Turkish marching band

My days of drumline and cadences came back to me today. I went to the military museum with Murat and then we watched the traditional Mehter band play Turkish military marches from the Ottoman Empire. This was an awesome experience, both for the music's sake but also to see the reaction of various groups in the audience. Typically when we hear a marching band in the USA we react with joy and jubilance, while it was very clear to me that to the Turkish groups in the audience, the music, the dress, and the symbols represented an incredible pride in their history and in themselves. Check out a picture of this group at http://www.mehter.info/images/mehter-2.jpg.