Wow, one month since I haven´t been here. Well, exams are over so here I come again.
Because I have a huge problem to talk about anything briefly, it is difficult for me to choose just one topic. I would simply love to talk about everything at once. But it´s impossible, of course, so let´s just see what will happen with the title I chose this time.
"Don´t talk about religion and politics" is a piece of advice mainly foreigners might give you when you might meet Turkish people. There are certain reasons for this advice but it just doesn´t work for me. If there is a topic that is supposed not to be discussed, a kind of taboo, you can be sure I will go for it as soon as possible. Usually I try not to offend the people of course but at the same time I´ve always loved provoking.
Since I got into this relationship of mine with Turkey, it was clear I couldn´t avoid (and I didn´t want to at all) informing myself about their religion. But what I´ve been doing is not just collecting information about islam, but trying to understand religion(s) in general. Why? That´s easy: because (as you certainly know) I come from the country with the biggest percentage of atheists in the world. So for me it is not difficult to understand that you are a muslim or christian, but the basic idea of you believing.
Before my getting involved with Turkey, I actually thought it would be easier for the Turkish to accept me because they wouldn´t be bothered by any other religious "competition". But wrong! As hard as it might be for me to understand believers, that hard it might be for them to understand how someone cannot believe. Still, you are always more accepted if you are a crazy European girl than if you are Turkish.
What called my attention on Turkish ID is the fact that their religion is mentioned there! I started asking myself how come. Like when and how they decide if to put "muslim" there or not. Do they ask me? Or do they ask just if I am let´s say a Turkish Greek?
The official numbers of muslims in Turkey are big. I was asking a couple of Turkish people who were fine talking about it (I guess it must be easier for them to talk to me as a foreigner about such things) and they confirmed me that every Turkish will tell me he/she is a muslim. But then how truly the person believes, how often prays etc., that´s a completely different story. Also, there are people, who don´t consider themselves true believers. It´s just to admit that and say it aloud in Turkey, is something that seems to be absolutely socially unacceptable.
As I mentioned before, this differs, obviously, from place to place. You can have strictly religious cities like the famous Konya, and on the other hand you can hear people talking about Izmir as about a foreign city because the people seem to care much less about religion than in the rest of Turkey. And surely, let´s not generalize so much - it depends on the level of education, on the family etc., etc.
The interesting thing about Turkey that you notice in every single book about islam, is that Turkey is seen as a kind of example, an exception. Their national pride (and nationalism) was enhanced when their biggest hero, that seems to be a kind of saint for them, Kemal Atatürk, founded the Republic of Turkey in 1923. With that, a lot of reforms came (they accepted "our" alphabet, gave the right to vote to women - before France and other countries, by the way! -, changed the education system and many more) and there you can find the reason why nowadays Turkey is considered to be an exception among muslim countries: they decided to keep the religion apart from the politics. (That situation has been changing with the contemporary government but that´s another chapture again.)
Now I will try to get back to the title.
Why shouldn´t you talk about the religion and politics with the Turkish (or why people say you shouldn´t).
I think that if you respect their belief (which I do, I respect everyone´s religion and the belief even more, I just might have problems with the religious institutions, but those seem to be represented much less in islam than in christianity, for example, which I find nice) and show them you can see there are too many prejudices and stereotypes especially against their religion, you shouldn´t have any problem to discuss even these topics (I mean you should wisely choose the people to discuss it with, too).
And the same can be said about their politics. Yes, you are right, don´t push much the case of Armenians (I myself must say it still confuses me and I don´t really know what to think about it. This morning I had to smile when I read in Islám a islamismus by a Czech specialist that the Armenians made the French to proclaim officially and internationally that what had happened WAS a genocide and anyone who says the contrary might appear in some international court. Anyway, it´s all just playing with words, medias and history. You can manipulate it so easily. I for example don´t understand why we use the "soft" word "odsun" (transfer) for what we did with the Germans here after the Second World War.).
(I prefer not to comment the Kurds since I don´t consider myself to know enough about it.)
The history (and politics) is a funny thing, anyway. Every country teaches it differently, some teach more, some less. Some countries tend to make a nationalist from you already at the primary school. I don´t say which one is wrong and which is right. Let me study in all the countries of the world and I´ll tell you.
Still, I realized that the Turkish national pride is from a big part based on a certain feeling of injustice from the part of the West (mainly Europe, I think). And I can understand it. What the European big powers tried to do to them during the First World War, reminds me a little what they did to us in the Second one. The difference is that with Turkey they failed in a way that nobody expected and with us they succeeded. It´s just that noone really recognizes that victory of theTurkish. So it´s up to them to recognize it.
Therefore, if you are not xenophobic (if you were, you wouldn´t be reading my blog for sure), if you can handle sensitive issues without offending people and if you are ready to listen, I don´t think you should be afraid to discuss these topics with Turkish people. To me, this helps to break the stereotypes and prejudices, which is something I love to do.
