I would first like to thank my coworker Ali for helping to make this blog possible. I had to download software to get my computer around the government filter. YouTube, Blogspot, and over 6000 other websites are blocked in the Republic of Turkey. This has been my first experience with having general websites blocked. The Turkish Government claims that this is to protect the name of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, but this is a major issue with Turkey and their drive to join the west.
I found the Turkish people to be very proud of being a "different" Muslim country. The Turks, thanks to Ataturk, have a Latin based language that is totally different than Arabic. Turkish resembles German with in not so technical words dots above some vowels and a curly cue under letters that give those letters a sh or ch sound. Calls to prayer are performed in Turkish and not in Arabic. The imams in Turkey also read the Koran in Arabic to attendees of service and then translates the Koran into Turkish for people to understand.
Turkey is really a fascinating country because Turkey really does sit at a crossroads of so many different things in our ever shrinking world.
Very nice assessment :) I miss it already, don't you?
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