Raki - drink of the Republic

For about 7 months in my 20s I lived in Greece, travelling on the cheap and mostly staying in places for weeks rather than days. One of my most vivid memories is spending Easter in a small village in Crete.  Easter is the biggest holiday in the year in Greece, and celebrations included huge meals at midnight, and lots of ouzo drinking.  Being a foreign visitor I was particularly welcomed with glass after glass of this clear, anise-flavoured alcohlic drink which I was expected to drink neat, while others would often water it down.  Despite that whole experience being one of my life's best (so far!) I have been put off from the taste of ouzo ever since.  Too much of a good thing perhaps.

Now in Turkey, I find that one of if not the most popular drinks is a clear, anise-flavoured alcoholic drink.  Only this time its name is raki (pronounced rack-uh).  It is drunk cold, and here there is no shame in drinking it watered down.  Just like ouzo, it turns milky white when water is added. I was a holdout for awhile.  But I threw my hat into the ring as it were, expecting that my maturing years have taught me a thing or too about limits, and it is now pretty much a part of my evening routine.

a typical long thin glass for raki,
set in a frozen holding dish to keep it cold

Raki is made from pomace, or marc, the remains of grapes and stems and leaves after the wine makers have wrung every thing they can and want to. Pomace  is apparently used as fodder or fertilizer, yet here I am drinking it.  Maybe I'm not so smart after all.

Eric is a fan, and Walter was soon a convert, but the best example set is Ataturk, the father of the Republic of Turkey. His name, which means "Father of the Turks" (the Turk don't waste a lot of words on flowery names) was given to him by parliament in 1934. World War I marked the defeat of the almost 500 year old Ottoman Empire and, as Turkey had backed the wrong horse, the victors started to carve up the prize, alloting this bit to Britain and that bit to France, etc.  However, when long time enemy Greece started to lay claim, Turkey rose up and fought back.  Eventually, in October 1923, the Republic of Turkey was declared with boundaries set.  Our man Ataturk,who was at that time just plain old Mustafa Kemal, was at the helm, first as a military man and then as leader, and it could have all concluded then.  But Mustafa had a bit more going on upstairs, and set out reforms that were bold and visionary, and that are still held up as the tenets of the country even now.

He developed a veritable feast of reforms: political, social, economic, judicial, cultural, all of which shook up the old Ottoman Empire way of doing things.  First, his government analyzed the institutions and constitutions of Western states such as France, Sweden, Italy, and Switzerland and adapted them to the needs and characteristics of Turkey. For the first time in history, Islamic law was separated from secular law, and restricted to matters of religion. Mustafa believed Education was the cornerstone to this.  At the time, barely 10% of Turkey was literate. He ordered schools to be built everywhere, and set up a curricilum for primary education that was to be free and compulsory for both boys and girls. The new code of law allowed women to be treated as equals in such matters as inheritance and divorce. He did not consider gender a factor in social organization, which was radical. Women MPs were expected and encouraged, surely one of the first countrys anywhere that was doing that at the time!

His "Hat Law" outlawed the Fez and made Wedtern-styled hats compulsory for civil servants, which sounds a little ridiculous, but it was all a way for Turks to identify themselves and see themselves as part of a modern, 'civilized' world.  He himself famously wore a Panama hat for the first time in one of the most conservative areas of Anatolia, and then had no problem converting his countrymen.  He wore Western suits and neckties, and promoted modern dress for women.  He didn't make any laws in this regard, but felt women could dress themselves with their own free will, and adapt clothing as fashion changed.

One of his biggest reforms was with the language itself.  He pressed for a new alphabet, using the latin alphabet as a base and then outlawed the old arabic script 6 months later.  Imagine changing ones language and the way it is conveyed in an entire county within 6 months!!!!!.  It's staggering!  This allowed for enormous cultural change.  Museums opened, architecture changed, and western music opera, ballet, and as well as the theatre, took hold. Book and magazine publications increased and a film industry began to grow.

Attaboy, Ataturk!

This entire period, which took place in barely 10 years, transformed Turkish society from perceivig itself as a Muslim part of a vast Empire into a modern, democratic, and secular nation-state. He became nothing less than a hero to Turks everywhere, and even now his image is seen on flags and buildings throughout the country.  Indeed, the current protests in Istanbul and elsewhere invoke his vision, as the current government is adding and changing laws to restrict freedoms that have long been enjoyed: the purchase and serving of alcohol being one.

Which brings me back to my evening raki, shared with Eric and Walter and Pinar to mark the end of the working day among convivial company.  The custom is to bow slightly and clink glasses while looking right at each pair of eyes and saying "şerefe" (pronouced Sherriffay), which roughly translates to "to your honour".

looks like milk, tastes like raki