Turkish Culture and Society - World Affairs Council

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Crossword Key G L A B O R F R A N C E T E A E O P E R A T I N G C R U A I E U R O P E R T S N J K O O I R U R A L F L R O D O A G E R M A N Y I M M I G R A N T F C I D E W O T T O M A N E S D O R S MEMBERSH I P I E S L N C O N S E R V A T I V E S 42
EUROPE’S AMBIVALENCE TOWARD TURKEY While Turkey has been a NATO member since 1952 and an exporter to Europe of agricultural products and high quality but low cost manufactured goods and cheap labor, Turkey has been frustrated in its attempts to gain fuller integration with Europe. Currently, Turkey is a candidate for membership in the European Union, and it is the professed goal of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to achieve full membership. Yet, even as Turkey institutes numerous reforms to address Europe’s concerns, there has been growing sentiment in Europe against admitting Turkey into the EU, most notably expressed by France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel. This anti-Turkish rhetoric has many facets and is due to domestic concerns as often as it has to do with concerns about Turkey. Europe’s economic boom times of the 1960s and 70s led to a need for cheap foreign labor. Turkish émigrés helped to fill this need, coming to Western Europe (particularly to Germany) looking for economic opportunity. Today there are over three million Turks living in Europe. However, the economic difficulties of Europe in recent years (including high unemployment) has contributed to a growing anti-Turkish sentiment among those in competition with the Turkish immigrants (and their sons and daughters) for jobs – especially in Germany and France. Contributing to this backlash has been the fact that Turkish immigrants have generally not been integrated into their host countries. This is due, in part, to prejudice and restrictions placed on these émigrés, but also to a desire by many of the immigrants to preserve their culture and religious practices, as well as the more conservative mind-set of these immigrants, who have largely come from Turkey’s Anatolian countryside and who are uncomfortable with the perceived decadence of Western culture. Another issue contributing to opposition to Turkey’s membership in the EU centers on questioning whether Turkey is truly a democratic country. There have been four coups staged by the Turkish military since 1960. However, these coups, while at times violent, have been carried out ostensibly to preserve democracy and a secular state. While staging coups to preserve democracy is certainly debatable, it is a fact that after each coup, the military has stepped back and allowed a newly-constituted civilian government to rule. Moreover, despite making some threats, the military has not prevented (at the time of this writing) the Islamist AKP (which won 47 percent of the votes in the national elections in the summer of 2007) from dominating the government. While some Turks feel that the AKP is an Islamist wolf in sheep’s clothing, seeking to make Turkey into an Islamist state, the current situation may show that the military is willing to accede to the will of the people, 43
Page 1 and 2: March 26, 2008 Resources compiled b
Page 3 and 4: TURKEY FACT SHEET Capital: Ankara L
Page 5 and 6: WORLD BANK PROFILE: TURKEY http://w
Page 7 and 8: TURKISH ODYSSEY http://www.turkisho
Page 9 and 10: UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE TURKEY SITE h
Page 11 and 12: THE TURKISH MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND
Page 13 and 14: ARTS TIMELINE OF ART HISTORY The Ti
Page 15 and 16: ISLAMIC ART: EARLY OTTOMAN ART http
Page 17 and 18: SECRETS OF THE TURKISH KITCHEN http
Page 19 and 20: ACCESS ISLAM http://www.thirteen.or
Page 21 and 22: THE THRESHOLD SOCIETY: SUFISM http:
Page 23 and 24: TURKISH WOMEN http://www.guide-mart
Page 25 and 26: JEWISH TURKEY http://www.haruth.com
Page 27 and 28: THE SOUTHEASTERN ANATOLIA PROJECT h
Page 29 and 30: CSIS: THE U.S.-TURKISH ALLIANCE AT
Page 31 and 32: EUROPEAN COMMISSION: ENLARGMENT - T
Page 33 and 34: through case study and map analysis
Page 35 and 36: economic and social development in
Page 37 and 38: Ottoman Lyric Poetry: An Anthology,
Page 39 and 40: TURKEY & THE EUROPEAN UNION In the
Page 41: ACROSS Turkey & the European Union
Page 45 and 46: largely due to disease and malnutri
Page 47 and 48: Paragraph Exercise On a separate sh
Page 49 and 50: UNDERSTANDING THE OPTIONS: TURKEY
Page 51: CBA Lesson Packet THE GOLDEN AGE OF
Page 54 and 55: T HE GOLDEN AGE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPI
Page 76: T HE GOLDEN AGE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPI

Turkish Culture and Society - World Affairs Council

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