Routine.

Dear Friends, Family, and Interested Observers,

Welcome back to the blogosphere! Now that Jim's visit has ended, I have settled into a routine. I get up, exercise, and eat my bowl of oatmeal before heading off to the Ottoman Archives in Sultanahmet. I commute by tram.

I try to spend at least seven to eight hours a day reading sources. Unlike at the National Library in Ankara, I can do research here very systematically. The librarians are helpful and knowledgeable. Moreover, getting research permission here was a snap. As summer approaches, the archives are starting to get crowded. I am glad I have already settled in and learned how things work.

I am finding great stuff, too. In fact, I am mildly concerned that I will not have a chance to look over everything that I would like to. However, when all is said and done, I should have more than enough to finish my dissertation. I have already gone through the loose documents on the database for Tokat covering 1858-1890. I am dreading the period from 1890 to 1910 a bit. There are over 1500 documents on Tokat for this period (compared to 500 or so for the prior three decades). I am hoping to rip through these later decades by being more selective, so that I will have time to look over some of the ayniyat (facsimile) correspondence defters in the final two weeks of my stay. We'll see.

Things have calmed down considerably after the political anarchy at the beginning of the month. The Constitutional Court deferred to the generals and ruled that the AK Party could not install its candidate Abdullah Gül. Apparently, the AK Party lacked the two-thirds quorom of parliamentarians necessary to force a vote. That means there will be early elections on July 22. The two main center-right opposition parties, the ANAVATAN and DYP parties, have merged, and the two main center-left parties, the CHP and the DSP, have formed an election alliance in anticipation of the early election. The theory is that both opposition coalitions will be able to win enough votes to pass the 10% barrier necessary for political parties to get automatic blocks of seats in parliament, thereby diluting the AK Party's inevitable election victory and forcing the AK Party to put forth a compromise candidate for president. The zany ultra-nationalist MHP could also pass the barrier.

We'll see if these tactics work. Apart from its administrative and legislative efficacy, the AK Party boasts an effective and, in Turkey, unparalleled "get out the vote" machine. Moreover, the opposition parties campaign on emotion, ideological rhetoric, and largesse rather practical policy platforms .... I could still see an AK Party winning a near-sweep. The "secular establishment" has done so much to undermine its authority. The undemocratic installation of the 10% barrier, designed to protect the Republic's integrity by virtually ensuring that a Kurdish party never excedes the 10% threshhold, has inadvertently abetted the AK Party's rise. The barrier has bit back at the fractious "secular" opposition parties, who struggle to get 10% of the vote.

Enough politics. Let's talk pop culture. Every year, a European television network holds an absurd song contest, "Eurovision," in which each country selects a popstar to write and perform a ditty. It is a vote-in show like American idol, but one in which the contestant carries the hopes of his or her country. Turkey's representative this year was Kenan Doğulu, who wrote "Shake it up, şekerim" (my sweet / my sugar). The refrain goes:

Shake it up, şekerim

I know what you're thinking

Shake it up, şekerim

You're my only sweet thing

Catchy and inane, it is sure to be blasting in the continuous loop at the poolside café of the Artmeis Hotel this summer and to torture the next generation of Cunda students. Doğulu has been cashing in on a cell phone promotion:

This Monday (May 21) is my sister Laurie's (a.k.a. "Lulu") birthday. All together now:

Happy birthday to LU,

Happy birthday to LU,

Happy birthday to LULU,

Happy birthday to LU!

Görüşmek Üzere,

jkbinturkey