Turkey's Ethnic Diversity

Turk, Kurd, Bosnian

Circassian, Nomad, Immigrant

Laz, Albanian, Georgian

Alevi, Sunni, Şafii (what is that?)

One of the things I love about Turkey is something it has in common with America: ethnic diversity! I always say Turkey is as diverse a vegetable stew as America - it just has different vegetables. And all of those vegetables are new to me. I met a Turk or two before I came here, Bosnians too (often new immigrants to America), but I am sure I never met a Kurd, or an Alevi (hadn't even heard of them before I cam here). I only knew the word Circassian from reading Mark Twain, they are now a diaspora people for the most part. I met a Laz woman once during spontaneous outdoor dancing in Turkey, but to see their culture I would need to go up to the Northern Black Sea coast. Albanians, Georgians, Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks help make up the Levantine culture that is so wonderfully fun to experience because it is so different than what I am used to at home.

Once you've experienced diversity, do you find going back to a homogeneous society kind of boring? I do. It's all the differences that make life interesting.

Saudi Blue Eyes

A Saudi Lady with her blue eye contacts

on Büyükada Island

 

This woman's eyes caught my attention last night. Büyükada Island, one of five islands near Istanbul, gets many Saudi visitors now because so many Turkish soaps play in Arabic countries.

Ladies dressed like this are a frequent sight in the summer tourism months in Istanbul.

 

Middle Eastern ladies can and do carry off eyeliner in a way that Western women do not (with the exception, maybe, of the late Amy Winehouse). Since their eyes and feet are usually the only thing that is visible, women frequently make the most of decorating them both.

 

If you're like me, you may need a break from tear-gas videos. You might enjoy these other posts on beauty:

 

A Week in Sweden

 

Beautiful Slavic Faces

 

Bulgarian Beauties

 

 

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Polarization is a Choice

 A photo of the Beşiktaş Forum,

a nightly neighborhood discussion

happening in my neighborhood park

and twenty other parks throughout Istanbul

where citizens discuss the future of the protests

and the future of their country.

I feel deeply lucky to have experienced the Turkish protests and to watch citizen engagement on a level never before experienced in Turkey. I plan to write about the experience, but frankly, it has been so interesting, I couldn't even tear myself away from watching it long enough to write about it. It makes me appreciate that real journalists get that done and do it on deadline too.

As an expat, I am constantly reflecting on how events in the country I am living in are related to the events from my country of origin. One of the most astounding experiences of the whole Gezi Park protests has been the level of polarization (which I wrote about here in my last post).

How polarized has it been? So polarized that the Turkish government talks about bringing in the military to restore order. Citizens discuss the possibility that there could be a civil war. I thought that I had experienced polarization in America during George W. Bush's Presidency, but this makes the Bush Presidency look like child's play. Even the clothes are different, as if each team has a uniform.

Shockingly, it wasn't until I watched this play out among the Turks that it occurred to me that polarization is a choice. When the American people were polarized, we allowed ourselves to be manipulated into doing that. We didn't have to buy that, but we did. We chose to respond to manipulative language and to allow ourselves to demonize our fellow citizens, even though we know in our hearts that what makes our country great is the range of contributions from everyone.

How boring and "trailing edge" Americans must have been during that period. One constant verbal or online sledgehammer to each other for eight years. It's so unproductive and dehumanizing. As we, the American people, beat up on each other by choosing polarized news sources and polarized web sites, other countries have gotten on with business while we spent our billions indulging in a war in Iraq America wishes it could forget. In a globalized world, the country that chooses to be divided, falls behind.

If I could offer advice to my Turkish friends based on my eight years of living through the George W. Bush presidency it would be to understand that polarizing language is manipulative language. If you buy into it, you're allowing yourself to be manipulated. Take care of your personal relationships, invite your most opposite philosophically-different friend over for dinner and break bread together. Just because dialogue doesn't occur at your highest level, doesn't mean dialogue can't occur at the citizen level.

Iftar Dinner at the White House

(the meal where Muslims break their fast

after a day of no food or water)

Official White House Photo

by Chuck Kennedy

Breaking bread together is such a fundamental practice. That's why it means so much to me to see my President celebrate Ramadan or Diwali or Passover. During that meal time, my President is contemplating and learning from someone who is different than him. He is respecting and celebrating their traditions. He is honoring them. Is there any reason we, the people who live all over the world, can't do that too?

I read recently that members of the American Congress are so polarized, and there is so much money at stake in each decision, that they no longer undertake this practice of breaking bread with their opposite. It shows. Congressional approval ratings hover around 10% and they famously work to keep the status quo rather than move the country forward.

Polarization is a choice. I'm no longer going to buy it. How about you?


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Gezi Park Turkish Protests: Where is a "Range of Opinion?"

Protesters doing yoga in Gezi Park

What a fascinating week in Turkey as my friends have risen up and demanded their Turkish democracy be inclusive of their lifestyles and opinions too. I say "my friends" because, like most expats, I have a few friends who support the AKP and hundreds who don't. Most of my Istanbullian friends are broadly secular, supportive of the ideas of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and are internationally-oriented global citizens. So they are completely unrepresentative of the average Turk, and especially, the average Turk who voted in the AKP-majority government.

A Turkish friend who protests

In story after story about the protests, the range of opinions reported has been very narrow. It is very easy for Westerners in Istanbul to identify with the protesters, because they are asking for things that Westerners consider foundational for a democracy: respect for minority opinion, respect for diversity of lifestyle, respect for the variety of religious expression, and respect for freedom of the press. The protests started with concern about the pace of urban transformation and sense of loss for vital green spaces within one of the world's largest cities. All of these ideas that the protesters are demanding have been ably, bravely, and amply reported. The protesters' voices are heard in story upon story in the English-language press. But you'll notice, there isn't a big range of opinion there. The protesters seem unified around these thoughts.

The views of government supporters and of the government has been very hard to find. I've been trying to find those opinions, because as a library professional, my job and my joy and my mission in life is to share information on all sides of issues. While the protesters are organized in both Turkish and English on social media and are also available in the park for easy interviewing, AKP folks must be talking to themselves on Twitter and Facebook almost exclusively in Turkish. Journalists are flying in from all over the World to cover this story, but with today's news budgets, having a translator is an extra expense some news organizations may not have. I have read hardly anything reflecting the AKP view.

Six Turkish Newspapers

All With the Same Headline

Where is a "range" of opinion

(on either side)?

The Turkish media had six front pages all with the same headline in Turkish to reflect to Turkish people the 'official' government opinion when Prime Minister Erdogan came back from North Africa; this shows there is not much deviation in the AKP opinion either. Even worse for the AKP and its supporters, their opinions aren't being expressed in English.

Even at the friendship level we expats rarely hear these AKP opinions, simply because many AKP people have not taken the time to learn a global language so they can express themselves to the world.

Protest banner decrying police brutality



These narrow bands of opinion seem to be a Venn diagram of two circles, one labeled "protesters" and one labeled "AKP." The circles seem not to have overlapping parts. Because each side seems mostly to talk to like-minded friends there is also the danger of online filter bubbles.

I remember this kind of polarization in the Bush years in America. It's the kind of opportunity Obama walked into, rallying everyone around the center. I don't know if there is a center in Turkey, but it is unoccupied at the moment - unlike Gezi Park.

My first Scrabble game in Turkish!

Look Ma!

I can play Scrabble in two languages!

 

My Turkish teacher is so clever. Just when she can feel her class of students running out of steam, she brings out a Scrabble game. Instantly, the men in my class sat up at competition. They had never actually played a Scrabble game before; they didn't even have the context of Scrabble in their native language to get them started on this beloved word game in Turkish. I, at least, had played the game plenty of times with enthusiasm in English.

 

Here is my very humble list of Turkish words in my first Turkish game: lale, maç, tel, kır, taksi, genç, kez, dolu, kanat, aşk. A Turkish as a Second Language speaker has to start somewhere!

 

 As I was silently lamenting that I couldn't put an 's' on the end of a word and make it plural, I thought, "wait a minute, Turkish is a language of agglutination. It is suffixes upon suffixes - that should make for super easy Scrabble." But my Teacher said "no, that would be too easy. You can't use past tense either." There were other "rules" differences too. She didn't score a word both up and down if you made one that had that possibility.

 

My score was 83. In English, I average over 300. No one got a triple word score. Turkish doesn't have a 10-point Q, but it does have a J worth 8 points and a Z worth four points. My Arabic-speaking friends wanted to next try the game in English, their second language.  I wondered if there was Scrabble in Arabic. Can you imagine?

 

So I can score better and faster, I'd like someone to create a backward dictionary in Turkish so I look up words by what letters they end with, not start with.

Getting Ready for Global Minds Book Club

 

A perfect day on my patio

 Yesterday was a spectacular sunny day in Istanbul. Not a cloud in the sky with total Chamber-of-Commerce weather. What a fun day of friends, food, and shopping we had! In the afternoon, my friend Barb and I just chilled out. There's nothing like the start of a three-day weekend and a new book to read. This month: Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart."

 Life's a bowl of cherries sometimes.

Sometimes you just have to slow down and enjoy it!

 

You may enjoy my other posts about Istanbul's Global Minds Book Club:

 

Discussing Books with Istanbul's Global Minds Book Club

 

Africa Day @ the Global Minds Book Club

 

Why yes, Empty Nest Expat is on Facebook. Meet me there and "like" my page so you don't miss an update.

 

Crossing Continents with a Covered Dish

I belong to a Facebook group called Cook's Corner for Expats in Turkey that is a collection of 700 home cooks living in Turkey from all corners of the globe. People use the group to ask each other where to find the elusive ingredient from home (cilantro? black beans? celery?). People also use it to share their excitement when a beloved product from home becomes a regular import in Turkey; I remember the Brits getting really excited about some sort of malt vinegar potato chips.

People post photos of their latest cooking and baking creations. Do you find cooking motivation by seeing what other people have made? I do. So many of the foods are things new to me, especially the Asian dishes. One day I exclaimed: "we need to have a potluck - I want to meet your food - oh, and you too." The idea took off and we instantly filled a roster of 23 people to meet together and share our creations. This is the second potluck of the group.

This is what I brought:

Spinach and Exotic Fruit Salad



 Brooks, an American and cofounder of the group with Virginia,
brought the rice dish

that his family always demands:

Indian Rice With Peas

I was so grateful to Helene

for bringing this Southwestern Salad.

I hadn't tasted a black bean for three years!

You don't know what you miss until you can't have it.

I loved meeting Kuraishini,

an expat from Sri Lanka,

who regularly gives

Sri Lankan cooking lessons

here in Istanbul.

 

She brought Sri Lankan fish cakes.

For the potluck, she toned down the spiciness.

Ha, bring it on Kuraishini.

 I want to see if I can handle it.

This is a dish from Aura's

hometown in Turkey, Sarma Aşı, 

a particular twist on stuffed grape leaves.

 

The bulgur, which has walnuts in it,

is stuffed into the grape leaves with a gherkin.

Here's the Turkish version of the recipe.

It's called Burdur Sarmaaşı.

 

Oh, this was so delish!

Underneath that spinach roll

was homemade dark and nutty German black bread.

 

The above food and the next two photos of food

were made by

a lovely young Pole named Aleksandra

who probably bakes and cooks

in the five or six languages she speaks!

 Gluten-free mini Zucchini Pizzas

made by Nicki from Long Island, New York

 Virginia, an American who used to own a popular café

in Istanbul's Sultanahmet neighborhood,

brought Hoppin' John, a traditional Afro-American dish

made with ham hocks.
Ham hocks weren't available in Istanbul

so Virginia used home-raised bacon from Serbia.

 

She had a non-pork version there too for the Muslims,

which was nice, as our hostess Kathy

was an American Sufi.

 

Kathy has a personal shopping business

and had just shown travel entrepreneur Rick Steves

around the bazaars earlier in the week.

 Salmon Quiche brought by

 Hawaiian Island native Becky from Maui.

I hadn't had scalloped potatoes in years either.

Western civilization comfort food!

 Derya,

an Australian with Cypriot heritage

brought this.

A traditional Austrian Sacher torte,

a chocolate cake

with a rum-apricot glaze

and a Pariser Crème glaze.

It was to die for.

An American named Franklin Orosco made this.

He used to own a café in Lithuania.

He made these

 Powidl Taschl, Mohn Plunder

and Apfel Plunder too.

These were so warm and wonderful.

I could just imagine Austrian children eating them

and becoming emotionally attached.

 

Franklin's creations were made with such

skill and pride.

You heard it here first (it's still a bit of a secret)

but Franklin Orosco is going to be offering baking lessons

here in Istanbul. Sssshhh. That's still on the QT.

This delectable dessert
is called an Eton Mess.

It was brought by a proud Englishman, Michael.

It was so fun to hear about the history of this dish.

American readers, what should I bring next time that represents American culture? My spinach salad couldn't burn or scorch and I thought of bringing an Arabic fattoush salad next time for the same reason. But I so loved sampling other people's "national dishes" that I feel I should 'represent' American food heritage.

 

I do make an amazing guacamole that used to make an appearance every Super Bowl game. I could bring that. What other dishes would you suggest that 'represent' American culinary heritage?

 

This is the first time I've ever taken a ferry and a cab to a potluck. I crossed from Europe, where I live, to Asia, where Kathy lives. What a lovely neighborly experience: crossing continents with a covered dish.

 

 

Photos courtesy of Brooks Emerson

 

 

 

Here are some other cooking posts you might enjoy:

 

My Morning Menemen

 

Christmas Eve Lunch with pomegranates

 

Playing more with pomegranates

 

A trip to Provence, accompanied by Julia Child

 

Sam's Salad with Cherries, Goat Cheese and Pistachios

 

Hanging Out with Old Friends in Wichita, Kansas

 

The Start of a Week in Provence

 

Provence Inspires Me to Make My First Tart

 

A Wonderful Evening With New Friends

 

 

 

Why yes, I'm on Facebook, you should 'like' my page: Empty Nest Expat!