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Short Portrait
The Turkish ministry of tourists is promoting with the slogan "Discover the great variety". This
variety is characteristic of the country between Europe and Asia. Turkey is a
country of modern age, and traditions, of ocean and seas, of vacation stress
and antique. Turkey unites occident and orient, offers beaches and skiing
areas and comes up with a multitude of sights...
Unfortunately this multitude leads also to prejudices of the Europeans, who only see a small extract or
who only want to see a small extract and they reduce the country to an oriental cliché. For most of the European
people, Turkey is a foreign, Islamic country. An integration to the European
Community is seen with sceticism, sometimes you can even think that the
Occident still has not forgotten the menace through the Osmanic empire and
the Turkish army is just starting to invade Vienna.
The ordinary tourist combines with Turkey not only sun, beach and disco, what you
can also find in other European countries as for example Spain, but also the
orient and farytales, belly dancers, bazaars, mosques...
This holiday world for tourists offers only a one-sided extract of the country and
sometimes it's even deliberately simulated to the tourists. The Turkish
tourist sector knows finally what the tourists want. The belly dance for
example is not a usual and daily Turkish pastime and you can not only spend
your money in orientalic bazaars but also in ultra - modern shopping centers.
Turkey is a quite modern and not an Islamic country. Most of the people have an Islamic belief, but since the
reforms of Atatürk, there is a strict separation of religion and government. The
belief is a private affair and has no influence to the Turkish state which is
wordly influenced. Turkey is the only country with an Islamic population
where these principles rule.
There are big differences between Modern age and traditions in Turkey. The west,
the big cities and the coastal areas in the tourist regions are really
influenced of the western world. Women working in a real good job are no
rarity and in all there is a way of thinking more free and more modern.
As far as you come into the East
or into the country with less population, as near is the orient, as stronger
are the rurals structures of the big families and as stricter are the rules. The
rural East and the inland are much more poor than the West. The Turkish
inland had not the possibility to profit from the industrialization and the
tourism. The villages live from the agriculture and a refrigerator or a
washing machine are an unattainable luxury.
But also in the cities located in
the West of Turkey there are big differences between the poor and the rich
people. The poor people work as day laborer and have to live with about 100
or 150 Euros each month. The rich people buy big villas for several millions
of dollars. For Europeans, these differences seem sometimes very confusing.
Nevertheless, Turkey is an united nation
which is supported by a positive nationalism and the immense love of each
inhabitant to his country...
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