Excerpt from an interview with Turkish journalist Can Dundar:

Do you believe Kemalism is compatible with Turkey’s EU aspirations and democratisation?

A. It depends what you understand by Kemalism. For me there is no such thing as Kemalism. Mustafa Kemal did not leave us Kemalism before he died. I am a researcher of Mustafa Kemal, I like reading about Mustafa Kemal but from what I read he didn’t leave a legacy called Kemalism. This is merely people’s interpretation, which was produced after he died. His biggest legacy however was positivism. But still, 1930s World and the World of today is very different. If you try to take Kemalism as an ideology from 1930s and apply it today it will not work. In fact to do so is an insult to Turkey. Therefore I don’t believe Mustafa Kemal was a Kemalist.

Read the entire interview here:

http://thecypriotvoice.blogspot.com/2008/02/can-dundar-there-is-no-such-thing-as.html

Posted by Cypriots for Cyprus

The Storyteller, Turkey, and A Few Road Signs

Turkey has arrived at a cultural crossroads that will determine what kind of a people the Turks will be in the future. To the unaccustomed eye of a foreigner just passing through, there are two big neon road signs, each pointing to diametrically different directions. “Secularists” says one sign, “Islamists” says the other. You can simplify this even more, and read the “Secularist” sign as “West”, and “Islamist” as “East”. It is usually agreed upon that the West leads to the European Union, the United States, Ataturk, the Turkish Army, progress, art, women’s rights, science and so forth. The East, on the other hand, is believed to lead to Iran, the Middle East, Islam, headscarves, the end of Kemalist Turkey, the comeback of the Ottomans…. This is an opportunity, or challenge, not many nations get, and whether Turks will make the most of it remains to be seen.
For the last one hundred years, Turks have redefined themselves in notable ways, and while the new society that emerged after the demise of the Ottoman Empire seemed very much Western, I believe this word has been overused over the years and reveals little about why it was the Turks who decided to ditch the Islamic values they held for hundreds of years. Why did Ataturk emerge in Turkey and not in other Islamist countries? Was he an anomaly, an exception, or a leader who appealed to th Turkish subconscious in some primal ways? If he were a true leader of the people, then why did he ask them to wear Western-style hats and change their alphabet from Arabic to Latin, rather then accepting them as who they were? It is true that Ataturk was unique in many ways – his upbringing, his vision, his rhetorical skills, his determination to stand against the West even though he was defined by the West as the Westernized Turk... Yet in many areas he was one of the people – this is why his reforms took such deep roots in such a short time. His staunchly secular, break-from-the-past, raise-from-your-own-ashes- way of thinking and doing things did appeal to the Turkish subconscious, mostly because he built an enormous social capital by leading a defeated people through a victorious Independence War, but also because Turks saw in him something they identified with easily in a time when Turks were no longer sure about who they were. Ataturk died too soon, and left behind a series of reforms that shaped the new Turkish socio-cultural landscape. If today many Turks no longer even know who the Ottomans were, and if for good or for bad they don’t even consider themselves as Ottomans, it is in no small part because of these reforms.
When Ataturk died in 1938, only 15 years after founding the Republic of Turkey, he left behind a legacy of a secular Turkey whose future lay ahead. I believe he did not leave expecting the Turkish people to idolize him, yet he fought for a cause, and his cause was a progressive, secular, powerful Turkey. 71 years after his death, Turkey is slowly beginning to forget who Ataturk was, and why his reforms were necessary. The issue of women’s rights is especially relevant in the face of a visible increase in the number of women choosing to wear headscarves. The headscarf issue, in itself not big enough to cause a cultural avalanche, is however a telltale sign of where Turkey is heading. When did these two irreconcilable Turkeys emerge? In a country divided by cultural fault lines, is there still hope for Ataturk’s Turkey? I do not like the term “Kemalist Turkey”, as I think it smells of ideology. Rather, I prefer Ataturk’s Turkey, because there is an innocence in it – the innocence of appointing the world's first woman supreme court justice, Firuzan Ikinciogullari. And the innocence of obtaining women’s suffrage in 1934, 10 years before women in France did.

It snowed today...We woke up early in the morning and all the rooftops were covered with a blanket of snow. The roads were unmarked, like white, fluffy quilts, we had to be the first to leave our foot prints - I hoped no car would drive into our typically quite cul-de-sac. When we finally managed to get out of the house, it was all silence, white, beautiful silence- it wasn't even cold. Snowflakes kept falling like they did in my childhood, not all snow storms are like this - the quite, the warmth of snowflakes slowly covering the soil, it is like nature is meditating, and this is why winter, when it is like this, is my favorite season. It took me back to my childhood days, the first day of snow - yes it always snowed during the night, and as Lara said when we woke up, "Her yer surpriz olmus." So many things have happened here, but we are more hopeful now. These days, I have many thoughts, few of them in writing. I missed writing.

Larita...

Went to Lucketts Village near Leesburg, a historic town close to where we live.
Leesburg is delectable in the old, classic, antique sense. It is a small community of renovated Victorian mansions, cottages, roadside cafes and antique shops. My first visit to Leesburg was somewhat surprising. I went there not knowing anything about it for a scheduled ultrasound appointment 2 months before Lara was born. I remember saying to myself "How come this place is so beautiful and I have not been here before?", then we moved to suburbia, and now Leesburg is 15 minutes away. And I still think it is a luscious place- but I am left under the impression it is too slow and perfect for someone like me, it is like a movie set. And this bring me to the Design House, yet another surprise as we visited the antique square in Lucketts Village this weekend. There I saw the Design House - not a furniture boutique, not an antique shop, not a renovated house, all at once - totally fresh, unpredictable when you are inside, very old from the outside, mind-blowing from an interior decor perspective. At least for a novice in this area like me. After Elle Decor, this place made the most impression on me. I will definitely go back. And the real surprise for me, I mean even greater than the Design House, was Levent's reaction when I met him outside the house, where he and Lara were innocently playing with stones. And if you know him, you know how "delicate" his design sensibilities are. Our dialogue:
"You should go and see this place."
"Oh I know this place. Been here before, I know, all rooms are different."
It turns out he discovered this place last year with a programmer friend of his!

Crying Sky Blue

Hm, I will just have to say this in Turkish, to convey the mood, for a change:):
Bizim burali (burali derken Baltimore/Washington'lu) bir jazz pianist Sean Lane'in Crying Sky Blue bestesi'nin hikayesi cok hosuma gitti, siz de hic diilse demo'larini dinleyin istedim. Hani firtina olur ve gokyuzu mor mavi bir renk olur ve ilk yagmur damlasi dusmeden hemen once bi an olur, sessizlik olur, sonra yagmur damlalari bir bir dusmeye baslar, iste oradan baslatmis, ve dinlerseniz duyacaksiniz yagmurun basladigini, arttigini, bu kadar guzel bir yagmur bestesi dinlememistim. Sean Lake'i dinleyen bir ressam toplulugu bu parcayi dinleyince, "Bu muthis guzel, adi ne bestenin?" demisler, o da "Crying Sky Blue." demis, sonra da "Eminim hepsi kosa kosa studyolarina gitmistir o ani resme dokmek icin." demis icinden.....

http://cdbaby.com/cd/seanalane2

What to say? Just woke up and stole 5 minutes for reflection. And I am realizing increasingly that my fast-track life is leaving less and less space or what do they call it? Me time. :) We have lots of mommy and me time though. :) And Lara has grown up so much. She is talking. Saying mu for muz, lma for elma, porrrakal for portakal, taaatan for tavsan, parka for parka (as in hadi parka gidelim, when i comes to going out she gets it right), and popomtom for hipopotam....and anne for anne. Yes she is finally calling me anne. And herself? Yaya!