Last week's roundup of the Turkish Blogs [1] was well received in the Turkish Blogosphere, even spawning a Turkish translation of the post [2] on the website Blog Kardesligi. Not only was there a translation on Blog Kardesligi but a comment on the Global Voices project (in Turkish) [3] as well. Other Turkish sites that mentioned the Global Voices post were Metrobloggling: Istanbul [4] and Ignore Me if You Can [5]. Plus, I have received many notes of thanks about the posts as well. I am very flattered and I hope that I can do justice to the Turkish Blogs now and in the future.
So, let's get down to business…. Item one: Another wonderful food orientated website called Portakal Agaci (Orange Tree) [6], while it is in Turkish, it is a wonderful website with pictures to die for!
Onto issues of Turkey's Entrance into formal negoiations with the European Union [7], which we dealt with in last week's installment. The blog Mavi Boncuk [8], which focuses on posting articles and information relating to Turkey, its present and its past, recently posted an article about Turkey's talks with the European Union [9]. The article questions the motives of now wanting to join the European Union, and questions the effectiveness of joining a political entity that is getting as large as it is. Since, I can not paraphase as eloquently as the article itself, here is a snippit:
This putative transnational behemoth is the natural consequence of the series of decisions, taken for the most lofty of motives, that culminated in this week's final pressing of the red button on Turkey. And therefore it is this monster-sized EU that we need to start thinking about and planning for. Becoming almost as large as the USAIf we now wonder how on earth to manage a union with almost as many states as the USA without the trappings of a federal superstate, then this is a question that we should have asked a long time ago. But it is surely naïve and simplistic to imagine that a union of 40 countries, the majority of them lying east of the old Iron Curtain, can simply become a version of the old western EU15 writ large. For better or worse that union, comfy and coherent, is gone forever.
Another issue facing the EU and Turkey is the issue of the bird flu, which tops the EU Agenda [10] for this week. Metin from Talk Turkey [11] posts about the bird flu and it's recent discovery in 2 villages in Turkey [12], leading to the birds being destroyed. He postulates that while the news is still relatively new, that we are sure to hear more about this in the future as the pandemic progresses. Yildiz, from the self-titled blog Yildiz [13] (Turkish) writes about the hysteria over the bird flu [14]and it's recent discovery in Turkey and Romania. What I find endearing about this particular post is the tongue-in-cheek photo posted alongside of it of three white baby ducks.
For next week, I plan to cover some of the many Turkish poetry [15] blogs, as poetry is a long held traditional art in Turkey [16]; and we will cover the news/events as well and hopefully some podcasting [17]!