GLOSSARY
ABLA: An affectionate term of respect used for an older sister or older woman.
BEY: A formal term of respect used for a man, equivalent to Mr.
PIŠMANIYE: A kind of halva-like candy floss.
RAKI: Turkey’s national drink, made of distilled aniseed.
SIMIT: Small loaf of ring-shaped bread, covered with sesame seeds. Extremely popular in Turkey.
Timeline of Some Dates in Labyrinth and in Turkey
6000 BC
The earliest manufactured mirrors were made out of volcanic glass in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey).
3400 BC
The first known writing emerged in ancient Sumer, in Mesopotamia.
380 BC
The Greek philosopher Plato created the first alarm clock, which utilized water.
295 BC
The Library of Alexandria was founded. It is said to have been burned down many times over the ensuing centuries, first in 48 BC by the Roman general Julius Caesar, then around 390 AD by Pope Theophilus of Alexandria, and then in 642 AD by the order of Caliph Omar.
33 AD
Crucifixion of Jesus in Golgotha.
41 AD
Death of the Virgin Mary.
324
The founding of the city of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) by the Roman Emperor Constantine. It became the capital city of the Roman Empire.
1348
The construction of Galata Tower during an expansion of the Genoese colony in Constantinople.
1453
The Fall of Constantinople, the triumph of the Ottoman Empire, and the end of the Byzantine Empire.
1478
Topkapı Palace was opened as the Imperial Palace of Ottomans in Istanbul.
1499
Creation of the Pietà, the sculpture by Michelangelo, which depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother, the Virgin Mary. The sculpture is housed in Vatican City within Rome.
1510
The first modern clock was invented by Peter Henlein in Nuremberg, Germany.
1549
Marguerite de Navarre, the princess of France and the Queen of Navarre, died at the age of fifty-six.
1876
Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-born American scientist, invented the telephone.
1909
The Haydarpaşa railway station was constructed by the sea on Istanbul’s Asian side. Eight years later, the station was severely damaged in a fire.
1922
The end of the Ottoman Empire.
1923
Foundation of the modern Turkish Republic by Atatürk.
1926
Mehmed VI Vahideddin, the last Ottoman sultan, died in exile in Sanremo, Italy.
1934
Women in Turkey gained full universal suffrage, earlier than in most other countries.
1937
Bessie Smith, American blues singer, died in a car accident in Mississippi at the age of forty-two.
1955
The worst pogrom against the non-Muslim (Greek, Armenian, Jewish) population in Istanbul lasted for two days. Dozens of people were murdered, dozens of women were raped, more than five thousand homes and businesses were destroyed. Most of the non-Muslim population in Istanbul had to leave Turkey.
1960
The Turkish army staged the first coup d’état against the authoritarian, antisecular, conservative government, which had been in power for ten years. The military, led by young army officers, executed three leading politicians, including the prime minister.
1969
American astronaut Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon.
1971
The Turkish army staged another coup d’état, with the aim of stopping a rising progressive movement that was very much influenced by the 1968 movements in Europe. After the coup, three leaders of a socialist youth movement were executed in what was seen as an act of revenge for the execution of three politicians in 1960. In a demonstration of the shift in the army’s politics over the course of the decade, the leader of new conservative party supported the army’s intervention and called the executions “three for three.”
1973
Construction of the Bosphorus Bridge, in Istanbul, which connects Europe and Asia. To date, some five hundred people have committed suicide by jumping off from the 210-foot-high bridge into the sea.
1977
The May Day celebration of Workers’ Day at Taksim Square in Istanbul was attacked by state-supported secret groups, and thirty-four people were murdered. Still, progressive movements in Turkey continued to proliferate.
1980
The Turkish army intervened in government with a third coup d’état, this one supported by NATO. On the morning of the coup, CIA Ankara station chief Paul Henze allegedly cabled Washington, saying, “our boys did it.” The military regime executed fifty people, instituted widespread torture, and imprisoned some one million people. The aim was to quash free-minded social movements and initiatives in a country that was strategically important to the United States during the Cold War.
1984
The Kurdish civil war started. Fighting with the Turkish army has claimed forty thousand lives so far. The Kurdish population is nearly a quarter of the whole country, and their national identity, including their language, had been officially denied by the state. Public use of the Kurdish language continues to be restricted.
1988
The first gigantic shopping mall in Istanbul was opened. Currently there are 114 shopping malls in the city.
1993
The Madımak Hotel in the city of Sivas in central Turkey was attacked and set on fire by Islamist mobs. Thirty-seven intellectuals, artists, writers, and singers were killed. Some lawyers for the attackers would later join the Islamist government that is still in power.
1994
In Seattle, American singer Kurt Cobain died by suicide at the age of twenty-seven.
2000
It was revealed that a Sunni Hizbullah group in Istanbul kidnapped dozens of people, tortured them, and buried their bodies in the militants’ family houses.
2001
Yavuz Çetin, a Turkish blues and psychedelic singer, ended his life by jumping off the Bosphorus Bridge at the age of thirty.
2002
The Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in Turkey, and has been ruling the country ever since. Its leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, talks of reviving the Ottoman Empire’s glory. Under his rule, Turkey has become the biggest jailer of journalists in the world.
2010
Haydarpaşa railway station caught fire and closed down. The government’s intention to turn the station’s stately building into a shopping mall or a fancy hotel caused protests. Haydarpaşa solidarity groups are watching the process. The World Monuments Fund, a New York–based heritage preservation organization, placed t
he railway terminal on its 2012 Watch list, drawing attention to the uncertain future of the historical site.
2011
The Syrian civil war broke out with the direct involvement of foreign countries. A coalition inlcuding the USA, UK, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar aimed to overthrow the Assad regime but the violence only tore the country apart and fomented the rise of the radical movement ISIS. Currently there are four million Syrian immigrants in Turkey.
2013
The biggest revolt in Turkish history took place in Istanbul. It began as a protest to prevent Gezi Park in Taksim Square from being demolished and turned into a shopping mall. Then it turned into a common protest against the government’s reactionary and authoritarian policies. During the two-week occupation of the park, revolt spread across the country, with the ultimate participation of four million people. Police killed eight young people, wounded four thousand others, and arrested another five thousand. In the end the government had to cancel its shopping mall project for the park.
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