Gibburt

Only once I’ve had the pleasure to visit this country of Mediterranean laissez-faire. It wasn’t the wonderful weather that made my hearth ablaze with joy, nor was it the blue sea contrasting with the browns and greens of the hills. Not the old bazaar or the modern tourist towers, not even the ancient and dead city of Efese that made me feel at ease.
It has been three and a half year since my wife and I left the warm and friendly family of my brother in law in Izmir, Turkey, who had been our hosts for about ten days. They showed us all the lovely and famous places of their city and the surrounding country. So fortunately, I haven’t seen Turkey from the stereotype tourist point of view. The images that have found a permanent place in my heart are those of the friendly family that housed us, the rich breakfasts with cheese, tomatoes and bread. The always honking cars and the fire truck that passed our house to water the plants growing next to the road. The wild dogs in the streets and the cow that just walked into my neighbour’s garden to nibble some grass. The slums in the city and the houses with unfinished upper stories (you pay less tax for a house that’s not yet finished). Even the genuine fake watches I will never forget, or the storks on top of the Temple of Artemis. And ofcourse pide, ayran, water melons, dolmuş!

A country of extremes, and today they’re celebrating their anniversary. Eighty-six years ago Mustafa Kemal, Atatürk, founded the Republic of Turkey.
Today Turkey is member of NATO, has a GNP comparable to the Netherlands, and is still in the race for EU membership.
Turkey seems to be trying to improve the ties with old enemies. Recently Turkey and Armenia signed a protocol with the intention to normalize their relations and re-open their borders, which have been closed from the Turkey side since the Armenian occupation of the Azerbaijan territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenian Genocide remains a burning issue between the two states, and could yet prove to be a breaking point.

Turkey is improving the situation of the Kurdish minority, allowing education in the Kurdish language, allowing a Kurdish network to broadcast their shows and allowing Kurdish villages to adopt their old Kurdish names.

Problems there are as well, but today we celebrate this wonderful country and its friendly people. Şerefe! To another eighty-six years!

Filed under: History by Cédric | Social tagging: national anniversary > party > Turkey