Catwoman follow this link to read the Polish account of what forced the Poles to come to Turkey and what happened to them here : http://www.polonezkoy.com/history.html


The we can discuss your remaining prejudices as well as the reasons why me and other Turks should be blatantly cursed by the Poles we meet.

Let me tell you beforehand, you have enough prejudices to fill the Earth.

It can never be anyway.

Where we are supposed to be honest about our past, you are supposed to be honest about the present situation. It is the christiandom which sets you apart from the East. In our glorious past there were crusades. The crusades did not start with Turks. They came to Istanbul at the time of the Byzantine and pillaged the city doing unheard of malice, stealing the city's ornaments to put them on display in their own towns. Turks took up the sword to defend the muslim world and they succeeded in that as they reached the heart of Europe in Vienna. It is this threat that demonized Turks as the vandals from the East, the scorch of God. It is still that notion that keeps us apart. History is a bit tricky, there is not a single version of it. As a result, you can't claim you thoroughly know it.

vineyards, you are still that boy who needs to grow up.
kazakhs cursed turks? oh, how dare they curse holy turks?
look, if we talk about internet, we meet different people on net. if i base my opinion on those whom i met on net, i should really have a disgusting attitude towards turks, greeks, arabs, spaniards as well as kazakhs and poles.
as for kazakhs who fought against turks relating to the oil business, i wouldnt touch the subject.
turks in my country, i mean males, i remember them as those who used to have good trading skills, or e.g. those who had cars (it was luxury to have one at those times) and were busy driving russian girls.
as for the attitude of kazakhs towards turks, unfortunately, the majority loves and respects turks, when ussr collapsed, kazakhs were very proud to study in turkey or establish new turkish high schools in the country. it was smth very prestigous. but i saw the results: the boys i knew, whom i really liked, became women haters due to the islamic brainwashing in the turkish universities, suddenly they stopped talking to me just because i was a woman.

as for poles, sorry, poles actually dont have a clue about turks and turkey. most of them recall turkey as a nice country where they were forced to travel to get cheap goods to sell in bazars.

So, aside from the Nationalist Vs. Patriot debate...WHAT ARE YOUR INFORMAL THOUGHTS ON TURKISH CLASS??

I think the Balkans and Central Europe do keep rememberance of turkish invasions, rememberance that often takes form of a well preserved stereotype nowadays, including sometimes idioms, too.
Hungary keeps the memories of being beinkg pasalik. and as for Transylvania (formerly independent principate, alterning with inclusion in Habsburg Imperium, then Hungarian Kingdom, now included in Romania) rememberance of fights and paying tributes to the Ottoman Empire is quite alive. The material tributes and human sacrifices are the hardest to forget... If you ask macars, they will tell you about macar children kidnapped to be brought up as janissaries who eventually would end up fighting against christians, about the new-born girls to whom their parents had a cross burned on their forehead so that they would not be carried away by the turks.

But also, and i am speaking merely for Transylvania here, there is still alive the memory of Prince Rakoczi, the greatest ruler of Transilvania (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_II_R%C3%A1k%C3%B3czi) , who after being defeated in the kuruc - labancz war refuses polish krown offer , accepts Ottoman invitation and takes exile in Tekirdag, along with many macar noblemen. One of his followers is Ibrahim Muteferrika, a transylvanian converted to Islam, the first Muslim to run a printing press with movable Arabic type (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Muteferrika). Muteferrika was born in my town .
Hystory in the Balkanians is tormented, sometimes swinging back and forth like a pendulum between the addherence at or the conquerence by the one of the two empires...i think it would be a nice change to overcome past and prejudices. Looking from a (my) Balkanian point of wiev, at first sight it is easy to have prejudices, at a second you will be in doubt of the former prejudices, several sights might strongly confuse you... Then again, hystory is like a turning wheel. It repeats itself. In the meanwhile, stereotypes lasts.

Excuse me, but....:-S Just a little reminder:

Criticism of Ataturk is like holding a red flag in front of a bull....and you must know that. Without Ataturk there would be no Turkey. Including his name in relationship with Stalin or Hitler is insensitive to the extreme, or it is provocative. What on earth are you trying to do here?

9. Avoid personal disputes and arguments. Personal correspondence postings should be kept at a minimum. Personal attacks or insults directed towards other users will not be tolerated. Basically if you don't have anything nice to say then just don't say it all. If somebody posts an insulting comment do not reply to it. It will only result in starting a flame-war. Instead, send a Private Message to one of the forum moderators and they will take care of it.
10. Any discussion on politics or religion and religious matters is strictly prohibited.

As an administrator Catwoman, it seems you should be particularly sensitive to these matters, instead of fanning the flames.
In looking at this thread (and others), it appears you are injecting religious and political matters to the conversation.