Cornell group tours sites in Turkey on interfaith trip

An interfaith delegation from Cornell explored religious, educational and cultural sites in Turkey on a 10-day trip in May, gaining insight from their interaction with Turkish people of various faiths.

Cornell United Religious Work (CURW) and the Turkish Cultural Society of New York planned the trip, with assistance from Cornell Ph.D. student Yusuf A. Bozkurt and his wife, Fatma Kaya, an Islamic chaplain intern in CURW. Both are natives of Turkey who made contacts there with organizations fostering dialogues among Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities.

"Many people are trying to get everybody around the same table and put some projects together and increase the dialogue," Bozkurt said.

The group visited five Turkish cities -- flying to Istanbul, Izmir and Antalya, and driving to Konya and Cappadocia. Sites they visited included mosques and churches, early Christian sites, schools, a hospital and cultural sites such as the 500th Year Foundation Jewish Museum in Istanbul, tracing the migration of Jewish refugees from Spain to Turkey in 1492.

The Turkish population is about 95 percent Muslim, with various sects ranging from "the extremely secular to moderately secular, but the majority are moderate," Bozkurt said.

"The most exciting part for our delegation was encountering the cooperative spirit that existed for a very long time, certainly between Muslims and Jews, and with Christian communities who can trace their history in Turkey back to the first century," said Janet Shortall, CURW associate director and program coordinator. "Because Turkey exists at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, the cultures reflect this intermixing that's happened over hundreds and hundreds of years."

The Cornell delegation also included Catholic chaplain the Rev. Daniel McMullin; CURW Director Rev. Kenneth Clarke; CURW facility coordinator Joseph Tagliaferre; Lutheran chaplain Rev. Rick Bair; and faculty member Joe Regenstein and his wife, Carrie.

The Turkish Cultural Center helped raise funds in Turkey to subsidize the trip, and arranged the itinerary. "They also organized dinners for us with local families, where we were able to come together with the local Turkish people," Bozkurt said.

Several dinners and one breakfast were on the schedule. "One particularly memorable and gratifying event was a community dinner that drew 40 or 50 people," Shortall said.

Regenstein, a professor of food science and director of the Cornell Kosher and Halal Food Initiative, inquired about local halal standards for kosher food preparation.

"There was a lot of interest on the part of our hosts about his work internationally," Shortall said.

The group visited the Religious Garden in Antalya, comprising a small mosque, church and synagogue; the nearby Intercultural Dialogue Center (AKDIM) had organized a gathering of Turkish and non-Turkish women there the weekend before for Mother's Day services.

"It was a way to bring people together to talk about something in common and get them used to each other," Bozkurt said. The center also brings the diverse summer population of non-Turkish tourists in Antalya together for activities.

"The Intercultural Dialogue Center in Istanbul is also fostering many inter-religious and intercultural dialogues, including a very ambitious effort to foster engagement between Turks and Kurds in eastern Turkey," Shortall said. "Our group was interested to hear how the center was building trust to enable those dialogues to happen."

Other sites visited were Eyup Sultan Mosque, Topkapi Palace and a boat tour of Bosphorus Canal in Istanbul; a monastery and a seven-story underground city in Cappadocia; primary schools in Izmir and Antalya; and a hospital in Konya. The group also visited Konya's Rumi Museum, where the widely read 13th-century Muslim poet and scholar is entombed.

CURW has co-sponsored previous programs on campus with the Cornell Rumi Society, Shortall said: "Visiting Turkey, experiencing the rich hospitality and witnessing the profound respect so many Turkish citizens have for religious pluralism certainly has added inspiration to the programs we in CURW are committed to on the Cornell campus."

Bozkurt added: "And Turkish people learn a lot about the United States when given the opportunity to converse and share meals with Americans."

Participants are planning a number of presentations about the trip, beginning with one for the staff in the Office of the Dean of Students in early fall.

Media Contact

Nicola Pytell