SOCIETY & CONDUCT
At first glance, much of Turkish society is
highly Europeanised. Men and women march off to jobs in city offices and shops, farmers
mount their tractors for a day in the fields, and bureaucrats belly up to typewriters and
computer keyboards. But Turkish traditions are different from those of Europe, and
glimpses of traditional attitudes and behaviour often come through.
Liberal western attitudes born of Atatürk's
reforms are strongest in the urban centres of the west and along the coasts, among the
middle and upper classes. Westerners will feel quite comfortable amongst these Turks, who
look to western culture as the ideal, and accept the validity of other religious beliefs
alongside their own.
The working and farming classes, particularly
in the east, are more conservative, traditional and religicious. There is a small but
growing segment of 'born again' Muslims, fervent and strict in their religious but
otherwise modern. Though always polite, these Turks may give you the feeling that east is
east and west is west, and thal the last echo of crusaders versus Saracens has not yet
died away.
Hospitality is an honoured tradition in
Turkey, from the shopkeeper who plies you with tea, coffee or scyft drinks to the village
family which invites you to share their home and meals for the customary three days.
Commercialism has begun to corrupt traditional hospitality in tourist areas, producing the
shady carpet merchant who lays on the friendliness with a trowel only to sell you shoddy
goods at inflated prices. Don't let the carpet touts make yoyy lose sight of true Turkish
hospitality, which is a wonderful thing.
Customs & Practices
Under the Ottoman Empire (from the l4th
century to 1923), Turkish etiquette was highly organised and very fermal. Every encounter
between people turned into a mini-ceremony full of the flowery romance of the east.
Though the Turks have adapted to the
informality of 20th-century lif'e, you'll still notice vestiges of this courtly state of
mind. Were you to learn Turkish, you'd find dozens of polite phrases - actually rigid
formulas to be repeated on cue in many daily situations. Some are listed in the Language
section. Use one of these at the proper morment, and the Turks will love it.
Turks are very understanding of foreigners' different customs, but if you want to behave
in accordance with local feelings, use all the polite words you can muster, at all times.
This can get laborious, and even Turks complain about how one can't even get out the door
without five minutes of politenesses. But even the complainers still say them.
Mosque Etiquette
Always remove your shoes before stepping on a
mosque's carpets, or on the clean area just in front of the mosque door. This is not a
religious law, just a practical one. Worshippers kneel and touch their foreheads to the
carpets, and they like to keep them clean. If there are no carpeLs, as in a saint's tomb,
you can leave your shoes on.
Body Language
Turks say `yes' (evet, ehVEHT) by nodding
forward and down.
To say `no' (hayyr, HAH-yuhr), nod your head up and back, lifting your eyebrows at the
same time. Or just raise your eyebrows: that's `no'.
Another way to say `no' is yok (YOHK): literally, `It doesn't exist (here)', or `We don't
have any (of it)' - the same head upward, raised eyebrows applies.
Remember, when a Turkish person seems to be
giving you an arch look, they're only saying `no'. They may also make the sound `tsk',
which also means `no'. There are lots of ways to say `no' in Turkish.
By contrast, wagging your head from side toside doesn't mean `no' in Turkish; it means `I
don't understand'. So if a Turkish person asks you, `Are you looking for the bus to
Ankara?' and you shake your head, they'll assume you don't understand English and will
probably ask you the same question again, this time in German.
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