28 September 2020
EQUAL RIGHTS
Eser Turan
Last week was a jarring time, full of shock and dismay. First, an exiled journalist targeted for reporting anti-Kurdish atrocities, Abdullah Bozkurt survived an attack in Sweden. The next day a former member of Turkish intelligence approached the Austrian authorities and confessed an assassination plot against Aygul Berivan Aslan, a vocal Turkish-Austrian politician of Kurdish descent. And that same day, Turkey arrested six HDP parliamentarians voted by the country's Kurdish minority.
These three incidences indicate Turkey's growing anti-Kurdish stance. They also say a lot about Turkey's politics and intelligence and communicate much more about the fragility of our community's existence in Europe.
Regarding security, if it takes a confession to prevent an assassination plot in Vienna, and if a gang can attack a journalist in broad daylight near his home in Stockholm, the EU is falling short of her promise to protect her citizens.
Regarding Turkish politics, it is clear that Turkey's 40-year fight with the PKK and FETO have taken a toll on the Turkish tolerance for Kurdish minorities. The situation is so grim that the Turkish psyche sees terror as a byproduct of the NATO membership, and in seeking an alternative, Turkey sympathizes with unsecular Eastern regimes that harbor inhumane practices.
And when it comes to Kurdish rights, Turkish people have seen the country's Kurdish minority become a plaything of NATO. The Kurdish image in Turkey has suffered the highs and lows with two famous Kurdish-Turks, past Turkish President Ozal and imprisoned PKK leader Ocalan, as part of NATO's politics in the Middle East, and the majority of the country lost trust in the Kurdish minority.
So in this issue, we present you accomplished Turkish expatriates of Kurdish descent. They have immigrated under trying conditions, worked hard, and successfully achieved their goals when offered equal rights.
Turkish-German businesswoman Yasemin Dogan and her siblings Huseyin, Ceyhun and Munise share the pride of offering high-quality food with a cultural twist at their trendy cafeteria brand Bona'me at six popular locations in Germany.
Turkish-German fashionista Dilara Ozcan boasts over 3 million followers on Instagram. She and her husband manager Veli Avci share their breath-taking trip to the Maldives.
Turkish-Dutch rap star Murda, and Turkey's rap sensation Ezhel support the Kurdish cause in ways unnumbered. Ezhel just started his two-month concert tour across six countries in Europe; so make sure to get your tickets in advance.
We leave you with news of Tractor Sazi's championship success in Iran and wish you a wonderful week of faith and fruitfulness.
21 September 2020
PROXY WARS
Eser Turan
The Arab Spring was a wonder in many ways. Not just for initiating a wave of anti-government protests, but also for managing to work its way up to Turkey's southern borders, only to devastate the region for a hefty nine-year period, widely known as 'The Syrian War.'
While the world got accustomed to the insoluble nature of this unending war saga in the Middle East, Turkey disengaged courageously and fought terror, coup attempts, and economic obliteration threats.
Sadly, the EU treated this critical period with unnerving fatalism; the European nonchalance has been inexplicable, especially against the refugee invasion threat, destined to destroy the cushy lives designed for the 'global elite'.
Overall a cynical look at the big picture reveals that the Arab Spring and the Syrian War are parts of a grand scheme to pave the way for WWIII, to divvy up the Middle East further.
In stark contrast to Syria, Turkey firmly stood her ground and dismissed all political hooks provided, which in effect angered the mob and the warlords involved. The causality design had to change its course, and a new set of conditions that conceal warmongering nations via proxy wars are introduced. In many ways, this possibility better explains the reasons behind the contrived nature of the ongoing Eastern Mediterranean dispute.
Furthermore, it is also safe to suggest that a silent war launched back in 2010 to avenge the ridicule on the Israeli soldiers aboard the Gaza flotilla has in time ricocheted into a series of proxy wars against Turkey. After all, it may just be that a passive-aggressive reflex turned the Mediterranean into an unlikely billiard board, passing the harassment role first to France, then to Egypt and Syria, and most recently to Greece and Cyprus.
Proxy wars are nothing new though. Initiated by the intelligence work of Bell and Lawrence, the Ottoman lands had crumbled to pieces, for not knowing how to fight them. The Turkish Republic is built on a unique level of expertise with this type of warfare, which is why Turkish sovereignty stays intact, unharmed by the proxy wars in the Middle East.
So what's new? What makes Greece militarize demilitarized islands? And how can the Greek press feel comfortable in using foul language at the Turkish President? The EU may feel justified questioning Turkey's end goals over an energy survey, but all it does is to have the world question the EU's end goals in all this.
In this issue, we hail the work of a Turkish-American analyst Nigar Goksel, who works at a counter-terror group, with a famous Turcophile, the revered British author Hugh Pope, best known for his books 'Sons of the Conquerors' and 'Turkey Unveiled'.
We also recommend 'Power and the People', a great read on the golden age and chaotic downfall of Athenian democracy, co-authored by a bright Turkish-British journalist Alev Scott.
Wondering about the terror-stricken lands, we follow the travels of globetrotter Emre Akkoyun, a brave vlogger sharing his day-trip through the troubled Northern Iraqi cities, Suleymaniye and Erbil.
We celebrate Turkish-British actress Farah Zeynep Abdullah for representing our community on Turkish TV with "Masumiyet Apartmanı". A Turkish restaurant in her hometown, Ishtar, invites us for a trip to London, and we rejoice the success of Toprak Razgatlioglu at the Superbike World Championship in Spain.
Praying for a future of peace and harmony, we wish you a great week.
14 September 2020
FATES INTERTWINED
Eser Turan
After an exhausting week of diplomatic mishmash around the Aegean, here's a quick synopsis of last week's installment of 'East Med Madness', the Greek soap opera hellbent on starting some war with Turks:
Realizing that the paranoia prank does not deter Turkey from drilling, the Greeks resort to a slew of unconventional measures. First, an impromptu fire destroys the shelters of 13,000 refugees at the Moria camp on the island of Lesbos (Midilli), threatening Europe with a refugee invasion.
France decides to lavish the Greeks with a controversial "Pax Mediterranean (Sans Turquie)", hosting leaders of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Malta, and Greece in Corsica. There they chant colonialist rants, stating "Turkish people deserve better than President Erdogan".
President Macron then kicks into high gear, baptizing the alliance with the sale of 18 Rafale fighter aircraft and a major military upgrade, which encourages the Greeks to arm 18 islands and violate international agreements.
Posing all innocent, President Sakellaropoulou flies to the contested itty-bitty island of Kastelorizo 2 miles off of the Turkish coast, while Greek soldiers embark on a rickety Hellenistic mission on civilian transport in full Trojan fashion.
The situation then alarms the Americans and they send Secretary Pompeo to pacify the pompous Greeks. He tells them that a couple of frigates are not enough for an invasion, but the wailing gets worse. He signs an MoU between the Greek Cyprus and the USA and leaves it to Turkey to deescalate the situation. Turkey decides to pause the drilling to disprove rumors of an invasion.
We try to take a break from all this by watching 'The Gift' on Netflix but the whirlwind of events there surpass the Eastern Mediterranean dispute. A great cast and exceptional acting ease the pain of watching an 'Oktar meets Gulen' type of a world domination cult, but the forced marriages of mystical characters, ordered via telepathy make us worry about FETO's astral shenanigans.
Enticed to explore the occult, we install the 'Faladdin' app and brew some fresh Turkish coffee on our Okka Minio to receive a free reading. As we sip our coffee, we think of the cult executive and what devilish missions he would carry out in the East Med Madness.
We upload a photo of our coffee grounds and receive a free digital consultation that tells us to think like our opponent. Wondering if countries and regions do walk the planet in human form, we think of Turkey and the region, and the political hurdles following the establishment of Israel.
Our vloggers of the week help us with their day trip video in Tel Aviv. We look for Turkish traces there and discover Onza Restaurant. As we think of what Israel would look like in human form, we picture an American citizen fighting anti-semitism. Wondering if she would empathize with Turkish-Germans like Enver Simsek falling victim to Neo-Nazis in today's Germany, we plan on reading his daughter's memoir on the murders of the racist Neo-Nazi cult, NSU.
Cheering on Mustafa Kapi's transfer to the French club Lille, we pray for the success and welfare of all our expatriates.
Wishing you a safe week, free of racism. Best!
7 September 2020
COUNTERING COUNTERPHOBIA
Eser Turan
Welcoming a new month and a new season, we enter a new era where the political wit and diplomatic wisdom of the International Turkish community proves to be more critical than ever.
We owe this unique period to Europe's counterphobic reactions against Turkey's moves towards economic independence. With France and Austria leading the Turkey-bashing charade, some EU countries debate whether Greece's presumptuous suspicions are right in interpreting Turkey's energy surveys as camouflage for invasion.
Whether that pretext sets the scene for war between the EU member Greece and non-EU member Turkey clashing their NATO-member militaries in the Aegean or not is definitely good fodder for prime time news but in reality, it is going overboard.
No one knows what sparks this paranoia but when the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz becomes the unexpected front man of the European angst against Turkey, it does look like some people are going off the deep end over Turkish presence in Europe.
Oddly enough the supposedly unforced, 'self-confessed' and unnamed spy case in Austria working for the Turkish Secret Service, is followed by the desperation of Chancellor Kurz openly pleading that the Europeans 'not give in to Erdogan'.
As the case says more of Europe than Turkey, it indicates various spy scenarios brewing in the minds of the European elite and makes one wonder if Kurz has any idea of the scale of the European intelligence running amok in Turkey for decades.
He may also need to be informed that Austria backing Greece in the 'Turkish invasion paranoia' actually looks as absurd and insane as Slovenia hypothetically throwing a fit over Austria's energy surveys at a border town, with Serbia backing Slovenia against Austria, hollering "Giving in to Kurz and Austria, would be saying good night to the Balkans".
Maybe in this new period, we will need to draw more of these geographic and demographic comparisons to save our European friends from such embarrassing rants. Or maybe we just need to remind them of the running Turkish joke on this topic, which says that "if Turkey wanted to invade the 10 million population of Greece, all that's needed is to have the 18 million population of Istanbul pass the border as tourists".
The joke implies that Turks do not need expensive energy survey spending to invade, but we are talking about the Trojan-minded Greeks, carrying the genetic makeup that prides on winning wars through hiding soldiers in a gift. That deceptive mindset so bent on hiding the reality naturally expects the same from their perceived enemy.
Turks are used to announcing their conquest with a loud band of musicians, the 'Mehteran', marching before the army to scare their enemy. So the Greeks and their European chaperones just have to accept that warrior Turks with their second-largest army of NATO fame will not resort to carrying out a silly invasion plan with their military warships dedicated to protecting an energy survey vessel.
So let's all take a break from this madness and look at our pride and joy in Europe: Turkish-Austrian fashion designer Atil Kutoglu is one of the first names that comes to mind. Turkish musical genius Fazil Say partly living in Vienna is another great example. We also have our world champion fencer and model Elke Lale van Achterberg launching a modeling agency. And our globetrotter of the week offering a display of the Turkish appreciation of Vienna should be good enough for Kurz.
Celebrating Caglar Ertugrul's Best Actor award, feel free to recommend "Scent of My Daughter" to your European friends. The Turkish-American production portrays the harrowing consequence of the 2016 ISIS attack in France, which took place most likely because of European paranoia disregarding Turkey's NATO-border-patrolling intelligence.
Wishing you a great week countering counterphobia.
