Edge of Asia

Youth are Key to Turkey's Future

2006-07-03T15:43:00.000+03:00

Much has happened in Turkey in the nine months since I began writing this blog. In my first post, I mentioned “different forces” that are shaping Turkey’s future. These forces have continued their work, making Turkey weave a zigzag course towards an unknown future. These developments include

• the supposed military-organized bombing of a Kurdish bookstore in Şemdeli
• the PKK’s own bombings in İstanbul and elsewhere
• the first joint conference about the “Armenian issue” held at a private university in İstanbul to the chagrin of the Minister of Justice Cemil Çiçek
• the abandoning of Orhan Pamuk’s trial (in light of major European opposition. Many other journalists are still held, also charged with violating article 301 by publicly denigrating Turkish identity)
• the assassination of a prominent judge by an Islamic fundamentalist angered over the court’s ruling forbidding schoolteachers from wearing the headscarf not only in school, but also on the way to school
• the attacks on Catholic priests in Trabzon, Izmir, and Samsun
• the Turkish government’s reception of a Hamas delegation in February; and
• the many steps and setbacks on the road to EU accession

It is clear that Turkey has a range of powers, both internal and external, that are eager to usher Turkey toward their own vision of the future, be it Western, Islamic, strict nationalist Kemalist, or an unlikely combination of those.

While it is difficult to say which power has the upper hand, youth are one group that does have a major influence due to sheer numbers.

How this populous group reacts to these forces has the potential to change Turkey’s future. While most students are eager to see a Turkey that emphasizes equality of opportunity, especially economic and educational, many students seem content to wait for the government to provide this equality. Given the distaste that most students have for the political process and politicians, this willingness to wait does not bode well for Turkey’s political future. Many students fail to vote regularly, either as a conscious choice or because of the bureaucracy involved in absentee voting.

The majority of students, Kurds excepted, have adopted an ambivalent attitude towards EU accession. While many are eager for the opportunities membership offers and the structural benefits that the process brings, they are skeptical about EU intentions and eager to see reforms generated within Turkey’s own government.

On the whole, however, Turkish students have a strong degree of social consciousness, and if given the opportunity, they may find their voices outside of the political arena. As the strength and reach of civil society grows, I predict that an increasing number of students will find this solution to social woes appealing because of its action and often-apolitical nature. Whatever happens with these students, it is clear that harnessing the energy and power of this large demographic will be a boon to the group that caught them.

This will be my last regular post on this blog. I may, from time to time, post links to articles about Turkey, so feel free to keep checking…

Turkish Hospitality (tea?)

2006-06-16T10:57:00.000+03:00

I just received a knock on my hotel room door from one of the men who worked there, wanting to know if I would like any tea or coffee. This is not unusual in Turkey, where showing hospitality seems to be perceived as a privilege and not doing so is unthinkable.

Because of Turkish hospitality, I have had the opportunity to meet and speak with many people, from a Syrian priest in Diyarbakır, to a middle-aged woman near Kaş who looks after her 26 year-old mentally-handicapped son, a ceramics maker in İstanbul just embarking on his career, and a radiologist in Van who spent three days looking after myself and a friend. Anyone and everyone is willing to sit you down and make you some tea for no motive other than that you are a guest.

I’ve had to put aside my skepticism and fear that comes with such treatment. Indeed, I feel that we in the United States can prize our individualism to a fault. By doing everything ourselves, we lose the vulnerability and indebtedness that comes with putting ourselves in someone else’s care. And by being too busy to give our time to guests and strangers, we close off avenues of connections with others.

These connections have made my time in Turkey a more rich and memorable experience. Furthermore, it has shown me that perhaps nothing is more important than other people, and that to welcome others unconditionally is to acknowledge that every person has the capacity to both give and receive, to provide and to need, regardless of one’s station in life.

It would be impossible for me to have successfully completed my project and lived such a full year without the hospitality of hundreds of people. Several people stick out in my mind and though they will likely never read this blog, I would like to acknowledge them: Orhun in Konya, Burçin and Mert in Erzurum, Nadir in Van, the Zoral family and Sidika in İzmir, the automotive man in Nevşehir, the bus company in Batman, the students on the dolmuş in Hasankeyf, Şadullah in Istanbul, Engin Bey and İbrahim Bey in Van, Özgül and Mine at ARI Movement, Hakan in Ankara, Harika in Van, and the hundreds of people who have given me directions or gone out of their way to show me where to go.

“Ne Mutlu Türküm Diyene…”

2006-06-06T07:34:00.000+03:00

This phrase, which roughly translates to “how happy I am to call myself a Turk,”is one of the favorite slogans of the Turkish government as well as some Turkish citizens. It is emblazoned on mugs and on walls in buildings. Do an Internet search for this phrase and one finds websites started by Turkish people and others who love Turkey or being Turkish. In the East, around cities such as Diyarbakır and Van, this slogan has been cut into hillsides, visible for miles around.

(This photo is of a Kurdish boy playing the saz. His father is in jail, though I don't know why.)

The interesting part about the latter point is that this exuberant statement of national pride occurs in areas where ethnic Turks are likely a minority. In fact, it seems that Atatürk’s policy of creating a Turk identity where there was none before (previously all had been Ottoman) is unraveling.

The most notable ethnic group living within Turkey is the Kurds, who are a majority throughout much of Turkey’s Southeast, but a large minority in Istanbul. It is not unlikely for a waiter, carpet salesman, or shop owner answer to the question of “where are you from?” with “I am Kurdish.” In Van it seems that everyone is Kurdish, and while Turkish language is written everywhere, it is often that one hears Kurdish spoken. I spent one interesting evening with the contractor in charge of reconstruction of the Armenian Church on Akdamar Island near Van, Turkey. He and his colleague are also Kurdish and proceeded to play Kurdish music (on their cell phones, no less) all evening. They said that they speak Kurdish at home with their families.

(A Syrian priest and his son. They speak Aramaic in their home.)

Kurdish isn’t the only “foreign” language spoken in the Southeast. One is also likely to hear Arabic, especially as one nears the borders of Iraq and Syria. Nor is Arabic the language of the older generation; children are just as likely to speak it. One tobacco-seller said that his family is Syrian by recent ancestry. Others who are Syrian by ancestry are Syrian Christians, some of whom are learning or speaking Aramaic. For a list of many of the languages spoken in Turkey (incomplete, however, for it does not include Armenian, Aramaic, and probably a few others), check this website.

Given that Turkey has Turkish-Armenians, -Bulgarians, -Jews, -Kurds, -Syrians and others, Turkey’s policy of “Turkishness” seems dated, and it appears that many in the population agree. In my opinion, one of Turkey’s biggest challenges in the next decade or two will be to accept the notion that one can be both a Turkish citizen and ethnically something else. It is easy for most Americans to accept this notion, as from birth the U.S. was intended as a new home for immigrants. However, in Turkey the concept of “one Turk” gives legitimacy to borders that were wrought out of war, falsely establishing an historic Turkish homeland. In truth, the nation of Turkey encompasses a multi-cultural region rich in ancient languages and cultures. In my opinion, the sooner the Turkish government recognizes this and develops policies to encourage and protect these traditions, the sooner Turkey will become a thriving and integrated nation.

More to Come...

2006-06-04T07:41:00.000+03:00

During the next two weeks, I will be posting the backlog of entries that occured while I was on the road the past three weeks. In the meantime, please feel free to read my article in the Spring 2006 edition of Turkish Policy Quarterly. It contains findings from the first half of my research. The article can be accessed here.

Freedom’s Stalemate

2006-05-01T15:32:00.000+03:00

Located 2 hours away from the Iranian border, Van is a provincial town of 400,000 with global problems. Turkey’s Southeast, where Van is located, is visibly less “Turkish” than other parts of Turkey. One of its most notable landmarks is an Armenian church located on secluded Akdamar Island. While the Armenians are gone as a result of the 1915 genocide, other cultures remain and try to thrive, most notably the Kurds.

Turkey’s so-called “Kurdish Issue” is a problem with implications for Turkey, the United States and Iran, Iraq, Syria, and other countries along the Southeastern border. To better understand this issue, one needs to understand the way in which the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923. At the end of World War I, the Allied Powers divided the fallen Ottoman Empire into many protectorates that would be ruled by one of the Allied nations. Under the 1920 Treaty of Sevres, Istanbul would be ruled by international powers, Turkey’s western coast would be given to Greece, and Turkey would have been about half its current size. The treaty also made a provision for a Greater Armenia that would include lands traditionally claimed by Armenians, mainly in Turkey’s Northeast and also provided for Kurdistan in Turkey’s Southeast, as seen on this map.

Along came Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey’s charismatic and revered leader who formed an army from the remnants of the Ottoman one and fought to create the borders of modern Turkey. While signed by the Ottoman Government, the Treaty of Sevres was never signed by the Sultan and was later rejected by Atatürk’s republican movement and never came into effect. However, it lingers in the minds of many Turks, who are aware of their borders’ militant birth. (Photo of high school students from the town of Bingol.)

While Armenia was downsized to a small piece of land in Eastern Armenia, Kurdistan was erased from the map altogether. As a result, there are roughly 25 million Kurds living throughout a region shared by Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria as well as Armenia, Lebanon, and Azerbaijan. The Kurds living within Turkey were subjected to Atatürk’s policy of creating a nation of “Turks” out of the ashes of an empire where groups has previously seen themselves as distinct ethnic groups. To that end, Kurds were prohibited from using their own language, from celebrating their culture, and were renamed “mountain Turks.”

Under the leadership of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) many Kurds have been fighting for rights from broadcasting and teaching in Kurdish and being able to write Kurdish as their ethnicity on Turkey’s identity cards, to the release of captured PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and the creation of Kurdistan. During the 1980’s and 1990’s the Turkish Government and many political and militant Kurds fought a war during which some 30,000 people, mainly Kurds, were killed. This tragic history lingers over Southeast Turkey, as the government and Kurds maintain a delicate relationship that was recently disturbed when Turkish security forces allegedly bombed a Kurdish bookstore in the town of Şemdeli.

One can see the wariness that accompanies this precarious balance. The Jandarma, a branch of the Turkish military, guards the entrance to the university in Van, as well as every building on campus. They briefly arrested one of my American friends also doing research because they wanted to know whether she had permission to survey students in one of the campus cafes. This security struck me as both excessive and provocative until I met with a student group that works on a variety of levels from benign to active and perhaps militant. Their activities include collecting blood types from its members for targeted blood drives and offering Kurdish language classes, to providing a haven for those expelled from the University for Kurdish activities and publishing a Kurdish journal to having a secret library of Ocalan’s books (one isn’t a problem, apparently, but having many is) and hanging pictures of “the martyred” on the walls—those killed by Turkish security forces and those who were suicide bombers. “We are at war,” these students say, “we are not free.” (Photo of journal article and picture about protests at Yüzüncu Yil University in Van.)

In this situation it seems that no one is free—not the Kurds who have few rights and no territory of their own, nor the Turkish government which is obligated to defend its borders, nor the non-militant citizens who often must move from destroyed villages to the cities to escape the violence perpetrated by both sides.

With the United States’ incursion into Iraq, regional balances are shifting. Turkey is keeping a close eye on the situation in Iraq. Any movement toward civil war or greater autonomy for the Kurds in Northern Iraq could have consequences for Turkey. I have heard it said that should Iraq descend into full civil war, there is a chance that Turkey would enter Iraq if need be to maintain their own territorial integrity. While the chances of this happening are slim, it is worth noting that the U.S. does not act in a vacuum. It is no wonder then, that in this town located closer to Iran than to Ankara, the question on everyone's mind is "will the U.S. go to war with Iran?" Consequences of actions know no borders, and as Turkey and the PKK continue their sometimes hot, sometimes cold war, shifting politics in neighboring countries are bound to have an impact in Turkey.

What Happened to the Refugee Students?

2006-04-27T18:55:00.000+03:00

In one of my first postings, I mentioned volunteering at the Refugee School in Istanbul, a school staffed with volunteers who provide otherwise unavailable educational opportunities to refugee children in Istanbul.

The school is open to children ages 6-15, and this year students came from Iran, Iraq, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Ukraine, Tanzania, Sudan, Somalia, and Sri Lanka. The school is a gift for these kids, who cannot attend Turkish school because they aren’t citizens. Twice a week, for 3 /12 hours, they receive lessons in English, Math, Music, Geography, Health, Art, PE and other subjects. Seven hours per week may not be much, but it makes a big difference. I spoke with one former student (one of my favorites) visiting from Ankara where he moved a few months ago and asked him how Ankara was. “It is bad,” he said. “We have nothing, no school.”

Attending and running a school under such uncertain circumstances is difficult at best. Each week brings a different group of children—attendance is often spotty. Furthermore, the school decided to close for a month in February and March following several attacks on clergy in Turkey. (The non-denominational school is located in a church.)

This is not a one-way education, as I have learned from these kids. We are currently working on a mural, with the original theme being “the future.” When brainstorming what they wanted in the future, the students gave answers that included satellite dishes, computers, big televisions, large houses and the like. At first this struck me as a rather materialistic theme for a mural. However, I learned that these children are often sleeping five to a bed under highly unstable circumstances. The big home with comforts familiar to many reading this blog represent both financial and psychological stability for these kids.

With changes to U.S. immigration policy likely in the future, I feel that it is a good time to draw attention to illegal immigrant children. (For an interesting article, click here.) To those who say that allowing illegal immigrant children to attend school in the U.S. encourages leeching off tax-payers’ resources, I would argue that for children who have little else in their lives, school is a necessary place for stability and growth, regardless of official status.

Trabzon and Erzurum

2006-04-18T17:57:00.000+03:00

Trabzon and Erzurum are in Turkey’s Northeast. The former city is lush with vegetation, perches on the Black Sea, and is only a few hours from the Georgian border. Because of this proximity, there are many immigrants from former Soviet countries, and some of the shop signs are in Russian. “Natashas,” the euphemistic name for prostitutes in Turkey, derives from the common female name in many former Soviet countries. Many natashas set up shop in Trabzon, becoming the catalysts for divorce, a source of sexually transmitted infections, and often the mothers of secret second-families for area men.

Over the mountains from Trabzon, Erzurum is isolated on a high, dry plateau. The university is the life-blood of the town; most of the town grew during the past 50 years, when the university was founded. It is a conservative city, but the student population provides contrast because many students come from other cities and towns in Turkey. While there is not a lot to do there, there is a fantastic hole-in-the-wall burger joint that was playing hip-hop videos while I enjoyed the closest thing to a cheeseburger I’ve tasted in awhile. It was a new kind of culture shock, leaving that restaurant and walking onto the dusty streets of Erzurum, where women walked, swathed in black robes.

The following are several points that caught my attention.

1) Over coffee with several female students at Trabzon’s university, one of my American Fulbright friends asked where a woman goes if she is raped or the victim of domestic violence. “She can go to Purple Roof,” an organization in Turkey that provides haven for women, they said. “Really?” replied my friend with curiosity; “there’s a Purple Roof in Trabzon?” “No,” answered the students, “there’s one in Istanbul.” Istanbul is at least a thousand miles from Trabzon. “Can she go to the police?” we asked. “She can go,” they said, “but the police will say ‘it is not my problem.’”

2) Apparently another problem in Turkey is that of other countries stirring up ethnic divisions in the unified Turkish identity. “Some of the people, other countries, they don’t want to see a very powerful Turkey,” said one student, so they stir up divisions between Left and Right, and between ethnic groups. “They want Turkish people to fight against each other. They want them to say ‘we are not brothers.’” This theme of foreign countries “mixing” in the politics of Turkey came up several times. Some of the allegedly guilty countries? Syria, Germany, the US, and Israel. Compounding the problem of divisions within the country is the lack of common identity that many students see. This was a new theme in these cities: the anxiety over maintaining a common Turkish identity.

3) While many students hope to one-day study abroad in Europe and the U.S., there is a strong strain of anti-American Policy-ism in several of the students that I interviewed. “America hasn’t signed the

Kyoto Agreement, it is America that causes war and famine in the world, also America that pollutes the world the most,” said one passionate student studying for his PhD in education. One student mentioned the “bullshit of George W. Bush” as a problem with democratic systems. In response to the question “what are you most concerned about for the future?” several students have said “the United States.”

4) “Global climate change.” “Finding renewable energy sources.” “The environment.” All of these answers were in response to “what are you concerned about for the future?” No one in the previous three-dozen interviews mentioned the environment as a concern, but thousands of miles from Euro-centered Istanbul, many students are giving serious thought to the causes and consequences of climate change. I have yet to learn why I stumbled across the anomaly, as the students giving these answers were in different departments at different universities. I find it both intriguing and encouraging.

Eclipse

2006-04-01T16:13:00.000+03:00

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, neither pictures nor words can capture how spectacular a full eclipse is, especially over the equally stunning backdrop of Turkey's Cappadocia region. Here are a few photos from March 29. The eclipse occured a little past 2pm, during a hot and sunny day. People from around the world and in the village scrambled to the top of the Üçhisar Castle, an old castle cut out of the naturally soft volcanic rock in the region....

The stunning Cappadocia landscape

A view of the rock-cut castle in Üçhisar from where I viewed the eclipse

A view from the top of Üçhisar Castle

People looking funny with their special eclipse glasses-- on sale for $1.50!

The partially eclipsed sun, as seen on the rudimentary, but safe (!) white cardboard pinhole "projecter"

It's getting darker... and colder...

Checking out the eclipse. Notice the change in the light.

The light on nearby Mt. Erciyes during the total eclipse.

The full eclipse. It lasted for 3 minutes.

A Tale of Two Countries

2006-04-01T10:45:00.000+03:00

Kayseri is almost exactly in the middle of Turkey—roughly 5 hours by bus Southeast of Ankara. It is notable for the snow-capped Mt. Erciyes towering in the background and its Seljuk architecture (the Seljuk Turks, migrants from Central Asia, based their short-lived empire from Persia and slowly captured Byzantine territory). Despite its proximity to tourist-ridden Cappadocia, Kayseri remains a conservative Turkish city of approximately 500,000 people.

This was the first place in Turkey where I felt outnumbered by the women wearing headscarves. While I didn’t find this a problem, I did take offense with the numerous “aile salons,” or family areas, dotting the city’s restaurants and Internet cafes. One evening, with much work to do, I found an Internet café that boasted top-of-the-line computers replete with headphones and cameras for chatting. The large room that housed the majority of computers also had a tiny corner blocked off with a half-dozen computers—for the women. I’ve tried to keep an open attitude about the role of women in Turkey, but being stuck in an overcrowded room made no sense to me. Contrasted with familiar scenes in Istanbul of independent women working, socializing, drinking, and dressing in ways that many Americans know, one realizes that Turkey does have a couple of faces.

Erciyes University, the university in Kayseri, occupies a dusty campus spread out over many acres. Negotiating the campus involves a lot of walking, and without the entertaining profusion of signs, posters, and advertisements that hang on many U.S. campuses. For the most part, the students described themselves as politically right of center, meaning that they support more conservative politics. When I asked whether they consider themselves to be a religious person, most said “yes, Islamic,” where in the past I usually heard “yes, a bit” or “no, not so much.”
The school and city struck me as being a vacuum devoid of information. Indeed, while the students struck me as eager to learn and earnest thinking, their professors, particularly within the Foreign Languages Department, exemplified one of the roadblocks to a more active and critically thinking student population. After my first interview, the teacher who had introduced me to the student and who had also overheard the interview brought me to the Director of the Department who informed me that the questions were too political in nature and that I needed to get permission from the higher-ups. So, armed with a letter from the Fulbright office, I visited several offices, including the General Secretary of the school, in the quest for the golden permission, which I obtained the next morning.

Triumphantly I returned to the Director of the Foreign Language Department, permission in hand, hoping for him to introduce me to several more students. At this point, 20 hours after I first left because of lack of permission, he told me that I could only interview students if I omitted the political questions. He explained that because his department was technically a preparatory department for students before they began their four-year university career, they were too young to think about or be influenced by politics. I found it remarkable that they would keep students politically in the dark given that the students that I had met thus far were of voting age, and I told him so. He replied that because Kayseri is a conservative town, they’ve had problems in the past with groups talking to and influencing students.

My whole experience in Kayseri is, in my opinion, indicative of what is holding Turkey back—conservative ideals coupled with a desire by those in power—wherever that may be—to keep complete control over their domain, be it family, university, or city. This attitude squelches the access to information that is necessary for Turkey to move beyond its current position. By keeping students in the dark and women in small corners, the people in this region are limiting their potential.

Strong Hand, Deep State

2006-03-21T11:02:00.000+02:00

While driving across the dusty plains to Konya, I see what I’ve come to term “Happy Khruschevsky” – endless fields of cookie-cutter apartment buildings, each one virtually indistinguishable from the next, save the two bright colors that adorn each—one on the outside walls, and the other on visible interior walls, such as balconies. Between these buildings lie scraps of dirt, little grass to be seen. This sea of identical buildings calls to mind the masses of apartment buildings on the outskirts of many Russian cities. These apartment buildings are often called “Khruschevsky,” after the Soviet leader in whose era these buildings were built. In Turkey these buildings are much cheerier than their drab counterparts in Russia. In many ways the similarities and differences in these buildings seem to reflect the comparisons between the two countries.

Both Russia (as the former U.S.S.R.) and Turkey formed out of the remnants of failing empires around World War I. The U.S.S.R. embarked on an experimental form of governing that consolidated all power and control in the hands of the State. Turkey, under the charismatic and forceful leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk rapidly transited to a Republican Turkey. Both new governments loathed the empires they followed, and made huge efforts to cover the past with new, modern ideas. Both republics championed women’s rights, modernization, and broke with religion; Atatürk introduced the Latin alphabet.

Both countries (I am using this term, and the history, loosely) experienced tremendous state control over all aspects of life, including economics, politics, and religion. To this day, both Russia and Turkey have a name for this long-arm of government. In Russia it is known as “Strong Hand,” and describes parent-child relationship of government to people. Some Russian citizens, primarily the older ones, and especially in the pre-Putin era, longed for a return to the good old days when the government could be expected to do everything (such as providing a pension). In Turkey, this relationship is known as “Deep State” and describes the shadowy network of military, intelligence and government bureaucracy that has the final say in all matters—though it might not be a legal say.

Although the EU process is catalyzing a new, less powerful role for the military, the effects of Deep State are hinted at in the skepticism with which people approach uncommon people and ideas. At universities, I’ve been passed up the chain of command in order to ask students a series of questions regarding their involvement in civil society. I’ve learned that permission is the ultimate buzzword. Deep State is apparent in the February bombing of a bookstore owned by a man allegedly affiliated with the PKK, where the perpetrators were supposedly members of the Turkish security services.

However, like its buildings, Turkey puts up a cheerier front than its Northern former neighbor. Whatever comparisons between the two countries that I’ve seen, Turkey clearly experienced the milder version.

In my opinion, the demise of Deep State will depend on the success of the EU process and the attitudes of the AK Party and ensuing governments. However, given the skepticism with which many of the students that I’ve interviewed view the EU, perhaps Turkey’s membership is not a given. In which case, Deep State might continue operating in the shadows.

“Yes, education.”

2006-03-08T14:46:00.000+02:00

One question that I ask students during interviews is whether they think Turkey has any problems. The reply is the one universal answer I’ve heard—“Yes, education.” Students say this for different reasons. Some focus on pre-university education. Others mention the entrance exam required for university admission in Turkey. Regardless of their reasons, almost all agree that education is not only a major problem, but is one of the
primary solutions to a better, more democratic Turkey.

While most of these students have at least one parent who has attended university, a quarter of them have parents who weren’t educated past high school, with some of them not going past primary school. Even today, education is compulsory only through middle school, though the Department of Education is trying to change this. When asked how he would change education if he had the money, one student said that he would have schools begin earlier. Right now, primary school begins around the age of 7, he said. Many students cite the need for more teachers, especially in the country, and better access to education, especially for girls. One student told me that primary school classes have as many as 40-50 students per class. By contrast my friends who are teaching in the United States say that 16 is the ideal number (though they often teach double this number).

Where are all the teachers? Going into more lucrative fields, it seems. I spoke with one student from the Child Education and Development Faculty, but her career goal is to make education projects in a non-profit, not to teach. I was told that teachers make about 900 Lira/month (about $600).

The problems continue if one wants to go to university. Like in the U.S., Turkish students must take an entrance exam to get into university. Unlike in the U.S., where students hear that the exam is only one part of the application process, in Turkey the exam means everything. Not only is it essentially the sole piece of the application, but also it is fiercely competitive. About 1.5 million students take the exam. Only 300,000 of those test-takers get spots in Turkey’s roughly 80 2-year and 4-year univerisities. This exam is not calculated in multiples of 10, like the SAT, but rather the scoring extends four decimal points, the last of which has the power to determine which school admits you and to which program.

Because of this, many students spend much of their high school years attending one of the private test-prep dersanes that dot the cities, such as the one in this picture. For many, their last year is spent entirely in the dersane, with more priority being given to learning the test than to studies in school. Furthermore, the costs of these dersanes are a significant expense in most households.

Despite the problems in education in Turkey, there is a belief among the youth that they have better access to education and information than their parents did. Furthermore, this is one area of Turkish political and social life where all students seem to be conscious of both the problems and potential. And if, as some of the students have told me, consciousness is the first step to making change, and education is the key to change, then Turkey could have a brighter future.

The Turkish – U.S. Relationship

2006-02-25T15:05:00.000+02:00

Contrary to many of the comments I’ve received while in the U.S., Turkey is not a land of covered women and turbaned men willing to trade five camels to bring me back to their village. A walk down Istiklal Caddesi, Istanbul’s main shopping drag, reveals Turks who would look surprisingly familiar to Americans—jeans abound (including the Turkish brand Mavi), piercings, Puma Sneakers, and other styles common to the U.S.

In fact, I’ve perceived more embracing of material and cultural aspects of U.S. life than I’ve seen in Athens and London, for example. While cross-cultural fashion and education emulation seems to be alive and well, there are other aspects of the Turkish – U.S. relationship that have taken a heavy hit over the past five years. Anti-Americanism is on the rise in Turkey. The main focus of the anger is toward the Bush Administration and the Iraq War.

With the majority of Turks unable to afford international travel or obtain necessary visas, their perceptions of the U.S. will be molded largely by books, movies, and television. From what I’ve seen and heard in those categories, relations are likely to get worse. Irfan Erdoğan (no relation to the current Prime Minister, as far as I know) is a popular Turkish author who writes about social problems in the U.S. One open-minded PhD student that I spoke with wanted to know if what Erdoğan wrote was true. Some of Erdoğan’s main points? Obesity is a problem in the U.S. – can’t argue that one. Education is too expensive—true, although there are options. Violence within the family is common—this one I argued, but realized that when compared with the unconditional love that Turkish families seem to give each other, and especially their children, the bickering and yelling that accompany even the most loving of U.S. households could be perceived as such.

The real point is not whether Erdoğan’s writings are true or not. For many Turks, these writings might be their closest encounter with America—being able to hear an American’s point of view can be a rare opportunity. The main point is that Erdoğan’s books are not alone. There are many such books circulating within Turkey. Fiction such as the popular “Metal Storm” depict the U.S. attacking Turkey in year 2007, in what many Turks see as a probable scenario. To read an article about Metal Firtina and anti-Americanism in Turkey click here

The movie Kurtlar Vadisi is making headlines worldwide. From its origins as a TV series, the spin-off story of the 11 Turkish special operations forces arrested by U.S. troops for allegedly planning to assassinate the Kurdish governor of Kirkuk has captured Turkish attention. I have not yet seen the widely-shown movie, but it is a good indicator of how Turks perceive the implications of the military involvement on their southern border. Read more about the movie and the original incident here

Turn on the television, as happened while I visiting a Turkish family one evening, and you’ll see the mixed impressions that Turks are getting about the U.S. That evening we flipped back and forth between the un-tour-de-force, Cat Woman, and a CNN-Turk news story exploring treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. To say the least, neither of these programs cast the U.S. in its best light.

The family I was watching T.V. with is a well-educated, well-off family. Everyone speaks at least a little English, and one of the children is going to study in the U.S. this fall. However, the father was very passionate about his feelings about the Bush Administration (not good) and the continuing rise of anti-Americanism worldwide. Earlier that day a student I spoke with told me how badly she wants to move to New York. Later in the interview, when I asked what the majority of campus protests were about, she told me, with what I perceived as a bit of pride in her voice, that they are typically anti-American protests.

Anti-Americanism in Turkey is complicated, and can exist in the same person who covets an American lifestyle or education. Nor is anti-Americanism rational. Those who argue that anti-American sentiment has false foundations, or dismiss it because it is emotional or irrational are missing the point. Regardless of what it is based on, this burgeoning feeling is very real. And U.S. public diplomacy is atrophying. The below quote from the conservative Heritage Foundation website shows the lows to which American public diplomacy has fallen:

“While overseas opinion polls show mostly negative views of the United States, the State Department’s communications machinery remains in disarray. Congressional funding for public diplomacy programs has increased only slightly since 9/11, interagency coordination remains minimal, and America’s foreign communication efforts lack a focused strategy.[2] More worrisome, new programs may not be effective in confronting the array of security, foreign policy, and economic challenges emanating from the Middle East.” - August, 2005

I haven’t experienced any outright anti-Americanism while here. Everyone has been friendly and open. But beneath the surface there is anger in the population of a strategic ally—anger that the U.S. might want to take a little more seriously.

Faith-Based Organizations in Turkey

2006-02-05T10:45:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with the women who work at Hanımlar Eğtim ve Kültür Vakfı (Women’s Education and Culture Foundation) in Istanbul. This organization provides services to poor women and children—families that for whatever reason lack a male parent. Some of the services the foundation provides include clothes, medical care, food, in-kind donations of furniture and other supplies, and playgroups for children. In addition, the foundation has a scholarship program for medical students, often from the countryside.

The foundation has been in operation for well over a decade, and was started by two women, one a doctor and one a tailor. During its operation, it has grown to employing 25 people with at least four times as many volunteers. The organization is run entirely by women out of the centuries-old Bayrampaşa Complex—a former school for whirling dervishes.

The foundation itself is one that is based on tenets of Islamic faith—that you have a responsibility to help those less fortunate than you, that you should not be able to sleep at night if your neighbor is hungry. While this is not a proselytizing organization—the Turkish government goes to extreme ends to ensure that—it is one that is based on religion, much like the Salvation Army in the United States. Many of the women who work there cover their heads; some do not. The foundation’s domain is the middle ground that sees their work as more important than any religious dogma that inspires it.

Regardless of how one feels about President Bush’s Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, faith-based organizations in many countries, the United States included, provide the majority of the services given to those in need. These organizations do not necessarily come into conflict with governments based on secularism (separation of religion and state) and laicism (subordination of religion to the state). Rather than serving as conversion grounds for religious zealots, many of these organizations channel their faith into projects to help the most needy.

For many people raised in a secular or laic mentality, myself included, the idea that government money can fund organizations with a moral imperative is frightening. At the same time, a moral imperative is providing a majority of food, clothes and shelter to those who need it most. Finding a balance between a government that doesn’t legislate morals and funding organizations that effectively alleviate poverty is a challenge of which we should all be aware.

Who Is Doing All That Shopping?

2006-01-30T19:25:00.000+02:00

According to the travel guide, Time Out, Istanbul, “residents of Istanbul only had to wait slightly over 520 years between the opening of the city’s first mall and its second.” The first mall is the still thriving grand bazaar, a unique shopping experience that draws both locals and foreigners alike. However, with the advent of its second mall, The Galleria, in 1988, Istanbul’s shopping experience changed forever. Since 1988, a half-dozen major malls have opened, replete with international chain stores such as The United Colors of Benetton and Zara, and of course the requisite food court. The most recent of these malls, Cevahir, is a 6-story behemoth, claiming to be the largest mall in Europe.

(A mall guide. The front cover reads "Europe's biggest shopping mall." The opposing page is the map of the 5th floor.)

The interesting thing about shopping in Istanbul is that it is not cheap. Shoes and electronics, for one, are far more expensive than they are in the U.S. Combine that fact with the truism of “life is very difficult is Istanbul” that one often hears, one begins to wonder who has the money to do all this shopping? I have not heard yet of a well-paid Istanbullu, though they certainly must exist. Teaching English is supposedly one of the better jobs, though the teachers I know aren’t able to go on any shopping sprees. A Turkish girl whom I know was lucky to get a job that requires 50 hours a week and pays the equivalent of $600 a month. Employees at Burger King reportedly make 1.80 lira an hour (roughly $1.40), and minimum wage supposedly hovers between 280-450 lira ($220-315) a month. This is for a city that makes the cut for the world’s 50 most expensive cities…

My guess is that in Istanbul, as in the states, those working in banks or big multi-national corporations have the stability and salary to warrant trips to Cehavir. What is clear is that a certain, and seemingly growing, portion of Turkey’s elite can afford to pay high prices and chooses to do so. How this disparity will affect the social and political dynamic remains to be seen.

Being a Better Blogger!

2006-01-23T22:43:00.000+02:00

This is one of my New Year's Resolutions, and I intend to stick with it. My goal is to post between every one and two weeks between now and the end of June. So please keep checking!

The Dardanelles in Greek Myth and ANZAC History

2006-01-23T18:42:00.000+02:00

About 6 hours by bus from Istanbul is the Gelibolu (Gallipoli in English) Peninsula, a stunning piece of land that has the dubious distinction of being one of the borders of the waterway, the Dardanelles. This strait is the middle link between a long string of seas and oceans that connect the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and beyond. To give a sense of this importance, the Dardanelles connect Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey, and many countries lying further inland, with the rest of the world. Throughout history, the strait has been crucial to crossing from Europe to Asia or vice versa. Alexander the Great used it to expand his empire out to what is today Afghanistan. The Persian ruler Xerxes crossed it to get to Greece. And in WWI, Winston Churchill, then the British First Lord of the Admiralty, saw the taking of the Dardanelles as key to Allied success (get the Dardanelles, and you break Turkey’s relationship with Germany).

For over 5,000 years people have recognized the importance of this waterway, exemplified by the longstanding city of Troy. Yes! Troy!! Evidence of Troy’s beginning dates from about 3,000 BCE, long before the Troy of the myth. From that year until about year 1,300 a city has stood on that ground overlooking the plain that sweeps to the Dardanelles.Troy thrived in that location. Before humans developed a technique to sail against the wind, they were at the mercy of prevailing winds. Therefore, ships wishing to sail through the Dardanelles stopped at Troy while they waited for favorable winds. Regardless of whether there actually was a Trojan War as described in Homer’s Iliad, the site has an enormous importance archaeologically and historically. Personally, I believe that there was a Trojan War, Gods, golden apples, Achilles’ heel and all.

5,000 years after the beginning of Troy, that small area of the world is still of enormous importance. During 8.5 months of 1915, fierce fighting took place on the peninsula, the goal being to keep or capture the land, and thus, the Dardanelles. Fighting took place between the defending forces, Turkey, and the attacking forces, a combination of Allied forces that included the ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) from the newly independent countries of Australia and New Zealand. During the course of the fighting more than 100,000 men died. That number does not take into account those who died later from wounds or illness from that campaign, bringing some estimates of Gallipoli related deaths to 500,000. In the end, the Allied forces retreated, unable to take the strategic prize of the Dardanelles, a fruitless venture that cost half-a-million lives. 90 years later, Gallipoli draws visitors from Turkey and Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and beyond. The movie, Gallipoli, is an interesting account of one of the most tragic battles. It also stars a very young Mel Gibson.

Looking at the Dardanelles and seeing the massive oil tankers perched on the water and slipping through the straits, one is reminded of the number of people and boats that have passed through over thousands of years changing history, literature and innumerable lives.

But the Dardanelles and Troy aren’t all serious. Check out the décor in one of the pension rooms…

Seker Bayram

2005-11-03T22:46:00.000+02:00

While my nephews were dressing up as Superman and The Thing and trick-or-treating on Halloween, Turkish children were anxiously awaiting the start of Seker Bayram. Seker Bayram (translated as "sugar holiday", and pronounced "sheker bayram") is the holiday that marks the end of Ramazan (Ramadan in Turkish).

During the month of Ramazan, in which it is believed that the Quran was revealed to the prophet Mohammed, many Muslims fast between sunrise and sunset. For the most devout, this means that nothing, no food, no water, no toothbrush (!) may pass their lips. The purpose of fasting is to feel what it is like to go hungry, to give those who participate a sense of self-control, to cleanse the body, and to become closer to God. After sunset, those fasting (and there are many Muslims in Turkey who choose not to fast) break their fast with a special dinner called Iftar. There is a real celebratory feel to the air, and people spend these dinners with friends and family. Some people wake up early, at 3 or 4 am, to eat a meal before sunrise.

The celebratory feeling is very apparent at the Blue Mosque, which is one of the most famous mosques in Turkey. During Ramazan, outside the Blue Mosque are little booths selling food (which is mainly eaten after sunset), cotton candy, toys, books, and other such goodies one might find at a fair. Lights are strung between the minarets, and people come from all over Turkey.

Seker Bayram, on the other hand, is sort of like Easter at the end of Lent. It is a time to eat candy, eat during the day, and celebrate the completion of Ramazan, regardless if you fasted. Traveling on the very last day of Ramazan before the Iftar dinner that marks the beginning of Seker Bayram, is akin to traveling in the U.S. on Thanksgiving-- in other words, it is an adventure. To get to my final destination, which was a friend's summer home across the Sea of Marmara, I had to take a subway to a bus to a dolmus (special taxi) to a ferry to another dolmus to a car. All this with what seemed like the entire city of Istanbul, who were all also leaving then.

But it was worth it. Escaping Istanbul traffic and congestion for even a night and a day, swimming in a natural hot spring, and eating food straight from a garden was a real treat.

Housewarming

2005-10-30T15:24:00.000+02:00

What is one of the first things you want to do after moving into a new place? Invite your friends to celebrate with you, of course. However, doing this a month after moving to a new city posed a conundrum. The majority of my friends are not in Istanbul, and everyone that I know here I've known for less than 6 weeks.

No matter! It was, actually, the best way to enter a new city. Both Ed and I invited people from our classes (Turkish and English language and english teaching certification), the Fulbright program and anyone else whom we happened to meet. This was a little scary, because we encouraged them to bring friends and had no idea what that open invitation meant in Turkey. Fortunately, it meant that we had a great crew of people from countries including the U.S., Turkey, Holland, Germany and Greece. Most people came knowing a handful of people at best, and the ensuing evening was a bit like a freshman orientation.

Hopefully this will lead to having more friends in Istanbul...

So What's This Whole Civil Society Thing Anyway?

2005-10-30T11:44:00.000+02:00

After being in Turkey for over a month, the inevitable question sets in: what am I doing here?

Existential questions aside, I am here to investigate youth attitudes toward civil society development in Turkey.

Civil society suffers from the curse of too many definitions. Right now it is a hot term, one that peppers most conversations about society, development, globalization and politics. It has both supporters and critics, and arguments on either side are complicated by its slippery definitions. As Michael Edwards writes in 'Civil Society,' "An idea that means everything probably means nothing, and when the idea of civil society goes on sale to the highest bidder, its worth as a political and intellectual currency is likely to be devalued over time."

Supporters include liberal lefties who back grassroots radical movements, conservatives who see the civil society arena as a "new direction," and libertarians who like the idea of society functioning outside of the governmental realm. Millions of people around the world are touched by civil society in one form or another-- as supporters who contribute money and time, operators working in these organizations, and beneficiaries spanning the globe. The long arm of civil society reaches many, but as a concept it is poorly understood.

So what is it? Basically, civil society can be viewed as any organization outside of the realm of government or economy. Organizations that offer services, education, work to change society, or simply those that are an association of like-minded people pursing a common activity. The following are all civil society organization: Greenpeace International, the Halo Trust (mine clearing), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Meals on Wheels Association of America (providing home delivered meals to people in need), Synergos (reducing poverty in the developing world), Open Society Institute (promoting global development of open societies), Network 20/20 (educating future leaders about foreign policy), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, unions, choirs, book clubs...

Turkey has an interesting history of civil society, in that its history is short and is making up for lost time. In the past two decades, two developments have helped the growth of civil society. The first was the prospect for European Union membership. In order to be eligible for membership, Turkey has had to make a number of changes, including developing a civil society that could act as a check on the government. The EU invested a lot of money in this development and the result has been a booming NGO industry, though with unknown results. The other major development was the 1999 earthquake in which the Red Crescent and other organizations outside of the government took action more swiftly and decisively than the government (think of the contrast between the U.S. government and the Red Cross and other individual and associational efforts in the wake of Katrina). This inverted response gave NGOs in Turkey an added boost.

That said, participation in organizations, especially those with a political tinge, is limited in Turkey. Of about 1.5 million university students in Turkey, less than 10,000 of them are active volunteers, and this could be a generous number. (I apologize if my numbers are incorrect. I received them through those working in the NGO sector in Turkey specifically with university students.) This could be for a number of reasons, one of which is that current university students did not grow up in a volunteer culture. What would be really interesting would be to come back in 10-20 years and see what the attitudes of current high school student are toward civil society. They will be the first group to grow up with a notion of civil society and the legal capability to form associations for a young age. (Turkey just passed a law a few months ago making it legal for minors to form associations.)

Despite the uphill battle of legal difficulties and societal malaise, change is happening, and not just in the in urban and "European" areas where the majority of NGOs are concentrated. The KaMer Women's Center in Diyarbakir (southeastern Turkey) was established in 1997 to stop violence against women and has developed projects against honor killings. Started by a woman from that region and set to expand to several other towns, the group provides a helpline and services to women suffering from physical and psychological abuse and has undertaken an educational campaign against honor killing.

Over the past month, I've had the opportunity to meet with many people working in the NGO sector in Turkey. There is a marked contrast between civil society in Turkey and the US. I feel a sense of urgency here that doesn't exist at home, as though the force of change that has been bottled up here for decades has finally been unleashed, but against a ticking clock. It seems to me that those committed to developing a strong civil society in Turkey suffer from a Cinderella syndrome. Their moment to act is finally here, but because they do not know when or if the clock will hit midnight, they must cover as much ground as they can.

I took the photo on this posting this morning from my apartment. Istanbul weather makes New England weather look stable. In the span of a few hours the sun was shining and the sky was bright blue several times. During that time there were also several intense rainstorms. The silver lining to this erratic weather are rainbows, and lots of them.

Refugees in Istanbul

2005-10-17T19:02:00.000+03:00

One demographic that I had not anticipated meeting was that of refugees living in Istanbul. Turkey's borders are porous-- coming in. Getting out, however, is supposedly more like the living version of "Hotel California"-- in this case where you can check in any time you like, but can never leave.

I've begun volunteering as an art teacher for refugee children living in Istanbul. Their school is run out of an Anglican Church, and the students are primarily from Iran, Iraq, Sudan, and Sri Lanka. Most of the students have been attending school here for a couple of years, a necessary solution to lack of access to education, for these paperless refugees cannot attend public school in Turkey.

The series of events that led to these children living in Turkey is varied, and the result is a classroom that is mixed in age, language, behavior, and skill level. Some of the kids come from countries such as Iran or Iraq where they had been raised with a strong educational infrastructure. These students have classroom discipline and many of them have had excellent art instruction in the past. Conversely, some students have never had a stable education and lack the discipline and skills that come with that upbringing. This makes for a VERY interesting and challenging classroom dynamic. I've included a picture that highlights this: guess which picture is drawn by a 6 year-old and which by a 16 year-old. (the exercise was to draw objects that were on the table. One is a bowling pin, the other a racquet.)

Who are these refugees? Recently, many have been coming from Iraq-- both Iraqis as well as Iranians who had been taking refuge in Iraq until the U.S. entered in 2003. I'm hoping to learn my students' stories and pass them along as reminders that disasters, both natural and man-made, have enduring consequences.

Edge of Asia

2005-10-04T09:45:00.000+03:00

Turkey straddles two continents, Asia and Europe. Much has been written about the impact this geographic dichotomy has had on Turkey’s political and cultural life. Turkey is frequently described as looking toward Europe, a model for other predominantly Muslim countries, the gateway to Asia, a bridge…

"Edge of Asia" is a tongue-in-cheek title, intended as a question, a provocateur, reminding readers that the ‘divisions’ in Turkey’s political and cultural fabric are often more complex than east vs. west, rural vs. urban, young vs. old and religious vs. secular, to name a few.

During the next ten months I will travel throughout Turkey, interviewing 18-25 year-old Turks about their participation in civil society and their hopes and concerns about Turkey’s future in general. Their answers will, I hope, provide some insights into the different forces that are influencing contemporary Turkey. Along the way, I hope to provide readers of this blog with a better sense of the Republic of Turkey—its people, its history, the challenges it faces, and its unique place in the world at the start of the 21st century.