58 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL My hiking buddy, Yasar, led the way up the steep, icy path. “Yok, Kürtce [No, Kurdish],” he answered. I later learned that Van was 80 percent Kurdish; the Kurds were a group of people who spoke a language I had never heard before. As we explored the city, a pattern emerged: almost every local I met, having encountered few foreigners other than Iranians, opened with “Iranli misin [Are you Iranian]?” I learned to laugh and reply, “Tam tersi—Amerikaliyim [Just the opposite— I’m American].” That answer earned me two companions for a hike up to the ruins of a castle, built around 800 B.C. by the Urartu Kingdom. While I was paying the entry fee, another visitor, Yasar, introduced himself and decided to join me. In the warm, unguarded hospitality I would come to recognize as characteristically Turkish, he explained that he had endured a 15‑hour bus ride from Istanbul as part of his job inspecting hospitals. We traded stories as we climbed. Rounding a bend, I spotted a man standing perilously close to the cliff edge, gripping what looked like a long pole. Half concerned, half intrigued, I pointed him out to Yasar. Bounding ahead, Yasar learned the stranger—Mehmet—was wielding a large net to catch pigeons roosting in the rock face. By way of proof Mehmet extended a hand clutching a still‑flapping bird. (I would later learn that millennia‑old pigeon‑keeping traditions still thrive in eastern Türkiye.) Mehmet volunteered to join our little hiking party, net and pigeon in tow. After descending, the three of us exchanged numbers and parted ways. I texted Osman for a pickup and waited in the parking lot. Within 30 seconds a young man who had been loitering behind some cars approached. Fresh from State Department security training, I braced for a mugging. Instead, he politely asked if I would photograph him and his friends. They had set up a makeshift picnic—fruit, soda, and what I soon discovered was homemade whiskey and raki, Türkiye’s version of Greek ouzo. NOAH ROSE NOAH ROSE
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