Turkish

Transcription

Turkish

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TURKISH
7ilrkre
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The land which we now know as Turkey is a land of dichotomies that has had an illustrious, as well
as an infamous past, filled with great tolerance and even greater intolerance.
It is the land of Troy, birthplace of Homer, Santa Claus and tulips, tryst place of Marc Anthony and
Cleopatra, kingdoms of Croesus and Midas, the rescuer of the Jews, the perpetrator of the
world's first genocide, and the refuge of the Virgin Mary. The words of Julius Caesar's veni, vidi,
vici resounded across Amasya, east of Ankara in 47 BCE.
Thus, it is a land of antiquity and iniquity, although Anatolia, the western area of Asian Turkey, is one
of the oldest inhabited (as early as 7500 BCE) lands, Turkey, as a national state, is one of the
youngest (1918). The Turks arrived in Anatolia from Central Asia by way of continuous migrations
and incursion. The passage of nine centuries has resulted in present-day TUrkey.
Since its early history, Anatolia has been the birthplace of great civilizations and empires that have
battled for control.
Anatolia's first known human inhabitants appeared in the region as early as 7500 BCE. The first
great civilization was that of the Hittites, who worshipped a sun goddess and a storm god. As the
Mesopotamians called Anatolia (the Land of the Hatti), the newcomers were mistakenly called
Hittite. Indo-European in origin, the Hittites recognized equality between men and women and
even had rights for slaves. Although the monarchy was patrilineal, it was a kingship based on the
idea of primus inter pares, first among equals, as the ruler was required to bring matters before a
senate, consisting of aristocrats known as the Pankus class.
The Hittites dominated Anatolia from the Middle Bronze Age (1900-1600 BCE), and were the
counter superpower to the Egyptians, causing clashes with Egypt, under the great Ramses II, and
were able to capture Syria. The first recorded international treaty in the world was the Treaty of
Kadesh between the Hittite and Egyptian Empires, Hattusilis III and Ramses II, in 1284 BCE.
The Ilium of King Priam, in Homer's epic, corresponds to layer VI of Troy (1325-1275 BCE),
which was destroyed in an earthquake in 1275 BCE, followed by the pillaging of Troy VII in 1240
to 1200 by the Achaeans. The city captured by the Achaeans was Troy VII (1275-1240/1200
BCE). A massive invasion of "sea people" from Greek islands put unbearable pressure on the
Hittites and its smaller kingdoms.
In the eighth century BCE, the Greek civilization developed, through their association with
Mesopotamia, through the intermediary of late Hittite princedoms living in south-eastern Anatolia.
The Greeks acquired the Phoenician alphabet from AI Mina and the mythology and figurative art
from late Hittite cities such as Kargamish and Malatya.
The Phrygians were Balkan people Who came into Anatolia around the year 1200 BCE, and
became a political entity after 750 BCE. The Hellenic world knew the Phrygian King as Midas, the
legendary figure with long ears whose touch was golden. The Assyrians record that he was king
from 717 to 709 BCE. This powerful kingdom of Midas was swept aside by the Cimmeriansin
8th century, alphabetic
Turkish (Aft, Turkish, South)
Pg. 1
Turkey, Bulgaria, Iran, Cyprus
the first quarter of the seventh century. Scattered groups of Phrygians continued to evolve in
Central Anatolia through the sixth century BCE.
In the ninth century BCE, the first literary treasure of Western civilization, the Iliad of Homer, was
born. Izmer was the birthplace of Homer.
During the era of the natural philosophers (600-545 BCE), Anatolian culture superseded Egyptian
and Mesopotamian. They rejected the idea of genies, fairies and mythological causes for natural
phenomena, and instead, sought and investigated natural phenomena as the true cause. Thales,
using the same methods used today, predicted an eclipse of the sun for May 28,585 BCE. It
was the first prediction of a natural event in history.
In Sardis, the reign of Croesus, fabled for his wealth (575-545 BCE), saw the invention of money.
For the first time in history, coins made of electrum (a natural mixture of gold and silver) were used
to facilitate and regulate commerce. The Lydian capital of Sardis was one of the most advanced
cities of the ancient world.
From 550 to 530 BCE, Cyrus, emperor of Persia, conquered Anatolia. The Persians, in turn, were
removed by Alexander the Great, who conquered the entire Middle East from Greece to India
around 330 BCE. The Macedonians, too, were ousted by the Galatians (Celts) who established
a capital at Ankara in 279 BCE, who intermingled with the Seleucid, Pontic, Pergamum and
Armenian kingdoms.
Roman rule brought relative peace and prosperity for almost 300 years, and a safe haven for
Christianity. In fact, Jesus's followers were first named Christian there. Paul began his ministry
there, too.
The Roman Empire began to weaken around 250 CE, until Constantine reunited it in 324. He
oversaw the building of a new capital, which he called Constantinople. Justinian (527-65) brought
the eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire to its greatest strength, reconquering Italy, the Balkans,
Anatolia and North Africa, Byzantine art was born in Anatolia at the end of the Roman era.
The armies of Islam, having conquered all other areas including Persia and Egypt, threatened the
walls of Constantinople (669-78).
Thus, the first Anatolian Turkish dynasty was the Great Seljuk Turkish Empire of the 11th century,
and was the 'first to rule what is now Turkey, Iran and Iraq. They originally ruled Persia, and
absorbed both the Islamic religion and Persian culture. The Seljuks were shaken by the Crusades
and overrun by Mongol hordes, but clung to power until the arrival of the Ottomans who inherited
the legacy of the Seljuks.
And what of the future inhabitants, the Turks themselves and their Ottoman Empire?
Chinese records report that the first appearance of the Turks in history was in the Komen
Mountains. The Tagar culture, however, originated from the Karasuk culture which flourished in the
same area in 2000 BCE.
Turkish political history in Asia starts with the Huns. The Hun state (200 BCE) became a significant
and powerfUl state during the reign of its founder, Mete Khan. Mete defeated the Mongolians and
then the Yuechis, thus taking control of the western gates and trade routes of China. He then
seized Eastern Turkestan.
Turkish (AIt, Turkish, South)
Pg.2
Later, with the collapse of the Asian Hun State, a new state called G6ktOrk was founded by the
Turkish tribes who adopted the traditions and administrative experience of the Huns.
Aside from AtatOrk, Bilge Khan and KUltegin are the best known of Turkish statesmen. They
asserted that the state could not solely be ruled by fighting and bravery, and the Khanate required
wisdom. It was because of this that both the Khans and Tonyukuk, another G6ktOrk Khan,
immortalized their accomplishments with inscriptions. These inscriptions became the first written
texts of the Turkish language.
The G6ktOrk State gave way to the Uigur Turks, who were the native tribes of the Orhun and
Selenge valleys (741-840).
Meanwhile, another group of Huns migrated towards the West, and they settled in a region to the
north of the Black Sea extending to the Danube River. They made raids on Iran and Anatolia via
the Caucasia, and then they attacked the territories of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires.
They fought with the Franks in 428, and two years later, reached the areas which are presently the
Netherlands and Denmark. The Western Huns were known as the first Turkish state founded in
Europe. Its territories extended from the banks of the Rhine to the Volga River under the
leadership of Attila the Hun. The Western Hun State collapsed a short time after the passing of
Attila (470).
During the collapse of the Hun Empire in Europe, a new wave of tribal migrations started in Central
Asia. North of the Black Sea saw yet another wave of Turkish migration. The first tribes to arrive
were the Sabirs, Sarogurs and Onogurs. These Ogur tribes raided the Byzantine territories 'from
Macedonia to Thessaly. BUlgarian Turks also came to this region alongside the Ogur Turks (482).
The Avars, along with the Bulgarian Turks, besieged the Byzantine capital at the beginning of the
seventh century.
The Ottoman Empire began as the banding together of late 13th century Turkish warriors fleeing
the Mongols. By 1453, the Ottomans, under Mehmet the Conqueror, took Constantinople.
Sultan SOleyman the Magnificent (1494-66) oversaw the apex of the empire; he beautified
Constantinople, rebuilt Jerusalem, and expanded the Ottoman Empire to the gates of Vienna. At
its height, the Ottoman Empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to western Algeria. It lasted for 600
years, and was one of the most powerful empires in the history of the Mediterranean region,
generating a great cultural enrichment of Islamic art, architecture and literature.
However, its decline had begun by 1585. By the 19th century, decline and misrule made ethnic
nationalism appealing. The subject people of the Ottoman Empire revolted, with the direct
encouragement and assistance of other European powers. After bitter fighting in 1832, the
Kingdom of Greece was formed. Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanians, Albanians, Armenians and
Arabs all sought independence until the revolt of the young liberals known as the Young Turks in
1909.
From 1908 to 1915, the government of the Young Turks (Taalat Pasha, Enver Pasha and Djemal
Pasha) stirred Turkish nationalism with Pan-Turkism based on racial purity of Zia Gokalp, Turkey for
the Turks.
This government of the Young Turks and their Zia Gokalp wrote one of the most infamous and
tragic chapters in Anatolian and Turkish history.
In 1915, the Young Turk government engineered the deportation of the whole Armenian
population of about 1,750,000 to Syria and Mesopotamia. It was the follow-up to the April 24th
Turkish (Alt, Turkish, South)
Pg.3
execution of 250 Armenian intellectuals and religious leaders. This day marked the start of those
deportations and the resulting genocide.
The death toll is estimated to be between 600,000 and 1,500,000 during the years of 1915 to
1923. The westem part of the historical homeland of the Armenian people was emptied of
Armenians.
As the Empire continued to collapse, Turkey made the unfortunate decision to side with Germany
in World War I. In 1923, the victorious Allies carved out Turkey's current boundaries at the
Conference of Lausanne. Turkey became a republic, with Kemal AtatOrk as her first president.
Mustafa Kemal (Atatiirk, or Father Turk) undertook the job of completely remaking Turkish
society. By 1938, a constitution had been adopted, polygamy abolished, and the fez was
prohibited. Constantinople became Istanbul, and women obtained the right to vote. The
Ottoman sultanate and caliphate were abolished, and modernization, reform and industrialization
began under AtatOrk's direction. In 1928, Islam was removed as the state religion, and thus, he
secularized Turkish society, reducing Islam's dominant role. He replaced the Perso-Arabic script
with the Latin alphabet.
AtatOrk is revered as a true hero in Turkey: his statue is everywhere, and there are laws against
defaming or insulting him.
AtatOrk's successor, Ismet In6nO, managed a precarious neutrality in World War II, then oversaw
Turkey through the transition to a democracy.
Turkey invaded Cyprus by sea and air on July 20, 1974, following the failure to resolve conflicts
between Turkish and Greek Cypriots. Turkey unilaterally announced a cease-fire on August 16,
after having gained control of 40 percent of the island. Turkish Cypriots established their own state
in the north on February 13, 1975.
In 1980, political infighting and civil unrest brought the country to a halt. The military stepped in and
took control, but at the price of strict control and human right abuses.
The head of the military government, General Kenan Evren, resigned his military commission, and
became Turkey's new president. Free elections in 1983 saw Turgut ozal's take power.
Turkey has applied for EU status but is haunted by her dismal human rights record, a shaky
economy, failure to accept the responsibility for the Armenian genocide, and the ongoing conflict
with her 12 million Kurds. In fact, Turkey does not officially recognize the Kurds as a minority
group. Ankara pursued a policy of assimilation following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Officially, there were no Kurds, only "mountain Turks': and the Kurdish language and other
recognizable signs of Kurdish life were outlawed.
In June, 2002, Turkey became a major intemational peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, taking over
from the British forces.
LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND
Turkish is spoken by about a 61 million people living primarily in the Republic of Turkey
(46 million). It is also spoken in 35 other countries including Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, BUlgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, EI Salvador, Finland, France, Georgia,
Germany, Greece, Honduras, Iran, Iraq and Israel.
Pg.4
Turkish belongs to the Southern Turkish branch of the Altaic family of languages, and thus, is closely
related to Mongolian, Japanese and perhaps, Korean.
The fundamental features of the Ural-Altaic languages, which distinguish them 'from the Indo
European, are as follows:
o vowel harmony
o no gender
o agglutination (affixes)
o adjectives precede nouns
o verbs at the end of the sentence
Turkish has several dialects. The Turkish dialects can be divided into two major groups: Western
and Eastern.
Turkish is most closely related to Azeri and Turkmen. All three are the result of a series of
conquests and migrations of the nomadic Turkic people, primarily the Ughuz 'from north-central Asia
in the sixth century CEo These migrations ceased by the 13th century.
Just prior to this time, the languages of Anatolia had been Greek, Armenian and Kurdish.
Historically, the language can be classified according to three separate periods because of the
inherent characteristics of each of the periods:
1. Old Anatolian Turkish (old Ottoman, between the 13th to the 15th century)
2. Ottoman Turkish (from the 16th to the 19th century)
3. Modern Turkish
o Old Anatolian (up to the 15th century)
The KoktOrk (GoktOrk) inscriptions, together with Uighur writings, are in Old Turkish. This term refers
to the Turkish spoken, prior to the conversion to Islam, on the steppes of Mongolia and the Tarim
basin. The oldest written records are found upon stone monuments in Central Asia, in the Orhon,
Yeniseyand Talas regions within the boundaries of present-day Mongolia, and belong to the
years 725,732 and 735 CEo
With the emergence of the yagatay Dynasty, which came abol,Jt when the Empire of Genghis
Khan was divided among his sons, a new wave of Turkish literature was born and blossomed
under the influence of Persian literature.
o Ottoman (16th to the 19th century)
Ottoman Turkish was basically Turkish in structure, but with a heavy overlay of Arabic and Persian
vocabulary and occasional grammatical influence. Ottoman Turkish coexisted with spoken Turkish,
the latter being considered a ''gutter language", and not worthy of study. Ottoman Turkish, and the
spoken language insofar as anyone wrote it, were both represented by a Perso-Arabic script.
o Modern (20th century)
In 1928, after the formation of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal A tatiirk had the Latin alphabet
adapted to the Turkish vowel system, thus, replacing the Perso-Arabic script. He believed that to
reach the level of contemporary civilization, this change was essential for accessibility to Western
culture.
It also involved considerable language reform. Spoken Turkish was declared the language of the
country; measures were taken to remove Persian and Arabic loan words, and to replace them with
native Turkish or Turkic words.
Pg.5
Turkey, BUlgaria, Iran, Cyprus
A massive literacy campaign was also undertaken. The Turkish Language Institute was
established in 1932 to carry out linguistic research and contribute to the development of the
language.
• SCRIPT:
The earliest types of script, used by the Turks, were the K6ktOrk (G6ktOrk) and the Uighur. Up to
the fifteenth century, the Anatolian Turks used the Uighur script to write Turkish. In later periods,
many other forms of script would be used: Nestorian writing in the northeast, Sogd, Uighur and Pali
writings in the south-east, Manichaean texts in Brahman writing, and from the 11 th century onwards,
Perso-Arabic script for Islamic texts. The Perso-Arabic script was adopted after the conversion to
Islam about 800 years ago.
Depending on the region in which they lived, the Turks have also used Suryani, Annenian,
Georgian and ancient Greek alphabets.
LINGUISTIC COMPARISON
ENGLISH
LANGUAGE
FAMILY
WRrnNG
SYSTEM
TURKISH
Indo-European
(West Gennanic branch)
-
alphabet, Latin script
non-phonetic
written from left to right
letters disconnected
printedlwritten script
Altaic
(South Turkic branch)
-
alphabet, Latin script
phonetic
written from left to right
letters disconnected
printedlwritten script
# OF LETTERS
26
29
VOWELS
6 written, 15-16 spoken
8
Turkic vowel harmony is when the vowels of suffixes harmonize with the vowels of noun and verb
stems; thus, if the stem has a round vowel, then the vowel of the suffix must be round, and so
forth. There are 3 types: back vs front, high vs low and rounded vs unrounded ones.
If the first vowel of a word is a back vowel, the others will also be back vowels. If the first vowel is
a front vowel, the others will also be front vowels. Unrounded vowels are followed by unrounded.
Rounded vowels are followed by low unrounded or high rounded ones.
DIFFERENT
CONSONANTS
...,
th (this, the), w, ng (sing)
The letter 9 (referred to as yumusak g, soft g) is silent and serves as a link to make a preceding
vowel longer. No word begins with this letter.
CAPITALIZATION - begins new sentences
with capitals
- begins new sentences with capitals
- days/months use no capitals except when
writing dates
Pg.6
COMBINATION
OF LET"rERS
- each syllable has vowell
consonant sound
• many consonant clusters
- syllable either single vowel, or single
vowel with number of consonants
- each syllable has vowel/consonant(s)
sound but vowel could be syllable
NUMBERS
- written from left to right
- written from left to right
• subject + verb + object
- time words at end or
beginning of sentence
• subject + object + verb
• adjective + noun
• adjective + noun
ORDER
• sentence
• adjective
When there is an adjective before the noun, bir can come either before the adjective or between
the adjective and the noun:
1. bir kirmizi palto = one red coat
2. kirmizi bir palto = a red coat
When bir comes after the adjective and before the noun, it generally stands for the indefinite
article, as shown in the examples above.
NOUNS
Separate suffixes on nouns indicate both gender and number, but there is no grammatical gender
as such. Nouns are declined in 3 declensions with 6 case endings: nominative, genitive, dative,
accusative, locative and ablative; number is marked by a plural suffix.
ARTICLES
• indefinite
• a, an + noun
- birAlUmber
There is no definite article; the number "one" may be used as an indefinite article.
- no definite article
EX: ev= house, the house
+ noun
• definite
- the
VERBS
- subject separate
- verb only inflected for
some verbs (to be)
and in some tenses
- subject added to verb
- uses suffixes on root and reflects tense
EX: geldi
= slhe came
gelecek = s/he will come
- verb to be expressed by suffixes
Verbs can be so complex through their use of affixes that they constitute whole sentences in
themselves.
Afyonkarahisarlilastiramadiklarim/zdanmisiniz? Aren't you one of those people whom we
tried, unsuccessfully, to make resemble the citizens ofAfyonkarahisar?
Verbs agree with their subjects in case and number, and, as in nouns, separate identifiable suffixes
perform these functions. The order of elements in a verb form is verb stem + tense marker +
subject affix.
Pg.7
PRONOUNS
• subject
- always written
- can also be written on own or suffixed to
verb
• object
- differs from subject
- appears after verb
- appears before verb
• possessive
(adj)
- differs from above
- appears before noun
- hislhers have same form
- appears before noun or can also be used
as suffix to noun
PLURALS
- adds suffix s, es, ies
- has few irregular forms
- add suffix ler/lar
EX: evler = houses
- when numbers are used, noun always in
singular
EX: iki ev = two houses
TENSES
- 3 forms of verb:
present, past, past part.
- tenses changed with ed
suffix, whole word or with
- 30
- great deal of variation and inconsistency
- changed by suffixes
to be, to have, will
COMMANDS
- infinitive form of verb
?FORM
- question word/auxiliary verb - yes/no = mVmu placed after what being
+ subject
questioned
- verb + subject
- intonation
Ex:
- root of verb
- suffix added to verb to indicate subject of
command
- lutfen, please, always put with imperative
form for politeness
Did M go to Istanbul yesterday?
Did Ali gQ to Istanbul yesterday?
Did Ali go to Istanbul yesterday?
Did Ali go to Istanbul yesterdav?
AJlmi dun Istanbul'a gifti?
Ali dun Istanbul'a 9iD1 mi?
Ali dun Istanbul'a mi gifti?
Ali IIJJ.o. mu Istanbul'a gifti?
The slight changes seen here reflect vowel harmony.
NEGATIVE
FORM
- uses auxiliary verbs
- suffix added to verb
- to be + not
VERBI
2ND VERB
- verb + to + infinitive
- verb + suffix + verb + conjugation
MODAlS
- modal + infinitive (no to)
- exist as tenses
FORMALITY
lEVELS
- 3 levels
- levels changed by use
of modals and longer
sentence structures
- 2 levels: sen and siz forms
- longer sentence structures in writing
Pg.8
SWEARING!
OATHS
- involves subjects of
sexlbodily functions
- involves subjects of sexlbodily
functions, religion
- insallah, God willing (Arabic)
- blessings on family, successful businessllife
VOCABULARY!
FOREIGN
INFLUENCE
- higher level of writing,
- Arabic, Persian, French
GreeklLatin
WORDS FROM TURKISH: • yoghurt • caftan • pilaf • divan • caviar • shish-kebab • dervish
• meander • baklava
LEARNING OF
WRITING!
READING
- word recognition, phonics,
SKILLS OF
READING!
WRrnNG
- heavily dependent on
- phonetics
syllables
- phonetics
sight recognition
Literacy rate: 85%: 94% males, 77% females
WORDS FROM TURKISH:
angora, baklava, bridge (from bir uch, one three), bulgur, Byzantine, caftan, caviar, kebab, kiosk,
mausoleum, parchment, Urdu (camp), tulip(turban), turquoise, yoghurt
CULTURAL BACKGROUND
EDUCATION
Children begin school at the age of six or seven. Primary education involves the training of children
six to 14 years old. Secondary education comprises a minimum of three years' schooling in
Iycees, professional and technical schools.
Education is compulsory from the ages of six to 14.
School system:
1. Basic Education School (8 years), ages 6 to 14
• Diploma awarded: IIkoretim Diplomasi (Basic Education Diploma)
2. Secondary (Anatolian High Schools) (Anatolu Liseri) (4 years), ages 14 to 18
• Diploma awarded: Devlet Lise Diplomasi
3. General Secondary (General High School/Genel Liseler; Anatolian High School; Science High
School, Anatolian Fine Art High School; Teacher Training High School; Private High School)
(3 years), ages 14 to 17
• Diploma awarded: Lise Diplomasi
4. Technical Secondary (Technical High SchooJlTeknik Liseler; Anatolian Technical High
SchooVAnadolu Teknik Liseler) (4 years), ages 14 to 18
Pg.9
5. Vocational Secondary (Vocational High SchoollMeslek Liseler; Anatolian Technical High
SchooVAnadolu Teknik Liseeler) (3 years), ages 14 to 17
Academic year:
October to June
Languages of instruction: English, French, German, Turkish
Admission to university:
Secondary school credential required: Lise Diplomas;
Entrance exams required: two tests. One is to measure candidates' verbal ability and the other
their quantitative abilities.
Grading system in secondary school
Description: 0-5: 5, excellent; 4, good; 3, satisfactory; 2, passing; 1, failing; 0, failing and not
included in general calculation
5
Highest on scale:
Passlfail level:
3/2
1
Lowest on scale:
NAMES
Turkish names always have meanings. Some stem from the time the child was bom: Bayram
(Feast), Safak (Dawn), Bahar (Spring), Ramazan (the holy month, Ramadan); or events during
the birth: Yagmur (Rain), Tufan (Storm), or express the parents' feeling about the child, if they
want him to be the last one: Yeter (Enough), Songul (Last Rose). Names of elders are chosen
out of respect.
When a name is selected, it is given to the child by an imam or an elder in the family by holding the
child in the direction of Mecca (Kible). Readings from the Qu'ran are whispered into his or her left
ear, and his or her name is repeated three times into the right ear.
"rRAOl"nONAL MARRIAGE CUSTOMS
Eany maniages are more 'frequent in rural areas. Also, these marriages are according to the wishes
or approval of the families involved, whereas in the city it is generally the couples themselves who
decide to marry.
In a traditional family, marriage is a family contract rather than a personal affair. Marriages are not
conducted by the Imam alone. By law they must be civil. Approximately 40 percent of marriages
are civil only, 50 percent are both civil and religious, 10 percent are religious only, which makes
them illegal. Polygamy is very rare, about three percent.
It is illegal to marry before the age of 15 for women and 17 for men. The average age for girls to
marry is around 17 to 18. For urban men, the problems of receiving an education, military service
and acquiring a job delay marriage.
RELIGION
Turkey is 99 percent Muslim, predominantly Sunni, with Shiites and Alawites in the east and south
east.
Two great church councils were held there. The first delivered the Nicene Creed (325 CE), one
that the wond's Catholics follow, and one in 787 that stated that church art need not be destroyed
Pg. 10
as it did not violate the commandment concerning graven images.
The House of Mary is located in Ephesus. Many Christians believe in the tradition that Mary was
entrusted to John the Disciple's care by Jesus on the cross, who took her to Anatolia.
• Circumcision Ceremony
All Muslim boys are circumcised between the ages two to 14. Socially, the most prominent
feature of the circumcision is the welcoming of the child into his religious community.
If a family has more than one boy, they wait for an appropriate time to perform all of the
circumcisions. In this case, the youngest child might be younger than two. In some rural areas,
villagers sometimes share expenses of a circumcision feast. Wealthy people often take poor
boys or orphans together with their own children for circumcision. Charity organizations make
collective ceremonies for poor boys and orphans. Due to school, circumcisions are held in summer
months while the children are on vacation, from June through September, or on the weekends.
When a family determines the date for a circumcision feast, they invite relatives, friends and
neighbours by formal invitations. Depending on the economic position of the family, feasts might
take place in a hall or a hotel instead of a house. A richly-decorated room is prepared for the boy
with a nice bed and many colourful, decorative items. Boys wear special costumes for this feast: a
suit, a cape, a scepter and a special hat written with Masallah (God preserve him) on it.
The morning of the feast, the children of guests, along with the boy(s), are all taken for a tour in a
big convoy on horseback, in horse carts or cars. This convoy is also followed by musicians playing
drums and the clarinet.
Upon their return, the boy dresses in a long, loose, white robe and is circumcised by the surgeon
while somebody holds him. The person holding the boy is called kirve, who is somebody close
to the boy. The kirve will play an active role in the boy's lifetime, and has nearly equal rights with
the father in decisions. This is similar to a godfather in Christianity.
Although there is no blood relation to his kirve, the boy is not allowed to marry his kirve's
daughter as he is considered to have become part of that family.
After the circumcision, the boy is distracted with music, jokes or animation. Presents are also given.
Words from the Qu'ran are recited, and guests are seated at tables for the celebratory meal. After
a few days, the boy recovers, and the festivities end.
CALENDAR
Two calendars operate in Turkey. The official Turkish calendar is the Western (Gregorian) one.
Religious festivals, however, follow the Hijri calendar, a lunar calendar which is behind the
Gregorian one by 11 days every year.
The Muslim Sabbath is Friday starting at sunset on Thursday. Shops and businesses remain
open but mosques and baths (Hamams) are busier. Sunday is the secular Sabbath and some
shops will also close.
CELEBRATIONS
• New Year's Day, Labour Day, January 1st
Pg. 11
• National Sovereignty and Children's Day, April 23rd
- celebrates first meeting of republican parliament in 1920
• Hidrellez, May 6th (Gregorian calendar) and April 23rd (Julian or Rumi calendar)
Hidrellez Day, or Ruz-i-Hizir (day of Hizir), is celebrated as the day on which Prophets Hizir and
lIyas met with each other on earth. The words Hizir and lIyas have since fused to be pronounced
as Hidrellez. In the folk calendar, the year was once divided into two: May 6 to November 8 was
summer, called the Days of Hizir, and November 8 to May 6 was winter, called the Days of Kasim.
May 6 thus, represents the end of winter and the start of summer. Hizir is a symbol of the start of
spring and the new life which emerges from it.
Some believe that Hidrellez belongs to Mesopotamian and Anatolian cultures, while others
believe that it belongs to pre-Islamic Central Asian Turkish culture and beliefs.
One belief suggests that Hizir is a prophet who attained immortality by drinking the water of life
(ab-i hayat), and reached God, yet wanders among people from time to time, especially in the
spring, helping in difficulty by distributing health and wealth.
People prepare for Hidrellez celebrations in villages and small towns beforehand. They clean
house, wear clean clothing and prepare food and drink. Before Hidrellez, houses are cleaned as
people think that Hizir will not visit unclean houses.
Giving alms, fasting and offering animals as a sacrifice are traditions in some parts of Anatolia to
make prayers and wishes come true. Sacrifices and offerings are for "the sake of Hizir". Hidrellez
celebrations are always performed in green, wooded places, near sources of water
or near a tomb or shrine. Eating fresh spring plants, lamb's meat or lamb's liver is another custom
of Hidrellez. It is believed that eating the first lamb of spring will bring health and cure the sick. It is
also believed that picking flowers or plants in the countryside, boiling them and drinking the water
will cure illnesses, and that the water rejuvenates and beautifies anyone who washes with it for 40
days.
On Hidrellez night, in the belief that Hizir will bring blessing and abundance to the places he visits
and the things he touches, food bowls, pantries and purses are left open.
Those who want a house, vineyard or garden believe that Hizir will help them obtain such things if
they make a small model of it.
Ceremonies to improve people's luck are called baht a~ma. On Hidrellez Eve, young girls who
want to test their fortune and improve their luck gather in a green place or near water. They place
some of their belongings, such as a ring, earring or bracelet in an earthenware jar and close the jar
with fine muslin. They then set the jar at the foot of a rose-bush. Ear1y in the morning, they sit by
the jar and drink coffee with milk, and pray that their peace and tranquility will not be spoiled. They
then open the fortune jar. As they remove the objects from the jar, they recite verses or quatrains,
and pronouncements are made regarding the luck of the owner of the object removed.
May 6 is regarded as the first day of spring by Christians as well. The Orthodox Christians
celebrate this date as Hagia Georgi, and Catholics as St. George's Day.
• Remembrance of AtatOrk and Youth and Sports Day, May 19th
The whole country stops for a moment at 9:05 a.m., November 10, the time of AtatOrk's death in
1938.
Pg. 12
. Turkey, Bulgaria, Iran, Cyprus
• Victory Day, August 30th
• Republic Day, October 29th
• Seker/Ramazan Bayrami, The Feast After Ramazan, for three days
It is a time for giving sweets and presents to children and friends and generally celebrates the end
of fasting.
• Kurban Bayrami, Feast of Sacrifice, for four days
- commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, on Mount Moriah
In commemoration for Abraham's willingness, Turkish households that can afford a sheep, buy one,
take it home and ritually slaughter it after the early morning prayers on Bayram. The meat is
distributed amongst friends, family and charities.
Family and friends then prepare a feast.
businesses close.
It is a major public holiday, and many shops and
LITERATURE/CULTURE
• Folk Dances
Folk dances are popular and vary according to region and location. They are engaged in during
weddings, journeys to the mountain retreats in the summer, leave-taking of sons for military duty
and celebrating religious and national holidays.
o Horan
This Black Sea dance is performed by men alone, dressed in black with silver trim. The dancers
link arms and shake to the rhythm of the kemence, a simple violin.
o Kasik Oyunu
The Spoon Dance is performed by brightly dressed dancers of both sexes as they click out the
rhythm on a pair of wooden spoons held in each hand.
o Kilic Kalkan
The Sword and Shield Dance of Bursa represents the Ottoman conquest of the city. It is
performed by men alone, dressed in Ottoman battle dress, danced solely to the sound of clashing
swords and shields.
o Zeybek
An Aegean dance, gaily dressed male dancers (ete) symbolize courage and heroism.
• Folk Music
There are two types of folk music: the lively folk music from the Asian steppes and Ottoman
classical music. Only recently has folk music been written down. Instead, the traditions were kept
alive by asiklar, troubadours.
Ottoman military music, performed by a mehter takimi in
Istanbul, originated in Central Asia. It is played on kettle drums, clarinets, cymbals and bells. The
mystical music of the whirling dervishes is dominated by the reed pipe or ney.
• Performing Arts
There are five types of traditional performing arts:
o Village Plays: in accordance with rural traditions on special days, weddings and holidays
o Meddah: a one-act dramatic play where the narrator plays the various characters in the play
Pg. 13
o Karagoz: traditional show theatre where the shadows of human and animal figures are cut out
of leather and coloured, then thrown onto a white curtain using a light source behind
o Orta Oyun: resembles Karagoz, but is performed by real actors
o Tu/uat Theater: a mix of Orta Oyun and western theatre
• Visual arts
According to strict Muslim laws that prohibit representation of any being "with an immortal sou/~
artists worked in non representative arts: illuminated Qu'rans, intricate jewelry, paper marbling,
carpet-weaving, enameled tilemaking, miniatures, tiligree, stained glass, marbling, gilding,
repousse work (especially mother-of-pearl inlaying), wood engraving, calligraphy and costumes.
AtatOrk's secularization of Turkey'S culture changed this as he encouraged representative painting,
sculpture, literature, western music, dance and drama.
Under AtatOrk and his Latin-based Turkish alphabet, literacy was within reach of many more citizens
and so, Ottoman courtly prose gave way to the vernacular.
• Architecture
o Justinian built St. Sophia (Hagi Sophie) in 537 CE, and it later became a mosque in 1453.
Originally, its mosaics were plastered over as depictions of humans and animals are not
allowed in Muslim houses of worship. In 1935, AtatOrk turned St. Sophia into a museum, and
had the plaster removed.
o Anatolia once laid claim to being the site of two of the seven wonders of the world: the temple
of Diana at Ephesus and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in Bodrum. It attracted visitors from
afar until its destruction by Crusaders in 1522.
• Cinema: Yilmaz GOney, Tunc, Basaran, ZOlfO, Omer Kavur
• PhiiosopherslWritersIPoets: Nazim Hikmet, Yashar Kemal, Orhan Pamuk, Yunus Emre,
Koroglu, Sultan Veled, Seyyad Hamza, Gulsehri, Ali Sir Navai, Yusuf Has Hacib, As,ykpas~a,
GOls~ehri, Ahmedi and Kaygusuz Abdal, Smeyman Celebi, Hacy Bayram, Sultan Abdal, Kadri
Efendi, AltanYaruk, Sekiz YOkarek, Huastunift
Many traditional Turkish folk tales begin with a teker/erne (formula jingle). "A long, long time ago,
when the sieve was inside the straw, when the donkey was the town crier, and the camel was the
barber. . . Once there was; once there wasn't. God's creatures were as plentiful as grains, and
talking too much was a sin. . ."
The Book of Dede Korkut (14th century) is an epic of the Oghuz. Both Seljuks and the Ottomans
were descendants of the Oghuz. It is comprised of a prologue with 12 legends. From beginning
to end, they sing the praises of the Oghuz people, their nomadic way of life, their customs, and
their values. The 12 units all share the same cast of characters, one of whom is the author himself,
Dede Korkut.
Composed of Tekke and Asik works of literary worth, they are often anonymous and passed
down orally from generation to generation. They include epics, legends, folk poems, ballads,
elegies, folk songs, riddles, folk tales, anecdotes, proverbs, expressions and rhymes.
Pg. 14
OTHER
• Mustafa Kemal Atatiirk (Father Turk), (1881 - 1938)
"I look to the world with an open heart full of pure feelings and friendship".
Mustafa Kemal AtatOrk was the founder of the Turkish Republic, and her 'first President.
A military hero at the Dardanelles in 1915, he became the charismatic leader of the Turkish national
liberation struggle in 1919. He led his nation to full independence from occupying armies following
World War I, establishing the modern Turkish Republic in 1923 from the ashes of the "sick man of
Europe," the Ottoman Empire.
For 15 years, AtatOrk worked tirelessly to introduce a broad range of swift and sweeping reforms to
the political, social, legal, economic, and cultural arenas for which is remembered. AtatOrk curtailed
the power of the religious authorities, introduced a modern civil code and transformed the people
from a religious community into the Turkish nation. Religion and politics were segregated. He
reformed the language, and replaced the Perso-Arabic script with the Latin one.
Tributes have been offered to him by Lloyd George, Churchill, Roosevelt, Nehru, de Gaulle,
Adenauer, Bourguiba, Nasser, Kennedy, and many others.
• Great Names
o Alexander the Great cut the Gordian Knot near Ankara.
o Alexander's tutor, Aristotle, founded the life sciences during his stay in Assos (Behramkale).
o Aesop, narrator of animal fables, was an Anatolian.
o Homers birthplace, Izmir (Smyrna), and the fabled city of Troy were located in Anatolia.
o St. Paul was born in Tarsus (southern Turkey). He undertook most of his missionary journeys
and wrote most of his biblical epistles to the early Christians in Anatolia.
• Refuge
Sultan Bayezit II dispatched the Ottoman Navy to rescue the Jewish people who were expelled
from Spain. They were brought safely to Ottoman lands in 1492.
• Library
Pergamum (Bodrum) was the site of one of the world's greatest libraries. It was said that
Cleopatra had been devastated by the loss of the great library of Alexandria, and to assuage her
grief, Anthony raided this library for books to present her with.
• Name changes
Troy (Truva), Ephesus (Selcuk), Pergamum (Bergama), Halicarnassus (Bodrum), Nicaea (Iznik),
Sardis (Sart)
• City names
Many city names in different parts of the world such as Philadelphia, Paris, Antioch, Troy or the
continental name "Europe" originated in Anatolia.
Turkish (Aft, Turkish, South)
Pg. 15
• Garden o'f Eden
The Garden of Eden in the Book of Genesis was said to be watered by a river which separated
into four streams as it left the garden; two of them, the Tigris (Dicle) and Euphrates (Firat), have their
wellsprings in the mountains of eastern Turkey.
• Beauty Contest
The world's 'first beauty contest was held on Mount Ida (Kaz Dagi). The contestants were
Aphrodite, Hera and Athena, under the judgment of Paris, the event that precipitated the siege and
the fall of Troy.
• Orient Express
Istanbul houses the historical building of Sirkeci Train Station. It was the last stop of the Simplon
Orient Express between Paris and Istanbul from 1883 to 1977. It has been the stuff of legends
and intrigue and has been immortalized in Stamboul Train, by Graham Greene (1932), Murderon
the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie (1934) and From Russia with Love, by Ian Fleming
(1957).
• Parchment
When the Egyptians prohibited the export of papyrus, the King of Pergamum ordered that a new
material be found. The new discovery was ''parchment'', a fine material from sheep or goat skin.
The name, Pergamum, was seen as synonymous with the word ''parchment''.
• Evil eye
The evil eye is an object of envy. Blue glass eye amulets are used to supposedly absorb the
evil eye. They hang on car mirrors, around necks and key chains; they are hung on almost
anything. Many other cultures also believe in this superstition and references can be found in the
Old Testament and the Qu'ran. The earliest references to the evil eye are in Sumerian clay
tablets, circa 3000 BCE from Iraq.
• Folk Heroes
o Nasrettin Hoes
A 13th-century humourist and sage from Aksehir, Nasretfin Hoea, is also known as a wise fool.
His stories have been translated arid shared throughout the Middle East and Spanish-speaking
countries.
o Santa Claus
St. Nicholas was born in the town of Patara in 245 CEo When he was young, his father died and
left Nicholas a great fortune. Nicholas anonymously started giving the money to the needy,
especially children. He was also known for dropping bags of coins down the chimneys of girls in
the town who were without a dowry.
Nicholas eventually became the Bishop of Myra (Demre), where he performed several miracles,
including saving sailors from drowning and resurrecting three boys who had been killed by an evil
butcher. Today, St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children, sailors, teachers, students and
merchants.
Pg. 16
SOURCES/SUGGESTED REFERENCES
films:
o Murder on the Orient Express
o Midnight Express
o YOI
books:
Turkey
Akademia Ltd.,
1991
Turkey
Office of the Prime Minister Directorate
General of Press and Information
1993
Hacaoglu, Selcan
Turkey is up to its eyeballs...
Toronto Star
December 16, 2000
Hall, Gerry
Treasure House of the Ages
Toronto Star
June 7, 1997
Halman, T.S.
Turkish Verbs
Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
Rona, B.
Turkish
Hugo's Language Books Ltd.,
1989
WEBSITES
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
bjk1903.com/cyberport
ciaworldbook.com
countrywatch.com
ethnologue.com
gazi.edu.tr
hitit.co.uklCuItTk
Imp.ucla.edu
krysstal.com
lonely planet.com
turkey.org
turkishculture.org
turkishodyssey.ocm
turkishpress.ocm
unesco.com
Linguistic/Cultural "ambassadors": Sedef Ozkin, Dr. Erhan Berber, Hale Dincer and
EnginOzkin
Pg. 17

Turkish

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