A day in İzmir

We have reached the final weeks of the year. On the morning of Thursday, December 19, we are at the home of my late father-in-law, Air Force Petty Officer Rıza Kaynar, and my mother-in-law, Muazzez Kaynar, on 1710 Street, better known as ESHOT Street in Karşıyaka. We are staying there temporarily because our house in Alsancak is undergoing repairs. I diligently performed the "efe stance" gymnastics exercises recommended to me by Prof. Dr. Veli Lök. I have been doing them for about 14 years. While doing my morning exercises, I watch the "A New Morning with İsmail Küçükkaya" program on Halk TV, which I am addicted to, with interest and curiosity. 

I try not to miss the most prominent topics. The Middle East, where wars have been raging for years, even centuries, remains a boiling point, with Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon at the center. When will the peoples of that region be freed from the games of imperialists? 

Another important topic was the news regarding how workers, laborers, retirees, students, farmers, and even nearly 60% of the public in our country manage to live below the poverty line. As I set off from the Karşıyaka Ferry Terminal toward Pasaport, my heart sank, wondering if the bay is getting dirtier as the years go by. I look at the seagulls; they have decreased significantly. While hundreds used to accompany the ferries in the past, they are now very few. Fortunately, we approached the Pasaport pier. As I stepped out onto the street, I saw a billboard advertisement by İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Dr. Cemil Tugay; next to "We Are Just Getting Started," it read, "We have started the most comprehensive seabed dredging in the history of the İzmir Bay." It was news that relieved us and gave us hope after the gloomy picture formed on the ferry and the morning news. 

I don't know about you, but I have loved İzmir's simit and gevrek since my youth. As I was heading to the Türk Telekom Regional Directorate, I approached a street vendor. You know how we always ask, "Is it crispy?" Today, I placed my order by asking, "Is your cheese good?" Because the gevrek looked so delicious... Between home phones and work phones, internet and mobile phone bills have become so expensive. Don't even ask. Especially in large families, don't ask me about monthly subscriptions, credits, and bills, and I won't tell you. A new year means new price hikes. While struggling with the emotions created by these concepts, I found myself at the door of the Yapı Kredi Publications book promotion and sales office at the beginning of Gazi Boulevard. 

The 30% discount announcements on books for the New Year encouraged me to go inside. Discount announcements have been quite confusing for budgets over the last two months. Don't say "it's okay." You don't have it in your pocket, but you lean on your credit cards as if it were free. After all, capitalism entices us consumers with its lures. It encourages consumer societies to consume in one way or another. While looking at this and that, I ended up buying 13 newly released books. Even though a voice inside me said, "Let's go, or we'll be late. We have a long way to go, Göcek is waiting for us," my feet resisted going to the Çankaya tram stop. Because I found myself in front of the door of the historic building of the Ziraat Bank İzmir Art Museum, on the opposite corner. When the security guard saw me, he came running from a distance. 

I thought to myself that since they weren't stopping people at the entrance, the museum must not be crowded. Who would think of this during these times of economic hardship? Anyway, admission was free. I picked up a brochure in the lobby. I started reading. We often hear about the artistic activities of banks like Türkiye İş Bankası, Yapı Kredi, and Garanti Bank, but we don't hear much about Ziraat Bank's cultural activities, or maybe it just seems that way to me. Anyway, I continue reading the brochure. "In the early years of the Republic, upon Atatürk's instructions, institutions began to establish collections by purchasing works of art of the period to support national art. Ziraat Bank is at the forefront of these institutions. Ziraat Bank's collection began with the paintings 'Gazi Mustafa Kemal Among Farmers' by Namık İsmail and 'Harvest' signed by İbrahim Çallı, which were commissioned for the Ankara General Directorate building opened in 1929." 

The bank's oldest work is an oil painting titled "Pasture" signed by H. Hadfield Cubley, dated 1897. The promotional brochure describes the richness of their collections. Since my time was limited, as I was climbing the stairs to the second floor, I encountered the painting "From the Homeland Pictures Exhibition" made on hardboard in 1953 by Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, whom I know from the "Fish" painting he made on a rock in the bay that bears his own name in the Göcek Bays. After all, Eyüboğlu is a painter who does not break his oath. We meet the painters and their works exhibited in the rooms on the second floor. It's as if I'm on a tour of the country. The İzmir Art Museum, which is Ziraat Bank's second museum after Ankara, is a museum that must be seen and visited. In addition to the "Çallı Generation Impressionist Interpretations, New Colors, New Lights, New Group's 'Nature and Environment Observations'" paintings since İbrahim Çallı, the "Onlar Group's 'Western Techniques and Traditional Traces'" paintings will cause you to stand for quite a while. The works of the "Social Realist Artists" formed by Nuri İyem, Neşe Günal, Duran Karaca, Neşe Erdok, Fikret Otyam, İbrahim Balaban, and Aydın Ayan took me to the village of my childhood, to Anatolia. No matter how much I describe it, it won't be enough. 

Visit the Ziraat Bank İzmir Art Museum at the first opportunity. You will get rid of the troubles of the new year to some extent and meet magnificent Turkish painters. With your permission, I will leave the museum, walk to my vehicle in front of the Alsancak Ferry Terminal, and set off for Göcek. In the meantime, I will have completed my 10,000 (ten thousand) step daily walk for health.