Istanbul - Bosphorus Bridge - Ortakoy Mosque

The Bosphorus bridge is the first one that connects Europe to Little Asia. There may be other bridges that span the Donau river and thus connect Europe and true Asia also... And we Anatolian Turks tend to think of us as the only ones who do so... In fact the Huns and Attila whom we should consider as relatives had played their historic role much before than the Ottoman's tried to visit some decent cities of Europe...

By the way, I read in a book by Marcel BRION that, against the common belief Attila had gained more victories by negotiations on the table than on the war fields... Funny enough, it was the Romans who 'brought him up' while he stayed in Rome for a couple of years as an exchange guarantee for peace between Romans and Huns... Something to ponder about for my fellow citizens.

Please pay attention to the Mosque on the left... It is built similar to the churches in Venice... Actually, there was a simpler mosque before this one at the same place(built 1751). It was similar to a chucrh in structure... The current one was built in the 1853... It is not known what existed even before the church, as this blessed location would be a very good place for a Dorian temple which keeps its eternal light ablaze for the sea navigation...

I must note that the mosque in the picture, dating from 1853 was built by an Armenian architect from the famous BALYAN family...

To understand Istanbul, one has to take a seat in a caffee on the Bosphorus for long hours and even days and contemplate... One must contemplate at the time, the time... What is now, what is yesterday, what is moving, what is remaining...? What comes from where? What are the boundaries of identities? Are pushing boundaries forth always rational or when are they so? How is it possible to remain a proud one and be a part of universal one?

Sorry, I shut up now... Too much too many too far too short and too ... words.

Please excuse my verbosity.

Ali R+

Konusuz Yazı (Without Subject)

(Başlık yazının sonundadır) (The Title is at the bottom)

Bu yazımın konusu yok! Rahatlayınız! Yazının sonuna geldiğinizde anlamış olmanız gereken bir şey yok!
Şöyle arkanıza bir yaslanın. Derin bir nefes alın.

Bu yazıyı okumak için bilgisayar ekranına bakmanız da gerekmez. Mouse’u sağ elinizle yakalayıp, ekranda belirli noktalara tıklamanız da gerekmeyecek. Çünkü yazı zaten kısa olacak. Sayfa çevirişinize gerek yok.

Ha aklımdayken, bu yazıda moral ya da ahlaki bir değer de yok. Dolayısıyla, okuduklarınızı kendi değer yargılarınızla tartıp, doğru ya da yanlış demeniz, bu yazıda amma da abartmış gibi değerlendirmeler yapmanız da gerekli değil…

Heyecanlanmayınız! Kendinizi kaptırıp bir okuyuşta sonuna da gelmeyiniz! Bu yazıyı okuduğunuz da bir şeyler duymanız da gerekemiyor. Çünkü bu yazıda duygu yok…

Diyeceksiniz ki bu sefer imla kurallarına, dil inceliklerine, seçtiği kelimelere de itina göstermemiş… Sahiden umrumda değil böyle şeyler… Normalde benim için önemli olan anlatmak istediğim düşünceyi en iyi şekilde ifade etmektir. Gerisi boş… Ama tabii tahmin edeceksiniz, bu yazının ifade ettiği hiçbir şey yok, bir şey anlatmak gibi bir derdi de yok…

Sizden hiçbir isteğim de yok, doğrudan ya da dolaylı. Bu yazıyı size sonuna kadar okutacağım diye bir çabam da yok…

Diyeceksiniz ki, o zaman niye bu yazıyı bitirmeğe çalışyorsun. Hayır, öyle bir çabam da yok. Bu yazı gittiği kadar gidecek… Yarım kalmağa ya da bitmeğe kendisi karar verecek… Yani bu yazının benim ideallerimle, hırslarımla bir ilişkisi de yok…

Peki, ben ne yapıyorum? Yazı yazdığım kesin. En azından fiziksel olarak… Acaba bu yazıyı göndermeli miyim Niyazi Beye, kaygısı başladı şimdi… Acaba basar mı, muzipliği bir de… Ama bunlar önemli değil…

Acaba şimdiye kadar yazdıklarımı ne yapmalıyım? En iyisi çöpe atmak galiba…

Şimdi bu bir yazı oldu mu yani? Eğer oldu ise niye bu da bir cümle değil? “dfbşjb,o wr,ğpmwrgNoğ rg N”.
Kusura bakmayın, anlaşılamadığı kesin… Yalnızca klavye üzerinde parmaklarımın tepinmesi denebilir…

Yahu, ben ne yapıyorum şimdi?

BİLİNÇ ve BENLİK ÜZERİNE

Istanbul - Sea navigation beacon at sunset

Le sens de l'égalité dans la Bible et Kur'an-i Kerim

Les pays de l'Europe de l'Est qui introduit une demande d'adhésion au plus tard la Turquie, sont admis à l'UE avant la Turquie. Beaucoup d'hommes politiques et de citoyens de la Turquie estime que l'injustice ... Mais il a été jugé normal selon la logique européenne de l'égalité, que l'on trouve dans la Bible, comme vu ci-dessous (Appendix 1, Matthew 20).

Je n'ai pas été surpris de la décision que je suis un ancien fonctionnaire d'EUROCONTROL. Mais, j'ai été vraiment surpris quand j'ai essayé de trouver refuge dans le Kuran-i Kerim pour mes sentiments brisés de la justice… (Annexe 2).

Le fait est le sens de l'égalité ne soit pas laissée à une simple personne de décider, Allah apprécie ses croyants selon son souhait… Donc, le point de divergence entre les Turcs et les Européens n'était pas la religion, au moins dans ce cas…

Pourquoi avons-nous des Turcs vexés alors? Même les représentants du parti religieux qui régit? Le fait est que le peuple turc ont été éduqués par des petites minorités et des immigrants qui se sont échappés de l'Allemagne, de croire en les idéaux des fondateurs de l'Occident.

Connaissez-vous le titre de Erich Maria REMARQUE le livre "Lieb den Naecsten" en turc? Elle est "Love the Humans" ou l'Humanité ("Insanları Seveceksin")… J'ai essayé très fort pour trouver mon livre préféré des enfants dans une librairie à Karlsruhe, la ville de droit en Allemagne. J'ai appris qu'il n'existait pas…

Maintenant, il est grand temps que notre bien-aimé minorités et le peu de véritables intellectuels européens de corriger les erreurs tant à leurs propres foyers et ici, dans l'esprit de nous les Turcs. Avant que les choses vraiment laid…

Cordiales salutations.

Ali R+ SARAL

Appendix 1.
Matthew 20
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
1"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3"About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' 5So they went.
"He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 6About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'
7" 'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. "He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'
8"When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'
9"The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'
13"But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? 14Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'
16"So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

Appendix 2.

The Glorious Kuran
http://www.kuran.gen.tr/?kid=8&x=s_main

The Cow SURAH II

245. Who is it that will offer of Allah a goodly gift, so He will multiply it to him manifold, and Allah straitens and amplifies, and you shall be returned to Him.

247. And their prophet said to them: Surely Allah has raised Talut to be a king over you. They said: How can he hold kingship over us while we have a greater right to kingship than he, and he has not been granted an abundance of wealth? He said: Surely Allah has chosen him in preference to you, and He has increased him abundantly in knowledge and physique, and Allah grants His kingdom to whom He pleases, and Allah is Amplegiving, Knowing.

253. We have made some of these apostles to excel the others among them are they to whom Allah spoke, and some of them He exalted by (many degrees of) rank; and We gave clear miracles to Isa son of Marium, and strengthened him with the holy spirit. And if Allah had pleased, those after them would not have fought one with another after clear arguments had come to them, but they disagreed; so there were some of them who believed and others who denied; and if Allah had pleased they would not have fought one with another, but Allah brings about what He intends.

Si seulement je savais qu'il était vivant

DE COMPRENDRE LE FRANÇAİS

C'est Anatolian mères mots: "Il suffit Si seulement je savais qu'il était vivant."

Pour être perdu est un précieux paradigme de la culture française. Des films français, des romans, des livres scolaires ornement le motif de se perdre fréquemment. Pourquoi le paradigme de l'être perdu est si important pour la culture française?

Bury dit sur les causes et la nature de la culture grecque antique, "The colony was a public enterprise, and the bond of kinship with the 'mother-city' was carefully fostered. ... The emigrants took fire from the the public hearth of their city to light the fire on that of their new Home" , 'A History of Greece', McMillan 4th ed. 1975, p.71 ...

Et Thucydides dit, "The Phoecians (Aujourd'hui FOÇA- ANATOLIA) toowhen they were founding Marseilles defeated the Carthaginians in a naval engagement", 'History of Peloponnessian War', Penguin 1972, p44 ...

Le Nouvou SANS Frontiers 1 p 169 Cle International 1988 dit " Au 1er siecle apres J.C., un people s'est installe dans la region des Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Ces gens venaient d'un pays mysterieux de l'Asie."

Parfois, il est impossible de tout dire. Il est peut-être inutile aussi ...

Parfois, les sentiments sont si denses, nous prononcer un seul mot ou deux ...

La nostalgie de l'absent peut être perdu si forte ...

Vous le dire: "Il suffit Si seulement je savais qu'il était vivant."

Ali R+ SARAL

All are equal but not the same.

It is easy for Turks to speak with Turks not only because
they speak the same language but also they use the
same idioms, phrases, proverbs. Because they use
the same reference points.

In order to communicate with Europeans you should
express your ideas through the reference points
that they can understand, otherwise
talking with Europeans becomes conversating with deaf.

These reference points include not only idioms, phrases,
proverbs such as
"All are equal but not the same" but also

many stories from the Bible such as
"Give Ceasar what belongs to him"
in Turkish: "Sezara Sezarın hakkını ver"...

Being Muslims Turks are better dispositioned
in that matter as there are many references (good or bad)
to the Christian religion in the Kur'an.

Of course this makes life harder for Turks
who have more than 8 language neigbors to learn,
such as
Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, Hungarian, Romanian,
Ukranian, Russian, Arabic, Turki, Caucassus languages,
Persian, English, French, German and so on...

and have to study other culture's religions...

The bottom line is you have to now yourself and
your own religion well...
If you want to do this excellently you must study other
languages and religions.

But be careful,
a single person has a limited mental capacity.

A navigation beacon on the Bosphorus - Istanbul

Having served for Air Traffic Control in the best years of my life,
I played with beacons on the air routs in the ar quiet sometime.

Now, working and living back in Istanbul, I feel I would like to be
a small lantern on the Bosphorus, the water strait between two continents.
A small beacon that serves the sea navigation between Black Sea and the
Marmara, to Eagian Sea...

It is difficult to forget sometimes.