One of the districts of Istanbul is Ortakoy district. This district is very close to Fatih Bridge which connects two continents. This district is well-known in Turkey for society people. Actually, this place is a mixture of religion. In this place there are a church, a synagogue, and a mosque (Ortakoy mosque) in a very close location. Even though in Istanbul there are 2691 mosque, 123 active churches, and 26 synagogues (Wikipedia), this district brings these three religions into one place.
I have been to Ortakoy mosque. The difference about the mosque, which is small from the other mosques, is the window pictures with people images on the dome. The windows are like doors to the sky with bright white color. I am telling this because I think that this is an influence of churches on some mosques because generally there are no images in the mosques. I think this is another example of being in a mixture culture.
In the picture of Ortakoy mosque which I put in my blog, there is a Bosporus view including Fatih Bridge, associates me an intersection of culture between the east and the west. This can be easily noticed by looking around Ortakoy such as the people and their living style, dressing style, or the architecture of the houses and buildings.
I think that this shows that different religions can coexist side by side by like in Ortakoy district sample by respecting each other. Everybody can do every thing unless molesting the others` rights.
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ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting idea that Fatih Bridge connects the eastern and western cultuer. I'm curious what is a "bridge" for three religions to getting along with each other in one place.
ReplyDeleteIn my writing, I tried to use this bridge as a symbol of the good relationship between religions. For example, the east part neigbors of Turkey are mostly muslim countries such as Irak, Iran, Syria, libya, and Egypt. But the western neigbors are Greece, Bulgaria, in briefly Europe which generally these countries are Christan. Turkey is ii the middle of these countries which different religions can be seen side by side. I wanted to tell these with "the bridge".
ReplyDeletehey the photo!! it is really good, because
ReplyDeleteit makes me understand more clearly!!
so, if you cross the bridge you go to Europe??
yes you said if you cross the bridge the other land is europe.
ReplyDelete