Oh, wow, you asked Alp about the Kurdish and Armenian situations? Huh. Aysegul was clearly sensitive about the religion/state thing. My own bias led me to think that she's rabidly against the rise in power of the religious political parties, but Aysegul was very, very careful to be neutral in what she said, so I don't actually know.
It was a big enough red flag that, had the Kurdish or Armenian question even occurred to me, I don't think I would've felt comfortable asking. Not that I think she would've been offended or anything, but it's more like it might've just been too embarrassing/awkward to ask.
He basically said "There's a lot of stuff we can talk about on the bus; if you have questions or things you want me to talk about, write them on a post-it and I'll take things off the post-it list as we go."
Alp was actually pretty optimistic about the new Turkish goverment approach to the Kurdish situation; news from the last week about reconciliation and peace with the PKK seems to be very good.
He did put Armenia off until last, though, because it was hard.
Well, I can imagine how difficult it'd be for an American guide to talk about our history's rough spots as well. Woof. Go him for engaging the questions, though. :)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-11-18 02:58 pm (UTC)It was a big enough red flag that, had the Kurdish or Armenian question even occurred to me, I don't think I would've felt comfortable asking. Not that I think she would've been offended or anything, but it's more like it might've just been too embarrassing/awkward to ask.
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Date: 2009-11-18 03:13 pm (UTC)Alp was actually pretty optimistic about the new Turkish goverment approach to the Kurdish situation; news from the last week about reconciliation and peace with the PKK seems to be very good.
He did put Armenia off until last, though, because it was hard.
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Date: 2009-11-18 03:17 pm (UTC)Well, I can imagine how difficult it'd be for an American guide to talk about our history's rough spots as well. Woof. Go him for engaging the questions, though. :)