Sad Statistics on Turkish Young Adults

On May 17, 2008, ANGIAD, The Ankara Young Businessmens Association, released some sad statistics on Turkish young adults.  Their survey polled 1694 young adults aged 18-30.  Here a few highlights.

• a mere 14.02 % considered their father good role models.
• 20.21 % have nationalist-conservatve sympathies
• only 18.11 % consider themselves secularist
• 74.15 % don’t follow political developments
• 43.62 % don’t want Turkey to join the European Union
• but a whopping 78.14 % want to leave Turkey
• 46.21 % have little hope for Turkey’s future
• 83.07 % don’t engage in any sports activities
• 53.17 % don’t read a newspaper; 35.87 % only read the sports pages
• 84.19 % have been subjected to violence
• 56.89 % have been subjected to violence by one or more family member.

(from Radikal, 18 May 208)

 

The Islamization of Turkish Society

Daily life in Turkey is changing.  Most of us, myself included, are so frog-like that we don’t really notice the gradual environmental changes until someone points it out.  A recent article by the veteran Turkish journalist Mehmet Ali Birand highlighted a number of things which rang true with me:

1.  Religious language (i.e., once outmoded Arabism and Qur’anic expressions) are re-emerging in daily speech patterns of AKP politicians in particular and ordinary citizens in general. 

2. Body language is changing. In the past people shook hands or kissed.  Now the more stand-offish placing of a hand on the heart is in vogue.  Touching women is an iffy business, so a nod will suffice for them.

3. Eating and drinking patters are changing.  Alcohol, as Birand puts it, “is gradually leaving the tables. It is being kept in nooks and corners as proof of tolerance. It is served if it is particularly asked for, but that is all. You also have to be brave or audacious to actually ask for it. It is becoming more usual to drink liquid yogurt, orange juice or other fruit juice with meals.” 

4.  More women are donning the dour, black chador or the head scarf and long coats.  Cover-all bathing suits manufacturers are probably the only boom industry in the country at the moment. 

5. The separation of men and women seems to have become more prevalent.

6.  More people go to the mosque on Fridays for midday prayers

7. There is an increase in the number of newspapers and TV channels that promote religious values.

8. There is an increase in the number of religious foundations.

The full article from which the above was distilled can be found at http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=98857

Reasons I like Turkey

 

1. The Bosphorus.  Especially the panoramic view of Istanbul from the ferryboats.  But also the bridges, the  seagulls, Leanders Tower….
2. Mediterranean Coast.  Bodrum, Antalya, Alanya.  Concrete poured onto an inimitable coast.
3. Turkish literature.  Yashar Kemal, Orhan Pamuk, Elif Safak…  see elsewhere on this blog.
4. The enterprising street vendors.  On the ferryboats, at the train- and bus stations, in the most unlikely places he’ll fob off his trinkets or foodstuffs.
5. Turkish music.  Not all of it.  Some, however, takes even us Westerners into the contemporary Middle East.  Ahmet Kaya, Sezen Aksu, Nilufer, Orhan Gencebay…  All different, all authentic.
6. Turkish film.  Watch any movie starring Sener Sen, Cem Yilmaz, Turkan Soray…  Don’t forget the “Yesilcam” comedies, dramas and love stories of yesteryear starring Tarik Akan, Adline Nasit, Kemal Sunal, Halit Akcetepe…
7. The Southeast.  Rugged and untamed.
8. The North East.  The mountain pastures, the sense of loneliness…
9. Central Anatolia.  The empty feel of Central Asia.
10. Cappadocia.  Church history in awesome geography.
11. Turkish Cuisine.   Much of it is awful—some of it heavenly.  Try “kiremit guvec” if you can find it.
12. Turkish Bath.  Sweat and bond.
13. Beyoglu.  Nothing what it used to be, but still a great place to eat out, shop for books, people watch…  Enjoy the architecture from the Galata Tower, up Istiklal Boulevard to Taksim Square.
14. Turkish Cafes.  A coffee, a game of tavla or chess.  People watch.
15. Sultan Ahmet.  The St. Sophia, the Cisterns, the Blue Mosque…  History.
16. Turks.  Love some, can’t stand some.  Friendly, hospitable, hypersensitive.  Will tell you what they think you want to hear until they lose their temper.  Then they’ll tell you things you definitely don’t want to hear.

Iraq: No Price too High!

   The situation in Iraq would make a stone weep.

   Churches and mosques, traditionally places of refuge, are callously set ablaze.  Acid-filled tankers explode in poor neighborhoods, cruelly blinding innocent passers-by, burning out their lungs.  The other day a bomb killed a bunch of kids playing soccer.  Were they Sunnis or Shi’ites?  They were just kids… 

   Nothing, no-one is sacred.  Both Sunnis and Shi’ites post videos of their brazen atrocities on the internet.

   America is rightly blamed for the fiasco.  If it hadn’t invaded the country on trumped-up charges, history would have taken a different turn.

   But just blaming America is too simplistic.  Those who target worshipers at prayer, shoppers in a market, and children playing soccer are also guilty.

   Civil wars are always messy affairs, but the religious dimension makes this one particularly brutal:  “Shi’ite?  You’re dead!”  “Sunni?  Off with your head!”

   Meanwhile, both sides try to convince the rest of us that Islam is a religion of peace.  Little wonder the faith has an image problem…

   The occupation forces suffer least in all this.  Local warlords realize that the Americans and their dwindling allies will not hang around indefinitely.  The real enemy is the rival religious group.  It must be browbeaten, eliminated as much as possible before the occupation leaves.

   Saddam failed to create a cohesive nation state; he managed, by force and fear, to keep the various religious and ethnic groups from devouring each other.  By removing him the Americans opened a Pandora’s Box; they have no idea how to put the genies back in and clamp the lid back on.  They’re not even trying—they’re talking “exit strategy”.

   Everyone decent person in Iraq is a loser.

   Every decent person?  I recently read a report on the increased interest in Christianity among ordinary Iraqis of all sects.  More Christian literature is distributed than ever before, and more people are writing to Christian websites, TV stations, etc.  As happened in Iran, as happened in the Kurdish North of Iraq subsequent to the 1991 Gulf War, as has happened so often in the course of church history, a sovereign God will go to any length and pay any price in terms of human or divine suffering to draw those on whom He has set His favor to Himself.

   In Christ there is neither Shi’ite nor Sunni.  The good news coming from Iraq is that a church of mixed Muslim background believers is slowly emerging.   And that, in the divine economy of things, is worth the price.

YouTube and “Love It or Leave It”

A popular slogan here is “Turkey: Love It or Leave It!”  That actually means: “If you don’t love Turkey they way we do, then leave it!”   This is nasty, ugly nationalism.  It presumes you’ve got to prove your love and commitment to the country in their way before you are free to say anything about it.

     The “Love It or Leave It” crowd organizes itself into “dernekler” (associations) like the Türkçü Toplumcu Budun ve Elbiriği Derneği (Turkish Collectivist People and Cooperative Association) and the Kuvayi Milli Dernegi (Nationalist Forces Association).  They make their vows on Turkish flags, Qur’ans, and pistols, and publish racist magazines like “İlteriş”.  Their ideology is a mixture of Shamanism, Islam and Fascism.  They are allergic to minorities, notably Kurds: Kurds must not be accepted into the civil service, should not be allowed to own property, and must not be accepted into universities.  Their breeding habits should be restricted.  If a Kurd marries a Turk the family’s bloodlines can only be purified by marrying Turkish for 5 generations (see Radikal 18 Feb. 2007).  It all has a rather pathetic, 1930s German ring to it.

     No Turk need prove his/her nationalist credentials.  A people that successfully ran an empire for centuries, fought a thrilling War of Independence, and in recent decades built a regional economic and military power need not feel insecure, need not fear coming to grips with its past.  In fact, it must do so if it wants to continue developing in healthy ways.

     This the Nobel winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk grasped.  He tried, ever so gently, to nudge his people towards a self-image that had integrity.  Sadly, Pamuk moved to the States recently.  His vision differed from the “Love It or Leave It” crowd; since they will kill their opponents, he took their threats seriously.

     The “Love It or Leave It” crowd is not interested in the unsolicited advice of the likes of me, a Christian and a foreigner… There are, however, some here who consider me a friend; in normal, healthy relationships, the opinion of friends matters. 

     This is what I’m hoping and praying and praying for:

     1. that Turkey will become a member of the European Union sooner rather than later.  I believe that will lead to both economic development and a healthier, more open society.

     2. that “love it or leave it” attitudes metamorphose into healthy, non-racists patriotism which embraces all citizens and seeks a better society for all—a society not based on racist or religious ideology but on contemporary Northern European liberal democratic principles.

     3. that the notion of freedom of expression and religion would be wholeheartedly embraced. 

     That last point is, I believe, the key.  Everything else will flow from it.  When nationalism and religion cease being prisons, when people are free to think outside prescribed boxes, then this society will, I am convinced, surge forward in new, challenging, and dynamic ways.  I hope I live long enough to see it!

     Hope is the substance of things not seen–we are certainly seeing the opposite of what we hope for.  The recent closure of YouTube in Turkey because “The State” didn’t approve of some Greek louts’ opinion of Turkey is an indication of much that is wrong: an over-sensitive nationalism overcompensating for a poor national self-image.

Why does Islam figure in so many of the world’s trouble spots today?

Middle Eastern languages make liberal use of the world “God” (Allah) in ordinary speech.  Pick up an Arabic or Turkish dictionary and there are columns of mostly positive idioms which incorporate the word God.  Unlike English, the word is usually used to bless, not to curse.

 

It thus seems strange that societies which continually invoke God with respect to every aspect of life are, today, among the world’s most violent.  Most trouble spots today involve Muslims killing each other: Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Sudan, Lebanon, Somalia…  Alongside such troubled nation states supra-national organizations claiming to speak for Islam such as Al-Qaida, the Taliban, and Hizbullah add to the impression that Islam and violence go together.

 

The typical Muslim response to this observation is to blame the West: colonialism, foreign intervention (British, French, and American), the state of Israel, Free Masons, Christian missionaries, etc. etc.  Blaming everything on outsiders does not, however, solve anything; it merely underscored the impression that foreigners are strong, and Muslims weak.  Such defeatism prevents these societies from looking their problems squarely in the face and dealing with them pragmatically.

 

Most other parts of the developing world have managed to come to terms with such scars as they inherited from their 19^th and early 20^th century interaction with the West, and get on with life.  They have integrated into the world economy and are focused on bettering the life of their citizens.

 

The rest of the world, however, is not shackled by a concept of God which seeks social renewal through the imposition of law (sharia).   In contradistinction, Christianity’s God condemns this world altogether.  Instead of focusing on the reformation of society He calls people to form grass-roots, counter-cultural communities in which the world’s hurt and marginalized can find grace and hope.  This allows society to develop naturally, while it allows the church to exercise a humanizing effect in whatever kind of society it happens to finds itself. 

Who Killed Hrant Dink?

Hrant Dink was a Turkish-Armenian journalist.  He was murdered yesterday. 

Like many liberal Turkish writers, including Nobel winner Orhan Pamuk, he’d been to court charged with breaking the infamous “regulation 301”.  It forbids anyone from insulting “Turkishness”.  Hrant believed that Turks must be reconciled with their own history before genuine reconciliation can take place between Turks and Armenians.

In the past such murders were ascribed to “shadowy figures in the deep state”.  Not any more.  The nationalists, reacting in part to Western, particularly American, cultural and political ambitions in the Middle East, have created a monster which freely roams the streets.  It kills Christian priests, fires guns and lobs Molotov cocktails at Protestant churches, and makes a mockery of Turkey’s claims at being a cross-roads of diversity and multi-culturalism.

The monster is a deliberate creation of nationalist politicians, newspaper men (and women), and film producers, notably the creators of the violent series Kurtlar Vadisi (Valley of the Wolves).  A like-minded group of lawyers led by the infamous Mr. Kemal Kerincsiz hauls those who think slightly differently to court on the least excuse.  If they cannot see you behind bars, they’ll blacken your name.  You might even be killed… Like Hrant Dink.

Hrant is not the first, and won’t be the monster’s last victim.  It will continue to devour until the Turks, en masse, are sickened by it.  Only then will the politicians, newpapermen and women, and film producers change their tunes; they, after all, are merely driven by the vote and the bottom line. 

Who killed Hrant Dink?  Every nationalist voter.

“The Grave Below is All Astir”

As I watched Saddam Hussein’s last moments I thought of the welcoming committee awaiting him–the long line of history’s dictators and despots who preceded him:

“The grave below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you–all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones–all those who were kings over the nations.  They will all respond, they will say to you, ‘You also have become weak, as we are; you also have become like us.’  All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you  (Isaiah 14:9-11).

A la Turca Highs and Lows of 2006

Tops in Child Porno

 According to world-wide “Google Trends” research, the world’s top five cities hitting child-porn sites are all in Turkey, Trabzon, Izmir, Adana, Ankara and Istanbul respectively.  Next in line are Auckland, Melbourne, Seattle, Tampa and Sydney.

(Radikal, 23 Dec. 2006)

Christians under pressure

Pressure on the Christian community did not let up this year.  Early in the year a priest was shot while praying in his church in the city of Trabzon (the same Trabzon which leads the world in child porno hits) and another priest was knifed.   Molotof Cocktails were thrown at several Istanbul Protestant church fellowship, one of which was severely damaged.  Two Turkish Christians were arrested on obviously trumped up charged.  Their court cases are ongoing.  For more info go to the Compass Direct site, linked to www.pikkert.com.

Funnies

Muslims, failing to see the link, responded to a cartoon in the Danish newspaper Jyland Posten depicting Muhammed wearing a bomb as a turban, by bombing, rioting and killing innocent bystanders.  A cartoonist depicting the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayip Erdogan, as a cat caught in a ball of wool was sued by Mr. Erdogan.  The Prime Minister lost the case.

Papa Don’t Preach

The Pope undertook major damage control during his visit to Turkey.   He arrived unwelcome, after apparently linking Islam with violence.  However, he played a weak hand well… 

Nobel Matters

When Orhan Pamuk received the Nobel Prize for Literature, a few Turks rejoiced.  Most seemed to think it was a western plot to support a national traitor because he once suggested that Turks were involved in an Armenian genocide.

Holy Sledge

The Prime Minister’s blood sugar dropped during Ramazan (month of fasting).  As a result he fainted while sitting in the back of his car.  His chauffeur raced to a nearby hospital, where both he and the body guard jumped out of the armoured car in a panic—which promptly auto-locked.  They tried to break into the car using a “No Parking” sign, but to no avail.  They then scrounged up a sledge hammer from a nearby construction site and eventually managed to rescue their man, who was bundled off on a stretcher, legs dangling everywhere.  Member of Parliament and party yes-man Feyzi Berdibek bought the sledge from the workmen, annoucing he’d treasure the sacred object forever.

Oops…

Mehmet Ali Agca, the fellow who tried to kill Pope John Paul II back in the 80s and who really did kill newspaper man Abdi Ipekci, was finally released after nearly 25 years in prison.  Following a public outrcy the court decided that they had “wrongly calculated” his release, whereup Mr. Agca was promptly rearrested and sent to back to his cell.  He is now due to be freed in 2014.

Good times for Turkish cinema

After a long decline following the demise of the Yesilcam films of the 70s and 80s the Turkish film industry is making a comeback.  In 2005 27 Turkish films were shown in cinemas.  I’m not certain of the total number of films for 2006—but more than 20 were produced since September.  The top 2 are probably Takva and Hokkabaz.

Attack on Supreme Court

A nationalist nut, lawyer Alparslan Arslan, attacked the Supreme Court Judges.  One, Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin died, 4 others were injured.  He had already thrown a bomb at the Ankara office of Cumhuriyet newspaper earlier that day.

Jet Ski Imam

An “ultra-conservative” imam, Ahmet Mahmut Hoca, was caught living the high life in Malta.  Women, visits to churches, and racing around on a Jet Ski struck most of the faithful back home as a bit odd. 

Tights

Colourful tights are all the rage in Turkey this season.

Beggars Matter

You’re not supposed to give beggars money—every one knows they’ve got loads of money stashed away somewhere, right?  They’re simply exploiting us hardworking people… And you must absolutely not give anything to the little beggar children; giving them money encourages those who exploit them, and thus simply increases the problem!

However, whenever I pass one of these numerous human wrecks—the doubled over old woman, the man without limbs, the doleful young mother with a dirty baby sucking an empty feeding bottle, the half-naked, snot-nosed toddler holding out a grubby hand and looking hopefully at you with big, brown eyes—I feel vaguely uncomfortable, guilty even.  What if these people really are needy…?

In fact the really needy people far outnumber those reduced to begging.  Most of the really poor people still have too much self-respect to beg.   Statistics bear this out:

According to the Turkish Statistics Organization (Turkiye Istatistik Kurumu: TUIK) 25.5% of the population of Turkey in 2004 lived below the poverty line.  That’s 18 million people.   According to TUIK about one million people go hungry.  A 2005 World Bank report states that 58% of the population of Turkey lives on $4.30 a day, 20% of the population on $2.15 a day. 

I don’t know how that is possible.   Nor do I know what I, personally, can/should do about it…

Give to beggars…?

Source for statistics: Radikal, Dec.5 2006.