A Little More Respect to Each Other

[bell-the-cat]

There are Turkish citizens of all extractions Tatar,chinese,mongol even Black!
we might be forgetting that Turk is not a race but a concept...

I think thay you could say the same for most "races". There is no genetic test that would say that one person is a "Turk" and another is not, anymore than there is a genetic test to prove someone is Armenian! The problem in Turkey is that the state expects all of it citizens to be "Turks" and live according to what the state defines a "Turk" to be, and marginalises or criminalises those who choose not to, or cannot, obey those requirements.

[Joseph]

I think thay you could say the same for most "races". There is no genetic test that would say that one person is a "Turk" and another is not, anymore than there is a genetic test to prove someone is Armenian! The problem in Turkey is that the state expects all of it citizens to be "Turks" and live according to what the state defines a "Turk" to be, and marginalises or criminalises those who choose not to, or cannot, obey those requirements.

I don't mean this as an insult to Turks but I always find it odd though that Turks seem to want it both ways. For instance, they say that Turks are people living in Turkey who call themselves "Turks" depsite ethnicity, religion, etc (which is used for obvious and slightly paranoid reasons)yet then claim ethnic kinship with Azeris, Uzbeks Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, etc. and not just due to language but to a genetic connection.

[phantom]

I don't mean this as an insult to Turks but I always find it odd though that Turks seem to want it both ways. For instance, they say that Turks are people living in Turkey who call themselves "Turks" depsite ethnicity, religion, etc (which is used for obvious and slightly paranoid reasons)yet then claim ethnic kinship with Azeris, Uzbeks Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, etc. and not just due to language but to a genetic connection.

That's a great point Joseph. Why else would Turkey be supportive of Azerbaijan and so against Armenia. After all, there are probably as many Armenians living in Turkey as there are Azeris, yet the Turks always side with the Azeris and never side with the Armenians.

[phantom]

Joseph, I posted your awesome comment with the 15 Turkish points and 13 Armenians points in a Turkish blog. I hope you don't mind, but it was so well-received here, and made so much sense, that I thought it would be nice for the Turkish people at that blog to read it too. Here's where it is.

http://www.blogger.com/publish-comment.do?blogID=14231536&postID=116158048303448205&r=ok

For those who decide to post at that blog, I would highly recommend that we remain civilized and courteous there, and if we are personally attacked, just ignore the attacker and talk to others instead.

[Joseph]

Joseph, I posted your awesome comment with the 15 Turkish points and 13 Armenians points in a Turkish blog. I hope you don't mind, but it was so well-received here, and made so much sense, that I thought it would be nice for the Turkish people at that blog to read it too. Here's where it is.

http://www.blogger.com/publish-comment.do?blogID=14231536&postID=116158048303448205&r=ok

For those who decide to post at that blog, I would highly recommend that we remain civilized and courteous there, and if we are personally attacked, just ignore the attacker and talk to others instead.

No problem and I'm glad you liked the post. Hopefully you didn't reference this site when you posted it to the Turkish site. I would hate to have their members flood our site and have a repeat of what happened a couple of weeks ago.