Icebergs in Türkiye

Posted on February 7, 2012 by lizcameron

Iceberg

Iceberg (Photo credit: graceinhim)

Yesterday, I saw a number of icebergs in my dreams.  Hopefully they are not precursors to my own personal Titanic in some aspect of my life.  I should mention that I am meeting with the Provost at my University today (in 29 minutes, gulp) as the next stage of my tenure process – but it is considered to be “over the hump” at this point, my mentors tell me.

Perhaps all of the iceberg imagery was in relation to a bit of worry about yesterday’s post on the love-hate relationship we have with Turkey in this home (my view, M. has not weighed in on this) and whether 301 will be used against me if I speak out more…for those of you not in the know, “301” refers to Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code which, according to Wikipedia “makes it illegal to insult Turkey, the Turkish ethnicity, or Turkish government institutions.”  I do not think I have done so, I was careful in how I framed my word, but who knows how my best intentions are interpreted.  Don’t get me wrong – I adore Türkiye but am aware that there are some challenge – as with my own country and as with any country.

Click on the image of the cultural iceberg for the link to the source of this image

So, leaving fear of 301-shaped icebergs behind for the moment, the icebergs I am going to refer to in this post are icebergs in Türkiye of a very different sort.  Thee are the icebergs that do a lot of melting while M. and I are in Turkey.  The graphic called “the cultural iceberg” should explain it all.

I’ll spend the next few days breaking down what has been floating above the line in my life – and where I think we are going re: figuring out what is below the line in our life (note my vs. our as it is a process).

What is especially interesting to me is that while we spend most of our year in the U.S., it is in Turkey where most of our iceberg melting goes on…in so many ways, M. feels to me to be super-acculturated to the ways of the U.S. and often feels out of step when he returns to the country of his birth…but as he said to me at the sink a few weeks ago while we were doing dishes together – “there must be those deep things in me from my Muslim root – just like with you and your Christian root – even if we do not practice religion at all or just a little, respectively.”

Keep it locked, as the radio station host say – and let us know how your icebergs work.  I’ll be back with my views on our icebergs tomorrow.

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Introducing Saf and Dobra: On a love-hate relationship with Türkiye

Posted on February 6, 2012 by lizcameron

Sometimes I feel like this troupe of explorers when I am observing my husband struggle with his clearly conflicting emotions about his country of origin (image thanks to U Wisconsin Alumni at this link)

Today I met two new puppets, Saf and Dobra.  Saf is an idealist, myopic in her micro moment, focused on her love of her homeland.  Dobra, on the other hand, is more like Karagoz- an outspoken agent provocateur who stands up loudly and proudly when it comes to what her homeland can include and/or does horribly.  This is the story of why I think they showed up today.

“In Turkey, human life has no value.”

Of course, this is not a blanket statement, as I see it.  But, I have been hearing M. say this more and more recently.

And it alarms me.  It is not the only way he feels about Turkey, of course, but it alarms me.

It seems to come from some deep place.

Most recently, it has related to the deaths of young Kurdish smugglers and Turkish military conscripts alike – but has also related to what we believe is the indiscriminate use and/or testing of major psychotropic medications (and the concomitant major side effects that last forever) on young people without any regulation whatsoever.

But it is more than that too.  It relates to family expectations, cultural traditions and the dark (in the metaphorical sense) underbelly of Turkish ways that are about things more subtle and less obscene than what we often hear about or talk about here at slowly-by-slowly re: M.’s country of birth.  Those topics generally include culture-driven ways of relating, the incessant red tape of everyday life, the embrace of U.S. values and products that lead to a recherche du temps perdu and on a more positive note, more enduring cultural traditions that are not very controversial.

This is a different reality than what I will classify as the mixed feelings of malaise that some Turkish American expats (and indeed some Turks in Turkey) I know feel in response to what is widely viewed as the AKP (current ruling party) intentions to move from a Kemalist-style secularism towards a lifestyle such as that lived in the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Those other, deeper, darker and more terrible things, such as the fear about the end of true secularism, are generally grouped as follows, in no particular order:  decreasing identity of the nation as a secular state due to incrementalism on the part of the AKP, so called “honor killings” of young women in relation to sexual activity and/or sexual assault, debates about whether the Armenian genocide should be named as such or just what it was that leads people to debate the use of that term in the first place, debates about whether the treatment of Kurdish people can be classified as ethnic (and other) oppression or not and the prevalence of intimate partner violence – especially violence against women in Turkey.   Without getting more specific, as I am afraid the  Turkish censors will be after me and my readers will run like scared fish into a bait ball, suffice it to say that M. has mixed love-hate feelings about his country of origin as well as this, his country of choice.  It seems more than fair – and obvious – to say that we could make a quite similar list about the United States – and this is the subject of much discussion in our home. By now, Dobra is jumping up and down, yelling at me to make a post each about each of these things I have mentioned – just to watch my language so the censors don’t get me so that I can keep using my voice.

No large nation-place is ideal.  Sometimes I think that Saf is ingenue-puppet who longs for an idealized Turkish quiet life in Anatolia.  While I know more about reality than that ingenue-puppet, who came to introduce herself to me today (her name means naive, pure, clean, etc.), she is still a part of the puppet troupe that is helping me figure out this aspect of my cross-cultural roadtrip called this Turkish-American marriage.  She tells me, “take care, m’lady, not to write about these deep dark things, they will give people the wrong idea of Türkiye .”

English: Map of the number of Turkish people i...

All my life I have sought out a different type of life with what at times might be referred to as a vengeance.  I have tried to learn and grow my brain beyond the myopia that is rampant in the U.S. My career is central to this effort.  Now, here I am with a very different partner who is also a Turkish American – and I find that he has very strong negative feelings about his home country that range in the love-sad-hate-love spectrum depending on the topic.  This has challenged me a lot and made me more of a critical thinker.  I am not quite clear enough to write more on it, but wanted to plant these first seeds now, since Saf came to introduce herself, shyly, today and as Dobra blew in like a hurricane, to yell her introductions from across the room.

Today, they named themselves, at least, so that is a start.  So, while Saf will continue to wax lyrical about all things Türkiye that have come into her life, we’ll see how Dobra manages this.

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One jive turkey on Turkey: Old news revisited

Posted on February 5, 2012 by lizcameron

Image thanks to this website

I am often surprised when colleagues or students who know I have some affiliation with Turkey comment on Turkey-related news. I like this – it is clearly a nice and good-hearted effort to connect. I am, however, often shocked at how LATE their commentary comes – and it seems clear to me that this is related to the slowness with which the U.S. media reports on all but the biggest Turkish news). In any case, today, a colleague of mine registered her shock at, as she put it, “recent comments made by Rick Perry about Turkey. I’m so sorry he said that – what does M. think about that?”

I had to stop for a second. “Rick Perry?” I questioned myself, “the dude who dropped out of the Presidential race a few weeks ago?”

I cocked my head to the side and Karagoz said, “yes, m’lady, that’s what this doltish friend of yours is talking about – old news like old stinky forgotten cheese at the back of the fridge.” Hacivad Bey, ever the peacemaker, heaved Karagoz off of the armchair rest and under the couch next to me and I returned to the conversation – one of my first since regaining my voice after this flu – “oh – yes, Rick Perry’s debate comment about Turkey and Hamas and terrorism, I remember that.”

Now, in case you didn’t hear, as I tend not to write about politics on this blog (as the rest of my life and teaching this semester is caught up in it and I was seeking a break) a few weeks ago, the Turkish – and even the American – newspapers were alight with this story that in many ways led to Rick Perry’s decision to end his Presidential bid.

But it’s been a while….but my colleague was making an attempt to connect – and I have to recognize that. At least he wasn’t asking me about whether M. would take on another wife, as another colleague has done (you can read about that here). So, just to remind us, here is what Mr. Perry said during a debate when asked whether Turkey still belongs in NATO:

“Obviously, when you have a country that is being ruled by what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists, when you start seeing that type of activity against their own citizens, then yes — not only is it time for us to have a conversation about whether or not they belong to be in NATO, but it’s time for the U.S., when we look at their foreign aid, to go to zero with it.”

Of course, this was interpreted all sorts of ways depending on the news outlet you found yourself in. Taken at face value, I find this statement offensive, although I am not exactly a fan of the AKP government on all matters. I would not at all call the AKP party “Islamic Terrorists” although some in Turkey might disagree – though I can’t comment further for fear of potential censor action. You can ask me more via email.

The bottom line is, no matter how Fox News tried to spin this, Perry’s backpedaling comments of justification didn’t cut the mustard, and the dude stepped out of the race. M. and I watched the fallout in our own ways – he on the Turkish news websites and me on the English news websites…chalking it up to another under-informed American making an ass of himself…but for the moment, I made pleasant conversation with my colleague, using the moment as an opportunity to coax a bit of Turkish cultural competence-building comments into the conversation…and hope that they will exhibit some cultural responsiveness over time (see page link above on “what is cultural responsiveness?” just below the blog header stuff). This process is something I have grown used to doing – and should be happy to do as a result of the gift that is my marriage to someone born somewhere else…

I have to interrupt myself to tell you that Karagoz is dancing in the corner, waiting for me to be done with my writing. I can see he wants to tell me something. “M’lady – I cannot wait anymore – I have to tell you what I have learned today – this Rick Perry – he really is one JIVE TURKEY! I looked it up on Urban Dictionary and it said ‘a. One who speaks as though they know what they’re talking about…though they do not. b. a bullshitter.’

Ah hah!” No comment!
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