Today I spoke to my cousin in Turkey. She recently received her masters in Engineering and works for her university, Middle East Technical University, with her husband. I was curious to see their thoughts on what was happening in Turkey. They found the situation to be daunting and were frightened of what was in store for the future. So much so that her husband was able to secure a job with Google and have made plans to move to California by next year.

I was shocked at how a young couple could be frightened about such a thing, but they were easy to tell me why. After the 60's (our parents' time) there was a lot of corruption in Turkey. People could only obtain jobs because they 'knew someone' or they couldn't go to school because they didn't have enough credentials. Also, there was constant fighting between multiple parties in the country. Many people died in inhumane ways because of what they believed in. They're afraid something like that will happen again. They're afraid of the hand of the military. If the military was ever to step in then so much is at stake; EU ascension, human rights, the economy.

Emel, my cousin was kind enough to give me the e-mail of a journalist she knew. Hopefully I can get in touch with him.