Survey

Hello our dear friends, here are some questions we are wondering your opinions about. Please do not hesitate to comment if you really want to say something about any of these. You do not have to answer everything. Just choose one and let us know what you think.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VYGY9MN

What do we actually know?

Hello dear friends, in this blog you will read a question which is prepared by our group and the answer some of you give. We asked some of you what do you know about Kurds and what do you think about Kurdish population. Let's see the answers together.

"I think they are trying to take East Anatolia and I think they want to establish a Kurdish state, they also want to make population of Eastern Turkey more Kurdish."

"We stayed in Van for 4 years. Since my dad is a cop, children like us-who are daughters or sons of polices,teachers(white collar workers)- didn't study with Kurdish children there. We didn't communicated with them a lot. And I'm against of Kurdistan, I don't want them to be another state."

"I think Kurds are one of the colors of Turkey just like Armenians, Greeks, Lazs and Circassians and I think this problem occurs because of the high population of Kurds, terror organizasion PKK and some people who try to abuse democracy. In fact I find Kurdish people antipathetic because they are trying to abuse good intentions of Turks, and I believe they will want more and more rights if we give them what they currently want."

"I actually do not think much about the Kurds. I do not like them because of the PKK. In my opinion, they demand lots of rights which are not really necessary. They want to add some weird or strange letters in our alphabet. I am strictly against of adding these letters in our alphabet."

"I do not think there was a huge population at the early times of republic. The Eastern area become less valuable day by day and that made the public more ignorant and unconscious. For instance they do not know anything about birth control medicines and that made Kurdish population higher."

"Kurdish people-in fact we- has been living in Mesopotamia since BC 2000, which means almost 4000 years. Kurds are a nation which includes 4 different groups. Throught history they had never aimed to establish a state, and they had never been the majority group. They have always been the minority group in society. Their physical appearences are just like Turks' , it is so difficult to see the difference. They didn't use to live as nomadics. And many nations used them like warriors."

" They killed a lot of innocent Turkish people in the east of Turkey."

"10 years ago they were good with Turkish people and we did not have any problems with them. But then situation changed and my thoughts too. Their life style is better than ours. I do not care their ideas, beliefs, aims etc. They are harmful to our country."

"They encourage PKK and help terrorists if they want peace they can get but I think they don't care about it. They only think themselves and their imaginary country."

"We used to have neighbours, they were Kurd. They were untidy and unkind. I think they have the same rights with Turks. Ofcourse they should have these rights but they want to have their own country which is impossible. If you want to live, you can, but if you want to provocate the system, you can not live. These world is not their." - it is also an example to orientalism.-

"They should learn to live according to country where they are in."

"Actually, I don't think that Turks have bad attitudes to Kurds, because Kurds can work and vote according to their own thoughts, they are in parliement and can talk about their wishes now. I don't mind Kurds live in Turkey. I respect their ideas. They also should do too, I agree with their some ideas, such as about freedom. We should live in peace. I don't think we are too different to fight with each other. Government shouldn't show the war like a funny game."

Peace Education

During this past century there has been growth in social concern about horrific forms of violence like ecocide, genocide, modern warfare, ethnic hatred, racism, sexual abuse and domestic violence, and a corresponding growth in the field of peace education where educators, from early child care to adult, use their professional skills to warn fellow citizens about imminent dangers and advise them about paths to peace.

Peace is understood not only as the absence of traditional forms of direct violence, but also as a positive presence. Educating for and about all aspects of peace constitutes peace education.

Peace education aims to develop skills, attitudes, and knowledge with co-operative and participatory methods and an environment of tolerance, care and respect. The practice of peace education is an opportunity to promote the total welfare of students, advocate for their just and equitable treatment of youth, and promote individual and social responsibility for both educators and learners. Through pedagogy and social action, peace educators demonstrate that there are alternatives to violence.

Peace education does not teach students what to think, but rather how to think critically, peace education aims not to reproduce but to transform.

The aims of peace education is to show the people their fears, prejudices and make them more tolerant, teach them to be more aware of the other sides(people) and how to gain emphathy.

What is Orientalism? What is Inner Orieantalism?

As a notion orientalism is being used to describe Western people's and traditions' opinions towards to East since 18th and 19th centuries. Orientalism mostly includes prejudices of Western traditions and people which is shaped by the attitudes of European imperialisim towards to outsider interpretations of the East.

Basically orientalism refers to the way in which non-Western (especially Asian) cultures are perceived in the West, by scholars, writers, thinkers, politicians and society at large. Orientalism involves the use of generalizations and stereotypes to describe what Orientalist thinkers understood as the exotic nature of the Far East.

In our opinions, Orientalism is like Western's misunderstanding towards the East. And it is showing Asia as an eccentric and backward place.

Inner orientalism is kind of a orientalism which occurs because of the discriminations according to people's root in one country, especially in multiethnic countries, like Turkey. We think some peoples in society and media instigate it, and makes it even worse.

Group Informations

Topic: What kind of attitude do Turkish people have towards Kurdish people.
Members: Sibel, Zelal, Hasan, Merve, Serkan, Ezgi
Objectives: Get rid of our prejudices and cliches and look at things objectively, elebrate on things, becoming aware of the other side, working out whose problem "Kurdish problem" is, and finally break our taboos.
Methodology: photographs, posters, movies and books, interview.

What we did so far?

12 April 2010

we discussed in class about our subject and thought what can we do.

14 April 2010

we met together and shared things we have to do, some of us searched orientalism and some of us made some researches about our subject

19 April 2010

We showed our researches to each other, collected them and prepeared our questions to ask Şerif.

21 April 2010

We met Şerif and went to a cafe in campus. We had lunch together, we drank tea and coffee. And we interviewed, asked a lot of things Şerif and realized how less we actually know about Kurdish problem. We really got surprised!

26 April 2010

We discussed in class again. We thought about how can we appy peace education and orientalism to our project and we tried to find a good group name.

11 May 2010

We prepared our question for survery. But then we and Mine had decided that the questions are high politics and we should make it less political, more about conditioning of public. We re-prepared and did a small interview in class. We asked some questions to friends and wrote their opinions to show how conditioned they are but ofcourse it was behalf Turkish society, not only for our friends.

13 May 2010

We did last arrangements about our project and discussed how can we do our presentation. What it should be included and so on. Finally decided to collect our interview's questions for tomorrow. We mentioned about our opinions( what did this project add our lives etc.)

14 May 2010

We prepared our presentation together.