Hello,
I have come across this thread when my friend Kivanc posted his comments on this forum to facebook. I must say there is a vibrant and mostly reasonable discussion going on here, and the thread seems to draw attention and get revived by new people like myself continuously.
I beleive the first and most important fact is that, there should be an open dialog between opposing parties at all times. In the past, it was pretty easy for the governments/political forces to impose their agenda on the people by means of the education system, mass media etc., but alas NO MORE! At the verge of a new era, finally the people have a right to speak and decide for themselves over the digital networks. (That too is being monitored, but it's better than nothing
We can sort our differences, by talking to each other, learning from each other and growing together towards a better and stronger community in general. I sincerely believe that no boundaries exist in the world as it used to be, and mostly remain in our mindsets. Once we get past this barrier, I believe if we as the people can choose dialog over violence, we can impose this upon our governments in a very effective and powerful way. My advice to anyone who wants to change the way the world is today, is to sign up for a political party, be active, go and do something about it. The fact that I'm able to say this is, of course, because Turkiye is a democratic country and I have this opportunity here, not denying the fact that our system has its flaws and needs improvement. I'd like to bring to your attention that Turkiye is simply in a totally different league than e.g. Iran or Saudi Arabia, and it's downright unfair or even irrational to think that Turkiye will ever go in that direction. I also think that modern Turks are definitely more European than Middle-Eastern or Asian, if you consider our ethnic, cultural structure and background.
As for some comments:
@Elias2
You are confusing "arabic" with "islamic" brother. It's true that Ottomans used mainly Islam as a political force, pretty much like some Europeans did with Christianity, but it's very argueable how "islamic" Turkiye's culture is or has been in the past. The culture here certainly is not Arabic, but a mix of all the cultures that existed, came to this land or was within the borders of the former Ottoman Empire. On a side note, Arabs don't even like Turks any better than Europeans do
I believe it's just the Islamic common culture that connects Arabs to Turks. In this sense, a strictly Muslim American guy living in Brooklyn, might get along better with an Arab than say me, who doesn't practice or care much about Islam.
You can search for Turkish and Arabic cultures from Wikipedia:
Turkish People,
Arab People,
If I may continue by saying that you meant "Islamic culture" in your post, it's also not very true that Islam is regressive and stagnant or has always been that way. Let's not forget that we owe our current knowledge of Algebra (El Cebir, Al-Jabr) to the Arabs, who conserved it from the Greeks and contributed to it very significantly. It's just that there wasn't any true Reform in Islam, and it has remained like how Christianity was in the Middle Ages. So anyone who'd like to practice the old Islamic text to the point, could certainly come to conflict with modern laws and modern culture. This is also true for people practicing the Old Testament in Christianity or Judaism. Especially after 9/11, it became standard to think that Islam is the ultimate evil and the enemy. Actually, the true enemy is the forces that use religion to manipulate people according to their agenda, and we must not fall for this trap.
AKP, the political party in power in Turkiye right now is a lot more "islamic" than some of the former ones. The effects that you are observing lately, is due to fact that their lifestyle and world view being dominantly Sunni Muslim. I don't think this reflects Turkiye's culture or preferences in general. In fact, that is exactly why they are heavily funded by some "foreign forces" with an agenda to slowly transform Turkiye. Actually this is why Europe should stand up and help Turkiye get back on track, who has been and continues to be NATO's forefront defence in the Middle East against various forces. It's because some 1 million young lads/ladies serving in Turkish Military have been keeping out the "enemy", some of us living further west can get a good night's sleep. Keeping out the Turks out of the EU, because of its Islamic heritage is the VERY FACT that's pushing Turkiye into Iran and the likes' playground. So in short, this is simply a clash of religions deep down, and is certainly most shameful in this age that we live in. We set everything aside, and listen to some unseen and unproven "deity", which supposedly tells us to dislike or even kill each other. Well done.
About who contributed what to world technology or culture: It's very biased to say that Turks contributed NOTHING. For one thing, although you may not like it, Turks contributed quite a lot to warfare and political management systems. It takes more than blunt brute force, from riding on horseback eating dried meat (pastirma - comes from Turkic word "pressing") to ruling half the known world. Various innovations ranging from the world's biggest cannon to sliding ships uphill and down the Golden Horn was used to conquer the infamous Byzantine defenses. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's Dardenelle defense as an Ottoman officer and other battles are taught as historic warfare lessons in various Military Schools even today. So there is no doubt Turks were and still are a warrior nation, but I beleive every other nation is the same. It's just that Turks were a bit better at that for certain periods of time.
If we talk about Administration, Selçuks and Ottomans were truly innovative, they built or modified Administrative systems to effectively rule their empire. Moreover Ottomans built Medreses (University), Bridges, Fountains wherever they went, many still standing today, so they were keen architects. So it wasn't exactly like "Let's slay everyone, collect the loot and dash out." Perhaps it was because of this management style that various nations have been able to keep their identity, and tore the Ottoman Empire apart during the Nationalist movement.
As a last point, no reasonable person I know, likes or openly defends law 301 about insulting "Turkishness". This and other anti-democratic laws are the remainders from the Military Regimes that set back Turkiye many decades. We should certainly discuss why the heck these laws are still there. Of all, our Greek friends should know the misery caused by juntas. We should and we certainly will get these kinds of laws out of our system.
Well, I have tons of other comments to make on other posts, but maybe some other time, this already started looking like an article rather than a post
All the best,
Tolga
