Fighting the good fight

Before I left for my semester abroad in Turkey in the Spring of 2007 (ages ago...) I attended a pre-orientation session that attempted to prepare me for all of the vast and challenging differences between American and Turkish culture. Although there are obvious differences, I felt like they were exaggerated in order to better prepare us for our big adventure abroad. Yes, some women cover their heads. Yes, some people pray 5 times a day. (Don't tell anyone but people do that in the US too...) But my first encounter with Turkish culture was not shocking at all but rather incredibly warm and inviting. It was not until after I returned to the States and took a series of in depth courses on Turkish government, history, and culture that I begin to fully understand and appreciate all of the idiosyncrasies of the collective Turkish identity.


The big sore spots of the united Turkish nation are the Armenians, the Kurds and the nature of secularism. At Georgetown I wrote a series of papers on these issues, which I would be happy to share, but for the sake of time and general interest I will try and keep this entry to recent and ridiculous personal experiences.


The Armenian Issue: During the Ottoman Empire Turks and Armenians lived together in relative harmony (relative being the key word) until the great expulsion of the Armenians between 1915-1918, an issue that continues to serve as a tremendous source of conflict between the neighboring nations. There are still a great number of Turks that have Armenian ancestors, however the majority of them consider themselves to be Turkish through and through. My real estate agent was an exception to this majority.


I first met Can Bey when I wondered into his office with a Turkish male friend of mine who was helping me look for apartments. Can Bey did not have anything that we were looking for so we left and continued the search. A few days later, I wandered back into his office and only realized I had been there before about 10 minutes into my second cup of tea and the conclusion of my well rehearsed "I am an American, teaching English at a private elementary school who wants to live in Kadıköy with another female American teacher" speech. Let's just say it's far more impressive in Turkish... So anyway, I was desperately trying to sell myself to this man and get him to help me because I had been turned away by a number of other real estate agents who did not rent to foreigners (charming people) because foreigners, especially women, will use their apartments to have relations with a number of random men and shame the rest of the apartment building. Lucky for me, Can Bey was a decent elderly gentleman, who appreciated the fact that I spoke Turkish and was very helpful in finding me an apartment in a safe, quiet and affordable area. After we went together and looked at the apartment (the one I am currently living in aka the lovenest) we went back to his office to discuss logistics. He took a long sip of his tea, an even longer drag of his cigarette, glanced out the window, turned dramatically towards me and said, "Sarah you are an American, I am Armenian. I understand your situation and I know what it is like to live as an outsider. We will get you this apartment (rough translation from Turkish)." Apparently in his eyes, deep-seated culture and religious conflict between 2 nations was akin to whatever he perceived to be my daily struggles as an American girl living in Turkey (being perceived as a promiscuous foreigner?). So what does one say to that? Yes thank you, I appreciate all of your help Can Bey and I will see you tomorrow...


The Kurdish Issue: The Kurds are an ethnic minority who have lived throughout Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey for centuries. They are commonly lumped together under one monolithic identity but in reality there are 4 different Kurdish languages, all of which are not mutually comprehensible. The two most common dialects are Kurmanji and Sorani, but I have also met a number of Kurdish Turks who speak Zaza. Kurdish is considered a rather stigmatized language because it had been banned since the start of the Republic and has only been legalized within the last decade or so. As a result it is almost impossible to find a book, magazine, or newspaper written in Kurdish. Most of the Kurdish Turks I have befriended can speak Kurdish but are unsure how write it. The majority of the staff at the hotel where I stayed this summer was Kurdish and as a result I have had a bit of exposure to Kurmanji and Zaza. I really really want to Kurmanji and have this fantastic plan of going and living in Eastern and sitting and having long chats with the amcalar (a term meaning uncle but you can basically call any elderly man amca) and learning how to cook with the teyzeler (aunt, same deal as amca) and hearing stories of their parent's adventures in Turkey during the Ottoman Empire. I'm thinking first I'll try and learn Turkish and then put the moves on Kurdish.



The other day I was visiting a friend at her family's office where she works with her father. This is the same family who took me and Hazel in the night we were homeless. During this particular visit our friendly chitchat somehow turned into a heated discussion about whether or not there was such a thing as Kurdish culture. The father was arguing that Turkish and Kurdish are the same and I, of course, was respectfully arguing the opposite. Our little 2 person discussion quickly grew to a room full of 6 or 7 people, who all crowded in to hear what the silly American girl thought she knew about Turkey. My friend's father called downstairs and had the building's security guard leave his post and come upstairs to talk to me because he was Kurdish and apparently was going to reinforce the belief that not only was there no such thing as Kurdish culture but there is no reason for me to want to learn Kurdish. The security guard only added to the complete pandemonium because he embodied all of the extreme stereotypes that many Turks attribute to the Kurds; loud, difficult to understand, very dark complexion, and extremely argumentative. I couldn't really understand the majority of what the security guard said but I'm pretty sure he was loving the fact that I knew how to say a few things in Kurdish and that I was arguing with his boss about how the Kurds have been historically repressed throughout the region and are often viewed as second class citizens.

My big moment came when I interrupted the conversation, which at quickly spiraled out of control and politely asked my opposition (in what I perceived to be fantastic Turkish), "may I ask you a question?, if Turks and Kurds share the same culture and history then why was Kurdish banned at the beginning of the Republic and continued to be an illegal language well into the 1980's?" BAM. I thought I was totally back in the game but then my friend's father turned around and pulled a giant picture of Atatürk out from behind his desk and hit me with the big, do you know who this gentlemen is...? Do I know who Atatürk is? These people clearly had not realized that 1. I was Turkish in another lifetime 2. I have studied Turkish history and most importantly 3. anyone who has been to Turkey and possesses the gift of sight is familiar with Atatürk (because he is in every shop, building, school, and there are probably statues of him every two city blocks in Turkey). We ended the conversation prematurely, both because we weren't really getting anywhere and also because my friend wanted to go get some tea and leave work.

Needless to say there is still much more to be said on both of these issues and as my Turkish improves I plan on talking to more people and trying to build a more complete and circumspect picture of the who, what, where and why of these invaluable pieces of Turkey.