A big welcome and so sorry to hear about the terrible earthquake affecting our Turkish brothers. You will find plenty topics to post on in the breaking news and Middle east sections Are you an Erdogan supporter?
Welcome kardeş Please come and check the Middle East section sometime. You will find a lot of propag-, I mean discussions
Yes... Turkey accepted all the foreign aid, including Israel: Source: http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000692364&fid=1725
hi All, First of all ,thank you for your condolences and wishes on the quake,,what a terrible disaster struck the area which is already poverty stricken..God shall give them the power to withstand.. I am not an Erdogan supporter..not fan of the most of the politicians in Turkey but as a voter I voted for CHP..
Hello alpamis34 and welcome to the forum. My prayers go out to the people in your country effected by this devastation. I was reading how it is now raining and snowing in the area. Do the people who lost their homes have enough places to go for shelter? Is there enough food and water in place for them yet?
cool! I lived in Turkey for three years, Incerlik AFB (around Adana), i loved it! PS your food rocks. That suck's about the earthquake, what areas did it cover?
Thanks Falena,, The region is mountaineous and very cold in the winter time because of high altitude.When you add the snow and the strong winds, it makes it worse..According to news and comments of the locals,The government has acted promptly and sent supply for the quake hit residents.However the local municipalities who received the aid could not do the same and have experienced big difficulties while handing them out to the recipients.They basically could not establish a good order of logistics and there are many out there who have not received a tent whilst the others are staying in tent and holding one spare.. But big fund raising events have been arranged by tv channels and celebrities and they managed to collect good amount of money.Many voluntary groups are there to give a hand to the search and rescue teams and assist in distrubition of food and clothing.
Hi Tribearer Eko Good to hear that you ahve spent good time in Turkey ,, guess you are from the US?? I have spent 3 yrs in the US as well,, The area hit is Van
Stay Focused; There are many political parties in Turkey ,guess somewhere btw 40-50,,the ideologies of which vary from very far left to very conservative right..but the party in power now is AKP,led by RT Erdogan who is a former mayor of Istanbul municapility and a convicted politician because of his speech that he did back in 90s.He comes from the very right wing ideas and his roots go back to the Refah Party which was closed down by the Turkish High Constitutional Court.After the closure of that party and his following imprisonment,he gathered some of his friends and set up the current AKP (Justice and development Party) which attracted some good interest from public ,especially from the right wing ones.After gaining the power in 2002,they have been on duty since then.. The main opposition party is CHP,(Republican Public Party),,dont get confused with the name 'Republican ' as this one is a left wing party ,well nowadays shifting its course to the center rather than remaining in the left corridor.They got almost %25 of the votes in the last election and it is the first political party in Turkey..Despite that fact,it can not produce real solutions for the problems occurred but it just opposes whatever the incumbent does,,basically just trying to be a challenger with no real plans in hand to be proposed to public. The third biggest one is MHP(Nationalist Movement Party) is a right wing nationalist party that has the doctrine of ultra nationalism based on Turkish identity..Their doctrine used to be very popular in Turkey until AKP has come into power.They have lost a significant amount of control and influence ,especially among the youth who used to be the biggest supporters...I expect they wont be able to take any seats in the parliament in the next elections as it s a fading party and their supporters are vanishing gradually.. The fourth one is BDP,(Peace and Democracy Party)..To be honest I cant categorise this party whether left or right because they are morely doing politics over Kurdish identity..They mostly receive votes from Southeast Turkey where there is a majority of Kurdish population..The sad truth about this party is that they dont deny that they have strong ties with the seperatist terrorist organisation PKK but they still have elected members in the parliament.. Overall we can say there are 4 active parties in the politicial arena of Turkey. Wouldnt give any credits to any of them..
To mention economy,, Compared to other suffering economies ,it looks better and gaining more stability ,,at least the volume is growing but the problem is the unfair distribution of wealth..Govt is trying bring balance but it is hard cauz there are many companies committing in tax evasion and really a tough challenge to take it under control,,it has shown progress compared to 10 yrs ago maybe as the penalties have been increased and more regulated ,,but stilll standing in there..There has been a massive investment from foreign companies and banks as the economy is growing they are choosing Turkey as a hub for the Eastern Med and Middle East region due to its secular and more stable structure.In terms of numbers ,the economy is growing steadily and expected to prosper in the following 10 yrs but you cant notice this on the main street for now,,hopefully thigns will get better
Thanks for the information! How religious are the folks there? I heard it is a very liberal Muslim country.
Turkey ,we can say is the only secular Muslim dominated state in the world..Though depending on the area you live ,the secularity will show variance..In the east,where people tend to be more conservative,you can feel the pressure of the religion exerted by the locals if you do something contrary to their beliefs,,(i consider taboos) West ,especially big cities are a lot more liberal..For instance ,you can drink alcohol on the street during Ramadan in Istanbul, but if you do the same in Erzurum lets say,,they will definitely warn you ,,sometimes to the intimidating extent..
That can be said for the region, I mean Turkey is probably the only secular Muslim-majority state here. But worldwide, we can also include the other independent Turkic states; Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, aswell as Northern Cyprus. These states are also secular with Muslim-majority
If you're a Greek fanboy, I think there are different issues you should focus on rather than posting Greek flags in Turkish and Macedonian threads Reminds you of something?
