Marriage Edition: Grooms Get a Rocky Start

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 7 November 2016)


        That 'come hither' look.

In Sandıklı district of Afyonkarahisar province, there is a tradition
that has lasted for many years.  The latest victim of this tradition was
Niyazi Sivrikaya the evening before last.  After his wedding ceremony,
Sivrikaya's friends came to the newlywed couple's house at midnight.

 
The groom's eggs-istential moment.

The friends forced Sivrikaya to come out of the house, put a scarf
on his head and made him wear a skirt.  Sivrikaya was made to sweep
the ground and eggs were cracked on his head.  He then cooked the
eggs for his friends to eat.  Next, Sivrikaya had to dance to the music
of a 'darbuka'(sort of like a bongo drum).  After eating spicy baklava,
the new groom was beaten with fists on his back and sent home.


Sandıklı district is in western Afyonkarahisar province.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
türkçe  links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 10 November 2016)


                      Congratulations!

In Samsun, a newly married couple suffered the shock of a traffic
ticket on their wedding day.  Traffic police stopped the bride's
car carrying the couple, Kübra and Hakan Dönmez.  Because the
license plate was covered on the well-decorated car, Hakan was
fined 412 TL (about 135 USD).  But he wasn' t the only victim.
Some 29 cars were fined a total of about 12,000 TL.


                  Samsun province

U.S. Election: These Turks Got It Wrong

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 9 November 2016)


Yağlıdere Trump Tower coming? Don't hold your breath.

Yağlidere is a small district of Giresun province, known for its many
migrants to America.  The 18,000 or so people from Yağlıdere who
live in the U.S. began migrating there in the early 1960's.  Most of
them voted for Hillary Clinton.

American citizens from Yağlidere who now live in Turkey, saying that
"every vote matters", cast their votes at the American consulates here.
The village chief of Akdoğan hamlet in Yağlıdere, Bayram Yazıcıoğlu,
noted that "I lived in the U.S. for 26 years and became a U.S. citizen
in 2000.  I have one foot in New York and one in Yağlıdere. I'm a
registered Democrat and I'll vote for Clinton.  Eighty percent of the
Yağlidere folks in the U.S. support Clinton. I'd say it's a 99% likelihood
that Clinton will win." (!)

Turan Uzun, who has lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years and now
runs a gas station there, explained that "I'm a registered Republican but
I always vote Democratic.  If Trump hadn't made those racist statements
I would have supported him but instead I supported Clinton, even though
I don't like what she has to say about Turkey.  I only voted for her because
she's the lesser of two evils. 80% of the people from Yağlıdere support
Clinton and 20% support Trump.  But when Clinton said 'I'll arm the
Kurds' and since Fethullah Gülen made contributions to the Democrats,
this created a reaction and sent may people to Trump."


Yağlıdere district is in north-central Giresun province.

Hirsute Politics

//ed. note: digital version of Turkish article not available.//

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 6 November 2016)


       Gimme a head with hair, long beautiful hair...

After a brief hiatus, the Parliament came back into session on 1
October.  The women parliamentarians, as usual, caught the eye
with their colorful outfits.  But actually this year some of the male
parliamentarians stood out because of some changes in their
appearance.

There are some more AK Party members who have had hair
implants.  And those who have cut their mustaches after leaving
ministerial posts were the subject of jokes and chatter. Hürriyet's
Parliament reporter Nuray Babacan noticed that the aesthetic
changes most prevalent among the ruling party members are hair
implants.

This trend started a few sessions ago and the latest converts are
AKP Ankara Parliamentarian Ertan Aydın and Nevşehir's
Murat Göktürk.  Their hairs are just about to sprout, drawing the
attention of their friends who want details about the procedure
and doctor recommendations.


          Would you vote for this guy now?

Among those getting hair implants last session were European
Union Minister Ömer Çelik, former Culture Minister Mahir Ünal,
former Youth and Sports Minister Suat Kılıç and former Deputy
Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan.

The person who started all this 8 years ago is AKP Karaman
Parliamentarian Mevlüt Akgün  who declared himself a "hair
implant specialist."  Following his lead then were Necati
Çetinkaya (AKP Elazığ), Egeman Bağış (AKP İstanbul), Nevzat
Doğan (AKP Kocaeli), Zeyid Aslan (AKP Tokat), Vahit Kiler
(AKP Bitlis), Mehmet Durdu Kastal (AKP Osmaniye), Mehmet
Sevigen (CHP İstanbul), Süleyman Turgut (AKP Manisa),
Hüseyin Bayındır (CHP Kırşehir) and Muharrem İnce (CHP
Yalova).

Added to the hair trend these days are mustaches.  Since
President Erdoğan has indicated that cabinet ministers should
have mustaches (!), this has been talked about for days now.
Ministers who at first resisted are now growing mustaches, with
the exception of clean-shaven Ömer Çelik.

Yalçın Akdoğan, who left the cabinet recently, has shaved off
his mustache (in protest?).  All eyes are now on former Interior
Minister Efkan Ala.  One former AKP minister, whose mustache
was hard to make out anyway, was scolded for not having a
thick enough mustache.  In response, he proclaimed in jest that
"this much of a mustache is enough for this office."


                            The wave.

Violence and Women: New Levels of Absurdity

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 7 November 2016)


                        Armed and dangerous.

In Denizli a mother-son fight has become an interesting court
battle.  Şenay Güzel (62) and her son Hasan Güzel share a
house in the Haydar neighborhood of Honaz district.   Saying
that her son insulted her, Şenay hanım took off her rubber slipper
and hurled it at him.

Şenay hanım's throw missed the mark but Hasan went to the police
station anyway and filed a complaint against his mother (!).
The public prosecutor characterized the rubber slipper as a
weapon and prepared an indictment against Şenay hanım for
'attempt to deliberately injure', in accordance with the 86th
paragraph of the relevant Turkish law.


                           Exhibit nr. 1

The court in Denizli accepted the indictment and Şenay hanım's
trial is set for December, with her facing between 2 to 5 years in
jail.  For her part, Şeyan hanım said that "if I knew it was a weapon
I wouldn't have thrown it.  But even if it hit him, a rubber slipper
couldn't do any harm.  Whatever the punishment is I'll accept it.
Is there a mother that doesn't throw her slipper at her child when
she gets mad? There's no mother who hasn't hit her child with a
slipper."

Şenay hanım's lawyer, Hasan Ozan Orpak, stated that "moms wearing
rubber slippers is universal in the Turkish community. Lots of things
can be considered weapons and a rubber slipper is one of them. But
there are different kinds of slippers so these have to be sorted out.
We will evaluate this indictment as it refers to slippers generally
from a legal standpoint.  In any event, moms should think twice
henceforth about throwing a slipper."


                   Denizli province

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper, 7 November 2016)


           No good deed goes unpunished...

With murders of women hitting the ceiling these days, the news
coming from Bolu makes one say 'enough!'.  A woman named N.Ş.
(35) tried to intervene when a man was beating his wife on the
street.  The man roughed up N.Ş. and told her to mind her own
business.

The man took his wife home but N.Ş., said to have been a bit
tipsy, got into an argument with two passersby.  Police arrived
and asked N.Ş. "why are you getting involved in a fight between
a man and his wife?"  In response, N.Ş. said "why shouldn't I,
what with thousands of women dying these days!"

The police officer said that the man's wife did not file a complaint
against her husband.  N.Ş. was then loaded into the police vehicle (!)
but declared that "I'm filing a complaint! He hit me! Why don't we
just let everyone kill each other!?"  N.Ş. was taken to the police
station where she gave a statement.


 
                                Bolu province




 

Saddam's Grandson Toppled, Too

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 5 November 2016)


                              Mesut and Sevim. 

In Marmaris district of Muğla province, Mesut Torun (33),
the grandson of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hüseyin, was
injured in a motorcycle accident and hospitalized.  Torun's
shoulder was broken and he is undergoing treatment.  As a
security precaution, neither the site of the accident nor the
hospital have been identified.


                                  Ouch!

Mesut's mother Sevim Torun competed in a beauty contest
in Iraq in 1982 and won both the title 'Miss Baghdad' and the
admiration of Saddam's son Uday, who proposed marriage.
Sevim accepted but while 3 months pregnant she fled to Turkey
because Uday was beating her.

Within 5 months Sevim and Uday were divorced.  Mesut was
born in Turkey and given his mother's maiden last name (interestingly,
'torun' means 'grandchild' in Turkish).  Sevim hanım died in Istanbul
in 2010 at the age of 52 (she was originally from Samsun.)