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THREE FAMOUS MEN (AND ONE WOMAN)
Today's Zaman
Oct 29 2012
Turkey
PAT YALE
Born in Uskudar in what was then Constantinople, Calouste Gulbenkian
(1869-1955) was an Armenian who made a fortune in the oil business,
helping to create what was once the vast Royal Dutch/Shell company.
For most people he will be best known as the man whose money laid
the foundations for the fabulous Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, but for
Turks he is also the man who persuaded Sultan Abdulhamid II to invest
in the oilfields around Mosul in what is now northern Iraq. Nicknamed
"Mr. Five Percent," Gulbenkian amassed a vast fortune and an impressive
art collection. On his death he was said to be one of the richest
men in the world.
Born in what was then Smyrna (İzmir), Aristotle Onassis (1906-75)
was a phenomenally wealthy Greek shipping magnate who became almost
equally famous as the man who turned his back on the opera singer
Maria Callas to marry the widowed Jackie Kennedy.
Born in Fener in İstanbul, Elia Kazan (1909-2003) was a filmmaker
who was probably best known for "A Streetcar Named Desire," the movie
that gave Marlon Brando his big break.
Three very different men who became famous for very different things,
but behind their obvious differences lay something they all had in
common, namely family roots in the Central Anatolian town of Kayseri,
more specifically in what is now the suburb of Talas.
Given his role in public life and his incredible wealth, surprisingly
little is known about Calouste Gulbenkian's background, although a
book called "In Search of the Gulbenkians" by Edhem Eldem suggests
that his father Sarkis was born in Talas, then moved to İstanbul as
a youth, following a pattern that had been established by the family
in the 18th century.
While the Gulbenkians may have realized at an early stage that they
had a much better chance of succeeding in business in Constantinople,
they remained attached to their ancestral home, a place renowned
for a beauty that was until recently almost forgotten. Then in 1998
Talas was selected by the environmental and cultural conservation
organization CEKUL to serve as one of the cities in its 7 Bölge 7 Kent
(7 Districts, 7 Towns) project. Now belatedly the lovely Gulbenkian
family home is slated to be converted into what will be Kayseri's
first true boutique hotel.
Aristotle Onassis' father Socrates also came from Talas (then called
Moutalasski), but, like Sarkis Gulbenkian, he understood that his
business was more likely to prosper in the west of the country and so
migrated to the then cosmopolitan port city of Smyrna where Aristotle
was born and grew up speaking four languages. But whereas Calouste
Gulbenkian appears to have left Turkey for England after a brush with
the Ottoman police, Aristotle was one of the millions of Greeks forced
to flee Turkey in the aftermath of the Turkish War of Independence.
After a few years in Argentina, he backtracked to Athens and went on,
like Gulbenkian, to become phenomenally wealthy with interests in
everything from tobacco through Olympic Airways to shipping.
Elia Kazan's parents, George and Athena Kazantzoglu, were also Greeks
from Talas who moved, via Constantinople, to the US where his father
became a carpet dealer in the years leading up to the First World War.
His granddaughter Zoe wrote and stars in the well-received "Ruby
Sparks" which is showing in cinemas around the world as I write.
Pat Yale lives in a restored cave-house in Göreme in Cappadocia.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnistDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=296556
From: Baghdasarian
Today's Zaman
Oct 29 2012
Turkey
PAT YALE
Born in Uskudar in what was then Constantinople, Calouste Gulbenkian
(1869-1955) was an Armenian who made a fortune in the oil business,
helping to create what was once the vast Royal Dutch/Shell company.
For most people he will be best known as the man whose money laid
the foundations for the fabulous Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, but for
Turks he is also the man who persuaded Sultan Abdulhamid II to invest
in the oilfields around Mosul in what is now northern Iraq. Nicknamed
"Mr. Five Percent," Gulbenkian amassed a vast fortune and an impressive
art collection. On his death he was said to be one of the richest
men in the world.
Born in what was then Smyrna (İzmir), Aristotle Onassis (1906-75)
was a phenomenally wealthy Greek shipping magnate who became almost
equally famous as the man who turned his back on the opera singer
Maria Callas to marry the widowed Jackie Kennedy.
Born in Fener in İstanbul, Elia Kazan (1909-2003) was a filmmaker
who was probably best known for "A Streetcar Named Desire," the movie
that gave Marlon Brando his big break.
Three very different men who became famous for very different things,
but behind their obvious differences lay something they all had in
common, namely family roots in the Central Anatolian town of Kayseri,
more specifically in what is now the suburb of Talas.
Given his role in public life and his incredible wealth, surprisingly
little is known about Calouste Gulbenkian's background, although a
book called "In Search of the Gulbenkians" by Edhem Eldem suggests
that his father Sarkis was born in Talas, then moved to İstanbul as
a youth, following a pattern that had been established by the family
in the 18th century.
While the Gulbenkians may have realized at an early stage that they
had a much better chance of succeeding in business in Constantinople,
they remained attached to their ancestral home, a place renowned
for a beauty that was until recently almost forgotten. Then in 1998
Talas was selected by the environmental and cultural conservation
organization CEKUL to serve as one of the cities in its 7 Bölge 7 Kent
(7 Districts, 7 Towns) project. Now belatedly the lovely Gulbenkian
family home is slated to be converted into what will be Kayseri's
first true boutique hotel.
Aristotle Onassis' father Socrates also came from Talas (then called
Moutalasski), but, like Sarkis Gulbenkian, he understood that his
business was more likely to prosper in the west of the country and so
migrated to the then cosmopolitan port city of Smyrna where Aristotle
was born and grew up speaking four languages. But whereas Calouste
Gulbenkian appears to have left Turkey for England after a brush with
the Ottoman police, Aristotle was one of the millions of Greeks forced
to flee Turkey in the aftermath of the Turkish War of Independence.
After a few years in Argentina, he backtracked to Athens and went on,
like Gulbenkian, to become phenomenally wealthy with interests in
everything from tobacco through Olympic Airways to shipping.
Elia Kazan's parents, George and Athena Kazantzoglu, were also Greeks
from Talas who moved, via Constantinople, to the US where his father
became a carpet dealer in the years leading up to the First World War.
His granddaughter Zoe wrote and stars in the well-received "Ruby
Sparks" which is showing in cinemas around the world as I write.
Pat Yale lives in a restored cave-house in Göreme in Cappadocia.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnistDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=296556
From: Baghdasarian