September 25, 2002
TAILS STRAIGHT UP:
A Story Worth Celebrating: The Jews of Istanbul (Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer, Travel Watch)We remembered a man we?d met in Curacao who, like Teri Meir, could trace his roots back to 15th century Spain. Only his ancestors went to Portugal, then Bayonne and ultimately the Dutch Caribbean island, suffering much persecution along the way.When invited by the Spanish government to take part in the much publicized Quintcentennial Celebration of the expulsion of 1492, he angrily refused. "There is nothing to celebrate," he said.
Had his ancestors taken the route to the Ottoman lands, he could have celebrated half a millennium of sanctuary and freedom as many did in the Turkish events that marked that anniversary. Ironically, however, greater attention world-wide was paid to the expulsion from Spain than the ingathering to the Ottoman Empire. But the time for celebrating good deeds does not end. For Teri Meir the history of her family's life in Istanbul is a source of continuous celebration; for us - two Americans who spent a week in Istanbul -- the memory of an afternoon at a synagogue in the company of three Moslem men is one we will celebrate forever.
There's always the example of Turkey to keep hope alive in the Islamic world. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 25, 2002 7:55 PM
The current issue of The New Republic has an article (not on the web) about using our economy to help Turkey as a reward for being our ally in the Caliphate War. Unfortunately the effort is being eviscerated because more than 40% of the exports from Turkey to the US consist of clothing, shoes or frabic.I think that watering this down is fundamentally stupid. As TNR points out, the US textile industry is going down and this kind of manuever isn't going to make any real difference. It will just hurt one of our allies. While many have rightly objected to "sacrifice" by the American people for the sake of sacrifice, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for sacrifice for the sake of actual results.
Reference: The New Republic, 30 Sep 2002, pg 8.
Ah, yes, those cuddly Turks. Tell it to the Greeks, the Bulgars, the Armenians or the Kurds.
The debulgarisation program is Angora's policy right this minute. And don't tell me religion has nothing to do with it.
Wake up and smell the Turkish coffee.
Are you saying Turkey is headed in the wrong direction?
Posted by: DLirag at September 25, 2002 9:59 PMIt isn't heading anywhere. Paul Theroux, in
"The Great Railway Bazaar," concluded that
the clock stopped in Turkey the hour Kemal
died in 1937.
That's not quite fair. The Turks have thrashed
around since then, but they cannot be said
to have moved, net, in any direction. The
debulgarization campaign is the domestic
political equivalent of posting as sign that
says "Brain dead."
The only thing holding the place together
is the army (that's something not changed
since Ottoman days). If the army should ever
be subverted by Islamists -- always a lively
possibility in any Mohammedan state --
Turkey will fall apart again.
While it's never easy to predict what will happen in states such as Turkey, more credit should be given to this Westward looking country (and its achievements), whose myriad problems, economic/ social/political may in fact, paradoxically, testify to the relative "health" of its particular brand of democracy (though, indeed, the army continuously lurks in the background, making sure that things "don't get out of hand"). In fact, I think that the islamicization of the Turkish Army is a contradiction of terms and can not occur (Algeria being the model, were any kind of islamic political electoral victory to occur in Turkey -- though I don't even think the Turkish army would allow things to even go that far). It may not be our brand of democracy, but in contrast to Turkey's neighbors to the south and east, and even north, she's shining.
Posted by: Barry Meislin at September 26, 2002 3:12 AMWe're pro-Turkey: http://www.juddtech.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/reviews.detail/book_id/415
Posted by: oj at September 26, 2002 6:22 AMTo be pro-Turk is to be anti-Kurd, anti-Armenian, anti-Bulgar.
I am not hugely concerned about any of those three, but as a 19th century Liberal of Jeffersonian bent, I do believe in as much self-determination for them as for any other small peoples; I am for religious toleration, free speech and assembly; no monarchy.
I believe the monarchical party in Turkey is quiescent, but the nation's performance on all other standards is lousy. Maybe you could find even lousier next door, but lousy is lousy.
I had to chuckle at an analysis that felt the need at the outset to point out that Turkey is extraordinarily important. You don't say!
Kinzer makes a fairly good case for being anti-Armenian & anti-Kurd, I don't even remember the Bulgar bits.
Posted by: oj at September 26, 2002 5:29 PMThe principle of national self-determination, if
it is a principle, does not distinguish
between deserving and undeserving races.
If Tuvalu or Niue can be a nation, it's pretty
hard to make any argument against any
other contender.
Armenia has a longer claim to be a coherent
nation than, say, England.
It's true that carving up Asia Minor into its
principled constituent parts would result in
a group of economically shaky, probably
impossible, states. But you got to play the
cards you're dealt or admit you're sharping.
Nobody in that part of the world, except the
Greeks and the Lebanese, has any claim
on the gratitude of the outside world. From
one we learned (some of us) how to think
logically and from the other we got that
handy alphabet.
From the rest, some vicious superstitions
about deities and a record of savagery
that would make a Mongol blanch.
We oppose self-determination unless you can take your state by force.
Posted by: oj at September 27, 2002 6:31 AM