Today in class we were discussing what it was that made someone - “Turkish, English, American” or any other nationality. Did being “Turkish” mean that your nationality was Turkish, that you were born and raised in Turkish culture, if so then what about people like me, who are born in different countries but are now living in Turkey, would I not be counted as “Turkish”? If this wasn’t what made a person “Turkish” then did it have to do with religion or the language spoken in that country? Was it really this simple to define _ “Turkishness” or “Englishness” for that matter?
As the conversation moved on, we started talking about foreigners who came to live in Turkey for some reason or another, would they also be “Turkish”, if they knew our language, lived in Turkey and did Turkish things (what ever that means) would they be like those who had lived all their lives in this country. Lets also take in the fact of assimilation, for example in England there are many Indians, Pakistani and Turks who live there, could these people who have grown up and been part of a different culture suddenly abandon their own and be “English”?? or should this assimilation be the other way around, but why, when you already have a national identity, should you feel forced to change, just to be like the other people in that country? So from this, we can say that it's not about religion, it can’t really be about language either because nearly everywhere in the world people speak English- so then is everybody English?
The identity of a country is hard to define. If it’s not all the things I mentioned, then what is it that makes us so sure that we can distinguish other national identities from our own..hmm..
I was watching the show, "Pop Star", and those of you who also watch it may know there is a competitor named Elena- who is “Russian” but is married to a “Turkish” man and therefore has become a Turkish citizen. There are debates on whether she could be Turkey's pop star. Most people are against this because they believe that Turkeys pop star should be Turkish. But what is Turkish, what makes a person that? She is a citizen, speaks the language, though not so well, lives in Turkey and has a reasonably good voice. But no, it’s not enough to make her “Turkish”..sigh.. I never thought the identity, in which we identify ourselves, could be so hard to explain in words,
I am what I am but I don’t know why… now how weird is that?
Sibel Muradođlu (ELIT/IV)
