An interesting documentary series has started yesterday on Dutch tv. It shines a light on different aspects of modern Turkey. It´s made by a Dutch journalist in Turkey, but a lot is spoken in English and Turkish. I guess it´s most interesting for people who understand Dutch, but perhaps other people will enjoy it too.

The first episode is about people´s connection to Ataturk. How do Turkish people live with Ataturk´s heritage? It is very interesting to see people who believe in him almost as a god, to see people who almost hate him, and to see people somewhere in the middle.

There were some interesting notes (in Dutch) about Ataturk´s idea of democracy. The most striking line was "Ataturk´s idea of democracy meant forming your own opinion, and being able to question and doubt everything. Perhaps even Ataturks own ideas."

http://beta.uitzendinggemist.nl/afleveringen/1085763-de-vader-van-de-turken#

(the weird blond guy in the beginning is a reklam)

Nice documentary. I think I understood about 30% of the Dutch conversations since 
Dutch seems to be very similar to English. 

Turkey is like an onion, there are layers after layers. For a foreigner, it might be a daunting task to come to grasp of the chaotic aspects of this society. Nevertheless, the documentary did a good job squeezing as much diversity as possible into a single episode.

Through the end of the movie there was a dialogue with a young girl about Ataturk. She says Ataturk was a dictator and the host asks whether she would mind saying that with the camera on. The truth is, Ataturk was a dictator. He was a dictator who took over the rule from a monarchy and declared a single party regime at a time of utter chaos, economic and military fatigue. He opened the door for a multi partite democracy. On seeing, having opposition meant a reversal of the civil reforms and a rise of the Islamists he abolished that but always look forward to a favourable climate to initiate a Western style democracy. If I were in his shoes, I would do the same.

Yeah, I liked that girl at the end. It was sad though that she had such a fight with her family because of her ideas.

Dictator is a harsh word. Because it has only a negative meaning today. I would prefer to say "ruler". He made a revolution that only he was capable of doing. A revolution only depends on his strong will. Any compromise would cause modern Turkey to fail. Some things can seem theorically wrong but they can be pratically necessary. I am sure Atatürk wanted to built a democratic country. He allowed two opposition parties to be founded different times. But all theocracy supporters got together in those parties and criticised the revolution harshly. They wanted a theocratic government. If they were succesful we would be no different than Iran. So I am grateful to him no matter what.

The girl in the documentary said that she didn´t mean it in a negative way. As she said it, she was explaining the form of government. And thinking about it, I guess she was right. She also said that he did good things, but that doesn´t make him a saint. She was from a very pro-Ataturk family, but at one point she got a more nuanced view. She wasn´t negative about him, but she did recognize the negative aspects of his ruling (as well as the positive).

The documentary maker was surprised about the current status of Ataturk. He noted that Ataturk himself wasn´t a fan of religion, but that he by now he has almost become the centre point of something close to religion himself (with all the statues, special days, etc.) He said he felt like sometimes Turkish people seem to forget that Ataturk was human, ad had his own problems as well (he mentioned a love-affair with alcohol).

New episode, about emigrants in Istanbul. Immigrants from other countries, but also Kurdish immigrants. Some stories were rather sad, like an African immigrant brought to Turkey by a football manager. Promised a golden career at Besiktas, the man is still unemployment, training his football skills every day hoping that one day Besiktas will call for a try-out. Another interesting story was about Kurds who sell mussels, and Kurdish groups in Istanbul.

http://player.omroep.nl/?aflID=12360036

I can´t wait for next week, when he will leave Istanbul