Writing
“Two roads diverged in the wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
Robert Frost
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
Robert Frost
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Flight of an Angel
MotherVerse: A Journal of Contemporary Motherhood, Issue 8, 2008 After my mom's passing in 2007, I wrote non-stop in a journal for 40 days. As I struggled to deal with her passing, I have collected some of my thoughts into an Introspective composition on her passing. Later, I wrote this piece in her memory. She was my guardian angel, my best friend, my soul mate - so long as she is remembered, she will always be with me... |
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Soldier, Mother, Engineer
400 Words: Personal Notification for a Busy World; February 21, 2007 A 400-word autobiographical story... |
A Turkish language version of this encyclopedia of Turkish history was also published by the same publication house:
S. Ertan, "Amerika'daki Türklerin Tarihi," Turkler, Vol. 20, Part 104 (Turk Dunyasi: Turk Yerlesimleri) | Eds. H.C. Guzel, C. C. Oguz, O. Karatay, Yeni Turkiye Publications, 2002 sf. 881-889 Click here to read in Turkish. |
A History of Turks in America
The Turks, Vol. 6, Part 78 (The Turkish World: Turkish Diaspora), Hasan Celal Güzel, C.Cem Oğuz, Osman Karatay (editors), Yeni Türkiye Publications, Ankara, 2002, pp. 759-767 In the summer of 2001, I came across an interesting call for papers: Yeni Turkiye Publishers were looking for papers covering the whole gamut of Turkish history, and one of the specific topics was Diaspora Turks, including Turkish in America.
I thought to myself, who better could write about this than a Turkish-American? But, alas, I was an engineer - why should a history journal publish me? Still, never say no to yourself, right? I asked if they would accept a submission from a non-specialist. To my amazement, they said yes, after all, every submission was to be reviewed by a panel of experts, i.e. refereed. Hooray! I rolled up my sleeves and accepted the challenge. After several months of pouring over books encircling me in my living room, requesting dusty forgotten scans of manuscripts, and corresponding with relevant living authors, such as Brent Kennedy, who wrote a book on Melungeons, I was ready with my submission! One click, and I checked to see whether I was within the word count, only to find myself about 10 words over the limit. Indeed, the editor would later comment on how they laughed at the engineer who precisely submitted a manuscript exactly one word short of the limit! Ah yes, it seems that in social science numbers can be rounded :) In any case, several months later, I learned that amazingly my work had been accepted, how about that? You study engineering all your life, but then your first journal publication ends up in history! |
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Piri Reis (1465-1553) was an Ottoman navigator, geographer and cartographer, renowned for his book of maps and charts collected in the Kitab-ı Bahriye (Book of Navigation), which also contains detailed information on navigational techniques. In 1513 Piri Reis made a map of the world, which included quite accurate depiction of the Americas, even though Piri Reis never himself traveled to America. How did he do it?
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The Tech, 1999
When the Ottoman Empire weakened and collapsed, millions of Turks and Muslims were killed in the process as Western invaders drove Turkish civilians out of their homes in the Balkans, Eastern Europe and Anatolia. Allied powers and their surrogates, such as Greek and Armenian revolutionaries, claimed large swaths of the Turkish homeland for themselves. The plans forged in the Treaty of Sevres was thwarted by the Turkish War of Independence (1918-1923), resulting in the establishment of the modern day Republic of Turkiye. 1915 was the fateful year when the Ottomans resisted invasion at the Battle of Gallipoli and deported Armenians from Anatolia to the southern parts of the Empire, where revolutionaries could not aid the invaders. In debating the history of Ottoman Armenians, however, it is often forgotten that Turks died too. This opinion column in the MIT newspaper, The Tech, reminds us of this overlooked chapter of history. |
Berç Keresteciyan (1879-1949)
From Ottoman Armenian to Citizen of the Republic of Turkey |
Turkish Journal (www.turkishjournal.com), July 4, 2007
History is oftentimes not black-and-white. This is a column that describes the life and actions of five different Ottoman Armenians - whose lives ultimately followed five different fates. |
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Kanturali's Quest
Unpublished, 2006 The story of Seljen and Kanturali: ...Seljen, the fierce, brave and capable female warrior, and Kanturali, the man who loved and and desired a warrior as his wife, but then had to learn to deal with it! :) A classic Turkish epic by Dede Korkut, but re-told in my own quirky way... |
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The Match that Burned the Forest
Turkish Journal (www.turkishjournal.com), published in 4 parts, Nov-Dec 2006 A short story of two brothers and two peoples divided... ... motivated by the true story of Hakan Sogan, a 14 boy kidnapped in France by the PKK and forced into the terrorist training camps located in Northern Iraq (Milliyet, 31 May 2006). Later, I re-wrote the version that was published in Turkish Journal: Blood Brothers, but this version was never published. |
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Bir Kurşun İki Şehit [in Turkish]
BT Hayat Online Magazine (www.bthayat.net), Issue 9, March 2002 A short story I wrote in honor of soldiers and their families: one bullet, two martyrs ... |
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My Grandfather's Canteen
Turkish Journal (www.turkishjournal.com), July 20, 2007 A true story about my grandfather during the Turkish Independence War . . . |
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Rediscovering Ataturk
Turkish Journal (www.turkishjournal.com), July 5, 2007 A column I wrote about the founder of the modern Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. |
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A Drive in Ankara
Turkish Journal (www.turkishjournal.com), March 17, 2009 An anecdote about indifference in society... |
Seyh Edebali Turbesi
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Remembering the Roots of the Ottoman Empire
unpublished, 2006 Every town in Turkey has some historical places dating back centuries, sometimes even over 1000 years earlier. During one trip to Turkey, we visited the tomb of Seyh Edebali, who together with Osman Ghazi, laid the foundations of the Ottoman Empire in Bilecik, Turkey. This essay talks about the history of the early Ottomans and some observations from my trip. |
