A Lesson in Turkish History

So I was laying down, listening to my ipod and Erk walks in the room. He says, "Hey, come hang out with us." Erk's friend, Ozan, comes in and we're introduced. So we go to his room and hang out for a bit. Erk and Ozan are both speaking in Turkish and I have no idea what they're saying but it sounds cool, which is what counts. Ozan offers me some coffee and we go to the kitchen.

Now, I don't know if this is the right phrase, but this is where it gets interesting. Ozan takes it upon himself to show me that the Turkish are not bad people. He says that the Turks who live in Vienna are bad. By bad, he means unfriendly. But he goes on and says that Turks who are actually from Turkey are very friendly people. We start talking about religion. Ozan says he's Muslim, Erkal's Muslim, I'm Christian, whatever. It makes no difference. We're all sitting there, talking, enjoying each others company. He calls up a map on in laptop and shows me that in the eastern part of Turkey, the people there - the older people there - are much more fanatical Muslims, to use his words. He says that for people around 70 years old, they always have the man in front, walking like he owns the place, and the woman follows, her eyes to the ground. He says things like this give Turkey a bad reputation. He says that some men - the number Erkal and Ozan gave me was about 20 percent - in Istanbul at the big parties at Christmas or New Years will come up behind women wearing short skirts and rape them. Ozan explained that, no matter what religion you practice, to rape a women is wrong. It's evil. He said that, in Turkey, if a man gets caught for rape and sent to prison, he will be killed (which is just, I think). He said that these men at these celebrations give Turkey a bad name. Honestly, in respect to this issue, I have always had the impression that the Turkish were much more progressive, i.e. this isn't as big a problem as it is in say, Iran or Afghanistan (though I've never been to either so I can't really say. It's just the impression I get from the news and sometimes the impressions you get from the news are WAY off).

He then asks me what I think of Obama. I tell him I don't like him too much; I think he's spending way more than he should and that his foreign policy efforts have been a joke. I decided not to go into the technical details because they're hard enough for me to explain in English and explaining to someone who's second language is German and third language is English (there were some words where he'd go from the Turkish to the German and then to English. It was really interesting to watch) would be even more difficult. This picture will help explain some of my views:He told me about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who fought the Allied plan to split Turkey into sections. Ataturk won, by the way, which is why Turkey is a whole country today. Ozan told me that Ataturk declared that the State and Religion will be separate. One of the most interesting things I heard tonight was when Ozan said that, and I quote, "The religion and the state should be separate, I think - No, not I think. It's not an opinion, it's fact." Those aren't the exact words, but they are close and convey the correct meaning. And he's right. He tells me that their current Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says that Ataturk was wrong when he said that Religion and State should be separate (I'm looking a lot of this up on Wikipedia as I type because of translation issue/finding out how you spell this guys name). Neither Erk nor Ozan like Erdoğan, and I can't blame them. It seems like state religion is an important issue in Turkey - even I've heard about it in the States - and, in my view, they're right. Ozan was explaining to me about how when you're at work you shouldn't be thinking about prayers or whatever, you should be thinking about work. Religion is some personal which you do on your own time and when you're at work, that's not your own time.

The whole conversation was very interesting and very entertaining. Something you wouldn't get in, oh, I don't know, Lux? This is what it's all about, not going out every weekend like I was chided about last week, but learning about other people and other cultures. Ozan told me that in Turkey, when you say goodbye, you shake hands and do the kiss on the cheek, then the other cheek thing. He asked if we did that in the States, and I said no. He said that the English think the Turkish are gay because of the cheek kissing thing. I told him that I've seen this in Austria and I'm pretty sure the Italians have the same form of goodbye (I know the between women for sure and I assume it's the same among men). As far as I'm aware, it's standard accross Europe. Ozan didn't seem to know this, he thought it was only a Turkish custom.

Yes, tonight was fun. Tomorrow, Erkal and Ozan asked me if I wanted to go to Billa and maybe get some coffee with them. If I don't hear back from Sam, I think that'll be a lot of fun. Und jetzt, ich schlafe.