First Villages with Faruk Sezgin

This was an indispensable development. It is very important today, the people who will lead Turkey to democracy. I care a lot about Istanbul. Istanbul is not getting worse, it is getting better. It is in the process of regaining its position as the center of the world . You are crossing the Marmaray today. I sold my car years ago, I am without a car. What’s the point, you can cross a thousand public transportation vehicles in a very short way, but it is missing, it ends in Kazlıçeşme.

We have to ask this, why does it end in such a strange place? We have to hold accountable for this, why doesn’t this continue until Halkalı? Why can’t it be planned so far? I will ask the question as follows: Urbanization, especially your topic, Mr. Hüseyin, when did Turks start living in villages? Mongols live in tents, were we Turks always nomads ? Again, I say it as Şaban Bey mentioned, we know Çatalhöyük , it does not belong to the Turks, it belongs to us, Çatalhöyük was a settlement in Anatolia eight, ten thousand years ago. Let’s go there, there are some foundations started by non-Turkish archaeologists. As a Turk, why do I not know where I lived ten thousand years ago, eight thousand years ago? Where were the Turks?

Why didn’t the Republic teach me that? Village is really a Turkish word, city is not a word that belongs to us. Where were the first villages? What were the first building materials ? Were we living in tents? Which building materials were used in the geography we were in, apart from Anatolia? Where did our village life begin?

Hüseyin Koç – Well, you asked where I don’t work. I don’t know much about Turkish history, to tell the truth, but after all, Göktürk monuments, you know, have inscriptions. In other words, Faruk Ağabey gives a better answer to this issue.

Faruk Sezgin – All right, let Levent Brother get his due. Now I can’t agree with your statement “Why didn’t the Republic teach us”. You were born in 58, I was born in 57. What matters is your willingness to learn and learn. For example, I know this very well. In Mongolia, in Turkestan , in Turkmenistan , there are cities of five thousand and ten thousand years, archaeologists have found them and published them in archaeological history. Don’t look now, we say we are a nomadic, tent society, but I went to those regions, I visited, I saw. I’m also a Republican kid and he taught me that. What matters is what we wanted. Now, we always grew up with this when the Republic was founded. The Republic of Turkey has two headaches.

We know this very well. They taught us that. One is religion, the other is the southeast issue. But it is not, we have to love our country. I say that, we have reason, we are a good nation, we are a moral nation. But we will make good use of it. I mean, you said a very nice thing, the Republic did not teach. He taught, I was born in 1957. At present, cities of ten thousand years have been found in Mongolia, Turkestan. And these are our ancestors. If you want these, enter the internet, you will see the archeology studies. Oh, we did not find Turks, Italians did, Americans did, Canadians did.

Let’s come to the village issue, there is no one left in our village. There is nothing to do. We emptied the villages and came to Istanbul. Istanbul is ours, we are hopeful about Istanbul too, that’s why we came here. There is no problem with these, the problem is how do we reach a better life? Why are we always behind? As I said, I came in 1968, I saw it in movies and thought, “Why are our Turkish children not strong, not in good schools, not with good teachers”. I finished primary school in the village, a single room, a teacher, one-two-three-four-five, most of them know that we were in the same class. Teacher, we taught a class in the first hour and a class in the second hour. Don’t we deserve better, what are we missing? If we research them, we will find better answers to those questions in history.