O my the gang of three have been busy again this morning Where is your laughing admirer As I said before the main reason I left was because I was about to be deleted.The other reason being I was spending far to much time in front of my computer and neglecting other things,namely my spouse Aenigma says I do not contribute to the threads well as others have found out it is difficult to air your views without being torn to shreds by a clique.Now the reason I rejoined was probably the atrocious weather we have had here which has kept me indoors (I no longer work) This is still a wonderful site maybe not the same as 18 months ago but the features and format are excellent. Congratulations to the person responsible.

I am interested that you perceive that there is a "clique" here Bydand. I also feel there is a clique here - but perhaps not the one YOU are referring to.

However, your comment about being "torn to shreds" was the one which really caught my eye. Perhaps you don't consider Meltem's "cross-examination" and sarcasm to Asli, in which she accused her of "shaming Turkey" (after her post about her family traditions) to be in the same league? This is somehow ok?

Please let me know when you have been "torn to shreds" by ME following any post in which you expressed your views (other than your one-liner sarcasm, which up until yesterday, I have taken in good humour). As I said, I haven't EVER seen a post from you where you were expressing views on a topic.

Dont worry, I am only around until the weather improves as well

I do not understand why this turned to such a big debate.

What me and Gizliyuz did was to correct a possible misunderstanding. If here was a place where just turkish people visited, I wouldn't worry too much about such small statements on Turkey, and I would focus on other things, but as here is a place where people from all over the world visit with little or without knowledge about Turkey, we try to make everything clear to the eyes of the foreigners.

Aslı is from Istanbul, but so are me and Gizliyüz. We did not claim that she lied, but I had just wanted to correct one of her statements which looked like a very small detail, but for me an important one, but later it turned to such a big deal as if I was trying to hide the truths about Turkey.

I do not and can never deny that backward traditions exist in Turkey, and women are subjected to second class traitments, what I was not ok with was the image given to educated and cultured people. As if the mentality of vast turkish people consisted of backward things.

If it were like this, if the modern people of Turkey were just a negligible minority, Turkey wouldn't be this Turkey today. It would be one of the backward Islamic countries in the middle-east. We wouldn't find the millions to manifest against the gouvernement.

So, it has nothing to do with not being able to stand any criticism, but rather to make things about Turkey clear. In a germany forum or in an english forum, it's true you wouldn't find people worrying about the image of their countries so much, because they don't need to worry about it, as they are a part of the European Union which rules the world together with the USA today and they are not muslim. So, why would the power holders worry about their image? They are not the ones who are subjected to unfairnesses and regional dirty games.

Title of thread:

Marriage between two faiths

so what has happened?

Oh I forgot, the norm - digression