Turkey: pulled in two directions.(Foreign Affairs)

A RECENT VISIT to Istanbul indicated that in Turkey today changes are apparent if outcomes remain uncertain. Istanbul, a city divided by the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara, spreads itself across two continents, intermixing their cultures, if not always "bridging" them, as the cliche goes.

Turkey is being pulled in two main directions, sometimes seen as threatening alternatives: towards increasing Westernisation and towards the strengthening of traditional ties of its Eastern Islamic heritage.

Westernisation, begun tentatively in Ottoman times, then enforced during the Ataturk republican revolution, is readily apparent in modern Istanbul, the main gateway to Turkey for visitors from both East and West.

Istanbul caters for increasing contacts with the West as part of its strategy to join, or to become "worthy" of, a reluctant EU, which is ready to accept Turkey's Eastern European neighbours but fears the floodgates if it admits a fringe country of over 70 million people.

If Istanbul's historical past is apparent in its monuments, Byzantine and Islamic, so is the cosmopolitanism of its lively contemporary life of cafes, restaurants, concert halls, galleries and shops. The city hosted many gatherings while I was there. Foremost was the final of the European soccer cup between Milan and Liverpool, a first for Turkey. This passed without incident, though British followers were noisy. (The queues at the airport afterwards for duty-free Turkish delight were enormous.) Visitors for the match also came from Asia.

Other international events included an architects' conference and an annual film festival featuring works from the East (including Iran and Egypt) as well as Europe. Turkish film has a distinguished tradition, though some of its makers have ended up in jail in the past, as have some of its writers. This is less likely to happen today.

Staying at my hotel and making a new film was thirty-two-year-old producer Fatih Arkin. His award-winning Head On (Gegen die Wand), shown in Australia earlier this year, parallels his own experience. It concerns third-generation Turks born in Germany, cut off from both their traditional and from local culture, and drawn towards despair by drink, sex and drugs. Typifying Turkey's tendency to look outwards, Arkin sees it as an international movie in coming from a dual cultural background and treating migrants' problems. Yet he adds: "I stand in opposition to tradition, but I am also loyal to tradition ... I try to keep respect"--a divided stance. An unusual gathering in Istanbul was a meeting of Patriarchs of the Greek Orthodox Church to discuss allegations of financial corruption against the Patriarch of Jerusalem. One newspaper reported the Turkish government as warily commenting that the meeting was the church's "internal business", and that Turkey remained neutral on the question of the "ecumenical title" (titular head, I take it) of the Istanbul Patriarch, with its implied links back to Byzantine times. (Interestingly, however, the Orthodox seminary on the neighbouring island of Heybeliada, closed by the government since 1974, is to be reopened.)