Even though it has been about 1.5 years ago I was in Turkey for the last time, I recently thought back on some of my experiences and conversations there.
There were two occasions where I was in Turkey for more than just a weekend. The first was in the summer of 2010. I then travelled for a bit over 2 weeks, going from Istanbul to Ankara to Cappadocia to Sanliurfa, the latter effectively being in a more ‘peaceful’ part of the Kurdish region of the South East of Turkey. The reason why I picked up more of the country then I would have done on other occasions, is that I decided on the topic of the Master’s thesis I was going to write from that fall onward — the title being Is Turkey a Threat or a Bridge? Turkey’s Relations with Iran and Relevant Perceptions of Turkey’s changing Foreign Policy. With that in mind I started my journey through Turkey, and my literary companion was Stephen Kinzer’s insightful and passionate book Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds.
The first thing which I realised was that the Turkish populations is friendly and warm people. Even though many people did not speak (good) English, this did not prevent them from helping out in any way, giving directions or calling friends/family/random other people to try and help you out better than they can themselves. Being there gave you a sense of community life. When you are on the Dolmus, which leaves only when it is packed, the way to pay is by passing it on from the back of the van to the front, easily changing hands 5-10 times. In fact, it was the time of the ramadan and more than once was I invited to join supper at one of the families that were feasting on the streets.
‘The Kurdish issue’
Both Turks and Kurds seem to be politically active and have a clear voice about the issues relevant in their country. What was very striking to me was that the Turks see the Kurds as terrorists (thereby obviously generalizing) – a person whom I talked to in Istanbul said: ‘why are the Kurds terrorists and attacking our army; they are just doing their job’. And the same negative emotions were held by the Kurds whom I talked to, but then of course towards the Turks. They had a strong feeling of mistrust in the Turks (generalizing as well). The Kurdish owner of the guest house where I stayed in Urfa did not allow Turks to stay at his place because of the fact that they make a reservation and ‘90% at the time don’t show up’.
The summer of 2010, Turkey was only 2-3 weeks away from a constitutional referendum (held on 12 September). There was a marked dichotomy between people who were convinced that a pass would further islamisise the country, and also politicise the judiciary. On the other hand, many others were of the opinion that Erdoğan (the ‘yes’-side) is the one who has been making big steps in converging the Turkish political and economic system towards the EU’s acquis communautaire, and created a strong economy.
So many different people
When I lived in Ankara for six weeks in September to October 2011, I met a wide range of people, some girls being flirtatious yet shy, others I considered to be rather naive with regards to guys, while still others had a “western” sense of directness. Many of the men were pious Muslims, hard-working and friendly. Others careless and lazy. Still others more secular and liberal than you typically find in cities like Amsterdam or New York. It is a city with a wide range of people living side-by-side, standing next to each other in the bus, or subway, yet turning to very different lives once at home.
Thinking politics 