I am an enemy of Turkey

At least according to my mother in law.

During her visit here in Romania, in July, I was accused by my mother in law that I hate Turkish people and Turkey, and that I did not appreciate what Turkey offered me in seven years of staying. She cut short her visit and took the plain back to Turkey.

I was shocked and even if I do not want to accept, it affected me a lot, specially that it comes from a person I love and I thought she did also. I learned from this that I should not take other person's affection for granted and learn to control what I say. I learned actually a lot in Turkey but I will make this the subject of another story.

Looking back of what I did, here are things that contribute to her reaction (some of these can be amusing but believe me, it may not be amusing for a Turkish person).

Most of the problems came from our talks regarding the EU membership. The current government in Turkey is trying to get into negotiations with EU regarding their membership. This is not seen with good eyes by many Turkish people who consider the "please take us into EU" attitude a mistake ant that Turkey is much better than any other European country. My mother in law is one of these. However I considered her an open minded person and attacked her opinion more than once. There are many things in Turkey that are far from being even close to European standards. She argued that there are bad things in any of the EU countries and they are not taken into consideration and everything is just politics. In the end it does not matter who is right, it looks like she was not as open minded as I believed.

I called the Greeks "our Greek friends" more than a couple of times - related with the fact that they are also in EU and most of our vegetables come from them (and not from Turkey which is also exporting vegetables in Russia and less in EU). Turkish people do not like Greek, they still have a lot of arguments and Greeks have an open aggressive attitude towards Turkey. I was just trying to take the mickey...however I did not anticipated such a reaction. It looks like I really did not get used with they emotional reaction of Turkish people even after seven years...

I actively refused to drink any Turkish tea. I know this seems to be amusing but believe me, it is not. Drinking the black Turkish tea is part of the Turkish culture and tradition. Having a breakfast without tea is hard to imagine and drinking tea in any occasion is usual. Refusing it all the time could have been taken personal. It is like refusing whatever I have got there for such a long time. Actually when I turned back here I was thinking that I will continue to drink it as I got used every morning to have at least one. Maybe I would have had if I had a machine like Jean Luc Picard to say "tea, Earl Grey, hot" and have it ready. However I quickly switched to cereals with milk, it is just easier to have it in the morning rush. I think people here are less attached to habits and traditions and more with rationality and practicality.

I may have done many other things that I am not aware of and may have upset her...

I had many experiences in Turkey, some of them not pleasant, maybe I will write more about these at another time. Even if not pleasant, these experiences were enlightening. I do not hate Turkey or Turkish people and I felt really hurt to be considered one. The better half of my family is Turkish after all... I've had a good time there and I will continue to have...