Back	At the Ottoman Bank Museum the City Tours Series continues... Tehran Past and Present The Voyvoda Street City Tours, organized in collaboration with the Foundation for the Development of Cultural Awareness, under the heading "A Tour of a City: on the Trail of Yesterday's Ottoman Bank Branches", continues this season with Faruk Pekin's lecture on "Tehran", on Wednesday, October 15, from 6:30- 8:00 p.m. Faruk Pekin, president of the Foundation for the Development of Cultural Awareness, will present Tehran, the capital that once housed an Ottoman Bank branch and whose population, today, makes up almost one sixth of Iran's total 70 million. As in all metropolises undergoing rapid urbanization and rural-urban migration, Tehran faces numerous issues; it is also a city famed for its museums and sights. "After the 1979 Islamic Revolution," says Pekin, "Iran became a closed society for all. Yet it was once an important stopover for Turks from Central Asia on their way to Anatolia. Iran brings to mind the great Seldjukis, historic monuments, inns, architectural decorations, blue china tiles...Isfahan the city known as "Half the World", Shiraz home to poets, a paradise of roses and nightingales, Kashan famed for its carpets and ceramics..." Throughout the year, the Voyvoda Street City Tours will focus successively on Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo, Salonica and Nicosia.