Yesterday evening and this morning I had a political responsibility. I was a representative of Poland visiting the Ottoman Turks. And also the non-Ottoman ones, but we'll get to that.

It all started with the fact that I was contacted by Alper (penultimate photo) - a guy following my march on the routes of Likia Yolu and St. Paul. As he himself admitted, he came across my fanpage by pure chance. Alper is an officer of the Jandarma, i.e. Turkish Carabinieri, and decided that when he retires, he would like to walk the trail of St. Paul, which ends in his town of Yalvaç. So he started typing phrases related to this tour on Facebook and boom - I jumped out!

We met last night by the museum. Alper came with the muhtar of the Müderris district in Yalvaç. We can see him in the first picture. Muhtar is like a mayor or president of a district, some part of the city. However, Yücel Turan is not just an ordinary muhtar. He is also a great lover of the Ottoman tradition, which is connected with his next passion, i.e. historical reconstruction. He showed me numerous photos of him performing in public in major Turkish cities, including the capital. In this function, he also received his role in the popular Turkish series "Diriliş: Ertuğrul". Although when he mentions that he starred in it, his colleagues only laugh:

- Yeah, you played. It wasn't even 5 minutes before they killed you.

Ahmet is also a devoted osmanist and traditionalist. He was the only one in the group who spoke English really well, so we also had the longest conversations with him. There was a lot of politics and a lot of religion, which belies the myth that Muslims are reluctant to talk about it. As always, this is an individual matter and depends on the individual. Ahmet is a declared Muslim, but he has a lot of general knowledge, also about the history of Christianity, which in Yalvaç, due to the three visits of St. Paul's is quite special. I could see that he was not enthusiastic about my declaration that I am not too religious. This just confirms the popular belief that for a religious Muslim the concepts of atheism and secularism sound much worse than being a follower of even a "competing" religion. On another point, we are in complete agreement. Namely, that in politics there are no friendships, only alliances. At some point, the conversation turned to political, Russian-Ukrainian and similar topics.

At one point, Ahmet states that Poles and Turks have probably never waged any war with each other. I confirm that maybe war as such hasn't been an issue, but there was an episode near Vienna in the 17th century, when the guys had a bit of a fight, and our king Sobieski chased Kara Mustafa back to the Balkans.

- Yes, indeed. Ahmet adds. - I know the episode, but I did not know that it was the Polish king who commanded it. Never before or after had the Ottoman Empire extended so far north.

However, I also recall an anecdote about Ottoman envoys in the 19th century, invariably asking for a representative of "Lechistan" (the Ottoman name for Poland) at meetings of the heads of superpowers. This evokes a positive reaction from my interlocutor.

This time, however, I decide to push Ahmet a bit and ask about Kemal Atatürk, who is almost a sacred figure in this country. His streets, monuments and memorials fill perhaps half of the Turkish public space. A hundred years ago, Atatürk made a series of reforms that greatly liberalized life in Turkey after the dissolution of the empire. To a large extent, they also concerned religion, so I am interested in the opinion of someone like Ahmet about this leader. After a general introduction that there are always two sides of a coin, there were pros and cons, etc. he expressed quite specific and interesting observation:

- We Turks have always been stretched somewhere between the East and Europe. Until his times, we used our heart and intuition to explore the world. Atatürk turned to the West, whose perception was limited to listening only to the voice of the mind. Did it work out for us? It's hard to say, but surely some part of the Turkish soul was lost then.

The conversation goes very smoothly. However, at the next interpolation praising the greatness of the Ottoman Empire, Alper leans into my ear and says:

- Just so you don't think that everyone here is such enthusiasts of those times. Me and my family do not share this point of view at all.

Shortly after midnight, kokoreç appears on the table. A typically Turkish dish, which, as I understood and explored with my senses, is something like black pudding, or Scottish haggis with bread. After that I am taken back to the hotel. In the morning I return to this place, as agreed, shortly before ten o'clock. We drink farewell coffee and then Alper takes me to Eğirdir, which is just after his route to Antalya, where he lives every day, visiting Yalvaç only at the weekend. Both he and Mr. Muhtar remind me that I am always welcome here!

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