More Eurovision

[robinturner]

Now we've won the Eurovision song contest, will they let us into the European Union?

(just noticed that I'm using "we" to mean Turkey, not the UK, which is just as well, considering)

Comments

[thegreatwhite.livejournal.com]

WE'VE WON ??? OMG !!

şarkı neydi !!?? aaa çok sevindim :))

[solri.livejournal.com]

Nedemek "şarkı neydi" be? Sertab Erener: Every Way That I Can. Aslında Sertab için mükemmel bir şarkı değil, ama yine de sevindik. Petrol ve Opera'dan sonra, Türkiye'nin gürürü kurtarıldı.

[thegreatwhite.livejournal.com]

Ya ben Opera'yi hic dinlemedim, bu yuzden nasil bir uzuntu icinde oldugumu bilemezsin heheh. iyi hatirlattin ya, bir arayayim ben onu...
"amaaaaaan petrol caniiiim petrol..."
evet onlara bakinca daha iyi duruyor tabii ki.

Bence "evri vey det ay ken" de korkunc bir sarki; sanirim sertab da bunun farkindadir. yani umarim. boyle "dogu-bati" sentezi yapacam diye iki tane oryantal dans yapip ingilizce pop soylemiyorlar mi sinir oluyorum.
bence asil turk sarkisi dedigin, yani oyle bir sey varsa ve bunun en iyi ornegi aranirsa, benim icin kesinlikle:

isik dogudan yukselir --- sezen aksu.

iste bak o albumle gercekten gurur duyuyorum ben.

[solri.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is that Sezen was going to write a song for Sertab, but she insisted on using Demir's.

I hear they're planning on having a kid. Let's hope it inherits Sertab's voice and Demir's guitar playing skills, not the other way round.

[violet--rain.livejournal.com]

welcome to hell!...
Birileri Türkiye'yi sevdiğinden bahsedince aklıma hep Ali Sami Yen'de yabancı takımlar için asılan pankartlar bayraklar geliyor:)

and the aswer is: No.

[cibetky.livejournal.com]

Do you think Turkey is European enough to be a part of European union?

I'm absolutely not against it, I'm just wondering.

[solri.livejournal.com]

It's a good question, and the answer depends, of course, on what you mean by "European".

Physically, only a tiny part of Turkey is in Europe. Culturally, Turkey is very mixed, with some ethnic groups (e.g. Kurds) being very far from Europe, but the overall culture could be described as Mediterranean more than Middle Eastern. Imagine a bunch of Greeks or Italians who converted to Islam, and you pretty much have Turks.

Politically and economically, Turkey is definitely in the European camp. It doesn't always live up to its ideals of democracy and secularism, but at least they are acknowledged as ideals. When religious conservatives want to increase the role of religion, they do so using the rhetoric of democracy; when the political conservatives want to cut corners on human rights, they say it's necessary to preserve secularism.

*lol* I like the last sentence

[cibetky.livejournal.com]

If Mediterranean then let them be part of EU! At least no one could accuse this grouping of imperialist tendencies.

It's a bit ironic though, because European identity defined itself in part as opposition to Turkish empire (and everything Asian and non-Christian).

Re: *lol* I like the last sentence

[solri.livejournal.com]

Quite - in the Middle Ages, there was no real "Europe", there was "Christendom". That's also perhaps one reason why the Balkans for a long time not thought of as really European (another being that they're Orthodox - when Gorbachov gave that speech mentioning Europe as "our common home" I'm sure a lot of people went "Huh?"). Up until recently there was a subconscious idea that Europe stops at Prague; further East, you get Turks, Cossacks and vampires.

However, in terms of classical culture, the Eastern Mediterranean was pretty much one block, and the Eastern border of the Roman Empire coincided with the Eastern border of Turkey. By that reckoning, anywhere you can find Greek columns is European.

Of course the real division in Europe is what a British politician called "the olive belt". That's why Italians have more in common with Turks than they do with Danes (olives, dangerous grapeseed spirits, piety mixed with promiscuity, political corruption, a love of bureaucracy combined with a loathing of efficiency, and of course that strange mixture of machismo and matriarchy).

Boundaries

[cibetky.livejournal.com]

Up until recently there was a subconscious idea that Europe stops at Prague

Fine, so at least Prague was included, what a relief. :-) My mother used to say, jokingly of course, that Central Europe ends in Zilina, a town in Western Slovakia, the rest is Balkan.

(The question of European-ness has become very topical to everyone and interesting to me lately.)

Re: Boundaries

[solri.livejournal.com]

Of course Prague is included! If the fall of the Roman Empire marked the birth of Europe, the Thirty Years War was its adolescence. And we all know that it started with the Defenestration of Prague.

Incidentally, "defenestration" is one of my favourite words - I use it to mean "removing Windows from a computer."

[katminnaar.livejournal.com]

I wish we could see Eurovision over here. They might broadcast bits and pieces months from now on some obscure channel.

Congratulations! :)

[dtlw.livejournal.com]

if England had used my song then at least we might have got more than the big fat zero......i got to the last 20, I'm well glad we didnt get through, politics should be left out of music.