Facing the reality

For the first time since the July 15, 2016, failed coup, I spent a full nine-day cut off from what's been going on in Turkey. This was not the first time. Together with a group of very close friends, who have become closer than family members to us, we were on a cruise tour in western Mediterranean. Even when we were cruising between the Baltic capitals or the Norwegian Fjords, somehow the close link to Turkey was maintained. But this time, perhaps we were mentally exhausted, and the ladies imposed a total ban on internet - even when we were on land, internet connection was limited. If we hadn't overheard from a British couple celebrating their 50th anniversary, we would not have known that a disaster hit Miami and Barbados, where some other members of our group had preferred to cruise this year.

By the way, don't trust ads by cellular companies, which proudly present that you can use your Turkish SIM card for just a 19.9-Turkish Lira daily payment in some 100 countries, including the whole of Europe. A message from a relative about the health situation of my wife's mother was a sufficient reason for us to temporarily turn on our telephones. After four hours of use, the telecom company Turkcell informed me that my bill for using international roaming reached 925 liras. What an efficient service! This as well might be a sufficiently strong reason why Turks should stay disconnected from Turkey when travelling abroad. But there are many other reasons.

Arriving back home midnight to a rather hot Ankara, I was shivered with a blunt reality looking with two widely opened black eyes on a huge billboard. In Italy, France and Spain on this latest tour, and as I recall from my trips to over 90 countries through the past decades, the other times I saw such...