So who owns it now?
A NEW ROW has erupted over the famous traditional sweet dish baklava, with several different countries claiming it as their own.
Last month, the origin of baklava came to a head when the Austrian presidency of the European Union, celebrating Europe Day with the Caf? Europe initiative, distributed a poster that presented baklava as a Cypriot national dessert. Turkey argued that the dish is of Turkish origin, as the name has an affiliation with oklava (Turkish for rolling pin) that’s used in the preparation and the word baklava carries the characteristic of a Turkish word, while Greece argued that the dish is of Byzantine origin, and thus best represented as Greek cuisine.
Turkish State Minister and EU Chief Negotiator Ali Babacan has even lodged a protest in the EU General Secretariat.
Renowned baklava producer Halil Dincerler commented at a recent press conference that “Baklava is Turkish. What the Greek Cypriots are presenting is just a copy. We will go all the way to Brussels and will let EU ministers taste real baklava,” a Turkish newspaper quoted him as saying.
President of the Baklava and Dessert Producers Foundation, Mehmet Yildirim, also present at the conference, gave his opinion on the international food fight.
“It is time for Turkey to stand up and claim its national treasures. Turkey brought baklava with her from central Asia and there are official documents proving that it rightly belongs to Turkey.”
Two hundred baklava makers have demonstrated in Istanbul, with banners proclaiming, ‘baklava is Turkish’, while other signs read ‘baklava should unify us, not divide us.’
One of the protestors added that the dish is made differently throughout the Middle East in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria and “nobody can claim sole rights.”
Cypriot Ambassador to Qatar, George C Kasoulides, has also chipped in with his views on the issue. In a letter to The Peninsula, Qatar’s leading English daily, he has spoken of baklava as being his favourite sweet dish and goes on to recommend Paul D Buell’s A Soup for the Qan as the authoritative study on the dish’s origins. This book, he infers, could put to rest all doubts on the origins of the baklava.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail from Doha, Kasoulides said: “I have no idea who chose it as our national dish or why, but what I will say is that we cannot claim it exclusively as our own.
“I feel that its origin is not important and what we should do is look at things that unite Greek and Turkish Cypriots and that they can share. Baklava is one of these things that our two communities share between us through our common heritage.”
He went on to say that, “what has left a bittersweet taste is the reference to the ‘appropriation’ of the name by the Greek Cypriots in a European Union event. Cyprus is inhabited both by Greek and Turkish Cypriots and the whole of Cyprus joined the EU, even if the artificial occupation barrier prevents all Cypriot citizens from enjoying the full rights and benefits of the membership.
“Baklava is a symbol of unity in Cyprus. And far from being a root of controversy, choosing it as the national sweet of Cyprus was a reminder not of the mythical origins of the sweet but of all that unites us, our common heritage – whether it is food, culture, the suffering of an island that was never meant to be divided into north and south.”
Baklava is a popular rich, sweet pastry found in many cuisines of the Middle East and the Balkans, made of chopped nuts layered with filo pastry, sweetened with sugar or honey syrup.
Many countries in the Middle East and Balkans claim baklava as their own. A widely-circulated story on the web claims that the Assyrians were the first people to create what is now known as baklava in the 8th century BC, but it is unclear what the origin of this story is.
The Romans, Armenians, Chinese and Mongols have also been mentioned at various points when discussions on the dessert’s origins have taken place.
It is found in many other cuisines outside the Middle East and the Balkans including Afghan and Egyptian with essentially the same name.
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