Dew on the Dove

Three Schools Less is Three Buildings More

2011-04-06T04:08:00.002+03:00

In Istanbul numbers of native Greeks are decreasing while Greek Nationals' are on a rise. For decades being a Christian minority in Turkey was a "crucifying" experience like living in Greece in 2011. Year after year the Greek population of the city lessened due to discrimination, pogroms, forced immigration. For the first time you may hear increasing number of people speak Greek on the streets. For those newcomers, Konstantinoupolis, (not Istanbul) is an exotic city full of opportunities and possibilities. Maybe they are grandsons or granddaughters of people who once called this city home, but their perception is totally different from their ancestors. The fiscal crisis expatriated them from Greece and here they find a new environment cut for their needs.

The life for Istanbul's 1500-strong local Greeks or Romeoi has a totally different angle. Once a prominent part of the society, dwindling numbers of young Greek population in Istanbul is causing more and more schools being closed every year. Youngsters are moving to Greece or other European countries for better education and to have better careers where discrimination is not a matter of daily life. The following list describes the immigration of Greek youth better than any words:

Greek Schools in Istanbul

Year	# of Schools	# of Students
1870	40	(No Data)
1905	9	(No Data)
1920	33	(No Data)
1923	57	14.632
1933	(No Data)	7152
1964	(No Data)	6934
1972	39	2740
1973	(No Data)	2376
1975	(No Data)	1685
1985	(No Data)	550
1988	14	455
2009	8	240

Those eight schools that continue education in 2009 had 1080 students in 1973 and 2280 students in 1870. One of the larger Greek high schools in Istanbul, Zografeion's pupils decreased incredibly after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus:

Zografeion in Numbers

Year	# of Students
1923	276
1948	302
1957	659
1960	708
1964	631
1967	455
1972	388
1978	180
1985	97
1992	74
1998	57
2009	48

Current principal of Zografeion graduated in 1978. Only five of his classmates live in Istanbul now.

Last month, a court ruled in favor of a Greek foundation to close another school due to lack of students. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (which deals with minorities in Turkey) making this ruling an example allowed two more schools to be closed. Foundations aim to use these buildings for other public purposes such as cultural centers. Increasingly old Greek population in Turkey needs more gathering places than schools. However tight rules governing everyday life of Christians and their organizations here do not provide them any freedom in their choices even regarding their own affairs contrary to the Lausanne Agreement, the sole provider of minority definition and set of rules in governing them in Turkey.

Three schools have completed their lives and go for an unknown future in this ancient capital of the Roman Empire. Fates of alike specimens were sad in Istanbul neighborhoods. Torn down, hurt, burned, lonely buildings reminisce their golden past. Occupants long gone, memories faded into a glorious yesteryear.

New Greeks of Istanbul watch the passersby albeit a person or a perfected line of an elderly Armenian-built façade in awe ignorant to the joy and pain involved. But then again they have their own share of painful memories. It is our common heritage. As the poet once said;

«ένα χρόνο ζεις ειρήνη και τριάντα στη φωτιά»(1)

(Data courtesy of TimeOut Istanbul)

(1)"You live one year in peace and thirty in hell"

Photos courtesy of Istanbulrumazinligi.com

Greece Produces Turkish F-16 parts

2011-04-05T23:57:00.000+03:00

Greek daily Ta Nea claims that on April 1st, Greek Aerospace Industries (HAI) shipped four pieces of fuselage to Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) in Turkey. These parts will be assembled in Ankara to form new F-16 Fighters for Turkish Air Force. TAI assembles F-16 planes in contract with Lockheed Industries for Turkish use.

Ta Nea notes that these fighter planes might be used in dogfight with Greek aircraft over Aegean airspace with Greek parts. Years ago when the production started in Turkey, Greek Air Force has demanded an investigation about the possibility of Turkish parts, and tried to find ways to exclude such parts in Greek Air Force F-16's.

Lockheed officials said that all F-16 parts are produced according to same standards around the world in certified facilities with the lowest possible cost.

The news found their way into Turkish papers' headlines today.

Keratea in our minds...

2011-04-03T15:13:00.002+03:00

"Virtual" Disobedience

2011-04-01T03:27:00.000+03:00

First there was a book draft. No, first there was a book. Ahmet Şık and Ertuğrul Mavioğlu, two journalists in Turkey wrote a book about Ergenekon, allegedly an organization that planned a coup eight years ago. Except for some reserves they have written about that attempt in great detail and in defense of the court case against alleged perpetrators.

A few years later police raided an Internet news portal's offices in Istanbul with suspicion that journalists working there might be co-conspirators with Ergenekon organization.
In one of their computers a book draft was found. This draft was written by journalist Ahmet Şık. It didn't have much info on the case, it was rather an investigation about an Islamist organization based in Pennsylvania, US. An organization made infamous by its leader's name: Fethullah Gülen and acting as a foundation basically funds several schools around the globe to propagate Islamist thought. In his book Şık was arguing that Gülen Foundation has "infiltrated" Turkish corps of civil servants to gain control of state bureaucracy. These allegations were made several times before in Turkey, however Şık's book supposed to have eyewitness statements and other documents to prove that.

After a while police in Istanbul raided Ahmet Şık and another investigative journalist Nedim Şener's houses and arrested them with accusation “to arouse animosity and hate in public in general”. They had found some notes on the copy of Şık's book draft "suggesting" that "some" people had given him instructions on how to write about certain issues. According to legislation concerning journalism in Turkey, all sources are sacred, but this investigation was implemented under "terror" law, so they forced Şık to tell his resources. Naturally he denied and refused all charges which didn't save him from being arrested. (For an in-deep analysis of the developments please read my previous article)

In his arraignment Şık noted that that was not the only draft of his books, some other journalists had it as well. He had sent it for their opinion. In a while, police raided offices of the daily Radikal newspaper, Şık's house and his lawyer's offices with a court order to destroy all copies of the book's drafts from their computers. In reality they were imposing censorship on an unpublished book for the first time in modern Turkish history.

In addition the court ruled that "all people with copies of this book will be considered to be in perjury of the terror law and will immediately be persecuted".

What was in that book to make prosecutors to go as far as to contradict basic principles and procedures of law? Was it only about the relationships mentioned in the content, or Gulen foundation members within police force and prosecutors' office were taking preventive measures not to get revealed? We may not know that yet, but what we can do is to have a glance at the book as of today since some activists have published it online!

By mid-day today, the book draft originally named "Imam's Army" appeared at a Google Documents site aptly named "Touch & Burn" since everyone touched that draft "burned" by law one way or another. Within hours the file appeared in many sites and by 8:00 pm (Turkish Time) today more than 60.000 copies were downloaded only from sites that this author could check the count. Downloading or keeping this file in one's computer is clear and present danger in Turkey. You may be arrested and you may stay in jail without conviction for years. It is very common in Turkey that the punishment for a crime is not executed by the courts as a result of a ruling, but simple suspicions are enough for a punishment by security forces just by arresting the suspect and keeping him in jail for years before a conviction.

Twitter and Facebook were the main tools for distribution. Thousands of people simply defied a court order and downloaded the file, kept it in their computers and read it. This was the most significant civil disobedience act this author ever witnessed at virtual sphere in Turkey. By the time this article is written numbers of copies downloaded has exceeded 90,000.

People are naturally scared, but they also know that accepting a bend in press freedom and freedom of speech albeit lawless could lead the country to a state of dictatorship that taints its recent past.

You may also download a copy of the book draft in Turkish here: "Dokunan Yanar"

Ahmet Şık's book on Internet

2011-03-31T16:01:00.002+03:00

Ahmet Şık’s book on Fethullan Gülen’s movement and activities in Turkish bureaucracy which caused his arrest is being distributed on Internet. Original file was posted at Google Documents. A court in Turkey has ordered all copies must be destroyed or it would be considered as a terrorist crime raising International upheaval about press freedom in Turkey.

Here’s the book:

Dokunan Yanar

Is Social Media New Opium of the Masses?

2011-03-30T19:13:00.002+03:00

Salazar governed Portugal with three F's: Fado, Fatima and Football. He manipulated public opinion in sentimental, religious and activism levels using these highly revered and powerful aspects of Portuguese way of life. Common arguments on the subject lead to underrating of either three F's or Portuguese public at large. It could be said that overly sentimental and pessimistic music collaborating with religious dogmas could occupy masses and redirect their social unrest into self-pity.
And any excess ambition could be discharged using football's joint and repetitive liturgy. This theory has been worked on many dictatorships since then.

Also in developing nations, dictatorship or not, suppressive tactics are often used on public opinion. Be it an indoctrinating education system ,or overvaluing nationalistic prerogatives over other less fortunates, oppression is a common denominator in less-developed geography.

With the coming of Information Age, old tactics as school books or traditional media started to lose their effectiveness. People started to rely ore and more on first hand and uncontrollable news as their major source of information. And finally with the Twitter revolution causing actual revolutions around the world, suppressive administrations were left in the cold for a brief time.

After 2099 Facebook and Twitter usage skyrocketed worldwide. As so much as by end 2010, among all countries Turkey became fourth in Facebook access. One third of all population in the country has Facebook accounts. (1) While accounting for only 0,8% of all Twitter usage by end 2009, now Turkey is expected to account for a lot more traffic on Twitter. There are no reliable usage statistics particular to a specific country in 2010, but if my own followers could be considered as a sample, my Turkish followers are increasing twice as much since summer 2010. Most of which seem to spend a lot of time connected on a continuous basis everyday. Since the beginning of 2010, content used by Turkish users seem to change significantly. Personal issues, classical status updates morphed into more social issues and political activist content increased dramatically. Numbers of bloggers writing social issues and independent news sites are growing as well.

Habits of Internet users are changing. But these people were not staring at a wall before. They were doing something else during the hours of the day they now devote to social media. Considering the time slots social media is frequented by users, usage replaces all kinds of old activities ranging from work, a walk by the beach, socializing to family quality time or recreation. Social media as a function of activism is influencing developing countries increasingly. Recent developments in the Middle East are not only ricocheting social revolutions in the region but also use of social media and Internet as a mode of information exchange.

But it is not only "people" who benefits from the social media. Authoritative regimes whose tactics grew obsolete are turning their attention to different means of communication with the masses whom are conditioned with their old methods. Political parties, NGO's, even governments through their official or impersonated accounts are stimulating well established reflexes to prevent liberating character of uncontrolled stream of information. On the other hand, they are implementing censorship policies to restrict access to static information such as blogs or broadcast sites. Social media such as Facebook or YouTube are commonly banned in many undemocratic countries although people find illegitimate ways to connect to these very easily. Recently some Arab countries even cut all Internet or cellular phone access to outside world.

When free access is available social media has a balancing quality in the medium term. People are bombarded by genuine information and propaganda at the same time and in time they learn to filter garbage out in a stream of knowledge. However when the stream is controlled at the source, there is the danger of garbage flowing in all the veins of certain social media.

Technology while liberating the thought by providing access to previously unavailable content in many third world countries, it might turn to a tool of oppression if the creators don't take that factor into account during planning and execution.

In my opinion, the success of Facebook and Twitter lies herein. You cannot differentiate or control content within Facebook, you have to allow it as a whole or ban it altogether. Twitter has a bigger advantage. Many classical content filtering tools don't work with Twitter because it's a distributed application. Many different clients utilize the information fed through Twitter and in certain cases even blocking IP addresses might not work as an efficient censorship.

In time only applications with intrinsic capabilities to promote free speech will prevail. Using social media as a tool of oppression will not succeed, applications that enable this will lose popularity just because of that undependability and be buried in the graveyard of Internet history.

(1) Facebook statistics by country. Socialbakers

Turkey's Time Lost

2011-03-27T11:42:00.002+02:00

Phone ringing woke me up today. It showed 7:35 am. When I hung up the phone I checked the time on my Mac. It was 8:40 am. What we should have done on March 27th that we didn't? Were we supposed to put the time one hour ahead? Were we supposed to put it one hour back? For some time my watch awaits me in another city, so I don't have a wrist watch, and no other mechanical clocks at home. I totally lost track of time in that half-asleep state of mind.

It took me some time to realize the time was supposed to be moved forward for one hour, but it wasn't due to an executive order in Turkey, but my Mac ignoring all-powerful executive orders put its time one hour ahead while my iPhone listened to the signal from my cellular provider and kept the "correct" time for the country.

Some of the people I talked on the phone, who were to attend university quialification exams in Turkey today woke up at a time not supposed to be but is, and some others woke up at a time which is but not supposed to be. There were traffic jams on the roads when they were not supposed to be crowded, and when the clocks show the time that was not supposed to be but officially correct, thousands of university candidates found themselves in front of exam centers one hour early, having to spend another hour on the street adding to their inevitable stress.

Shortly before the university exam, the authority we call government here suddenly realized that daylight savings time will be implemented early in the same day as the exam. Not realizing at first that system works because it's done globally at the same date (with a very few exceptions due to important reasons) implemented it anyway to give the children another hour's sleep.

Decision first hit multinational corporations with interconnected computer systems and International airlines. But an order's an order, isn't it? These companies spent millions of dollars to adapt, airlines to notify their customers of schedule changes.

What the administration missed was the fact that technology manages our time in the 21st Century. While some people were able to wake up at the "right" time with manual adjustments, most woke up, as a result of an intervention by their cellular phones, at a globbaly right but locally wrong hour. For the latter group, which seems to be the majority of kids, all efforts and money spent to have a different time zone for 24 hours are wasted.

Last week is full of examples that shows the time's lost for Turkey. Journalists are put in jail for unpublished works, rapists let go during trials, everyday women and children murdered for blood feuds and moral issues. What we called the "oriental wisdom" in this neck of the woods is increasingly becoming an everyday fact, even the mode of administration. Like the government applying International agreements if it deems useful for its own ideology, otherwise who cares, the price is paid by the people anyway. Administration shows the same attitude towards day-to-day matters as well. If they do it, it must be right.

These events also show that specialization and counselling are losing ground in practice in Turkey. In a country where companies earn millions from Enterprise Resource Planning, basiz budgeting or planning software are unexistent. People manage Turkey the way they manage their political parties, which they manage the way they manage their corporations, which they manage the way they manage their grocery stores. It really does not look like the consequences are evaluated before making a decision to me. What I see is that the results of most decisions show that they are made with the motto; "if I did it, it must be right". Decisions are not taken by asking to people who know, people who know cease to know because knowledge has no longer any value. People who cannot live without knowledge no longer live in Turkey. They simply can't.

Turkey's time's totally lost. Right or wrong, fair or unfair, the World lives in integration. A state not realizing the fact that local decisions are tested in global environment is bound to repeat the mistakes made in the beginning of the 18th Century in the same geography. Earth's resources are very limited for its population. Unfortunately short-term political decisions waste most of these resources and this happens mostly in developing nations where resources are even more scarce.

When we consider distribution of wealth and inequalities on this earth we have to bear that fact in mind. Otherwise we will continue to live in a country where unpublished books are confiscated, in a country where thought is a crime, and in a country where a totally different notion of time exist.

On Libya and US Foreign Policy

2011-03-20T03:40:00.001+02:00

I'm not an expert on Libya. Both politically or sociologically. But, in my humble opinion, the recent developments as I write this piece within a few hours of UN intervention against Qaddafi forces, it constitutes an interesting chapter in US Foreign policy since President Obama implemented serious changes from the beginning of his presidency.
His administration aimed at several objectives best summarized by Z. Brzezinksy in his article "From Hope to Audacity" published on Foreign Affairs:

•Islam is not an enemy, and the "global war on terror" does not define the United
States' current role in the world;
•the United States will be a fair-minded and assertive mediator when it comes to
attaining lasting peace between Israel and Palestine;
•the United States ought to pursue serious negotiations with Iran over its nuclear
program, as well as other issues;
•the counterinsurgency campaign in the Taliban-controlled parts of Afghanistan should be part of a larger political undertaking, rather than a predominantly military one;
•the United States should respect Latin America's cultural and historical sensitivities and expand its contacts with Cuba;
•the United States ought to energize its commitment to significantly reducing its
nuclear arsenal and embrace the eventual goal of a world free of nuclear weapons;
•in coping with global problems, China should be treated not only as an economic
partner but also as a geopolitical one;
•improving U.S.-Russian relations is in the obvious interest of both sides, although this must be done in a manner that accepts, rather than seeks to undo, post-Cold War geopolitical realities; and
•a truly collegial transatlantic partnership should be given deeper meaning, particularly in order to heal the rifts caused by the destructive controversies of the past few years

In the rest of his articles which is the most comprehensive and current study on the matter that I had a chance to read, Brzezinksi briefs every major area of US foreign policy including only Palestine/Israel conflict in the Middle East.
Every sign in US politics since the beginning of Middle Eastern revolutions, and even the stand-off in Wisconsin showed us that the administration was ill-prepared for such a major change in the region. The quick contamination of the Tunisian movement to the neighboring countries in the Middle East, even as far as Azerbaijan and Armenia in some extend, caught all western capitals unprepared for such a change even for the Information Age.
In his assessment of Iran-American relations, Brzezinski stresses that "The wider the agenda -- one that addressed regional security issues, potential economic cooperation, and so on -- the greater the possibility of finding acceptable quid pro quos. Or should Iran be treated as if it is fated to remain a hostile and destabilizing power in an already vulnerable region?" Given the fact that maintaining the stability in Middle East is the highest of all priorities (not only because of the "oil problem" but also because an instability in the region increases sensitivity among the G-7 economical relations) blossoming revolutions in every certain corner of the region should have been an incredible challenge for any policy maker, let alone the bureaucratic conundrum of the United States.
Hence the seemingly long reluctance on both the Libyan and Bahraini affairs. The US worked really hard in the United Nations in cooperation with France to get that 10-0 vote and keep the abstaining 5 abstaining.
In his article Brzezinski notes the deterioration of US relations with Europe due to the internal aspirations of the leaders of latter countries for the last decade or so. It now looks like the administration got the better end of the stick even to create better cooperation and collective unity among historical partners.
And then there is Libyan people. It's rather traditional to perceive any American International action with suspect at least. In the Libyan case, although the open cry for help by the people against Qaddafi forces was eminent and NATO action was backed with a concrete UN resolution and Arab League approval, many Middle Easterners started the chorus of Imperialistic attack against Libyan people immediately. The chorus spans even different and complex political divides of the countries in the region.
Yet Libyan crisis still holds the key to change the image and lebensraum of western politics once and for all. First intervention forces should avoid any action resembling an invasion. Second, both as an example to other dictatorial nations in the area, and maybe backed by another umbrella resolution to include likes of Yemen and Bahrain, UN should extend its protective sphere in all the countries affected by legitimate mass protests against undemocratic regimes.
If and only then the blood shed in Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain and Libya could come close to be shed not in vain and western civilization could regain the credibility it lacks for some time now.

Freedom, freedom of press, or otherwise

2011-03-06T20:20:00.000+02:00

Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener were sent to jail early this morning. Both investigative journalists with different backgrounds or ideologies, they had one common characteristic: pursuit of truth.

And truth is a dangerous subject matter in Turkey.

Nedim Şener is rather known in local and International media as an investigative journo and with his recent books on the background of Hrant Dink murder.
So, I will concentrate on Ahmet Şık and his work, and attempt to shed some light on why this case is becoming a stage in the series of actions by Turkish state to oppress opinion makers in the country.

Ahmet is another investigative journalist whose kind is rarely seen in Turkish media. He has an academical and scrupulous attitude towards his work, and in spite of common tradition in Turkish maid, he always works with the evidence and try to reach the truth no matter what the rewards or the dangers of doing so. He has co-written a book about Ergenekon in Turkey, about ultra-nationalistic and interventionist formations within the military. But he was also very critical on the details of Ergenekon indictment for lacking the real connections between the organization and latest crimes of hate and discrimination in the country.

Last, but of course not the least, he has a finished but not published book on the religious community of Fethullah Gülen and their connections within the state mechanism. And a draft of this book "surfaces" in the computers of other journalists accused of being Ergenekon members.

This morning he was arrested by a court claiming that, Ahmet Şık, a Marxist, was a member of an ultra-nationalist organization and "to arouse animosity and hate in public in general".

The only evidence so far known to connect Ahmet to this organization is a draft of a book found in an other journalist's computer who is yet to be convicted of any connection to this organization himself. Second accusation; "to arouse...." is an open-ended and undemocratic code in itself. One can prove that, say against myself, in many articles written by me, here on this blog. Freedom of expression does not cover only love letters. Writing in itself is provocative, and loses its purpose when stripped of its fervor. This article covers an area left behind since the latest changes in criminal law in Turkey, which traditionally served to oppress any and every kind of opposition in the country.

Many journalists in Turkey as well as many International organizations are considering these arrests as a violation of freedom of expression and slam Turkish government with requests to modernize laws concerning freedom of speech. I agree, but my point for the sake of this article is different.

I have just learned that all questions asked to him during interrogations and arraignment were concerning his writings. The facts about his work, his investigations, and the manner the investigations were handled by the prosecutor's office, leaves one but only one conclusion: Ahmet Şık was arrested for his opinions and for the dangers the status-quo perceived as a result of his investigative work. The court did not come up with one single conceivable evidence other than hearsay or opinions of other suspects.

And now, obviously, one could think "what about the previous arrests?" Just because they had more nationalistic views why wouldn't we give them the benefit of doubt?

As a rule of thumb, when a system loses its validity in judicial proceedings, and if a system does not function on presumption of innocence and starts chain-accusing people based on the actions of non-convicted others, one cannot speak of a fair jurisprudence.

And when there is no law to trust, there cannot be freedoms in the modern sense because they are dependent on who you are and where in time you are.

Let alone freedom of the press.

Spiral of Obsession

2011-02-19T15:00:00.002+02:00

Every state has its own layers of protection to ensure its continuation. In modern democracies its a mixture of constitutional law, criminal law and traditions. Depending on the roots of the particular state these protective conventions differ a great length from one entity to another. For example in the United States, these issues are handled in Federal Law. In UK, traditions play a bigger role. In Greece, democratic ideals are so preemptive in written articles of law that, tradition and ideological extremities play a role of checks and balances on certain issues.

Turkish Republic, from its beginnings, and in resemblance with its predecessor Ottoman Empire, has had different layers of protection from defined or loosely accepted enemies. Although these have changed as times changed and priorities shifted, certain common denominators remained unchanged in its progress. Here, the idea on the center is the perception that the state is above the interest of all its citizens. State is a fatherly figure taking care of its "subjects", and knows "what's best for them" even better than any individual. When you extend the state that far, surely its "protection" would be a complex structure.

At this stage we see the "personification" of the state and the concepts that are related to it. On the outer sphere there are the usual suspects; laws against spying and acts of un-patriotic behavior. People are seldom caught by that net because these kind of accusations need through investigations and solid evidences against the accused. On the second layer there are the specific laws that derive from the "personification" of the state and its past and present representatives. As if the government is not elected by the people and for the people, they are continuously protected from the people including the civil servants. Even moral being of the state and its representation is protected from "ideas". Insulting the state, its founder and its institutions is part of the criminal law in Turkey. And if it is believed that these ideas are expressed collectively, it suddenly becomes the subject of "terror" law and you stand trial for founding a "gang" to end or alter the state which is punishable by up to life sentence. Yes, I am still talking about expressions, not actions. These laws enable any prosecutor to file cases against any dissident writer, journalist, activist or politician at any point in time. Even if they are acquitted at the end, a lawsuit like that would last an average of five years, which is a form of punishment in itself. This layer of protection is used against opposition of any kind and form throughout the modern history of Turkey including years of "democracy" as well as the years of junta.

Closest to the ideal at the center comes, what has recently been called as "neighborhood pressure" by sociologist Serif Mardin. Since this fatherly figure of the state extends to personal perception of people, individuals perceive it almost sinful to propagate against the state or its declared values without even questioning their integrity. Friends and colleagues urge each other to prevent expressing "these kinds of opinions" either because they are totally wrong by definition, or because "it won't be good for the person" to express these opinions. "One should think about their children at the end".

Add to this thousands of missing people known within the last few decades, hundreds of more official killings during and after junta regimes of different decades, and annihilation of each and every "minority" during the last century in the country, one can now have a glimpse of a well established police state disguised very unsuccessfully as a developing democracy.

Hidden under very carefully drafted rhetoric, this is the tradition and justice system prevailing in Turkey now. One significant difference between now revolting Arab states and Turkey is the fact that in Arab states, dictators are considered a part of the regime, so actions are taken against the established power. In Turkey state is even above the people who represent it at any given time. People might consider themselves against one particular government or regime in Turkey. However that blinds them against the real culprit; the state that uses all these puppets called statesmen, feeding them with worldly rewards, using them as false targets to secure its permanence.

A New Epoque

2011-02-13T07:29:00.001+02:00

Back in early 90's, I have to admit, I felt the chills. When I started my first company that pioneered Internet business of its kind, started my first Internet radio, or online paper, all in early 90's, I sincerely felt I was part of something new and incredible. But even in my boldest dreams, I underestimated Internet a great deal, it seems now. When it all started back in the States, before the age of corporate fundings, buyouts or Silicon Valley vultures, we were a bunch of dimwits trying to make it with a scarce dream. And the rest was history.

Or so we thought. We had to wait 15 or so years to witness what connectedness could alter in human history.

There was a debate on Twitter recently. About "the common man as a journo". Professionals of Turkish media all stated that they don't trust reporting capabilities of men on the streets. At the same time, many op-ed columnists were discriminating against Arab people, claiming that their lack of democratic experience would lead to their demise, once again as a people.

In a country where the daily agenda is full of lawlessness, personal political vendettas and vicious circles, we did not see what was brewing right under our noses. Global economical crisis and increased means of communications enabled our neighbors to organize and develop a mass behavior like no other people done before. They gave passive resistance and peaceful activism a new name. They have started in Tunisia, broke the back of a thirty years old dictatorship in Egypt, and only God knows what's next.

But that's not the purpose of this article. I will not brag about the peaceful revolution of the people, their braveness and so on, although yes, they wrote an unprecedented page in history, and yes, nothing will be the same ever again.

I wish to point out about the divide in this geography we call Middle East. The divide came out between the intrinsically autocratic societies like Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Eastern European nations and revolutionary nations of Middle East and North Africa. It's not a cultural divide, nor it is a political one. It's rather an educational and behavioral one.

Since the start of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, commentators and editors from all walks of life in Turkey were putting down Arabs and their motivations/intentions. Their innate hatred and scare of the "other" made them discount the numbers in Tahrir Square. (A columnist wrote there were only a few thousand demonstrators at most) And finally, supporters of "social democrat" party claimed that what happened in Egypt was a military coup and people were pawns directed by the army and the United States despite the panic and disorder in the State Department during the revolution.

Even in the most liberal of all media, commentators drove away from the possibility of an uprising of sorts in Turkey, where the government is moving towards an authoritarian regime day by day, where people are disappearing for more than 30 years never to be found again and court case after court case were opened against military high brass with accusations of coup attempts. Yet, public opinion still claims that Turkey should "export" its democracy to "poor Arabs".

Someone wrote on Twitter that only Kurds could rise in Turkey, another one answered; "what do you think they are doing for the last 30 years?"

In Turkey, rising against a regime is unthinkable. Only regime rising against its own people could be understood. Human life is dispensable, only state is everlasting. Even individual identity of a human being, even human dignity is minute. Mass graves are OK if you think people in them were acting against the state. "State knows better than we do, so if it's doing something to us, it's because it can think better than us". Discrimination is essential if a group is or perceived to be against the good of the state as a holy being.

Given the same tools and conditions of their Greek or Arab brothers, Turkish society is passive comparatively. (There is immense Internet use in Turkey (48% penetration), but statistics show widespread use is not for informative or communications purposes.) Small sporadic reactions in the form of demonstrations or rallies are met by the harsh and destructive response by police forces and dispersed immediately. If you criticize the state, there is always Code 301 against defamation of the state which could put you in jail for several years just for expressing your thoughts.

Small but growing number of the population is fighting for its rights albeit the tradition of full or semi military interventions that swiped many generations but their actions are closely monitored by the state and appropriate punishment (lawful or otherwise) is arbitrary.

But then again, you might say that the conditions in Egypt or Tunisia were no different. That's where the differences in perception play their role. The above conditions in Turkey are perceived to be normal by the majority of the population. Until the demand for democracy comes from the masses instead of being given different sets of democracies fit for the benefits of these or that group of autocrats in Turkey, hope for change is dependent upon the quality and purpose of popular politicians. And their interest, history shows, seldom coincide with the benefits of the people.

We were at Hrant

2011-01-21T12:17:00.000+02:00

Increasing in numbers

Tears and solidarity

Moment of recognition

All as one

One heart, one memory...

Hrant

2011-01-15T12:14:00.002+02:00

In our religion, we show respect in silence.
Today there are no politics, no human rights, no minorities, no big words.
Only hidden tears.
And a screaming longing.
Today we go to Hrant.
I miss him.

Wikiwhat?

2010-12-01T09:09:00.000+02:00

The dust has not settled yet. Yes, the Cablegate is on and Assange's Wikileaks is leaking almost 40 years of American Foreign Mission correspondence. Only the first 24 hours over and only 0,1% of the documents released, it's rather early to comment on anything. However, very interesting commentary from several countries are already hitting the newswires. And this brief note would try to deal with those early comments and one specific document within two hundred seventy something that has already released.

People call this event the third world war. Some others call it a precursor of an inevitable cyber-war which they think would be the future of warfare. I call it a major test on online civil rights and liberties. Some US politicians already declared that they would love Wikileaks to be included in the list of terrorist organizations. I somewhat agree to Secretary of State when she said that confidentiality of private information is paramount to civilization as we know it. But leaking administrative information pertinent to International manipulations and diplomatic hypocrisies could not be considered a pure breach of that principle since it produces information gathered for the people, funded by the people and implemented against both the will and benefit of the people. I also agree with Clinton, when she said that this information might harm individuals or societies at large. Yes, but can we say that these "individuals" or "societies", while maybe performing their duties stuck to universally accepted principles? For example the report I will mention below by then Ankara Ambassador Edelman, whom does it harm? Labeled as a "hawk" and "pro-con" once, it shows his competency as a political analyst and sheds the limelight onto the corrupt and hedonistic political arena in Turkey. And if these actors that he speaks of in his report would be harmed, what's wrong with that?

I'm aware of the fact that information is a two sided knife. Every opinion holder might have some justifiable points. But we must be aware of a new age in which we are living for a good 20 years now. The concept of private and confidential information is changing. Responsible behavior is no longer the duty of only common masses. This could lead to two things; one is compartmentalization of private information by the governments, which would in turn add to their clumsiness and authoritarianism like a new Patriot Act, and the second is liberalization of information in the long run. And this author thinks both will happen respectively.

Another reaction came from the PM of Turkey, Erdogan on his way to a new episode on his endless foreign visits declared Wikileaks unreliable and stated that all the documents should be revealed until they would officially comment on them. In a few hours, all major International players have neither declined nor confirmed allegations surfaced by Wikileaks cables, which in diplomacy means a silent acceptance. Turkey once more was isolated in its haste.

Let's read Edelman:

"In surrounding himself with an iron ring of sycophantic (but contemptuous) advisors, Erdogan has isolated himself from a flow of reliable information, which partially explains his failure to understand the context -- or real facts..."

"A second question is the relation of Turkey and its citizens to history -- the history of this land and citizens' individual history. Subject to rigid taboos, denial, fears, and mandatory gross distortions, the study of history and practice of historiography in the Republic of Turkey remind one of an old Soviet academic joke: the faculty party chief assembles his party cadres and, warning against various ideological threats, proclaims, "The future is certain. It's only that damned past that keeps changing.""

In his analysis, after establishing the current outlook in 2004, and a vivid portrayal of many imminent politicians in Turkey, ends his words with the above remark on the infamous Soviet joke. It looks like only yesterday's statements by the PM proves him right. Lack of understanding and vision is encumbering Turkey for almost a century now. Despite any ossible argument on morality or outcome scenarios of Cablegate, one has to first indicate the good it could do to world politics. Many ideas, analyses or directions were taken and put away only to be destroyed when due date comes. Introduction of these ideas into public domain would help understand our recent past better as well as enabling academia and think-tanks to envision a future with a different kind of freedom of flow of information and access to so-called public documents.

Just let it be...

2010-10-25T18:37:00.003+03:00

I need closure. I need an end. I, I, I, I, yes, this is about me. Otherwise I'll lose it. I need to block the voices.

Every month, there is a stupid development in the news about Hrant. In his life, everyday, there were news from somewhere that killed him. He yelled many times that he was sick and tired. Of ignorance. Of irrelevancies.

Now, it's my turn. I'm tired of anything that is done to remember, to forget, to martyrize, to embellish him or his memory. I'm just tired.

That could easily be my ending. Of a story that has been told for so long, and became its own rival, its own nemesis. I don't love him because he was a great man. I never cared if he was right or wrong, or if he changed the word or solved the Armenian problem.

You need to get this. I loved him because he was him. A soul, a heart, who shared my existence for extensive periods of time. That's what I cherish. And that's all.

That could easily be my end. Don't want to share. Don't want to remember, don't want that pain. It's over. I want peace. I need closure. I don't want to hear loud voices.

Just peace.

And may the peace be with you my friend.

Just let us be...

Requiem

Grits Dreams

2010-10-24T10:44:00.001+03:00

When waiting for the sun to come up in Savannah, Georgia, the ocean flutters with sounds. Sounds of seagulls, leaving fishing crafts and basically sea touching everything that surrounds it. These little voices you can only hear at the wake of a new day. As I have called it before, this "heaven on earth" has many vices. I leave these to travel writers, for me Savannah is a criss-cross beauty of streets and stately houses and ocean and surely the food.

As you drive down I-95, it all comes to a halt when you reach suburban Savannah. Southern charm takes you to her arms and nurture you with the best that corner of our world has to offer. And a local diner is always ready to serve you with your pre-day meal. And I hate to leave the convention and would like to order some pancakes, bacon'n eggs and of course grits.
We are in the south aren't we? If pancakes will soothe you and bacon and eggs will add flavor to your palate, grits will be the real soul searcher. I don't remember when it was the first time I ever ate grits. But since this first encounter, they became one of the pillar stones for me that represent Americana. A Native American food, grits are basically coarsely ground corn; a maize cereal. But so far the best form of corn I've consumed.

From the olden corner diners of Tennessee country land, to busy and crowded IHOP in Orlando city, grits are served all day to greet the occasional newbie southern style. It never gets cold in the south but if I have to quote a restaurateur from Luisiana, "hot and spicy takes the warmth out of your body, it cools your feelings". Same goes for grits for me. Before the dawn breaks, on this beautiful Savannah autumn day, a full serving of grits reminds me of a lazy spring breeze down here at the harbor.

The view proves me right. There are poor people in Savannah like everywhere in the States. But everyone in Savannah are stately. There is still time for the music. There is still time for the early Sunday crowds to fill the streets in their prettiest garments. On my table outdoors, a little bit of morning frost, and a big helping of grits vapor. A few seagulls around. And an occasional fishy smell from the docks. A perfect picture.

Soon, morning dwellers will surround me in this tiny forlorn diner. I'll hear cheerful children's voices with a familiar twang which I've grown to adore whenever I hear it. They will be forgetting their financial blues for a few hours of Savannah morn. They will not count the bills when they ask for the receipt. Orleans music will fill the loudspeakers that stand silently for now. The sea will go back to its silent murmur. People will be the voice of Savannah once more.

I will stay. With grits on my plate. To remind me the real taste of life where the dreams are true just an arms length away. Only if we stop whining about past and eat grits and catch a merry moment in life.

Re-islamization of Asia Minor

2010-10-10T14:48:00.000+03:00

Ultra-nationalists are planning to conquer Asia Minor, all over again. Tomorrow, on October 1st, MHP, their major political organization is planning a Friday prayer session in Holy Virgin Cathedral at Ani, a sacred and antique settlement in what used to be Western Armenia. They claim 5000 people will join.

In the last couple months, Turkish state, dormant about the Christian heritage in Turkey, allowed two Eastern Orthodox masses to take place in Sumela Monastry near Trabizond and Holy Cross Church at Akhtamar Island in the Lake of Van. It looks like these two events have flamed a nationalist uproar in the country.

Today, two head figures of MHP, namely the leader Bahçeli and Kars Office Chief O. Akbas declared that “Anatolia (Asia Minor) will experience a new conquest by Muslim Turks against renewed desires for a Pontian Greek State and a western Armenia” in the lands that is Turkey now.

Tomorrow, upon obtaining the permits from local authorities, the followers of MHP are planned to pray together at Holy Virgin Cathedral at Ani near Kars. A wave of protests are expected from countries like Armenia and Greece. It’s a muslim custom to convert churches into mosques. There are a lot of examples of churches-turned-mosques all over Istanbul and elsewhere in Asia Minor.

Η Πόλις

2010-10-10T14:47:00.002+03:00

Είπες· «Θα πάγω σ’ άλλη γή, θα πάγω σ’ άλλη θάλασσα,
Μια πόλις άλλη θα βρεθεί καλλίτερη από αυτή.
Κάθε προσπάθεια μου μια καταδίκη είναι γραφτή·
κ’ είν’ η καρδιά μου — σαν νεκρός — θαμένη.
Ο νους μου ως πότε μες στον μαρασμό αυτόν θα μένει.
Οπου το μάτι μου γυρίσω, όπου κι αν δω
ερείπια μαύρα της ζωής μου βλέπω εδώ,
που τόσα χρόνια πέρασα και ρήμαξα και χάλασα».

Καινούριους τόπους δεν θα βρεις, δεν θάβρεις άλλες θάλασσες.
Η πόλις θα σε ακολουθεί. Στους δρόμους θα γυρνάς
τους ίδιους. Και στες γειτονιές τες ίδιες θα γερνάς·
και μες στα ίδια σπίτια αυτά θ’ ασπρίζεις.
Πάντα στην πόλι αυτή θα φθάνεις. Για τα αλλού — μη ελπίζεις –
δεν έχει πλοίο για σε, δεν έχει οδό.
Ετσι που τη ζωή σου ρήμαξες εδώ
στην κώχη τούτη την μικρή, σ’ όλην την γή την χάλασες.

Κωνσταντίνος Π. Καβάφης (1910)

Votes, Churches and other relevant frivolities

2010-09-20T16:05:00.003+03:00

A journalist friend of mine will get crazy about this article. She'd say "too many subjects in one single article" or "it's too long and complex to be read easily, and there are too many points to consider". Yes, I know. But in Turkey, the agenda is full of such frivolities that public opinion takes so seriously; one leads to another, and one ends up with such a confused and paralyzed mind; such articles are a matter of daily reality, and one has to live with them. As one does with chaotic traffic, and stupid rules of everyday life that no-one obeys.

First there was the referendum. In accordance with the prerequisites of European Union membership, and long term goals of the prevailing government such as eliminating the pressure to their administration by the status quo supporters in Turkey, majority in the parliament come up with a package of constitutional changes. The package included several amendments, most of which were supported even by the opposition. But a few, especially concerning the changes in the way that higher court members would be appointed, were highly criticized. The vote in parliament were a little shy of the needed 2/3rd majority; so according to the constitution, people had to approve the package by voting on a referendum. Until this point everything seemed in order.

As the referendum approached, it turned into a fanfare. Both government and opposition leaders approached the public as if they were demanding votes for a common election, and the discussions went on and on on their private virtues, past and capabilities instead of the virtues or hence the lack of, of the amendments in the package. The language immediately became rude and what is left over is only a bunch of insults and outrage.

Ah, yes, 'yes' votes won, and now the administration have a huge task of amending a huge number of laws accordingly. The real discovery about the referendum is that both sides of the divide in Turkey, namely the status-quo supporters (so called right wing and ultra-nationalists) versus liberals and conservatives (read islamists) of every make and mold, both are radicalized to the extreme. Neither party has any tolerance for each other, both are very hostile to people of different views and the society is getting bipolar continuously. Both sides seriously think the others are traitors of the nation.

And both parties think all Christians living in the country have already sold it out.

First there was the mass at Soumela near Trabizond. Greeks around the world collected there for a mass to celebrate "The Dormition of the most holy lady Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary" on August 15th, under the scrutiny and permissions of the state. However since the venue is considered to be a museum, the permissions for a mass there only had to be executed outside the premises. Among cries of threats and assaults hundreds of Greek Orthodox believers gathered, prayed and danced to their own music afterwards. Among them, Pontus Greeks celebrated an unexpected return to their motherland. Feelings and hysteria were galore.

The public at large in Turkey was agitated. Since they saw every Greek or Armenian existence on their land as a threat in their conscience, squeaking voices were heard in the media criticizing the state for "letting enemies of the state to demonstrate on the motherland soil".

And there came September the 19th. After 95 years of void, the Holy Cross Church on the island of Akhtamar in the Lake of Van witnessed a resurrection of enormous importance. But not the resurrection of the Holy Cross it was named after. Eastern Orthodox Armenians were excited everywhere came the month of September. It has long been decided that newly renovated Church of Holy Cross in Akhtamar would be inaugurated for service and this service would be repeated once every year on the same date. But then again, it was claimed to be a museum as well sharing the fate of many churches in Turkey including Agia Sophia in Istanbul. So at first the state refused to put a cross on op of the church of Holy Cross. All Armenian churches including the patriarchate in Armenia protested this development, and declared they would not attend the proceedings.

Turkish state fall back against the protests and declared it would erect the cross on top of the building after the mass of September the 19th. This, we will yet to see. But for many, who attended the mass yesterday, it was a day to remember despite everything. Many had come to Turkey for the first time, a land they consider their motherland. The fact that Akhtamar is considered to be one of the most holy places in southern Armenia also helped the outburst of feelings among the prayers. Armenian Eastern Orthodox Patriarch supported the reasons of other churches for not attending the ceremony in his inauguration speech, but he said it was nonetheless a beginning for mending of old wounds. It was indeed. Near future would be good grounds to test the sincerity of Turkish authorities to provide a lebensraum for its dwindling Christian minorities and their rights to perform not only their religious traditions but also their cultural customs.

Yet this author finds it necessary to connect the dots here. In the turn of the first decade of the millennium in Turkey, we are now faced with a bipolar society, with raised levels of both intolerance and nationalism. Acts of violence against religious or ethnic minorities are on the rise every year since 2002 elections. There seems to be a dialogue between minority leaders and government officials but in the final analysis, every request hits the same concrete wall as it did for the last 80 something years. And yes, "fear and loathing in las vegas" is the name of the game after the deaths of Hrant Dink (a Turkish-Armenian journalist), two fathers of the Catholic Church and a Christian publisher.

Turkey has a record of failing every test of sincerity against its minorities for centuries. If it has a tendency to change, albeit rising nationalism among its citizens, it is yet to be seen. I'm afraid that these efforts will end up as food for the upcoming elections in 2011, and will be forgotten for another lifetime.

(For background information and in depth information on above mentioned facts please read Fréderike Geerdink's "Church or Museum".)

...hardly loving...

2010-09-10T15:47:00.000+03:00

when their hands are stitched
stitched forever, for a century to come,
when connected, through their minds,
connected despite the distance.
their minds are one in all, in all the nightmares
of the streets lost, the blood
in their hands, on their feet;
their hands stitched into each other
their hands in blood.
are there endless prairies in far away lands
are there dreams of birds praying on waste
of those who doesn't know
are you comfortable now
are you content
your children have no voice,
they are still ablaze
whom you call home for dinner
when the sun-of a thousand years-fade away
their feet are bare
their shadows or their faces longer
creeping into a nightmare
everyday
remember sunflower leftovers on your doorsteps
remember the laughter
watch over your elderly
watch over your hands
despite all and still
stitched together.

(In memoriam to the martyrs of Smyrna)

"Ta Septemvriana"-Last hope lost

2010-09-06T20:56:00.001+03:00

Tonight is the night many of my follow citizens spent a night in Konstantinoupolis (Istanbul) fifty-five years ago in nightmares. Today their sons were killed, today, fifty-five years ago their daughters were abused. Their shops were destroyed. But their pride was intact.

They did what a real citizen would do. They thought the pogrom against the Greeks of K'poli (Istanbul) and Smyrna (Izmir) was an act of a mob. They waited for the state to protect them. They didn't know then, the state itself was behind the mob. The last remnants of the Greek population of Asia Minor would be sent away. 5o years of ethnic cleansing against the Greeks was about to be completed.

They also didn't know they were spending one of the last nights that they would in a city that they have built almost two millennia ago. A city that they created, embellished and worshipped above all. A city where its Greek inhabitants survived centuries of abuse, humiliation and torture. But that was it. As an infamous patriarch of the turn of the century couldn't save them when Greek Republic was formed, as banishing the newly born Greece couldn't save his head, the fate was written on the wall.

The father of the protagonist of the movie "Politiki Kouzina" (Cuisine of Poli) narrates about the night they were deported from the city. The policemen comes and asks them to leave, while whispering to his ear; "but of course if you turn muslim, you can stay". The father still cries when he says that he thought about it for some seconds. He couldn't decide right away. Noone can decide right away when it comes to this city. But even they thought, their blood, their beliefs, and most of all their belief to mother Greece, made them leave the city of their dreams.

So they went.

Their bodies are gone for decades. But their souls linger on. When I hear Dalaras sing "The bells of Hagia Sophia", I still hear the chorus of countless refugees. This is what they are still. Premature kids of mother Greece; belonging nowhere, still in limbo.

You can hear Theia Eleni weeping if you listen carefully on the pavement at Yeniköy. You can see the absurd looks on the faces of private security personnel at Fanari. Or you may take the "vapori" (steamship) to the Princess islands. Where you can listen the cries of sirens longing for their habitual songs of amines.

Yes, for half a century, the city lost its children. But that unfortunately was not the gain of another. Children were simply lost. That's all.

Maybe soon in time, no one would remember the citizens of K'Poli. But the city will. From the walls of Hagia Sophia, or from the ruins of a Byzantine aqua-duct, you will still hear the song "Kaiktsi", longing for a lover lost on a different shore, in the centuries to come. Because a child never forgets the womb he was created in.

Imagining Chios

2010-08-30T20:52:00.002+03:00

It's just an island. Or is it? Situated close to Asia Minor, the Greek island of Chios has history, tradition and quality embedded in its culture.

Like the enormous castle that dominates the Chios town (Chora) or the medieval village of Mesta, the whole island resonates a very rich past and a promising future. Although influenced by temporary Italian influences, Chios was a member of the original Ionic League and predominantly Greek throughout the centuries. It is also notable with its huge diaspora dispersed around the world, especially in London, New York and Australia. During summer English can easily become lingua franca in Chios town hotspots.

Chios was also first home of many immigrants from Asia Minor and runaway Greek soldiers from the great catastrophe in the 1920's. These helped form the abundant cultural riches of today's Chios. People of the island come second in hospitality and kindness to none. Mr. Hadzeleni at the harbor's travel agency, or Mr. Spordilis of Hotel Kyma are helping all and every visitor in the best they can, everyday. In my 30 something years of experience I never heard Mr. Hadzeleni say "no" to any request. An islander by birth, Mikis Theodorakis might be considered as an epitome of kindness and grace that represents Chios.

But fame and fashion are not my points in this article. I'd like to present Chios as a mere escape pod. The south full of Masticha trees and unforgettable beaches and the north, although bare, hosting a few of the most unspoiled spots for recreation, Chios is a heaven for many who had enough of the city hustle, let it be in Athens, London, New York or Istanbul. The food, although far from competing with Lesvos, is unique and non-touristic. In Komi, as well as Chios town, you can find authentic tavernas, that will feed you with the care of your grandmother. I would like to mention one: Tasso's in Chios town, 3 minutes walk south of Hotel Chandris (or Hotel Kyma) is the summit of homely cooking in a touristic town.

Last week I was in Chios. Surely that was not my first time there. Living in Smyrna makes it necessary to use Chios as a gateway to Greece or to the rest of the world. However this was special. I wasn't there for a quick day or with a plan. I was there to feel free. And being there to feel free made all the difference. Biking the mountain roads under the sun with a Meltemi breeze, finding hidden treasures, be it food or a village and its blossoming hospitality, were all unique experiences even for a seasoned Greece traveler. I have felt at home in many places in Greece, but Chios felt more home among equals.

I will keep and cherish my memories with my bike and friends there, but I'll share with you this: whenever you feel like you need freedom, forget the crowded streets of Mykonos or Santorini. Chios awaits you with all its charm and sincerity at a short flights range. Say kalimera to all you meet, and they will greet you with unparalleled hospitality, friendship and with their immense culinary riches. And of course best beaches around this neck of the woods are a solid bonus.

Dink Genocide

2010-08-18T01:33:00.000+03:00

How many times can you kill a man?

How many times can you dishonor an honorable family? How many times can you deny what was his right by birth? How many times can you dehumanize a humanitarian?

I will not go into details of who Hrant Dink was and what the lawsuit in European Human Rights Dink family started against Turkish Republic in this article. You may read it in detail here. But rather, I will concentrate on the defense of the T.R. in the same court case.

Hrant Dink was killed by a desperado in front of his newspaper in Istanbul. He was warned beforehand in the town canter, in presence of the governor by two dark personalities. He has received countless death threats all his professional life. And the trial of his murderer became a quick farce. After the prosecutor started a case against him, he personally turned to European Human Rights Court against that case. After his death, his family reapplied to the same court against the negligence of Turkish authorities in the events that lead to his murder.

In the official defense statement that the government sent to European Human Rights Court, Turkey claims that Mr. Dink cannot be harmed by the lawsuits against him in Turkey, basically, because he is dead now. They forget the fact that these very lawsuits and the media fanfare around them might be the very reason of his death. Or one might also claim that these lawsuits and the propaganda that came along them were deliberate to ignite the events that lead to the murder of Hrant Dink.

On a humanitarian front though, claiming a person can no longer be harmed of any wrongdoing because the wrongdoings were successful and caused him his life is a pure hypocrisy, and shows the judiciary approach and its fallacies in Turkey in general.

Secondly Turkey claims his writings were endangering social harmony and were dangerous for the community as were the National Socialist propaganda in Europe. We are talking about a person who, in each article he wrote, wrote about the importance of peace and harmony among ethnic groups in Turkey. We are talking about a person who never hurt anyone or in his rare rants, never broke a heart. Comparing his thoughts (because all his actions were basically thoughts and articles) with the ones of Nazis only show the kind of people governing the Turkish state: the same as the ones governing this unfortunate country since 1880's.

One, but only one results could be derived from the events of post-Dink murder era: Turkish Republic is committing the same crime over and over again and should be stopped.

Every time their actions are disturbing the memory and humanity of Hrant Dink and Dink Family, they are killing Hrant over and over again. Every time they defend and sympathize with his murderer and the mentality behind him, every time the judges of so-called Turkish justice system puts down the prosecution of his murderers, every time his name is scorned upon to degrade his people, they are killing him again. They have created a new type of genocide through one person.

As they have destroyed the whole Christian population of Asia Minor during the first half of the last century, they are trying to get rid of other minorities of the area ever since. But one fact eludes these fools: there is no end to minorities in this geography since it is composed of immigrants from all over Middle East, Asia and Balkans; and one day they might end up without a people that they could call citizens.

I don't think that would matter though. What's important is the state. Even if it has no people to live in it.

"Possessions" of Armenians

2010-08-11T16:43:00.000+03:00

On his article in Today's Zaman on August 11th, 2010, Mr. Orhan Kemal Cengiz questions if the real reason why Turkish state denies Armenian genocide is in fact monetary. The fact that the state would have to pay billions for the Armenian property left in Asia Minor after the atrocities of 1915 and later. He concludes that the real reason reaches far beyond that and should be found at the definition of Turkish identity as a people and an ongoing war by the "deep state" to hide the lies told anise the inauguration of the modern Turkish Republic. I cannot agree more.

He writes; "we are now able to hear the allegations of some historians in the mainstream media about the possessions of Armenians". That is where I was stuck. Being a member of what today we call "minorities of Asia Minor", I have strong opposition to this word: possessions. For Armenians, albeit local or a member of a diaspora somewhere, the main possession is their memories. The land, houses, shops and other dwellings are important because they are all parts of that collective memory.

Surely, I am young to understand anyone who has witnessed or direct relative of one who has witnessed 1915, 1922 or even 1950's. But my experience with people who are direct witnesses of these events make me think that no Armenian, or Greek, or Assyrian is after a house, or money or anything tangible. Many Armenian diaspora organizations have collectively stated that, monetary requests are just tools to force the opponents to acceptance.

Here's the deal. Even though an International Court could grant (which I really doubt) any compensation to an Armenian or Greek family, there are many International agreements that resolved these claims in mid and late 20's. It would be awful hard to pass through these unless new facts about the details of the Genocide will be unearthed.

The real claim is about the memories. It is not about the ownership of the land. It is about the memories stolen from generations of people by an ethnic cleansing that started in the late 19th century that goes on even today. It is for the memory of the little children of 1915, from whom, not only the families were stolen, but also their identity. It is for the memory of hundreds of thousand of "Turkish" grandfathers and grandmothers of today who hid their religion, beliefs, traditions even from their own children and grandchildren. It is for the memory of countless Armenians and Greeks, and Assyrians, and Zarathustrans, and Kurds, and others dispersed around the globe and forced to assume different identities.

And in the memory of those under the ground. In Asia Minor or elsewhere, in mass graves or under green grass at a calm pasture in the U.S. It is their memory that has to be replaced; not some house in Caesaria. The houses lost their souls. It is about putting the souls of living and lost in the right perspective.

She had a pink scarf and silvery eyes...

2010-08-10T19:56:00.000+03:00

At a cheap restaurant in market district in Izmir, three women sat. Two were elderly, one was a youngster. They ordered the regular fare. And started chatting. The youngster had a dark skin, and very light blue eyes. And an incredible pink scarf. She wore a black top with long sleeves to cover all her visible parts per Islamic rule. She had long skirt that extended to the floor. It was 40 something degrees. And not a drop of sweat at sight.

There was something wrong in her eyes at first. Couldn't point out what and directed my attention back to my own plate. But it was not before long her attitude attracted my attention again. It was obvious that she couldn't focus her state on one subject. Her eyes were moving rapidly horizontally and she was pointing her gaze at different points continuously. She looked so unhappy, so dull, so disoriented, yet so beautiful in all.

She ignored all communications attempts by her party. As their plates arrive, the rest of the table attacked their food. She kept staring. No head movement, no interest in her food. Just her eyes moved as they did before and her unrecognizing gaze kept on staring in my direction.

For the next forty-five minutes this charade continued. She searched for an unknown help somewhere. She looked and looked without a single emotion or motion, save for a few touches to her nose with her fingers. Yes, she was desperate, but why and of what escapes me.

Does it?

A young beautiful girl, all wrapped head to toe with heavy clothes on a fervent summer day, who knows what kind of torture she faces under the yoke of the males of her family everyday? Do I really wonder what became of her? Or she is just sharing a common fate of many Muslim women in this world?

As her party finished their food and paying and doggy-bagging her plate, she jumped to her feet. Started walking to a destination without waiting for anyone.

She had a place to rush to. Or not. Maybe she was just trying to leave herself behind.

To Apple or not to Apple

2010-08-10T19:53:00.000+03:00

Confusion abound. As a long time Apple user I'm confused too. Are we going back to the days of 1980's where Apple ruled the world with new toy ideas? Where Jobs ran after one idea after another, ending up creating MacIntosh and ruining Lisa? Or is it still the "new" Jobs and innovation is more disciplined and streamlined?

My problem: OK, iPhone and iPad are creating great revenues and market domination for the company. But Apple still has incredible Macs and an incredible OS to take care of. We haven't seen any major renovation since Snow Leopard on the latter. And while cutting edge renovations are being introduced on every iPhone generation, our Macs are unibodies still. Yet, we still pay a huge premium for them.

I accept that Windows and PC's still have a long way to go to even get closer. But I'd like to know if Apple is becoming a gadget corporation. Look at an Apple Store and if you scratch the gloss on top, you'll see what I mean.

Where is the tablet Mac that my daughter is waiting for since she was in middle school? iPad? No way, she became a graphics guru on a MBP and there is no way she'll be satisfied with a gadget that cannot run Photoshop or Illustrator. She needs a tablet Mac like so many other professionals.

As I write these words on my MBP, I feel uneasy. I'm so used to be sitting at the cutting edge of technology thanks to Apple for so many years, I'm uneasy about the near future of my computing habits.

If Apple ignores us Mac aficionados, there will be an Android that would come up and destroy our comfort, and I'd hate Apple for it if that day comes. Jobs needs to reinvent himself again?

Quixotes we are. With each word you'll see the windmills morph into huge giants and the fight would regain its meaning

2010-07-17T21:58:00.000+03:00

Quixotes we are. With each word you'll see the windmills morph into huge giants and the fight would regain its meaning.

Sailing through an angry sea you enter the gates of Barcelona. She is proud. She's defecated. She is alone. She is not the land of Cervantes. But she hosts his tamable buildings on her hills. Red hills of sorrow.

We write Cervantes dreams on each and every page. Pages, once written, turns into birds with silver wings. Like a mirror, the world around them displayed on their furry silver. Wings whisper the words to unbecoming ears. Ears deaf and musical alike. Propagating loneliness. Whispers become waterfalls. Trees root in them. Glorious forever.

Implant the windmills of Mykonos to the heights of Barcelona in your mind. Bring in the music. Bring in shrimps in parsley sauce. Bring all the mermaids of Aegean. Bring in the dance of men. Men who cry us oceans. Let all these be of our words, longing for the fight. The fight of our dreams of youth.

You will see with your mind's eye then. Windmills planted on Barcelona heights will marry Aegean wind. A music will fill your ears. Unspoken before, unheard. It will cry Dulcinea!. When she is heard, the windmills will turn into great giants. Ready to fight your head off. Unto the ground. With full force. Crushing.

Close your eyes. Remind you of my words. For they are the power of your whispers. To win the fight, the whispers we inherited in our bones. To see the sea and be one without shedding a tear. Of sorrow. Of regret.

Close your eyes. Your hair will cover your ears. But. You'll see the sea.

Dear Tamarik,

2010-07-12T13:21:00.003+03:00

Today, there is a carpet stuck in my mind. Today is a different day. Today is a different animal.

There are times in one's life, special times where concepts get turned around. You start to look at your own work differently. You start looking at the mirror in a different way. There had been an injection of fresh faith in your perception. Today is such a day.

Dear Tamarik,

Do you ever lie? Have you survived a lie ever? Have you went through a labyrinth of your own, so quick that your own face seemed blurred? Did you embellish that lie so perfectly that it became your reality? Craving about a ghost in your dreams which never existed in your daily life before?

The past always keeps on living near us. It haunts our best days, our worst days alike. It has a way of crumbling our minds. All 'as if's, 'I wish's, 'never mind's, poke around the corner as we hurry for a meeting or eat out lunch or walk a street.

Where are you right now? Really. In that meeting? Or at lunch? Or are you tripping over the clouds like I do? Which clouds I might ask as well. Are there any clouds left for us to trip over? Or there is only the scorching desert sun painting the sky day and night? How about that tree you climbed? A lie, too?

I know there are no lies. Your hump is real. You carry with yourself onehundredtwenty years of pain, alienation and chagrin. I can see it in your eyes. I can see it the way you carry your head when bowing down to pet your cat. Or waiting at that table for someone to enter your hinterland, as you get ready to shoot him an questioning gaze. As you tell fortunes everyday. As if the whole world was a huge cup and our tears were leftover coffee on the insides of this cup. You tell fortunes. As you travel to cities you don't like.

Why don't you like them? Because they lack the forests you crave? Or just because they don't reflect your looks? The looks you expect to come one day, like a shining bright star shooting across the dim sunset sky. There is no such star I'm afraid Dear Tamarik. But you go to them anyways. As you go to places that you know you'll never come back. Like life.

Dreams are made of cotton candy Dear Tamarik. As people chow them in gluttony they become manure. Manure of generations of gluttons are gathered in our door day by day. Our thoughts, our haste, our irrevocable fight is to clean our doorstep. So we can live on our own cotton candy. Dreameaters we are.

You know where I come from. Do you want to see it? Or do you want to curse at it away? Do you know?

Too many questions Dear Tamarik. When we distill our thoughts through the alembic of trial and tribulation we shall see if we can come up with anything but manure. I'm sure among the surest that your thoughts will turn into little birds of hope. Flying to remind us that you were there, you were fine, you were thinking about good things to come. Mine on the other hand, will go, search, find and feed them wherever they can be found.

Because they are and they always will be all we got.

Κωδικός: ‘χαμηλή ένταση’

2010-07-08T01:54:00.000+03:00

Έχω περάσει πολύ χρόνο στην Ελλάδα και στα νησιά της, πολύ χρόνο από τη ζωή μου. Έχω δει μέρες από τη Μεταπολίτευση. Υπήρξα μάρτυρας μικρών ή μεγάλων οικονομικών συμφορών. Διάολε, η ιστορία της οικογένειάς μου είναι μια καλή απόδειξη για το πώς οι Έλληνες μπορούν να δημιουργήσουν φασαρίες στους εαυτούς τους.

Στη σύγχρονη εποχή, έχω δει απεργίες και διαδηλώσεις οι οποίες αποτελούν καθημερινά γεγονότα στη ζωή των Ελλήνων. Αλλά οι εμπειρίες μου σήμερα 29 Ιουνίου 2010 και μετά τις τελευταίες λίγες ημέρες που πέρασα στην Ελλάδα βρίσκονται σε απόλυτη αντίθεση με το πώς ένιωθα στις επισκέψεις μου τις τελευταίες δεκαετίες.

Πρώτα απ’ όλα πότε αρχίσαμε να μιλάμε χαμηλόφωνα οι Έλληνες; Πότε μάθαμε να σιωπούμε και να θρηνούμε τους εαυτούς μας? Πότε τα μάτια μας άρχισαν να κοιτάζουν το πάτωμα αντί για το γαλάζιο ουρανό; Πότε γίναμε το πιο άφωνο είδος στην Ευρώπη; Όπως έχει συμβεί και με άλλα γεγονότα, φυσικά και υπάρχει κακοφωνία στον τύπο άλλα και γενικά μεταξύ των Ελλήνων για το τι συμβαίνει και πως θα το αντιμετωπίσουμε. Αλλά ο τόνος είναι χαμηλός. Για τα Ελληνικά δεδομένα είναι ψίθυρος.

Ναι η κατάσταση είναι φρικτή. Μετά τις πρόσφατες αυξήσεις στις τιμές προϊόντων γενικής χρήσης και του ΦΠΑ, όλες οι τιμές αυξάνονται καθημερινά. Χθες βράδυ φάγαμε σε ένα εστιατόριο που συχνάζουμε στο Μικρολίμανο. Από την τελευταία επίσκεψη λίγους μήνες πριν, οι τιμές έχουν αυξηθεί τουλάχιστον κατά 20%. Και αυτό είναι υπερβολικό για ένα ήδη ακριβό εστιατόριο για τα Ελληνικά δεδομένα. (Κατά την ταπεινή μου άποψη το Ελληνικό γεύμα έχει την καλύτερη σχέση ποιότητας – τιμής στην Ευρώπη).

Επίσης τη φετινή περίοδο έντονης τουριστική κίνησης κάποιες εκπλήξεις περιμένουν τους τουρίστες. Δημοφιλείς προορισμοί όπως η Μύκονος έχουν εξωφρενικές τιμές διαμονής για τον Ιούλιο και τον Αύγουστο. Όλοι περιμένουν να ωφεληθούν από τις αναμενόμενες αυξήσεις στις τιμές. (Μια πανσιόν στη Χώρα στην οποία μπορεί να μείνει κανείς με 40 ευρώ σήμερα, κοστίζει 150 ευρώ μετά τις 15 Ιουλίου.) Και οι τιμές των πτήσεων εσωτερικού δε βοηθούν ιδιαίτερα.

Το πρόβλημα με την αντίληψη των Ελλήνων είναι ότι δύσκολα αλλάζουν τις καθημερινές τους συνήθειες. Για τους περισσότερους από αυτούς οι καθημερινή εργασία είναι κάτι που πρέπει να κάνουν για να επιβιώσουν, αλλά είναι καλύτερα αν δουλεύουν λιγότερο όταν δεν τους βλέπει κανείς. Από την παραπάνω γενίκευση θα πρέπει να εξαιρέσουμε τους τομείς τουρισμού και ψυχαγωγίας και από την εξαίρεση αυτή προκύπτουν συμπεράσματα για την κατάσταση που επικρατεί. Όμως τώρα που κερδίζουν λιγότερα συγκριτικά με τα προηγούμενα χρόνια, θα πρέπει να ξεκινήσουν δεύτερη δουλειά ή να εγκαταλείψουν τον πλούσιο τρόπο ζωής τους (το οποίο σημαίνει να μην αλλάζουν BMW κάθε δύο χρόνια, να μην πουλούν κάποια από τα πολλά ακίνητά τους ή να μην περνάνε κάθε βράδυ μη εργάσιμης μέρας ξοδεύοντας 150 ευρώ για ένα μπουκάλι συνηθισμένο Whisky σε συνηθισμένα μπουζούκια, και να ελαττώσουν σημαντικά τον αριθμό των ερωμένων τους).

Πολλοί ‘οικονομικοί οίκοι’ συμβουλεύουν την Ελλάδα να παρατείνει την ηλικία συνταξιοδότησης και να αναδιαρθρώσει το συνταξιοδοτικό της σύστημα για να εξισορροπήσει το εξωτερικό χρέος. Η αντίθετη πραγματικότητα που δε φαίνεται να κατανοούν όσοι βγάζουν εύκολα συμπεράσματα είναι το γεγονός ότι η Ελλάδα βρίσκεται σε μια βαθιά αποξενωμένη κοινωνική κατάσταση. Και τα οικονομικά προβλήματα οφείλονται σε άλλες αιτίες. Η διαφθορά στην εκμετάλλευσης των πόρων της ειδικά όσων προέρχονται από την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση και η υπερβολική φορολογία της εργατικής της δύναμης ώστε να αναμορφωθούν τα έξοδα της πολιτείας είναι οι πραγματικοί εχθροί ενάντια στη σωτηρία.

Καθώς νέες απεργίες και διαδηλώσεις προγραμματίζονται κάθε δέκα μέρες πλέον, το κοινό γενικά φαίνεται να μη γνωρίζει την επικείμενη μοίρα του. Συγκεντρώνονται μόνο στο να κάνουν σχέδια για τις καλοκαιρινές τους διακοπές.

Ο βασικός συντελεστής για την Ελληνική οικονομία το 2010 θα είναι η τύχη της τουριστικής σεζόν. Στην επόμενη απεργία στις 8 Ιουλίου θα συμμετέχουν για μια ακόμη φορά οι λιμενεργάτες του Πειραιά οι οποίοι θα σταματήσουν τη θαλάσσια κίνηση στην Ελλάδα για μια ακόμη μέρα. Έτσι οι επιβάτες θα υποχρεωθούν σε άλλες 48 άχρηστες ώρες στα ελληνικά νησιά όπου ο καθένας θα πρέπει να περάσει μία ακόμη μη προγραμματισμένη μέρα περιπλανώμενος και βρίζοντας το κατεστημένο. Μεγάλες εταιρείες κρουαζιέρας έχουν ήδη στείλει τελεσίγραφο, μετά την προηγούμενη απεργία της 29^ης Ιουνίου, ότι θα διακόψουν τις επισκέψεις τους στην Αθήνα αν συνεχιστούν οι απεργίες.

Έτσι, αν τα πρόσφατα δημοσιονομικά δεδομένα είναι ακριβή και η Ελλάδα έχει ήδη χάσει το 8% του ετήσιου τουριστικού εισοδήματος, τότε μάλλον θα είναι σε πολύ χειρότερη κατάσταση μέχρι το τέλος του χρόνου από ότι είχε προβλεφτεί τον περασμένο Μάιο.

Η παγκόσμια οικονομική κρίση μειώνει την όρεξη των αναμενόμενων επισκεπτών γεγονός το οποίο αν συνδυαστεί με την απληστία των Ελλήνων ιδιοκτητών που χρεώνουν περισσότερο, ίσως τελικά σκοτώσει τη μοναδική κότα που γεννά ακόμη χρυσά αυγά στην Ελλάδα. Και τότε δε θα υπάρχει τίποτα…

Social Media in Turkey: A New Power to the People or Self-Indulgence

2010-07-07T12:32:00.001+03:00

For a few years now, Facebook is a popular hangout for many in Turkey. 84% of all Internet users have an account on Facebook says a report by ComScore. That puts the country on the third place for Facebook users Internationally. Although Internet penetration is still low at a 34% of the population, the vast population and the rate of increase on access in Turkey makes it an emerging power in social media.

The question is why Turks use social media? There is no relevant data but I will elaborate on my personal experience on that. First some data that could help shed some light on my observations. Bear in mind that Turkey's population is very young as compared to many developed nation.

38% of all Internet users in Turkey are between the ages of 15 and 24. Another 31% is between 25 and 34. We can comfortably say that 69% of Internet users in Turkey are young people. Turks spend and average of 29,7 hours per month online and that is only third worldwide after Canada and the U.S.

What do they do online? I have made a small research on Facebook. I have sampled all my contacts in Turkey (150+) and selected another 150 from their contacts. Out of this 300, 52% said on their info that they are looking for a relationship. 78% said their reason for being on Facebook is friendship. Only 17% said networking. (The percentages will not add up since people can give more than one reason for their online existence)

I have also went through the timelines and follower lists of my 400+ Twitter followers. 65% of the followers are from the opposite sex if you are a Turkish woman on Twitter. On my follower list biggest nationality groups are Americans, British and Dutch. I surveyed their followers and followers of their followers. The average rate is 55% for opposite sex followers in non-Turkish groups. Online flirting is very common in both groups, but unfortunately there was no way of distinguishing the unfollow rate due to unsolicited flirting or more obscene behavior.

As I might easily deduct that Facebook is more a meeting place for lonely hearts in Turkey, my analysis using online tools like Twitter Analyzer shows that (at least in my own environment) primary subjects are more social than individual. Many NGO's and political parties as well as government branches are using Twitter to create public opinion. This leads me to think that we should examine Twitter as a unique social media platform in contrast to ties competitors like Facebook, My Space and others. Turks tend to use Facebook, My Space. Turkish Mynet, Netlog, and Kalpkalbe in that order according to ComScore report. But surely Twitter is a rising star lately.
Deriving from my experience we can examine Turkish/related to Turkey tweeps in 4 groups;

News and op/ed bunch: Journalists, writers, NGO reps and so on...
Celebs of many kinds. I include most Turkish journalists in this group.
The mass majority
The attackers

Op/Ed Bunch

This is what I call the "real" twitter bunch. Maybe that's because I seem to belong to that group and their tweets enlightens me and very productive for me. It contains mostly International journalists, writers from all walks of life and some professors. This group is the most tolerant to opposing views and eager to correct any mistake and provide positive criticism. Helping each other in times of need on any subject is another characteristic of this group.
The members of this group also provide a very interesting insight to the present and the future of social media. Especially during the recent flotilla sent by a Turkish aid organization to Gaza, live reports on board became the only communication from the ships due to media blockage of Israeli Defense Forces. In my opinion future regional events would put social media into a more prominent position as far as news publishing and opinion casting are concerned. Already local traditional media is feeding from Twitter on a daily basis.

Celebs

This group is the code of anti-twitter. They are so self-indulgent that they continuously forget the fact that their followers (or people at large) is the one source they feed on. The general ignorance of Turkish celebrities is subject for another article. Here I'd only point out the newspaper columnists and alike on Twitter. This bunch, full of their ego filled by astronomical salaries paid by ever-competing media barons to survive in a country where almost no one reads a newspaper basically bullshit everyday, torment their followers and only talk about inter-celebrity gossip. They pride in how many followers they block everyday and call them names I'd not be able to repeat here.
I have witnessed even a TV talkshow presenter asking for questions to be forwarded to his guest two hours before the show on Twitter. And during his show which lasted over one and a half hours ended up ignoring all questions asked online. One problem is they know how shallow and overfed they are. In a way Twitter has become their revenge from the society which makes fun of them and torrents them in every opportunity. Also Twitter has proven that this group is totally language illiterate. When you insult them in, say, English they just ignore the tweet. But when you criticize even lightly in Turkish they immediately slam you with a block. I think they are a sorry bunch, yet represent the society's approach to things they couldn't grasp.

Masses

Of course this group contains many sub-categories. Most are upper-level income groups. Self-proclaimed intellectuals. Penetration of social media into various low income, low culture groups in Turkey is yet to come.
But herein lies the real power of social media. There is great talent in this bunch. Many books can be published just by following these young talents. They feel free to mess with the literary rules, grammar and everything related to traditional approach to writing. These gems usually have blogs that I frequent a lot and learn more than anyone can imagine possible. They are fluent in many languages and follow a variety of opinion as well as artistic tendencies.
Another group is the "protesters". They attract attention to many social and political woes of Turkey. Human Rights, nature, etc. organizations and many opinionated individuals fills that group. In some special days, these groups turn into think-tanks and come up with great and innovative ideas to change public opinion. In others, they may become stubborn idiosyncrasies of ideology. A recent protest against Turkish Prime Minister trended as #NoTayyip became a social phenomenon. Many new accounts created just to join this campaign in fears of public prosecution.
The followers of this campaign, sometimes pressuring their peers to contribute aimed at trending the hashtag of NoTayyip worldwide. Although unsuccessful on that front the campaign made the news nationwide and started a twitter-wide discussion about the success or failure of the current government in Turkey.

Attackers

And the last but not the least of twitter personalities in Turkey is a group I'd call attackers. These are generally ultra-nationalists, not a minority in Turkey, who get accounts just to attack a few targeted individuals and then get banned by Twitter until they renew their attacks under a different name. They also send nationalist propaganda tweets as to how Turks are superior to every nation and how Turkey is threatened by foreign powers and such in a very offensive language.
The interesting fact about this group is how often their tweets get retweeted by ordinary people when they show up in keyword searches. They seem to act like an outspoken voice of public in large. They voice the subconscious fears and thoughts of the average Turk injected by a very biased and nationalistic educational system.
In short social media crowd in Turkey is young, progressive and active, yet still bound by the limits of a very traditional and closed-up society. When you follow their wisdom, sometimes the truth loses its meaning under a curtain of perceived facts replacing crude reality.

The hope of social media as a form of enlightenment lures in the horizon though. Internet users in Turkey increase exponentially each year. And as the penetration and pure number of people utilizing it would increase, the power of new media will be felt throughout the deepest corners of Turkish society. And I'm hoping among hopes that a new generation of well-versed young professionals would replace the supporters of status-quo in the media in the near future. They will be the golden key for Turkey to introduce its assets to the civilized world.

'Subdued' is The Key

2010-07-04T17:48:00.002+03:00

I have spent plenty of time in Greece and her islands in my life. I have seen post Junta days. I have witnessed small or large economical woes. Heck, my family history is a good proof to how Greeks can put themselves into trouble.

In modern times, I have seen many strikes and public demonstrations that are a simple fact of Greek life. But my experiences today, June 29th, 2010 and last few days I spent in Greece are in total contrast to how I felt during my visits of the last few decades.

First of all when on earth us Greeks started to talk low-key? When did we learn to shut up and mourn for ourselves? When our eyes started to gaze at our toes instead of blue skies? When did we become the most muted animals in Europe? As in many other events, of course there is a cacophony in the press and among Greeks in general about what is happening and what to do with that. But the tone is hushed. Everybody basically whispers in Greek standards.

Yes, the situation is dire. After the recent increases in utility prices and the VAT, all prices are increasing everyday. Last night we ate at a restaurant we frequent in Mikrolimani. From the last visit a few months ago prices have gone up at least 20%. And that was too much for an already expensive restaurant especially in Greek standards. (In my humble opinion Greek dining has the best value on price in Europe)

Also this high season, some surprises are awaiting the usual tourist bunch. Popular places like Mykonos have outrageous bed prices set out for July and August. Everybody is getting in line to benefit from the expected hikes in prices. (A pension in Mykonos town in which you can bed for 40 Euros tonight is asking for 150 Euros after July 15th.) And domestic flight prices don't help either.

The problem with the perception of Greeks is that, they can hardly change their daily habits. For most of them daily work is something they have to do to survive, but its better if they can do less without anyone noticing it. To give credit to where it's due we need to exclude tourism and entertainment industries from this generalization, which in itself gives us clues for the situation. But now they earn less comparatively, they either will revert to secondary jobs or will have to give up the lush lifestyles (which means not changing their BMW's every two years, selling some of their abundant number of real estate or not spending every non-workday evening spending 150 Euros on third class bottle of whiskey at a third class bouzoukia, and even reducing number of mistresses by a substantial number).

Many fiscal 'authorities' are giving advice to Greece to extend the age of retirement and reform the pension system to balance her foreign debt. The contrasting reality which these speakeasy people don't seem to realize is the fact that Greece is in a very deeply uprooted social state. And her economical problems lay elsewhere. Corruption on the utilization of resources especially coming from EU and overtaxation of its work force to rehabilitate the state expenditures are the real foes irking against the bsalvation.

As new strikes and protests are scheduled for every ten days now, the public in general seem not to be aware of the imminent fate. They are concentrated on making their summer plans.

The key factor in 2010 for Greek economy will be the fate of tourism season. Next strike on July 8th will once more include the harbor workers at Peireas which in turn will stop sea traffic in Greece for another day. Which in turn will render another 48 hours useless in most of the Greek islands where everybody will be stuck to spend another unplanned day wandering around and cursing the establishment. Large cruise companies have already sent their ultimatum that they will cut their visits to Athens if that happens again after the previous June 29 strike.

So, if the recent fiscal data is correct and if Greece has already lost 8% of her tourism income this year already, she might end the year in a worse situation as far as the fiscal numbers go, than these were reflecting in past May.

Global economic crisis lowering the appetite of prospective visitors, coupled with the greediness of Greek establishment owners to charge more might finally kill one chicken who still lays golden eggs for Greece. And then, there would be none...

One Subdued Summer

2010-06-24T03:28:00.004+03:00

People are looking like they move slower.

I arrived at Xios island at 19:30. It was a bumpy boat ride. In my whole life I made that trip on San Nicholas. It's a small boat that acts like a dolphin among the waves. She's speedy. I call her "the U-boat". However this time, lured by my old travel agent who used to sell San Nicholas tickets, I traveled on a boat called "Chios". She was a lot slower and I was one of two passengers on it.

In end-June, 19:30 streets of Xios should have been more lively. It is an outpost of an island really. Its population is mainly people originally from Xios, migrants of western Asia Minor. It lost a lot of its sons and daughters to the United States. So, at the bars and tavernas all summer long, Greeklish is the common language.
Not this June. My taxi driver complained naturally. Kefeneion on the corner of the harbor was deserted. Stray dogs did not run after the car as usual. Normally buzzing travel agents were closed due to time of the day. (Or lack of customers) The flight to Athens was crowded though. Mostly businessmen and traveling locals.

Greece is weird this summer. People are staring at their toes. Yesterday the harbor workers were on strike. No ship left or arrived at Peireas. People were stranded on islands or at the capital. Both the victims and the strikers raised their voices. But there were no newspaper or TV station to report these events. Because today journalists were on strike. I watched today's WorldCup games without any commentary. I once more realized how disturbing the effect of vuvuzela was. God, it's awful!

Plans and preoccupations aside, I will try to understand more this new psyche in Greece. Maybe partying time is over for real for Greece. Even that previous sentence sounds like an oxymoron when heard. Where everything is supposed to be loud and pronounced, this silence can drive you mad.

Having coffee at Kitchen Bar at Marina Zeas today, I observed my fellow patrons. They came, ate or drink dutifully and went on their chores. Except for a young mother, enthusing about her newborn, all was acting behind a gossamer screen. As if they were ghosts of a unsure future.

Of course it is still middle of the week. Of course all will be different during the weekend. We shall live and see. But if Europe is losing its last resort of dolce vita, what kind of heritage we would leave for our kids, I wonder.

μια κούκλα που τη λένε «Ελένη»

2010-06-17T22:05:00.003+03:00

Έπινε αργά αργά τον τούρκικο καφέ της. Ναι ήταν ηλικιωμένη. Αλλά σταθερή σαν βράχος. Δεν ταράζονταν, δεν έτρεμε. Τα μάτια της κοιτούσαν σταθερά τη θάλασσα. Τα μάτια της που είχαν δει τα πάντα ήταν κολλημένα στα κόκκινα σύννεφα στη δύση του ήλιου.

Το βλέμμα της ατένιζε τους περαστικούς του σήμερα και του χθες. Ανθρώπους που δεν έβλεπε. Ανθρώπους που δεν αναγνώριζε. Tους κοιτούσε μα δεν τους έβλεπε. Χρόνος. Στράφηκε και παράγγειλε ένα δεύτερο καφέ και λίγο ακόμη νερό.

Τότε ήταν που συνάντησα το βλέμμα της. Με κοίταξε ρωτώντας με τόσα πολλά χωρίς να ξεστομίσει ούτε μία λέξη. Είδα στη ματιά της ανάμικτο φόβο και περιέργεια. Τα χείλη μου πρόφεραν ‘γεια σας’. Το πρόσωπό της φωτιστικέ. Ένα όμορφο πλατύ χαμόγελο εισέβαλε στο πρόσωπό της. Ανταλλάξαμε ένα νεύμα.

Βρήκα το κουράγιο να πάω να της μιλήσω. Κάθονταν τουλάχιστον μία ώρα εκεί μόνη της. Ακολούθησα το σερβιτόρο που της έφερνε το δεύτερο καφέ και στράφηκα προς το μέρος της.

«Μπορώ να καθίσω;»

«Φυσικά»

Οι πιο πολύτιμες λέξεις της ζωής μου! Καθώς καθόμουν στην πολυθρόνα πλάι της δεν ήξερα πως να την αποκαλέσω. Ήθελα να την φωνάξω «γιαγιά». Σκέφτηκα πως θα έδειχνε έλλειψη σεβασμού. Τη ρώτησα το όνομά της. Μου το είπε. Δεν μπορώ να το αποκαλύψω μιας και αργότερα μου ζήτησε να διατηρήσω την ανωνυμία της. Και η ιστορία της εξηγεί το γιατί.

Γεννήθηκε το 1918 που σημαίνει ότι είναι 92 χρονών σήμερα. Κοιτώντας τη δε φαντάζεσαι ότι είναι τόσο. Μοιάζει με 70. Και συμπεριφέρεται σα νεώτερη. Αλλά φαίνεται ανήσυχη. Όταν γεννήθηκε, η Σμύρνη ήταν η Σμύρνη. Φυσικά δεν έχει προσωπικές αναμνήσεις από την εποχή εκείνη. Αλλά μεγάλωσε με ιστορίες και αναμνήσεις των ανθρώπων γύρω της. Η οικογένειά της αναγκάστηκε να εγκαταλείψει το σπίτι τους που κάηκε στην καταστροφή του 1922. Μετακόμισαν στο σπίτι συγγενών τους κοντά στην Ούρλα, περίπου 50 χιλιόμετρα από τη Σμύρνη. Κατάγεται από μια γνήσια Σμυρναϊκή οικογένεια με ρίζες που χάνονται εκατοντάδες χρόνια πριν. Ο πατέρας της ήταν έμπορος. Αλλά ποιος δεν ήταν εκείνη την εποχή; Φυσικά η επιχείρηση του καταστράφηκε από τη φωτιά.

Αρνήθηκαν να πάνε στην Ελλάδα κατά την ανταλλαγή πληθυσμού. Χρησιμοποίησαν παράνομα μέσα για να παραμείνουν. Αλλά τα χρόνια ήταν άγρια. Δεν μπορούσαν να μιλάνε τη μητρική τους γλώσσα στις καθημερινές τους σχέσεις. Όπως οι περισσότεροι χρησιμοποιούσαν τα γαλλικά σαν γλώσσα επικοινωνίας. Η ελληνική γλώσσα αντικαταστάθηκε από τη γαλλική μεταξύ των μη μουσουλμάνων της πόλης.

Η φωτιά και οι άλλες καταστροφές της κυβέρνησης τους άφησαν χωρίς ούτε μια εκκλησία, και στην πραγματικότητα χωρίς τα βασικά μέσα μιας κοινότητας. Παντού επικρατούσαν σκληρές συνθήκες. Κάθε μέλος της οικογένειας έπρεπε βρει μια δουλειά.

Έπιασε δουλειά σαν υπηρέτρια σε μια χανούμ. Μια μέρα καθώς επέστρεφε στο σπίτι της από τη δουλειά είδε μια παλιά κούκλα πεσμένη στο πεζοδρόμιο. Θυμάται. Η κούκλα είχε ξανθά μαλιά και μεταξωτά ρούχα. Τα μάτια της ήταν γαλάζια. Φοβόταν να την αγγίξει. Πλησίασε αργά την κούκλα. Κοίταξε γύρω της να δει αν υπήρχε κανείς. Ο λεηλατημένος δρόμος ήταν έρημος. Αλλά δεν ήταν σίγουρη για τον αν υπήρχε κάποιος στα γύρω ερείπια. Περίμενε.

Όταν βεβαιώθηκε πως δεν υπήρχε κανείς γύρω για να την δει, άρπαξε την κούκλα και έτρεξε μακριά. Έτρεχε γρήγορα μέχρι που έφτασε στο σπίτι της. Έδωσε στην κούκλα το όνομα ‘Ελένη’. Με ρώτησε αν ήθελα να τη δω.

Ζούσε τη ζωή κάποιας άλλης. Για όλη της τη ζωή ήταν μία από τους ‘Άλλους’. Έμαθε να περπατάει στα νύχια των ποδιών της. Ποτέ δεν έκανε πολύ θόρυβο. Ποτέ δεν προκάλεσε μεγάλη προσοχή πάνω της. Δεν παντρεύτηκε ποτέ. Δεν τραγούδησε ποτέ δυνατά.

Τη ρώτησα «και τώρα;». Μου απαντά δεν υπάρχει «τώρα». Της λέω κάθεστε σε ένα ελληνικό καφέ και ακούτε ελληνική μουσική. Δεν το απολαμβάνετε έστω και λίγο? Μου απάντησε με μια ερώτηση: «Εσύ το απολαμβάνεις;»

Έχει δίκιο. Όλα χάθηκαν τώρα πια. Το πνεύμα έχει εγκαταλείψει την πόλη. Είναι ένα καταφύγιο για συνταξιούχους, φοιτητές και εργάτες που έρχονται και φεύγουν. Και λίγους περιστασιακούς τουρίστες.

Η Τουρκία έχει αλλάξει. Το ίδιο και η Ελλάδα. Αλλά η Σμύρνη και οι γνήσιοι άνθρωποί της έχουν παραμείνει ίδιοι. Μια γενιά φαντασμάτων του παρελθόντος. Που δεν ανήκουν πουθενά. Που ανήκουν σε έναν τόπο που δεν υπάρχει πια. Η ζωή της δεν έχει καμιά ελπίδα σε οποιαδήποτε φάση. Αλλά έχει ζωή. Μια ζωή που επαναλαμβάνεται σε οποιαδήποτε γεωγραφία. Μια ζωή ξεχασμένων εθνικοτήτων. Σκόπιμα συντετριμένες ζωές. Ζωές των ερειπίων 3000 χρόνων κουλτούρας.

Καθώς την άφηνα να φύγει, της έδωσα ένα φιλί στο μάγουλο. Ήταν μια υπενθύμιση ότι δεν ήμουν μόνος. Ήταν μια υπενθύμιση πως ούτε κι εκείνη ήταν μόνη. Η κοινότητα μιας χούφτας απομεινάρια.

Ψιθύρισε: «Ευχαριστώ»

Επέστρεψε στο μικρό της σπίτι. Στο σπίτι όπου σε ένα μικρό δωμάτιο υπάρχει μια κούκλα που τη λένε «Ελένη».

My heartfelt thanks to Ms. Nancy Georgantzi for the excellent translation. Without her that story could have never be told.

Interview with a Crusader

2010-06-14T03:29:00.001+03:00

(Short Version)

I interviewed a believer in faith. The faith of Islam. She is only one person. Her thoughts might not represent many who has and will join a "flotilla" that would try to cut through Israeli blockade to Gaza. But still she believes that it does. She says her approach to bring aid to people in Gaza is shared among many who acted on their faith. I remain uncertain.

"Why would you like to go to Gaza?"

"Because they are the only muslims. We want to help them fight Israel. Israel is killing children and women. I don't believe, say, the people in Turkey or in Saudi Arabia are muslims. People in Gaza are the real muslims, and their need precedes any other."

"But, IHH director said the aid to Gaza was not an Islamic move, it was a humanitarian move."

"Of course it was. But our priority was Islam. We wouldn't help anyone on the planet. There are too many in need, our priority was muslims, and real muslims for that matter."

"There are many muslims in need throughout the world. For example Kurds are muslims, too. And they are in dire need of aid in two different countries. Why wouldn't you help them for example?"

"They are muslims, but they are also tools of western, Israeli and Armenian conspiracies against Turkey. They don't deserve Islamic aid. Also, many people living in Turkey are not real muslims themselves. They don't turn to "Allah" in life. They prioritize other things in life. They don't put "Allah" first."

"If you go with the next flotilla, very likely, Israeli Defense Forces will intercept the ships and prevent them to enter Gaza. What will you personally do if they board the ship and attempt to arrest people on board?"

"We will not fight. People on the first flotilla didn't fight as well. Israelis started shooting them"

"But there were videos that depict people attacking soldiers and throwing one overboard?

"These were all fabricated. How can you believe what Israelis show? Or the USA or any western force? Their agenda is obvious. Israel and her western allies are powerful. They manipulate everything you see."

"But really why? Why would you leave your job, your life here and put yourself in harms way to help people who were accused of helping a terrorist organization and attacking Israeli land with missiles?"

"I'm not saying that I'll go for sure. But if there'll be another ship, whether it be from Turkey or not, I want to be in it. And God willing, I'll be. These people need our help. God directs us to help them. I won't be doing this for myself, or only for their welfare; I'd be doing it for the road to "Allah".

Surely, I asked her some personal questions as well. Although they are exempt from this interview, suffice it to say that, if my subject was a representative of the flotilla passengers, it was not a humane effort, it was an Islamic one. And it happened to make a point against Israel, their perceived tool of satan against Islamic welfare.

Turkish State as an Impediment to Progress

2010-06-10T03:19:00.003+03:00

What is the function of a nation state? If we listen to Rousseau,

"... the general will is always in the right and inclines toward the public good" in a modern state. It finds its origins in a "contract". A contract between the electorate and elected to serve in the good of the people at large. As nation states evolved on historical axis, democracy became another of its essential characteristics. Democracy is;

"Government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them either directly or through their elected agents;... a state of society characterized by nominal equality of rights and privileges" according to Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary. But let's listen to Alexis de Tocqueville:

"If it be admitted that a man possessing absolute power may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should not a majority be liable to the same reproach? Men do not change their characters by uniting with one another; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with their strength. For my own part, I cannot believe it; the power to do everything, which I should refuse to one of my equals, I will never grant to any number of them."

"Democracy therefore requires minority rights equally as it does majority rule. As democracy is conceived today, the minority's rights must be protected no matter how singular or alienated that minority is from the majority society; otherwise, the majority's rights lose their meaning." It all boils down to the state being the servant to both the society and individual alike to provide equality in opportunity and freedom in its broadest sense to its contractors.

Historically Turkish state is a totally different story. Since its early evolution, especially after the influence of Islam, subjects ("kul") were the servants of the ruler, the "khalifa". The individual existed for the state, not vice versa. One might argue that was the case in feudal west as well. The underlying difference is the serfdom in the west was purely economical. And when the economical relations started to change, and with the rise of bourgeoisie, infrastructural change resulted in a totally different set of social relations between the different layers of society more easily. With the lack of industrial revolution, and a rising, independent and demanding bourgeoisie, Turkish society remained subjected to the state as a father figure who is supposed to take care of the individual or a cast in a dire situation.

Şerif Mardin states:

"the state was of greater importance to the Ottomans in comparison to the significance of the states in any other part in the region. This is why Turkey ... was founded on the power of the state..."

From its birth, modern Turkey was found on "Young Turk" ideals. Influenced heavily by late 18th century thought movements in Europe, they wanted a nation state for Turks. They were also influenced by the modernization attempts in Ottoman Empire in the same period which enabled them short terms in government. This made them familiar with the executive tradition of the Ottoman state. But they had one problem: remaining lands of the Ottoman Empire lacked a homogenous "nation". Society were divided through religious lines. Islamic law did not provide rights, it set boundaries. The boundaries which caused religious divide to became economical as well. Therefore the governing elite did not have anything in common with the economical elite to be joined in the same nation.

Mardin argues:

"The Turks’ social experience and the ethnic diversity over the past centuries have affected their understanding of religion. Religion and the state of Turkey always used to run parallel to one another. The current regime may be regarded as a continuation of the Ottoman solution in terms of the relationship between religion and the state."

We may consider the foundation and evolution of the modern Turkey as an attempt to find that nation, and at the same time a continuous effort to preserve "Turkish" tradition of statesmanship. Asia Minor, where Turkey finds its red line of existence, was mostly clean of its Christian population by the time the country was founded. But that resulted in a great loss in economical might. Coupled by the tradition of a strong state, this vacuum was filled with state enterprises as Turkey rose as a heavily centralized state machine.

1930's and the WW2 years were fortifications on the nation front as more oppression towards the general public and further discrimination of minorities resulted in a total climate of despair. Turkish society in general has an interesting reaction to despair. They become more obedient subjects. Only in 1950's, when the pressures from rural landlords and the periphery in general became so ostensive, then the state loosened its grip and allowed a second party, which of course on the first elections swiped the founding party of Turkey out of the government. A new bourgeoisie started to rise on the ashes of the minorities who had been forced out of the country.

The honeymoon only lasted a decade. State machine was not ready to be overthrown by the people yet. A "coup", tailored to the needs of CHP, the founding party of the state, by military forces resolved the issue. Then started what I call "revolutionary" years. One military intervention followed another, in ten year intervals, every single one of them calling themselves a revolution. And in every single one of them a generation of "adversaries" of the state were annihilated. Put in jail, hanged, forced to spend decades in prison and in many cases forced to escape the country. These were leftists with a wide range of ideologies at one time, communists at another. Although they never came to power or even shared a coalition government, a trademark of that period, extremists were always the culprit. State, when threatened by any hint of real democracy found its way to crush any opposition albeit imaginary.

By tradition the only exception were the Islamists. "99% of the population is muslim" was their excuse in providing a legitimate ground for harassing the population with religion for political ends. They ended up in a comfortably majority government in 2002.

Their story is subject of another article. Nevertheless, in 2010 the state in Turkey is at war with the idea of democracy. First of all, the establishment is older than the republic itself, they have invested in political tactics for over a century now. Secondly, general public opinion is on their side. The perceived protective quality of the state is hard to beat in collective subconscious, especially when worldly wealth is not a real prospect for John Doe. Even though when that state is protecting people from themselves and their welfare.

The cracking role of Turkish state as an impediment to progress is not observed to be going anywhere any time soon. There is only hope if Turkey will find itself a place among civilized nations in the minds and soul of its people.

A Doll Named Eleni

2010-06-06T01:32:00.003+03:00

She was sipping her coffee alla Turca. Yes, she was old. But she was solid as a rock. She didn't shake, she didn't tremble. She kept her eyes at the sea. Her ever-seeing eyes were fixed to the crimson clouds at the sunset.

Her gaze followed the passers-by of today and the past. People she didn't see. People she didn't recognize. And I don't mean people she didn't know. She did not recognize them. Period. She turned and ordered a second coffee and additional water. That's when I met her eyes. She looked at me, and asked many questions without uttering a single word. I saw fear, curiosity, all at once in her gaze. I spelled "gia sas"(1) with my lips. Her face lightened. A beautiful, expansive smile invaded her face. We nodded.

I found the courage to move ahead and talk to her. She had sit there at least an hour alone. I followed the waiter who brought her second coffee, and leaned towards her.

"May I sit down?"

"Of course"

Most valuable words I have heard in my life! As I sat in the couch beside hers. I didn't know how to address her. I wanted to call her "giagia"(2). But I thought it to be disrespectful somehow. I asked her name. And she told me. I cannot repeat it here because she later asked me to keep her name anonymous later on. And this is the story of why.

She was born in 1918. That makes her 92 now. You cannot tell this by looking at her. She looks 70. She acts a lot younger though. She's alert and responsive to the faintest of inputs. When she was born, Smyrna was Smyrna. She does not personally remember of course. But she grow up with stories and memories. Her family had to leave their burning home in 1922. They moved to a relative's house near Ourla, a mere 50 kilometers from Smyrna. She comes from an original Smyrnian family who can trace her roots for hundreds of years. Her father was a merchant. Who wasn't back in these days? Surely his business was burned down in the fire.

They refused to go to Greece in the population exchange. They utilized illegal means to stay behind. But the times were harsh. It wasn't possible to speak their mother tongue in daily deals. As most did, they turned to French as a language. Greek was being replaced by French among non-muslims of the city.

Fire and further demolitions by the government left them without a church, in fact without any essentials of a community. Harsh conditions were everywhere. Every member of the family had to work.

She was working as a maid to a Turkish hanoum. One day when she left her workplace for home, she saw an old doll laying on the pavement. She remembers. The doll had blond hair. It had silken clothes. And her eyes were blue. She was afraid to touch it. She slowly went near the doll. And checked the passersby around. The torn street was empty. But she wasn't sure about the insides of the ruins around. She waited.

When she was sure no one was around to see her, she grabbed it, and ran away. Ran quickly until she was home. She named her "Eleni". She asked me if I want to see her.

She had a life of someone else. She was one of the "others" all her life. She learned to walk on her toes. She never made a lot of noise. Never attracted much attention to herself. Never married. Never sang a loud song.

I ask her "what about now?". She tells me there is no "now" now. I tell her "you're sitting at a Greek Café, listening to Greek music. Don't you enjoy it a little?" She answers me with a question; "Do you?"

She's right. All is gone now. The spirit has left the city. It's a refuge for retirees, students and come today gone tomorrow workers. And a few incidental tourists.

Turkey has changed. So did Greece. But Smyrna and her original people stayed the same. A generation of ghosts from the past. Belonging to nowhere, belonging to a place that doesn't exist anymore. Her life had no hope at any stage. But she has a life. A life that seldom repeats itself in any geography. A life of disregarded ethnicities. Purposefully crushed lives. Lives of the bricks and stones of a 3000 years old culture.

As I let her go, I planted a small kiss to her cheek. It was a reminder that I was not alone. It was a reminder that she was not either. A community of a handful of remainders.

As she whispered: "thank you".

She went back to the little house. The house on a little bedroom lays a little old doll called "Eleni"

ps. gia sas: Greek for "hello"
giagia: Greek for "grandma"
Above pictures were taken by the author during the interview. Since my subject refused her name or picture to be used publicly, I instead used a picture of the chair she sat without her.

Remembering Msg. Luigi Padovese

2010-06-04T05:43:00.001+03:00

The head of Catholic church for the lands east of Ankara in Turkey was assassinated on June 3rd, 2010. Msg. Luigi Padovese was a hard-worker in the first place. He lived in Iskenderun, close to holy places like Tarsus or Antakya in southern Turkey. He fought hard to establish an understanding between the Catholic church and Turkish islam. He tried to build bridges between Christians of different faiths in the area.

I'm not a catholic. In many aspects of life I do nor sympathize with Catholic administration of things. That being said I believe in the sacred characteristics of Asia Minor lands. From Antioch (Antakya) to Nicea (Iznik) this land is full of places and history that is dear to all Christians worldwide. It is a human legacy that must be preserved and nourished for the sake of the generations to come. And the job to to provide for this legacy today fells into hands of a few dedicated clergyman who work the area. An area where human rights and freedom of speech rights violations are common on a daily basis. It's a place where minorities are herded like cattle.
When he was slain, Msg. Padovese was getting ready to go to Cyprus to meet the Pope in his visit to this troubled island. He was at an Assyrian Church mass the day before. His sermon included themes of tolerance and fraternity. His assassin whose family was with the church for more than 25 years should not have listened. Details are not known yet but apparently something happened in Msg. Padovese's house and his driver started stabbing him with a knife. Padovese was able to get out of the hose but the man followed him to the garden and finished him off by cutting his throat.
Early police reports argue that the assassin, his driver was mentally ill. And they claim that this was a one man job. Of course questions like why Msg. Padovese kept close ties with a deranged person for such a long time and did not take precautions are yet to be answered.
In Turkey, if you are a minority, goodness breeds hatred. Humility causes abomination. In the last 5 years only many Christians including clergy were killed by people or groups whose real motives were never unearthed officially. Long and tiresome court cases go on for several years with minor convictions without deep investigations. The officials see killings of Christians in the country a "further clean-up" of unwanted elements.
Days are ripe with the ideas of martyrdom and humanity because of the Flotilla attack by Israel. The so-called martyrs of the Flotilla, they were at least confronting a defense force of a legitimate country. Msg. Padovese is the genuine martyr. He was a peaceful bishop whose sole goal was to propagate love and love only. And he became the last of long line of martyrs defending love in Asia Minor.
May God bless his soul.

ADDENDUM: On Saturday, June 5th, the author spoke with the family of the assailant. They confirm that they are muslim. Turkish media purported that all the family including the suspect were Christians. Msg. Franceschini of Smyrnian Catholic Church urges the authorities to follow up the case with due diligence and prevent from closing the case without a decent investigation as it happened on the previous acts of violence against Christians in Turkey.

Provocation and Retaliation

2010-06-01T08:55:00.002+03:00

I was a fairly decent writer getting ready for bed yesterday when newswires started to inform that the Freedom Flotilla ships were approaching Gaza, next the southwest border of Israel. 6 ships allegedly full of humanitarian aid like supplies, food and daily items accompanied by human rights activists, European Parliament members and journalists.
Live broadcasts from on board the main ship carrying mostly humans and tweets of journalists on board reflected the public opinion at large: Solidarity and willfulness against the inhumane blockade by Israel on Gaza, preventing the civilians in this area from the necessities of survival.
But behold, on the last broadcast live from the flotilla, Israeli Defense Forces started by attacking the ship by armed commandoes from boats and helicopters and started shooting at activists who refused to be taken in without a fight. As seen on the videos broadcasted by Turkish TV's Israelis answered sticks and knives with live ammunitions and killed at least 9 activists on the spot. Among which there are Turkish and Greek citizens alike. (Still unclear. As reported by June 1st 2010, 3:00 am GMT)
Independent media outlets around the world today, are calling Gaza as the Vietnam of Israel.
However, this author sees these event from the viewpoint of two separate more important issues than politics or global world balance: 1. Human Rights and 2. Importance of social media in world events.
This event is first and foremost a twofold abuse against human rights by the state of Israel. Going even further I fully acknowledge Israeli claims that Hamas is a source for terrorism on Israeli soil. However Israel herself is playing to the Hamas hand by letting them hide behind the women and children of the strip by heightening the blockade of Gaza. There is one force and only one force that is legitimizing Hamas and that is the no-nonsense politics of a weak and incompetent government in Israel. Israeli media is questioning their competency with solid grounds as written by Reuven Pedatzur of Haaretz: "the inefficiency and the panic that overwhelmed the commandos [attacking the ships], leading to the deaths of so many, raises worrying questions about their skillfulness and operational capability". It shall be the purpose of International community to bring the issue of human rights violations by Israel against Palestinians and human rights activists in and outside of Israel to the attention of masses everywhere. This is not a simple case of attacking civilians (as it became the habit of many governments supposedly fighting against terrorist), but another attempt to move beyond its own territory to perpetrate military action assaulting basic human rights. Israel also violated freedom of speech rights by confiscating all belongings of journalists on the ships including all personal belongings with the only exception of clothing that they were wearing.

The second issue worth mentioning is the rising power of social media in forming public opinion. As soon as the IDF hit the main flotilla ship tweeters all around the world started sharing news and opinions. However @Twitter was sleeping due to time difference and later on public holiday. And their automated filters started to ignore #flotilla trending which in turn turned into wide protests against Twitter. Upon realizing the incident, @Twitter updated its filters and immediately the phrase flotilla was available for trending.
Here we have to stress the significance of freedom of speech. And punctuate the fact that no matter it promotes hate speech and extreme opinion, it is of utmost importance to keep it alive! Yesterday, people on Twitter, all around the world, following news through twits had access to information that no other media can provide: 1. Accessed opinions of people actually living the tragedy live; 2. Informed immediately of the opinions of people who did not simply think like they did.

This is no longer social media, this is modern activism: as a result of the informational surge on Twitter, many Turkish TV's were following the events by newly formed Twitter desks at their news centers, voicing many views that could never be heard before. On the other hand many people creating new twitter accounts, "broadcasted" their opinion through this revolutionary media.
Provocation and retaliation has different meanings since yesterday. Were the attacking IDF forces provocating the activists? Or were they when they stroked the commandoes with clubs and sticks? Was is retaliation to human rights violations at Gaza when activist ships provoked IDF to find a way to stop them? We shall never decide yet. On political repercussions we need to wait until "the big boys" take action if they ever will. But locally, the actions of self-indulgent states are becoming well known thanks to the new weapons held by human rights activists. Tomorrow will bring new perspectives whether it be when Turkey acting towards Kurds or Israel against Palestinians.

A Guide at Ephesus

2010-05-27T16:24:00.000+03:00

A friend was visiting last week. The usual fare is to visit Ephesus. The ruins of the infamous ancient city just a few tens of miles away from Smyrna.
Ephesus was the gem of Ionia until the Byzantian times. Since Hellenistic period she lead in arts, sciences and provided a peaceful living to its citizens as witnessed nowhere else. Her library was unsurpassed and the ruins today perfectly reflect her glory.

Even though it was still May and the weather was awful by the season's standards, Ephesus was full of visitors from all over the world. Japanese flocked together to overload the digital consumption, my fellow Americans were all smiles and courtesy.
(A detailed history of the city can be found here)
Towards the end of our tour we ended up at the big amphitheater. We waited for a large Japanese group to end their visit to the theater and started strolling around.
Then finally another Turkish speaking group arrived in tow of their guide. And thus spoke Zarathustra: the guide was explaining the history of the city, of its Greek roots and Hellenistic achievements throughout the history. And finally he ended his tirade by saying "this is why we are so proud to 'OWN' this city as Turks. We can go to Greece and say that we own Ephesus!"
Proud nationalism in action. Hatred for Greeks is so deeply rooted in some Turkish minds for no apparent reason that it might even ruin a great touristic experience.
I just simply wanted to tell the guy that owning a land does not simply result in owning its culture. You have to cherish it, utilize it and build upon it to claim it. Turkish authorities cannot claim that virtue while letting some construction company to build a hotel on top of a Byzantian palace in Konstantinopolis.

Where is the love?

2010-05-26T15:39:00.001+03:00

Colder days in Smyrna. Things are evolving so quickly I seem not to
get a hold of everything. Summer cannot come somehow. Visits to
surrounding summer resorts are like travelling among freezing tourists
on the beach.
Pitiful politics too. Red tapes, layoffs, party leaders leaving posts.
Foretellers of a wild summer.
Quick blog from my iPhone. Soon I will be reporting on the firing line
again. Also sorry for the latest changes on my og due to blogger
policies.
Take care of yourselves now.

Remembering Luciano!

2009-10-12T18:10:00.005+03:00

It's been a little over two years. One September day he died. The man who made the whole world love opera. I woke up today remembering Pavarotti. Everybody accepts he had phenomenal voice, larger than life personality and a drive to make opera popular among masses. In the ninetees he waged war against the conception of classical music as a for of entertainment for a scarce elite. The first Three Tenors concert in 1990 changed recital concept all together. He was criticized for including popular songs in his concerts, he was dismembered for his lavish life, but he kept on fighting. Recording duets with popular singers, advocating several modern causes he forced his hand until his untimely death.

It's really difficult to listen to him without feeling it in your bones. His style, an eye opener for classical music aficionados or not alike, goes deep into your taste and brings out the best about music, memories and technical excellence. Going back to the original 1990 Roma concert, the unforgettable ensemble (Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo), put on stage a show that has never seen before. They had put aside all their humongous egos and cheered and joked on stage and sang songs like "Memories" (from Andrew Lloyd-Webber's Cats), "Maria" (from Bernstein/Sondheim's West Side story), and "La Vie en Rose"(originally sung by Edith Piaf) as well as the signature performance of "O Sole Mio"(Di Capua) and "Nessun Dorma"(Puccini:Turandot) as a trio.

Revisiting that huge performance 19 years later demonstrates the vacuum left by the loss of great Pavarotti. We need a new star in the line of greats such as Caruso, Lanza and the great tenor himself who would go the extra mile to make the new generations adore lyric singing.

Now, enjoy the embedded performance of Pavarotti and join me wishing he should return to Surriento sooner than later!

Summer over... time to work

2009-10-08T15:08:00.003+03:00

Many events has passed us by during summer. Heat was up, emotions were up, issues were on the rise, but I kept silent. Sometimes it is better to walk away and watch all from a distance. And of course it is great to be lazy during summertime. Sipping a glass of ouzo, watching the passers by, brewing uncommunicative thoughts... As the sun moves towards west, being informed that the Greek government went for early elections; claiming that they couldn't handle the economic crisis efficiently but meaning also they couldn't handle the scandals anymore.

Yet, looking from neighboring Turkey, this line of action feels like completely European. Accepting one's failure is a no way street here. After 2 years of turmoil, scandals and complete alienation of almost 60% of the voters, Turkish government is still trying to hang on the wings of a long forgotten election.

Of course, congratulations are in order for the newly elected Prime Minister of Greece, Mr. Giorgos Papandreu for his first term in service with hopes that PASOK will provide for Greeks the long awaited stability and trust in political institutions. Also tourism sector hit hard by the ongoing disturbance of the crisis and high cost of maintenance throughout the dispersed nature of Greek hinterland need a close eye by the new government.

On this side of the water, despite stabilization efforts of the state (although only in verbal form) the economics of the unemployed and barely surviving industry and services are getting direr every month. Talks with IMF are at a stall and the influx of fresh funds is still in decline. After two years there is no light at the end of the tunnel and unemployment rate in young population is at a threatening rate of 29%. What is even more scary is that economic issues ar does not make the top ten list of everyday agenda, neither of the government, nor the media.

Here the winter starts with power costs hikes, disarray in trust in markets and the future and radicalization of all political issues. And only changes in agenda and drastic measures can save Turkey from a disaster in near future.

I, on the other hand, am very glad to come back to my blog and hope to talk to you folks more this season. Sipping the last drops of summer ouzo here in smyrna, sthn eigeia!

To Kill and To Write

2009-06-12T15:20:00.004+03:00

They'll never let it go. It's been years since they've murdered Hrant. The only unlawful thing he did was to write. He was cautioned by the government before his death. He was told that if he keeps on writing "things would happen to him and his family". Law enforcement officers knew about the plan to end his life. Even on the Internet, if you search about dialogues among law enforcement officers on Hrant Dink's death, you can reach recorded telephone conversations proving this knowledge. The trial is going on for two years. Attorney General is asking for 20 years imprisonment for the accused murderer. The establishment is protecting its killers. The victim is a Christian, he is an Armenian and " a Turk is worth the Universe", let alone an Armenian's life.

A journalist is researching the facts behind this killing. He collects public information and writes a book about the blind spots in this case. Now he's in court. The establishment wants his life. Attorney General asks for 28 years of imprisonment. His name is Nedim Şener. He's a reporter from Milliyet daily.

Turkey is an EU candidate state. She's undergoing so-called judiciary reforms to be accepted as a member. What judiciary reforms I hear you asking. To reform something, it has to exist first.

With its recent record of judiciary mishaps, Turkey should be banned from all International forums let alone EU membership. Until the establishment in this country would be aware of the fact that in the global village every neighbor has to clean his act our of respect to his peers. Either democracy now and for everyone or marginalization in the full sense. These should be the options left for Turkey.

Clap Hands

2009-06-09T22:02:00.005+03:00

You've got to leave I-75. You've got to get away. Leave the highway and every single bit related to it. When you're done and out, you've got to drive south. As long as it gets it out of your mind, out of your system. That's what I do at least.

Far from the madding crowds, loose among the elderly but satisfied ad icons of post-industrial society. And a tape on the player. (Listen yourself)

"..........

Shine, shine, a roosevelt dime
All the way to baltimore and running out of time
Salvation army seemed to wind up in the hole
They all went to heaven in a little row boat
Clap hands, clap hands, clap hands, clap hands"

You know the ocean is near. But it's hot. Tar is melting on the highway, and the heat is condensed in your nostrils, on your deck, near your computer screen.

Steven Hutt is putting nearby. Your eyes wander the 8th hole where he buried you last time though he has lived twice as many years. His old age is not compatible with your desires. You want a beer so bad, you've got to leave again.

But not on I-75. You got on a side state road. Where none of the fauna resembles your home state Ohio. You drive.

"Clap hands, clap hands, clap hands, clap hands"

Heat is soaking from the branches. A stink layers around your head. Did you hit a skunk? No skunks in this road. No roadkill. Only memories and music.

Memories of the past you're running from. The routine of impossible dreams. Gifts not purchased. Not given, nor taken. Gifts sizzling from your past both real and imaginary. You see an Indian drifter. You take him in. You share your lunch, your dreams, your past. He gives you his spirit. Two people don't add up. You drive...

When I am fed up with barbarism, I travel to Florida. I find my soul in the depths of Everglades. I find my soul among the crocodile faces of Key Westerns. I drink at Sloppy Joe's, I parade Duval Street in drag. Trembling down the alleys of a long lost imagination, living among lost souls in my hometown, I am not myself. I'm an outsider at an outsider planet.

Two Sides of the Same Coin/2

2009-06-04T21:32:00.003+03:00

(Due to common Internet problems in Turkey, I can only publish this article today. Apologies to my dear readers)

Closer to a way out or provocation?

For almost two weeks every columnist in every daily in Turkey wrote about the "Kurdish problem" following a declaration by President Gül. In that speech Gül claimed that there are opportunities for a resolution. According to the official state opinion, Kurdish fighters should give up arms and end the fight against soldiers for them to even start talks. A cease-fire is not sufficient for talks to start.

An unbiased observer might find this claim reasonable. A state cannot initiate talks officially with a party that is in war with it. It is conceived to be a minimum for negotiations to start.

But here lies another Turkish state policy. As it was implemented against all minorities for centuries since the Ottoman times. Once they get you down from your mountains, once they make you sit behind a table and start to talk, these talks never end and you cannot gain anything. Furthermore, they would not talk, or continuously deny all the deeds they've done against you. You would start to forget why you have gone up on the mountains in the first place.

Example #1: They claim they did nothing wrong against the Armenians, Pontic Greeks and Assyrians back in 1910's right. To initiate talks with Armenia on Genocide they ask for an independent panel of historians to decide if it was a Genocide. Here's the catch: this panel would be served with the Ottoman archives by the Turkish State and only with these.

Example #2: They claim the Turkish Army or the gendarmerie did nothing wrong against the Kurdish villages during last three decades. And the above mentioned negotiations would be on the terms that one side would be a terrorist organization which accepted that it is, and the other party would be a legitimate state that is defending the rights of its citizens against terrorists.

The people of Kurdistan are living in minefields at one end, and a hostile army on the other side for decades. White Renault 12's are coming in with dark suits inside them to pick people up on the streets, people who never comes back. Mass graves are found everywhere with bodies washed with acid.

Yes the Kurds are fighting with guerilla tactics which can easily be considered as terrorism. But what about their enemies? What are they?

Two Sides of the Same Coin

2009-06-02T13:04:00.003+03:00

Prefessor denies Genocide

In Turkish daily Milliyet (June 1st,2009) Professor Kemal Karpat (University of Wisconsin) shows another example of Turkish denials on Genocide. He claims that Armenians were not killed but left Asia Minor with withdrawing Russian armies to the north. Only 100-200 thousand people were forced with migration and they still live in Syria and Lebanon he claims. When pressed by the interviewer that even this number is not sufficient to call it a Genocide he escapes by claiming that "during the war more Turks were cleansed from the Balkans", and he adds that "Turkey never claimed that as a Genocide to prevent extreme nationalistic views in the society". He continues that "we should look at 150 years of history not only 1915. Then we'll see that these actions were normal results of newly founded national states of the times". He also claims that the census results of the times were wrong, there couldn't have been more than 1 million Armenians in the Asia Minor back then.

I am quoting this interview because it is a typical example of Turkish denialism and demagogy.

1. Wake up call #1: When 8000 muslims were killed in "the war" with Serbians in Bosnia, public opinion declared it a Genocide.

2. Wake up call #2: There are still effective muslim minorities everywhere in Balkans from Greece to Bulgaria, from Albania to Bosnia. Though there were several acts of racism throughout the years that were mentioned in the interview, they in fact never reached the scale of a Genocide against the Turks. Their existence in the region is a proof of that. Compare this with the existing Armenian population in Asia Minor, then you'll see Genocide directly looking at your face.

3. Wake up call #3: Ottoman census reports are wrong. Ottoman ruling party (Ittihad and Terakki) communications are wrong. Eye witness records available worldwide are lies. Two generations of hysteria conveyed by a diaspora that almost defines itself as Genocide victims in lieu of Armenians is a make-believe. Every excuse to duck the accusations of a Genocide is valid. Really, get a life!

(to be continued tomorrow.... more on the subject concerning the terror against the Kurds)

New Moon Trailer is Out!

2009-06-01T20:53:00.007+03:00

Five and a half months to the long awaited randezvous, movie trailer for the second installment of Twilight Saga, New Moon is showing. Here's a look:

Sunday in Spring

2009-05-31T23:37:00.003+03:00

Spring is a latecomer this year. It's arriving slowly but there are only two weeks left until the end of school year. Sudden 80 degrees in the afternoon, out of nowhere thunderstorms, a little rain now and then, are but all the remnants of incoming spring. Cesme started to get crowded on weekends. The sea has begun to blow its summer winds. Everything tells us about the northwestern winds that would blow all summer long.

Smyrna is a tad more broken this spring. People are sick and tired of weekend escapes. They need something more solid like a long holiday. Now, everyday is an escape. Every day is another one stolen from the economical crisis, from empty pockets, from despair. The fiesta of the South doesn't go well with despair. There are no short skirts this year, no shorts. Every new spring takes away a little more hope from Smyrna.

Kordelia is crowded, though pubs are deserted. If that stays the case, the spring would go away without any sign. Routinely Smyrna should go nuts in spring, go crazy with all her mind. That's the Smyrna we know, that you know. On a corner you should suddenly meet a new couple. Suddenly you should feel life in your bones. Suddenly the streets should be filled with colors from out of this world. By Easter, Smyrna should be full of spring. And it should never leave.

Now the day's gonna turn to summer. The sky'll be full of a heating sun. Coffee houses will be silent. Villagers will be busy on their land. Citizens will seek refuge in Cesme, Focai, Aivali or elsewhere. We'll be alone in Smyrna, hosted by stray dogs only. What the year 2010 will bring to this city?

The constant recession that's been going on for thirty years will continue? Or will the city hit the bottom this spring and start its climb finally?

Smyrna needs new things. She needs a spell that'll filter through her gutters, and start affecting her pavements, walls and trees. Maybe she'll start a new journey knowing that she'll always be marginalized. Smyrna needs a spell like Homeros. So that she could tell her story once more, so that she could return to her shining status in history.

A Sunday in Smyrna. A spring Sunday when silence fills all ears, when there are no church bells nor a muslim call for prayer. A Sunday in Smyrna. Awaiting the herald of joy.

What A Day!

2009-05-30T17:52:00.004+03:00

We say here that Turkey is a heaven for writers. Today is another day like that. Just going though the headlines I was in between going crazy of laughter and crying my eyes out. Here's why:

Turkey wants changes on European Human Rights Court(EHRC) structure

Turkey's European Commission representative, of all people, Mr. Daryal Batibay criticized EHRC for costing tremendous amount of money to Turkish Republic by legislating against its defenses in too many cases. He even asks EHRC to request huge fees from applicants to deter suits. Isn't it funny? The law according to defender's needs. Mr. Batibay is confusing the law in EU with Turkey's legislature I guess, where the verdict is determined not by rules of law but who the defender or the victim happens to be! In Turkey if you are a public servant the courts must ask permission from your superior to press a case against you. That in practice means if you are protected by the government, you are above the law. Mr. Batibay now requests Turkey to be above the law of Europe. And Turkey is in a negotiation stage to become a EU member! And Turkey wants to legalize her own double standards in Europe now. One must show these Turkish officers their place immediately. That's the only education they'd respond to.

The Brazen

Mr. Zahid Akman is the head of radio and TV censorship committee in Turkey. He's a man of government. In Germany, he was accused by the attorney general for embezzling the money donated by Turkish workers in Germany into Turkey. These money were allegedly used to finance party operations instead of helping the poor, the reason they were collected for in the first place. Although all related people in Germany are already in jail, Turkey still hesitates to open a lawsuit against the alleged people in Turkey. He is the main figure among these. The second in command of the ruling party, Mr. Bulent Arinc said he asked him to resign on the onset of the case. Today he denies such a request being made, and he openly adds that the Prime Minister would protect him if necessary and he still has his support. A European counterpart would have resigned months ago. A Japanese would have committed suicide. Such brazen and shameful people are in administration in this country. And one cannot swallow it so easily. There should be something that can be done...

The Story of a Murder

A young girl gets murdered. A routine story in every country. But what makes this particular story unique is how it happened and what happened following the murder.

Her head was found in a garbage bin around a very rich neighborhood in Istanbul. Her body parts were found in several different spots around the city. She was allegedly argued with her rich boyfriend just before her death. And after her death, the boyfriend disappears.

The cops question the family of the boyfriend and let them go immediately. They do nothing else for months. The media goes nuts. They finally publish an International blue bulletin for his arrest on sight. And nothing happens once more.

Simple questions for the imbeciles who think they are cops:

1. Who can dismember a body without leaving any traces and getting any help?

2. Where was his family while he was doing these inhuman acts?

3. How did he leave the country and was he able to hide without the help of his family and their resources?

4. Why his parents are still free?

5. Can the rich kill anyone the way they want in Turkey?

Simple answers are needed.

The Dilemma/2

2009-05-28T22:31:00.005+03:00

A historical look at the minority problem in Asia Minor, in the Balkans and the Middle East would show that due to the mobility of humankind in the area it goes way back. In the Classical and Hellenistic periods it did not exist because the people of the area were perceived to be either Greek speakers or barbarians. Though marriages and alliances existed between two peoples, they never merged under a political union in modern sense. The period of Alexander the Great and Roman eras share a common ground on the issue of minorities. As in the previous ages, the social friction was not between majorities and minorities but mainly between citizens and non-citizens. Independent of the nature of the state, social movement was towards citizenship and nobility which in turn brought wealth and independence.

Byzantium was no exception. After Constantine, Roman Empire was a secular state and throughout the Empire many religious and political sects enjoyed tolerance from the central government. Copts, pagans, Orthodoxes and then even Muslims lived under Byzantine flag without major problems. However the minorities problem has its roots in this region back from the Byzantium. Religious conflicts between Alexandria, Antioch and Constantinople following the Council of Nicea created the first religious minorities that were detested by nature in the region. Even the treatment of Blue Party members in Constantinople when the Emperor was a follower of Greens could be considered as an early example of discrimination against minorities in Byzantium.

Ottoman period was a close follower of Byzantine structures. As many sects were disbanded during the last years of its predecessor, Ottomans by rule, classified all non muslims as "reaya", who has no rights or representation against Ottoman(Islamic) law. They only paid special taxes and were exempt from military duty. Otherwise they were free to enact their own law, practice their religion and follow their social traditions as long as these "were not in contradiction with the well-being or benefits of their muslim counterparts, and in no way comparative in grandiose with the traditions of muslims". In reality, minority was a non-issue in Ottoman state. The Empire was neither a feudal nor a nation state. There was no clear cut ruling elite in the system. Economy was simple based on expansion. Simply put, they invaded new lands, brought with them booties, tax money and children to be raised as governing elite. A Christian could become a muslim immediately and could rise in political power easily. Only after nationalistic uprisings in Balkans and Middle East, the minorities started to be viewed as politically inferior.

When Turkish Republic was established, its own nationalistic forces has claimed most of Asia Minor from its Christian inhabitants during and post World War period. Although many signs were present before the turn of 20th Century, by 1920's Christians of Ottoman heartland has lost at least two million of their population to turmoil, chaos and genocide. And once a land of plenty, vast mountains and valleys of Asia Minor has left bleeding for God knows how long...

Houses.... houses.../1

2009-05-27T16:52:00.002+03:00

Smyrna was burned in 1922. Only some of the houses in Northern Pounta survived. The "apartmentization" of the 70's tore down most of the old Greek houses that were the character of the city. Only a few survived. The Greek Consulate building, a house that Mustafa Kemal stayed back in his day (a museum now) and 2 more survived on the seaside. However just 50 yards inside, a whole small quarter of Greek houses survive as bars, cafes or restaurants. They remind the visitors of the jolly days of fun and excitement of their time in "Palia Ellada" (Old Greece).

Seaside promenade of Smyrna. The 2 low buildings in the middle are Greek and German Consulate buildings, abandoned since the last earthquake, waiting for all powerful but inapt European Union to renovate them.

A gorgeous Greek house on the corner of two cobweb streets stand as a reminder of its glorious days, renovated but vacant.

Very stylish Greek house serving as a bar where many popular rock groups are featured live.

Famous old street of residential homes, now named after Turkish female martyrs of the war is reserved for entertainment of all varieties. Bars, nargile houses, cafes and restaurants galore.

Renovations move on to side streets. Here old houses are being restored to become bars in 2008. (These pictures are taken by the author in April, 2008. New pictures of the same area will be published here soon)

The Broken Land (Revisited)

2009-05-27T16:44:00.005+03:00

I have written a small article which was a synopsis of my autobiographical piece. (Published in my old blog) Many readers thought that my new blog would need a reprint here so newcomers could get a better grip of my blog. What can I do but oblige. Below you will find the whole article and thank you to all my readers for sticking with me for 6 years now.

While reading you may listen to Smyrna Music List. Here's the link.

“That we've broken their statues,
that we've driven them out of their temples,
doesn't mean at all that the gods are dead.
O land of Ionia,
they're still in love with you,
their souls still keep your memory.
When an August dawn wakes over you,
your atmosphere is potent with their life,
and sometimes a young ethereal figure
indistinct, in rapid flight,
wings across your hills”

Constantine P. Cavafy

Today is September 8th, 2007. Eighty five years ago it was the final day of a great dream by Venizelos that was called ‘To megalo idea’ (The big concept). Thousands of people, citizens and refugees from neighboring areas have gathered in my city of Smyrna awaiting their destiny after just a few years of liberty and rejoicing. They did not know what would become of them, but their thoughts were centered on the fact that they were the real owners of this land, that for centuries no force was able to uproot them from Asia Minor. Countless conquering armies including Persians, Temurlenk, Selchuk Turks and Ottomans faced the same reality that in the end these lands were inhabited by Hellenes, and it was their motherland, and they would not leave it regardless of oppression and hardship.

On September 9th, 1922 Turkish National forces entered Smyrni (today, Izmir in Turkish), occupying it, and after burning down the Armenian and Greek quarters, got rid of the remaining Orthodox Christian people by actually forcing them into the sea. After eighty five years there are just a few remnants of these people who had changed the course of history, the music of a whole nation, the arts and philosophy of the Western Civilization several times over. But today, they are lost in the pages of history books, a few articles and documentaries. This is a short history of Smyrnean Hellenes in the late 20th Century by a Smyrnean Greek who has lived most (if not all) of his life in the city.

The Hellenes of Asia Minor survived. A small Greek population in Smyrni survived with the help of their neighbors, some in the wider Aegean region in remote villages did by the rule of proximity. But then the Lausanne treaty forced most to take part in a population exchange of Muslims of Greece with the Hellenes of Anatolia. Two million Greeks moved to Greece and some 300,000 Muslims moved to Turkey. But again Hellenes of Asia Minor survived mostly in Constantinopolis (today Istanbul), Smyrni and Eastern Thrace. The Christian population of these areas was excluded from the treaty so many families moved to these pockets to prevent exile which meant losing their property and worldly possessions.Giorgos Seferis (1900-1971), a fellow Smyrnean and Nobel Prize Winner in Literature put it the best; “Who will discover the truth? The wrong has been committed. The important thing is who will redeem it?"

There has been a commotion going on the streets for a few days now. Smyrneans are preparing for the great yearly celebrations of September the 9th, the day of ‘liberation’ of Smyrna from ‘the Greek yoke’. The day Turks ‘finally put the Greeks to the sea’ to declare independence in Asia Minor, later founding the Turkish Republic. The day Greek civilization lost its foot in one of the major areas of cultural influence, Ionia, the land of Homer (not Simpson).

At a university meeting, a few years back in Constantinopolis’ Bosphorus University, I was among a bunch of international students, Greeks included. As usual the subject matter danced around the fact that ‘Turks threw Greeks into the sea in Smyrni’, and jokes were made and people exchanged ironical remarks. One of the Greek guys suddenly pulled his pants down, to show he had bathing trunks instead of boxers as he said ‘I am prepared! We Greeks know how to swim. But I wonder what should happen if you guys try to follow us.’ It was really good and ended the discussion. It was also good to see the levelof maturity coming from my fellow countryman.

But how should I explain the joke to descendants of thousands of Greek families of Smyrni? The joke was on them! The celebrations commemorating the birth of a modern nation is based on destruction of the civilian people of the city. Of course, this is a fact that is omitted from school books. They boast the fact that they have dumped the enemy into the ocean, but omit the fact that the very enemy were only the civilians of the city. The Greek army has already deserted the area.

For those who remained, then came the ‘property tax’. After two decades of rebuilding, recuperation and lessons in survival, the so called minorities of Turkey were up against a fascist law of discriminating ‘property tax’ of the forties. Turkization (a term borrowed from Matthew Barrett, or Turkification) of Asia Minor, which began in 1860’s, through the Armenian genocide and uprooting of Pontus Greeks, Assyrians and Kurds, was not able to get rid of all non Turkic elements from the area. In fact together they outnumbered Turks in every aspect. The final blow in that endeavor was to adopt a law that was influenced by National Socialism prevailing in Germany at the times. This law stated that all non-Muslims had to pay a special tax proportional to their property or to face exile to the working camps in Eastern Turkey, with a glitch on the word ‘proportional’. The aim was said to be the dwindling conditions of the state during wartime, but there was no explanation as to why only the minorities had to give a hand to the government who refused to take part in the war officially but covertly supported the Axisforces in every manner.

The glitch on the ratio of the tax was the fact that it was not a percentage; it was a multiplication factor! A non-Muslim who for example owned 1000 lira worth of land had to pay, say 10000 lira (Yes, ten thousand) worth of taxes, or else to the working camp where they had to help build a railroad under harsh conditions of winter in mountainous Eastern Turkey. Many Greek, Armenian and Jewish families sold everything they owned for ludicrous prices and fled the country. The many Armenian craftsman of Istanbul had to bribe the authorities to keep their stores; those who couldn’t had to actually go to the work camps only to die there. It was the final major tragedy that today no one ever talks or writes about. Thousands of craft shops, factories, trading stores changed hands during these years, and again thousands of residential and communal real estate fell into the hands of Turks including even some church buildings.

Finally the majority of the economical forces of Asia Minor were in the hands of Turkish ‘entrepreneurs’, and the only evidence of all that happened were in the memories of Asia Minor Hellenes (Roumoi) and Armenian Diaspora. The tiny and poor Greece to the west was no major threat both in military or political terms. But there was a little pocket of land left where Greeks were living side by side with Turks: Cyprus. (Except maybe Western Thrace where the Muslim population was living-they still do-as Greek citizens with rights to follow their religious ways and to education in their language.)

Then there was the Cyprus crisis. In 1955, the masses in Constantinopolis, already uneasy because of the news from Cyprus, were agitated by the authorities with a lie that the house of birth of Mustafa Kemal, the founder of Turkish Republic, in Thessaloniki was bombed and burned down by Greeks. They immediately formed a mob to destroyed everything they related to a non-Muslim in the city. They burned Churches, apartment buildings, actually every building that did not post a Turkish flag. The official toll was 11 murders, hundreds of wounded, 73 churches, 1 synagogue, 26 schools, 8 fountains, 2 monasteries and 5538 properties destroyed. The authorities gathered up the usual suspects; the communists including four writers. Nobody got any jail time or punishment. A record of Turkish eye witness summarizes the tragedy. Astore owner tells his story:

“I took the Greek kids to their homes and arrived home. Our house was just across from the mosque. My grandma was sitting by the door, trembling and crying. When she saw me she said; ‘My son, please do not touch anybody’s belongings, these are our long time neighbors’, and cried more. Somehow, some time later someone brought a plate stolen from Greeks to our house. My grandma refused to touch it and she said: ‘I won’t let this thing enter my home, we would be done with’. To the last moment we were with Anastas and Niko, the pastry shop owner. We resisted against the demolition of the pastry shop to our capacity. But then a huge crowd arrived, oh, they were too many for us, they finally tore the store down.”
Between 1955 and after the events of the Cyprus conflict in 1963, the majority of Hellenes left the country for Greece and the United States. But that was an exile in reality. They did not want to go. The following personal account tells the story:

“We, most of us, had forgotten the events of 1955. They say, even some Greeks say, that we left after 1955. No, we did not leave after 55, maybe only 50 families (from Istanbul-author’s note) left then. But after 63, Cyprus was on fire, demonstrations, megaphones everywhere, on every wall in Istanbul it was written ‘Death or division!’, ‘Citizens speak Turkish!’, it was impossible for us and that was the fact. We were afraid to even say our names, to admit that we are Greek. We used to tell the kids that they should not speak Greek in public or if they have to, to speak in a low voice. You can immediately see the changes in people’s faces when they recognize you. This is my fatherland. I was born here, I lived here, as did my mother and his as well. How can I go? We are not immigrants; I am not one of these who went to America. I love my fatherland, I also love Greece. Then the immigration started in 64 after 63. We never meant to go. My husband used to say: ‘If we have to, let me be the last.’”

Personal memories fell into this timeframe. My mother being of Circassian origins, and my name Turkified on the books to prevent me from mishaps as my father used to tell me, I had no serious problems growing up in the 60’s in Smyrni. But then there was school. They had copies of my papers and there it was written that I was a Christian.

There were questions and sighs among peers and innuendos in the non-obligatory religious classes. Then again, there was Sofia F. (Now happily married and lives in Switzerland) In the sixties, independent of your sex, if you were a Hellene, a kid and in Smyrni you’ve got to know how to take a good beating. One of my friends (a Turk, now living in Belgium) was deeply in love with Sofia. And Turkish kids used to make fun of her, intimidate and try to beat her during breaks. My friend who was in love was so scared he couldn’t go and fight for her. But I was always there to save his pride. My mom never understood why I came home from school everyday beaten up and mud on every inch of my clothes. Questions directed to fellow kids were always unanswered. Teachers never got wind of it. I never told, and nobody ever, ever was able to touch Sofia! (If only anyone could, sofia in Greek means virtue)

There was one school, one curriculum, one language, one nation, one truth. We were severely assimilated and most families did not intervene. Tacit memories of the near past were haunting our parents. They were in a way losing their identity as Hellenes but not as Smyrneans. Simply, they did not want to leave the city. They’ve had many chances and they have said ‘Ohi’. (Many Minor Asiatic Hellenes of my generation do not speak Greek, most of the kids in Smyrni now are only half Greek and Greek is no longer their mother tongue)

The official history books in Turkey will tell you that when Ottoman Empire was weak due to ill-management of the Sultans during 1800’s, Armenians revolted in eastern Turkey and the army had to deal with them. All Armenian casualties were a result of this insurrection and hence were casualties of war. There is never a mention offorced immigration.

The Ottoman Empire sided with Germans due to its long term friendship with them during WW1, and although the Turks defended the Dardanelles heroically, they finally had to accept defeat not because they were defeated, but because their allies were defeated. After the war the triumphant Western European countries decided to divide the country into Greek, French, Italian and British zones and made the Greeks invade Western Asia Minor. (No mention of again Armenia and Kurdistan which were the integral part of the Sevres Agreement which instituted no Greek, French, Italian or British zones but the foundation of Armenia and Kurdistan and annexation of Aegean Asia Minor and Thrace to Greece) Then, Mustafa Kemal organized a National movement against invasion and won the liberation war by defeating the invasion forces and by chasing them back to the sea in Smyrni. Then afterwards, all the above forces who once tried to invade Turkey, now tried to overthrow Mustafa Kemal and his new republic continuously through assassination attempts, terrorism, a non-fact they called the Kurdish problem, Armenian problem and of course Hellenism and Zionism among the leading perils.
Well, the above paragraph was not a joke. If you ask anybody in Turkey to write one short paragraph about 20th Century history of their country that’s what you’ll get. (Except for the facts mentioned in parentheses and puns of course) History books stop at 1940’s, just after Mustafa Kemal’s death and in those books everything just happens, there are neither why’s nor how’s.

In the 70’s the only American high school in the city was for girls only. Therefore I attended a special government school, taken over from a Levantine (meaning predominantly Catholic people of Italian and French origins in Asia Minor as Roumoi means Hellenes living under Turkish rule) family under the promise that the language of education would be English and they should not mess the curriculum up and keep certain principles that gives kids freedom not heard of at the time. It was an interesting experience. I had some excellent English, American and Australian teachers as well as some great Turkish ones. But the 70’s were turbulent in Turkey. The cold war influence on the country resulted in radicalization of politics and anarchy and terrorism were everywhere. People were being killed, jailed and disappeared. In this environment, the school provided a safe and secluded haven as well as a source for independent and rational thinking. I trace back all my successes or failures to those years.

Actually, the country was so divided on political views; no one really cared about ethnic origins. They had plenty of reasons to kill each other, to jail each other, to blame each other, or hurt one another’s feelings, so this forever long list of reasons never came down to ethnic differences. During these years the only ethnicity people talked about was Kurds, but not in ethnic terms but of them all being communist separatists. It was a real catastrophe as the great Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink who was recently assassinated in Constantinopolis once said that these turbulent years were the only times he forgot about being an Armenian and started feeling like a citizen, a political human being.

Then I escaped to Paris. I thought I had had it! After two years of training in drama and TV production in Paris and drinking and going to Israel at the height of Arab-Israeli war to shoot a documentary and some more drinking and traveling around Europe and some more serious drinking, falling in and out of love every week or so and some more more serious drinking, my father made me (physically) come home and attend a prominent American university in Constantinopolis to be educated in Business Administration. Although I squeezed a Political Science double major in, yes, I did graduate from there finally.

My education in Paris was my access to what I used to call ‘real books’ for the first time. I was able to read everything that was illegal in Turkey at the time, and moreover I was able to meet people like Armenians, Greeks and Turks who had long ago fled the country. We used to read Nazim Hikmet (one of the great Turkish poets who died in exile in Russia) in secret in Turkey. There I was attending a conference by his wife Vera and actually was able to talk to her. I had the chance to listen to first hand stories of people who had to leave Turkey for either ethnic or political reasons, about their trials and tribulations. But most importantly their craving for their motherland. I learned that there’s no cure for this illness and it’s fatal. But more later on this.

The 80’s were a dictatorship. All the dissidents of the community were either forced out of country (and I don’t mean just non-Muslims), or jailed, or disappeared. Everybody who thinks or at least thought about something was converted to non-thinking, apolitical human being of today’s Turkey by force or assimilation. (You couldn’t even get a job if you were suspected of your ideas and if there was a file about you with the police.) Universities were brought under one organization that fed them with a uniform curriculum and all free research was banned. (It still is today) The authorities made it impossible for the minority (non-Muslim) foundations to own or repair property. This caused havoc at first but due to international indifference nothing came out of it except many monasteries, churches and other buildings belonging to these foundations became obsolete over time, only to be demolished and apartment buildings built in their places. Here some blame should also go to Hellenic and Armenian religious authorities in Turkey as well. Although they serve (and have served throughout the ages) a necessary and irreplaceable function to cement their respective communities and provide leadership, at that time they were admittedly scared by the military government and the influence of the military afterwards. They did but little to influence the international public opinion to change this fate until very recently. For Hellenes it took a major religious university and monastery in Princess Islands to be closed, and for Armenians, the assassination of a major journalist in Istanbul.
I fled again. Now to the United States. I was married to a Cretan, and we were thinking about a baby. I lived in the US most of the 90’s and there is only one story I’d like to tell about these years. It is the story of Mr. Ian. (I am not using his real name and some private facts are distorted out of respect to his beloved family)

I met him in California in 1996 when he was well over 80 years old. I was strolling along downtown San Jose when I saw his store, an antique shop full of real interesting stuff such such as old 78 rpm record players, tens of radio receivers from 20’s and 30’s, all kinds of electrical junk for a junky geek in San Jose. I went in to his store and started to ask about the stuff, prices and alike. He was not chatty at first but he noticed my accent and asked where I was from. When I answered, he was talkative instantly and in perfect Turkish for that matter. I gasped and asked who he was. Instead he asked me if I liked rembetika and Turkish music while he showed me the way to his inner sanctum of the shop. I said, but why yes, of course! Then it was heaven on earth. On the shelves were hundreds and hundreds of 78 rpm records of Smyrnean music and Turkish music from the beginnings of the Century we were about to end, and all in mint condition. Ian was from Constantinopolis, his father was a rich businessman who died in 1916, not of natural causes. His father’s small collection of 78 rpm’s got larger until his family moved to the States in the early 30’s and these were almost their only possession that they carried over the ocean. When our conversation got deep and after we exchanged experiences (his of course outweighing mine) and thoughts, Ian smelled me, and said I smelled like the motherland. That was impossible I said. I was in the States for more than 5 years without even visiting back but he insisted. We wept.

He had left Constantinopolis one April evening on a boat that took his family to Marseille. From there they decided to stay on the ship that took them to New York. He worked at a factory in Queens as a handyman, and later with help from his elder brother he opened his first record store in Astoria. Retiring years later in San Jose he turned his store into an antique shop. Ian died in 2006. For the four years I lived in the United States after we met, I tried to visit him every holiday even though we lived thousands of miles apart. We would talk about the fate of people that came from our neck of the woods. We would listen to Sotiria Bellou, Roza Eskenazi and Aghapikos Tomboulis for hours. I would bring him ouzo, he would share kopiks his daughters cooked for him with me. Or we would spend hours just staring at the walls of his store. We would do nothing but share existence in the same environment. Sometimes, maybe wishful thinking on my part, I would think I provided him with a sense of continuity, and an oasis in his desert of solitude. Ian died and with him he took with him my heritage that I never even knew before I met him. I am sure now, he is listening to Bellou live.

Here in Smyrna life is stagnant now. Decades of wrong economical decisions, negligence of the government, hostility of current administration toward anything western or civilized left Smyrni like a rusty chain on the dock. (the Prime Minister even called Smyrni ‘Ghavour Izmir’ meaning Izmir the Infidel because people here still drink in Ramadan, the holy month of fasting.) It looks like a small town with 2 million people wandering the streets every day aimlessly. The industrial boom in nearby Magnesia helped a little and fueled exports in one of the largest ports in the Aegean in Smyrni, but that was not enough to feed more than two million people.

Traditionally the area was known for its culinary exports. But these were under the supervision of or traded by the so called minorities and since they are long gone and since we now live under Global Economy, Smyrni is not in very good shape and the future does not look bright either.
I am no crazed nationalist. I just tried to paint a human portrait the best way I can. Finally, I have to mention one crucial fact most reviewers neglect when dealing with matters Turkish. Since the Ottoman times, rulers in Turkey never valued human life, be it Muslim, Christian or Jew. (I cannot say for sure if this has anything to do with religious culture) Muslim people were called ‘taba’ and were ‘kul’ (slaves) of the Sultan. As long as they served and fought for the state they were fed. Non-muslims were given the right of living under severe restrictions provided that they paid taxes in the form of money, goods and children. I always wanted to provide myself with a rational explanation as to why people are capable of performing such atrocities against their neighbors who they have lived together with for centuries. Crete is a good example, Smyrni is another, Pontus is a totally amazing story. Constantinopolis was the first metropolis of its time with such diverse ethnicities living peacefully together. And after just100 years it’s all gone. Neighbors kicked neighbors out.

In the place of the whole Armenian quarter in Smyrni sits a park. The trees on it rot from their roots and fall apart, so that they have to replant them often. The merry days of my childhood when Los Paraguayos, Enrico Macias and Dario Moreno sang in tavernas of the Kordelia are gone. I think maybe it had something to do with the way we value human life in our neck of the woods.

Efstratios Moraitis

September 8, 2007

The Best Antidote

2009-05-26T14:10:00.006+03:00

Discrimination is a social disease. When Greek police started to fight with Muslims a few days ago, one cannot stop but think that discrimination can only be fought with determination. Determination to heal that disease if only by correcting our own behavior against discrimination.

Disrespect against the millennium old Christian relics all around Asia Minor obligates us to respect every minor religious artifact in the Christian world. Let alone burning down a small makeshift mosque at a basement of an apartment building.

This is not about to not justify the acts against Christian minorities under Muslim rule. This is only what Christianity and Western Civilization is all about.

Since the acceptance of fascistic acts of past governments in Turkey by the Turkish Premier, newspapers in this land is publishing interviews with Greeks who has left the country against pressures from the state since 1940's. Old pains have resurfaced. Old memories galore on every page. However, we have to take the example of Mr. Hercules Millas, who has left the country with nothing and dedicated his life as a writer to better the conceptions of Greeks against Turks and vice versa in Greece. Only the Romiossini (Greeks of Asia Minor) and only them, and democratic thought in Greece or elsewhere are the most powerful weapons of this fight against bigotry. Nationalistic and totalitarian speech was never a solution and it surely is not at this time and age.

Turks have to consider the historical context of the successes of Ottoman Empire more carefully. They need to distinguish between the Golden Years and the era where nationalism and need to oppress became the rule of thumb, and its results for themselves.

A post nationalistic enlightenment is needed very badly on these lands. And democracy and tolerance are the only solution. When others would become one of us, we would be able to enjoy our sun, our moon, our wine and our worldly chores better than ever.

Who by Fire

2009-05-24T23:52:00.006+03:00

Fairies must have whispered to his ear. Or else, as he would prefer, God must have talked to him in his dreams. Turkish Prime minister declared he was sorry of ethnic cleansing of the "Christian minorities" in Asia Minor. We would never know if he was sincere since another minister from his cabinet recently declared that these actions were merely forming a nation and were necessary.

What a contradiction. Since his entrance into national political stage in the beginning of the millennium most minorities in Turkey supported his Ak Party (literally meaning "white" or "clean") with the hopes that his claims for real democracy and platform for religious independence would better their condition. However these hopes were short lived for his concept of democracy was only good for islamic fundamentalists. Government's oppression against Kurds and groups supporting laicism only increased in his premiership. Radical Islamists and extreme nationalists alike started shooting ministers, massacring Bible printers, threatening alcohol drinkers and tantalizing girls with "inappropriate" clothing.

He said "Many ethnicities were deported from our country for years. Did we win? We have to think about it. This really was a result of a fascist behavior. We have made the same mistake from time to time. But when you think in common sense, you say what great mistakes we have made." Almost one century of cleansing Asia Minor from Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians and many more minorities (in fact most of which were majorities in many areas before the Republic). Almost thirty years of disrupting every Kurdish family, village, uprooting hundreds of thousands, raging war against its own citizens. Now they say it was fascist!

In the democratic tradition, fascists pay for their crimes. I'd like to ask Mr. Prime Minister; who's going to pay for theirs?

Kingdom of Fear

2009-05-22T22:12:00.002+03:00

When we are asked "what are you afraid of?", we internalize the question. The answer is almost always about personal fears. However what we are afraid of on a daily basis is totally different than virtual fears we talk about. Modernization resulted in a terror society. Political, technological and spiritual gains, augmenting variety and possibility of choices increased casual shrewdness and rudeness paradoxically. Terror observed radically and exceptionally in democratic societies, affect societies which does not incorporate a social order, and lacking a social contract more. From politics to media; entertainment to driving, terror rules every aspect of our common schedules. That's the real fear.

Agitating when asked, fears like "I'm afraid to tell my opinion", "I'm afraid to drive", "I'm afraid to go to the police office" are the real fears.

We are afraid of speaking our minds. But we are not afraid of embezzling millions of liras.

We are afraid of crossing the street, but not afraid of attacking someone with a knife.

We are afraid of educating ourselves but not of ignorance.

We are afraid of law, but not of unlawfulness.

We have created an order where rules can only be broken. And we hate it, though we do nothing to change, or to change it.

The kingdom of fear, chaos, disorder is our making. It's our choice. We have to change our choice: we have to chose to let live to live humanly. Without dismissing our past, our experience, we have to learn about ourselves by looking at our society through the scope of historical reality. Not by retaliatory action, far away from orientalist reflexes, we have to democratize ourselves.

That's to be our lesson...

American Idol vs. Eurovision

2009-05-20T00:32:00.003+03:00

The hype in the U.S. still keeps up. As far as a season long adventure goes on at Hollywood studios. In many other countries Freemantle syndicated shows went on and off and mostly lasted only a few seasons. In the U.S. the Idol is enjoying its eighth season. Despite many critics branding it as the worst season ever, I still believe in teenage power. The immense authority we witnessed in the personality of Kelly Clarkson, disappointment-turned-stardom in the case of Jennifer Hudson and many more like Underwood justified usefulness of the show. However, Americans taking the show too seriously need a reality check and listen to the age old experience of their European friends.

Europeans have been witnessing popular music vote for almost four decades now. First started as a network link check among national TV broadcasters in Europe, Eurovision Song Contest is one of the yearly favorite shows on this continent. Despite incredible rule changes over time it still attracts the attention of viewers from Armenia to Portugal; from Iceland to Israel. Major TV network of each country selects a song by different means and sends the contestant to an event taken care of by the last year's winner country and people vote by text messages and phones during the event. Every year as the neighbors vote for neighbors, one song stands out and wins the whole thing. Then the discussion starts. If you use Facebook (how blasé) and have a few European friends you must have noticed the YouTube videos they've been pushing and the opinions galore lately. It's been the event.

Across the Atlantic, season eight of the Idol is wrapping up this week. My personal favorite Allison Iraheta eliminated just before the finals, what is left for me to watch is the irrelevant and the self-indulgent as an Idol candidate. Nevertheless the enormous turn-out of the votes shows that the public is still interested.

On the other hand Eurovision has lost the interest of its European audience over the years and EBU (the organizing unit) have been introducing Eurovisions of dancing, of kids and new countries as far as mid-Asia. And with no surprise this year a Norwegian youngster with a simplistic tune about fairies won and made his tribute to the year of Stephenie Meyers! And by doing so he beat International stars like Patricia Kaas (representing France), an Andrew Lloyd Webber tune (representing United Kingdom), and Sakis Rouvas of Greece by a difference of overwhelming votes. This used to be a very unlikely case.

To cut the long story short, Idol is still delivering its promise. I, at least really hope that Iraheta would be a rock star. She has all the makings of. I'm sure Adam Lambert can find a ticket for Broadway. I have no idea what Kris Allen is doing on the last two, but I guess there are many stuff concerning reality shows that evade me.

Eurovision would go another series of rule changes and would include countries like Canada, or maybe even Australia, and try to produce likes of Abba in the future. But I'm sure both shows keep on serving their promise of promoting popular music and affect the lives of young people by bringing them alternatives in the sounds that they tune into.

Death of a Warrior

2009-05-19T14:49:00.004+03:00

Some people are born to fight till the end. Even though that fight does not have any immediate rewards, their commitment for a better world make their efforts more than worthwhile.

Prof. Türken Saylan was such a person. In a country where no good deed goes unpunished, she worked all her life as a woman, to get rid of lepers and prejudices against women in Turkey where Muslim prejudices agaşnst them thrive in everyday life.

She was a doctor of medicine, but she was also a "doctor for social diseases". When you leave the coastal sections and go down into the countryside in Turkey, education rate for the girls is below any of its counterparts in Europe. She has started a non-profit called "The Association to support Contemporary Living" to fund the educational needs of girls who were abandoned by their parents or who were unable to fund for their education. The Association is fairly successful since it helps over 30,000 kids as of 2009. Bu the name itself explains the level of controversies in the daily life of modern Turkey. The term 'contemporary lifestyle' refers to the current living practices in a given society. However the founding members of the mentioned Association perceived that the current conditions within Turkey were so much in contradiction with its counterparts in the western hemisphere that "contemporary lifestyle" was something to be fought for and desired for. They have started that fight with the educational rights of young girls everywhere in Turkey, aptly named as "snowdrops".

Naturally she was attacked by the status quo verbally and physically. Five weeks before her death (she was suffering from a form of cancer) her house was ransacked by police forces and only her health condition saved her from jail and all other directors of the Association were taken into custody for allegedly doing deeds against the state! Not to mention all verbal abuses by the Islamic press brandishing the fact that her mother was of Swiss origin and she was an atheist and a missionary at the same time. They have even openly enjoyed her death in the name of religion.

Just because of these ridiculous accusations (and in reality all of her contributions to the society) she died a martyr. Her public persona refused any relationship with any undemocratic force prevailing in the society. She denied her support to any gathering of ideas that were against human rights. She died a human being who contributed endlessly to humanity. We cherish her altruistic virtues, may She rest in peace.

The Dilemma/1

2009-05-18T23:12:00.007+03:00

One of the important problems facing Turkish community today is self-perception of people living under Turkish authority for almost nine hundred odd years. Although the composition and social desires of this community changed drastically over time, this issue among others survived all change the passing of time revealed. The roots of this problem have not been carefully investigated apart from some symbolic phenomena claimed by sociologist Prof. Mardin and otherwise mostly ignored by many Turkish and International scholars since it is derogatory in its primal hypothesis that neither Ottoman nor Turkish state provided a solid identity for its citizens (or rather flock) so they only define themselves as an opposition to their well defined enemies depending on the time and the circumstances of this definition. Many socially primitive societies have this common tendency. But as they climb the social ladder (as a result of such things as common language, feelings, culture, etc.), they define who they are and label other forces as enemies henceforth.

Traditionally since they have migrated to west and started having written records that we can relate to today, Turkish society is an autocratic society. There was never a traditional cast system or feudal relationships as we define for western society. The head of the family governed the nucleus of the society as the leader (the traditional 'beg') ruled the largest unit. Therefore the unity among families or cities or regions were not the union of cultural ties of a system but rather the union by a common purpose. And that purpose was very handy: Wealth in this world and promise of heavens in the next. That dual purpose was very cozy in practice; war on infidels, take their money, make them muslims or kill them and by all means you're guaranteed of both pillage and heavens.

In the beginning they have modeled their formation on inexperienced areas on the institutions of their contemporaries. The empire was mainly modeled on Byzantium. The nation state was modeled on Mussolini's Italy, France and Switzerland. However modeling in spite of adaptation hindered the effectiveness of the projects as a whole. Today the end result is a society that, unable to define itself with concepts that can endure with time and space, defines itself by what it does not want to be and what it is against depending on the circumstances. The educational system also encourage that result by officially claiming to produce "one set of mind", "one set of persons" and "one truth".

There are very interesting phenomena resulting from the fact. A typical Turkish mind wants democracy when it gives himself a set of rights and protection. Likewise he or she will be a defender of human rights when the concept protects his or her freedoms. Since these rights were "allowed" to them by the state instead of won by them or "demanded" by them as a result of a social contract, they would oppose such when they work for their social or ideological enemies. Enemies are defined as people who does not think the way he or she does and must be prevented from expanding their ideas or influence by all means possible).

That works the best against minorities of any kind obviously. They might be the followers of an ideological doctrine, they might be citizens of a particular city, believers of a different faith, or of a different ethnic origin depending on the circumstances as they present themselves. They are the worst of the enemies; they are "the others". People living outside the country and that are not of Turkish origin are natural enemies. But evidently it is only natural that they are enemies. However, the ones that live in the country are the worst, because they somehow have the means of creating more damage than the external forces since they can disrupt the unity and uniformity of the nation.

Therefore the obvious minorities, who are really different in their culture, language, religion, lifestyles, etc., were and still are the scapegoats of every mishap in the eyes of the prevailing ideology. They suffer the results of every wrong turn that the global order might take or any mistake the state might make.

(... to be continued)

Social Disarray

2009-05-17T23:15:00.003+03:00

Dear readers,

After three years of trials on our inner blog and several publications syndicated worldwide, we have extended our blog entries to the main pages of turkiye.org. At a time of chaos in the world and no less disarray in the Middle East, Turkey and its politics play a no less important role in the face of humanity. Our aim is to provide a seldom traveled perspective on local and international issues without losing our focus on well being of the denizens of our young planet, human rights and freedom of speech.

During the years preceding the global economic crisis, Turkey passed through a well accustomed path of self destruction and de-democratization. Followers of political issues would note that the country has a reputation of dealing with its problems in a very chaotic and unplanned way. And this, in turn creates more chaos and unmanageable social situations for the country. What is maybe still not surprising is the fact that a government of seven years and counting, is getting more and more confused towards new developments as well as age old problems still haunting the country.

Maybe that's why it's a writer's haven.

In our blog, we will concentrate on the main issues challenging the developing country;

1. Human rights issues,

2. Minority issues,

3. Democratic issues

4. Daily lives of its denizens, hence social issues.

Please do not hesitate to send us your comments to create a more multi-faceted discussion here at our Turkiye.BlOrg. Don't forget to add this blog to your RSS feeds especially on your iGoogle home page.

Hope to see you on our next blog soon. Greetings from beautiful Smyrna!

Stratos Moraitis