Talking Politics

With local elections coming up, and some serious political movement at the federal level, I'm finding it necessary to learn some Turkish vocabulary. Hadi, let's review some old and new.

siyaset / politika          politics

(Siyaset is also Arabic for 'politics.' Or asiyasiya? Maybe that's 'political'? Need an Arabic consult).

hükümet          government

devlet          state

(As is devlet hastanesi, 'state hospital'. When I say that in Canada I teach new immigrants, people always ask I'm employed by the devlet.)

il          province

başkent         capital 

(Baş 'head', kent 'town')

başbakan          prime minister

belediye başkanı          mayor

(Belediye is 'municipality' in Turkish. In Arabic, I think it means country or countryside).

darbe          coup d'état

devrim         revolution

tutucu / muhafazakar          conservative

(The second comes from Arabic. One person said it's not commonly used, but the next day another person used it before tutucu.)

milliyetçi           nationalist

anket          survey

That's enough for now. I suspect Turkish politics are always interesting, but the situation is especially intriguing right now, with a Muslim scholar in Pennsylvania apparently initiating corruption busts, a Prime Minister whose new slogan is "Iron Will", and population that experienced a political awakening this summer.

You can get a grasp of the major plot lines from this great article from New York Times Magazine by Suzy Hansen.