LIFE IN TURKEY - THE THREAD 1

Life in Turkey can be broken down into the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The Good

• People are generally friendly and helpful (though see The Bad below). Families are very supportive (but again, see The Bad).
• The food is amazing. I like food from a lot of different places, but if I had to pick only one nation’s cuisine to eat for the rest of my life, it’d be Turkey because it’s so incredibly varied, and nearly all of it is delicious. (Except for what they call sulu yemek, which is like lumps of food thrown in dishwater.)
• There’s a good music scene, with a wide variety of regional folk styles through T-pop to rock. There’s a fair amount of crappy pop music, but then everywhere has crappy pop music. Then there’s Turkish art music (sanat müziği), which I respect but can’t get into unless I’ve had too much rakı.
• If you live in a largish city, there’s a lot going on culturally/intellectually. People take the piss out of the entel (intellectual) types, but generally speaking, well-educated Turks are some of the best people to have an intellectual conversation with.
• There are plenty of beautiful places if you can get out to them (but see The Ugly).

The Bad

• The country is deeply split along pro- and anti-government lines, which roughly correspond to religious conservative vs. secular progressive. Turks have never been big on consensus politics, but I’m worried that this time the split is going to get really nasty.
• The economy is screwed. Of course that could change later, but the outlook isn’t good at the moment.
• I mentioned families are very supportive, but they can also be very stifling. As a young Turk, you’ll probably have much less of a say in your life choices than you would in Europe or America - and that’s in the progressive, secular west of the country. In the less developed parts, you may still end up in an arranged or even forced marriage as a teenager, though fortunately that is on the way out.
• There’s a certain amount of terrorism, though most of it is confined to the south-east. Realistically, you’re more likely to be killed by a car than a bomb.

The Ugly

• Turks love to put up ugly buildings. It’s amazing that the nation that produced architectural masterpieces like the Blue Mosque has somehow lost its aesthetic sense completely. Those natural beauty spots I mentioned are usually in danger of being swamped by hideous holiday homes.
• There’s very little sense of civic pride in terms of public spaces. You can go to one of the classiest neighborhoods and find potholes in the roads, rubbish piled up and stray dogs.