Istanbul: The city that can never get a break.

Sunday morning. At the seaside, next to the great Bosphorus. I see woman with shorts and tank tops, listening to her Ipod while jogging. As she passes by, I see another woman, dressed up differently than her fellow jogger. She's all covered up wearing a turban over her head. You can barely see her hair. She's walking with a long family, a husband and children I assume. As I keep going, I see BMWS and Porsche's with glamorous people. Then I see children and woman on the streets begging.

Religious, modern, poor and rich. They all live in this one city. Istanbul is the city that connects East and West. The reason I titled this post "the city that can never get a break" is because it never can. It's always pulled by either West or East. They want it to "belong" somewhere, either to Europe or to Middle East.

But they can never get the biggest fact that, Istanbul or Turkey in general, is not European or Middle Eastern in a full way. It's the combination of both, and that's what makes Istanbul, Istanbul. They're always trying pull two sides away from each other. Istanbul stands to connect Europe to Asia, not just physically by its bridges but also mentally, socially, politically and economically.

There's never a conflict between the two types of people I mentioned at the first paragraph. So why are people trying so hard to put gaps between them? It's obvious people can get along and live peacefully. America from one side, Arabs from the other are trying pull us away from each other, but Turks as a nation shouldn't let that happen.

This is also who I am.

I am the combination of both cultures. Sometimes, I'm traditional, sometimes I'm a religious Muslim girl, sometimes I'm as wild as Europeans and maybe more modern then they are. In addition, I would like to point out that I'm not a covered up religious girl, not at all, but I believe in God. I'm a true follower of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and am proud to belong to a nation this great.