Culture?

[Arpa]

Culture? Whose culture?

Is this the real reason of all that turkophilia?

To fully understand what I mean go to History and read "History/Schmistory" and see if that Dr (?) of history from Cmbridge may have succumbed to the temptation.

 

VIEWS: The Homoeroticism of an Azerbaijan Bathhouse

by Mubarak Dahir

 

Windy city Media Group

Sept 10 2003

 

Laying flat on my stomach, I feel the hot wood slats of the steamroom

benches press against my bare skin. But this will seem tepid in

comparison to the searing heat that is about to turn my flesh red.

 

Standing over me is a muscular, hairy-chested man in tight black

shorts that cling seductively to his athletic body. He is about to

give me a good thrashing.

 

The man is named Mohammed, and he speaks just enough English for us to

understand the basics from one another. I speak no Azeri, the language

of Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic sandwiched between Russia to

the north and Iran to the south. Georgia and Armenia border the west,

while the great Caspian Sea defines the eastern boundary.

 

Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, and with nearly two million inhabitants by

far the country's largest city, has seen a steady stream of foreigners

since oil was discovered here more than a hundred years ago. (Just

after the turn of the century, half the world's oil was supplied

through this city.)

 

But 69 years of Soviet rule meant few Westerners, and tourists are

still rare enough to excite interest and curiosity from locals like

Mohammed. He took me under his wing as soon as he saw me enter the

bathhouse as an obviously clueless foreigner attempting communication

with the wrinkled, pot-bellied old man in charge, who waved me in

and pointed me to my locker.

 

Similar to Turkey, baths in Azerbaijan are a long and treasured part

of the cultural history. This particular bathhouse, called the Old

Town Hamam, is located in Baku's Old City, a collection of domed,

medieval buildings and mud-brick minarets surrounded by an imposing

14th century wall. The paint inside the bathhouse's domed ceilings is

slightly peeling, and there are no brilliant-colored, Islamic-inspired

tiles that cover many of the other more affluent bathhouses in the

city. But with its marble fountain centerpiece, faded woven carpets

strung along the walls, and gaggles of men sitting around sipping

lemon tea, no other hamam comes even close to this one for atmosphere.

 

Or for hot men with dark features and hairy bodies running around in

wet shorts or underwear.

 

And this brings me back to Mohammed, standing over me, about to give me

a flogging. We're in the steamroom, and he's holding a spray of leafy

oak branches tied together with twine. Supposedly, beating the skin

with the soaked oak leaves improves your complexion and circulation.

 

Mohammed swings the bouquet of leaves, and they sting against

my body. He covers my legs, back, and shoulders in strokes, then

flips me over and repeats the flagellation to my chest and stomach.

Periodically, rather than beating me with the sprigs, he simply lays

them gently on my body and slowly presses down. The heat is extreme,

and causes me to cry out—as much in surprise as in anything you might

call pain. Apparently, it is a test of manliness to see how long you

can endure the temperature from such a crush. Mohammed's eyes dance in

delight as he watches me squirm under the heat, and he laughs out loud.

 

The sensation is exhilarating, and wildly erotic. I hope I am not

getting an erection underneath my shorts as I watch this muscled man

lift and swing the branches across my body.

 

When we finish in the steamroom, Mohammed grabs my hand and we

literally run, in plastic slippers, out of the sauna and across the

puddled floor of a large room filled with marble-slab massage tables.

At the far end, we climb the slightly rusty rungs of a metal ladder

and jump into the chilling water of the shock pool. Mohammed puts

his hand behind my head, and force-dunks me under the surface.

 

The rush I get is partly due to the extreme contrast in temperature

between the scorching heat of the oak leaves and the ice cold water.

And partly due to the undercurrent of homoeroticism that envelops

the whole experience.

 

Experts on Azeri culture who I interview, both American and Azeri,

repeatedly insist that the bathhouse tradition here is not laced

with homosexual undertones, that I am simply projecting my narrow,

Americanized, maybe homo-centric view of the world onto it.

 

Maybe. But I prefer to believe that there was flirtation in Mohammed's

eyes and in his touch, when he rested his hands on my shoulders in

the cold pool. And when I looked up at him in the steamroom, reigning

over my body with the oak branches, I had a Tom-of-Finland moment that

could be the fantasy stuff of anyone who's ever been to a leather bar.

 

After several turns at the steam bath and dipping pool, Mohammed and

I return to the front room of the bathhouse and sit on tiny square

stools to drink our lemon tea. There's a saying in Azeri that is

uttered at the end of a particularly good bath: "Hamiser tamislikhter."

 

As Mohammed and I clink our hot tea glasses in a toast, I say it

with gusto.

[America-Hye]

Arpa,

 

Please do not post on subjects that you are unfamiliar with. One isolated article does not make for massive Turkophilia. It is not sex that is the fulcrum but money, namely in shipping channels and oil politics. Furthermore, the American miltary has built a relationship with the Turkish military going back to the beginning of the Cold War. This relationship is now on very shaky ground. Bush is on much shakier ground lately and his economic bailouts of Turkey will hurt him politically.

 

Your VIEWS are very skewed. Did you know that there are Homosexual Armenian organizations in numerous cities around the globe? So much for your premise that this does not exist in our community, it does and always has. Just like it exists in every other community and in varied forms. Don't believe the homosexual activists who claim that homosexuality and heterosexuality are mutually exclusive. They are not. The Gays have molded public perceptions as much as the Evangelicals and Mullahs.

[Arpa]

Arpa,

 

Please do not post on subjects that you are unfamiliar with.

=========

Your VIEWS are very skewed. Did you know that there are Homosexual Armenian organizations in numerous cities around the globe? So much for your premise that this does not exist in our community, it does and always has. Just like it exists in every other community and in varied forms. Don't believe the homosexual activists who claim that homosexuality and heterosexuality are mutually exclusive. They are not. The Gays have molded public perceptions as much as the Evangelicals and Mullahs.

Why am I not surprised that you were the first and only one responding.

As to me being unfamiliar with the subject; IT SHALL REMAIN SO!

Are there Armenian homosexulas? Now you're gonna tell us that there also are left handed Armenians too. How shocking!!

What does that have to do with the intent of my post above. People can be turkophiles for a variety of reasons, some may be such even after eating PRICOTS from Izmir that has been weighing down the shelves of major supermarkets. How about Turkish taffy or coffee??

The "gays have molded public perception"? Of course, if we were to listen to some misogynic and misguided crack philosophers, Jesus was homosexual too. What with his entourage of 12 boytoys, and the doctrine of celibacy that was probably instituted by some misogynic homosexual patriarch/pope, and their vehement and violent rejection of Jesus' tender spot towards the fairer sex, going as far as labeling Mary of Magdalene a whore. The hierarchy may not need "whores'" company as long as they have their boytoys.

Of everything that was said above you chose to address only that aspect of the item. Very revealing.

[America-Hye]

A recent study of Jesus' life by the true heir to the British throne has confirmed that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Christ and that they had three children, one of whom had progeny whose descendants married into European royalty, and whose descendants exist today in the royal families of Europe. Why did I not expect any different reaction from you?

[America-Hye]

Arpa,

 

Just look at the hierarchy of th Catholic Church and then tell me that despite their pronouncements against homosexuality that it is not extremely rampant within the church.

[nairi]

Any of you ever seen "Hamam, Il Bagno Turco" by Ferzan Ozpetek?

 

They showed it on TV here a few times in recent years (it's from 1997 I think). I thought it was quite good; not brilliant, mind you, but no waste of time either.