Middle East - Anthony Ham [495]
The tourist office ( 222 2252; 9am-5pm Mon-Fri) is in the valılık (provincial government headquarters) building on the main square. Don’t miss the buildings in the adjoining park: the Çifte Minare Medrese (Seminary of the Twin Minarets) with a grand Seljuk-style gateway; the fabulous Şifaiye Medresesi, a former medical school that’s one of the city’s oldest buildings; and the 13th-century Bürüciye Medresesi. Southeast of the park are the 1197 Ulu Cami (Great Mosque) and the glorious Gök Medrese (Blue Seminary); west of it is the Atatürk Congress & Ethnography Museum (Atatürk Kongre ve Etnografya Müzesi; Inonü Bulvarı; admission TL2; 8.30am-noon & 1.30-5pm Tue-Sun), in the imposing Ottoman school building that hosted the Sivas Congress in September 1919.
Hotels line Eski Belediye Sokak, just east of the main square. Among them are Sultan Otel ( 221 2986; www.sultanotel.com.tr; Eski Belediye Sokak 18; s/d/tr TL90/140/170) and Otel Madımak ( 221 8027; Eski Belediye Sokak 2; s/d/tr TL60/90/115), although be aware that the site has sad resonances as a hate crime took place here in 1993 (see the boxed text, above for more information).
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MADıMAK MEMORIAL
The original Otel Madımak was the site of one of modern Turkey’s worst hate crimes, on 2 July 1993, when 37 Alevi intellectuals and artists were burned alive in a mob arson attack. The victims, who had come for a cultural festival, included Aziz Nesin, the Turkish publisher of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses. A crowd of more than 1000 extreme Islamist demonstrators gathered outside the hotel after Friday prayers to protest about the book’s publication, and in the ensuing chaos the hotel was set alight and burned to the ground.
The Madımak has since reopened (with a kebap shop in the foyer!), although many human rights groups are calling for the site to be turned into a memorial and museum. The government has already rejected this plan once, sparking accusations that some ministers were directly involved or at least sympathetic to the arsonists.
As well as a memorial, many protesters want to see the trial of the Madımak suspects reopened, believing they were let off too lightly. Thirty-one death sentences, upheld in a 2001 appeal, were commuted to life in prison when Turkey abolished the death sentence the following year.
The scars from the tragedy show no signs of fading, and Sivas’ name has become synonymous with the incident. Demonstrations and vigils take place in Sivas on the anniversary of the attack; in 2008, tens of thousands of people attended a service to mark the 15th anniversary.
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At the rustic, wood-panelled Sema Hanımın Yeri ( 223 9496; İstasyon Caddesi Öncü Market; mains TL2.50-5; 8am-midnight), the welcoming Madame Sema serves home-cooked food such as içli köfte (meatballs stuffed with spices and nuts). Friendly café-restaurant Yeşil Café ( 222 2638; Selçuklu Sokak; mains TL4-8; 7.30am-11pm) has a tiny balcony upstairs with the best-ever views of spotlit twin minarets.
Buses go to destinations including Amasya (TL20, 3½ hours), Ankara (TL30, six hours) and Erzurum (TL30, seven hours). Services are not that frequent, so you may want to book ahead at one of the ticket offices just east of Hükümet Meydanı, along Atatürk Caddesi.
Sivas is a main rail junction. The Doğu Ekspresi and Erzurum Ekspresi go through Sivas to Erzurum and Kars daily; the Güney Ekspresi (from İstanbul to Kurtalan) runs four times a week in either direction.
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KONYA
0332 / pop 762,000
Turkey’s equivalent of the ‘Bible Belt’, conservative Konya treads a delicate path between its historical significance as the home town of the whirling dervish orders and a bastion of Seljuk culture on the one