Today feels like a random day, so you will get a random posting with all of the Turkish posts this week that tickled my fancy.
The Cause of the Holocaust
Me and Others [1] writes this week about how the fabled quote from Hitler “After all, who remembers the Armenians” is used over and over as a justification of the Jewish Holocaust during World War II, and how it has been used by Armenian activists to vilify the Turks. Of course, there could be other causes…such as a Jewish prostitute:
but i have some bad news for those who want to blame the bad turks for the nazi crimes. here is an article for you which says “hitlers holocaust might have stemmed from syphillis from a jewish prostitute.” so it must be not the turks but a jewish prostitude who is behind the most evil crimes of the modern times.
honestly, i dont believe either of the theories have anything to do with the realities. such a big evildoing cannot be simply explained by one single culprit reason. there are library full of documents trying to investigate and fully understand the holocaust, and just simply blaming the turks or a misfortunate jewish girl, or even hitler himself will not do it.
Curse of the Turk
Two more posts this week about Turkishness. One from Hans at Internations Musings [2] detailing the Curse of Turan:
The Curse of Turan (Hungarian: Turáni átok) is a popular belief that Hungarians have been under the influence of a malicious spell for many centuries. The “curse” manifests itself as inner strife, pessimism, misfortune and several historic catastrophes. The first disaster was the invasion by the Mongols, and the second the invasion by the Ottomans, Battle of Mohács in 1526.
The second post is more about the curse of fame….or rather how to obtain it as Talk Turkey [3] illustrates:
I write this post as a response to the Turkish girl who keeps emailing me about becoming a star in Hollywood. You don't become a star, you start out as one, unless of course your ‘star’ alignment happens to be in the right place at the right time. Try the Turkish market first. I am sure they'll eat you alive as an American Turk discovering her roots. Great story line as the gullible gal falling victim to the preying men and her battle to overcome the emotions of girl meets boy, boy marries girl, and girl finds out he is a Kurd? Some ethnic intricacies played out.
Clash of Culture
Spooky Sense by Garfucius [4] writes of the treatment by Turkish officials of archaeological finds:
culturicide? just a couple days ago, an ancient harbor was reported discovered during the construction of a tunnel for the subterranean train in yenikapı, with remains of byzantine boats and other archaeological artifacts. true to type, the finds will be collected and taken to the museum and the construction of the tunnel will continue as planned, apparently, over the ruins of the antique harbor.
Carpetblogger [5] writes about the trials of Turkish bureaucracy [6]-a wonderful primer for trying to survive it in Turkey- and about the trials of getting your carpets cleaned:
The likelihood an elective activity like carpetwashing gets done is inversely proportional to the number of linguistic and logistical obstacles that stand in its way. Not only must I identify a qualified carpet cleaning professional, that person has to come get the carpets. Furthermore, moving stinky carpets around is a royal pain in the ass any time of the year, more so when it is 100 degrees and you are on your own. These are all significant obstacles.
On the other hand, I have carpetdogs, so my carpets are pretty damn dirty. Smelly too. That workhorse 6′ x 5′ Dagestan sumac that was in the dining room in Baku and Kyiv absorbed prodigious amounts of food and alcohol from Sunday dinners and parties. These factors make carpetwashing less elective and more imperative.
Most importantly, however, if you're moving into a new apartment with Ottoman-era wood floors that appear to be designed for your favorite carpets (or, looking at it another way, if you made your second real estate purchase based on how good your carpets will look), you cannot have dirty carpets.
So what to do?
One thing you'll notice about Istanbul is that there are a lot of carwashes. Because Turks are enterprising, rare is the carwash that is only used for washing cars. For example, because they can be hosed down, carwashes are ideal places for a bayram sacrifice — a ritual slaughter of sheep and cows and a right bloody mess. More frequently, however, carwash guys are as likely to be aiming their high pressure hoses and soap brushes at carpets hanging from wires as Anadolu sedans.
Guide to Turkish Blogs
Dear Murat from Amerikan Turk [7] has given another guide to the Turkish blogs…I recommend just following the link over there and seeing it for yourself. He does a much better job than I.
And Lastly, My Newest Addiction
Chronicles of a Turkish Girl [8]is my newest soap opera and it should be yours too (in fact it might outweigh my addiction to Lonelygirl15 [9]…it's that good). This month she confesses to being interested in Christianity just to date her “smoking hot” abs instructor:
Yup, pretty soon I was going to church with him where I looked like a fish out of water. I couldn't follow which page they were on in the Bible during the sermons, but it didn't matter; I was sitting next to this hot guy. Shallow would be the perfect word to describe me. As I sat in a house of worship with him, my mind was having the most impure thoughts you can possibly imagine.
It wasn't long before I realized that his sole interest in me was to convert me. After awhile, I got tired of hearing about how much Jesus loves me. He also went onto to say that he could never be with a woman who did not not accept Jesus as the son of God. This “relationship” was going nowhere fast. I needed to end it and tell him that I would not convert AND that I do not subscribe to any organized religion.