I can also now say that next year I will be studying International Relations at American University’s School of International Service Global Scholars Program with the aim of a Master’s Degree in three years. There are more posts to come over the summer as I work through footage and reflect on the experience. I hope you will enjoy these videos from our trip, I don’t want to take too much time away from my last 3 weeks to write out what video can describe far better and more efficiently. Stories like this make Turkish work learning.
I talked to a waiter who worked most of the year but every summer brought supplies and fought in Aleppo near his family home. We toured the sites of the Area and saw tourists and workers from Syria, Iran, and Iraq. We traveled on a tour bus with Turks, us, and some Turkish Romanians, remnants from the old Ottoman Empire. We crossed the entire country over our Kara Deniz tour, from Izmir to the Georgian port of Batumi. As we bussed toward Karadeniz on the far side of the country there was tremendous support. The distrust of AKP doesn’t expand far outside Izmir. Building size posters proclaim the infrastructure programs that the ruling AKP have completed in their 13 years in power. Does the result mean a fragile AKP minority government, a coalition between fierce rivals, or a new election? it remains to be seen.įrom our perspective the election looks like millions of ads and vans driving around playing loud music.
It is the Castle of Ataturk’s founding Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi and a bastion of patriotism that can only be partially shown to someone who hasn’t visited like this:īut now the country dips into uncertainty. The level of political engagement here is a testament to a younger nation, one that’s identity was incredibly reliant on a fiery resistance to those who desire to influence and control anatolia for themselves. Every passing person was discussing the results and how they thought it would impact them. The menial amount of them indicated uncertainty. I watched fireworks being lit off from a distance across Izmir’s bay. Yesterday evening I followed results from afar, ducking into tekels (convenience stores) to look at vote counts on televisions shop keepers were watching. And now where am I at? Yesterday was the election of the 25th National Parliament of the Turkish Republic, and as Turkey turns an uncertain new leaf I can’t help but feel it marks the beginning of the final chapter of our stay here.