Second class is totally Turkey

Turkey is completely Second class: people's attitudes and behavior in most public transportation in a city attracts my attention the first time I went. The interior of a bus, a train, a tram, a ship, a ferry comes to me as a cultural, sociological, economic reflection of that city. I've been living in Belgium for about a year. Maybe I can describe the mass vehicle scene in Belgium in another article. I'm going to Istanbul once in a while. I usually use the tram with the Metrobus. There is no need to explain the crowds of today's Istanbul mass vehicles. An article I have read again on such a journey caused me to rethink today's Istanbul about seventy years ago. The article about the views of the public vehicles of 1939 Istanbul belongs to Halide Edip. This month, I would like to share my thoughts on this article by taking shelter in the understanding of Adnan Özer, who is responsible for the cultural people and our book. I think that the reflections of Istanbul's changing and unchanging fate through public vehicles will attract your attention.

1939 travels by two-class tram, the first and second in Istanbul. In the first position, more high-income people travel, while in the second, people from the middle, middle class and people travel.
Halide Edip describes the social landscapes she encountered on the first-rank tram in her article On Tramways (Evening, No.7403, 2 June 1939). The tram is crowded. There are a lot of people sitting. As the place opens up, young people sit in vacant places despite the old man's feet. A man in his forties, wrapped in belts with two arms, draws the attention of the author. The man who is determined to suffer is almost like a a crucified Ist. The man who is disturbed by his back bone is disabled. Open-minded, young men descend from the trolley, and the man descends from the tram steps with a thousand difficulties.
Another passenger who attracts Halide Edip's attention is a pregnant woman. The author, "not beautiful, not stylish, not young," said the woman wraps the straps with the power to provide the balance. It is a pity for Halide Edip that other people on the tram, especially women, do not see this lady and are not aware of her. A little later, a ini strong, athlete, a young man from the back alley cu gives her place. Only this young man can notice a woman waiting for a child.
Three young people, aged between fifteen and seventeen, who draw from Galata attract the attention of the author. According to the author, these young people whose Turkish words are corrupt are “gimpy samples of Firuz Bey in Karagöz Türk. These teens stare at their backs in the window and look at the student girls in black gowns. The girls who were red-eyed by their shame saved the family friends that they noticed at the next stop. When the man salutes the girls and starts talking, the young people move away.
Tram over the bridge. When the whistles are singing, the people look at the sea. The tram stops suddenly. Since Galata, two young girls shouting, even laughing, ask why the tram stopped. He said that the martyrs of the martyrs had passed, that the tram had stopped. Young girls who say ”we have understood“ and continue laughing, the official responds harshly: alar If you understand, you must be silent. “
After these landscapes on a tram journey, the author evaluates our social and cultural life. Halide Edip old saying in Turkey that such views can not be that old argument in Turkey, "a tight community life" then connect to. Today, the pregnant woman to survive, the elderly and the disability of the recognition of the life of this tight community life. This dispersion eliminates the personal autocontrol mechanism. The author compares these situations with England and France. While in France there are laws that make priority for disabled people, pregnant women and old people on trams, there is no social law in the UK.

Halide Edip's Trams

At the end of his article, Halide Edip gives up "to make judgments" on the trams. To encounter with this view when he says that either the bus or ride a second position, brings a striking view of the conclusions from this: "Second class is totally Turkey. You can also call the tram of any modern, strange nation… This is a community that is interconnected in all its meaning. Children and pregnant women, finds crutches allyl place ... "The author finds that Turkey missed the second position. This, although it is aware of Turkey's happy he's now changing. These parties will continue to tamper.
Halide Edip tells about "the world of the tram" in her article on the Street and the Tram. He says that the inside and outside of the tram have changed since the tram started to travel from Aksaray stop to Beşiktaş. The bickering and scuffle in the tram gradually increases. After Beyazıt or Sultanahmet, a crowded pile becomes a crowd of people. These crowds are always arguing to find solutions to the crowd, they develop new projects every day. Trams are the places where these projects occur. Everyone has a project that they put forward to solve the problems in city life. Apart from the crowd, the crowd, the heat or the cold, this project sohbetHe always left a smile on the lips of the passengers and the listeners.
In Istanbul, almost everyone takes the tram. In the words of the author, there is a section on the tramway on the other side of the bridge. But there is also a special section with special tools. Halide Edip thinks that these journeys, which are not used to the tramways, will teach them a lot, and he sees this as ini those who do not know how to live lar and will only know when they get on the trams. According to Halide Edip, trams are the heart of social life. The landscape is a cultural map showing people from all walks of life in the largest city like Istanbul. The author, who deals with various regions and life in these regions, is happy to be in the public. One notable thing in his articles on Istanbul is Halide Edip's popular point of view. During a journey, when he saw the ones who could not wear the appropriate clothes for the winter conditions, he could not get used to the thick overcoat and questioned this coat.
The author's criticism is the egocentric manifestations that increase day by day in the society. Halide Edip, who attaches great importance to individualism in her thought plan, does not like the "self-centered" attitude and points out that people should watch over each other. This individualistic attitude manifests itself as selfishness, disrespect and insensitivity in social life. Halide Edip remembers the sentence “The world is a mirror, no matter how you look at it, you will see your own opposite” on all the trips it takes on trams. Istanbul is changing. He perceives the social life, culture and daily life of Istanbul, which he misses, in contrast to the changes in his own world. Halide Edip complains most from the crowd in her Istanbul articles. He believes that finesse and kindness also disappear in this crowd.