Turkish Forum

Category: Michael Van Der Galien

  • Police Break Up Mosque Protest in Germany

    Police Break Up Mosque Protest in Germany

    German police broke up a protest on Saturday in Cologne, Germany at the moment it was about to start. The protest was organized by far-right parties and individuals from across Europe.

    The goal of it was to make their opposition to the approval of the region’s municipality to Moslems to build a mosque, clear.

    Thousands of left-wing protesters heard about the upcoming protest and traveled to Cologne, where they started a counter-protest. They argued that the right-wing protest was racist in nature. Police felt forced to interfene after the left-wing protesters started using violence and it had become clear that if the right-wing protest would proceed as schedulled all hell would break loose.

    The far right group Pro Koeln had organized the protest, but it was supported by right-wingers from across Europe. They went to Cologne to protest the ‘Islamification’ of Western Europe, and to celebrate the continent’s “shared, 1,000-year history of Western values and Christian traditions.”

    Germany is home to three million Moslems, who form 4% of the German population. Many of them are not well integrated, which increases anti-Moslem feelings. Many others, however, are integrated and function in German society like any other ‘born’ German.

    Sadly, the anti-immigration feeling is rapidly developing into an anti-Moslem feeling in Germany and in other European countries. This anti-Moslem attitude is becoming increasingly clear. The result of this will not be that Moslem immigrants and their children will integrate better, of course; it will be that Germany will be divided among ethnic and religious lines, with both groups distrusting the other.

    Immigrants and authentic Germans both play a role in this process. Both, it seems, refuse to take responsibility for the situation, and for the problems they have caused. Immigrants pretend that all problems are caused by racism – not true – born Germans all too often claim that immigrants are the root of all major problems – not true either. Both sides have to take responsibility. If they refuse, the problems will continue to exist.

    PoliGazette » Police Break Up Mosque Protest in Germany.

  • Turkey’s Real Problem

    Turkey’s Real Problem

    Michael van der Galien, Editor-in-Chief on September 5, 2008 @ 3:17 pm CEST

    PoliGazette takes a look at Turkey’s real problem. It is not what you may think it is.

    IZMIR, TURKEY –

    For a couple of years, the major issue of debate in Turkey has been the separation of church and state; the country’s politicians focused almost exclusively on this subject after it became clear that the Justice and Development Party (or AK Parti) wants to increase the role religion plays in the public sphere (or allow more religious freedom, choose the interpretation you agree with). For months, all Turkish politicians talked about was whether or not female students should be allowed to wear the headscarf in universities.

    Although laicism is indeed important, politicians have made too much of the headscarf issue; while debating about whether or not a woman can wear a scarf on her head, nothing was done about the real problem in Turkey. Better, the real Turkish problem was ignored.

    Turkey’s real problem is not the economy, although it is a major issue. Nor is it laicism / the influence of religious conservative individuals on the government. It is not Erkenegon, and it is not the Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    It is education.

    Compared to the rest of Europe Turkey’s education system is horrible. It is sorely lacking in a variety of ways, but especially with regards to teaching students foreign languages.

    During my visits to Turkey I have seen how teachers try to teach this highly important foreign language to their students. Sadly there are some problems. For instance, the average teacher is hardly able to communicate with a foreigner in English. His vocabulary is not big enough, his accent is too strong and he is nervous because he seldom speaks English to foreigners; he is used to speaking English to Turks, who often do not notice the horrible accent of their fellow Turk and his pathetic lack of a somewhat normal-sized vocabulary.

    As if the above is not enough, I have been told by several Turks that the grading system in Turkey is somewhat, how shall I put this… Utopian.

    The highest grade is one star, the lowest grade one. Well, one would think that when a 15 year old high school student is only able to say ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ and ‘fine, thank you’ in English, he does not deserve more than one, or at most, two stars, right?

    Not so in Turkey. I have met many high school students who are literally incapable of completing two or three sentences in English. Yet, their teachers give them four or five stars.

    One of the reasons for this Utopian grading system is, I have been told, that teachers have the tendency to reward students who are silent, obedient and anxious to learn. When that student writes an essay or makes a test, the teacher seemingly tends to think “I should reward him for his good behavior.”

    Another major cause for the lack of knowledge of English among Turks in general and (high school) students specifically is, according to Turkish friends and (future) teachers I talked to, that students are taught the exact same things over and over again. As one of the individuals I talked to remarked, “in the first year I studied English the teacher said ‘today we will study single present tense.’ In the second year he said ‘today we will study single present tense.’ In the third year the teacher said ‘today we will study single present tense…’ And you wonder why 95% of Turks do not speak English well?”

    The above signifies a real problem in Turkey’s education system. English is of immense importance. It is alright for a third world country not to teach its citizens English, but for a rapidly developing country like Turkey, with big aspirations, teaching English to its citizens when they are still young is a necessity.

    If one wants to compete in the world, if one wants to become richer in a constantly globalizing world, and if one wants to catch up economically with Western countries, one has to know English. Turkish is the language of Turkey, but English is the language of the world. One’s English does not have to be perfect – mine is not for instance – but it should be sufficient for one to express oneself accurately and to debate important issues. “How are you?” does not suffice.

    In order to improve the situation, Turkey’s government will have to invest big-time in education. University students aspiring to become English teachers should be sent abroad; either during their studies, or immediately afterwards. They should be forced to speak English 24/7 for a period of several months. Everything they do, everything they want, they should made clear in English.

    Furthermore, the Turkish government should keep a close eye on how teachers grade their students. Four stars for a student who knows jack is unacceptable. A checks and balances method should be cooked up, one that actually works. When one teacher grades his students, another teacher from a different school should double check. Competition among teachers and schools should be encouraged. Teachers that deliver better results have to be rewarded, teachers that perform badly punished. The same, of course, goes for schools.

    Another important reason Turkish students suffer from a chronic lack of English speaking, writing and understanding skills is, conversations have led me to believe, the Turkish government’s habit to send new teachers to poor regions (in the East) where they have to serve for a specific, short amount of time, after which they can go back to the richer regions. These new teachers have to educate poor students, but often lack the passion to do in a satisfying manner. The reason for this lack of passion is that they do not want to teach in the East. They are forced to go their by their government. Many of them seem to tremendously dislike the East; they consider the people backwards and uneducated (quite an accurate, albeit negative, description of course). All they long for when they are in the East is to go back to the ‘ developed, modern world. Once they can, they go.

    Teachers need conviction and passion. If not, they do not teach their students what they should teach them. When a student fails to make any progress, the teacher could not care less. ‘Lets give him four stars,’ the teacher thinks, ‘nobody cares anyway.’

    In order to do something about this, the Turkish government could consider encouraging rather than forcing new teachers to go to the East. When a teacher agrees to go to the East, pay him considerably extra. Money makes the world go ’round and it makes teachers do what they should do; educate your children. Furthermore, when a teacher does so for a prolonged period – five, six years instead of, say, six months – he should receive even more benefits; both financial and in other ways (make it more easy for a teacher to travel to foreign countries, for instance, so he can improve their language skills). Make sure that the teacher becomes part of the village or city he moves to in the East; set up a ‘welcoming’ system, which immediately results in the new teacher having many friends with whom they can socialize. Make it more easy for a teacher who goes to the East to take his spouse and children along. Help the partner of the teacher find a new job in their new village / city / region. If the job pays less than what they are used to, subsidize them (temporarily) and help them out in other ways (take care of housing, for instance).

    Sending students en masse abroad and the other reforms proposed in this short column may cost a lot of money while Turkey is far from rich – yes, I know – but the fact of the matter is that improving Turks’ English skills is not a choice; it is an absolute necessity. The Turkish government spends millions of Liras (the new one of course) on far less important things. In order to do all the above Turkey does not to need to make more money rapidly. Instead, it has to get its priorities straightened out.

    Finally it has to be remarked that the reforms mentioned in this op-ed are, to a degree, applicable on education in its entirety. Of course education is not about English alone. Other courses are just as important as English, and the government should invest in these courses (mathematics for instance, but also reading skills in Turkish – my Turkish is rapidly improving, but my interaction with Turks has given me the impression that quite some Turks do not speak Turkish well – are important).

    If Turkey does not improve its education system soon, and especially with regards to English, it will have a terrible hard time catching up with the West. Not because Turks do not want to catch up, or because they are too lazy, but because they lack the basic skills one needs to survive in this modern world.

  • The Comeback of Extremists in Turkey

    The Comeback of Extremists in Turkey

    Filed under: Lead Story, Turkey — Michael van der Galien, Editor-in-Chief on August 20, 2008 @ 9:48 pm CEST

    PoliGazette’s Michael van der Galiën reports from Istanbul, Turkey.

    ISTANBUL, TURKEY – When I visited the former capital of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul, last year, I noticed more women wear a headscarf here than in Turkey’s second city, Izmir.

    Additionally, I was greatly impressed by the size of Istanbul. For Dutch standards, Izmir is gigantic with its four million inhabitants. Istanbul, however, is so big that the Dutch nor English language have words to describe the feeling a Dutchman gets when he walks in Istanbul for the first time. The amount of people – from all races, classes, religions, backgrounds – is breathtaking. People and cars are everywhere. Crossing the street is an adventure; it could literally be your death if you do not run. One gets the impression that all 15 million inhabitants of the city want to get to work at the same time.

    As said, that was not the only difference I noticed between the two cities. Izmir is truly a secular city. One sees almost no women wearing a headscarf. The women in Izmir are emancipated and modern.

    In Istanbul the situation was different back in 2007. One did, of course, not see any burqas, for Turks tend to greatly dislike those customs, but headscarves were everywhere. Where only 5% or so of the female population of Izmir covers her head, it is not hard to imagine this number to be somewhere around 50% in Istanbul.

    This year the situation in Istanbul has become worse. The step from a secular (Baku, Azerbaijan) city in a Moslem country to a religious city in a different Moslem country was gigantic. In Baku, like in Izmir, you can see just about no woman cover herself. In Istanbul, however, the situation has not merely remained the same, it has become worse.

    One gets the impression that the political power of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, is transforming this city in rather rapidly. Whenever I walk to a shop, even if it is only 500 meters (yards) away I can see at least one, mostly more, women completely dressed in black (something I did not see – often – last year). All too often the only thing you see is the women’s eyes. The rest is covered.

    Many of these women are not Turks. They are mostly from Iran. Television in Iran is strictly censured. There is no chance whatsoever of Iranian women seeing things the religious leaders of that country do not want them to see. They mostly do not import TV shows. Many of the shows they do import, however, are from fellow Moslem countries. Especially Turkish TV shows are, I have been told, fairly popular in Iran.

    Since Iranian men have to work and women often stay at home, or at least enjoy watching said shows, they get acquainted with Turkey, and especially with Istanbul. Most Turkish TV shows take place in this major city. They become curious and want to see it with their own eyes.

    So, they convince their husband to book a trip to Istanbul, put their burqas in their suitcases, get in a plane and… before you know, you see them walking here.

    Those women are not, however, the only ones dressed completely in black. Increasingly more Turkish women cover themselves completely as well. They talk like Turks, they walk like Turks… but they are dressed like Iranians and Saudis. They radically change the landscape; unlike the other Turkish women they are not laughing, nor talking loudly with each other. They are silent and follow their husband. They look at women who do not dress like them with an arrogance hard to imagine; one has to see the look to understand just how ‘dirty’ it is.

    And so, the landscape in Istanbul is changing. One wonders whether it has reached an extreme and will become less in the coming years, whether it will remain the same or, and this is what I fear, it will become worse.

     

    __._,_.___

  • The Comeback of Extremists in Turkey

    The Comeback of Extremists in Turkey

    PoliGazette’s Michael van der Galiën reports from Istanbul, Turkey.ISTANBUL, TURKEY – When I visited the former capital of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul, last year, I noticed more women wear a headscarf here than in Turkey’s second city, Izmir.

    Additionally, I was greatly impressed by the size of Istanbul. For Dutch standards, Izmir is gigantic with its four million inhabitants. Istanbul, however, is so big that the Dutch nor English language have words to describe the feeling a Dutchman gets when he walks in Istanbul for the first time. The amount of people – from all races, classes, religions, backgrounds – is breathtaking. People and cars are everywhere. Crossing the street is an adventure; it could literally be your death if you do not run. One gets the impression that all 15 million inhabitants of the city want to get to work at the same time.

    As said, that was not the only difference I noticed between the two cities. Izmir is truly a secular city. One sees almost no women wearing a headscarf. The women in Izmir are emancipated and modern.

    In Istanbul the situation was different back in 2007. One did, of course, not see any burqas, for Turks tend to greatly dislike those customs, but headscarves were everywhere. Where only 5% or so of the female population of Izmir covers her head, it is not hard to imagine this number to be somewhere around 50% in Istanbul.

    This year the situation in Istanbul has become worse. The step from a secular (Baku, Azerbaijan) city in a Moslem country to a religious city in a different Moslem country was gigantic. In Baku, like in Izmir, you can see just about no woman cover herself. In Istanbul, however, the situation has not merely remained the same, it has become worse.

    One gets the impression that the political power of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, is transforming this city in rather rapidly. Whenever I walk to a shop, even if it is only 500 meters (yards) away I can see at least one, mostly more, women completely dressed in black (something I did not see – often – last year). All too often the only thing you see is the women’s eyes. The rest is covered.

    Many of these women are not Turks. They are mostly from Iran. Television in Iran is strictly censured. There is no chance whatsoever of Iranian women seeing things the religious leaders of that country do not want them to see. They mostly do not import TV shows. Many of the shows they do import, however, are from fellow Moslem countries. Especially Turkish TV shows are, I have been told, fairly popular in Iran.

    Since Iranian men have to work and women often stay at home, or at least enjoy watching said shows, they get acquainted with Turkey, and especially with Istanbul. Most Turkish TV shows take place in this major city. They become curious and want to see it with their own eyes.

    So, they convince their husband to book a trip to Istanbul, put their burqas in their suitcases, get in a plane and… before you know, you see them walking here.

    Those women are not, however, the only ones dressed completely in black. Increasingly more Turkish women cover themselves completely as well. They talk like Turks, they walk like Turks… but they are dressed like Iranians and Saudis. They radically change the landscape; unlike the other Turkish women they are not laughing, nor talking loudly with each other. They are silent and follow their husband. They look at women who do not dress like them with an arrogance hard to imagine; one has to see the look to understand just how ‘dirty’ it is.

    And so, the landscape in Istanbul is changing. One wonders whether it has reached an extreme and will become less in the coming years, whether it will remain the same or, and this is what I fear, it will become worse.

  • “US Senator Buying Policies” of Armenian Lobby in the USA

    “US Senator Buying Policies” of Armenian Lobby in the USA

     

    Buying Policies

    Michael van der Galien, Editor-in-Chief

     

    PoliGazette takes a closer look into the financial records of US Senator Menendez (D NJ). His vote can and has been bought.

     

    One of the main things Americans frequently complain about is the influence of special interest groups over politicians and, thus, over how the United States is ran. Too many laws, these Americans say, are designed not with the best interest of the American people in mind, but with the interest of said groups in mind. This is, Americans rightfully complain, now how the US government was meant to function.

    In recent months and years some Democratic politicians have constantly functioned as mouthpieces for one of those special interest groups; Armenian American nationalists. For some, for most Americans, unknown reason, these Democratic Senators and Representatives bring the events of 1915 which they call the Armenian Genocide up whenever they can. This obsession with something that happened almost 100 years ago resulted in an international controversy when one of the first acts of the Democratically controlled US Congress after the elections of 2006 was to adopt a resolution that labels said events officially as ʽgenocide.ʼ

    Turkey denies that what happened constitutes genocide and argues, instead, that historians, not politicians, should cast judgment on this affair. In response to the resolution Turkey threatened to withdraw its support for the War in Iraq and, more importantly, would no longer allow the US to use Turkey (to move troops, material, etc.) in order to fight and thus win in that Middle Eastern country.

    Americans wondered what happened to their government; why was the war put at risk? Why were American lives put at risk? Why this sudden obsession with something that has no relation whatsoever with America?

    PoliGazette has the answers to those questions. As usual it is about one thing only: money.

    One of the most fervent supporters of the Armenian cause in the United States is Senator Robert Menendez. He is one of the Senators who blocked George W. Bushʼs nomination for ambassador to Armenia; when Bush wanted to send that person, Menendez blocked the nomination because the nominee refused to call what happened to the Armenian as ʽgenocide.ʼ Later Bush nominated another diplomat, and once again Menendez objected, etc. In the end, though, Marie Yovanovitch was finally confirmed.

    And once again Americans wondered what the hell just happened. Why was Menendez so passionate about this subject? Why is history politicized?

    As said, it is about one thing, and one thing only; money. PoliGazetteʼs Kemal (who did most of the work) and me, Michael, took a closer look at the financial records of Senator Menendez and found that he has been paid and bought by Armenian activists. All in all, this Senator received some $136,000 from Armenian action committees and individuals; quite a gigantic sum.

    Below follows the complete record of Armenian donations to Senator Menendez. Iʼll summarize the findings here, for details, scroll down to the records.

    One of the first things one notices about the Armenians who donated to Senator Menendez is that many of the Armenian donaters do not live in New Jersey. This means that he is not representing them, since American Senators represent a specific part of the population who are able to vote him or her in and out of office. In other words, a sizable part of Menendezʼs donaters are not his constituents.

    Since he does not represent them nor their regional interests, common sense dictates that he works for them in other areas. This is, obviously, the Armenian Genocide issue. Menendez has become one of the most vocal US Senators on this subject.

    Another interesting aspect of Menendezʼs financial records is that he receives a lot of money from Armenian organizations, or PACS. These PACS are special interest groups, who often only deal with one subject. The Armenian PACS that donate to Menendez are the Armenian American PAC and the Armenian Americans Legislative Issues Committee. Together these PACS have donated $25,746 to Menendez.

    Menendezʼs own financial records taken from the Federal Election Commissionʼs website show that this one, individual Senator alone has received $136,481 from Armenian organizations and individuals, many of whom not constituents of this Democratic Senator for New Jersey. This amount, a significant amount, has caused Menendez to focus a lot of time and attention to the Armenian ʽGenocideʼ issue and has, directly, resulted in international controversies and worsening relations with Americaʼs allies.

    Here follow the details. Names of individuals are published because those records are available and open to the public already at other places.

    ——–
    Haberin aslini ve uzerine tiklaninca dokumanlari gosteren  bagislarin listesini gormek icin tikalyiniz.
  • Turkey’s East; Still One Big Mess

    Turkey’s East; Still One Big Mess

    Submitted by Michael van der Galiën

    Eastern Turkey is the country’s poorest region. A lot of Kurds live in that area, and a lot of poor Turkish people as well. These individuals have had little to no education, and still live in accordance with the beliefs, prejudices and ways of their ancestors.

    Although Turkey’s culture is great in many ways, it’s not so great in many other. The people in the East are often very conservative, and not very modern or enlightened. When we hear about Turkish immigrants in the West, who misbehave so tremendously, and who kill their daughters because they refuse to wear headscarfs, or have a Western (and Christian) boyfriend, we often forget that Turks from Western and Central Turkey aren’t like that at all; it are mostly Eastern Turks we hear about.

    The main reason for the above is simple: the area has not been given the attention it deserves. It has stayed behind, or at least not made a lot of progress in decades. Some things have changed, but the culture has not. Where women in the West, and especially in the big cities, have emancipated, they are still humble and oppressed in the East, especially in the villages. The citizens there are not educated, or if they are, their education was of such a terrible quality that they may just as well not have gone to school at all.

    Education is not encouraged in those areas, this in contrast with the West and Central regions. There, people believe that education is of the utmost importance. In the East, however, people all too often believe that education is not truly important; it’s all about God, customs, and farm work.

    This while education has changed so much in the West (of Turkey). So much even, that Easterners and Westerners often appear to be coming from completely different countries altogether. All too often when gets the impression, when talking to Turks from the West or Heartland, that they look down upon their fellow countrymen in the East; they truly cannot get along well, the differences in culture and views are gigantic. When one, at the same time, talks to people from the East, one quickly comes to the conclusion that they believe that their fellow countrymen from the West are living ‘Godless.’

    Of course, the lack of education in the East has not merely resulted in a lack of cultural progress; there are also a whole lot of economic problems. The East is poor, and undeveloped. The people there lack just about everything.

    As said, one of the main reasons for this is a lack of education. How difficult can it be, one may wonder, to educate the citizens in the East? Well, quite difficult. Turkey is not a rich country, although it is becoming richer every year. Some regions are also hard to reform education-wise, simply because people there still live according to ancient norms and values. And then there is the little fact that teachers who teach in the East, often leave immediately after their term has expired; they are sent by the government to teach in the East for a short amount of time, but after this time, they quickly go back to the Central or Western parts of their country. The East is poor and undeveloped, what modern person wants to live and work there?

    Well, not many, and as a result, children in the East have often experienced eight to ten different teachers at the time they are elementary grade students. This constant change of teacher is incredibly problematic; they never develop a bond with their teacher, and, just at the moment the student may find school fun, or interesting, the teacher leaves and is replaced by another one. Every time, the students have to get used to the new teacher. When they are used to him / her, (s)he leaves again.

    And so, Eastern Turkish schools perform worst in nationwide tests.

    But Turkey’s educational systems are not confined to this region:

    Some regions in Turkey’s eastern region might struggle with financial and social abandonment, but students from every part of society are also beset with a deficient education system that many hope will improve with a new curriculum. Tens of thousands of elementary school graduates were dismayed by the results of the OKS, another slap in the face of authorities in the Turkish education system. More than 30,000 students scored points “not worth calculating,” according to Çelik.

    Associate professor Ömer Kutlu of Ankara University’s education faculty said poor results stem from a lack of capacity to understand what is heard or read on the part of many students. “Turkey scores very low in international studies on literary effectiveness,” he said and added that the system pushes students toward greater competition in test taking skills. An Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development 2006 report revealed that 40 percent of Turkish 15-year-old students scored one on a scale of six on tests that measure text comprehension skills.

    ”The problem lies with the teachers, who sometimes lack enough skills,” Kutlu said and added that the whole system is oriented toward making children able to solve tests, not preparing them for life.

    When it comes to education, a lot remains to be done in Turkey. Education is one of the corner stones of Kemalist ideology, and of modern countries in general terms. Without education, without a significant improvement in education, Turkey will never fullfil its potential.