Turkolog FAQ, or a belated jet lag post

I wrote this when I woke up at 2 a.m. on Saturday/Sunday, but you’re not getting it til now. Sorry!

1. Is Turkey a Muslim country?

As the Turkish Embassy representative who spoke at our orientation in DC explained no fewer than three times, Turkey is not a Muslim state. It is a secular state with a predominantly Muslim population. (I get the feeling embassy representatives have to explain this to Americans a lot.) This is (she explained) what differentiates it from the other countries of the Middle East; secularism was one of the founding values of the Turkish Republic and is still highly prized by the government and the ruling elite. There do exist Islamist political parties, but I confess that I don’t presently understand/remember enough about the political system and situation to explain their current status and role in the government. As for the practice of Islam, it varies widely and depends partly on social class and location (village vs. city, etc.). The only outward marker of religious faith I thought to look for on the plane from Munich was head scarves on women. Some women had them, but the majority - probably at least two-thirds - didn’t. No one in my host family covers her head.

2. The real FAQ - what’s your host family like?

Well! I’ve been here for about ten hours (it’s 2 a.m. here - yay jet lag) and they seem really nice so far. The mother, Nursen Hanim (Hanim means “Ms.”) pronounces my name like “Lessee” and has already called me kizim (“my girl/daughter”), canim (“my soul”), tatli (“sweet”), and said I had a very happy, smiling face. I’m not sure if she works, but she makes amazing lentil borek and stuffed grape leaves (borek is savory pastry). The daughter, Bengü, is 23 and just graduated from university with a degree in economics. She speaks some English, which is good for me because with the stress and exhaustion of traveling yesterday my already weak Turkish was further damaged by ridiculous lexical access problems. (That is, I couldn’t remember how to say ANYTHING. It took me 5-10 seconds to even say “no” in response to a question at one point.) She plays guitar and loves music. The son, Hazar, is 19 and huge (maybe six feet tall), but I didn’t see him for very long before he ducked out to meet friends for the evening. The dad, Özcan Bey, (Bey means “Mr.“) came home after I had met everyone else. He is bald and friendly and a professor of modern history (everything from the French revolution onward, he explained).