Follow-up on Turkey

Thanks to Sara from Groveland who left a comment in response to David Brunet’s recent post: Turkey: An Endangered Bridge Between East and West.

Sara mentioned Rick Steves’ travel blog, which lists on its homepage three posts on Turkey in reverse order: Thorny Turkish Issue #3: If You Mix Turkey into Europe, Will It Curdle? Thorny Turkish Issue #2: Turks and Kurds; Thorny Turkish Issue #1: Armenia

In reply, Brunet, a former Fulbright scholar in Turkey, said he has always liked Steves’ travel notes. And he appreciated that in the above essays Steves identifies Turkey as a constitutionally secular government.

Commenting further, Brunet says “Steves talks about the Kurds being scattered throughout Turkey and notes that most of them are not PKK and don't favor a separatist state.” Brunet recalls, “When we lived in Izmir one of my favorite shopkeepers was Kurdish. I would stop and talk with him almost daily, and when I left Izmir to come home to the US, I went to his shop to say goodbye. I considered him a friend, and it had nothing to do with whether or not he was Kurdish.”

I checked out Steves' essays on Turkey, and I agree with Sara from Groveland and Brunet that they provide background information helpful in understanding the issues the Turks are now facing.