The Routledge Intermediate Turkish Reader: Political and Cultural Articles

201 Pages·2012·9.78 MB·English

by  Senel Symons

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www.routledge.com
Cover image: © getty images
The Routledge
Intermediate Turkish Reader
The Routledge Intermediate Turkish Reader has been specially designed for
intermediate and advanced learners ofTurkish and comprises a broad selec
tion of graded readings.
Written by prominent Turkish academics and journalists, the collection
of modem texts presented here has been carefully selected to ensure students
receive maximum exposure to current political and cultural issues related
to Turkey: from gender, ethnicity, religion and social class through to arts
and history.
Each reading is fully supported by:
• an introduction written by a prominent academic or journalist in the
related field
• a vocabulary list with English translation and vocabulary in context
• short grammar explanations of any difficult structures encountered in
the te>..t
• text-related comprehension questions, language exercises and subject
specific questions to generate class discussion and essay writing in
Turkish
• a key to comprehension questions and language exercises
• a list of suggested further reading (online support).
Suitable for both class use and independent study, The Routledge Intermediate
Turkish Reader is an essential tool for increasing language proficiency and
enriching learners' socio-cultural knowledge of Turkey.
~enel Symons is a specialist on sociolinguistics and has been teaching Turkish
at the University of Oxford, UK, since 2004.
ROUTLEDGE MODERN LANCiUACiE READERS
Series Editor: ltesh Sachdev
Routledge Modern Language Readers provide the intermediate language learner
with a selection of readings which give a broad representation of modem
writing in the target language.
Each reader contains approximately 20 readings graded in order of diff
iculty to allow the learner to grow with the book and to acquire the necessary
skills to continue reading independently.
Suitable for both class use and independent study, Routledge Modern
Language Readers are an essential tool for increasing language proficiency
and reading comprehension skills.
Forthcoming:
Arabic
Chinese
Dutch
Hindi
Japanese
Polish
The Routledge
Intermediate
Turkish Reader
Political and Cultural Articles
~enel Symons
1
1
Routledge
\. ~&.Fnlnc:lsCiroup
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 20IZ
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxen OXr4 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Rou* is an imprint of the Ta}'lor 11{ Frarn:is Group, an informa business
<t} 2012 ~enel Symons
The right of ~enel Symons to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Actr988.
All righm reserved No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any informati.on storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark noJ;ice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
BritisJJ Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British library
LibmT)• of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978·0-415·568r6-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415·568r7·3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-136·73417-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Scala
by Graphicraft limited, Hong Kong
This book is dedicated to David and River

Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction I
I Gender and education in Turkey 3
2 The social construction of men in Turkey 9
3 The problematic headscarf in Turkey I6
4 The concept of happiness in Turkey 23
5 The politics of water in Turkey 29
6 The new Turkish penal code 38
7 Sexual honour in Turkey 45
8 The multiculturalism of Turks throughout history 52
9 Orhan Pamuk's contribution to the literary world 62
IO The Turkish military's political role 69
II Turkey and the Middle East 77
I2 Economic sustainability in Turkey and in the world 84
I3 The Kurdish question in Turkey 9I
I4 Nationalism in Turkey 99
I5 Turkish cinema and politics Io8
I6 Arabesk music in Turkey n8
I7 Recent relations between the EU and Turkey I29
I8 The Turkish left and Kemalism I38
I9 Turkish perceptions of 'the West' I48
Key to exercises I6I
Index I83
Acknowledgements
I would like, first of all, to thank my husband David for his generous support, which was
vital throughout this project.
Most of all, I am grateful to my one-year-old son, River, who has been extremely patient
with me while I have been working on this book. I promise to buy him broccoli (his favourite
food) with the money I earn from this book.
It has been a great pleasure to work with Andrea Hartill, the Senior Commissioning
Editor for Language Learning at Routledge. She has always been friendly, positive and
encouraging.
I would also like to thank Samantha Vale Noya at Routledge for her friendly support in
this project and my students Ross McQueen, Paulina Dominik and Anya Todd for giving
me feedback on vocabulary and the ranking of the texts.
Finally, I would like to thank all the contributors: Fatma Gok, Bogazi9- University; Selin
Akyiiz-~a§maz, Bilkent University; Dilek Cindoglu, Bilkent University; Yrldtz Silier, Bogazi9-
University; Ay§egiil Kibaroglu, Middle East Technical University; Fatih Selami Mahmutoglu,
istanbul University; Oya Pancaroglu, Bogazi9- University; Meliz Ergin, Kos: University; Omit
Cizre, Bilkent University; Ozlem Tiir, Middle East Technical University; Ay§e Uyduranoglu,
Bilgi University; Zeynep Gambetti, Bogazi~i University; E. Fuat Keyman, Ko~ University;
Can Diindar; Martin Stokes, Oxford University; Saime O~riimez, Bilkent University; Cemil
Ko~, Sabana University; Kiir§ad Ertugrul, Middle East Technical University and the news
papers Radikal, Cumhuriyet, Milliyet, Yeni $afak, Zaman and Stargazete for granting permis
sion to publish the articles in Turkish.
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders. If any have been inadvertently
overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first
opportunity.
Introduction
The Routledge Intermediate Turkish Reader has been designed to introduce readers to sig
nificant articles of contemporary political and cultural issues on Turkey which will facilitate
their comprehension of Turkish, develop their linguistic skills and familiarize them with
the social context. In view of this, my intention has been to collect samples to paint a rep
resentative picture of contemporary discussions of prominent problems. In other words, I
aimed to cover a wide political spectrum of a highly controversial nature which mirrors the
inflammatory nature of Turkish politics. I am well aware that some pieces in this reader
might cause considerable offence, but I do think that it is useful to study the social and
political prejudices in a country in order to understand the social context better. I would
like to reassure the readers of this book that the views expressed in some pieces do not
reflect my personal approach or that of the publishers.
Users of the Routledge Intermediate Turkish Reader will be able to think about the theme
of the reading passages, understand the meanings of vocabulary items in a specific context,
and extract the main ideas of the text and understand them in the Turkish political and
cultural context They will also improve their linguistic skills in Turkish by doing language
exercises, recognizing and repeating grammar points that they have already covered, and
consolidating and reflecting upon what they have read by writing a summary. Moreover,
they will be able to search for general and specific information by doing further reading,
and activate their linguistic skills by having a discussion on the topic and writing an essay
on a related theme.
Since 2004, prior to and during the preparation of the Routledge Intermediate Turkish
Reader, some of the articles included have been used in my classes at the University of
Oxford. In the light of my classroom experience, I have arranged the selections in order of
difficulty, taking into account my students' individual assessments. The selections consist
of articles by distinguished Turkish academics and columnists that appeared in the Turkish
press between 2004 and 2010. The articles in Turkish are as they appeared in the original
sources except for some shortening, which is indicated thus: ( ... ).Each article is preceded
by an introduction in English written by an expert in the related field and is followed by
some notes on political and cultural issues, people and historical events which are men
tioned in the article. These will help the user work through the text without the guidance
of a teacher. An index is also provided at the end of the book to assist the student.
Each of the individual selections is provided with its own vocabulary list. In order to avoid
merely passive knowledge of words, this reader provides usages in sample sentences. The
English translations of the Turkish idioms and words have been restricted to the meaning