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.

"Glorious" Urfa Walkabout

You've seen my home. Now, the city!

These girls are rocking a pretty standard Urfa outfit for their age, based on what I've seen: slim jeans, coat to low thigh, and fancy headscarf tied around the front of the neck.

Urfa is no village. Population is estimated at 500,000.

Standard urban Turkish man garb: leather jacket, nice jeans, a longer coat for the gentleman.

In Urfa, by the way, every park is Dude Chilling Park.

Local elections are coming up (more on this later), so the streets are full of signs, flags, and music-blaring vans.

Many of the older women wear long coats, again with the fancy headscarves tied around the front of the neck.

Kitap means 'book' (in Turkish and Arabic). The university students inside were super kind and searched the shelves for a book in English (no dice). One of them, insisting that we speak in English, asked, "What are you doing...here...in Urfa?" I laughed.

Big plaza undergoing development. Requisite Atatürk statue at back left.

Şanlıurfa is the real name of the city. Şanlı meaning 'Glorious' was added to 'Urfa' to commemorate the city's efforts in the War of Independence–the war after World War I, when Atatürk fought off the Allies and made Turkey from what was left of the Ottoman Empire.

Apparently it took a few years of petitioning for the 'Glorious' to be added. Local politicians were tired of hearing about neighbouring cities 'Gazi' (veteran/warrior) Antep and 'Kahraman' (Heroic) Maraş.

Sunny days, cold nights.

Balıklı Göl! "Fish Pond"! This beautiful pool is Urfa's main attraction.

The story: Nimrod pushed Abraham/Ibrahim off a cliff and into a bed of burning embers.

God/Allah turned the bed of burning embers into a pool of friendly fish, and Abraham/Ibrahim went on to play his founding role in the three major monotheistic religions.

And Urfa has a swell park.

In the afternoon I returned to my neighbourhood in Yeni Şehir (New City), and took a walk through a more modest, but still lovely, park.

I like that beyond this empty lot we can see the plains. This is Mesopotamia, birthplace of agriculture! So cool.

Hazards of Living Alone

This video was originally to celebrate and make fun of my enormous new living space. So many rooms, so much marble flooring. So little furniture to impede dancing.

Now it is also to celebrate breaking back into my blogging account, after Google barricaded me with impossible security questions and a verification system based on a forgotten phone number.

Welcome to Urfa!
Welcome (back) to the blog!

I envision posting a fair amount in the coming weeks, focusing on learning Turkish (and maybe Kurdish), understanding cultural phenomena of eastern Turkey, and the usual life musings that arise when you have an abundance of time and space and an absence of familiar routines.