Anatolia. Land of constant turmoil.

Anatolia. Land of constant turmoil.

Turkey
Anatolia

In the very old times, much before the appearence of the Ottomans, remote Anatolia and under the name of Cappadocia, used to be a unhospitable land of peaceful exile, strict loneliness, individual isolation, spiritual seclusion and urge for "self knowledge" and repentance. During the thousand and more years of Byzantine empire simple monks but also eminent representatives of high theological but also political status-even emperors among them- used to retreat and consume the rest of their lives as poor erimites seeking penitence and divine forgiveness. In the majorities of cases they settled in the region known as Cappadocia and their residence was a modest underground church or even a simple whole dug into the rock or, often,ground to demonstrate humility but also need for protection against hostile attacks. The unhospitable land of Cappadocia has been mostly the target of such Christian Orthodox pilgrimage.
In recent days the depths of East Anatolia have turned a ground of constant turmoil, unsettled political uprising and unsafe living for locals. Disputed frontiers, demands from uprising minorities, "jihads" in the name of misunderstood islamic concepts or extreme fondamentalist rage and ambitious political fractions oposing official government have created a region very much unstable and not the least peaceful to remind its traditional heritage.