Q & A

Hello Mr Wade’s students. This will roughly be a Q&A blog. And I will try not to swear this time since I’m addressing you guys and not some anonymous person who likes to read the F word. So let’s get down to questions.

“Hi Efe,

My name is Leah and I'm a student in Professor Wade's Minority Report class. I was just writing because today in class we talked about the relationship between Turkey and Armenia, and specifically, discussed Hilary Clinton's new "historic accord" which has recently taken place. Since, as I understand, you currently live in Turkey, I was wondering how you felt about the Armenians and if you agree with Clinton's steps towards compromise. Aside from this question, I was also curious about how you or other Turks felt towards the United States. Since Turkey is located in such a prime location (literally stuck in between Europe and Asia), it would benefit America a great deal to be allies with Turkey. Nevertheless, although I know that the U.S. is trying to befriend your nation, I was not certain how well the Turks cared about Americans.”

Hi Leah, I think by “historic accord” you mean the aggreement signed between Turkey and Armenia. Well, as always the ass-sucking Turkish media showed this as a “huge step taken by Turkish government”. The secular Kemalists like myself have a problem with this. The reason Turkey first narrowed the relation with Armenia was its occupation of a region in Azerbaijan, and an actual massacre they committed in Khodjali. Armenia never backed off from Dağlık Karabağ (Nagorno-Karabakh), but the Turkish government did and signed an agreement to bring things back to normal. What is unacceptable is that Azerbaijan is the brother country of Turkey and the Turkish government is doing everything to earn its hate. And let’s talk using our logic and not our emotions, the answer doesn’t change. Azerbaijan has crazy natural resources and agriculture, where Armenia has nothing to give since it makes its living mainly by the support of Armenians from outside. So rejecting Azerbaijan and befriending Armenia has no logical explanation but “because the government was told to do so”. Recently there was a soccer match between Turkey and Armenia, maybe you don’t know but FIFA put a ban to enter the match with Azerbaijan flags. Turkey did nothing against it, and actually Turkish police itself made sure all the Azeri flags were taken from the Turkish fans and stacked on the floor in the street. And the cameras shot it which made the Azeris go furious. Let me tell you this, we had pretty bad governments, but nothing ever is gonna top this one, that is, if Turkey will have another government. Because the button has already been pressed, and the sequence to divide Turkey’s land has started. You guys have to understand one thing; there is a delibirate attempt to divide Turkish land, to weaken Turkey in the middle-east, and to start a western controlled official Kurdistan. We kept saying there’s no way they can take land from Turkey because we are strong, and we have a strong army, but the enemy never had the intention of fighting anyway. For years and years, we had been warned by our wisemen that the western countries are stupiding-down Turkish people in every way possible, mostly by helping religious cultists to infiltrate the education, politics, money, even the army. Right now I see so clearly, especially after I went to İstanbul, that many people in Turkey care about nothing but their soccer team, or some celebrity’s private life, or some stupid women show. Turkey is not going to be splitted by force, it is going to be split by the very hands of the government. And people are just too stupid to realise that. The government is sitting down with the terrorist organization in the name of “befriending Kurds”. The prime minister and the government’s primary purpose is to serve the western governments which helped them get the lead, which means helping with the division of Turkey. Right now, this is the biggest event going on in Turkey. The government has a target audience so stupid that they can do anything and tell something to justify it. That’s how he came down to “negotiating with baby bombing terrorists”, of course, right now he’s saying his intention is not to glorify the terrorists or to split the country, but to “make peace with Kurds” (read my previous blogs to understand why “negotiating with terrorists” is not equal to “befriending Kurds”). His next move is going to be (as he implies) to change the Kurd populated city names into Kurdish. Since it’s not your country, you may say “so what’s wrong with it?”. Well because I’m pretty sure his next step is going to be saying “Kurds want their own country, and we wanna make peace with them, so let them be seperated from us”. And the next step is going to be the supporting countries who splitted Turkey taking control of Kurdistan, probably even as it gets founded. And Kemalist & nationalist people who are against the government’s plans will again be called “racist”, or “Kurd hater”, or “Armenian hater”, or whatever the latest trend is. So, all this blood, these baby murders, this systematically dumbing down of people, all these decade-long plans are simply to own a country in the middle east. So you were looking for a definition for “evil”? You’re one of those naive kids who claim “there’s no actual good or evil, it all depends on the perspective”?. Well, I see some people have really fucked up perspectives.

Oh wait, the question. Yeah, ok. Maybe you read it before in my previous blogs, the people which support the conservative government almost always has a racist hate against Americans, you know, because of killing Iraqis and stuff, also against Israel and Jews. People like me, the secular Kemalists, well we judge the governments for their actions, not the whole people living in that country. I have many friends from USA & similar countries, but it doesn’t mean I support the US government. So your big question is, “why do the conservative people support a party which is obviously a puppet of USA and ally of Israel?”. The answer, they’re stupid. Well, the same reason why people believe in scientology, or extraterrestrial visitors; because they WANNA believe. They wanna believe that this miserable life of theirs is gonna turn into an eternal life in heaven’s honey and milk rivers, having orgies with virgin angels, and... pretty much that’s it (what else is there to offer to them actually?). They wanna believe that if they cover their hair and vote for the “religious party”, they will go to heaven. And when the elections come closer, the prime minister shows just enough hate towards Israel to make sure the believers are right. No, they’re not gonna ask “why did we rent a huge amount of land to Israel for 50 years?”, they’re not gonna ask “why didn’t we interfere with the Israeli attack on Gaza?”, they’re just gonna say, “wow, our PM really told off the Jew!”. So I hope it was a satisfying answer.

“Hello Efe,

I was wondering how woman are treated in Turkey? After reading about all of the cults and how the woman were treated awful I was wondering what your take on how woman are treated there. We have read two novels and the woman are treated in different ways in both...some are home bodies and do a lot of cooking, some are just wearing the Jab or the head scarf's, and others test the limits and wore clothes that was frowned upon. So that is why I was wondering if the woman got treated different in the part of Turkey where you are at!

Thank you,

Brittany Mailhotte :)

P.S. I have attached a picture of myself like Professor Wade asked us to!!!”

Hi Brittany, I can say my city is one of the best women-treating cities in Turkey. But still, if you are alone, and especially if you are a foreigner, some assholes are going to verbally harrass you, or even chase you, even in daytime, even in the crowd. This is because İzmir is a big city, and big cities always have these assholes. BUT, it is still a heaven compared to İstanbul.

Of course I understand what you mean by saying “how are women treated?”. It all depends on the education level of her family. On the highest level, like my family, women are no different than American women or European women, thanks to Atatürk. And as the education level gets lower, she becomes a housewife who manages the house & watches women programs, or even as low as the stereotypical Arabic woman (I don’t know how it acutally is in Arabian countries, I’m just talking about the stereotypes).

P.S. Nice picture.

“Hey Efe,

I enjoyed watching your video clips they were very funny. One question that I have for you would be, what to do most people in your country think of the United States and the new President?

Have a nice day!

Casey McNeil”

Hi Casey, what Turkish people think about USA is answered I guess. What we think about the new president is, well it’s not like we had a choice. You know Obama got Armenian votes by uttering “genocide”, and republicans were on the Turkish side, so it means Obama chose the Armenians and McCain chose the Turks. I myself know very well that they’re all just politicians. I know many of you expect a lot from Obama, even more after his Nobel prize, but you’re going to be disappointed. How do I know this so clearly? Because he uttered “genocide” at first, and after he came to power he forgot about the genocide not to piss-off Turks, which shows he’s just another dirty politician. I hope time proves me wrong, and he can hardly be worse for USA than republicans anyway, but this is how I feel.

“Efe,

Professor Wade told us you were in Istanbul recently for a television appearance, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your appearance. Did you enjoy your time in Istanbul, and is the culture in Istanbul different from where you live? I was also wondering if you have ever traveled to the United States, and if so how different life and culture are in Turkey. We have learned a lot about culture in Turkey though books Professor Wade has had us read, but I think you can learn more if you hear stories and experiences directly from someone who lives there.

Thank you for taking the time to read my email,

Allison”

Hi Allison, the appearance was about my comedy videos which mostly make fun of the government and its suck-ups. The channel which called me doesn’t have a high rating, but it’s known for being one of the castles of secularism, nationlism and Kemalism. They loved my videos and wanted to invite me to their late night news program. They asked questions about my Youtube life and my videos. I also told them I write English blogs for people who wants to understand Turkey from a Turkish citizen’s point of view.

İstanbul was interesting as always, last time I was there was December 2007. But for someone who got used to İzmir, it is simply unlivable. The people are sooooo many, bus trips are never fun like it is in İzmir, the streets are very dirty because there are almost no trash cans on the streets (because someone might place a bomb in it I guess), and everything is more extreme than İzmir (not in a bad way, but in a different way), like in İzmir you’re most likely to see 2 girls walking with jeans, but in İstanbul you can see a girl with hijab & high boots walking with a girl who has a lot of make-up, or even a girl with a mini-skirt wearing hijab. High population isn’t a good thing, because if you ask me, the population of İstanbul is equal to the population of İzmir plus many many many unneeded people. Of course, there are many people who would never prefer İzmir to İstanbul, because it’s the heart of all activities, you can see many Turkish celebrities walking on the street, you can go to any concert of Turkish bands, and foreign bands almost always come to İstanbul, and of course you can go to matches of Galatasaray or Fenerbahçe or Beşiktaş. But for me, no thanks, I would prefer a quieter life with less stupid people, more green, and better traffic. By the way, İzmir is the only big city which is not owned by the conservative party. That’s why it’s called the castle of secularism. And it’s way higher on the education percentage than İstanbul. If you ever visit Turkey, just visiting İstanbul and not going to İzmir would be your biggest mistake, especially in summer where there are so many beaches, including the well known Çeşme beach.

I’ve never been to USA but I was out of Turkey twice. I had gone to Romania to meet my girlfriend. It was really strange, the people on the street had incredibly calm faces, not that aggressiveness in a Turk’s face, you know, always having to be alert in case someone tries to mug you or rip you off or hit you with his car or the government trying to find new ways to rob you. Other than that it was very similar, like Turkey with a different language. Oh

and I also discovered that non-Turks don’t have that ass cleaning tap (as seen in the photo) in your toilets. See, this is something you can’t learn from books.

Have a nice day...