Tonya Desperate About Housewives

tonya (links to original article)

(Habertürk Newspaper, 10 February 2011)

A poll created by the Tonya district of Trabzon to commemorate
the 93rd anniversary of its liberation (from the Russians) has stirred
up the district. The poll was intended to determine the most liked
person in various professions but when the subject of 'most liked
housewife' showed up in the poll all hell broke loose.

The Tonya Municipality, which has a population of 17,500, started
work on a poll aimed at determining the most liked people in the
district prior to the liberation ceremonies that will take place on
17 February.  The poll asks people to pick the most liked politician,
bureaucrat, educator, shopowner, official and sportsman but when
men in the district saw a question about the most liked housewife
they rang the alarm bells. Fifty people applied to the district chief
to have the poll canceled.

Bekir Uzunoğlu, a local shopowner,  said that 'the housewives of
Tonya are the best housewives. It would be a big mistake to choose
one.'  He is against the poll and said 'naturally, everyone who
participates in the poll will vote for his own wife, or mother, or
relative. But if someone gets more votes than expected that will
create tension. It will be nothing but trouble. If they were to give
20-25 votes to my wife then I would demand an explanation from
her.'

Inan Kalyoncu objected too and added 'such a question doesn't
makes sense. What's the criteria? It's over the top.'  Kazım Aktaş
remarked that 'it's wrong from every angle. In the end it will create
bad feelings.'

Tonya District Chief Şenol Turan stated that 'it started out with good
intentions but there are those who are uncomfortable with it. I'm
having it looked into. We'll have the 'housewife' question evaluated
and make a decision.'

Mayor Ahmet Kurt of the AK Party said that the motivation was to
bring the people of Tonya together and he added that 'some people's
attitudes are primitive. We'll conduct this poll. Those who have put
forth the petitions are known to have a particular political view. We
will not argue about how wonderful all our women are.'