'So be it! He is a human being after all!' (I)

"You Turk, you!", "What's the rush? Are the Turks coming?" – these are just two of the expressions about Turks that have grown up with generations in Eastern Europe. There is no one in Moldova or Romania who has not heard these phrases. Such racist expressions can be encountered in European countries, just as they are among most of the peoples in Turkey's immediate vicinity. I do not want to list them in this article. They can be easily found online.

I never thought about writing about the image of a people, but there are some well-founded reasons that pushed me to write this article. I know, you might say, what right does a foreigner have to talk about the image of a people that is foreign to them? But as a foreigner, our eyes might be more open to seeing sides that the local people cannot notice or do not want to see. It has been 11 years since I came to Turkey. Throughout this time, in addition to the education and professional work I have received here, I have had the opportunity to meet many good people and to analyze and examine the local people, their behavior, and their way of speaking and communicating with others. Every foreign language allows you to better understand the way of thinking and behavior of the people you are among. I also had the chance to learn Turkish. The topic I want to touch upon in today's article (which I have divided into two parts due to the complexity of the subject) is the negative image that Turks have in the eyes of foreigners outside the country. Based on my personal experience, I aim to analyze why Turks or the Turkish nation do not have a very positive image in the world. What are the reasons for creating such an image, and what can Turks do to improve their own image?

I want to start this analysis with two personal examples that pushed me to write such an article. Dear 12 punto readers may have noticed that my second surname is Turkish and belongs to my husband, who is a citizen of Turkey. We had a very kind-hearted, religious neighbor in Moldova who went to church every Sunday. She passed away a few years ago. When she learned that I was going to marry a Turk before I got married, she asked me directly: "So, what was on your mind when you made this decision?" Noticing the expression on my face and understanding my answer, and perhaps remembering that she was a very religious person, she continued the discussion as follows: "So be it, he is a human being after all. Like all of us, he is mortal!" I don't know why, but I didn't want to get into an argument with her and just nodded. It is true, after this conversation, I asked myself many questions for which I could not find the answer.

The second personal reason that led me to write this article is the publication of my book in the Republic of Moldova and Romania, which contains 18 real-life stories of Moldovan women who came to Turkey at different times and live in this country. I hope that this book of mine will one day be published in Turkey as well, because it contains very interesting details about both this country and its people, and presents a picture of Turkey from a different perspective. Why and how did Moldovan women come to Turkey? What kind of a country was Turkey thirty years ago? What were the Turks like, and have they changed over time? What were the difficulties that Moldovan women encountered here? These are just a few of the questions I asked. From the interviews I conducted with the women, I was able to conclude that Turks still do not have a good image among European and Southeastern European countries. Not the people I interviewed, but their families or acquaintances think that Turks are barbaric, terrorists, aggressive, etc., so many of them even had to hide from their families that they were going to marry a Turkish citizen or come to Turkey. This research made me ask myself more questions about what both the people around me in Turkey and foreigners think about Turks.

In next week's article, I will talk about many historical, psychological, or religious reasons behind these prejudices.