"A new wife costs 40 cents in Turkey, so what use it is to spend $ 16 on treating the old wife in hospital?"

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Nov 13, 2009 at 18:01

I'll just quote a brief old story about Turkish relationships. It provides a superb historical perspective on violence and abuse in Turkish families which even such a rabid hagiographer of Turkey as Havas had to admit saying "On the other hand child and woman abuse is very common everywhere as you say.ı cant deny this."

The story is told by Albert Mackenzie who after the First World War served as a relief worker in Turkey. [ Admiral Chester mentioned in it to stress the contrast between the grim reality and the wishful thinking about it in Turkey is the infamous American victim of Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha's hoax called the Chester Concession - a big project to modernize Turkey with US money made up by Kemal to spur American greed and through it to get political support for the Turkish interests and claims in Lausanne. When the Turks achieved what they needed they simply cancelled the concession and forgot the admiral who just like his recent US/Israeli colleagues had done his best to whitewash the Turks and absolve them of their heinous crimes. Americans have visibly short memory which makes it very hard for them to learn from past experiences.]

Mackenzie writes :

>In regard to the Turk as a husband, I will simply relate an incident in the American Hospital in Harput, where I was stationed seven months as a relief worker in 1921-22. A Turk brought his shrouded wife one day to the American Hospital and asked if there was any way of curing her of sterility. He was informed that, if he consented to let her undergo an operation, the woman would in all likelihood be able to bear him children. Fine! When could it be done? He was then told that the operation would cost him four golds, or about $16. Up went his arms in despair and indignation. "What, pay four golds to operate on her, when I can get another wife for a medjidie!" (40 cents). And off he stalked, out f the hospital. But Admiral Chester writes: "In Turkey every man by law and by religion must adequately support and treat with kindness and faithful respect whomsoever he may marry, and, moreover, this he does."

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".