IST WAY OF LIFE / istanbulogy / April 7, 2014

Of cats (and Politics)

Istanbul has been quite tense for the past few weeks. you know why; the elections. In case you are asking my opinion, my only explanation for the ruling party to sweep overwhelmingly 45% of the votes is soul pollution. Considering the corruption we are mired in on all levels, be it moral, social or financial, the results are inexplicable. Exhausted of reading self-critical articles -sheer mental-masturbation I would say- and being blamed as a white Turk, I decided to take a break from flagellation for not being able to relate to my people. Let me shut up for a while, and meditate on the situation without deliberately thinking on it, (yogic wisdom) which is not that difficult for Turkish, my mother tongue, is the language I use for keeping silent. Here, we are exposed to so much violence, injustice, violation of human rights, corruption and oppression that whenever I put my head on the pillow, all I have is nightmares. So I am done with polishing my empathy skills. At least for a while! Cats would be a nice distraction? Hmm but let’s not forget that anything can become an agenda of the country at any time. It did not take a long time for the cats to be blamed for the black-out that occurred in 41 cities in the country on the election night. Quite a coincidence that these were the very cities, where results were highly contested. So cats have become our second national symbol overnight. In case you are wondering why the opposition party lost Istanbul to the ruling party in the municipal election, here are the culprits:)

cats1

cats3

watching the bosphorus cup yacht race at fenerbahçe park

cats2

Hey! That’s my bed linen, but someone is giving me a bad look!

cats4

The afternoon nap at the court of Şehzadebaşı Mosque

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Some of us like history. At the lovely shaded cafe of the archaeological museum…

cats6

Some of us like arts…

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That’s one of the things I love about Istanbul: food and water available at every corner, especially in summer.

cats8

cats9

The ginger ones, we call them sarman.

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 We are at a donation party arranged by the local vet for the stray animals. Plenty of food, friends and attention;  why do you look so upset?

cats12

“yummy…”

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“Hey, who is there?”

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At the Bosphorus University resort

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“Hmmm. me not like the hoookah smell”

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The proud and the beautiful. In Kuzguncuk…

 



Tags:  animals cats empathy Istanbul Archaeological Museums politics




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