Reactions to Turks on the beach

BELGİN AKALTAN - belgin.akaltan@hdn.com.tr

DHA photo

Last week, I wrote about the seaside manners of Turks. Or, rather the lack of them. There were several positive and negative reactions to the piece. Here are extracts from one of them, an article from Nerys Anber from Antalya. She named it “What a ridiculously one-sided silly article!”

“It was the title, ‘Seaside manners of Turks’ that attracted me enough to click through. Following reading, I felt so full of disgust at the banality of the writing it compelled me to search the Internet... Our dear Belgin starts her article by first verbally assaulting Turkish people, accusing them of having no ‘seaside manners.’ Then she decides that some of us (presumably that includes her, otherwise she would have to be included as a target in her own mud flinging) have acquired certain manners, but they are mostly bad manners, not only at the beach but everywhere.

“Let’s just presume that this is all about Belgin herself, existing in the right side of the elitist divide that prevails on the beaches she deems good enough for her posterior to press upon. I bet her beach has dark brown wooden sun beds with white soft cushions and matching umbrellas and waiters in uniform. I can’t picture her sitting on just any old riff-raff beach.

“Why do I presume this? I quote Akaltan; [Litter and sound part of my piece.] Note she accuses Turkish people of being uncivilized, irresponsible and unable to comprehend logic. Oh, and they are selfish too. All this to go with bad or no manners. To escape this kind of behavior I am positive she searches for a better beach to sit where they have bins, away from the seawater gurglers who are probably trying to wash the Turkishness out of their mouths.

“Doing well so far Belgin, don’t forget you are one of ‘us.’

“Following her completely biased opening, she continues to delight her reader with her take on ‘CHARACTERS ON THE BEACH.’ [Anatolian girl part of my piece.]

“Jealous much? The Anatolian girl, who whilst being adorable, well-dressed, attractive, funny and intelligent enough to hold conversation IS A TRAP. According to the writer you can’t have all this and be happy with it at the end, ergo her opinion is attractive woman = unhappy marriage. Well, that escalated quickly. So Miss B, only ugly women who can’t be social can make men happy after the nuptials? Better put a bag over my head then and pretend I can’t read, otherwise my marriage might prove you wrong. I didn’t fall in love with my husband at the beach, but it’s not the worst place you could meet someone. Possibly the worst place you could meet someone is the office where you work, Belgin. It seems that it might be crawling with semi-feminists who slag off their own nationality. Take note, readers.

“Ah, and now to one of my favorite parts of the article; it’s the ‘insult the people with children’ paragraph.

“Ah, you make it so easy. First of all for reference, I have four kids, three of which are under five. The ‘poor grownups’ that bring their children to the beach do so to get them outside in the fresh air. To help them socialize, learn to swim, feel the heat on their skin, giggle at the water running through their hands, squeal excitedly at the waves chasing them and to tire them out. T-shirt changing and sun cream are just part of the deal. As a mother of four it is not a big deal to do this for the children I have carried, birthed, cradled, fed, grown and loved. I presume you have a mother? Didn’t she ever take you to the beach? Part of the fun for them is the freedom, and this includes interactions with other people on the beach. For social development. To build good manners. (The things you claim Turkish people do not have.) After the day is done we take them home, they collapse into bed and we have all the time in the world to sit together to live, love, laugh and reminisce about how rubbish it was to be single without purpose, with nobody to talk to, to love you. Then we might have a chat about that horrible girl that was scowling 100 meters away from us who made faces at the children like an old witch, shouting ‘Merhaba’ at people who had any rubbish and throwing stones at that nice Anatolian girl who was minding her own business.

“Anyway, there’s more. Apparently we should also avoid ‘People with a lot of newly earned money: You wouldn’t want to be around them.’ May I inquire as to exactly how you decide that they have newly earned the money? Do you go round them checking for new bank notes? Is there a test? Do they give off a certain aroma?

“The next gem; ‘People who arrive on a boat: They are absolutely different. They are sea people. They appreciate the sea and life seems to have appreciated them a lot.’

“So all you have to do to escape criticism is buy a boat? And that makes you different? It makes you a sea person? What happens if you buy your boat with new money, jump off it into the sea and spit out water making a ‘blee blee blee blee’ sound, whilst your Anatolian girlfriend throws coke cans into the sea? It’s ok, life is appreciating you. Miss B, stop please, you’re killing me.

“.... And finally, the only thing deemed worthy enough to be on the same beach as Miss B; Lifeguards. They have nice bodies… ‘Plus they have very nice helping, caring attitudes. I think we can kick everybody else [off] the beach and only allow lifeguards. How about 50 lifeguards for every 20 meters? That would be perfect.’ (By this point my suspicions have been confirmed that you must not be married and do not have children, Miss B.)

“As you have pointed out, they have nice, helping, caring attitudes. Something you don’t seem to possess. Next time we bump into you on our day out at the beach I think we should kick you off and use the 50 lifeguards to make sure you don’t come back. Well, not without a rubbish bag at least. You could start by putting your article into it!”

You can read the full version of Nerys Anber’s article at http://www.dagmedya.net.
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