Post Titled: Turkish Pro-Secular Protests
There have been five Protect Your Republic Protests in Turkey over the past month, the first in Ankara at Tandoğan square in front of Anıtkabir, the final resting place of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on April 14, 2007:


and the most recent Gündoğdu rally, İzmir -May 13, 2007

Kind of beautiful, really. SOURCE: Wikipedia

I have Turks on the brain a lot because they are everywhere in our part of Kreuzberg. I asked my boss last week why it is that the Turks in Berlin still wear headscarves whereas everywhere I have been in Turkey was almost completely Westernized- he said that when the Germans invited the Turks to come as guest workers (since the 1960s, due to labor shortages of German men) they came from little remote villages -not progressive metropolitan areas- thus bringing with them more traditional small-town religious values. Eventually their wives came to join them here, and they had kids, and these ways of living were passed along (unless the kids rebelled- which must be extrememly difficult)... so, I think he'S probably right about that, and that explains that... a little clash of civilizations right out my front door.