Güven Sak, PhD - [Archive]

Arbil looks increasingly like Turkey 18/01/2011 - Viewed 1326 times

The bigger the opportunity, the bigger the responsibility. We have a lot to do.

I have been in Arbil for a couple of days. Arbil is the capital of the Kurdish Autonomous Administration in Iraq. Last week I was in Sana, Yemen's capital. Arbil does not look at all like Sana. Let me explain why I think Arbil is different. Are you ready for some comparative impressions?

I group countries into two categories. It is possible to understand in what type of country you are as soon as you land at the airport. In the first kind of country your Blackberry works and you can receive the e-mails that have been delivered during your flight as soon as you land. In the second kind of country you need to take a seat, ceremonially switch on your notebook and find a network to connect to before you can check your e-mails. Please think about this. In countries where a Blackberry is used solely as a mobile phone and not as a data transferring device, all other state-of-art devices like the iPad and Amazon Kindle lose their magic. You feel that you are at the bottom of the digital ladder. Is it just me?

You receive the emails in any case in both parts of the world, but easily and naturally in some parts and after a ceremonial delay in some others. With respect to this categorization, Arbil is in the first group and Sana is in the second. Arbil, when compared to Sana, is to a higher extent a part of global civilization. Similarly, Sana is better compared to Kabul. But all of life is a matter of relativity. This is the first point to emphasize.

We have a lot to do

The second point has to do with what you feel when you first see a city. When I first saw Sana, I thought it needed maintenance. The buildings were old and small; the streets were not spacious. Could it have been because there was a number of troops in the streets due to the visit of the President of Turkey? I do not think so. But Arbil instills a feeling of comfort with its changing silhouette from the brand new airport to spacious streets and new buildings and construction sites. In Arbil, only the old parts of the town need maintenance; the others are modernizing.

Shopping malls as a natural extension of our life styles represent the modernized silhouette of cities. The human race has turned into a species that wanders through shopping malls. When you go to a shopping mall in Arbil, you feel yourself flying in the air as if you are living the old anti-globalization commercial. You ask yourself, "What is this place? Where am I now?" But this is not the case in Sana, as there is no shopping malls in the sense we know. And when you see the existing ones, you immediately understand that you are in Yemen. In fact, you never forget for a second that you are in Yemen.

And the third point. Yes, when you enter the Family Mall in Arbil, opened a month ago, you think "Where am I?" But the critical point is, you wonder whether you are still in Ankara. They have the same mood; and in fact the Family Mall is a bit more spacious than those in Ankara. The brands are the same; Turkish brands. Even the menus and the receipts are in Turkish. After all, the mall was opened only a month ago, I have been told. Everybody speaks Turkish. The prices are in Dollars and Euros for now, but I guarantee that as soon as Turkish banks are opened they will start using Turkish liras. Arbil is closer to Turkey.

I have visited two capital cities in one week. Both of them face toward Turkey. How can you not be impressed? You cannot. The bigger the opportunity, the bigger the responsibility. We have a lot to do.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 18.01.2011