret Garden of the Dogs (Click here for a sample of this story)
A visit to the beautiful temple in the hills provides a view over a luxuriant walled garden far below. But the garden has a guard whose existence shifts from the ephemeral to frighteningly fierce. A tale of survival and values, in which death is faced and purchased.
Rutting Bulls
The sparkling beauty of a valley leading to the Cachkar mountains of North Eastern Turkey. This is the land of the Laz where powerful imagery and powerful emotions flow down from the summer cattle meadows. Sparks of romance ignite between the policeman and the landlady's daughter, sparks as transient as the fireflies that grace the green slopes of the village.

Click here to see more of Rob Walters' writing


Home Spanish House Oxford and Cotswold Tours Books and Writing Satin Past Links Contact