Day 1 (Political Animals)

June 23, 2015
Didn't get much sleep. I went to bed at 9:00pm, and I woke at 2am without falling back asleep until 6am. However, I was able to gather some energy for the day because we travelled to Taksim Square again. We had to walk all the way to Kebatas where our classrom is. It is apparently behind some older buildings where they are doing renovation. This building is like an office building with couches and chairs; we will be in a very small room with a white board. We will be studying the Modernization of Turkey, and the professor is coming from Koc University here in Istanbul. We will be talking about the Turkish identity as well as the Kurdish identity here. Afterwards we went on a walk around that neighborhood and saw Galata Tower (don't know if I am spelling that right). It was built by the Genoese because it was an area where a lot of non-Muslims lived. Most of Istanbul has unfortunately washed out most other religions and races. We did eat at some amazing cafes; there was one in particular run by an Aremenian family that made Turkish pizzas. It was delicious. This pizza was made with pita bread, and it had a different kind of cheese put on it (it was saltier than regular cheese). I had some tea and coffee; after I had my coffee one of the girls in my program read my future within this coffee. I guess I think too much, and I love power or am a strong-willed person because she saw a lion (I doubt that anyone can read the future, but it was still interesting). Two of the girls in my group and I went out to dinner at a French cafe, and we talked about the politics of Turkey. We talked a lot about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (the founder of Turkey). He stopped the British, Greeks, French, and Americans from splitting up Turkey and being colonized in the Turkish War of Independence. He became the first president and established an authoritative liberal country. This term can be confusing because he did abolish the caliphate, stop burkas from being worn in public places, started a Roman alphabet, established women's rights, and bring stability to a new nation. In the process, however, he did hurt Kurdish rights by focusing too much on nationalism, and people became confused of the word "Kemalism". Everyone interprets this differently. My friends and I agreed that Ataturk was a needed leader in the 1930's and took great strides to modernize the country, but the country still needed to be reformed following his death in 1938. Everyone was so addicted to his legacy that they forgot to make the needed reforms which has followed them to the 21st century. On a brighter side though Ataturk's political party has made good reforms in recent years to become a more democractic liberal party. While on the other side is the HDP that represents the Kurdish minority within Turkey and together they are working on a peace process after the opposition took office on June 7. Moving forward, we went to the Sultanmehet district of Istanbul that has the Topkapi Palace and old mosques. It is absolutely beautiful there, and I cannot wait to go back to see the Grand Baazar. I will be going to class tomorrow, and then I willing be going to the Military History Museum of Turkey. Hoscakalin!