Turkey: Where East Meets West – An Educational Seminar for High School Educators
On Saturday, April 10, 2010, thirty greater DC area high school teachers participated in a day-long seminar on Turkey, a topic that is often difficult to integrate into standardized curricula. The day was filled with six fantastic speakers, who illuminated various aspects of the country, including Turkey-US relations, Turkish history, Ottoman-style Islamic Art, Turkey, NATO and the EU, and Turkish culture. The program also included an important section on curriculum development, giving teachers the chance to flex their creative muscles in an interactive activity requiring them to generate lesson plans, and offered suggestions of ways to bring Turkey into the classroom.
The morning portion of the seminar included lectures by Berkan Pazarci, Counselor at the Embassy of Turkey, and Kemal Kirisci, a Fellow at the Transatlantic Alliance of the German Marshall Fund, and Katie Ziglar, the Director of External Development at the Freer/Sackler Gallery. Pazarci emphasized Turkey’s increasingly balanced and symmetrical relationship with the United States, which is based on mutual interest. He addressed issues such as Turkey’s take on the war on terrorism, the country’s aspirations to become a global actor, the influence of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee’s controversial vote to condemn the mass killings of Armenians in the early 20th century as genocide, and more. Kirisci’s talk focused on modern Turkish history, including Turkey’s transition from empire to republic, its modernization and Westernization, its bid for EU membership, and also highlighted the theme of Turkish identity. Ms. Ziglar shared her expertise on Islamic Art in the Ottoman style, discussing Istanbul as the meeting point of Asia and Europe and the many influences on Ottoman art, especially trade with China, the religion of Islam, and the early use of vibrant colors such as cobalt blue and red in ceramics.
After a delicious lunch of Turkish cuisine provided by Rosemary Thyme Bistro, the seminar continued through the afternoon with a lecture by Joshua Walker, also a Fellow at the Transatlantic Alliance of the German Marshall Fund, and presentations by Susan Douglass from the Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim – Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, and Bonnie Joy Kaslan from the Turkish Cultural Foundation. In his lecture, Mr. Walker focused on the transition of the character of Turkey’s power and role in the region and how this has influenced its relationship with the West. He pointed out the value that Turkey has held for the United States in light of the war on terror, citing former President Bush’s remark that the Turks are the “good Muslims,” on the right side, thus demonstrating that the war on terrorism is not a war on Islam. Walker shared an insightful analysis of Turkish participation in multilateral organizations, suggesting that Turkey joined NATO because it wanted to become a member of the West, and that it sees the issue of EU membership as crucial to its identity, rather than exclusively as an economic partnership. Furthermore, he emphasized Turkey’s unique understanding of the region as a strategic tool, arguing that it should unite East and West, and push for market liberalization, rather than democracy, as the stabilizing force in the Middle East. In his policy suggestions for the United States, Walker called for US acceptance of the Turks for who they are, the development of a coherent Turkey strategy, better US-Turkey trade relations, an exchange of history and culture between the two countries, and the importance of imparting knowledge of Turkey to future generations.
Transitioning into a more interactive afternoon, Susan Douglass presented on Ottoman Influences on Europe and the West, and catered expertly to her target audience of educators by providing them with many materials and ideas to use in their classrooms. She started by examining the view of the world as transmitted through textbooks, noting that Turkey is typically portrayed merely as an afterthought of the Middle East, is not considered part of Europe, and often only addressed in the context of Europe’s “Great Game.” Douglass pointed to materials such as ceramics, information on commerce and commodities, book illustrations, color lithographs, poetry, literature, folklore, and traditional Turkish shadow puppets, as potential opportunities to engage students learning about Turkey. Small groups of participating educators brainstormed lesson plans and methods of using these materials to help their students access larger themes about Turkey, and then exchanged their ideas, highlighting the benefits and challenges of using the various materials. In the final presentation of the day, Bonnie Joy Kaslan introduced the educators to a teaching manual on Turkey entitled, “Who Are the Turks?” as a tool to help them address the challenges of teaching about the Turks as a people who cannot be pigeonholed, put in a box, or easily explained. She emphasized that the manual included migratory maps, lesson plans, readings and activities and also provided other materials that highlighted the Ottoman Empire’s history, culture, language, and more. Kaslan also encouraged the participants to travel to Turkey and use their own firsthand experience creatively as tools in the classroom.
Overall, participants in Turkey: Where East Meets West gained a vivid portrait of the country from various historical, cultural, and political perspectives, and consolidated their newly acquired knowledge by preparing to impart it to their students.