SOUL FOOD:

During a visit to Turkey two years ago, sponsored by the Pacifica Institute — a nonprofit organization of Turkish Americans dedicated to promoting cultural awareness — I saw what I had heard.

Unlike mosques throughout the nation, active synagogues and churches, and even some that have fallen into disuse, are gated, locked and guarded. The 20th century wasn’t kind to Jews or Christians there.

Since World War I, the Jewish population has fallen from 500,000 to 25,000. Only 65,000 Christians, mostly Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians, remain.

Emblematic of Turkey’s at times uneasy relationship with its religious minorities is the unrequited effort of Armenian Christians to have 20th-century atrocities against them recognized as genocide.

Recently, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “There is no single page in the honorable history of the Turkish nation for which we should be embarrassed.” This is the party line.

While in Istanbul, I visited a closed, but well-tended Armenian church. A travel companion asked its caretaker what had become of its congregation.

“You must ask the historians,” the prudent young man said. “I can’t answer that.”

You’re not likely to hear such stories when you visit the Pacifica Institute’s first-ever Anatolian Cultures & Food Festival: Discovering Turkiye at the Orange County Fairgrounds.

The 15-acre festival will be at the fairgrounds from April 2 through 5. And, said Kemal Gur, the festival’s general coordinator, “One has to come more than one day [to see all of it].”

For one thing, there are different concerts every night. The popular Ömer Faruk Tekbilek will perform with his ensemble of Turkish, Greek and Armenian musicians. There will be folk dancers, an Ottoman marching band and semas, the mystic music and dance ceremonies of the Whirling Dervishes.

And there’s the food. Gur smiled when he told me, “[It will take] at least three days to taste [all] the different kinds.”

He wasn’t joking. He has brought a team of chefs from Turkey to prepare 99 highly favored, regional dishes.

From classic beverages, such as Turkish coffee and the yogurt drink ayran, to snacks, sandwiches, entrees and desserts, visitors will get a taste of authentic Anatolian cuisine. One of the festival’s daily cooking classes will teach you how to prepare some yourself.

The name Anatolia comes from the Greek, meaning “country of the east.” A peninsula in the southwest corner of Asia, adjacent to Europe, it’s now modern-day Turkey.

It has been home to many civilizations, and often religions. Today, Turkey is a cultural mosaic of those influences.

A merger of history and modern technology, the festival aims to give you an experience as close to the real thing as possible.

A series of 11 enormous arches, dubbed the “Path of Anatolia,” will act as what Gur describes as “a time tunnel.” Staff dressed in period costume will act as greeters and guides. Festival goers will traverse the Hittite, Trojan, Urartu (Armenian), Phrygian, Lydian, Ionian Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, Ottoman civilizations, by way of interactive, audio-visual exhibits, before arriving in contemporary Turkey.

There, visitors will find Istanbul, Konya, Antalya, Mardin and Van, their notable landmarks replicated in a manner Gur calls “Las Vegas-style,” alluding to the Strip’s renditions of Paris, New York and Venice.

The sets were largely constructed in Istanbul, with 80 artisans working for six months to complete them. It will take 27 workers 12 days to install the sets shipped here in 17 cargo containers.

The biggest challenge faced by Gur and the Pacifica Institute was the state of the economy.

Then there’s the tension between Turks and Armenians.

Still, the Organization of Istanbul Armenians of Los Angeles has helped to sponsor the April festival. And in recognition of the many Armenians who live in Orange County and Los Angeles, the city of Van, Turkey, is represented.

Visitors will enter Van through the walls of its historical Hosaf Castle. The focal point will be a quarter-sized replica of the 10th-century Armenian Aghtamar Church.

Four years ago, the Turkish Government allocated $1.9 million to restore the medieval church whose exterior walls bear relief sculptures of Old Testament scenes and whose interior walls are covered in frescoes. The work, with final costs of $2.6 million, was completed in two years.

The main attraction in Konya, I’m sure, will be the recreation of the Rumi Museum. A 13th-century poet and Sufi mystic, he is, said Gur, “the best-known person [from Anatolia] in the Western world.”

In Antalya, visitors will discover its sandy beaches; its ancient Greek Aspendos Theater, where they can take in a show; the Temple of Apollo; and Demre, the home of Saint Nicholas.

Mardin was once home to mostly Assyrian Christians. Now the majority of its residents are Kurdish Muslims at odds, at least in the case of the 1,600-year-old monastery St. Gabriel monastery, with its Christian minority.

For the festival, though, an Assyrian choir is coming to perform — a testament, perhaps, to the Pacifica Institute’s ongoing interfaith dialogues.

Not to be missed is Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. With 90 shops, it will be considerably smaller than its 1,200-shop namesake in Istanbul.

Nevertheless, Gur promises hundreds of different Turkish handcrafts, foods and other products. Artisan demonstrations throughout the cities will allow those so inclined to try their hand at some traditional handcrafts as well.

The festival is, without a doubt, family friendly. A large section designed especially for children will provide a playground, photo-ops and rooms for nursing mothers.

Two stages will offer concurrent performances of puppet theater and fairy-tale readings.

The price of entry is hard to beat: $10 for an adult one-day ticket; $5 for children ages 7 to 12 and younger children are admitted for free. Seniors 60 and older and military personnel can buy tickets for $8. A few extra dollars will get everyone four-day passes.

For more information, visit www.anatolianfestival.org.

MICHÈLE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She can be reached at michele@soulfoodfiles.com.