Turkey from a different point of view
One of our main goals on our journey is to confront the western man with the reality in Africa. We didn’t suspect that our job would begin here, in Turkey. Since we spend some time here, we had the opportunity to get deeper in to the Turkish culture and traditions, and by speaking to some of the locals, we can now sketch a picture of the Turkish people that we didn’t know before.
While there are some European laws that are introduced in Turkey to speed up accreditation for the European Union, the country does differ from the rest of Europe in a radical way. Of course, due to the young age of Turkey, this is rather normal. But we wouldn’t be the ThreeLeftHands if we didn’t investigate this a little deeper.
A bit of history….
During the first world war, the Ottoman Empire fought alongside the Germans against England. An Ottoman officer by the name of Mustafa Kemal, ignores orders from superiors and by this, wins two battles. By doing this, he also wins the favour of the Turkish people, who are by far the majority of the Ottoman Empire. Well fantastic, but as we all know, the Germans didn’t only lose the second big war. The remains of the Ottoman Empire are divided between the winning countries surrounding the Ottoman Empire. The former capital Istanbul comes under English reign and Mustafa Kemal is degraded a few ranks and placed to the inland, where he can’t form any danger.
Insulted and irritated that ‘his’ Ottoman sultan gives up the empire that easy, Mustafa Kemal decides to form his own army so he can conquer Istanbul. Cause of his growing legend amongst the Turks, they are eager to join him and thanks to his superior strategic abilities he conquers a piece of land for his own people, including Istanbul. If you look at a world map, its easy to see he did quite a good job by looking at the gigantic size of Turkey.
The downside
So its pretty logic this man is honoured in the present Turkey. But be honest, its getting a little out of proportion. First of al, mister Kemal was crowned the grandfather of all Turks right away, or as you’ve probably recognize; Ataturk. Second, Marten stated before that the huge amount of flags in Turkey bearing the face of Ataturk is a bit nationalistic and in some parts even matching Germany of 1936. When we ask about that, we learn that it is concerned a crime when a picture of Ataturk is missing in your office or company. En what does it benefit schoolchildren to learn how Mustafa Kemal scared birds of his uncle’s field and so showed his great capabilities? Dutch children don’t learn how William of Orange did beat the hell out his Spanish neighbour when he was a kid, do they?
But nowhere is written about the lesser points of Ataturk. Nobody knows about his opportune relations with communistic Russia and how he did business with Nazi Germany while he knew Hitler’s view on the Turkish people. On the Nazi’s, if Ataturk was so great, why didn’t he try to stop Hitler? Most Turkish people don’t even want to know about these facts because they are a people that need a leader. A people that want a leader of mythological proportions. That is why they still see Ataturk as The Man. Turks are a people that are born with the knowledge that they are born warriors, that follow their leader and what he stands for. This is illustrated by the Turkish flag, that is inspired by a street filled with blood, reflecting a crescent moon.
In the end, even when being very hospital, the Turk sill considers you as a foreigner and won’t hesitate to make the decision when the time comes to follow his leader.
Tags: culture, history, propaganda, serious, turkey
