{"id":25286,"date":"2010-11-11T08:48:21","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T06:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=25286"},"modified":"2023-04-06T09:10:06","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T06:10:06","slug":"two-minutes-of-peace-adventures-in-ankara-theres-a-new-kid-in-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/11\/11\/two-minutes-of-peace-adventures-in-ankara-theres-a-new-kid-in-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Two minutes of peace \u00ab Adventures in Ankara . . . there’s a new kid in town"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning I expereinced something miraculous, wonderous, beautiful, strange, and different.\u00a0 Today is the 72nd anniversary of Mustafa Kemal Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s death.\u00a0 He was the founding father of modern Turkey.\u00a0 At exactly 9:05 this morning, the precise time that he passed, all of Turkey came to a standstill for 2 minutes of silence.\u00a0 I was driving on a highway at that time.\u00a0 All of the vehicles stopped.\u00a0\u00a0 I stopped.\u00a0 The radio stations went silent.\u00a0 A few people got out of their cars and stood at attention.<\/p>\n

\"\"Two minutes of silence is not quite an appropriate term for what I experienced.\u00a0 The driver of every vehicle soulfully honked his horn.\u00a0 I am told that people will stop whereever they are, walking down the street or up a flight of stairs, and stand still for two minutes.<\/p>\n

For most Turks, this is likely a sign of patriotism, a gesture of respect.\u00a0 For me, this was something more.\u00a0 It amazed me that the entire country participated in this act.\u00a0 To me, it was two minutes of peace, love, and understanding.\u00a0 It brought a tear to my eye.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s said that people see what they want to see.\u00a0 I believe in that.\u00a0 When I came to Turkey, I chose to write about my life here through rose-colored glasses.\u00a0 I write of its landscapes and people and how things are different and how they are\u00a0the same.\u00a0 I could have been more harsh, saying that it is nothing like the U.S.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t have this or that.\u00a0 The people don\u2019t do this or that.\u00a0 I could have written that Turkey is not as beautiful as my old home.\u00a0 But I decided at the beginning to see Turkey and all its wonders in a different light \u2013 a bright light.<\/p>\n

Today, I saw Turkey at its brightest.\u00a0 For two minutes, I heard peace.\u00a0 I felt love.\u00a0 And I was understood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. No, not at all. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Robert Fulghum<\/p>\n

via Two minutes of peace \u00ab Adventures in Ankara . . . there’s a new kid in town<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning I expereinced something miraculous, wonderous, beautiful, strange, and different.\u00a0 Today is the 72nd anniversary of Mustafa Kemal Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s death.\u00a0 He was the founding father of modern Turkey.\u00a0 At exactly 9:05 this morning, the precise time that he passed, all of Turkey came to a standstill for 2 minutes of silence.\u00a0 I was driving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":25289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[4259],"class_list":["post-25286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-ataturk-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}