You Can Insult Turks, But Not Jews

Thio Sarrazin, a board member of the German Central Bank, has been giving several examples of racism and hate speech against Turks in Germany for almost a year.

The German government or the opposition didn't force him to resign, even after he was thanked by neo-Nazis.

As I've foreseen, Chancellor Angela Merkel has recently announced that Sarrazin should be sacked, only after his latest insults provoked Jews, too.

So in Germany, racism is allowed if you do it against Turks.

It's strictly forbidden if you do it against Jews.

Do Germans start to protect their own citizens only after they commit a genocide on them?

Even Cheerleading Is Censored By Erdogan

Turkey defeated Russia at the world basketball championship today.

FIBA 2010 is being organized by Turkey and the match was in Ankara.

I watched it on TV, like all the other games that I could find time to watch.

While watching, I realized that the Ukrainian cheerleaders who dance during time-outs were not there today.

After a brief research, I discovered the reason:

According to a fresh report, the show was canceled, because Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his wife was also there!

Yes, the girls were totally censored, even though their revealing dresses were already modified because of the holy month Ramadan, as can be seen below.

So what can I say?

What?

I really don't know.

Sheepish AKP Voters

I always know that most of the voters of AKP are just sheep. They seem brainwashed, like the voters of George W. Bush were once. So we can say that Turkey is haunted by the same idiocracy with the United States.

A parody-like example was given today to prove this point. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was addressing his supporters in Tokat to convince them to vote YES in the upcoming referendum on the constitutional amendments that AKP has proposed.

As usual, Erdogan didn't tell much about the referendum, but he lashed out at Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition party, CHP. Here is what Erdogan said and how AKP voters (most of them were public servants who were transported to the rally point by public buses) reacted:

- CHP leader is telling in his public addresses that he can solve the problem of female students who are not allowed to enter university campuses with their headscarves. (jeeringly) Do you believe that he can solve this problem?

- (the crowd shouted with one voice) YEEEEES!

Check out the video to see how Erdogan was astonished at that moment:

Following a bizarre silence that reminded me of South Park episodes, Erdogan tried to rephrase his question: "You don't believe it, right?"

And the crowd shouted again: "YEEEES!"

Is this democracy now? Are these people really conscious voters or are they just sheep?

Or, even worse, are they the conditioned dogs of Pavlov?

Ask them anything and they'll say YEEES; because simply, they're brainwashed?

And is this example enough to understand the mainstream political psychology in Turkey or is there something deeper underneath?

Earthquake Weather in Istanbul

There is nothing wrong in Istanbul that cannot be fixed by a 7.5-magnitute earthquake.

And I feel an earthquake weather here today.

I woke up several times last night, checking if the chandelier was swinging or not.

Then I went out to the balcony, hoping to feel a breeze.

There was no breeze, as we were still drowning in the humidity of the hellfire summer.

Oh, how it was so different just a month ago.

There is still room to be optimistic, though.

As Amy Hempel writes in one of her stories:

What seems dangerous often is not—black snakes, for example, or clear-air turbulence. While things that just lie there, like this beach, are loaded with jeopardy. A yellow dust rising from the ground, the heat that ripens melons overnight—this is earthquake weather. You can sit here braiding the fringe on your towel and the sand will all of a sudden suck down like an hourglass. The air roars. In the cheap apartments on-shore, bathtubs fill themselves and gardens roll up and over like green waves. If nothing happens, the dust will drift and the heat deepen till fear turns to desire. Nerves like that are only bought off by catastrophe. "It never happens when you're thinking about it," she once observed. "Earthquake, earthquake, earthquake," she said.

As ordinary people, we can also try calling earthquake.

On the other hand, the authorities are expected be more serious about it.

And we know that they are not.

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has recently announced that it spent one billion dollars for preparations against the upcoming Big One.

Since the Izmit earthquake in 1999, the government had collected more than seventeen billion dollars by introducing additional taxes.

So sixteen billion dollars should be in the coffers of the AKP men now.

And while Muslims in Turkey are waiting for their ultimate fate like sheeps, the only Istanbulian that I've seen struggling to prepare the city for the earthquake by forcing city officials to be accountable is Claire Berlinski, the American journalist.

This is the real earthquake weather.

Can a 7.5-magnititude earthquake fix even this ill-omen of a sociopolitical disaster?

A Dumb Criminal in Turkey

Here is a Dumb Criminals entry from Turkey:

"An informant called the police to report that a drug dealer will arrive in Konya from Diyarbakir by bus last night. The police stopped a bus near Konya and saw a man with a t-shirt, reading 'Marijuana - I'm lovin it.' They searched the bag of the 40-year-old man and found 18 kg of marijuana in it. Interestingly, it was actually the wrong bus. They caught that guy completely by chance. As a matter of fact, another police team arrested the betrayed drug dealer in another bus."

Photo courtesy of Dogan News Agency

Obama's Epic Fail is Ours

Personally, I never expected much change from Barack Obama, as American administrations are more or less same, practising a common state policy on foreign affairs.

However, I was also not expecting such a failure from Obama administration on its policy of Middle Eastern dictatorships. Even some Republicans now call Obama to bravely promote democracy and human rights in the face of these dictatorships, but Obama is no different than George W. Bush who walked hand by hand with King Abdullah and his likes.

I see Saudi Arabia as the biggest pain in the neck in the Middle East. This state is fundamentally not only against the principles of democracy, but also against the principles of Islam. As Prophet Mohammad once said:

"Now Satan is sure that the people of the Arabian Peninsula will never ever worship him. However, he'll find ways to deceive them."

You can understand the meaning of these words by looking at those double-faced Arab sheikhs who exploited the riches of their countries, handing out alms to masses of their own people to keep them at bay while building landmarks of greed and squander.

The Mecca Clock, which blasphemously overshadowed the Kaaba, is the perfect symbol of Saudi state mentality. Building a $3 billion clock tower by exploiting the cheap labor of Asians in a region where everybody around has already got a watch and/or a mobile phone, while denying to send aid to your fellow Muslims in Pakistan for political causes (King Abdullah has halfheartedly decided to donate some money only after huge public pressure)...

All dictatorships are bad, but some are worst. Saudi Arabia is one of them. This state is bad for humanity, it is bad for Islam and it is bad for this region. Of course, in a world where so many people worship oil, it is normal that we fought against the Taliban alongside Obama, while flirting with the Saudi government, which is equally oppressive. Hypocrisy doesn' know boundaries.

Erdogan: Take My Side or Get Disposed

Two fresh quotations from Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which may show where Turkey is heading with the September 12 referendum on proposed constitutional amendments:

* "This is opening the door to a comprehensive change. This is the first step.”

* (To the members of the Turkish Industrialist and Businessmen’s Association who opposed the constitutional amendments, fearing that they may abolish the democratic principle of separation of powers): “They derive their power from investments. Our power comes from the public. Some 16 million voters has assigned us to a duty. Capital empowers you to a certain point only. I have listened to them a lot. But when there is a violation of boundaries, we naturally have to take the necessary measures. If they are against the constitutional change, they should explain their reasoning. If they cannot explain it, then they should support it. Those who do not take a side take the risk of being disposed.”

Quite democratic, quite promising, isn't it?

The Gypsy Round-up in France

When I compared some right-wing EU politicians to Nazis, some readers of this blog accused me of falling into reductio ad hitlerum.

Using such pseudo-Latin terms was a fashion back then, but they didn't change a fact.

Earlier this month, the United Nations anti-discrimination watchdog denounced what it said was "a notable resurgence in racism and xenophobia" in France.

Now there is a small-scale death march in the middle of Europe.

And Eva Joly has called it "a policy of state racism."

This is not Vichy France...

This is France of Nicolas Sarkozy.

* * *

AFP reports:

President Nicolas Sarkozy's racially-tinged security crackdown has begun to cause concern even within his own right-wing camp and raise fears that he has damaged Frances international image.

Every day French police raid more Gypsy settlements, rounding up hundreds of foreign-born Roma for expulsion, using tactics that one member of Sarkozys ruling party compared to those of Frances Nazi-era collaboration.

The crackdown on illegal Gypsy campsites comes alongside planned measures to strip some foreign-born criminals of their citizenship, after the government made an explicit link between immigration and crime.

Sarkozy hopes such draconian tactics will restore his flagging popularity with French voters in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, but the harsh tone has raised eyebrows even among some politicians of the right.

"The policy of dismantling illegal camps has taken an ugly turn," said Jean-Pierre Grand, a lawmaker from Sarkozys majority UMP, after police rounding up Gypsies were seen separating men from women and children.

Grand used the loaded term "rafle" -- "a round-up" -- to describe the raids, implicitly linking them to Frances wartime detention of Jewish citizens.

* * *

Now I say:

Adolf Hitler rose to power with this kind of populism.

And once again, populism with such fascist overtones is the biggest threat for Europe.

Sarkozy administration should not be allowed by the EU to systematically arrest hundreds of people, check their identities and deport them. The "round-up" should not be experienced again.

Oh, "reductio ad hitlerum."

You become a synonym of "clairvoyance."

A Footnote for Turkish Democracy

Two women, who are the members of the main opposition party, were distributing a leaflet in Antalya today. "No to AKP, no to the referendum," the leaflet reads.

The police arrested both women. They've been sent to medical check-up first. Then a prosecutor demanded them to be detained and sent to the prison. They'll remain in police custody tonight. The court will decide on their faith tomorrow.

This is how AKP democratizes Turkey...

Like the United States democratized Iraq...

Wait for the new constitution to see even better democratization by AKP...

A Mosque and a Monastery

U.S. President Barack Obama, probably the strongest politician in the world, had to back off remarks that endorse a proposed mosque near the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York City.

The divisive debate in the United States reminds me of similar political developments in the European Union, where Islamophobia is still on the rise as was recently materialized by the Swiss ban on minarets.

Meanwhile in Turkey, Orthodox Christians were allowed to hold a historic mass at the iconic Sümela Monastery today for the first time in 88 years. Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomeos (above) led the service. There is no public backlash against the Turkish government, even though the monastery is not far away from the Turkish villages which were burned to the ground by the Greek (Pontos) gangs during and after the World War I.

So sacred grounds? Symbols? Politics?

Which one is better nowadays in guaranteeing freedom of belief against all odds?

The United States, the European Union or Turkey?

Politics by the Pornography of War

We have two more stories at hand, both in a similar fashion with how the American and Western European mass media had sinisterly twisted the story of Sakineh Mohammedie Ashtiani in line with the political interests of their respective governments.

First one is the explotive TIME magazine story, which portrays an Afghan woman without a nose, explaining what happens if we leave Afghanistan. The horrifying cover that I won't republish here has certainly got a shock-value to rally the international public behind an unpopular war against Taliban.

The fact that it was the husband, not Taliban, who cut off the nose of the woman was not emphasized in the story. Just like the fact that the incident happened only last year, NATO's 8th year in Afghanistan where Taliban is no longer the government... As if these shameful practices for journalism are not enough, the New York Observer has revealed the conflict of interests on behalf of the TIME correspondent, unfolding the professional links of her husband to the NATO investments in Afghanistan.

* * *

The second photo -or set of photos- is the main theme of a Der Spiegel article. According to the magazine, German experts have confirmed "the authenticity of photographs that purport to show PKK fighters killed by chemical weapons." The magazine reports that German politicians are demanding an international investigation against Turkey.

Here we don't see that "shocking" photo itself. It's absent, but the discourse of the article is familiar: PKK is consisted of "(freedom) fighters," not terrorists, unlike those of Taliban. The source of the photos is unnamed Turkish-Kurdish human rights activists who "believe" that the people in the unpublished photos are PKK militants. The German "experts" confirmed the authenticity of the photos -that we still didn't see-, probably by just saying that "Yes, these are some photos printed on a paper." Otherwise they must have been psychics, right?

Der Spiegel is always Islamophobic and anti-Turkish. It is also well-known with its sources in intelligence agencies, including the Israeli ones. Hence, Israeli newspapers are full of reader comments about this story today. "Turkey is hypocrite. Tayyip Erdogan must see these chemical weapons before criticizing Israel for using phosphorus bomb in Gaza," they shout. Even without a sound evidence, the magazine managed to trigger such a reaction by just using an unreliable source. I say unreliable, because I saw many, many photos which were all amateurishly fabricated by several Kurds in Turkey who seek a European passport. A passport from countries like Germany, France, Belgium and Denmark, which secretly support PKK even though this militant organization is classified as terrorist by the EU itself.

All in all, TIME magazine has published an authentic photo of war pornography to twist a story for political means, in disguise of journalism. On the other hand, by hiding such a photo which is the main subject of its story, Der Spiegel did almost the same. One photo is authentic, the other one is most probably fake. In the end, good that nobody cares about such 'news' outlets anymore. Both of these magazines have hoisted with their own petard...

The Day The Sky Brings Smoke

The death rate in Moscow doubles to 700 people per day due to poisonous smog from wildfires.

This tragedy reminds me of a Koranic prophecy.

From the 44th sura, which is called The Smoke (Al-Dukhan):

10- Therefore, watch for the day when the sky brings a profound smoke. 11- It will envelope the people; this is a painful retribution. 12- "Our Lord, relieve this retribution for us; we are believers."

Of course, I'm not suggesting that Moscow deserved it or something like that. I'm not Pat Robertson or his infamous equivalent in Turkey, Ahmet Mahmut Unlu, who told similar things after the 1999 earthquake in NW Turkey. It's just came to my mind.

Why I Will Vote No

This is not my head. It's the head of a potential expert for Turkey's Central Bank

After long deliberation, I’ve decided to vote NO in the September 12 referendum on AKP’s constitutional amendments.

Before making up my mind, I’ve considered the new articles without prejudice and I’ve evaluated what would happen without the ones that would be abolished.

Finally, I came to the same conclusion with Soner Cagaptay, who wrote a few months ago that “the changes would give the AKP, which already has control over the executive and legislative branches of government, the powers to appoint high court judges and shape the judiciary in its image. This would be the end of checks and democracy.”

By not allowing citizens to vote each article seperately, the AKP government has confirmed the allegations that it tries to hide dangerous articles in this constitutional package. There are some articles that can really make Turkey a better democracy; but I refuse to vote YES for the whole package because of those dangerous ones.

Turning the high court judges into mere pawns of the government is certainly not a good idea. And it has nothing to do with ideological preferences. It is bad under AKP as it will be bad with any other future government, because it has got the potential to ruin our daily lives as well. Its consequences may turn the government into an openly-fascist regime from a veiled one where scores of political prisoners are still kept behind bars without knowing the crime.

Take a personal example from one of my friends, who is a financial expert. He had a job interview with the Turkish Central Bank (TCB) last month. TCB officials accepted the application of 36 people while rejecting 30 of them without publishing any evuluation. My friend told me that almost all the winners seemed professionally incompetent, but they were all sporting AKP-style moustaches.

So the losers entered a lawsuit against TCB, arguing that the employment procedure was not constitutional. High court judges ruled that TCB must renew the whole interview procedure. However, instead of obeying the court order, TCB amended its charter to guarantee that its new employees will remain at their suspiciously easily-taken jobs, before making new interviews with the losers and ultimately eliminating them all again. The losers are at the mercy of the Council of State once more, but they know that TCB will anyway not apply another decision that will definitely favor them again. After summarizing his story, my friend concluded:

"With these constitutional amendments, all high courts including the Council of State will be dominated by the AKP government. Then they will able to favor or employ anyone they like without facing any legal hurdles. So this referendum will be about getting rid of the constitution, not having a better one."

One Wedding, Three Funerals and a Familiar Hypocrisy

In the beginning, I was thinking that it's a conspiracy theory when someone defends allegations like the following against CNN and some other news organizations. I was suspicious even when I was reading Noam Chomsky. However, now I am almost sure that such allegations are true as there are more and more examples everyday.

Three family members at a wedding in southeastern Turkey have been accidentally shot dead by the groom firing an AK-47 rifle in celebration, CNN reported.

Guns are often fired into the air in celebration in some parts of Turkey, CNN adds.

What they hide is the fact that this kind of celebration is a Kurdish tradition, not a Turkish one.

But why does CNN hide it? Because it is just bad journalism as their correspondents don't know the fact that I'm talking about?

Not probable, as same correspondents report all the details about Kurds when it's needed for another story of a different context.

Moreover, even a Digg user knows the difference here:

"I spent 18 months in SE Turkey. I'll bet that it was a Kurdish wedding. There is something about the characters you find in the south of many countries."

So it seems that CNN, with many other organizations of the international mass media, has got a mealy-mouthed agenda, whether it's secret or not.

It works the same way with their hypocritical editorial policy on honor-killings. This policy is simple:

"Emphasize the Kurdish identity when it potentially weakens the Turkish state. Hide this identity when it potentialy weakens Kurds."

It's not journalism, even in a shameful form. It's purely ideological politics as it seems that it was always with CNN and its likes in the mass media.

A Weaker Army and A Dangerous Agenda

The latest confrontation between the AKP government and the Turkish army has ended with a compromise deal. New army chief and land forces commander are finally named by both sides. The generals who were ridiculously charged in the eve of the military council days with participating in the Sledgehammer Coup plans are neutralized.

I'll summarize the ultimate result with two sentences:

Staunchly secular generals who oppose the notion of moderate Islam while also coming out against a possible American attack on Iran are successfully sidelined. In the long term, the top level of the Turkish army will be dominated by lower-profile generals who will be totally subjected to the AKP government and the new neo-con projects in the Middle East as Obama administration started to make it clear that its foreign policy will be no different than Bush administration.

Is it better to have a weaker army in the face of a pseudo-democratic Islamist government or is it better to have a stronger one in a unique checks-and-balances system in this sensitive region which is still the main target of neo-con-liberal projects of a global scale?

We'll have an answer on the day that the AKP government is finally strong enough to declare an openly totalitarian rule in Turkey and also on the day that the United States attacks Iran...

Kolbasti: A Dance or an Atrocity?

A Turkish kebab shop owner in New Zealand found himself charged with assaulting his wife after a passerby saw what he thought was a violent fight.

With some video evidence, the Turk proved in court that it was not a matter of domestic violence: Instead, he was dancing with his wife in the style of his homeland.

"I'm happy to dance with my wife and my family, what's wrong with that? People here understand fighting, not dancing. It's our culture," the Turk said.

The local dance, which is hugely popular in Turkey nowadays, is called kolbasti.

* * *

The New Zealand newspaper reports that this Turkish dance involves lots of arm throwing and rapid energetic movements to music with fast Turkish beats. However, in contrary to what the Wikipedia article that the newspaper relied as source tells, this dance is not originated in the 1930s in the Blacksea port of Trabzon.

A more likely origin for this dance can be found in 1970s. Some Blacksea fishermen had created a dance called hoptek then. This dance included similarly violent moves.

Violent is actually a wrong word here. Their dance reflected the restless, hyperactive nature of the Blacksea people as well as their unmatched creativity. Add the alcohol that the fishermen were consuming following succesful fishing days and you have hoptek.

In recent years, hoptek was rediscovered. It is evolved to kolbasti, which includes even more fake kicking, hitting, headlocks, throwing and falling. It's no surprise, because kolbasti is also the name of a technique in Turkish oil wrestling.

Actually, the recent popularity of kolbasti is all about Youtube. Some university dance clubs in the Blacksea region posted videos online, showing their postmodern version of hoptek. As these videos become instant hits, several other university clubs started to compete with each other to create more movements. So it's hugely popular in all Turkey now.

According to my humble opinion, this dance sucks. First of all, it's everything but aesthetic; unlike its American equivalent breakdance. Kolbasti doesn't look good, even when it's staged well.

However, I don't consider kolbasti as some sort of cultural corruption. It doesn't corrupt anything. Kolbasti is just filling a gap in our culture. It is the manifestation of the hidden fact that the vibrant potential of the Turkish youth, my generation, is being wasted away in an uncultured way.

P.S: Liverpool will meet Trabzonspor in the playoff round for Europa League. If the Brits will lose, they will have to watch the kolbasti interpretation of several Trabzonspor footballers, which will be as painful as their defeat. Check it out:

TRABZON KOLBASTI

Turks: Secular, Religious and Alienated Europeans

A foundation which is a part of the BBVA, one of biggest banks in Spain, has recently conducted a poll on European trends in fourteen countries. I'd like to share some of the results which I found interesting:

* Turks received the least points in identifying themselves as European, primarily identifying themselves with the city, town or country in which they live. British and French nationals followed them. Turks also travel the least in Europe.

* 87.7 percent of Turks define themselves only as a Turk. They scored high on the issue of identifying with their own country’s flag. Turks are also the proudest when their national athletes are successful during international sports competitions.

* Turks approved of secularism, the most among the other participants in the poll as they scored 8.9 out of 10. When the question was about the separation of religion and state affairs, the average score of the 12 EU countries was 7.3.

* “It is imperative to believe in a religion to have values and morals.” Among all participants, Turkish ones had the highest approval rating for this statement.

To summarize, among Europeans, Turks have the strongest approval for secularism in state while still championing religious and ethical values as individuals. Being strongly patriotic, most of them don't feel European and/because they don't travel in Europe unlike other European citizens, as their legitimate right of visa-free travel is still not recognized by the EU.

The EU is Islamophobe, Theoretically

German Ambassador Hans-Jochen Schmidt has said that "Armenia's joining the EU is a possibility, theoretically."

I personally believe in a greater Europe, exceeding the geographical boundries of the Old Continent, disseminating shared values of a universal understanding.

However, hearing some untimely words about the possible EU membership of Armenia from the diplomatic mouthpiece of Angela Merkel's administration is kinda ironic.

Merkel and his French sidekick Nicolas Sarkozy defend that the EU should have clearly defined, permanent geographical boundries. Armenia is obviously not included in Europe geographically, like most of the Turkish territories.

So why does the German ambassador suddenly start to talk about Armenia's possible EU membership now, while this totally-Asian country is obviously much farther away from the EU standards of any kind, comparing to Turkey?

Is it because it's easy and riskless as Armenians are Christian, unlike Turks?

If so, it's not an unfamiliar criterion for the EU, considering its enlargement policies in the Balkans.

I never wanted to see it ending up like that, but the EU looks Islamophobic in its current form and with its current enlargement policy.

Though, if it can show the vision and courage to embrace Turkey one day, creating a greater EU is a possibility, theoretically.

Heathrow vs. Ataturk Airport

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, penned an interesting article for Daily Telegraph to compare London's Heathrow to Istanbul's Atatürk International Airport.

By adopting a similar stance with David Cameron on Turkey's EU membership, Johnson, whose great-grandfather is an infamous Turkish journalist and a statesman, has some wise words which may provoke Turkish Euroscepticism:

"Some of us have been arguing for years that it would be good for Turkey, and good for Europe, if Turkey were to join the EU. So it has been slightly dismaying, over the same period, to see how the Turks themselves have apparently become more apathetic on the question – if not positively opposed. As we looked around booming Istanbul, I could kind of see their point. Why should they submit to the rule of the Eurocrats, when Turkish businesses and other interests are now starting to gain ground across the Middle East and in the former Soviet Asian republics? And why should they feel they have anything to learn from European transport infrastructure, when you compare the glories of Ataturk International with Heathrow?"

On Black Turks and the Wealth of Some Nations

When I wrote my latest post, I didn't think of this, but...

Two Turkish athletes won the gold and silver medals in the women's 10,000 meters at the European Championships last night.

Alemitu Bekele and Elvan Abeylegesse, who also cruised to victory in 10,000 meters, were actually born in Ethiopia, although they are both naturalized Turkish citizens now.

I believe that the number of stupid Turkish people who dislike to see black athletes in the national team is much lower than the number of stupid French people who dislike to see black athletes in their national team.

It should be also true for Germans, let's say...

You can live a couple of months in these countries, interview a bunch of people and see that I'm right.

As a personal example, I cheered for Elvan and Alemitu (especially for Elvan, 'cause I've been a huge fan of this small woman with a big heart) as passionately as I did for Nevin Yanit, a Turkey-born Turkish athlete who won the women's 100 meters hurdles.

I am proud of all of them and I see the bright future of Turkey in their eyes, because my conception of patriotism is summarized by the following words of Atatürk:

"The Turkish nation enjoys to reflect with humanist sentiments; not national or religious ones. He/she who loves the country most, is the person who serves for it best. The servant of this country becomes its lord."

Turkish Cuisine Forbids Racism

NPR has an interesting broadcast today, declaring that Turkish cuisine is the best among the three great cuisines; French, Chinese and Turkish. Weekend Edition food commentator Bonny Wolf explains that its awesomeness derives from the multiculturalism of the Ottoman Empire.

Agreed, but I must also add another point which is also noticed by an NPR commentator: Pre-Ottoman Turkish cuisine is as characteristic as the Ottoman cuisine in our modern taste. After all, the Ottoman Empire was not an exception in the Turkish history. Almost all Turkish states have been tolerant, because they all included large numbers of foreigners (Read the amazing history of the Mamluk Sultanate where the Turkish slave-soldiers become the rulers in time).

With this multiculturalism, not only these states got richer by adding new qualities of the periphery to its dominant culture; but they also needed to assimilate the Turkish identity into a broader unit of social structure. Maybe that's why the Turkish society cannot produce racism. Minor racist currents which can be observed in the society from time to time have always been imported.

Resisting the assimilation is also something foreign for Turks. In Germany, you can easily see that the Turkish ghettos don't really feel like Turkish. Because the historical DNA of the Turk forces him/her to adapt to the social environment. In this regard, it is no surprise to see that Turkey doesn't really care when another country tries to steal its foods and recipes.