The teahouse in which I sometimes drink tea when I go to the center of Nevşehir was not crowded at the moment. I am so lucky because the tea was so delicious.
There are six people there, all of whom are in deep conversation. Sometimes some of them hold their heads up to look at the television on the wall of the gate in the teahouse. That’s really awesome.
In my opinion, the TV in the Turkish teahouse is a fantastic issue. First of all, TV is always switched on, and nobody watches it. The other important thing about it is that the channel on TV is never a mainstream channel. Now someone on the TV tells something about the local agriculture. I paid attention to watch tv but I overheard the conversation of the people in the teahouse. They were talking about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. As always, people have been divided into those who support the invasion of Ukraine and those who protest Russia, more specifically Putin.
I left the teahouse, and walked along the street. It was cold. I thought that we will never get into summer because this year has been so cold, and it is still snowing at the end of March. Of course I immediately remember a Turkish saying about the coldness in March. English language has similar saying: “Never cast a clout until may is out“
I arrived at the shopping center on the junction, and I hesitated where to go.
As a human geographer, I always think about relationship modernity and urban experience. Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project provides valuable insights into grasping urban issues, and we have drawn attention to the problems faced by urban dwellers, especially about the contradiction between history and present. It is significant that we compare the building which represents old times with the building which represents modernity.
I noticed a nice example about this problem when I went to the city center. I asked someone where I could find a tailor’s shop, and then the old man with grey hair pointed me to the arcade opposite to the shopping center of Nevşehir in the cross road in the center of Nevşehir. It’s awesome that I smiled when I read the plate at the gate of the arcade. It’s name is “Modern Arcade”. Really?
Now we need to compare this arcade and the shopping center which is opposite to the arcade which is called modern. Does it represent modernity?
I am sure that everyone thought this arcade was the most modern building in Nevşehir when it was built. But now it is only history if we compare it with the shopping center which represents modernity at this time.
These two buildings were made in the name of modernity in a diverse time but now they are totally in a different world. This arcade could be thought of in the modern sense before but now it signifies tradition and history. It meant consuming in the past, but the shopping center opposite it means modernity and represents the consumer society. How did their meaning change over time? This is a really interesting question.
