Ask a Turk

[Aytek]

train travveling is quite hard for the eastern part of turkey because of the lack of rroads, and i know, you wont be able to travel vith train unless you go to the Kars(North west of bakü- Turkey's city) You will be safe(actually it depends for what do you asking), but anyway you had better to be careful. For langunges, in east part you may not cmunicate with english well until you come ankara, and for arabic, it is generally used in few south cities like gaziantep or urfa.

 

[Elrohir]

I can't make much sense of all the back and forth arguing on the last couple pages. Do most Turks acknowledge that in the past the Turkish government took part in the genocide of Christians, most notably in Armenia? Or is the idea that it didn't really happen, or that it was all justified really widely accepted inside of Turkey?

 

[Merkinball]

Kars was one of my multi-day stops. I'm not too concerned about a lack of roads. I have an adventurous side to me.

What languages are typically spoken in Eastern Turkey? Do you know anything about the caucuses?

 

[knigh+]

Kars was one of my multi-day stops. I'm not too concerned about a lack of roads. I have an adventurous side to me.

What languages are typically spoken in Eastern Turkey? Do you know anything about the caucuses?

As far as I know you can't go from Azerbaijan to Turkey by train. Both Azerbaijan and Turkey have their Armenian border closed due to Armenian agression in the 90's. You'll have to go through Georgia by land.

Spoiler railmap :

In any case, easiest way to travel in Turkey is by bus.


English might help in Baku and Tbilisi. After that it won't help much until you reach Kayseri and Capadoccia, which are exactly in the middle of Turkey. West of that, it will help.

Arabic won't be any help except a few villages along the Syrian border.

Except Georgia, the only language on your path is Turkish.


I advise you to ask lots of detailed questions in the following forum:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g293969-i367-Turkey.html

It is the most informative tourist forum about Turkey to my knowledge.

 

[knigh+]

I can't make much sense of all the back and forth arguing on the last couple pages. Do most Turks acknowledge that in the past the Turkish government took part in the genocide of Christians, most notably in Armenia? Or is the idea that it didn't really happen, or that it was all justified really widely accepted inside of Turkey?

Please see posts 201-205 for the less confused parts of the discussion.

 

[darky333]

What's with the oppression of the Kurd's? They should be their own state, right?

Also, how do you people feel towards Serb's? I admit, I like "Burak", good food, but I don't know anything else about the turks.

 

[knigh+]

What's with the oppression of the Kurd's?

Define oppression. They have all rights given to Turks, have all state services, and their region has been the one that recieved largest development funds for the past 25 years.

They should be their own state, right?

Somehow everybody except Kurds think so

It is like saying Hispanics in the US should be independent. Having lived in both countries, I don't see much difference between the societal role of Turkey's Kurds and America's Hispanics.

Many countries have minorities. Strangely, whenever someone wishes to poke Turkey they ask for it to be chopped into pieces. You probably know what I mean.

Quoting myself:

Spoiler another thread :

Mosul and Kirkuk have Kurds, Turks, Arabs. In Mosul, Arabs are more, in Kirkuk they are less. In both, Turks and Kurds are close in numbers.

I personally think Turkey should support independence of Iraqi Kurdistan, if the civil war in Iraq gets out of control. Turkey could even get the Kurds guarantee rights of the 1.5 million Turks living in the north, in exchange for support. I prefer to see the Turks in Mosul and Kirkuk as a minority in a prosperous Kurdistan rather than part of an Iraqi bloodbath (into which civil wars usually turn)

Here is the situation:
1-Kurdish region is landlocked and bordered by Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey.
2-Most of the foreign investment in Northern Iraq comes from Turkey.
3-All of Northern Iraq's oil flows through Turkey.
4-Percent-wise, Iraqi Kurdistan has a larger Turkish minority, than Turkey has a Kurdish minority.
5-Kurds, just like Turks, are one of the few secular muslim peoples.
6-Largest Kurdish population in the world is in Istanbul.
7-Kurds in Turkey are more mixed with Turks than Kurds in Iraq are with Arabs.
8-Kurds in Iraq and Turkey have their differences (I remember the time when Iraqi Kurds asked for help from Turkey against the Kurdish separatist/terrorists from Turkey, after losing 200 peshmerga fighters). They speak different dialects.
9-Here is a map from the latest election in Turkey, shoving the votes recieved by the only party whose main line was improving Kurdish rights, and all candidates Kurds. (Large font provinces have more population)

Keep in mind that not all of this party's voters wanted independence, and not all Kurds voted for this party. Provinces with green and higher in the map have more than half of their populations as Kurdish. So at average half or less of the Kurds in Turkey would even want independence.
10-Since the time of the map above, Turkey introduced many improvments in Kurdish rights, and has to make even more, on the way to EU.
11-Turkey doesn't have many friends in the Middle East.

From these, I deduce
1-Turkey exaggerates fears of its own Kurds getting independent if Iraqi Kurds become so.
2-Turkey is the only neighbor with whom Iraqi Kurds can easily get friendly.
3-It is in Turkey's best interest to turn a Kurdistan into their little brother rather than enemy.

By the way, I am a Turk.


edit: I found out that various statistical institutes and/or researchers (European, American, and Turkish) have calculations of Kurdish population in Turkey varying between 6 and 13% (based on ethnicity, native language, population censi, etc.). I guess the often cited 20% is Kurdish propaganda.

Also, how do you people feel towards Serb's? I admit, I like "Burak", good food, but I don't know anything else about the turks.

I'm not sure who is Burak. Hmm... I guess you meant the pastry with fillings. We call it Borek (pronounced like Beurek). Burak is a male name (thus my confusion.

As for Serbs... There is some negative image, due to the war in Bosnia. But you shouldn't be surprised at this, because (as far as I know) most of the world blames the Serbs for the unpleasent events of that war. This is slightly amplified in Turkey because Turks consider Bosnia, Macedonia, Albania, Kosova as the friendlier places in the Balkan peninsula, as many Turks (myself included) trace their ancestry to these places (many of these were Ottoman territory less than 100 years ago, and Turks had to flee during Balkan wars), and due to common religion. So when it is Bosnians vs a random people (in this case Serbs), people's opinion would be with Bosnians by default even before the hostilities. Add to this the violence level of this particular war and the fact that a lot of the refugees from Bosnia settled to Turkey.

But regardless of all this, statistically Turks don't hate other peoples based on ethnicity. On a scale of -10 (dislike) to +10 (like) Serbs would probably get something like -1 at average.

 

[Azkonus]

...This is slightly amplified in Turkey because Turks consider Bosnia, Macedonia, Albania, Kosova as the friendlier places in the Balkan peninsula, as many Turks (myself included) trace their ancestry to these places (many of these were Ottoman territory less than 100 years ago, and Turks had to flee during Balkan wars)...

When the young republic is born 10 million out of 12 million Turks came from Balkans and Caucasia!!!

This is huge. But it changed too much if you consider we are still 10~15 million while Kurdish origined Turks rose to ~9 million from only 0.25.

 

[aronnax]

I need to ask, where do you live?

 

[Azkonus]

I need to ask, where do you live?

Me? In Indy. Why?

 

[knigh+]

I need to ask, where do you live?

Who, me? Ankara.

edit: Ah, you were wondering about Azkonus's "Home of the Colts"...

 

[aronnax]

Who, me? Ankara.

edit: Ah, you were wondering about Azkonus's "Home of the Colts"...

No i was talking to you.

Can you tell me why every dish I was serve in Istanbul has cheese inside of it?

 

[knigh+]

No i was talking to you.

Greeks used to call it Ancyra, which means anchor. Before that Hittites used to call it Ankuwash, but I don't know if that means anything. Ankara it is not a coastal city, so there are no ships. So I wrote "shipless anchor" as my location.

Can you tell me why every dish I was serve in Istanbul has cheese inside of it?

Your luck I suppose. Most of our dishes are without cheese.

 

[aronnax]

Im fasicnated by you. Istanbul, The Ottoman Empire and the Turkish People and culture intrigued me to no end. I think Istanbul is the most beautiful city in the world. Tell me, would you prefer if the switch the capital back to Istanbul?

 

[knigh+]

Im fasicnated by you. Istanbul, The Ottoman Empire and the Turkish People and culture intrigued me to no end. I think Istanbul is the most beautiful city in the world. Tell me, would you prefer if the switch the capital back to Istanbul?

My personal opinion is NO.

Yes, Istanbul is nice and beautiful, but is very crowded (13M), has limited area (2 peninsulas), unrelenting traffic jams (once it took me 3hrs 45mins to go from one place to another, both of which are in Istanbul). If you try to add the parliament, all the ministries, embassies, government offices, etc. It will be an insane mess.

Try to fit Pentagon and the White House into NewYork for example. Not good planning.

Ankara is planned and built from scratch as a capital, so it has better infrastructure for the job....well at least it used to be until a few years ago. Now the mayor (who thinks he is the king/sultan/pharaoh) keeps screwing with the city's transportation system. I am a civil engineer, and I haven't met a single civil engineer or city planner that does not think the mayor is destroying the city with his weirdo projects without expert guidance.

Quoting myself from here:

Spoiler :

After two years, I returned to Ankara, this time permanently.
I am horrified.
When people said that Ankara was ugly, I would always disagree and say "no, it is a very nice city". From now on all I can say is "Nobody looks pretty after mutilation".
Thanks to our insidiously incompetent AKP mayor, Melih Gokcek.
Avenues lined with trees replaced by mini mock-expressways, wide open boulevards divided with NewJersey concrete blocks, sheet-pile walls left exposed on the sides of the Protocol Way which he claimed to have made supreme effort to beautify... The city turned into a construction yard, and trucks are allowed to enter the city.
Ok, I am a civil engineer with a hobby of city planning, and don't mind some construction and development. When he announced the third subway line, or when the Akay intersection was made an underpass, despite the kamikaze crossing on its west end, I thought "ok, he's from the wrong party, but he works". But now, many of the new intersections actually hinder traffic. Two years ago I was boasting to Bostonians that one could drive across Ankara in half an hour, because traffic jams are rare. Now the traffic stops to a complete halt at every "improved" intersection (I am not talking about the ones under construction).
It all happens because instead of using experts, he gives jobs to random party members and their families.
The worst part is, the amount of money he burns through while doing this. In the past years, 1/3 of the debt created by ALL municipalities of Turkey was by Ankara. Yet they can't complete the third subway line due to lack of funds.
Of course considering that in 4 years AKP generated more budget deficit than the total deficit in the ENTIRE HISTORY of Turkey, I shouldn't be surprised.
And the insidiously evil mayor keeps his public support by encouraging massive amount of migration from rural east, with the promise of supporting the education of children of the newcomers (and he keeps to this promise of course)
Well, at least we'll get rid of AKP in the next election. But the mayor elections don't seem so promising.

Besides, Turkey is very large to rule from the corner (Istanbul). Ankara is more at the center, and is still 1000km from the far end.

edit: There is a historical/emotional component too. Ankara was where Turkish nation made its stand. The longest pitched battle in World history was for the defense of Ankara.

 

[Mirc]

Who, me? Ankara.

edit: Ah, you were wondering about Azkonus's "Home of the Colts"...

Ah so you live in the only Turkish city I really got the chance to visit.

I spent more than one day visiting the old places of Ankara. I also was lucky to have a very sexy guide, Jasmine (Yasemen in Turkish or something like that, not sure how to spell it; a Turkish girl with blue eyes).

I liked the old center, Ulus or something like that. And from the walls at some place near there, it was a great view to the city. Right when I was up there with my guitar teacher, looking and taking photos, the Muezins (or however its spelled) started singing, calling people for prayer, and it was really interesting as I could hear different voices from EVERYWHERE in the same time. I'll never get the chance to see that in Europe, it was fantastic.

 

[Aytek]

ok, then a question from turks to you; Have you ever heard these brands: Arçelik, Beko and Vestel, if you, what are the impressions?
(especially for europians)

 

[Mirc]

Never heard of any of them.

 

[knigh+]

Ah so you live in the only Turkish city I really got the chance to visit.

I spent more than one day visiting the old places of Ankara. I also was lucky to have a very sexy guide, Jasmine (Yasemen in Turkish or something like that, not sure how to spell it; a Turkish girl with blue eyes).

I liked the old center, Ulus or something like that. And from the walls at some place near there, it was a great view to the city. Right when I was up there with my guitar teacher, looking and taking photos, the Muezins (or however its spelled) started singing, calling people for prayer, and it was really interesting as I could hear different voices from EVERYWHERE in the same time. I'll never get the chance to see that in Europe, it was fantastic.

I'm glad that you enjoyed your visit.

In the last few years they connected almost all mosques to a central broadcast, so you don't get the time offset between calls to prayer from each mosque anymore. But I think I liked different voices from different mosques, rather than the new system.

 

[Hadesspirit]

YES,the other thread has been closed.But i can answer your questions here.