Yani! This is one
of the few words common between the Turkish lexicon and ours, and the
connotation too is same. And it could well have been brought to India by some
muslims of Turkish descent who made India their home centuries ago.
The bosphoreans
is how I tend to call them, due to the unique feature of the bosphorus, seem to
be basically happy people. Having travelled to more than 100 countries, never
have I seen the sea meander into the landmass as it does in Istanbul, more in
the likeness of a river than so much as the sea. While it does not betray the
vastness that is typical of a sea, yet it is benign more in the likeness of a
river traversing the plains, than a sea.
Why this is
called the bosphorus and not simply a strait is a thought that continues to
intrigue me, and I am sure the answer would be in my younger son’s geography
book. But that is a matter for another time.
If my sense of
dates is correct, I should be visiting this country after a gap of 2 years, and
my impression is that headscarves have increased from then. While this
development has time and again been alluded to by the Economist, and if that
newspaper is even in some measure if not in full, taken as a barometer of
changing times, the Turkish nation is indeed at crossroads, and may soon make
its tryst with its Islamic past.
While you can
debate, how much of growth and wealth are directly attributable to its second
term Prime Minister Tayyip Edrogan, the signs the growth are multiple and too
evident to be missed. That, this academician – footballer turned politician,
ex-Mayor of Istanbul, personifies Islamic nationalism of large section of
society is clearly a matter of record.
He can also be
attributed to wean Turkey away from its wannabe like desire to enter the European
Union. Today, Turkey is more at peace with being what it is, than chasing a
dream that continued to elude it for decades.
For those like me, who believe in the cyclicality of civilizations, Turkey having dominated the European continent for more than 1200 years, approximately 600 each as the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, could well be sowing the seeds of its economic and political resurgence under the Edrogan regime.
For those like me, who believe in the cyclicality of civilizations, Turkey having dominated the European continent for more than 1200 years, approximately 600 each as the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, could well be sowing the seeds of its economic and political resurgence under the Edrogan regime.
No comments:
Post a Comment