Kamil Pasha

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The U.N. released a statement on the occasion of March 8 International Women’s Day. About Turkey, the statement said:

42 percent of women in Turkey face physical and sexual violence from their husbands.

There are only 52 shelters for a population of 35 million women.

Turkish women have lower wages than men and are being employed in low-quality jobs without insurance or other benefits. 59 percent of women employees do not have social security.

Men’s labor force participation rate was 70.5 percent in 2009,women’s was 26 percent, compared to a globalwomen’s labor force participation rate of 52.6 percent.

Around 70 percent of women living in rural areas work as “cost-free laborers” in family businesses.

The number of women deputies in parliament doubled in 2007 to a still-low 9.1 percent, but remains much lower in local administrations. Only 0.9 percent of Turkish mayors are women (27 of 2,948 mayors); 3.2 percent of provincial assemblies are composed of women (110 of 3,379 members).  4.2 percent of municipal assemblies are women (1,340 of 31,790 members).

Turkey is ranked 101th among 109 countries according to the gender empowerment measure, or GEM. This means that Turkey is only ahead of Tonga, Iran, Morocco, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bangladesh and Yemen.

Illiteracy among women is over 9 percent. The UN report added that the most important obstacle before female education is a lack of classrooms. [Surely THAT can be immediately dealt with. JW]

(click here)

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I’m really thrilled by this beautifully written review by Maureen Corrigan in today’s Washington Post of my new novel The Winter Thief. Click here to read the entire review. Here’s the first paragraph:

Jenny White’s new historical suspense novel, “The Winter Thief,” is set mostly in Istanbul in 1888, but throughout my reading of it I kept thinking of Ken Loach’s award-winning 1995 film, “Land and Freedom.” Loach’s look at the Spanish Civil War focuses on an idealistic young Brit who joins the International Brigades to fight the fascists. I remember seeing the film with a friend who was uncharacteristically silent afterward. Eventually, he shook off his mood to say one thing in response to the story: “I would have been killed.” My companion wasn’t being self-aggrandizing; in fact, he was probably right. Loach’s movie brought home the fact that our lives are pawns to our convictions as they intersect with the whims of the historical moment. That, too, is the message of White’s ambitious novel, which is more interested in exploring the unforeseen consequences of political and personal loyalties than it is in fully cranking up the machinery of the standard thriller….

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…Last weekend, Greek Cypriot journalists and politicians shared a 90-minute meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan and one hour with EU Minister Egemen Bagis in Istanbul. This was the first time a Turkish leader directly addressed Greek Cypriot representatives, specifically, journalists from Alithia, Politis and the Cyprus Mail, as well as former Cyprus-EU chief negotiator Takis Hadjidemetriou and United Democrats leader Praxoulla Antoniadou Kyriacou.

Turkish Cypriot journalists also attended but one could argue they were only there to hold the candles as the real date was between the Turkish leadership and the Greek Cypriot contingent.

Perhaps equally important was the presence of the Greek delegation. Cyprus has always been used as a lever for thawing or heating relations between Greece and Turkey. More recently, it’s been considered a thorn in the side of improving Greco-Turkish relations. Removing the Cyprus problem would probably eliminate the biggest obstacle to peaceful cooperation between the two NATO members in the Eastern Mediterranean.

So what messages did Erdogan give?

Time is right for a solution. “The time is now for Cyprus, with four pro-solution leaders in the two communities and two ‘motherlands’.”…

(click here for the rest of a very detailed and optimistic article in the Cyprus Mail on the historic 4-way meeting and the prospects for reuniting Cyprus)

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…Zeliha Ünaldı, an international expert on gender issues who combines an academic background with practical experience [is involved in a European-Union-funded project that] aims to increase the number of female entrepreneurs in Turkey and to help develop already-established women’s businesses.

Although the project’s initial target of training 4,500 women in entrepreneurship was deemed “overly optimistic,” more than 6,300 women benefited from the project by the end. In addition, more than 3,000 received consulting help on establishing and developing businesses. In all, more than 10,000 women applied to the program.

“When it was over, we decided to use our findings and experience for a research study to obtain the profile of the female entrepreneur.”… “The majority of the businesses owned by women fall either under the micro or small business category and are concentrated in the service sector. In the manufacturing sector, women are heavily represented in conventionally female jobs, such as textile, food and handicraft production. Women usually decide to start up a business in their mid-30s, at an age when they are partly relieved from the dependency of a child,” she said….  [T]he lifecycle of female-owned businesses, especially micro and small enterprises, are closely tied to women’s personal life cycles in that entrepreneurial endeavors can be interrupted, inspired or terminated by the birth of a child…

In Turkey women own less than 10 percent of family properties, meaning they have a limited capacity for collateral should they need credit to grow their businesses…

Click here for the article, which has more about the Women’s Entrepreneurship Program and the follow-up study. The study indicates a hopeful trend as women start businesses at a younger age –in their late 20s — with more innovative business ideas and growth-oriented businesses.

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Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters that the government was waiting for the return of Namik Tan, Turkey’s ambassador to the US, and that they will discuss  with the government and the opposition an appropriate response to the House Foreign Affairs Committee passing of a resolution calling WWI era Ottoman killings of Armenians genocide.

Reporters asked whether Turkey would close the US Incirlik air base (which is an important US route to supply troops in Iraq) or withdraw troops from Afghanistan, but Davutoglu indicated it was premature to speculate. However, he said, this is a matter of national honor for Turkey and in this the government and the opposition stand united. He also indicated that it might create difficulties in the rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia. (click here, in Turkish)

Genocide resolutions passed the House Foreign Affairs committee in 2000, 2005 and 2007, but none reached a House floor vote, and this one might not either, given the close committee vote (23-22) and pressure from Turkey and the Obama government. Losing Turkey’s logistical support for US operations in Iraq at this crucial juncture — and potentially torpedoing a Turkey/Armenia accord — seem high prices to pay for a limited political gesture. If the US government is concerned about what happened in 1915, let it set up a high-powered historical commission, instead of issuing history by fiat. The present Turkish government has said numerous times that it would support an international historical inquiry. Win-win. But if a Genocide Resolution passes the House, the door to Turkey and to any future discussions about the Armenian issue will slam shut. Lose-lose.

Here’s a fairly balanced account that mentions some of the historical complexities behind the killings. My novel, The Winter Thief, also deals with an Armenian massacre, albeit a fictional one, in 1888.

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Turkey has recalled its ambassador in Washington after a House committee approved a resolution declaring that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I was genocide.

The Democrat-controlled House Foreign Affairs Committee passed House Resolution 252 by a  23-22 vote, even though the Obama administration had urged Congress not to offend a NATO ally by approving it.

The vote clears it for consideration by the full House. But it is unclear whether the measure will get a floor vote.

(click here for the article, which gives the full text of the resolution, as well as a link to two historians sparring over the issue, and a Turkish commentator’s view — he reminds his readers that Russia is more important to Turkey than the US.)

My view is that governments have no business making pronouncements on history, as they have no expertise in such things, only partisan political interests. This is as true for Turkey as the US. Because the Armenian issue is so politicized, historians find it difficult to discuss it with any nuance. Yet nuance and complexity are what is needed, since neither side disputes that a great many Armenians were killed by Muslim Ottomans and Kurds in the early part of the 20th century. What is disputed are intent and numbers.

For Yigal Schleifer’s considered view, click here. An excerpt:

…[A] recent 60 Minutes episode (or the “provocation,” as one Turkish paper called it in its front-page headline) on the genocide issue was a good reminder of just why Turkey will continue to fight the claim so hard. The word “genocide” obviously brings up the image of the Nazis and the Holocaust, things no country wants to have associated with it, but the 60 Minutes episode charges the Ottoman Turks with actually creating the blueprint for the kind of mass killing that the Third Reich ultimately perfected. That’s a charge that’s even harder for Ankara to swallow, particularly on an issue that cuts to the core of Turkish national pride. You can watch the episode here.

Meanwhile, for a good look at just how much political cynicism surrounds the Armenian genocide issue, take a look at this op-ed by Turkey expert Henri Barkey in today’s Washington Post. Previous post on the Armenian issue can be found here.

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I thought this a fascinating list by major authors — how to write. Click here.

Here are some of my favorites:

Only bad writers think that their work is really good. — Anne Enright

You see more sitting still than chasing after. — Jonathan Franzen

Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.– Neil Gaiman

Style is the art of getting yourself out of the way, not putting yourself in it. — David Hare

The writing life is essentially one of solitary confinement – if you can’t deal with this you needn’t apply.

Oh, and not forgetting the occasional beating administered by the sadistic guards of the imagination. — Will Self

1 Finish everything you start.

2 Get on with it.

3 Stay in your mental pyjamas all day.

4 Stop feeling sorry for yourself. — Colm Tóibín

Love what you do. — Jeanette Winterson

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the ­internet. — Zadie Smith

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Jenny White’s thoughts about writing:

…For me, one of the oddest things about writing fiction is becoming the mouthpiece for characters who do things that—prior to that moment—I never imagined doing, feel things I’ve never experienced, and speak in idioms and cadences that I’ve never heard. This practice of writing like a human Ouija board goes against the familiar adage, “write what you know,” and can confuse readers who assume that the novel gives some insight into the novelist…

Click here for more.

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