Tarik Ayasun 

turk1949@comcast.net

Simit and Turkish tea.

Everyone must know by now that I was born and lived the first 20 years of my life in Istanbul; a mysterious, photogenic and historic city on the shores of the Bosporus Straits, that divides the continents of Europe and Asia. As a young boy growing up in Istanbul, the only way we could get across the Bosporus to see our family members who lived on the “other side” or to go to any city which was located in Anatolia (Asia Minor) which comprises 85 percent of the land mass of the country; we had to take a ferryboat across to start our trip. If we were traveling by car, we would have to get up very early in the morning, pack our car and drive down to the ferry-boat station in my father’s most reliable green 1956 Chevy in order to get in line to make it to the earliest available ferry. Large trucks carrying goods from Istanbul to points all over the country would be lined up in neat formations on the waiting area for many hours, their diesel engines running harmoniously. The trucks had priority to get on board before passenger cars and the wait could be very long and uncomfortable. However on most such days, my father would calmly walk up to the station chief and tip him handsomely to have our car moved to the front of the line. The same procedure would be followed on our return trip the same day or some days later depending on where we were headed.

Bosphorus bridge. SUBMITTED PHOTOS

It was a few years after I came to the USA that the first bridge across the Bosporus was completed. As usual there were many delays due to the naysayers who predicted unbelievable natural disasters, devaluation of historic values, European invasions, Crusaders attacking the City, etc. if the bridge was built.

The idea of a bridge crossing the Bosporus dates back to antiquity. Greek writer Herodotus in his “Histories” recorded that Mandrocles of Samos once engineered a pontoon bridge for Emperor Darius Great I of Persia (522 BC – 485 BC) that stretched across the Bosporus, linking Asia to Europe, so that Darius could pursue the fleeing Scythians as well as move his army into position in the Balkans to overwhelm Macedon.

The first project for a permanent bridge across the Bosporus was proposed to Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II by the Bosporus Railroad Company in 1900, which included a rail link between the continents.

The modern day decision to build a bridge across the Bosporus was taken in 1957, by the then Prime Minister of Turkey Mr. Adnan Menderes, who was thrown out of office and hanged as a result of a military coup in 1960. The contract to build the First Bridge was signed in 1968, with construction starting in 1970, and the project was complete in record time in 1973.

Finally, the “Bosporus Bridge” which is locally referred to as the “First Bridge” was completed on October 30, 1973, and today it is the 17th longest suspension bridge in the world. On December 29, 1999, one billionth vehicle crossed the bridge. The naysayers were wrong as usual; the bridge proved inadequate for the traffic it carried and a second bridge was planned and opened on July 3, 1988, and it was named after the 15th century Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, who took Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453 and ended the Byzantine Empire. Today, it is the 13th longest suspension bridge in the world. The bridge is referred to as the “Second Bridge” by the locals. Once again the naysayers were proven wrong as an average of 150,000 vehicles a day cross the bridge.

The City of Istanbul grew and spread out exponentially over the years, perhaps as a result of the two bridges or perhaps her beauty which attracts people like flies to light. Traffic in Istanbul became unbearable and another project to connect Europe and Asia via a tunnel under the Bosporus which Turks had dreamed of since 1860, was brought back to life. Plans were drawn to construct an “Immersed Tube Tunnel” for trains to achieve this goal. Soon, that dream will come true in the form of an 8.25-mile-long Marmaray Tunnel (name combines the Sea of Marmara and Ray meaning “rail” in Turkish), which will provide a rail link for a rapid transit system as well as connecting Europe to Asia via an uninterrupted rail system.

Marmaray tunnel.

Most of the area around Istanbul is in an earthquake zone. According to seismic experts, the nearby North Anatolian Fault has a 62 percent chance of generating a strong earthquake in the next 30 years. Although tunnels on such a scale have been built before, this created a major hurdle for the engineers. However, they did come up with a very practical and workable solution. While most of the tunnel will be bored through solid rock, the central mile-long section under the Bosporus will consist of an “immersed tube” fabricated in sections on the surface and then sunk and joined together on the seabed. Unlike a tunnel bored through rigid rock, the submersed sections will be connected by flexible joints made of thick, rubber-reinforced steel plates, which can absorb quake movement without breaking. The tunnel was scheduled to open in 2010, but the engineers ran into another problem; as they dug the entrances of the tunnel on either side of the Bosporus they found ancient artifacts. Archeologists had to be brought in to continue the dig which slowed down progress but some of the finds changed forever some historical facts about the City of Istanbul along the way. When it finally opens in 2013, the Marmaray will be the deepest such tunnel ever constructed, with a maximum depth of 180 ft. And, East and West will meet without getting their feet wet. An idea that has existed for 150 years will finally become a reality.

Marmaray tunnel.

I like progress and I have nothing against having two magnificent bridges and an engineering wonder immersed tube tunnel connecting two continents and two parts of a magical city. However, I will always fondly remember our family’s early morning ferry-boat crossings, the long lines, noises and smells of diesel trucks waiting in line, fighting words of the drivers trying to get on the ferry for an early start to their long journeys, feeling the cool, fresh summer morning air on my face, drinking a glass cup of aromatic Turkish tea with two lumps of sugar while feasting on a simit (a circular bread covered with sesame seeds) on the ferry.

Some memories never seem to get old.

Currently a member of Marco Island’s Code Enforcement Board, Tarik Ayasun has given many years of community service to various organizations. 

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We are coming to the end of another year in our lives. In a few days, it is going to be a new year; it will take at least a month before we get used to writing 2012 on our documents; we will all be a year older and hopefully a little wiser. I am a believer in the importance of how our knowledge of history determines our future. So, at the end of each year, I sit down and make a list of the important international events of the past year and save them in my computer diary. Most of the events of 2011, were extremely important and may actually shape the coming events of 2012. I will now take this time and space at the end of 2011 to share these events with the readers and let them decide how these events may shape world events and their lives in 2012 and beyond.

Saudi Arabia, Arab Spring.

The year started with the Arab Spring; on January 14th the Tunisian government fell after a month of protests in the streets and President Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali escaped to Saudi Arabia, that repository of fallen dictators, after 23 years in power. The month of February saw the continuation of the Arab Spring as President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt resigned after protesters called for his departure in the now famous Tahir Square protests. Egyptian Government was effectively left in the hands of the Egyptian Military until general elections may be held in a year or so, opening the possibility of a future Egyptian Government run by the Muslim Brotherhood. March started with one of the biggest natural disasters in many, many years when a 9.1 magnitude earthquake followed by a tsunami hit Japan killing over 15,000 people and leaving another 4,000 missing. Four nuclear plants in Japan declared emergencies and there were worries about nuclear leaks. We witnessed the proud and cultured citizens of a friendly nation deal with their problems silently and proudly. Arab Spring continued when the King of Bahrain (a very important and friendly island nation in the Persian Gulf) declared a three month state of emergency and troops for the Gulf Cooperation Council (mostly Saudi) soldiers were sent in to quell the most unusual civil unrest in this small kingdom. Unrest jumped to Libya where a civil war started and the United Nations declared a no-fly zone over Libya in order to protect civilians in the country from being slaughtered by the forces of Muammar Gaddafi, dictator of Libya for over 40 years.

Kim Jong II looking at lunch.

Month of May brought the best news of the year, in my opinion, when President Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden, the founder and leader of the terrorist group Al-Qaida and the murderer of thousands of our fellow citizens on 9/11 was killed during a most daring raid into his hideout in Pakistan by an elite group of US Seals. The world was a better place now and I, along with millions around the world, offered a silent prayer and said “one down and more to go!” In June the Arab Spring continued; protesters injured the President of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh forcing him to travel to where else but Saudi Arabia to get special treatment for his wounds. Protesters rejoiced at the transfer of power to his Vice President Mansur Al-Hadi. Later in the month, Arab Spring jumped over to Syria and thousands of Syrians fled to southern Turkey to avoid being killed by the military forces of the Syrian strongman Basher al-Assad.

In July, the world saw a rare domestic terror attack in Norway, an otherwise peaceful country in Northern Europe where a deranged supremacist attacked a youth camp and killed 76 young men and women. And in the USA, we sadly witnessed the end of NASA’s space shuttle program when Atlantis landed for the last time at Kennedy Space Center. In August, Libyan rebels took control of the capital city of Tripoli after battling Gaddafi’s forces.

In September we witnessed India and Bangladesh sign a pact, ending their 40- year border dispute; read about the deaths of around 100 Kenyans when a pipeline exploded and watched on TV the deathly results of Sindh floods in Pakistan which left around 500 people dead.

Territory in turmoil.

In October, the world witnessed the violent death of Muammar Gaddafi in the hands of the rebels in his hometown of Sirte and we all felt a little safer and offered a silent prayer and said “two down and more to go.” National Transitional Council forces took over control of Libya. In Turkey, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in the town of Van killed nearly 500 people and left thousands homeless. October 31 was selected by the United Nations as the symbolic date when global population reached seven billion and we all began to feel the pressure of sharing this small planet we call Earth with six billion, nine hundred and ninety nine million, nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine fellow human beings. In November, Mars Science Laboratory named Curiosity, the most elaborate Martian exploration vehicle to date was launched. It is planned to land on Mars on August 5, 2012 when we all may feel relieved to see a less populated planet where future life may be possible!

On December 15, The United Sates formally declared the end of the Iraq war which cost us the precious lives of nearly 4,500 of our very best young men and women and over 30,000 seriously injured heroes.

And Kim Jong Il , the ruthless, clueless and unpredictable “Dear Leader” of the world’s most impoverished and most secretive country North Korea died of a massive heart attack while traveling on a train causing us to offer a silent prayer of thanks and say “three down and some more to go”…

Happy New Year to all… 

Currently a member of Marco Island’s Code Enforcement Board, Tarik Ayasun has given many years of community service to various organizations. 

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turk1949@comcast.net

A new and strange battle for domination of the Islamic world is being fought in the Middle East. On one side is Shiite Iran, on the other side is Sunni Turkey and the battlefield is Syria. Why is this an important battle and what will it mean for the geopolitics of the area?

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, two Middle Eastern dictators, want to form a united front against their neighbor Turkey, a NATO ally, which on this issue seems to have the silent backing of the US Government. Both Iran and Turkey would like to establish their supremacy in the area and they are using a troubled Syria as their battlefield to establish their goals.

As Israel watches intently on the sidelines, the situation becomes even more volatile and dangerous when you throw Hamas and Hezbollah, two avowed enemies of Israel and USA into the mix. Hamas recently moved their offices from Damascus to Qatar, after Al-Assad was furious with their leadership for refusing to support the Assad regime against the popular uprising that began earlier this year. Hamas leaders had refrained from taking sides in the conflict, claiming that the movement’s policy was to avoid interfering with the internal affairs of Arab countries, despite the fact that they outwardly supported the downfall of Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt and Ghaddafi in Libya.

On the other hand, Al-Assad has the full support of the leadership of Hezbollah, another avowed enemy of Israel and the USA. Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, made it very clear in a speech in Beirut, Lebanon that they “stand by the Syrian regime, a regime of resistance against Israel.” Based on the demands and the goals of the anti-government forces in Syria, it is now certain that in a post- Assad Syria, there will be no room for Hamas, Hezbollah or Islamic Jihad. This makes the matter even more complicated and serious.

How does Turkey view the events in Syria, their neighbor in the South? There are two scenarios the government in Turkey is trying to avoid. One would be for the events in Syria to get completely out of hand and cause the country to fall into total chaos. The other would be for the internal situation in Syria to prepare the ground for outside intervention by others. Despite all this, the Government of Turkey has allowed anti-Assad forces to operate from bases in Turkish territories and allowed the formation of a de-facto government-in-exile in Istanbul (Syrian National Council) led by a long time Syrian dissident.

Under either scenario, the political and economic relationships between Turkey and Syria may catastrophically fail and may cause a religious war in the area among various sects of Islam, particularly between the Sunnis and the Shiites. In order to avoid either scenario, the Ankara government advised Syria in two main areas. One was for the Assad regime to immediately bring about democratic reforms in Syria, stop the heavy handed response to the demonstrations, give voice to all sectors of Syrian society and hold fair and honest elections immediately. The other was the declaration of the Turkish Government against further killings of the Syrian population by Assad’s military forces led by his brother, Maher. Beyond political and economic ties between the two countries, there are deep historical and humanitarian ties which force the Turkish Government not to remain silent.

Iran Press News reported that Khamenei of Iran, in response to the Turkish declaration, sent a personal letter to Assad of Syria stating that “the response to Turkey’s bullying must be the strengthening of ties and strong unity between Iran and Syria”. According to Khamenei, Shiite dominated Iran has beaten back Saudi Arabia’s domination of the Muslims world-wide, and it will not allow Turkey to fill the leadership void with Sunnis within the Islamic world. He further stressed that Iran and Syria should strengthen relations within the Shiite realm, which includes Iraq and Lebanon. With the complete withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by the end of this year, matters in the area may get even more complicated.

How does Iran view the events in Syria? Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran, Syria has been Iran’s strongest ally in the area. During the long Iran-Iraq war, Syria supported Iran and went as far as letting Iranian forces use Syrian territory for their military operations. Iran influences day to day events in Lebanon using Hezbollah to do their work. Geographically, Syria which now stands between the Mediterranean and Iran is Iran’s gateway to Lebanon. Iran would like to control both Syria and Lebanon and have direct and free access to port facilities in the Eastern Mediterranean. Therefore, it is no surprise that the Iranian regime calls the demonstrators in Syria “armed terrorists supported by CIA, Mossad and Saudi Arabia”.

The situation gets even more complicated when one considers the long term goals of Iran and Turkey. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran has followed a path to dominate the area. They support Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula; the Taliban in Afghanistan and Islamic Jihad and other Islamic groups who fight the Americans in Pakistan. The Mullahs who rule Iran would like to see a Middle East dominated by Islamic rule, heavily influenced by the extremely conservative Shiite beliefs of the Iranian rulers. On the other hand, the Islamic leaning and popularly elected government of Turkey led by Tayyip Erdogan, which is presently enjoying an unprecedented economic boom would like to see the previously Ottoman dominated areas of the Middle East and North Africa come under Sunni leaning Islamic regimes under the influence of Turkey.

The battle ground to prove either domination will be Syria. The swords have been drawn, territories are marked and the battlefield is now being prepared. When the situation will explode and what the final results will be is the big question and so far no one seems to have concrete answers. A lot may depend on when Iran finally gets its hands on a nuclear weapon and threatens to use it for Iran’s advantage. Israel will not remain silent for long and other countries in the area may join in the fray with their own nuclear weapons. It is the Middle East after all. Unpredictable! Explosive! Enigmatic!

Currently a member of Marco Island’s Code Enforcement Board, Tarik Ayasun has given many years of community service to various organizations. 

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The hero of the story.

Before I leave my house on the way to work every day, I go through the kitchen and walk into a pantry which then leads into my garage. There are no windows in the pantry; therefore I do have to turn on the pantry light to see the garage door. Last Monday morning when I switched on the pantry lights I could hardly see in front of me. Wondering why the room was still dark, I looked up at the light fixture on the ceiling. The two bulbs in the fixture resembled two flickering candles in a glass enclosure fixed on the ceiling. Distracted by so many business events, family visits, dinner engagements, customer issues and world events going through my mind, this was not something I wanted to deal with on a Monday morning.

However, in addition to the flickering candle effect, the light fixture was emitting a whining sound. “The bulbs may have gone bad” I thought and turned off the switch hoping to deal with this upon my return home at the end of the day. As I walked into the garage to get into my car, I started to worry about the situation. What if this was an “electrical problem” instead of two bad bulbs? What if there was a short? What if the cables behind the fixture were sparking? What if this caused a fire and burned the house down while we were all at work?” I did not feel comfortable leaving the “bad bulbs problem” behind without at least attempting to fix it. I got out of my car, walked back into the garage, grabbed a ladder and my tool box and headed into the pantry.

I switched the light back on and it was still flickering with the candle-light effect which did not look all that promising. As I climbed up to the top of the ladder, I had the feeling that the whining sound was getting louder. It took me a while to take apart the fixture to get to the bulbs. I unscrewed them carefully and got back down to get replacement bulbs. I was hoping that this would immediately resolve the problem on hand and I would be on my way to my office with peace of mind in no time.

I got back on the ladder and put the new bulbs in the fixture. Unfortunately for me, there was no change. Now, I was getting really worried as my simple “the bulbs are bad” theory was transformed into an “electrical problem.” I got down from the ladder and switched the lights off. This was not a good start to a Monday morning. I walked back into the house with my shoulders drooping in agony of defeat. With a worried look on my face I told my wife not to use the pantry light since there may be a major “electrical problem” and we may have to contact an electrician. I thought about the problem all the way to my office, a leisurely ride of five minutes, obeying the new speed limits all the way to avoid the wrath of the MIPD officer permanently stationed at the small park located on the East side of South Barfield Boulevard.

As soon as I walked into my office and started the daily routine of putting out fires, attending meetings and answering phone calls from all over the world, I forgot about the “electrical problem” and the fire danger at my house and went through the always hectic paces of the day. It was almost six o’clock when I got back home and walked through the garage into the pantry.

Switching the light back on I immediately noticed that the whining sound and the flickering candle-light effect were still on. Obviously, the light fixture fairy had not visited my house during the day to fix the problem. The sun was setting by now and with the pantry door open to the garage I had a full view of the light switch on the wall. I suddenly noticed a “dimmer switch” conveniently located on the wall next to the on-off switch which was set all the way down. Carefully and with much anticipation and feeling stupid and sheepish, I slid the dimmer switch up and the two 60 Watt light bulbs came to life with a full blast! And at that very moment, the image of my six year old grandson who spent the weekend with us, running in and out of the pantry switching the lights on and off while getting glasses of water from the water cooler appeared before my eyes.

That evening, as I sat in my favorite chair on the patio waiting for my wife to get home, I was thinking (and smiling) of how to explain all this to her who would most certainly make fun of me. I started to laugh. I had aggressively and thoughtlessly attacked the symptoms of what I perceived to be a serious problem rather than finding and fixing the root cause. A dimmer switch which was manipulated by a six-year old boy getting water from a water cooler in the pantry!!! Isn’t this how most governments around the world get themselves in trouble, I thought? By attacking and changing the light bulbs immediately; instead of stopping and thinking about the many causes which may have contributed to the main problem in the first place.

With all the seemingly unsolvable problems popping up everywhere around the world lately; I am certain that there are a number of dimmer switches which are being manipulated by a bunch of six year old boys. All we can hope as fellow citizens would be for the elected leaders around the world not to jump to change the light bulbs before trying to locate these dimmer switches.

Sometimes, real or perceived problems may be much less complicated than they seem…

Currently a member of Marco Island’s Code Enforcement Board, Tarik Ayasun has given many years of community service to various organizations.

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A proud Tarik Ayasun and son-in-law Major Thompson. SUBMITTED PHOTOS

The United States Marine Corps turned 236 on November 10, 2011, and my wife and I had the honor and privilege of attending the Commandant’s Birthday Ball at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center on the historic Potomac River in Washington, DC. We were the invited guests of our daughter Major Suzan Thompson and our son-in-law Major Gary Thompson. This was a black-tie event for the civilians and evening dress or dress blues for all the Marines who were attending the ball. It was a picture perfect Washington, DC fall evening, a bit chilly for us Floridians. A bright orange full moon accompanied us all the way to the venue. The lobby was overflowing with Marines of all ages, standing tall in their magnificent uniforms, guests from across all services, officers from other countries all there to enjoy this unique evening with their families, friends, comrades and distinguished guests.

Receiving the medal of honor.

The tradition of the Birthday Ball goes back to the vision and commitment of the famous 13th Commandant, John A. Lejeune, who in 1921, issued Marine Corps Order No. 47, Series 1921. Gen. Lejeune’s order summarized the history, mission, and tradition of the Corps. It further directed that the order be read to all Marines on 10 November of each year to honor the founding of the Marine Corps. Thereafter, 10 November became a unique day for U.S. Marines throughout the world. Soon, some Marine commands began to not only honor the birthday, but celebrate it. The first “formal” Birthday Ball took place on Philadelphia in 1925. Guests included the Commandant, the Secretary of War (in 1925 the term “politically correct” didn’t exist; it was Secretary of War, not Secretary of Defense), and a host of statesmen and elected officials.

In 1952 the Commandant, Gen. Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr., formalized the cake-cutting ceremony and other traditional observances. For example, Marine Corps policy now mandates that the first piece of cake must be presented to the oldest U.S. Marine present. The second piece goes to the youngest Marine. Among the many such mandates is a solemn reading of the Commandant’s birthday message to the Corps.

All 3000 Marines and guests were asked to take their seats around 8:00PM the ceremonies started with a message from the Commandant of the Marine Corps. General James F. Amos’ message was solemn and right to the point. He emphasized the fact that for the last 10 years the Corps has been engaged in continuous combat operations against those who threatened the security of the United Sates along with conducting operations around the world which included humanitarian disaster relief, counter-piracy, theater security operations, special operations, counter-insurgency and many more. He summarized by saying “Our rich heritage of selfless service and fidelity to Nation and to one another lives on in all who currently wear the Eagle, Globe and Anchor – those who have answered the clarion call to duty with remarkable courage, dedication and unshakable resolve that Marines are so well known for.”

After the Commandant’s speech, we were treated to a live concert by the United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps followed by the singing of the National Anthem. I do not recall singing our National Anthem more enthusiastically and with more passion than this evening standing tall between Corporals, Sergeants, Majors, Colonels and Generals. Following the reading of General Lejeune’s historic birthday message, Secretary of State Leon Panetta was asked to join the Commandant who cut the cake, handing the first piece to the Secretary, followed by the oldest Marine present who then presented it to the youngest Marine, a 21 year old female First Lieutenant from Quantico.

After some further remarks, Secretary of defense Leon Panetta gave a very inspirational speech; going back to his roots as a first generation Italian-American whose family arrived in the United States for the sole purpose of giving their children a better life and better opportunities for success in America.

When all the speeches were over, dinner was served. During dinner I had a chance to talk to various Marines and their families who were at my table and got an insight as to how these young families handle long separations when their loved ones are in harm’s way thousands of miles away. As the coffee was being served, there was a commotion right next to my table. I looked up and came face to face with former Marine Dakota Meyer.

Secretary of Defense Panetta.

As it usually happens at moments like this, my camera was nowhere to be seen and all I could do was to stand up and shake this unassuming Marine’s hand and thank him for his service. And what a grip that was! This down-to-earth farm boy is the first living Marine to receive the Medal of Honor for heroism in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This former Marine sergeant who insists he is not a hero, repeatedly rushed into heavy enemy fire in an attempt to rescue four missing U.S. service members pinned down in an intense hours-long ambush in eastern Afghanistan despite receiving orders not to do so. Fighting through a piece of shrapnel that had injured his arm, Meyer later reached the four only to find that they had died in the fighting. President Obama described the 23 year old Meyer as representing “the best of a generation that has served with distinction through a decade of war.” His actions will forever represent the “Dakota Meyer Moment” and hopefully inspire others to think there are more noble things in life than to only think about your own best interests. And there I was, standing next to this young man, shaking his hand and thanking him for his service to our country. But then, as far as I am concerned every single member of the Marine Corps or any other service who ever put on a uniform and unselfishly served to make this country what it is; is a hero.

Sgt. Dakota Meyer.

The wonderful evening finally came to an end and we said our goodbyes to those wonderful men and women. As we drove back home near midnight, every one of us in the car had in our hands as a souvenir a small replica of the U.S. Marine Corps Officer’s Mameluke sword which will be on our desks forever, as a reminder of this wonderful evening and all our heroes who make our country safe and great for all of us. “God Bless America” means so much more when you are in the company of heroes.

Currently a member of Marco Island’s Code Enforcement Board, Tarik Ayasun has given many years of community service to various organizations.

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I received anxious email messages and telephone calls from many of my friends, as well as a number of readers of this newspaper last week, wondering if any members of my family in Turkey were affected by the earthquake which devastated a city in Eastern Turkey. Some emails came from people I have never met. This was so very American and so very heartwarming to say the least. The only thing some of these emailers knew about me was the fact that I was born and raised in Turkey until I decided to come to America and become a citizen and start my own family here. I responded to each and every email personally and let them know how much I appreciated the fact that they cared. At the Thursday noon Rotary Club meeting I was even asked if the Rotary could get involved in any relief efforts. Once again these requests were made by some very unique individuals whose one only goal was to make me feel comfortable in the fact that I had friends here who were always ready to help.

Earthquake in Turkey.

Amongst all of these emails, I also received one from a very long time friend of mine who lives in Naples, but spends a portion of his summers in Turkey. He and I are graduates of Robert College of Istanbul and we have been good friends despite the fact that he attended RC approximately 14 years before I did. The subject of his email was quite depressing. He indicated that he received an email from a classmate of his on the subject of whom or what caused this earthquake which devastated a town and killed many people. My friend was shocked when he read the contents of this email, coming from a person who studied at the same American institution which we both studied in and prided ourselves with the modern knowledge and education we received from teachers and professors who were brought in to teach us, because they were the best of the best America could offer at the time.

Turkish earthquake.

The email in question indicated that Kremlin’s Black Sea fleet reported that, in order to stop the Turkish Military’s entry into Northern Iraq while chasing Kurdish Terrorists belonging to PKK (Kurdistan Liberation Army); USA had used their most “secret weapon” to create an earthquake in the region. According to this so called “secret report” Russian stations in the area monitored a significant increase in temperatures in the ionosphere within 36 hours of the earthquake which reached a “peak” within hours of the event. Russians further reported that the unusually fast heating of the ionosphere was caused by the “secret earthquake creating weapons” which USA possess all around the world, controlled by scientists in HAARP stations located in Alaska! The report also indicated that the same weapons were used against Japan during this year’s disastrous earthquake and Tsunami; although it was not indicated why America would use such a weapon against Japan. Russian Admirals in the area were reportedly indicating with certainty that America was against Turks chasing Kurdish Terrorists into their camps in Northern Iraq after the Turkish army barracks were attacked which resulted in the deaths of 26 Turkish soldiers and officers. This magnificent “secret report” could not have been complete without an attack on Israel and Jews; so it went on to say that “The US Government is very concerned about reports which indicated Turkish Army’s growing concern over the fact that Israel is actually housing and training PKK terrorist forces within the territories of Israel”. And the secret report ended with the most original warning of all; that all this was a part and parcel of the Great American Master Plan to control the world.

To the average reader, this may all sound like a “fantasy” or the plot of some cheap science fiction movie. But not to the person who emailed it to my friend and not to the nearly a million people in Turkey who read and commented on the report. I will not pass on any more of the worthless accusations in the report; however I want to continue by posing the questions my friend asked me and hope some of you will take a moment to respond to me with your possible answers.

My friend wrote “What are they thinking? What makes people think this way about America? Where did America fail to make them think this way? And he concludes by saying “this has to be the ultimate science fiction plot even a Hollywood producer could not have imagined!”

My simple answers to my dear friend may not have satisfied him and they may not satisfy all; only because I think there may be some amongst us (I certainly hope not!) who read and believe these stories and blame America for everything. The readers may have noticed by now, after thirty some articles I contributed this wonderful newspaper that “I can’t take it anymore! I won’t take it anymore!”

HAARP, how it works.

What are they thinking? They are not thinking at all. Had they been thinking, they would have gotten on the internet and searched for HAARP* and figured out for themselves that there are no “secret earthquake causing weapons in the American arsenal.” These people probably have no idea that our government officials at the highest levels were unable to keep track of 1800 automatic weapons sold to Mexican drug runners under a “brilliant secret program” which ended up killing our own Border Patrol officers; let alone using “secret earthquake weapons” to hold the Turks back from chasing PKK terrorists.

What makes people think this way about America? These people are full of hatred and jealousy of the success of this young democratic nation. They know that they are to be blamed for their failures but would rather use America as their scapegoat.

Where did America fail to make them think this way? America did not fail anywhere to make them think this way. America lost the propaganda war waged against her by all our combined enemies. While we were spending blood and treasure saving these people from tyranny; our enemies were busy feeding them “secret earthquake causing weapons” baloney. While we were busy sending aid to the suffering peoples of the world; the tyrants were busy filling their pockets, living in palaces and bad mouthing America. While we were carrying bottles of clean water to areas of the world completely forgotten and given up by vicious dictators; they were busy telling their people why they should not trust the Americans because the water they bring may contain secret chemicals to turn them into Christians.

It goes on and on and I can’t take it anymore. The time has come and almost passed when we as a nation should stop and think about our own priorities, who we are and where we want to be. Every aid request must be examined carefully and our decisions to give aid must be made based on our culture and our priorities. Let us stop feeding dictators and tyrants who turn against us to make sure they can last in perpetuity and become our worst enemies. Bin Laden, Saddam, Khadafy, Mubarak, Chavez and Assad should be examples of people whom we should never deal with. Someday (soon I hope) when we figure all this out, my friend will no longer have to ask me those serious questions and as Americans we shall have all the correct answers.

*HAARP is a scientific endeavor aimed at studying the properties and behavior of the ionosphere, with particular emphasis on being able to understand and use it to enhance communications and surveillance systems for both civilian and defense purposes.

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Israel map.

If you pick up a map of the Middle East and see how tiny the State of Israel is; try looking at a map of the world and try and find Israel on it. This is a truly daunting task because Israel is indeed a very small yet very significant little democracy in the Middle East. In effect, it is the ONLY democracy, surrounded by countries run by dictators, kings, emirs and sultans. Israel is an ally of the United States and at the present time in grave danger of attack from her so called neighbors.

Yet, the United Nations General Assembly is on the verge of recognizing a Palestinian state in a unilateral step which will embolden the radicals and put Israel in greater danger. Meanwhile, even the “moderate” Palestinians indicate that this is not a step toward peace as portrayed in the Arab and some western media; but merely an interim step in Palestinian Statehood forced on Israel without any further meaningful negotiations between the parties. Why is this recognition of a Palestinian State so important and what are the ramifications of such a decision on America and Americans?

In order to understand the situation clearly, one must examine the geography of the area as well as the history of how Israel has managed to exist and prosper there for almost 63 years. The State of Israel covers an area which is slightly larger than the State of New Jersey. She shares borders with Egypt, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, West Bank and the Mediterranean Sea in the West. With a total population of slightly over 7 million people, Israel is America’s only true ally in the Middle East for many reasons.

In the North East, Israel borders with Syria, a client state of Iran which is presently experiencing an “Arab Spring” of her own where the government of Syria under the leadership of Basher Al-Assad and the Socialist Baath Party is killing its own citizens by the hundreds. Israel and Syria have fought wars before and have an ongoing border conflict involving “Golan Heights”; a strategically important high ground between the countries.

In the North, Israel shares a long border with Lebanon; a mostly unstable client state of Iran via Syria, which is presently under the influence of Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim political group with a strong military wing the United States defines as a terrorist organization. Hezbollah was founded in 1982 in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. It is led by a man named Hassan Nasrallah, originally a military commander, who studied in centers of Shiite theology in Iran and Iraq. Hezbollah draws inspiration from the Iranian revolution; they receive training from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and funds from Tehran, and have close links to Iran and Syria. U.S. government Intelligence officials estimate that Hezbollah’s weapons arsenal includes between 40,000 to 80,000 short and long-range rockets, as well as anti-aircraft, anti-tank, and anti-ship weapons.

Gaza strip map.

In the East, Israel has a border with what is known as the West Bank. The September 1993, Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements provided for a transitional period of Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Under a series of agreements signed between May 1994, and September 1999, Israel transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA) security and civilian responsibility for many Palestinian populated areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Fatah organization (which was originally started by Yasser Arafat) dominated the PA governing the West Bank. Present president of PA Mahmoud Abbas has said he will not resume negotiations with current Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu until Israel halts all settlement activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

A longer border is shared with the Kingdom of Jordan on the East. Jordan is ruled by the Hashemite King Abdullah, whose father Hussein was the first Arab ruler to recognize and sign agreements with the State of Israel. Jordan lost the West Bank during the 1967 war with Israel. King Abdullah, under pressure from the events surrounding the Arab Spring is trying to reform his country of 6 million people, 92 percent of whom are Sunni Muslims. There are presently 2 million Iraqi and 2 million Palestinian refugees living in Jordan.

Israel’s Southern border is with Egypt. Since the days of Presidents Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak, Egypt was at peace with Israel. However, after the fall of Mubarak from power during this year’s Arab Spring, Egypt is now falling under strong influence of the Muslim Brotherhood which originated in Egypt but was kept in check by the Sadat and Mubarak governments. Recent events show that terrorists will use the Egyptian route to stage attacks on Israel.

Gaza Strip is a small area of land squeezed in between Israel and Egypt. It is presently controlled by Hamas, the largest and most influential Palestinian militant movement. HAMAS is an acronym for “Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya,” or Islamic Resistance Movement. The word “hamas” means “zeal” in Arabic. Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, rocket attacks into Israel have increased by a huge margin.

Jordan map.

Israel has managed to exist for almost 63 years in this very dangerous neighborhood. However, her very existence and future is now in serious trouble. Palestinians, taking notice of Israel’s number one supporter and backer United States’ present preoccupation with internal affairs; jobs, recession, downgrading of credit rating, etc., and taking solace from the events of the “Arab Spring”; unilaterally decided to bring up the issue of Palestinian Statehood to the United Nations. Knowing well in advance that any such decision by the UN will be vetoed by the USA; one may have to come to the conclusion that this is nothing more than a ploy to make the USA look bad in the international arena. This is a matter that the US Government should have prevented from happening earlier in the year; but did not. Faced with threats from the ever increasingly Islamist Turkish Government whose leadership is trying to exert its influence in the areas where they once ruled when they were called the Ottoman Empire; faced with the realities of the “Arab Spring” which brought about changes in Egypt and will no doubt bring major changes in Syria and Lebanon; Israel now must walk a tightrope and depend on her best ally, United States, to play a major role in preserving and protecting the delicate but most important sovereignty of the State of Israel. USA must continue to support direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians to resolve the issues of Palestinian Statehood and Israel’s long time security.

It is a very dangerous time in the Middle East. The expectations of the Palestinian people have been raised to their highest levels that they will be given Statehood by the United Nations. The American veto will obviously dash those hopes and expectations all at once as expected. This, coupled with the threats from her many unfriendly neighbors, will no doubt put Israel’s immediate and long term future as the lone democratic state in the area in serious jeopardy as well as putting America’s overall security in the area in doubt.

Currently a member of Marco Island’s Code Enforcement Board, Tarik Ayasun has given many years of community service to various organizations.

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Tarik Ayasun 

It has been ten years since America was attacked by a band of terrorists who on that day wanted to destroy America; kill as many Americans as possible and fire the first shot in the Holy Jihad which they declared against America. Despite recent efforts on the contrary by some who are trying to re-write history, this was neither an attack on Western Civilization nor the West in general. This was an attack on America, a cowardly attack on American exceptionalism and a vicious attack on our fellow Americans by Al Qaida terrorists acting in the name of Islam. Had the attack been planned against Western Civilization as some now claim; I can name at least ten other targets which could have been attacked. Had the attack been planned against the West in general, I can name twenty other targets that could have been attacked. No, those targets were not attacked; America and Americans were attacked. I think it is time for these re-writers of history to stop their foolish attempts to fool new generations of Americans and face reality! America in general and Americans in particular were attacked on 9/11.

New York Twin Towers in flames, September 11, 2001.

Since that horrible September morning when I sat in front of the TV set in my office, watching the two airliners hit the twin towers in New York and the gloomy days immediately following, my biggest worry was that this horrible and murderous attack on America and Americans would be interpreted, analyzed, celebrated and finally completely twisted and forgotten. As I watched the thick, black smoke fill the blue skies over New York that day, with tears coming down my cheeks I prayed for my fellow Americans who were jumping from the two buildings in a last ditch effort to escape the flames. As the twin towers came crashing down, I had vivid visions of the U.S. Navy personnel jumping off the decks of USS Arizona to save their lives on that fateful December morning at Pearl Harbor some 60 years ago. At that very moment I realized that I did not want 9/11 to go the way the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor went over the years. A quick check of the pages of major US newspapers on December 7 of any year in the past ten years will yield hardly any stories about what happened on that fateful day President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed to be “a date which will live in infamy.”

9-11 flight 175.

On a similarly serene morning on December 7, 1941, Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. That unprovoked and dastardly attack was intended to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia. The Japanese sank or damaged three US cruisers, three US destroyers, one anti-aircraft training ship and one US minelayer. 2,402 men were killed and 1,282 wounded. As a result, America was dragged in to World War II which resulted in the deaths of millions and only ended when Imperial Japan surrendered after America dropped two nuclear bombs on August 6 and August 9, 1945 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to put an end to an ever escalating war and saved further loss of American lives!

9-11 Statue of Liberty and WTC.

This brings me back to my worries about the preservation of the true events and true meaning of 9/11 and the efforts being made to completely change and misinterpret them. On August 6 or August 9 of any year in the past 10 years, when one turns to the first page of his or her favorite American newspaper one will see horrifying photos of the survivors of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki with accompanying detailed stories of the days following the event. When one thumbs through the pages of certain history books used in any American high school, one will be hard pressed to find anything about Pearl Harbor. Yet there will be plenty of information about the nuclear attacks on Japan. Ask any high school student about Hiroshima or Nagasaki and you will given full details about the horrors of this attack; yet ask them about Pearl Harbor and you will get a blank stare. It is as if Pearl Harbor never happened and America, without any provocation or reason, conducted nuclear attacks on two Japanese cities!

WTC burning.

It scares me to death to think that some day in the very near future, the 9/11 attack on America by Islamic terrorists will also be forgotten by most Americans. There are serious efforts being made by some educators, some government leaders and some others to misinterpret the events of that dastardly attack and turn them into some sort of a “universal condemnation” of terrorism in general. Yes, we should all condemn terrorism around the world regardless of whom the perpetrators were or whom the victims may be. But we must make sure to never, ever forget who attacked America on 9/11 and what their main purpose was. I most sincerely hope and pray that my fellow Americans spend a few minutes with their children on 9/11/2011 and tell them what exactly happened on that terrible day in New York City, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. Responsible parents must never let their young and impressionable children be influenced by politicians of all kinds; teachers with personal agendas; right or left leaning members of the printed press; or talking head TV personalities. It must be the duty of every American parent to tell his or her children what exactly happened on that date. Every responsible parent must make sure that the children understand the true meaning of 9/11 and how it changed our lives as Americans forever. They must be told that 9/11 is the only reason why they have to be frisked; body searched and made to take their shoes off at airports. We owe the next generation the truth about 9/11, not an ever changing interpretation; we must make sure that they understand that this was not a global attack on Western values but it was an attack on America, their home, their fellow Americans and their families.

Let us never let 9/11 turn into Pearl Harbor. Let us never forget September 11, 2001. Let us never forgive the attackers who deliberately and cowardly killed our fellow Americans.

Currently a member of Marco Island’s Code Enforcement Board, Tarik Ayasun has given many years of community service to various organizations. 

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Saturday morning we woke up to the grim news that we lost 22 of our “best of the best” Navy SEALS, members of the tough Seal Team Six in Afghanistan. While others debate whether the Taliban shot down their Chinook during a night raid or whether it was mechanical failure that brought down their helicopter, we as Americans must mourn the loss of these young men who dedicated their lives to protect all of us so we can continue to enjoy being Americans, live in a free country and continue to feel free every morning we wake up to see the first light of day.

Navy Seal operation. Submitted photos

When one remembers that there are only 300 members of the SEAL Team 6, the loss of these 22 young men exposes the massiveness of the tragedy. Since 9/11 we have lost a total of 32 members of the SEAL team, therefore losing 22 members in one day is very significant. We will probably never know the exact details of the incident; however it is now public knowledge that the SEALS were coming to the aid of our forces who were engaged in a firefight with the enemy (Taliban) on the ground when their twin-rotor CH-47 was apparently brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade. Those involved in the firefight on the ground immediately broke off and quickly established a safety perimeter around the downed chopper making sure that the enemy would not take further advantage of those killed in the crash. We may all recall the gruesome scenes from Somalia when a Blackhawk went down and the survivors of the crash as well as the dead were dragged through the dirty streets of Mogadishu.

It is not easy to become a US Navy SEAL. One must go through rigorous training, pass many tests to become a SEAL. Once a SEAL, he immediately becomes a member of a very tight community. Due to the secrecy of their missions, their families never know where they are or what they are doing. They leave their homes, wives, children, families and loved ones on very short notice and travel around the globe to their duty stations where they stay for extended periods of time fighting our enemies who want nothing less than to destroy our country, take away our freedoms and destroy everything we believe in. These brave SEALs may never return from these missions.

Seals in Afghanistan.

To be a member of the US Navy’s SEAL team, one has to want above and beyond anything else in life, to be a member of the SEAL team. It takes a very special person to be able go through the rigors of SEAL training and later through many combat operations which require not only physical toughness and agility but also total mental stability. We may never know the identities of those who lost their lives on a Saturday morning in Wardak Province in Afghanistan but we should all remember their ultimate sacrifice and pray for the loved ones they left behind.

Marine Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command, said: “We grieve for our lost comrades and especially for their families, yet we also remember that the lads were doing what they wanted to be doing and they knew what they were about. This loss will only make the rest of us more determined, something that may be difficult for those who aren’t in the military to understand.” According to news accounts, a Special Operations officer who asked not to be identified said “The SEALs and their special operations counterparts conduct these missions night after night knowing that every mission could be their last and despite this tragic loss for the units and our nation, tonight their brothers will board helicopters and go out and do the work our country has asked of them. And they will continue to do so without hesitation or mental reservation as they go after the enemies that would do us harm.”

We live as Americans in a free country where each individual’s ideas matter; where each life is precious; where all kinds of issues can be debated freely; where freedom of speech is protected under a Constitution based on individual rights and freedoms that dates back to 1787.

To the 22 members of the SEAL Team 6 who lost their lives in a foreign land, away from their loved ones I say “Thank you for your service to our country and thank you for making the ultimate sacrifice for us. May God Bless you all and may you all rest in peace. We will never be able to repay you for what you have done for us, but we will always remember and respect you as our heroes.”

God Bless America…

Currently a member of Marco Island’s Code Enforcement Board, Tarik Ayasun has given many years of community service to various organizations.

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I am a shopaholic and a shameless people watcher. So what do I do when I have a free Saturday when my wife is out of town helping our daughter move into her new home in Washington, DC? I spend my afternoon shopping and people-watching at Coastland Mall in Naples, of course. That is exactly what I was doing on a recent Saturday afternoon. After purchasing a number of polo shirts I did not need; two pairs of pants I probably will never wear and a pair of shoes I have no place for in my closet, I decided to buy a cup of coffee and sit in one of those circular areas where they have tables and seats for tired shoppers and people watchers like me. It wasn’t too long after I sat down; I spotted a young man whom I presumed was a high school student walking lazily towards me. He was wearing standard teen issue flip-flops, baggy and crumpled shorts topped off with a white t-shirt displaying the very familiar face of Ernesto “Che” Guevara on his chest. I usually just like to watch people and not talk to them. The stories I make up in my mind about these people I see are always far better and more interesting than if I were to talk to them and find out about who they are and what they do. But in this case, I was very curious. I had been seeing a lot of “Che” t-shirts on young men and women lately and this young man looked friendly enough for me to go up and ask him why he decided to wear a “Che” t-shirt. After all, he was too young to have known who “Che” was, what he stood for or what he did. More than likely his school’s history curriculum did not include an in-depth study of “Che”.

I approached the young man, making sure I put on my best possible smile, friendly manners and non-confrontational attitude (somehow a difficult task for me; so my wife tells me.) “Hello” I said, may I ask you a question? “Sure Dude” he said “as long as you are not a recruiter!” I forgot that I was wearing my blue polo shirt with the USMC logo embroidered on its left upper chest. Although I had made a promise to myself NEVER to talk to anyone who calls me “dude”, I was too intrigued with the situation to stick to my principles. “No!” I said firmly, “not at all. I just wanted to know why you are wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt.” He looked at me like I had just arrived on the last spacecraft from Mars and said “hey, he is a cool dude, man!” I said “really? Is he still around?” Now he looked puzzled, he searched for an answer all around him, up in the sky, down on the floor and in the deepest crevices of his grey matter (an assumption on my behalf). “I really don’t know” he said, with a half-smile. “But I know he is a pretty awesome dude!” Not trying to look like an average history teacher on a Saturday afternoon hunt for less than average students to harass at the mall or a wise-guy from up North; I said “He is dead! He has been dead for a long time. Actually, he was killed in Bolivia on October 9, 1967.” “Oh! Dude” You cannot be serious” said the young man with the “Che” shirt. “I thought he was some kind of a revolutionary” he added. I told him yes, “Che” was a revolutionary all right; he was Fidel Castro’s comrade during the Cuban Revolution; an Argentinean by birth and a revolutionary by trade; he killed many, many innocent men and women in pursuit of establishing Communist societies all over Central and South America. (We used to call terrorists “revolutionaries” back then; sounded more romantic I suppose.) I had the young man’s attention for about thirty seconds. After listening to me he snapped back “Good story Dude; but he is still all right by me” and he walked away towards a group of his friends with similar baggy shorts, flip-flops displaying a multitude of earrings and chains for belts. I tried not to make eye-contact with any of them, walked cautiously over to Starbucks and ordered another “Grande decaf cappuccino”. I wondered if the young man would have picked up the same t-shirt and wore it all around town proudly, thinking “Che” was an awesome dude if he had known who he was?

As I sat back down to enjoy my hot and strong “Decaf Cappuccino”, I promised myself never to talk to my “people watching subjects” ever again I continued to think about my brief exchange with this young man. I remembered having a similar experience in Istanbul back in the late 60’s, a few years before I came to America. One weekend I came home from boarding school only to find a small crowd of undercover officers and local police at our door talking to my dad. My sister, who is two years younger than me was standing near them, with a look of sheepish puzzlement and a semi-guilty stance. I kept my distance since I knew very well that my dad, undercover officers and several local police officers at our front door was a lethal combination which may end up exploding on my head!  In the totally unbiased opinion of my dad, I was always guilty before I could prove myself not-guilty. I say not-guilty because I could never prove myself innocent; just not guilty! After the cops left, I walked into the house and saw my dad in my sister’s bedroom, hastily taking down a huge wall size black-and-white poster of Angela Davis, with her unmistakably huge Afro hairdo! I called my sister over and said “Do you know who she is?” My sister had the same “duh” look the young man with the “Che” t-shirt had at Coastland Mall! She did not have a clue!  Before asking her why she covered her entire wall with a poster of Angela Davis; I gave her a three minute lecture on Ms. Davis who at the time was a member of the American Communist Party; was considered a revolutionary and someone whose face the Turkish police would really not like to see on a young girl’s wall in the house of a local politically influential businessman! I slammed the question down to my sister with all the might of a Turkish older know-it-all brother; “Why did you put Angela Davis’ poster on your wall?  She looked up at me and said “I think her hair is really cool!” Well, at least she did not call me a “dude”.

Everything seems to change over time but nothing really changes…

Currently a member of Marco Island’s Code Enforcement Board, Tarik Ayasun has given many years of community service to various organizations.

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July 4th in Washington.

I was not yet living in America when on August 28, 1963, a young preacher in Atlanta named Martin Luther King Jr., uttered the following words:

“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. . . . I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’

Drafting the Declaration.

Dr. King was hopeful that “this nation would someday rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.” Yes, he had a dream but do we really know how much of this dream he really believed would happen someday? We will never know. However, that someday is here; it is now. This young nation rose up three years ago and elected a black President with the name Barack Hussein Obama. I hope Dr. King was looking down and smiling as Mr. Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America.

We are now a maturing nation. Many years have passed since the Declaration of Independence was written on a piece of paper and signed by some very insightful men. Since then, we have overcome a lot of our shortcomings; we are very close to understanding our true identity and our unique place in history every single day. Although not perfect, we are as close to being perfect as we can be.

Declaration of Independence 1776. Submitted photos

To many of our fellow citizens, Independence Day is a day to have a family get-together, spend a day around the barbecue or on the beach and have a nice one day holiday culminating in a wonderfully presented fire-works display at the end of the day. Unfortunately, many young people today are unaware of the reason why we celebrate Independence Day every year on the 4th of July. That is a real shame.

So, on the eve of this very important celebration of a day in our nation’s history, I decided to reminisce as a first generation immigrant who came to this country at the age of 20, with dreams, expectations and hopes.

Martin Luther King.

Some years ago, I read the biography of John Adams, the first Vice President and second President of the United States. In this biography, there was a passage from a letter Adams wrote to his wife Abigail on July 3, 1776 on the eve of the Declaration of Independence. “I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these states. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of light and glory; I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph.” I was very impressed with these words and I still am. American idealism and exceptionalism could not have been expressed in any better words many years before America turned out to be the leader of the free world.

John Adams and Abigail Adams.

Today, as we watch the events taking place in the Middle East  and Africa where one despot after another is falling in front of a wave of humanity searching for their “freedom,” one cannot help but think about the prophetic words of Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Adams dated September 12, 1821; “The flames kindled on the 4th of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.” I wonder if Mr. Jefferson knew when he wrote these words almost 200 years ago that there would be despots like Moammar Kaddafi, Basher al-Assad or Hosni Mubarak who would be trying to extinguish the flames of freedom today. Perhaps not but those words sure come to mind as we watch, hear and read the news today.

Thomas Jefferson.

With the Declaration of Independence came “freedom” to America and that is what we should all be celebrating on this Independence Day Holiday on the 4th of July. We have many of our finest young men and women in uniform spread all around the world defending us and our freedoms, hoping to free others from the clutches of despots and dictators. The common expression “freedom is not free” rings true every time I pick up a newspaper and read about the death of another young soldier, marine, pilot or a sailor in a foreign land. I take great pride in being an American; I take great pride in understanding the true meaning of the Declaration of Independence and I feel great to have had the opportunity to start and grow my new family in this great nation.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Ronald Reagan, one of the greatest Presidents to serve the people in the White House said it best during his address at Yorktown on October 19, 1981; “Our Declaration of Independence has been copied by emerging nations around the globe, its themes adopted in places many of us have never heard of. Here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights. We the people declared that government is created by the people for their own convenience. Government has no power except those voluntarily granted it by the people. There have been revolutions before and since ours, revolutions that simply exchanged one set of rulers for another. Ours was a philosophical revolution that changed the very concept of government.”

This Independence Day Holiday on July 4th, 2011, my only wish is for all Americans, regardless of race, creed and color to stop for a moment and thank all those who made us a free nation by declaring our independence from a despot King; who fought to preserve that freedom in faraway places and those who are willingly giving their lives today to make sure we can live another day in a free America as free Americans.

Happy Independence Day and God Bless America…

Currently a member of Marco Island’s Code Enforcement Board, Tarik Ayasun has given many years of community service to various organizations.

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Map of the area of conflict. Submitted photos

What is correctly named “Arab Spring” is continuing to heat up the Middle East without an end in sight. As predicted earlier in this column, Muslim Brotherhood started to show its strength in Egypt; elections hoped for by all Tunisians have been delayed; President of Yemen has been injured in an assassination attempt and moved to Saudi Arabia for treatment leaving Yemen in the hands of various tribes and rebels who have no definite plans for the future; protesters have been subdued in Bahrain; and an undeclared, aimless and leaderless war continues to deplete our resources in Libya. However, the most important of all events in the Middle East has to be the insurrection against the Socialist Baath Party controlled dictatorship led by Basher al-Assad in Syria and its implications. What happens in Syria will undoubtedly change and re-shape the entire area for many years to come.

Ahmadinejad of Iran.

Syria in the past few years has become a true surrogate state of Iran. While Iran is not an Arab state, its influence in the area is huge. Iran has sent high level officers from the elite Quds Force into Syria; trained and financed Hezbollah units and in fact invaded Lebanon, turning that small but strategically important country on Israel’s northern border into another client state. Iran’s influence and power in the area is undeniable. Financing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan against the US military presence and helping insurgencies in Yemen and Bahrain; Iran showed her desire to create a dangerous zone around their main target, Israel. A new report released this morning clearly indicates that Iran is only about two months away from having the capability of producing their first nuclear weapon. This is what brings us to the Persian Summer.

Bashar Al-Assad.

If we start by looking into the fast moving events in Syria today, we may be able to get a glimpse of what we can expect in the upcoming Persian Summer. Syria borders Turkey in the North, Lebanon and Israel in the West, Iran in the East and Iraq in the South. Since 1970, when Hafez al-Assad father of the present Dictator Basher al-Assad, assumed power in Syria as the head of the Arab Baath Socialist Party, Syria was under an emergency rule. In March of 1973 a new constitution was put into effect; officially defining Syria as a secular socialist state with Islam recognized as its majority religion. On October 6, 1973, Syria and Egypt began the Yom Kippur War against Israel. After the initial surprise, Israeli military reversed the initial Syrian gains and pushed the Syrian Army out of the strategic Golan Heights and invaded Syrian territory beyond the 1967 border. Israel still occupies the Golan Heights. When the Lebanese Christians were in danger of being eliminated, they asked Syria’s assistance. Assad sent in 40,000 troops using the invitation as a reason and occupied Lebanon. Syria remained in Lebanon until 2005 and engineered many political assassinations. Approximately a million Syrian workers were sent to Lebanon to work for the reconstruction of Lebanon; eventually 200,000 of them were sworn in as Syrian citizens. From 1976 to 1982, fundamentalist Sunnis led by the Muslim Brotherhood led an armed insurgency against the secular Baath Party of Assad. In February of 1982, Assad sent in troops into the city of Hama and leveled the city killing between an estimated 10,000 to 25,000 people, what is now described as the single deadliest act by any Arab government against its own people in the modern Middle East. Hafez al-Assad died in June 2000 and the Syrian parliament changed the constitutional age of a new president from 40 down to 34 in order to elect Assad’s son, Basher, President. There was much hope he would be a reformer but this never materialized. The Arab Spring started in Syria on January 26, 2011 and despite all efforts of Basher al-Assad grew in size with 7,000 people detained and over 800 civilians killed. Today a northern Syrian city is surrounded by government troops, ready for the second Hama massacre. Iran has been following the events in Syria closely making sure Iran wins at the end at all costs.

Syrian protests.

Iran wants to dominate the Middle East and do away with the State of Israel; there is no doubt about that. However, there are some interesting events taking place within Iran which point to a possible Persian Summer of anti-government demonstrations and possible insurgencies within Iran. President Ahmadinejad of Iran may have lost favor with the ruling Mullahs and he may be planning a pre-emptive and possible nuclear attack on Israel. He would certainly need the control of the territory between Iran and Israel (Syria) to achieve his goals. In all this turmoil, one cannot and should not expect Israel to stand by and receive the inevitable. All the signals are pointing to a major confrontation in the area this summer. What started in Tunisia early in the spring and constituted the Arab Spring in Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria looks like it may turn into a very hot and active Persian Summer. Syrians escaping the Assad assassins are flooding into Southern Turkey across the border, refugee camps are popping up faster than mushroom fields all around Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish populated southern border. After national elections which were held in Turkey today, things may even get more complicated as the Kurds may start making some immediate demands for representation.

Colonel Ghaddafi of Libya.

The world as we know it in the Middle East is changing. The end results may not bode well for America. We have already spent huge amounts of blood and treasure in the area; lost some of the best and the bravest in the process. Now we will be facing a nuclear Iran in the Persian Summer with our weak economy, with our military pre-occupied in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya; with little if any support from our European allies; a depleted and weak NATO and a toothless United Nations content with passing one useless resolution after another.

Yes, it will be a hot summer indeed… A hot Persian Summer…

Currently a member of Marco Island’s Code Enforcement Board, Tarik Ayasun has given many years of community service to various organizations.

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We as Americans in general are obsessed with “details.” Sometimes this obsession may be educational as it increases our knowledge of many different things around us; sometimes it may be entertaining as we get to read about all the minute details of the lives of our favorite Hollywood stars and sometimes it may even be interesting to find out about how things work. There is one occasion when our obsession with details is neither necessary nor useful. That is when it comes to details of military operations. Last week, I wrote about the operation to find, terminate and dispose of Bin Laden, without question the number one criminal, terrorist and serial killer of our lifetimes. He was an evil man, a cold blooded killer and mastermind of various terror operations where Christians, Muslims and Jews along with non-believers were killed or maimed. It was important to find him and render him useless. I am sure our Navy Seals thought about every alternative, opportunity, result or consequence before they conducted the magnificent operation on May 2, 2011.

US Navy SEALS training. Submitted

Since then, as expected hundreds and thousands of questions have been raised and statements issued by many different groups; politicians, attorneys, bloggers and ordinary Americans. I read and listened to these questions and statements intently and as the questions and statements kept piling on, my anger proportionally increased.

Question: How many Navy Seals participated in the operation? How many helicopters were involved? Why do so many politicians and attorneys think it is so important to know the answer to these questions? How about if I told you that one hundred Seals participated in the operation packed into 8 helicopters? Would it make a difference to the attorney or the politician? Would it change the success of the operation? What if I said there were only four helicopters with only four Navy Seals in the operation? Why would this matter to anyone?

I have also read articles written by the well known attorney Alan Dershowitz (who is now an advisor to the defense team of Julian Assange of Wiki Leaks.) He was very upset that Bin Laden was not captured, brought back to the USA and tried in a court of law. He was upset that we might have used overwhelming force and questioned whether Bin Laden had a weapon in his hand or if he had his hands up before he saw the 5.56 mm shot from the Seal’s M4 whizzing through the air and hitting him between the eyes! I wonder how many of his nearly 3000 victims had weapons in their hands. Or how many of them had a chance to raise their hands just before airliners full of highly flammable aviation fluid showed up at the higher floors of the World Trade Centers? His victims were sitting behind their desks, in front of their highly lethal weapons (computers) or making their morning coffee in the kitchens of their offices?

Prof. Dershowitz wanted to catch Bin Laden alive and bring him before a court of Law in the USA. I think the Professor has been living in an Ivory Tower for too long, his vision is totally blurred. The minute; or rather the second the enemy found out that Bin Laden was alive in US custody; there would have been hundreds, if not thousands of innocent American tourists, businessmen, teachers or Embassy workers taken hostage all around the Middle East with major terror organizations demanding Bin Laden’s release. How would you deal with that Professor Dershowitz? Negotiate with the terrorists? Drop bombs and kill more people? Conduct hundreds of Seal operations to save our hostages?

In summary, I would like ask my fellow curious Americans; read People Magazine for minute details of your favorite artist’s miserable daily life; watch any one of the plethora of useless TV Shows giving you minute by minute details of the lives of your favorite singers but please, please leave details of military operations alone; let the professionals deal with them. The more we disclose to our enemies; the more brave Americans will die in the future. As for me, Bin Laden is dead and gone; that is the only thing that matters. How it was achieved: where it was done; how many brave Americans were involved, whether they got there on donkeys, camels or stealth helicopters; whether Bin Laden had a gun in his hand; if he had his arms up or his fingers up his nose or whether he was watching his latest purchase of pornography before or after his morning prayers is completely irrelevant to me.

We should just let our military take care of their business over there; and as Americans be proud of what they do for us. Likes of Professor Alan Dershowitz should continue to live in their Ivory Towers in Mamby Pamby Land which they have created. As for me; I am with the guys who flew in helicopters over enemy territory in the darkness of the night, found their target, terminated and disposed of him. My only regret is that I was not a member of Seal Team 6 who got the job done.

Joy to the world!

Currently a member of Marco Island’s Code Enforcement Board, Tarik Ayasun has given many years of community service to various organizations.

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Elementary school kids with blue smocks. SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Last Friday afternoon, I went to the Barnes and Noble store at the Waterside shops. My intention was to check out some new books and just sit in peace, type a story on my laptop and have some strong dark coffee. I must confess I also like the smell and feel of new books and there is no better place than a book-store to smell and feel as many books as possible by walking through the many aisles. After my walk-through, I sat down, turned on my laptop and started to look up current news items in the Middle East and North Africa by checking out various world newspapers’ websites.

A gentleman dressed in khaki pants and a rich looking polo shirt sat next to me. As I searched through the websites and started writing notes on Syria, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia he started to watch me. Finally, he said “Looks like you are interested in world events; are you a professor, attorney or a politician?” I politely responded “No, I am not any of those but I write for a local newspaper and I am doing research for my next article”. He then asked me what I thought about all the recent events in those countries I was looking up. I thought this is great.

Someone is really interested in the events in the Middle East instead of the latest results from the Masters! So I gave him a 10 minute passionate report about the Arabs, Palestine, Israel, Libya, Syria, Muslims and what this all may mean to us as Americans. He listened intently and then turned to me and said “by the way where is Syria anyway?” I was crushed and brought down to earth very quickly.  Trying very hard to hide my “feelings of the moment” I responded; “North of Israel, South of Turkey, and West of Jordan; somewhere in that general neighborhood” and shut down my laptop.

Sefer Tasi.

On the drive home I decided not to write about the events in the Middle East this week. They were getting too complicated to fit into a 900 word article. Then I remembered a conversation I had some weeks ago with Dr. Jory Westberry, Principal of the Tommie Barfield Elementary School here on the Island. I was telling her about the elementary school I attended in Istanbul from 1955 to 1960, and how she listened intently to every detail and told me; “You must think of writing about this in the Coastal Breeze”. Elementary school days were a long time ago, but somehow memories of attending elementary school in Turkey were very fresh on my mind.

After attending pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, time finally came for me to go to elementary school. We lived in downtown Istanbul and my mother registered me in an elementary school ten minutes away from our home. It was the same school she and her brother attended when they were young. I anxiously waited for September as that summer did not seem to end. It was an exciting time. Turkey had become a Republic only a short 30 years earlier after almost six hundred years of Ottoman Empire had come crashing down.

Under the rules of the new Republic, Western looking schools were opened all around the country. Old Madrasas which educated children based on the Koran were all closed by the new government under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, father of modern Turkey; a new alphabet was established; Turkish replaced the Ottoman language and many young and idealist new teachers were spread out all around the country teaching the kids of modern Turkey. It was an exciting time for the country. As was the tradition, a number of black smocks were purchased for me to wear to school along with the white collar attachment which indicated that I was an elementary school student. My mother bought me a small book bag and we also purchased an ink-well since everyone had to learn to write properly using a pen which you dipped into the inkwell after every word you wrote!

School opened on the first day of September. Holding my mother’s and my father’s hands I walked through the front door, into a large garden where many students were playing. Teachers, also wearing black smocks were walking around with authoritative looks. My father approached an older lady who was going to be my first grade teacher and said “Ms. Ulviye, this is my son Tarik; his meat is yours, his bones are ours” and with that let go of my hand and I was left alone with this tall, strong, serious looking lady with snow white hair and big, thick glasses.

What did my father mean by that scary expression? What meat? What bones? Ms. Ulviye looked down at me and said “follow me and the others in to the classroom”. With that, she walked briskly towards the three story concrete building with about 30 kids in tow, including me. We walked into the school building and after passing by a number of classrooms, we entered ours. There were 30 wooden desks with small wooden chairs behind them. We all sat down where Ms. Ulviye told us to sit down and with great anxiety looked around to get used to our new surroundings. We were told to open the top lid of our desks and put our book bags inside the empty box. There was a small, round hole on the top of the desk where we were told to place our inkwells. The teacher asked everyone to put their hands on the desk, palm down and she inspected our fingernails to see if they were clean; then asked us to show our teeth to make sure they have been brushed.

Later on, we were to find out that there was actually a grade on our report cards called “cleanliness”. Ms. Ulviye then sat down and started to tell us how the first grade class she had last year was the greatest, and discipline was perfect. Then she pointed to a spot on the wall behind her and said “this is the spot where our “falaka” used to hang! We all knew what that was! An instrument of extreme torture which was banned by Ataturk from all modern schools! It was a wooden bow with a rope which was tied to both ends of the falaka.

Those who did not behave in class would be asked to come forward, take their shoes and socks off. They would then be asked to lay down on the floor and the teacher would tie their feet to the bow exposing the soles of their feet. Then the “falaka stick” would appear and the teacher proceeded to beat the bottoms of the feet of the unruly student until they got red. Then the rope would be loosened and the unruly student would be asked to stand up in the corner till the class was over. When Ms. Ulviye pointed to the spot where the falaka was, I began to understand the meaning of my father’s instructions “the meat is yours and the bones are ours”. This gave the teacher to mold me as she saw fit; using whatever method she chose.

I was very upset and wanted to go home right then. But it was the first day of school and my father was already at work and my mother was at home. Ms. Ulviye asked everyone their names and got down to teaching us immediately. By mid-morning a school janitor arrived with a large tin can marked “US AID” which contained American cheese and another can containing powder milk. We were all made to eat a piece of cheese and drink a glass of milk. Thank you Uncle Sam! I started to get hungry again by 11 AM and wondered how and where I was going to eat. At noon, we were taken to a “lunch room” by one of the janitors. There on the tables were our “sefer tasi”. These were two or three layered, metal containers held together by a vertical handle bar.

My mother had prepared my lunch and sent it to school before noon. The sefer tasi (loosely translated to “mess kit” which was used by the Turkish military during wars to carry their food. Sefer actually means an expedition and tas means a metal container.) They were heated and delivered to our lunch room. School provided drinks (water) and bread (nice, thick, black bread). After lunch, the empty containers were sent back home.

We studied reading, basic history, penmanship and math and yes; geography. And we all behaved real well under the shadow of the “falaka” which was banned and removed but its power was still there, on the wall, behind Ms. Ulviye’s desk. And we learned to read and write in Turkish, about who Turkey’s neighbors and enemies were. We even learned where Syria was; right there in that elementary school in Istanbul under the presence of the “falaka” in Ms. Ulviye’s first grade classroom.

I often wonder what the first graders in Tommie Barfield would think of having the threat of a falaka and stick on the wall behind their teacher’s desk. As for me; I am very happy to have left all that behind; but once in a while when someone at a bookstore asks me where Syria is; I fondly remember Ms. Ulviye and the threat of the non-existent, yet most powerful “falaka” on the wall.

Currently a member of Marco Island’s Code Enforcement Board, Tarik Ayasun has given many years of community service to various organizations.

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Hodja on the way to the market.

Whenever I am overwhelmed with world news and think there are no solutions to the problems that surround us, I sit back in my chair and travel back to my childhood in the streets of Istanbul. I think of all the sunny summers and snowy winters, allergy filled springs and sad days of fall. Memories of those simpler times soothe my senses and bring back some joy to my otherwise busy days. Growing up in country full of traditions and strict rules covering our everyday lives, it was always refreshing to be with grandparents whose unconditional love and wisdom molded us as we grew up.

My grandfather liked to tell us stories which we were asked to listen carefully and try and get the moral of the story. It did not always work at the time but those stories were chiseled into my brain and from time to time pop-up reminding me of those wonderful days. I also seem to get the moral of the stories now that I am as old as my grandfather was when he told them to me on cool summer nights as we sat on our porch watching the stars and listening to the never ending songs of crickets.

Hodja’s statute in Aksehir, Turkey. Submitted photos

One of the most important characters my grandfather quoted from often was a man named Nasreddin Hodja. I always tried very hard to figure out why on that particular day and under those particular conditions he told me that short but meaningful story about Hodja. Over the years, I tried telling these same stories to my children and now to my grandchildren but I do not think they make any sense to them in a completely different, computer-generated world they live in today. I still remember a lot of these stories and the circumstances under which they were told and they make more sense today than they ever did; especially when I think of them in terms of what is going on around the world.

I remember telling my grandfather one summer evening about the car our neighbor had just purchased and how beautiful and shiny it was and how it had a radio, vinyl seats and going on and on describing everything about this car to him. He did not react at all to anything I said about the neighbor’s new car; instead he looked at me lovingly and told me the following story:

One day Hodja and his friends were sitting at the coffee house. A young boy carrying a tray of baklava attracted the attention of one of the men.

`Hodja, look!’ he pointed, `That boy is carrying a tray of baklava.’

`It’s none of my business.’ Hodja shrugged his shoulders.

`But, Hodja, watch! He is taking it to your house.’

`In that case,’ Hodja asserted, `it’s none of your business.’

This everyday character of my youth, Nasreddin Hodja (Hoca) is believed to have lived in Aksehir in south-central Turkey in the thirteenth Century. He was a beloved character whose advice and opinion his towns-people solicited and respected.  About 400 handwritten manuscripts that narrate his anecdotes have survived and are exhibited in a local museum. The title Hodja (Hoca) in Turkish means both a teacher and a religious leader, both of whom are supposed to be knowledgeable man. In life, Nasreddin Hodja was a small farmer with a few livestock and a small farm. He sometimes acted as an “imam” leading people in prayers and sometimes was a “kadi”; a judge who resolved local disputes based on his knowledge and interpretation of the Koran. According to legend, he was a hard-working and honest man; however he was not immune to little white lies and cheatings from time to time. Hodja was often poor, living a modest life, willing to do anything and take on any job to support his family.

It is almost impossible to know how old Hodja was at any given time. When he was asked how old he was, he always replied “Forty.” To this the inquisitive person responded “But Hodja, when we asked you your age ten years ago, you gave the same answer!” “That’s my word, and I stick with it” was Hodja’s standard response.

Nasreddin Hodja tomb, Aksehir, Turkey.

My grandfather had a very friendly but huge German Sheppard called Rex which he kept at the back of his store. One day, I went over to the store and asked my grandfather if I could take the dog for a walk. My grandfather must not have liked me taking Rex for a walk by myself; so he told me that one of the store clerks had just left with him for a walk. Just at that moment, Rex started barking up a storm.  I looked inquisitively into my grandfathers eyes. He sat down and in his soothing voice told me:

A neighbor came to the gate of Hodja’s yard and he went to meet him outside.

“Would you mind, Hodja,” the neighbor asked, “lending me your donkey today? I have some goods to transport to the next town.”

Hodja didn’t feel inclined to lend out the animal to that particular man, however. So, not to seem rude, he answered:

“I’m sorry, but I’ve already lent him to somebody else.”

Hodja lecturing to his donkey.

All of a sudden the donkey could be heard braying loudly behind the wall of the yard. “But Hodja,” the neighbor exclaimed. “I can hear it behind that wall!”

“Who do you believe,” the Hodja replied indignantly. “The donkey or your Hodja?”[13]

It is sad to note that the days of telling children stories from which they can deduct life lessons and morals, ethics and behavior is long gone. It is all computers generated now; just like this story I am writing on my laptop on an otherwise beautiful and peaceful Sunday evening on Marco Island.

Hodja was seen riding his beloved donkey to the market one day. Strangely, he was sitting backwards as the donkey slowly moved forward. One of the towns-people walked up to Hodja and wanted to know why he was riding his donkey, sitting backwards. Hodja responded in his usual, knowledgeable manner; “I know where I am going; but I do want to make sure I know where I am coming from”… Good advice for all of us today, isn’t it?

Currently a member of Marco Island’s Code Enforcement Board, Tarik Ayasun has given many years of community service to various organizations.

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