I know we are in no position to brag about the situation we are in regarding human rights, but to be honest with you, it is not as bad as you see it out there. Still we do have a lot to achieve in order to be on par with the best democracies in the world.
Last week, the parliament accepted some real significant changes in the countrie’s constitution, and there definitely is serþous progress.
And hey, come on. We don’t really stand a chance of being accepted in the EU, so whatever achievement is made is mainly due to inside pressure:)
Now honey, I can answer every single question you asked so far:
Changes :
The changes probably came along with the popularization of TV and international interactions in the last 20 years. We are not a closed society, as it were, but some changes come a bit later than they occur in western Europe or the US.
Scarf:
Actually, they wear scarves and a long overcoat together. THis way, the shape of the female body is hidden, and the hair is invisible, which together result in the woman’s hiding any body part that might lead to some kind of sexual arousal in the male. But in practice the results might be funny. For instance I have seen quite a few women wearing the overcoat and the scarf with sandeals, so these women probably ignore the concept of “foot fetish”
Well, we had a woman as prime minister in the 90’s. There have been a few female members in the cabinet in the last 20 years. In the business world there are several influential women, as well.
Cuisine:
Turkish cuisine is one of the richest cuisines in the world. I will have to look for cites where you can find recipes.
Fun:
hmm… Whatever you can conceive as being “fun” you can find here. Wanna come aqnd see for yourself?
Traditional dances
We have no “National” dance, but quite a few regional dances. Halay, horon, zeybek, kilic-kalkan, misket, etc. are all different regional dances originating in different parts of Anatotia… Pieces of a very rich and varied folklore.
I definitely will post some links soon, where you can get info about the country, geography, culture, people, food etc…
Watermelon Man said:
" For instance I have seen quite a few women wearing the overcoat and the scarf with sandeals, so these women probably ignore the concept of “foot fetish.” "
LOL! That is funny as hell.
Watermelon Man said:
“hmm… Whatever you can conceive as being “fun” you can find here. Wanna come aqnd see for yourself?”
I’d LOVE to, dear, but I’m poor and broke and up to my eyeballs in work at the moment. If I manage to marry me a rich fella or win the lottery, I’ll hop right over, though. Seriously, I do hope to travel to Turkey and other foreign countries someday.
Thank you for answering my questions, Sweetie. I look forward to seeing the links you’ll post, especially the one with recipies–I’m getting so bored with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches–and I’m sorry if my big mouth is getting you in trouble with the other Emailsluts (Hey Arden!) over “jewelry.” [giggle] Keep up the good work with this thread.
Then again I once had a co-worker who was Finnish, and she said that she could understand Hungarian, because it was related to Finnish, as was Turkish.
So this is addressed to Melon Man: Can you elaborate on this? Even if you can’t go to Helsinki or Bucharest and read a newspaper right off the bat, do the languages of those places indeed seem more like Turkish to you than do other languages? I believe that linguists do consider all those languages to be similar, but can you perceive that at a casual level?
I know this is years after the last post, but I found this thread through *Idle Thoughts’ list of AskThe… threads and I can comment on this question (in case anyone is interested).
I studied Estonian a few years ago, and my Estonian Professor told me that Hungarian reminds her of Estonian spoken backwards. She said she couldn’t really understand Hungarian.
Now Hungarian is related genetically to Estonian and Finnish (i.e. both are presumed to come from the same source language, the speakers are not necessarily related genetically). On the other hand, it is my understanding that Hungarian and Turkish are not part of the same langugae family (or at least have not been shown to be so).
The point being that if an Estonian speaker can’t understand Hungarian, then I’m pretty sure they’d have problems with Turkish.
I can add to this that I have seen some written Finnish, some written Hungarian and some written Turkish. I can clearly see the connection between Estonian and Finnish, I can’t really see any connection with Hungarian (but this may be because I don’t know estonian well enough), and I can’t see any connection with Turkish.
Since this is back open again… what’s your (and the country’s) mood on failing to qualify for the World Cup in Germany? I thought Turkey would do great during this competition since they’d enjoy almost a home field advantage.
One of my best friends is Turkish/Dutch, I can count to ten in Turkish and I’ve been to Istanbul and Alanya. Beautiful town and beautiful area [the sea is actually lightblue at Alanya!]
My question: How do you - and your friends - think about Turkey joining the EU?
Is it important to you, or don’t you give a darn?
Also -something quite different - I had a snack in Turkey which looked like a thin eggroll, but didn’t taste anything like it. I bought it at a street vendor who kept the things in a small glass box which he carried like a street-organ.
I think the snack had fish in it. Not sure, though.
Do you know what’s it called?
What do you think about the current efforts by the Orthodox Church in Turkey to secure more religious freedoms, especially wrt making it a condition for Turkey being allowed to join the EU? Specifically, I’m referring to things as allowing the seminary at Halki to reopen (the biggie), but also things like recognizing the Patriarch of Constantinople as the spiritual head of all his worldwide flock, not just the Christians in the Phanar, allowing non-Turkish citizens to be Patriarch, and the ending of confiscation of Church property by the government and the return of confiscated lands, both to the Greek Orthodox and to the Armenians.
Are you in favor of relaxation of restrictions on the Patriarchate, and the re-opening of Halki? A lot is heard in Greek and Orthodox news about protests and expressions of hate towards the Christians in Turkey. Are these news reports accurate? What is the general public opinion towards the Christians in Turkey?
What’s your opinion on the Armenian and Pontic Greek genocide / ethnic cleansing? How does general Turkish public opinion on the matter compare to the opinion of the Turkish government and various vocal extremists?
Do you know HallGirl2? She was there in Istanbul for her junior year of high school through the Rotary club. (This was in 2002-2003). She loved Turkey, and the Turks, and couldn’t say enough wonderful things about it all.
Last night (even before reading this thread!) I made Turkish meatballs (kofka? I can’t remember what the offical name is for them) from her Turkish cookbook.
If I manage to marry me a rich fella or win the lottery, I’ll hop right over, though. 