April 6th 2008

The Lilith eZine Sunday Edition

Why did the Turkey cross the road? To join the European Union.

Sorry, I couldn't resist poking fun at the name we westerners call the Republic of Turkey or Türkiye Cumhuriyeti. (I also think Cum hurry yeti is quite funny.)

The Republic of Turkey sits literally on the border between Asia and Europe (making it one of very few transcontinental countries), and likewise its culture is a mixture of east and west. For 85 years now Turkey has been growing as a secular and democratic republic ever since the Ottoman Empire fell in 1923.

Turkey is also the location of the legendary city of Troy, boasts more ancient temples and palaces than both Greece and Egypt combined and has neolithic architecture dating back to the stone age. The Ottoman Empire (1299–1922) was one of the longest lasting and most widespread empires of the pre-industrial age (the Roman Empire was slightly larger, but lasted only 500 years).

Turkey helped the allies during WWII, was a founding member of the United Nations in 1945, helped the United States during the Korean War, was a bulwark of stability against the Soviets during the Cold War, has had some diplomatic problems with Cyprus that are now being solved, and is a major source of oil for the rest of Europe with major pipelines from the Middle East and the Black Sea traveling through Turkey.

Today Turkey has a population of 71 million people but has a per capita GDP of approx. $9300, which is to say that most Turks are dirt poor despite the economic growth of recent years (5.1% in 2007 and sustained high growth over the last 2 decades). 20% of the Turkish population lives below the poverty line, but things are improving.

And they would improve a lot faster if they became an EU member. Turkey is currently in the process of becoming a full EU member and only yesterday Turkish President Abdullah Gul held a summit meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Bucharest. Sarkozy expressed that the "Year of Turkey" in France in 2009 will help eradicate negative notions on Turkey.

And what are the negative notions about Turkey? Well, they did fight on the side of Austrians/Germans during WWI, but have since redeemed themselves. Oh, and 99% of Turkey's population is Muslim, which makes them an excellent model for other Muslim states on how democracy works. France has a strong anti-Muslim community...

But really those seem kind of minor. I think the major problem with Turkey (asides from the name) is that most people don't really know much about Turkey's culture, history and arts (let alone the language Türkiye).

Here to help remedy that we've compiled an overview of the history of art in Turkey. Check it out below.

Sincerely,
Suzanne MacNevin
Editor of the Lilith eZine


The Art History Archive
Turkish Artists
Turkish Feminist Artists
Ismail Acar
Hoca Ali Riza
Avni Arbas
Esref Armagan
Tomur Atagok
Bedri Baykam
Nevin Çokay
Adnan Coker
Gürkan Coskun
Abidin Dino
Burhan Cahit Dogançay
Erkan Genis
Bahadir Gökay
Nazmi Ziya Güran
Osman Hamdi Bey
Abdulcelil Levni
Setenay Özbek
Seker Ahmet Pasa
Fikret Muallâ Saygi
Fahrelnissa Zeid


The Canada eZine
Funding Ontario's Schools - Privatization of Education
The Commodication of Students - Privatization of Education