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.

It can never be anyway.

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.

Many Polish friends I chatted online curse Turks. With so many Balkan countries cursing Turks (for example when you are playing a computer game) passes for a routine salutation which is solemnly made. They say (including some Kazakhs) Hey ....... Turk .... get the hell out of here. I rarely see any Turks showing this kind of a reaction to them. I believe their brains are washed in their families and in the churches they go. This problem is more evident among teenagers who don't know yet any systematic ways to exercise their hatred.

Nevertheless, there is a full district called Polonezköy in Istanbul. Our sultan opened up the doors to thousands of them in their difficult times. Today, all those Polish settlers enjoy a very good life in their new home. It is unbelievable why an avarage Pole should hate a Turk because our history is full of accounts of our troops helping them out of besieges and attacks. The same is true for the Jews too. We did make a number of outrageous mistakes too. For the time being none has been proven and research continues with all sorts of claims being made.

Today I am chatting with one Kazakh and a Polish girl whose only problem seem to be the anti western sentiment in Turkey. To put the record straight, I do have lots of friends in the Western world and I am a fan of their music, culture and heritage. What I am against is the nationalistic policies the so called falcons in American are following. For example, did any one of the debaters here ever read the National Defense Doctrine of the US government. After reading it you will realize why Bush can be categorized alongside Hitler. Because even Hitler could not dare pass such an aggressive defense doctrine in his hey day.

Catwoman, what is the relation of Ataturk with Stalin and Hitler? Is he more akin to them than femme is to Kazakhstan?

You did not answer my question.