Iran’s Cartoon Crisis The latest cartoon crisis exploded in Iran. Several demonstrations are being held in Iran, the representative of a racist culture against the Azeris and other ethnic groups.

Turkish jokes are degraded and called “her” by that Persian culture that has been striving to erase the Turkish image in the social subconscious for hundreds of years. “Her” means donkey. As someone who first turned the thesis, “Turkey cannot become Iran” into a book, I also talked about the Turkish image in daily life in my book, “Two countries Two Revolutions Turkey-Iran,” that was published in 1990. While talking about jokes belittling and degrading to Turks, they would turn to me and make a correction “Not for the Istanbul Turks but for those living here”! I saw families banned from speaking Turkish at home in order to prevent their children from speaking Persian with an accent. A butcher expressed his hatred for Turks with a dirty pun: I do not look in the mirror for fear of seeing a “tuh” on my face. The word “tuh” means both hair as well as Turk. The Persians would tell me that the Azeris decrease their quality. Iran underestimating all its neighbors loves neither Arabs nor Turks. Not only the Azeris live in Iran, an ethnic bundle, there are also the Kurds, Baluchs, Turkmen, Lor Turks, Gilaks, Mazandarans, Arabs and Armenians. Several languages, cultures and sects live together. The Azeris constitute the largest ethnic group with a population of more than 30 million. Until 1925, there was a structure that can be called a traditional confederation system, independent of Iran’s internal affairs. It was the Pahlavi regime that discouraged ethnic groups from enjoying their language, tradition, culture and identity. The Pahlavi regime established its sovereignty on a single culture and a single language. “Everybody has to study with the Persian identity,” he said. The assimilation policy implemented by the Shah regime and continued by the revolutionary governments has reached this day. The sad manifestation of the racist viewpoint exploded with the cartoon crisis. The understanding of a Persian minority, that perceives the Turks as cockroaches, gives lessons to other people but does not practice what it preaches. The fact that Pahlavi believed he descended from the same race as the Germans, and took sides with the Germans in the war, as Arya-i Mahr (sun of the Aryan race), proved costly. However, even today, Germany has huge investments in Iran. They have developed trade ties considerably. This Persian mythological belief, of staying close to the German Constitution and describing themselves according to race, is widespread in Iran. The belief that the Persian culture is the oldest civilization and has the most perfect language also contributes to racism. Unfortunately, Iran has exported this belief to Turkey as well and I have heard many intellectuals say they cannot find the Persian richness in Turkish. Of course, this is an attitude not different from those speaking English among themselves. Their view is that Turkish is not a language as rich and sophisticated as English. They ignore the fact that English, which is an imperial language, enriched itself without removing the foreign words it derived from other cultures. Prejudice and racism always go hand in hand. Language education and its spread occupy very important places in Iran’s state policy. They have continuous political interests towards Persian-speaking countries such as Tajikistan and Afghanistan. They can easily move from interests to pressures as well. They support philology departments at universities, give them economic aid, award the good students scholarships and educate them in Iran. A language-based identity program is always operating. Writing history and describing historical events with anachronistic readings and analyses are valid even for the most classical texts. Avesta or Ferdowsi’s Shahname can be given as examples. “Populism cannot be separated from a legend. Populism is folk-like and it is not patriotism. A person can be both a patriot and cosmopolite at the same time. However, a populist is inevitably a kind of nationalist. A patriot does not exclude a person from another nation he knows and has lived with side by side in a community for years. As for a populist, he feels suspicious towards everyone outside his tribe. The nationalist does not only feel suspicious towards foreigners but also towards people within his nation he feels do not agree with him,” J. Lucaks says. We can see this in Zionists and in those who perpetuate Tashnak nationalism and also in German nationalism. Racist attacks can easily take place even before the upcoming soccer fiesta kicks off. May 30, 2006 Hi Dear, I am an Iranian journalist and read your essay. First of all tell me whats your aim to write this? second you should know this problem originates from another things. You dont want Kurds separete from your country . But you have to know they are not same race. Turks(Azeri),Kurds,lors,Baluches,Gilaks and etc are same race:Arian.You sure any persian dont intend make stupid Turks and anothers .Also you should know more Turkey jokes made by Azeris. Best Hormetli Nevval khanim, Thank you for writing the article! Best of all, Adil Baguirov Miss NEVVAL SEVINDI Hello I red your article: “Iran’s Cartoon Crisis” on Zaman. About Azari in Iran: %18 until %20 we have Azari. That means 12 000 000 until 14 000 000 million pouple Azari living in Iran. not 30 000 000 milion!! Perhaps you take informaition from Pan Turk in Iran! bicause even CIA sed: population Azari in Iran is about %24 people of Countery. of course we think That is exaggeration! If you want Know more ebout Azari and Iran you can see here: My weblog www.hastieiran.blogfa.com Dear Nevval, I’ve just read your article about the cartoon issue in Iran, something you choose to call a crisis. http://www.zaman.com/?bl=columnists&alt=&trh=20060531&hn=33568 Being born in Iran, I do admit that many of the so called “Turk jokes” are just too much and offending, but calling Persians racist because of that is not right. As the second largest minority in Iran, Azeris have had a very important position in Iran for centuries. No one is banned from speaking Turkish at home, you must have been misinformed. You have also been misinformed about the number of Azeris in Iran as 30 million is not 25% of the population in Iran. It’s true that Persians do not love their Arab or Turkish neighbours, but not loving them does not necessarily mean hating them. You should ask yourself what made all those armenians settle in Iran, I am sure you get my point. Perhaps in a second article you can add some weight to your arguments by describing the ideal situation of the Kurdish minority in your country. /Al Necal Ms. sevindi, i find it interesting that if you replace the word “iran” with “turkey” in your article, it would give you a precise picture of turkey today! thank you for informing your readers that persian is “the most perfect language”. maybe you think so but its the first time i hear that! how dare you attribute the comment of that butcher to the psyche of the entire nation. as if a racist comment by one American regarding blacks or of one turk in reference to kurds should represent the thinking of the whole country. my mother deposited a few thousand dollars in a turkish bank in istanbul during the war between iran and iraq. several years later when she returned and wanted to withdraw from that account there was only $250 left in it and she realized someone at the turkish bank swindled the money. she reported this to the bank officers and they claimed she was responsible for the with drawls and as a matter of fact they insisted that she had withdrawn from that account recently to purchase an airline ticket to izmir. at the end when they realized the impecuniosity of the situation, they said it will be investigated. they are still investigating. its been more than ten years now! would it be fair to portray all turks as thieves because of this embarrassing and shameful treatment of my mother. i don’t think so. you are very unfair ms. sevindi. i find it quite fascinating how similar the two cultures are. good day madam, shahab türkler ve farslar Basit bir mantıkla düşünelim. bizim akrabalarımız kimdir. annemiz, babamızı, kardeşlerimizi, dayıları, amcalar, teyzeler ve diğerler. insanı özelliklerimizi zayıf değilse akraba bağlarımızı korur. akrabalarıyla ilişkilerimizi pozitif olanların diğer insanlarlada ilikilerde güçlüdür.gelelim aslı konuya irani toplulukların( ermenler,farslar,osetler, tatlar,tacikler) dünyada türk topluluklarından sosyal ve fizik antropolojik açısından daha yakın bir kavim yok. 2500 yıldır ortak bir havuzda kaynışmış iki güçlü kavim arasındaki fark iskandinvanyalı halklar ile latinlar arasındaki farkdan daha azdır. aryen ırk teoreleri ve diğer ırk teorleri zayıf fakat görünüşte güçlü olanların uydurduğu masallardır.farsça ve türkçe çok ayrı dili ailesinden fakat şöyle bir gerçek var. fars ve türk toplulukları arasında kelimeler değişmeden öte anadiller değiştirmiştir. iranı klan türkleştiği gibi, türki bir klan iranlaşması normaldir.ve bana göre kürtler gibi iki kavimin kaynaşmasından etnik topluklar oluşmuştur.semerkant, taşkent ilk kurucuları kim. iki türkmen aşiretin arasındakı gerilim, türkler ile farslar arasındaki daha az değildir. ayhanakinci@yahoo.com You conveniently ignored the policies of the Turkish government toward the Kurds. Are they not called “Mountain Turks”? How about the Armenian Holocaust which is still not aknowledged by the Turkish government? Study your own history before judging other people. Babak Far Dear sevindi hanom please forgive me not writing in your turkish language. i am an azarbaijani turk and not familiar perfectly with istanbul turkisi. so i am writing in english First of all I want to thank you for a topic which was not covered by foreign media. Regarding the protest and uprising in Tabriz and all azarbaijan as you have mentioned, the Iranian Turk, whom you inTurkey call azari, I want to add that: The Fars in Iran are fearing about unification of Turks. Including Iranian Turks turkey azarbaijan or having close relations with them. So since Pahlavi they have forced assimilation of Turk. Just now none of state controlled media do not use the word of turk for 40 million of Iranian turks and call them as azari , even they do not accept that the people living in Tabriz are speaking Turkish , but they say that they are using azari language. They are afraid of using Turk and Turkish. In response to this assimilation in recent uprising in Tabriz and azarbaijan, the people put on fire the bank of Parsian and are demanding that the pars hotel in Tabriz should change his name, some people wanted to put in fire the Shah name which is emphasizing to the strength of fars towards to Turans (Turks). But this event was a good lesson to dictators Name was withheld for fear of arrest thousands of azarbaijani turks have been arrested in last week!!!!1 was the Pahlavi regime that discouraged ethnic groups from enjoying their language, tradition, culture and identity. The Pahlavi regime established its sovereignty on a single culture and a single language. “Everybody has to study with the Persian identity,” he said. Well what can i say wasnt at the same time the raceist Kemal Ataturk began his policy of assimilation in so called Turkey before Reza Pahlavi,in a country with many diffrent races and peoples and today you can see the result of taht policy not only in Iran but also in Turkey,Iraq and Balkans.You can not force peoples to deny themselves motre than 80 years the racist kemalis tride to force the kurds to be turks just like the persian do with the azeris,do they succed?off course not even one little tribe in the anmazon has pride. Regards Alan Dyako Sulaymania South Kurdistan rose-mary.blomkvist@tele2.se Dear Miss. Neeval I find your articles very interested! I think, when people get tired of the endless battle between governments and the Islamic powers, they will accept the Turkish secular solution at the end! An excellent value for future secualr system could be council of experts gathering every 10 years to draw the general policy in economics, policy and social on secular rules then keep any government in that circle even if it was lead by an Islamic party… As an expret, what do you think? Sincerely, Aiman Yunes

İran’ın karikatür krizi

Son karikatür krizi İran’da patladı. Azerilere ve diğer etnik gruplara karşı ırkçı bir kültürün temsilcisi olan İran gösterilerle inliyor.

EVİNİZDE OTURMAYIN
Türkiye’de nefret dolu gençlerle ilgilenmedikçe sorunlarımızı çözemeyeceğimiz aşikar. Yurtlarda çalışan gönüllü bir hanımın anlattıkları iç parçalayıcıydı benim için.
 

Sınır kapılarının durumu içler acısı

Cilvegözü kapısından Suriye’ye gireceğim. Biraz uzun sürer dediklerinde bunun anlamının 6 saat olacağını tahmin edemediğim aşikar! TIR’dan bir duvarı kilometrelerce aşıp vardığımızda karşılaştığım manzara tek kelime ile “korkunç”.

Maç 90 dakikadır

Pazar günü Fenerbahçe’deydim ve maç başladıktan sonra orada yürüyüş yapıp Fenerbahçeli bir taksi sürücüsü ile Avrupa yakasına döndüm. Sesi sonuna kadar açılmış radyodan Fenerbahçe-Denizlispor maçının son yarısını dinledim.
 

AB sürecinde tarım ve sorunları

Balıkesir, Anadolu’da hiç değişmeden kalan yerlerden biri. Eski evlerin kaybı, estetik yoksunluğu dışında yeni bir şey bulamam bu kentte.

What’s Happening in Germany? As I was walking to the gate at the international departures lounge, a police officer, with a pistol in his waist band, passing by me, was murmuring a song, “I love you…, I love you…” in a rather audible manner.

Watching the admirable freedom of this uniformed male officer before leaving Turkey, revived my yearnings. When I landed at the airport in Germany, the sour-faced police officers, Istanbul passengers made to wait for hours unjustly and baggage checks made me uneasy. However, it was my lucky day and though the habit of checking luggages had not changed, I received a “May I help you?”offer from a German police officer to assist in lifting my suitcase. Germany, where politicians try to put people at loggerheads in order to garner votes, has shelved the weird “citizenship test.” Our citizens living in Germany have been taunted for years for not becoming German citizens and for not giving up their Turkish nationality. As Turks are enthusiastically becoming German citizens and are looking for ways to get more involved in politics, the attitude of the Germans has changed all of a sudden. They saw the interest showed by foreigners as dangerous. The test period implemented by the Hessen and Baden Wurttemberg states has officially ended. It has been replaced by “citizenship courses.” The conditions for becoming a citizen have been made more difficult after an agreement reached among state interior ministers. Those who wish to become citizens will have to take the “language test” that the Volga Germans are exempted from taking. Germany continuously is discriminating against its citizens — though it is against the constitution –- in fact annulling citizen right through blood ties; and it is obvious that this German ideal dating back to centuries is what this really desires. A worker who went there in 1970 said the following: “There were beds made up of straw placed side by side in the room they squeezed us in. None of us spoke German. In a desperate attempt, I tried to tell them that this is the way animals are sheltered in our country. We do not live like this back home.” While employing German immigrant workers, no tests are applied by their employers. They never cared to understand whether or not the newcomers were human beings and had a culture. Germany insists on calling the people it invited and people who have revived its economy “strangers” 45 years later. It turns a blind eye to wild-eyed racism. Of course there are some who see the reality. Hamm Mayor Thomas Hunsteger-Petermann indicated that immigrants should be given more social rights. He said restricting the rights of immigrants and isolating them will cause big problems: “Integration is not a unilateral process. What we as politicians should do is to remove the obstacles facing the immigrants living in our country. In 2005, the 323,000 workplaces owned by Turks had an annual turnover of 29 billion euros. The immigrants are entrepreneurs, Germans are not. In fact, the foreigners have already been integrated. Opening adaptation courses for German politicians would bring more positive results. Speaking German is no talent, but speaking German while realizing positive actions paves the way for the future. Wuppertal city Social Department Director Dr. Stefan Kugn said the Turks are grateful for the slightest help they get. “These people can’t speak German, is it solely their fault? It must be admitted that the politicians are equally guilty,” he added. If the Germans pursue a policy in favor of adaptation policy, they can benefit from the majority who have already been integrated. In marked contrast to reports resulting in conclusions that children of different ethnicities are unsuccessful, Turkish students at the schools in Ostheim and Schiller in Stuttgart are very successful. School administrator Gudrun Greth, who has been working for only three years, talks about what can be accomplished if there are no prejudices: “We started working with three-year-old kids at 18 kindergartens. We educated the families of the unsuccessful kids. We opened courses for those who did not speak German. We raised the academic standards of the kids at the kindergartens. We allocated one university student for every unsuccessful pupil.” Greth saying, “Children who speak their mother tongues are more successful,” should be attributed to the Turkish state, in my opinion. And we must admit that families in Germany must be educated and urgent plans are needed to socialize women. May 9, 2006 Dear Nevval, that’s interesting. I may quote some cultural observations from here which (may) have relations to Turkey. The most prominent I have in mind is Klaus Staeck’s election as a president of the Berlin Academy of Arts. There is no precedence of a satirical graphical artist to have such a prestiguous position in Germany. Just coincidence? Our local daily reported that a new Turkish radio program will be broadcasted soon in the region, having got the necessary permissions the other day. They asked wether this licence is contradictory to the widely discussed concerns over integration of Turkish immigrants. Experts commented that on the contrary the acquisition of the home and destination cultures may go hand-in-hand and in fact intensify each other. This station will present Turkey-news in Turkish, other news mainly in German, while the music will mainly be Turkish again – depending on the requests and interests of the target public. Such stations are reported to be on the rise, while traditional Turkish-only stations and papers are slowly declining. But there is no general problem with publications in Turkish language in any kind of media, including libraries. What about Kurdish? Some times ago a theatre project in southern Rhineland-Palatinate was reported to have a similar philosophy of enhancing overall cultural awareness and adaptability by linking “culturally deprived” immigrants to modern theatre scenes from Turkey, naturally in Turkish language. Another new radio station has sent me a forum address on the net, http://www.politikcity.de/forum/vBRadio.php. Those are quite refractory and somewhat nationalist Turks, which for instance campaign on the Armenian “issue”. Last week I strolled through some audio sections of big stores. All had some “ethnical” music samplers from different countries, but not from Turkey. There were some regional samplers covering Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. Guess which contained some examples from Turkey. It’s of course the normal perception not only in this country to situate Turkey in the ME, which however implicates to situate it outside Europe. I think this might be improved. Why not make some SE-Europe samplers together with Greek, Bosnian, Georgian a.s.o.? There would certainly be some interest. Latin, it is reported, is on the rise in German grammar schools, and so is, on a lower level, Ancient Greek. That’s on request of the students and their parents. It seems to be a part of an identity building process, linking the current to the roots of European civilization. That may be, in the long run, a disadvantage for Turkey in case it’s perceived as a part of a different civilization with which to dialogue rather than unite. But it might also be turned into an advantage in case the immense significance of Anatolia and Thrace in that respect can be established more intensively in European public opinion. There is material enough for the classical periods, back to the Hittites and Neolithics and forth to the Byzantines, which only must be used efficiently. Some more efforts would be useful to link it to the Ottomans (and Seljuks etc.), like in Kafadar’s works, and to modern Turkey (and perhaps, more generally, to relate Turkish identity to Turkey, or Anatolia, rather than Central Asia). Finally I found a “missing link” in a “Real” market, some cheap Turkish wine. It’s of a similar quality as others from the region’s cheap wines, such as Macedonian or Romanian (which in turn is not very different from similar country wines of Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Hungary…). And it’s just what I like most. The cheese is Danish, somewhat Esrom-like.. Cheers Hans-Peter Most important, TUS Koblenz, our local football (soccer) team, managed promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga. Dear Miss. Nevval Sevindi, Thank you for the beautiful article. Some people think Germans are Hostile, barley smile and bad in cooking and that is hard to undserstand…personally i think Germany with some other European countries are the Brain of Europe, however Turkey with other sunny countries repsresenting the Heart, the passion of Europe! Sincerely, Aiman Yunes, Zama Reader

Kendini ve dünyayı fark etmek

Alanya Türkiye’de ilk akla gelen turizm beldelerinden biri. Turizmin olumlu katkısı halkın sosyalleşmesi ve sivil bilincin gelişmesidir. Buna en iyi örnek Köprülü Kanyon’dan gelen Serik Çayı alabalık ve sazan kaynıyor.
 

Syria and Women The very noble posture of the young, elegantly beautiful Syrian first lady, Asma al-Assad, at the breakfast meeting reminded me of Nizar Kabbani’s words.

Kabbani, studying at Damascus University, asks, “Is it the Syrian woman who gives her beauty to Syria, or is it Syria that gives her an inner beauty, nobility and femininity?” As Asma al-Assad was born and raised in London, she is often asked just how much she has integrated into Syrian culture. The first lady said while she was living in London she went to Syria every summer and never found Syria or its culture strange. She described herself as embodying British-Western culture. She emphasized they have also started in Syria the kind of revolution developing countries are currently experiencing. She was mostly impressed by the fashion show she watched in Istanbul, and said that the striking synthesis of the traditional and modern in the fashion world could be applied to real life. She firmly believed the traditional and modern will unite. “Turkey is a very good model for us,” Mrs. Assad said, stressing that Turkey with its synthesis is a role model for the region. The greatest obstacles facing women living in freedom and independently are the customs and traditions, she stated in perfect English. I understood from the conversation that the traditions cannot be overcome overnight, the “Majalla” or Ottoman civil code, exists, and there is no right to divorce. Syria does not only lead Turkey by 10.4 percent in the number of women present in Parliament, it also overwhelmingly leads Turkey in women involvement in local politics. However, the woman is identified with her family not as an individual. The concepts of family and honor are binding for women in Arab culture. Though Mrs. Assad said, “We keep asking for more, and we want more progress,” it is obvious that the women involved in social and political events are all from the upper class. No woman from the middle or lower class can easily break through the invisible barriers. It is known that there were no civil society organizations (CSOs) until three years ago in Syria, where there is tight state control. Mrs. Assad, who heads the first civil society organization that was established by the state, is also the head of the “independent” CSOs, most of them established under state control. Mrs. Assad, the first first lady to drive a car in Damascus, is very brave and strong. Her first CSO is FIRDOS, an organization that gives support to rural women. As a matter of fact, being strong and self-confident are the strongest legs of her viewpoint on life. That was her emphasis when she said, “I am a strong and self-confident woman.” I asked her “Are you free?” as she said, “A self-confident woman is independent.” “Apart from my responsibilities, I have a normal life and I live in freedom in this area.” She talked about the importance of relations with Turkey, and said people keep a close eye on the leaders’ deeds. The word “feminism” in questions asked on feminism, headscarf and honor killings made her laugh slightly. I think this reaction stemmed from the conceptual structure of feminism in the East. Mrs. Assad tried to explain that there is individualism and an individual behind feminism, but the fact that Syrian culture is based on the family embraces the cultural structure with a different understanding. I listened to her without forgetting the 100 cases of honor killings that appeared in newspapers in 2000-2003. As I was listening to the first lady, I thought about the very colorful and diverse ethnic structure of Syria, where 30 percent of the population are Nusayris. The woman’s role as a mother, sister, wife and aunt is important, not her individual rights and demands. 396 of the 767 business women in Syria are entrepreneurs who have established their own business. The newly established SYEA is the first association founded by young entrepreneurs. In other words, this is the first step in economic development; a person who broke the taboo on violence against women. Last year, she started a project under the auspices of the United Nations Development Fund for Women. When she said, “Syrian women are eager and ambitious,” she made a realistic point, in my opinion. “Women are in secondary positions in the society, and the customs and traditions crush them under the mask of religion. Religion is a very private and individual matter,” she insisted. “What is essential is the Holy Qur’an, not practical religion, and we must look at this,” Mrs. Assad said, adding that she also believed in the importance of reaching a consensus with religious scholars. Hence, they have launched an educational project to make religious scholars work for the betterment of women. This is very important, in my opinion, to get women involved through persuasion and education — not by excluding them… “The 20th century was that of men, and the 21st century will be that of women,” she said as she was shaking hands with the participants. I believe a woman’s hand should reach out to the Middle East. May 3, 2006

Almanya’da neler oluyor?

Dış hatlarda kapıya doğru yürürken belinde tabancasıyla bir polisin gayet net duyulur bir perdeden “Seni seviyorum nının, seni seviyorum nının” diye şarkı nakaratı mırıldanarak yanımdan geçmesini ilgiyle izledim.