The EU is a Butthead...

Pictures later today!!!!! For all posts!!!!!

Okay, so I have worked out a system. I can’t get internet in Aysel but I can get online when I am in the classroom that we have our lectures in. So, what I am going to do is write up this blog entry in the evening as well as upload any pictures from the day and then post it the next day after my lecture is done (or before if I get there early.) This way I can get everything done without taking up too much time or staying up late at night. Today has been going well. We had our first lecture by Dr. Ozlem Tur entitled “Turkey and the Middle East.” She was wonderful. She gave us a brief background on Turkish foreign policy and then went right into Turkish history when it comes to associations within the west and a newly found identity with the Middle East. Dr. Tur was very engaging and it was a great way to start off the day. After an hour and a half lecture with a brief question and answer secession at the end, we broke for lunch for about 45min and I took my meal (bread and jam with a power bar and a couple of mentos) out to the courtyard with Avery and we sat in the sun on a swinging bench and discussed the secular and religious divide in Turkey as in comparison to the US.

I think it is interesting here because Turkey has made a very clear and very strict policy on creating a secular government. The banning of headscarves in universities as well a strict anti-Islamic role within the GOVERNMENT all point to policies in which Turkey refuses to be an Islamic state. Avery saw this as a slightly oppressive move in which religion is banned to the private sector and has no place in the public square. I saw it as liberating. Would the US be having as much of a problem if we practiced truly secular government? And for those of you who would argue that we do: give me one non-religious based argument against gay marriage/ civil unions. Tel me the last time we had a President who isn’t a Christian dude…oh wait…we haven’t. Explain to me why every public school holiday is based around the Christian calendar. Don’t get me wrong, it is convenient for my life, as a Catholic, to have our government function this way, but it is not right nor fair. Turkey has made the choice to sacrifice religion in the public sphere as much as it can (because truly a government based on the people cannot ignore the religious aspects of the people’s lives) in order to have a much more effective version of a “separation between church (or in this case mosque) and state.”

Is it worth it? Turkey has obviously paid dearly in that it, at least for now, has given up acceptance by the EU with no help from Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. When two of the most powerful countries of the EU are against a Muslim country joining, how does a country get over that? Europe is afraid of Islam, Europeans don’t like Muslims; the idea of letting them into their little social club means that they have to not only accept Muslims onto the yacht but they have to begin to associate and identify with them to some extent as fellow members of the EU.

So there you go, a taste of what is going to be going on in my education life for the next two months. If you are sleeping right now you should not be a James Madison student. This stuff gets me fired up and I love it. I think if this trip goes well I might declare a Middle Eastern specialty. I like it here, and I don’t see that changing. On a more social note, I think I am going to get fat off of waffles. Sorry Mom, there is no way getting around carbs here (though I am doing okay with sweets…kinda.) But Turks are all about the fruit/ ice cream/ flavored cream covered waffles as a desert. Included is a picture of my down fall. Not a bad way to go if I do say so myself. I will write more later, maybe but this is going to be all for now. Love in bunches and baskets!

~Claire