“Who told you this would be easy?” she said, eyes glittering like sea-wet stones. A flush, gentle as rain, rose in her cheeks.
Nobody, nobody, the voice in his head clammered, I’m sorry, sorry, my love, it is blessed, it must be; I cannot ever deny love.
At that moment he met her eyes and it occured to him that we live only in moments, arranged as it happens. Someday we shall live entirely in nothing but a single kiss.
–Kyle Parrish
Usually I don’t spend time in very touristical areas of Istanbul, I stroll around the historical districts which tours dont take tourists much. Nowadays I walk in the back streets of Uskudar a lot because of the project I am working on. I’m designing a little library next to a building which was an ottoman primary school some hundreds of years ago.
So I dont see many tourists. Only one or two very curious and courageous ones who are able to get a map and stroll alone. Today while I was going down the hill, I saw one climbing the hill with an Istanbul map in the hand and a stupid fes on the head. I couldn’t stop laughing… It wasn’t the only one with fes I have seen so far.Why do tourists wear those weird fes?? Don’t they feel stupid with it? Don’t they look around themselves and notice that noone in Turkey would wear it?
Sometimes the ignorance of the tourists amazes me. They have no idea about Ottoman Empire, Turkish republic , turkish culture, Istanbul, other cities of Turkey…So why are they in Istanbul? They usually go to Italy because it’s a kind of fashion, it seems even Istanbul becomes something like that. I hate this empty tourism. Like the shopkeeper who sells miniatures has told me once : ” Tourists don’t come to my shop to buy miniatures. I have only very special foreigner customers who understand miniature art. Usual tourists who come here aren’t different than gypsies towards art”
Like french, italian, english in Istanbul, like hundreds of americans I see in Florence whole summer or thousands of russians in Antalya…like milions of tourists who destroy , pollute and rape Venice each year more just for commercial reasons far from art, architecture and understanding.
Today greek ships had another attempt to leave their immigrants in turkish waters . This time the boat of the immigrants just remained in the international waters. A turkish private yatch saw the boat of the immigrants have overturned and there were 26 immigrants fluttering in the water, there were dead bodies swimming…So they went there to pick the alive immigants. They managed to save 11 immigrants but at the same moment, a greek coast guard boat was harrassing the turkish yatch…it was recorded minute by minute.
On 27th September, at 6.20 am 3 Greek military ships were detected in Turkish waters. They were there illegally to leave around 20 immigrants inside 3 boats in turkish waters and they wanted to escape just after leaving those people in the middle of the sea. However because of the stream, those 3 boats entered back to Greek waters.
In the same day the same ships were detected in another coast of Turkey at 9.30. They were insistent of leaving their own illagal immigrants to turkish waters. But they were warned by turkish coast guards because of border violation so they had to leave without leaving the immigrants where they wanted to.
My 4th year in the university is about to start.
Struggling ,projects, jury days, exams,drawing 12 hours a day, making models, stress…
Sitting next to the sea, watching the ships passing the Bosphorus, feeding seagulls, waiting in the lunch queue…
My University
In front of the jury…
P.S : I am a Turkish girl and I live in Istanbul. I wrote the details which disturb me personally about turkish people. It doesnt mean that every turkish is like I wrote, of course there’re always exceptions. This is just generalised criticism about turkish society. Maybe a tourist can’t notice these details.
Some of my Complaints ;
Today I have returned to Istanbul after spending 3 months in Italy with Lorenzo and his family. Turning back to my lonely life isn’t easy at all. I already missed everyone soooo much.
Today I got up at 5am…I got on the plane at 7 am from Florence to Roma. I arrived Roma at 7.30. Then I waited till 10 am for my plane to go to Istanbul. I was in Istanbul at 13.30. The Alitalia plane was extremely small and uncomfortable. But I got very surprised that we were on time.
I took a taxi to go to the port…I had to take a boat to cross the Bosphorus because my house is in Asia and the airport is in Europe. The port was extremely extremely crowded…During the time I spent in Italy I forgot what “crowded” means…Istanbul reminded me today…I hate it…I hate sharing every squaremeter with at least one person…I miss the tranquility of Italy already…
I miss warm hugs of Lorenzo…
A sculptor made a very nice statue for expressing love. And the city administration put it in the city center of Antalya in Turkey. But some sick closed-minded people threat the administration to remove this statue because they find it ” Too explicit, against morality”…..What kind of a mentality is it? If you are able to get aroused because of this statue, it means there’s something wrong with you not the statue…..sexuality-fobia…
TRADITIONS MADE INTO RELIGIOUS PRESCRIPTIONSWhat was not stated in the Qouran was introduced into religious practice, and customs related to a man’s attire were considered to be part of his devotional lifestyle. For instance, the turban had been worn by nearly everybody at a given period of history to keep the head warm. There was nothing wrong in this. What was unwarranted, however, was attributing a religious character to it. We must go over the verses in the Quran to see what has been ordained as far as man’s attire is concerned.
26 – O you children of Adam! We have bestowed raiment upon you to cover your private parts as well as to be an adornment to you.
7 The Purgatory, 26
The minimum covering for both men and women has been since times immemorial the covering of the private parts of a person as foreseen in Verses 26-22 of the Sura The Purgatory. There are three verses in the Quran that have reference to a woman’s attire.
31 – Say to the believing women to lower their eyes and guard their private parts, and not display their ornaments (ziynet) except what is apparent outwardly, and cover their bosom with their veils (hýmar). And not show their ornaments except to their husbands or their fathers or the fathers of their husbands or their sons or the sons of their husbands or their brothers or the sons of their brothers and the sons of their sisters or their women or their captives or male servants free of physical need or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex. They should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O believers! All of you shall repent to God that you may succeed.
24 The Light, 31
The Arabic word hýmar means simply ‘cover.’ It has a wide range of meanings. It may be any cover such as the table napkin. If it is used to cover the head, it will signify the headscarf. However, if the head had been the target, the expression should have been hýmar-ur-ras meaning the covering of the head. However, in the context, one should understand the portion of the body corresponding to the bosom. Therefore it is the low-necked attire that is meant here. Even though the headscarf was the corresponding meaning, one should conclude that it was to be used to cover a woman’s bosom and not her head.
Another important expression mentioned in the verse is the word ‘ornaments,’ which, to our own interpretation should mean the bosom. This, we believe, is in harmony with the rest of the sentence in which the covering of the low neck is imperative. Moreover, striking of the feet comes next, which might attract attention to the breasts that would be wiggling as a consequence of the striking movement, considering the brassiere did not exist at that time. Then the verse makes an exception for those ornaments that are self-conspicuous. Big breasts cannot be hidden no matter what one does, as a result of physical movements of the body, or may become even more conspicuous when the dress under the effect of a strong wind sticks to the body. So the verse explains this as a natural phenomenon. We read in other verses that women nursed their children sometimes for two years. When her baby cries she may be obliged to nurse it in the presence of her next of kin like her father. This commentary provides us with the necessary elbowroom under the circumstances. One other point that corroborates our argument is the fact that this word makes no allusion to the hanging objects that adorn a woman since the verse also mentions that they can let their ornaments be seen in the presence of women. Dangling ornaments may, of course, be used to show off rather than be an object for seduction. The striking of the feet would not render conspicuous the finery or the jewelry of the woman. Moreover, there is the fact that adornments may be used everywhere. Even during prayer they may be used, so they don’t have to be hidden (see 7 The Purgatory, 31). From all of these it follows that the word ornament is used to refer to the breasts of the woman.
The word tasattur, which means the veiling of a woman, does not exist in the Quran. It has come to be used in the way that it is today much later. The Arabic expression humur and its singular form hýmar mentioned in the verse is a cover, any cover rather than a headscarf. The dictionaries Al Mujam ul Vasýf, Al Munjid, Lisan-ý Arab, Tajul Arus may be consulted. The connotation of the hýmar in the sense of headscarf emerged much later, following the interpretation and practices of sectarian scholarship. The Quran speaks of the bosom as the part of the body that must be covered, and not the head. The words that correspond to the headscarf worn by Arabs are mýkna and nasýf and not hýmar, for which any dictionary of the Arabic language may be consulted.
Yesterday cousin’s of Lorenzo came to visit us. Oh my…it was incredibly tiring day. They can’t spend more than 15 minutes playing with the same thing. They always try to discover new things at home. There’s 6 years old Tommaso always wants to drive our golf car in the garden, he hits furnitures trees…There’s 1 year old Emma strolling on the pavement, crying…Then there’s 3 years old Margherita always wants to do the same things which Tommaso does. Then she wants to see my jewellery bag, she wants to try everything inside it, she wants to make up, she wants me to give some of my jewellery to her as a present. ” mi regali questo?” ” Perche non mi regali questi?” And she asks always what’s that what’s this…and when you try to explain, she asks always why..” perche?” “perche?”
“why is this pillow fixed on the hummock?”
” Because it falls and Otto ( the dog) takes it away “
“Why does Otto take it away?”
” Because Otto wants to play”
“Why does Otto want to play?”
“Because……….uhm…..”
Margherita and Lorenzo playing with legos. Margherita says : ” Built a house for me” Lorenzo builts and asks ” How’s it?” She says : ” I dont like.” and it goes on like this. She always says: ” I dont like”
Otto steals pieces of lego and distroys them chewing
Emma and Otto =))
“The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after twelve editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 2005-09-30. The newspaper announced that this publication was an attempt to contribute to the debate regarding criticism of Islam and self-censorship.”
Western world couldnt understand why muslims were so angry about it although those caricatures were obviously insulting Mohammad and showing him as a terrorist. For them it was freedom of speech so everyone should have respected. Now it happens the same to the christians and of course they are offended. Because neither Mohammad nor Jesus cant be compared with terrorists.
“The bin Laden work and another of the Virgin Mary in a burqa, created by Sydney artist Luke Sullivan, have been entered into Sydney’s top religious art competition, but not without infuriating some.”
“Australian Prime Minister John Howard responded: “The choice of such artwork is gratuitously offensive to the religious beliefs of many Australians.”
I think people should realize that religion is a very delicate topic and they should act thinking twice.
Happy SanLorenzo day my love! As we do every year on 10th August, tonight Lorenzo and I will wear our pullovers, trousers, sport shoes. We’ll take a blanket and a pillow. We’ll lie on the hammock in the garden together and we’ll watch the falling stars
First of all, Italians dont know anything about my country like most of European countries. They are too busy with themselves and people in close surroundings that they are not even curiuos about what’s going on in the rest of the world. Italian media doesnt help it either. I watch the tv news here everyday and I dont see any news about the world. They are only about Italy : 40 years old mothers in Italy, ice-cream consuming in Italy, vacation places in Italy…It doesnt matter if there’s an election in a country or if there’s a war or if there’re people starving…Not being able to speak any foreign language is maybe result of this lack of interest
Second thing is linked with the first. If you are ignorant, you generalize things. For example : Arabics are muslim so every muslim is arabic. Every arabic live in desert so every muslim live in desert too. Turkey is a muslim country so turkish people are arabic so Turkey is a very hot place in the desert.
As a result they are able to get surprised when I say it’s very snowy in winter in Istanbul. They get surprised when I say we produce very good red wine in Middle Turkey and white wine in Egean Coast of Turkey.
They also suppose that we use arabic alphabet! Just like they suppose that Czech Rep use russian alphabet.
Because of this ignorance, if you are a foreigner , you are an alien… a scary person.
Then what else? Oh…Everything turkish is greek for italians. For example Greek yoghurt. Yoghurt is a turkish word. Turkish invented yoghurt and in world literature in every language it’s used as Yoghurt the original turkish word. And many many other turkish products were stolen by greeks…That’s one of the reasons why they dont want Turkey in EU because they cant steal more products if we enter the market.
I am really angry about it.
Also italians like gossip soooo much. As Cesare (one of my very rare italian friends) says making gossip is second national sport for italians after soccer. That’s very true. When they get together with friends, what they talk about is other people. In the office, I experienced the most violent version of it because my italian isnt good. In this case they were able to make gossip about me , laughing behind me even when I am in the same room.
Their girl-boy relationships are worst than we have in Turkey. In Turkey we have very good friendships between boys and girls, they dont have to have a love relationship. In Italy (I dont know how’s in big cities but talking about Prato and Firenze) it’s not much possible to have a friendship between a boy and a girl. If they talk, if they share something, they have to be a couple. When boys arent able to flirt with a girl, they dont talk with that girl about anything. I experience it directly as a person who lives in Italy now but I also experience it even online. I have been using online messengers for 10 years and so far I talked with hundreds of italian boys. When I try to chat with an italian boy online , he tries to hunt me first. After learning that I have a boy, he stops talking with me. That’s how italian men see women generally.
I dont like this fashion-mania either. You have to always show which brand you wear, which car you drive , which country you adore…It’s like this even in Istanbul , just a bit lower level. Pure materialism…..
P.S : Please nobody think that I am hostile towards italians. I live with a very sweet italian family. I love them a lot. My boyfriend is an italian and I adore him. Italy is my second country after Turkey so I think I have right to criticize the bad situations I experience here.
I wish people could be more open-minded all over the world.
THE HOLY COW DEMOCRACY
In 1923 Turkey was very much behind the European powers technically and otherwise. Ataturk thought that the survivability of the new republic depended on developing it to Europe’s level. He instituted a number of reforms that were carried out as a drastic change during his presidency of 15 years. He knew that drastic change cannot be carried out under full democracy, because human nature does not like change. Thus, they were carried out under a one party government, by a revolutionary parliament. In 1950 more parties were permitted. Thus, real democracy took roots in Turkey.
I would like to mention the development of Russia and China as more recent examples. When the USSR lost the Cold War and disintegrated, it was proven that the communist system does not work. Both Russia and China wanted to change to the Capitalist system. Russia under Gorbatchev wanted to introduce both democracy and capitalism at the same time. The change from communism to capitalism constituted very drastic change and under democracy people did not change, it turned into a mess. They have now neither full democracy nor full capitalism.
The Chinese were much smarter. They kept their authoritarian regime and introduced capitalism. They are being very successful. Their economy has tremendous growth, many Chinese became very wealthy. Democracy might come some day to an educated and industrialized China and will be no problem. By then the drastic change would have been completed.
The above three cases prove that democracy, that Westerners almost worship, is not useful during drastic change. In spite of this brief history of democracy, many people in Europe and in this country consider democracy like a holy thing and consider it as a super-criterion, much more important than independence and laicism.
Ataturk wanted Turkey to be as survivable as Europe or the United States. He found that one important problem of the Ottoman Empire was Islam. A modern person could not live by the Sharia, the canonic religious laws, so he abolished the Caliphate, outlawed the Sharia part of the Koran and separated religion from state, the way French do. While in U.S. society, state and religion are co-equal and separated, they both co-exist in the public realm. That is called “secularism.” In the French system no religion is allowed in the public realm. That is called “laicism”. In Turkey religion is a personal thing and the laws ensure full religious freedom under Turkish law. Laicism is written in the Turkish Constitution and is as holy as the republic. It cannot be changed, it cannot be even discussed, because laicism is believed to insure survivability in the modern world. Also it is believed that there can be no democracy without laicism in a Moslem society. The Turkish military is specifically charged by the constitution with preserving the Laic Republic. Militaries in Western countries do not have such duties, because the civilians do not mess their country, do not trample on their constitution, and they don’t live in Moslem societies, so their militaries do not need to interfere.
In Turkey, in 2002 an Islamist party, the AK Party, came to power by promising to abide by the laic constitution. They did some good in the economy, improved the economy, abated the inflation, but they slowly started to nibble on laicism. Although their portion of the vote was about 34 %, they obtained most of the seats in the parliament, because the many laic parties could not pass the 10 % threshold. Now a new president of the Republic must be elected and a staunch Islamist may be elected by the parliament. The present President is a staunch laicist. He vetoed any law that was anti-laic. The new Islamist president would not do that. Thus, the people are opposed to the election of an Islamist President. Lately, the attacks on laicism have increased. When mild warnings did not do the job, the military announced a written warning, that was a typical ultimatum to the ruling AK Party. Of course nothing else will happen, if the government makes the required corrections according to the constitution. The question is: Will they be wise enough to make those corrections?
Immediately the European Union (EU) protested and accused the Turkish military of destroying Turkish democracy. That is typical ignorance of the Turkish system. Any way Turkey has lost its hope to ever becoming a member of the EU and the European protest will probably be ignored. It is absolutely unwise to prevent Turkish military to take action to preserve laicism in Turkey. That is tantamount to making Turkey weaker, less survivable. Would Europe prefer to see Turkey becoming an Islamic republic? Democracy is of course important, but not as important as the Laic Republic. Also, without laicism there can be no democracy. In Turkey Laicism is holier than democracy. Yet, the millions of Turks gathering to protest in Ankara and in Istanbul, did so as perfect democrats. The majority of them were women who did not want to live under Islamic rule. These meetings were followed by other huge meetings in Canakkale, Manisa, Marmaris and Izmir.
On May 1, 2007 The Turkish Constitutional Court annulled the election of a president on the basis of the parliamentary quorum. No presidential election should proceed unless there are 376 parliamentarians in the room. There were not that many during the election, because the main opposition party had boycotted the session. On May 6 Dr. Gul withdrew his candidacy from the presidential election. Now, a general election will be held as soon as possible. On May 10, the Parliament passed a law that will change the way a republic president is elected. This time he will be elected directly by the people, that is, if President Sezer approves it.
I am surprised to see the American press criticizing the Turkish military to warn the Islamist government. The unspoken agenda of that government is to convert Turkey to an Islamic republic. Is that what our press would like to see? The articles published in Washington Post do not only praise the Islamist government, but smear the millions of democratic demonstrators in Ankara, Istanbul, Canakkale, Manisa, Marmaris, and Izmir. One article by Claire Berlinski states that these people are not liberal, not democratic, and not friendly to the West. Let us start with the Islamist government. It is not as angelic as Ms. Berlinski portrays it. In many small towns, it has converted the bus or street car service to seat men and women separately, it is building parks and beaches for women only, it is forbidding the sale of alcoholic drinks in many places and testing how the people react. It has enriched itself by forcefully overtaking successful businesses. It has accepted all the unacceptable conditions demanded by the EU, that wanted to have Turkey reject the conditions. It would have done a lot more damage to the country if it was not for the fear of the military. It accepted President Bush’s idea of becoming a “Mildly Islamic” country in his Greater Middle East Project. It should have known that it swore on its honor to uphold the constitution that defines Turkey as a laic state. As there is no such thing as a mildly pregnant woman, there is no such thing as a mildly Islamic state. Also, a state cannot be Islamic and laic at the same time. President Bush who is himself very religious, loved it. Yes, “It has gone too far”. That the millions of demonstrators are not liberal or democratic is plain hogwash.
Turkey has a liberal economy and one cannot be more democratic than those people who demonstrated absolutely peacefully all over the country. About not being friendly to the West, that is partly true because the West has not been friendly to them. Here I would like to make a distinction. They may be unfriendly to some Western states but they are full of Western ideals. They are Western people. A country that has been treated like a Pariah and humiliated by the EU cannot be expected to love European states. As long as President Bush’s armed forces protect the PKK terrorists in Northern Iraq, and allows them to kill Turkish soldiers, without allowing the Turkish Army to make a hot pursuit into Northern Iraq, as long as flag-draped soldiers’ coffins keep on coming to Turkish villages, no one can expect them to be friendly to us. Ms. Berlinski was smearing salt on an open wound.
Written by : Orhan Tarhan
(Mr. M. Orhan Tarhan was born in Istanbul, Turkey, where he made his high school education in Turkey’s elite boarding school “Galatasaray”. He won a competitive examination that sent him to his chemical engineering education in Germany between 1937 and 1943. All his professional life he worked for steel industries, as operating engineer in a coke plant in Turkey and after 1953 as research engineer in charge of coke plants in the United States. He published several technical articles, 16 U.S. and foreign patents, and a book titled “Catalytic Reactor Design”. At Bethlehem Steel Corporation, where he worked for a quarter of a century, research engineers were trained continuously in technical report writing. After retiring in 1982, he did several years of consulting and he taught one semester of Catalytic Reactor Design at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. He learned French at 9, German at 16, and English at 24. )
“Come, come again, whoever you are, come!
Heathen, fire worshipper or idolatrous, come!
Come even if you broke your penitence a hundred times,
Ours is the portal of hope, come as you are.”
MEVLANA CELALETTIN RUMI
Who is Mevlana?
Mevlana who is also known as Rumi, was a philosopher and mystic of Islam, but not a Muslim of the orthodox type. His doctrine advocates unlimited tolerance, positive reasoning, goodness, charity and awareness through love. To him and to his disciples all religions are more or less truth. Looking with the same eye on Muslim, Jew and Christian alike, his peaceful and tolerant teaching has appealed to men of all sects and creeds.
Whirling Dervishes
The “dance” of the Whirling Dervishes is called Sema. Sema is a part of the inspiration of Mevlana as well as part of the Turkish custom, history, beliefs and culture.
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Sema represents a mystical journey of man’s spiritual ascent through mind and love to “Perfect.” Turning towards the truth, his growth through love, desert his ego, find the truth and arrive to the “Perfect,” then he return from this spiritual journey as a man who reached maturity and a greater perfection, so as to love and to be of service to the whole of creation, to all creatures without discrimination of believes, races, classes and nations.
A huge iron door opends…we are slowly moving inside the field…I am watching the horses running on both sides. I am watching their beauty their dignity. After some minutes when we arrive where we are supposed to be, a tired injured old building greets us. A building which sheltered the farmers before now sheltering the birds.A building from 15th century which has many stories to tell…many stories now burried in silence.
Silence disappears while we are walking in the courtyard of the building…there are so many machines working with a big noise. Inside isnt as peaceful as outside. We are in a temporary office now which used to be a church before. There are plans of the building hang on the wall, there are some untidy desks, a coffee machine. Around the table architects… engineers…italians…and a little turkish girl. “è in Italia perche suo fidanzato è italiano…non capisce una parola”
…ma capite turco al meno quanto io capisco italiano? I say inside myself. I mind it only for a second…I feel too good to mind it so much…I go out of the office looking around. Galileo shows me the buildings, he explains what they do , I take photos in curiosity… Oh my…little little birds in a nest inside the building!…they are extremely cute!! But I should calm down because Galileo is still seriously talking about why they will demolish the concrete columns…ok I am concentrated on what he says…Then while entering from a door I see a lizard, I show it in enthusiasm…” are you scared?”…no, I just love so much. It’s just too beautiful to ignore.
“Only little girls care such things , you are a little girl” says Lorenzo
I am a little girl who spent the day inside a Van Gogh painting today
in Le Cascine di Tavola
She’s in the bathroom after getting upset for several things…looking at herself in the mirror, watching her warm tears falling down from her red eyes…she’s looking at her hair…how long it got…She’s breathing irregularly…
It’s a small gloomy bathroom decorated in shades of brown…She cant believe how she finds peace there…she’s listening the silence, she hears only birds and a fly. She cries more when she thinks that she can find peace only in a miserable bathroom.
Then she looks in the mirror again remembering what her mom tells her…” dont let anyone to make you sad”…lt’s not easy…But she’s strong, she has always been so, she’ll always be…Everyone is selfish in this world so she needs to be strong and independent in every situation.
She leaves the bathroom …
 | mr alex on Ephesus |
 | Hannah on As it happens |
 | Unblushing on Usual Loneliness |
 | upsurge on Usual Loneliness |
 | Benny on Usual Loneliness |
