Mixed feelings in the far east of Turkey | World bike tour
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- Опубліковано 17 лип 2024
- Bicycle touring to the far east of modern day Turkey is an exciting adventure, even for experienced bike tourers. As I am from Armenia, I'm also anxious to explore the remains of our tragic history in these lands.
In this unique travel documentary we take you with us on a difficult, very personal and emotional part of our journey around the world. Continuing our story in Diyarbakir, we cycle via Batman, Bitlis, Tatvan, Lake Van, Van, Dogubayazit, Ani, Kars, Cildir Lake to the border with Georgia.
As the historical context we provide throughout this episode might be conflicting or maybe even new information for some viewers, we provide some quality sources for further reading at the end of the description.
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Music
Armen-Levon Manaseryan / armenlevonmanaseryan
#biketouring #armenia #kurdistan
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Thank you so much!
Arev & Mathias
We sincerely hope you understand that for crucial context we had to include historical facts that are internationally recognised as the Armenian Genocide. Turkey has for over 100 years maintained a fierce state policy of denial, which is why so many people of Turkish descent today have difficulties with the topic. We will NOT engage in further discussions about the well documented history, nor will we spend our time debunking made up claims. Facts are not a matter of emotion nor opinion, suggesting otherwise is pointless, and in our experience often enough not genuine. Instead if you are in doubt, we suggest you do some further reading. There is ample research available from international and even Turkish scholars, as well as eye witness accounts of diplomats and foreign aid workers in the region at the time. Just to name a few:
Akçam, Taner (2012). The Young Turks' Crime against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire. Princeton University Press.
de Waal, Thomas (2015). Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide. Oxford University Press.
Göçek, Fatma Müge (2015). Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present and Collective Violence Against the Armenians, 1789-2009. Oxford University Press.
Ihrig, Stefan (2016). Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler. Harvard University Press.
Künzler, Jakob (1921). In the land of blood and tears: experiences in Mesopotamia during the World War.
Morris, Benny; Ze'evi, Dror (2019). The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey's Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894-1924. Harvard University Press.
Encyclopaedia Britannica: Armenian Genocide www.britannica.com/event/Arme...
Wikipedia (EN): Armenian Genocide en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia...
00:00 Introduction & Context
01:29 Leaving Diyarbakir
03:42 Sick in Batman
06:13 A busy day
08:27 Eastern Anatolia
10:00 Arev gets a present
12:56 Into the Taurus Mountains
13:55 Turkish breakfast
14:21 A dangerous road
16:37 Eastern toilets explained
17:25 Thoughts about privilege
18:55 Bitlis & Kurdish hospitality
21:31 Tatvan was not for us
23:39 At the lake was not better
25:25 Saved by a truck stop
26:25 Tunnels are bad
27:05 Akhtamar Island
30:07 Van, Van, Van
31:15 A big fortress
32:00 A weird moment
33:01 Riding with Dani
34:00 Dangerous Iranian border?
37:00 Dogubayazit
38:00 Mount Ararat
40:28 Money, Money, Money
41:53 Close but far from home
42:17 Exceptional landscape
42:51 Brutal heat and headwinds
44:44 Ani Ruins ruined
48:31 Time to move on
50:20 Goodbye Dani
50:56 Final thoughts
52:00 Please support our work
Thank you for a well-made and thought-through episode. I'm sure you both felt a bit uneasy to post about the genocide and it must draining to see uninformed comments, so please know that I and and many many many others appreciate that you bring this topic up and admire your bravery. Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much Sara! We discussed the episode with several neutral people during editing, as we were quite sure that we would get backslash. What was a surprise was that some viewers don't seem to be interested in our experience and would rather see some fairytale story, even when it wasn't in reality. Anyhow, we really appreciate your thoughtful comment ❤️
Thank you for your honesty about the historical issues you wrestled with while riding in this region. It added a lot to the video. A ride like this is more than just beautiful scenery, so I'm glad you shared the feelings you experienced along the way.
Thank you very much for appreciating! Your feedback means a lot. We agree, that context is very important.
Hi Arev and Mathias, a truly moving video with a lot of content for the mind and soul. Very good editing and drone shots. Sometimes I couldn't keep up with reading the subtitles. Keep it up, stay authentic. Best regards Fred
Thank you so much, Fred! It feels great to get this kind of feedback. Obviously, not everyone is able to appreciate that such kind of journey is not always just an awesome adventure, riding to beautiful scenery.
Regarding the subs. Do you mean the ones "burned in" or the youtube subtitles, and if so, in English or German?
During voice-over or conversation?
You are very nice people ( included Dani). When I watch your video, I cried because we were neighbors, we were together. When the Armenians left, we became like bad food with no salt or taste... I am a Kurd, I have traveled to 51 countries. Politicians and fascists who turn people into enemies are bad wherever they are. I want a world without them.
I wish you a pleasant journey.
Աստված օրհնի քեզ
Thank you so much for your wonderful words. We want the same!
I love how you integrate history, politics, music and the personal with your journey. So glad to have discovered your informative channel. Thanks and good luck with your travels.
Glad you enjoy it! We always try to transport the context that we see and feel. Many choose to skip the difficult or negative parts because one gets very bad reactions from people who can't handle it. However, we couldn't do that. It wouldn't be honest. As each and every one of us is (and looks) different and therefore will have a unique experience, it feels silly to suggest that there could be a uniform experience.
Hallo Arev & Matthias,
Once again: well done!
I love watching your video, which is well cut together and accompanied by many interesting information.
Good luck with the continuation of your trip. Wherever you are right now, take care and enjoy.
Greeting from
KaterOnBike
Thank you very much, @kateronbike! ☺️ We’re doing’s great and can’t wait to share with you further stories and adventures.
Wow! What an incredible episode. It was so hard and depressing to watch and hear. But I had to watch the entire episode because it was filled with the true sentiment that you experienced. For you to have gone through it every minute for weeks must have been so sad and overwhelming.
Thanks a lot 🙏🏽 I’m sorry it was depressing! :)) It was not meant to be. We had a variety of emotions and interactions. Of course it was special because of the historical context and some things, that you saw in the film, made us sad, but we also met many nice people and saw lots of beautiful nature.
For me (Arev) it was one of the best decisions to cycle through Turkey. It gave me the opportunity to see Turkey from a different angle, to reflect on the history, humanity and a very deep rooted conflict.
@@AmazingWorldBikeTour Yes Arev, you don't need to apologise, you have shared it as it is. If everything you say is sugar coated, then there's no difference between documentaries and your work. Your work is so authentic. I remember the first video where you just started out cycling with almost no preparation and training, and how one episode rolled into another and before long y'all have been travelling thousands of miles across our beautiful planet. Please don't change anything about how you portray your journey. It's the authenticity that keeps us connected to your channel and you two.
🫶
You have surely the best cycle touring channel ever created since the beginning of UA-cam site. I watched since I have discovered your channel just 2 days ago, 7 different videos.
Something to emphasize: Ani or Անի where destroyed totally by the Mongolians in 1239 and abandoned on the earthquake of 1319. Many years before the Ottoman Empire.
I have visited by myself Ani and most of the cities in eastern turkey (25 years ago). I have traveled most parts of Turkey in several different trips. Some by my bicycle, And others by the excellent bus infrastructure turkey has to offer.
N.B-1 The poverty you have met in South Eastern Anatolia And the military repression of the Kurds was even worse 25 years ago...
N.B-2 I am from Tel Aviv. Only short one hour flight to Antalya city' so easy access to explore the country. But since the Islamic extremist, Erdogan, took the power, I stopped visited Turkey.
Thank you! It is so motivating for us to see that people appreciate how much effort we put into creating an immersive experience.
Yes, we know that there have been many earthquakes. When we speak of destruction, we are mainly referring to the vandalism that took part in more recent years. We met a Kurdish woman in Ani, and she said it wasn't as bad 10 years earlier, when she had last visited.
Nationalism and any kind of extremism are always so unfortunate, and we would love to see Turkey moving in another direction. Most young people we met want to or in the meantime already did leave the country for good.
However, it is still a great country to cycle tour nonetheless.
Arev, you look great 🙂 The scarf suits you! There are very great shots, lights and wonderful landscapes. It's also nice that you give historical facts and comments. I learned several things. You're both really brave and strong. THANK YOU!
Thank you! ☺️ I think so too, it is a nice scarf!
We are grateful for your appreciation! 💛
Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing this. I love these places with all my heart and it’s so good to see them through the perspective of a person who can see them in a way I never can. I appreciate you two!
We thank you very much! This really means a lot!
Thanks for the video! Looking forward to more!
Thank you very much!
Another great video and edit Arev and Mathias. I had wondered many times what it would have been like for you Arev and I appreciate you sharing this side of the trip and talking about this sad part of history.
Also really enjoy your filming and sense of humour too mixed in. Thanks for sharing and the inspiration.
Thanks a lot for appreciating! It’s so important for us to get emphatic feedback like yours.
It is so hard to go through difficult times, then a second time to tell the story, try everything to make it relatable and then see it trashed in childish and or uninformed manner.
This episode got some really bad comments to the extend the we had sleepless nights of sadness, anger and frustration. We started fighting with each other for silly reasons the last few days because the situation made us so tense.
We spend hours trying to write the most thoughtful response possible, just to get more unbelievable words as a return.
How can some people find it in themselves to tell us that their opinion is superior to proven facts or even our feelings, what our channel is and what not and we should stick to what they think or shut up.
Some comments we had to hide, one seems to have deleted is original post last night for whatever reason. Still it leaves us wondering why we are putting so much effort, time and money into telling those stories.
So, thank you so much Bella, that you always find empathy and kind words!
Amazing video, so nice to watch. We enjoyed crossing Turkey by bike and your video made us feel nostalgic, in a good way of course. In Brazil the Armenian community is huge, mainly from the Armenian diaspora, so we already knew about the Armenian genocide, but we got really touched when we visited the genocide museum in Yerevan. We posted about it in our Instagram and Blog, soon after that our blog got blocked in Turkey.
Thank you, that means a lot! Yeah, Armenians are kind of scattered all over the world today.
Also, I (Mathias) totally get you. Naturally, as a German, I learned so much about the horros of the Shoa/Holocaust, visited several concentration camps and thought for a long time that no other comparable evil ever happend.
A week before invading Poland Hitler is cited with "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
Wow, they blocked your blog too. I know another person who had that happen. Well, we don't have a blog, but we already lost at least two dozens of our Turkish followers 🤷
Thanks for another top episode! It was truly exciting to see your report on Eastern Turkey and the traces of Armenian life. We miss you!
Love you guys :-*
Amazing...i like your video..
Thank you so much ☺️
Hi M & A, I am really enjoying your videos and each one seems even better than the previous. I think you are amazing adventurers and am full of respect for your determination and intrepidness. Already looking forward to your next video; the longer the better. Thank you.
Hey Glen, thanks for your valuable feedback and kind words. I'm not sure if we are that "intrepid" though. Mathias does worry a lot, whereas I just don't see any problems out of naivity most of the time 😀
I wanted to start cycling in Africa with literally zero experience, Mathias did not allow that. It was probably for the better!
We found Ani incredibly moving - and that whole area. Thanks for sharing the history. Great video!!
Thanks for letting us know.
That was very informative. I don't know how you managed to avoid those trucks on that narrow mountain road but I'm glad you did. I'm a new subscriber now.
Thanks. Well, fortunately most truck drivers are generally very eager not to kill someone. Being on roads with no cycling infrastructure so much, we certainly had quite a few close calls, but in most of Turkey we felt fairly safe on the roads.
Brilliant video guys
Thanks for appreciating 😊
Great videos! It is one of my dreams (and now intentions) to quit my job and go on some kind of an epic bike tour in the future (partly because of videos like yours).
On a side note: I sometimes wonder how you find the motivation to film when you're struggling through tough climbs and hot weather 😅
Wow, that is so cool 😎 We always hoped to inspire people to go on their own adventure. Thank you for sharing this with us! Despite all the hardships along the way, we feel it is an invaluable experience. We hope you can make your dream come true sooner rather than later.
Well and the filming... 😬 You know what they say about bicycle tourers: we just love that type 2 fun so much! 😅 Also, the editing is much worse.
You are wonderful. I watch you with great pleasure. Thank you very much :)
So nice of you, thanks!
Excellent, thank you
Thank you for watching ☺️
An excellent and thought-provoking video.
Thank you! 🙏
Another amazing video. It would be great if you could split this down into chapters. That way people could more easily watch this very long video in chunks. It would still one video, but with chapter markings.
Thanks a lot! 🙏🏽 That’s a good idea! We’ll try to add the chapter markings:)
@@AmazingWorldBikeTour I see you have done that now. Big thanks 😃👍
Thank you guys for another epic part like previous parts of your amazing bike tour. Up to now, I have followed you closely since I want to see my homeland (yes I am Turkish) from a strangers' perspective and get a glimpse of the lives of bikers in Europe. You mostly made me feel joy and happiness (sometimes anxiety for your open air camps) despite this episode. I think you emotionally (since Arev is from an Armenian origin) fell into a mistake of making definite judgements for tragic historical events. I don't intend to judge you but this brings two problems in your case:
Firstly, IMO you -unintentionally- betrayed the spirit of biking. AFAIK biking is naturally a nationless, raceless and borderless activity. (And you've already proved it!!!) You can bike no matter you are German, Armenian or Turkish on any land. (I saw a couple of times that you had to confront some gestures and mimics of locals or security forces in a prejudiced way but we can't think it for general.) Although there are still countries and borders, a biker should not add more to them, especially mind-wise above all.
My second point is the fact that Anatolia had been a busy bridge between asia, mesopotamia, caucasia, balkans and europe for tens of thousands of years. This brings a disadvantage for the people in the region to always live in a volatile environment. This is a common problem for the people of eastern countries of anatolian origin. Imagine that, everyone wants to categorize you by origin and claim the others' land. Let me give you an example; I was born and raised in the capital Ankara, however, according to the written history, I may have a Hittite, Phrygian, Lydian, Persian, Macedonian, Gaul-Galatian, Roman, Abbasid, Seljuk or Ottoman-Turkish origin. How can I prove that I am 100% Turk? Except for the last 100 years of modern Turkish Republic which tried to unify the nation under the name of Turk, a general discomfort was always there if you want to settle. By constitutional definition, "Everyone bound to the Turkish State through the bond of citizenship is a Turk". That's it. A Turk, Kurd, Greek or an Armenian, if being a citizen, is considered as a Turk. This terms was accepted by all folks of 1920's except for those who suffered from population exchange between Greece and Turkiye. Unfortunately, that was the aftermath of the War of Independence. Maybe as a result of this huge population diversity, even today, people tend to wonder where you are from. We are slowly overcoming this problems generation by generation.
I am hopeful, as you see from the government restoring the Akhtamar Church and many other cultural properties, Turkish people are getting more and more comfortable with the history of the land that they are living on. But massacre is an truly exaggerated statement. Armenians "relocated" at that period are victims of WWI since they chose sides of Russians. Did they expose to mistreatment? Yes, because they were transported in that days' conditions. Poverty, undereducation and lack of administration results in many tragedies now, let alone 1910's. In the circumstances of war and hatred, those unfortunate events had happened.
To be a massacre, there needed to be a systematical extermination, like evidently happened and proven by the International Military Tribunal of Nuremburg for Germany and the International Criminal Courts for Rwanda and Former Yugoslavia.
So, let's leave the history behind and to the historians. I truly admire on what you are doing right now and I will be following you in Georgia and Armenia. I hope to see Arev giving her father a tight hug soon. With my best wishes. 🤟
Hello Erkan, we appreciate you for taking the time and sharing your thoughts with us. However, we do not think you got the intended message of the video and therefore accuse us of things we did not do nor say. We fully agree that nationalism is terrible and we would love to live in a world without borders, however to make just two examples: Arev could not cycle through Azerbaijan even if she wanted to, just because she is Armenian. Someone born in Israel can't set foot to many Muslim countries. We're glad that despite our disagreement on many things you intent to continue following along our journey.
As a German I am convinced that today we have friendly and trustworthy relations with all of our neighbours, as well as Jews from all over the world, despite the fact that many of our grand grandparents invaded their countries and committed genocide. I am convinced that they can live fearless as our neighbours, and even in Germany today, only because we admitted how horrible and unjustifiable that was. Because, as a result, we swore as a nation that something like it shall never happen again. We understood that a mislead feeling of violated "national pride" was an important factor, that helped to normalise hatred towards weaker groups, and to dehumanise them. Therefore we try our best to educate ourselves about the horrors of WW2 and what led to them. Of course I identify as a German, as I was born and raised in the country, but I do not feel proud to be "a German", despite the fact that many Germans did many great things in the past. Not because I am guilty of anything, but because I don't see a single one good reason to be proud of anyone's country / nationality in general. I find it most unfortunate for humanity how easy it is for demagogues, populists and power-hungry politicians to create narratives that sow hate and division between people for personal gain, based on feelings related to national pride.
This episode about our time in the east of Turkey is meant to reach a hand from an Armenian perspective. We travelled in the whole of Turkey with genuine curiosity and a positive attitude. It is the essence of a documentary to show the reality, and we never pointed a finger to blame anyone specific. We merely showed what happened to us, which included countless positive encounters, but as a matter of fact, there had been many situations when we opened up about Arev being Armenian that we got negative reactions. We did not show one of those instances and only pointed out some reasons why to this date, most Armenians deep inside are still terrified of Turkey, and what could be done to heal these wounds. As a German I have a very hard time to understand why this seems so hard. Imagine for a moment Germany's state policy would have been to convince ourselves for decades that "we didn't do anything bad in the past, it was war, they started it, we had to protect ourselves, that we are the most noble nation that could never do wrong". Therefore there is one thing that makes me glad to be German: The we were successfully forced into accepting the darkest parts of our history.
We sincerely hope you understand that for crucial context we had to include historical facts that are internationally recognised as the Armenian Genocide. Turkey has for over 100 years maintained a fierce state policy of denial, which is why so many people of Turkish descent today have difficulties with the topic. We will NOT engage in any discussions about well documented history. Facts are not a matter of emotion nor opinion, suggesting otherwise is pointless, and in our experience often enough not genuine. Instead if you are in doubt, we suggest you do some further reading. There is ample research available from international and also Turkish scholars, as well as eye witness accounts of diplomats and foreign aid workers in the region at the time. Just to name a few:
Akçam, Taner (2012). The Young Turks' Crime against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire. Princeton University Press.
de Waal, Thomas (2015). Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide. Oxford University Press.
Göçek, Fatma Müge (2015). Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present and Collective Violence Against the Armenians, 1789-2009. Oxford University Press.
Ihrig, Stefan (2016). Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler. Harvard University Press.
Künzler, Jakob (1921). In the land of blood and tears: experiences in Mesopotamia during the World War.
Morris, Benny; Ze'evi, Dror (2019). The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey's Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894-1924. Harvard University Press.
Thanks for taking the time reading all this. I will end it with something Arev's dad says a lot: "Humanity shall prevail over nationalism."
Hello @@AmazingWorldBikeTour Despite my missing of your intentions of the video, we agreed on the fact that nationalism is terrible, right. So, in this respect, you seemed to also miss my main objections. First, I am NOT proud to be a Turk, because there is a minuscule possibility that I am 100% Turkish origin, as I previously explained why, but I am PROUD to be a Turk, the reason I’ll talk later. Next thing I should add is the idea of leaving history to historians. Despite my effort for reading resources from all sides, I should devote all my life to make a clear conclusion about tragedies that Armenians incurred on the eve of WWI. That applies to you too. It is just that simple.
Despite keeping your recommendations in mind for my future readings, also please bear in mind that not all but some writers and academicians publish for some expectations in return. Let me give you a specific example: A famous Turkish novelist and an academic, Orhan Pamuk said to a Swiss publication that “one million Armenians were killed here” during an interview in February 2005. Then guess what, he took the Nobel Prize in Literature in October 2006. He is the one and only nobelist throughout the history of Turkish Literature! I advise you to not pay so much attention to every person with a high reputation.
Because you dealt with your nationalism in depth, let me tell you my point of view. I was born in a country which inherited tons of internal conflicts from the 600 years of Ottoman era, not long ago. I witnessed and heard about mass migrations of almost 6 million people from pre-Ottoman lands in the past couple of centuries, namely:
- Those fleeing from Circassian Genocide of Russian Empire
- Adjarians (Muslim Georgians)
- Azerbaijanis
- Bosnian Turks (both in the 19th and 20th centuries)
- Those suffering from Greek and Turkish populations exchange convention (after The War of Independence)
- Macedonian Turks
- Yugoslavian Turks
- Bulgarian Turks
- Romanian Turks
- Iraqi Kurds fleeing from Saddam Hussein (during the Gulf War)
Even after this much of a migration, our homeland, which is pretty much like modern-day Türkiye, gave them food, land, and opportunities to flourish in a new life. After the War of Independence, despite being on the opposite sides, the same happened for all the minorities if they preferred to accept being an equal member of the newly founded state, Turkish Republic, under the name of Turk. You can check this from the minutes of the Lausanne Peace Treaty signed by the allied powers on 24th of July 1923. Despite Armenians, being on the wrong side every time during conflict times (taking sides with Russian and English Armies in Caucasian front, with French Army in Cilicia and Palestine), the successor Turkish Republic gave them a one last chance to be an equally respected citizen. Today, they live in many cities as Armenian-Turkish citizens, participate in Grand National Assembly as MPs, they even have an Armenian village named “Vakifli” in Hatay. (Does Armenia have any Turkish equivalent?) Now, I came to the point, I am PROUD to be a Turk because my country gave all its people the opportunity to take pride in being an equal citizen of Türkiye.
Still waiting for an apology? Big boys of WWI tried to get that with a homeland bonus for the Armenians to be established in Cilicia, however, they could not afford it. ASALA tried to get that between 1975-1990, killing 46 and hundreds injured, but they could not afford it, either.
Consequently, being aware of the politicians manipulating their people with hatred to others and gain power, people of both countries today don’t give a damn to a terrifying scenario as Türkiye attacking Armenia. We share the same mission for life and even Armenians immigrate illegally to Türkiye from Armenia for better life conditions. Instead of spreading fear and declaring Turkish lands as “Western Armenia”, Armenian politicians should try their best to bring poverty in Armenia to an end. The same is true for the poverty in my country, as is evident from your video.
I don’t want to bother you or your followers, but you seemed to go a bit far. Populist politicians of 34 countries -even Pope- recognizing a so-called genocide don’t mean anything to me until a formal criminal court is established and reached a decision indicating such a systematic extermination - that is genocide. Until that time, I prefer to accept it as a tragedy. I am deeply sorry for all losses without exception. Humanity shall prevail over nationalism. Serkan✌
The language barrier is my number one question for world travelers. Do you have any tips that will help with languages you don’t understand
Hey Jamin. Well, Arev is just a language talent. She speaks Armenian as mother tongue, Russian, English, and finally German close to native proficiency. That is also 3 different alphabets 🤯 I speak just German and English, which is so close, it does not help me with other languages.
We try to learn a handful of the most important standard phrases by heart when we enter a country. We try to communicate as much as we can and use hands, feet, and google translate if necessary. In our experience, people will always appreciate the effort, no matter how bad you butcher their language, maybe except French people 😉
With some time in the country and a lot of communication you will pick up more and more useful words or even short phrases. Just go for it! Most of the time we just pretend to understand and try to understand from single words, gestures and context 😅
How’s everything going?~ insne ! so long- Amazing. 😊
Awesome! 🤩
Amazing climb, you both are little crazy, aren't you ? My God, I'm such an admirer of what you do. And I will add you both are so lucky to travel as a couple. They say love gives you wings :)
I have a question, do you have someone to film and edit your videos? Great job.
Well some people say that, yes 😅 If we look at being somewhat crazy in doing something the vast majority wouldn't we probably are 🙃
No, just like the bike touring we learned it on the way and do our best to keep videos coming. We edited the first nuch when we reached Armenia and since then we spend about half the time in cheap accommodations to make more episodes.
@@AmazingWorldBikeTour Where are you at the moment ?
We are in Laos 🇱🇦 right now, will enter Thailand 🇹🇭 soon again to spend most of a month editing before entering Cambodia 🇰🇭
I miss Turkish breakfasts!
Ahhhh, we as well! We met other travellers yesterday and I (Arev) took my time to express my love towards Turkish breakfast 😅
Thanks a lot for amazing video Arev and Mathias. Probably i am the only Turkish person here to write a comment about video. And it was great to see Van and around. Because i was a teacher in Van almost 7 years. Especially when you told the story of Akhtamar island. you mentioned Yaşar Kemal. Thanks for that because no one know about that story in Turkey. At last; about historical truth, i've nothing to say about that. But we're the children of the same region and same mountains. We shared our breads and life for hundred of years. We got married for centuries. We will heal our wounds together as a brother and sister...
We are truly very happy that you could fully understand what this episode is about. Thank you so much for sharing this! Imagine how touched I was learning that a Turkish person had saved the church of the Holy Cross.
We hope more people, especially from Turkey like you, will come to the same conclusion.
Especially after traveling in Turkey for such a long time and meeting amazing people I'm now more that convinced that only through honest dialog, also about the difficulties, we can overcome all the negative feelings, so hopefully, one day, our people can live as good neighbors again.
Great video, as usual.
The Armenian genocide is such a tragedy. I admire your ability to bring some attention to the sad history of that region through your own personal perspective. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Big hugs and mad respect! Keep pedaling!
We’re very grateful for your appreciation. It means a lot!
Thanks for sharing about your bowel movements 😂
UA-cam suggest me to answer „Any time!“ 😂
ülkücü mustache guy and armenian girl in van it is very interesting
Yes, it was indeed an interesting situation.
@@AmazingWorldBikeTour but as an half armenian you don’t know all happenings right i have to notice that
The events of 1915 caused two people who had been brothers for 1000 years to become enemies. Rest assured, Turks have no hatred towards Armenians, we are only sensitive about territorial integrity. Armenian culture, like all cultures in these lands, is under protection. Let's forget the pain and look ahead. You can travel comfortably.
Well, unfortunately that is wishful thinking. While a majority of the people in Turkey were very welcoming to us, we also had many instances when we experienced the very opposite. Sometimes mentioning the country Armenia was enough to get weird if not threatening reactions.
We sincerely hope that the future will be full of piece and friendship, but to build the necessary trust, we ask open-minded people like you to do a little bit more research in international sources and acknowledge the dark history. This is an important step to allow the wounds to heal.
You are very arrogant mister. You are well received all along; yet i dont know how many times you repeated " genocide" . Shame on you. And dont come back again with your hate attitude. Armenians fought us along with russians and selfloved francos and beaten . You should not keep criying. It was during the war and everybody got hurt.
Just because we focused on the positive encounters as much as we could doesn't mean we've been well received in Turkey all along.
However, you clearly did not get the message of this episode, which is merely about the acknowledgment of well documented historical facts, or rather the lack of it. It seems you take personal offense, which was not our intention, but that you do says maybe more about you than about us.
Especially as a German, I have difficulties comprehending why some people choose to repeat misinformation instead of trying to learn from the past.
Because you are looking like Afganistan people😂😂
Maybe your time is not so precious after all.
feeling guilty?!! less freedom?!! oh yeah of course as usual here comes mr. liberator who assumed that the people in other cultures are sad because they don't do what he do or just because they have a different life style! wow!! maybe you think the Amish are the saddest on earth, right?! that's a strange way of thinking, which is coming from arrogance mixed with ignorance! you people really make me hate watching this type of videos! thanks!
We did not assume anything. We meet dozens of people every day, stay with them at their homes regularly and talk a lot. We barely met people that did not want to leave Turkey if they could, especially in the east. Many did since we met them. It is interesting that seeing us admitting our privilege makes you so angry. We also did not know that growing up in poverty with poor education and deprived of basic choices and chances to live a self-determined could be described as a lifestyle. We haven’t been to Amish country, nor did we ever meet one, so we couldn’t say.
@@AmazingWorldBikeTour
Sorry you didn't show me someone of those dozens whom say "I want to live like you but I can't bcoz I'm oppressed" if I see this then your talks would be legit, but you're from Armenia or at least your woman is as she admit that herself so yeah I can understand where this come from. dude, believe me when I say I stand with your historic rights against ottomans, also our country in the past conquered and looted for centuries by ottomans, so I don't like them at all, they put on a fake Islamic rule to legalize conquering the middle east countries! even nowadays there's a political conflict between my country and turkish regime, we don't like erdogan at all or those whom called the new ottomans, so normally it's expected for me to be biased but no I don't think like that, and tbh I don't give a f to the whole Turkey, they don't like us. my point is there is a "poor" people in this world, whom had a proper education, living a simple live, but they are satisfied and blessed with what they have, not bcoz they're not travelling the world or not doing the things you love then you assumed they're sad!! maybe they don't like what you like! even if they've money they wouldn't do it! as example there's tons of rich people whom are not travelling the world, or buying luxury car every year while they're capable, simply they don't like that, there's people prefer radio over 55inch screen, it doesn't mean bcoz I'm "poor" so I hate my simple life and wanna do like what rich people do! The thing is before I watch your vid I've watched another one for a British guy who visiting a muslims country and his majesty assumed that those hijab girls are sad just bcoz he saw them don't wearing shorts or showing their bodies like girls in his country! for real!! you see what I mean here!! (the liberator mentality), it is all about arrogance, my English isn't that good but I think you got the point, and believe me this come from a lot of talks and experience too!
We thought it should be obvious, but maybe it isn't, so I will spell it out. The Turkish state is very oppressive, far from a democratic system with freedom of speech. People don't talk about all the problems openly in the street, especially not on camera because they don't want to end up in prison, like most people who spoke openly before them.
We did not even include the sad stories we've been told by the countless people we met to protect them and their families. We did not assume anything. Arrivals from Turkey to Germany for asylum are on a record high right now. If people would lead the lifestyle they chose for themselves, poor but satisfied like you suggest, this wouldn't happen, so please don't try to school us about what is going on there.
I enjoyed this video and learn't a lot, and this is why I watch your videos. A pity about the worldly and negative comments of some, and obviously, they are of this world!
@@richardhunt3051
hah!
I was following you until you mentioned the Genocide Lie, but I'm done with it! I'm unfollowing you. Goodbye and good luck to both of you
We understand that it can be difficult to hear about it for you. But it is very unfortunate, especially since you speak English and could so easily inform yourself from unbiased sources. All the best!
@@AmazingWorldBikeTour No, that's not difficult for me to hear. It is difficult for a person to be blamed for something he did not do. The dictionary meaning of this action is called "slander". As someone who has researched from English sources to the Ottoman archives and the UN's definition of genocide, I know very well that the events of 1915 cannot be called "genocide". That's why I'm at peace and I have a clear conscience. But I am extremely sorry for the Turks, Kurds and Armenians who died in Eastern Anatolia in the terrible events that took place in 1915 and before. Both sides experienced painful events. I wish it had never happened. Anyway, this is not a history channel. I just wanted to express myself and the truth. Take care of yourself. Have a nice day✌
In the Land of Blood and Tears: Experiences in Mesopotamia During the World War
Jakob Künzler
www.goodreads.com/book/show/17973030-in-the-land-of-blood-and-tears
İ lost too much time here. I came here to see adventure and spirit but just politics politics politics and again politics
We are sorry you feel that way, but it seems you mistake facts for politics.
This is a movie about a part of our adventure. If you can't take some of our emotions resulting from the experience we had in that region, maybe try Google streetview instead.
so..... we watch this channel to see different places and travel, not to be force feed history about Armenians and Armenia and how the turks did this and that, it is all in the past, we have forgave the Germans for the two world wars and the Japanese, we have all moved on, so how about sticking to bike touring and showing us people and the beautiful places, there are enough problems in the world as there is !
Thank you for sharing your honest opinion with us! We feel sorry that this episode upsets you. Actually, we don't know why most people watch our videos or why they don't. But we always try to cover many different aspects of our journey, whatever was important for us at the time. Do we want to create excitement about the world and its people, or about traveling by bicycle? Of course, and we think we did that also this time. But we're not a Google Street View car. We have feelings and a personal background, so how could anything we do not also be personal anyway?
As you brought up Germanys past. I (Mathias) am German, and I am not so certain if the world or Jews in particular wouldn't mind if we would not have owned up to our horrible past, as a state and a society. Imagine Germany would, despite all the evidence, still pretend that nothing had happened, create an alternate history that glorifies the German Nation above anything, continue to destroy Jewish cultural heritage, and would constantly send high-tech weapons to the Hamas.
Arev was actually afraid to even mention being Armenian many times, and we didn't dare to speak about the Genocide while in Turkey.
Our goal was from the start to show the world as we see it, and that is 100% personal. History is, and the world would not only be bland and indistinguishable if we would not cherish and learn from historical facts, good or bad, we also could not dream of building a better world. Thankfully today Germany is a trustworthy partner of Israel and a protector of Jewish life.
We really thought this message should have come across after watching the whole episode. We're sorry it didn't for you.
@@AmazingWorldBikeTour ok firstly you did not up set me ( you could not upset me if even if you tried ) and you have missed the point, the fact that you for the full 52 mins of the video kept going on and on about the Arminian and Armenia past, that was the annoy part, if you made mention once or twice it would have been fine, but the fact that you both came back to it time after time just seemed one sided and your own opinion, my wife and i dont care about politics nor opinions, we are just here to see bikepacking and touring videos, as my old man say " opinions are like assholes, everyone has one " please dont become like the people in the middle east where they have been holding grudges for the last 1000 years and they can never move on, we all know that people and countries have done some terrible things , but there has to come a point that people have to say, " ok lets just move on" otherwise we all just live in the past ! and that is no future ! if you were to watch all of your videos from the start, with open eyes and no opinions or politics you would see what we mean, this video was just fully of mails and hate of what the turks did, to give you a idea, i am of Spanish descent, but i am Australian ! born and breed, my wife is born and breed in thailand, but she is now Australian, we dont give a stuff about our backgrounds nor where we came from, it is the here and now that we care about, we forget our past and live for the now and the future.
Agreed forget the past, stick to the bike touring and leave the opinions to other people
So why did you not talk about the Italians, when they were Involved in the world world war ? They were on one side and then the change sides ! Would you have made a opinion if you were Italian? I agree with Rick ute, just do bike packing and traveling and just to drive the point home, will you mantias make a big song and dance about Korea when you get there ?
@@rickute1458Mate that's the dumbest example I've ever heard. You are Spanish living in oz and have a Thai wife. O hey fellas look how cultured this guy is 😂 you have no idea how it is to be raised in a country with war. And those examples you gave don't justify you giving your unsalted opinion like that. Also these folks get to decide what to cover in their episodes since it's THEIR CHANNEL. If you don't like it, you can also just not watch their content instead of being a c.....