The founder of the Seljuk dynasty was a commander from the Kırık tribe of the Oghuz who in 985 converted to Islam in what is now Uzbekistan. He and later his sons fought in a series of conquests and small wars, first for other rulers and eventually as their own host.

The clan gradually drifted west, eventually into Iran, where they set up as supporters of the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad, who gave the Seljuk leader the title of sultan.

From roughly 1050 on, the Seljuks raided and conquered much of what is now Iraq, Syria and Turkey, expanding the Turkish presence in Anatolia especially after winning the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.

I had a girlfriend who owned a pit bull and he was a very sweet dog. I have no doubt he would have defended Patty or me to the death if we had ever been attacked but otherwise he was extremely well-behaved.

Any dog can be trained to be mean and most large dogs can be dangerous. A Kangal dog, for instance, that had been raised improperly could be as dangerous as any pit bull.

Like SERA, on several occasions I have passed through Atatürk while making a connection to Ankara. When both the flight into and out of Atatürk were on Turkish Air, I checked my luggage through to Ankara and didn't have to deal with it in Istanbul; it was transferred for me.

When I flew into Atatürk on Air France and then to Ankara on Turkish Air, I had to check my luggage to Istanbul, pick it up there, then check it in again on Turkish Air.

A most Happy New Year to everyone on this forum.

There have been two moderate earthquakes and many small aftershocks in the past ten days. If you like to keep an eye on such things, there's an excellent list of current +3 quakes.

Current earthquake list

Thanks Marion.

I quickly resolved when I got to Turkey not to express any opinion on any futböl team, whether favorable or not. You can be sure I'll keep the Fenerbahçe fena değil line to myself. I'm guessing forty percent of the people I work with are diehard Fenerbahçe fans and forty percent support Galatasaray, with the remainder supporting somebody else. Nobody is neutral and it's always amazing to me how vehement some people get about their team, in America too.

I'm working my way through Elementary Turkish by Thomas and find that he always uses "fena" for "bad". The people I talk to always use "kötü" for "bad" and so does the Redhouse dictionary.

Is "fena" an obsolete word or does it have some other meaning?

May she rest in peace.

I follow Delidolu on this. I will expand on her post, with apologies.

"Değil" is used to negate a statement.

To say: "Hatice is pretty.", you'd use: "Hatice guzel."

To say: "Hatice is not pretty.", you'd use: "Hatice guzel değil."

"Yok" is the opposite of "var", "exist, in existence".

To ask: "Is there fruit?", you'd use: "Meyveler var mı?". Literally, this means something like: "Fruits in existence are there?"

The reply: "Meyveler yok." literally means "Fruits not in existence."

So the key is to know whether "var" would be used in the opposite (positive) statement. If "var" would be used, replace it with "yok". Otherwise, state the positive statement, then attach "değil" to form the negative.

95% of the time, it is easy to decide which to use. The var/yok system is very basic to understanding Turkish, to actually begin to think in Turkish. Once you get the hang of it, it comes out spontaneously.

"Değil" is more like "not" in English, in particular the recent sarcastic usage, for instance: "Dave is a handsome guy. Not!"

"Değil", of course, doesn't carry any sarcasm.