Ertugrul Ozkok: A country far, far away from conspiracy theories
Güncelleme Tarihi:
"Hvar" is an island a little to the south of the Croatian city of Split. The town of Hvar, which carries the same name as the island it's on, is a beautiful residential area, under the influence of Italian architecture. On Sunday evening, we find ourselves in the center square of the town, where the church sits too. In every cafe in the square, flat screen tvs have been placed where patrons can watch them. Attractive young women and men, many wearing Croatian national football team uniforms, are sitting and watching the Croatia-Japan World Cup match. All the cafes in Hvar are full, without exception. Voices rise in excitement from the cafes. You can feel the global power of football in this Adriatic sea-side town.
And now it's 18:00, and the Brazil-Australia match is about to begin. The cafes fill up again. This time though, people are wearing the Australian national uniform. Rather than Croatian, you can hear English-accented shouts for the Australians. A young man passing in front of me has the word "fanatics" written on the back of his tee-shirt. But right under that word, there are two flags which surprise me: one is Australian, the other is Turkish. Clearly, this young man has been to Gallipoli to participate in the annual New Zealand-Australian commemorations.
That evening, we go to a cafe to watch the South Korea-France match. I jump out of my seat and yell "Goooooaaaaallllll!" when the South Koreans kick one in. The other people at the cafe, who up til now have been watching quite detatchedly, watch me with curiosity. I have no idea why I'm so happy that South Korea got a goal. Actually, I even lived in France for 6 years. I have no anger towards France. But like most Turks, I have a special sympathy for South Korea. Although not something I would have thought would propel me to jump from my seat and yell "Goooaaallll!" So what is going on then? I think it might be just wanting to see the two teams equal in terms of points, which will then make the match more pleasurable to watch.
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The next day, we leave Hvar for Dubrovnik. I had heard about these Croatian coasts before. But now I see that people don't actually even do them justice with their words. I am calling out to Turks and Greeks here: don't be surprised if these coastlines are soon the biggest competitor to the Aegean. A friend of mine who sails asserts that this area is the new sailing center for the Mediterranean. And Greece, which is known for being the "country of islands," needs to come here and see this. I am not exaggerating, there are thousands of islands. And each one of them is as beautiful as an Aegean village.
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Now I want to take some time to call out to the Agricultural Ministry: we covered the entire area between Split and Dubrovnik, and did not see a single fish farm along the way. Our boat captain said there there were some, but that they were all gathered together in specified areas.
And then there is architectural aesthetics. We saw so many residential areas that carried the entire beauty of Italian architecture; no housing compounds like in Turkey.
Of course, there are as yet no hotels of the same quality that Turkey boasts, yet. But you can be sure that some will be built in the coming 10 years. Foreigners are snatching up coastal homes in Croatia. There is no one yelling about "foreign land being sold off to foreigners," the way there is in Turkey. In fact, to the contrary, these purchases are being encouraged. Unlike in Turkey, there are no conspiracy theory maniacs here, complaining that foreign interests are trying to "open up a corridor" through the land for their own purposes. In short, Croatia is sure of itself, and marching towards a very bright future.