Top 50 Turkish Quotes

I write my novels in English first; then they are translated into Turkish by professional translators. Then I take their translation and rewrite. So basically, I write the same novel twice.

The allies we formerly relied on – the Kurds and the Syrian Democratic Forces – will have little interest in helping us after we abandon them to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Turkish government is very famous for hunting down those who oppose Erdogan… I just didn’t really want to risk my life by going to Europe where Erdogan’s long arms are everywhere.

The FCO must help Turkey reinforce accountable state institutions, while also developing ties far beyond them: the UK needs a deeper and therefore more durable relationship with the Turkish people, whichever background they hold, while working to uphold the values of human rights and democracy that benefit them all.

And, of course, it must be asked: is it proper to transact with the Turks for the most reassured of Greek possessions when Greece is under Turkish invasion and subjugation?

Moreover, as the leadership of the House confirmed last year, the Administration remains opposed to a congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide due to Turkish objections. This approach sends absolutely the wrong signal to Turkey and to the rest of the world.

If Turkish or Moroccan boys misbehave here, it’s up to us to re-educate them and, when necessary, to punish them.

My father has been targeted for persecution by the Turkish government and its leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, because of his association with me.

God is my witness that up to now, my only aspiration in life is to be a useful element within the army! I have for long been convinced that, to safeguard the country and give happiness to the people, it is necessary first of all to prove once more to the world that our army is still the old Turkish army.

The Turkish, Arab and Chinese nationalists who built new nation-states out of the ruins of old empires scorned their old, decrepit rulers as much as they did the foreign imperialists who imposed free trade through gunboats.

My visit to the United States has also given me the opportunity to emphasize the objective of establishing close and intensive links between the Turkish and American peoples, scholars and businessmen.

The Muslim Brotherhood is much more hardline than Turkish Islamists.

Turkish people are very emotional, very passionate about football, really want to see their team do well.

Urfa chillies are a Turkish variety that are mild on heat but big on aroma. They’re sweet, smoky, a lovely dark red, and go with just about anything.

The Turkish Embassy in Washington is an ornate, eclectic building on the corner of Twenty-third Street and Massachusetts Avenue which was built originally for Edward Hamlin Everett, the man who put the crimp in bottle caps.

I have discovered a gem, a tiny, relatively unknown Greek island. Kastellorizo lies in the Aegean Sea a mile off the Turkish Turquoise Coast, the most easterly of the Dodecanese islands.

Foreign journalists writing about Turkey like to focus on the most fundamental divide in Turkish society: the rift between religious conservatives and secularists.

Because of our Turkish roots, we still have a very strong relationship with Turkey.

It is tiring to be Turkish. The country is badly polarised, bitterly politicized. Every writer, journalist, poet knows that because of an article, a novel, an interview, a poem or a tweet you can be sued, put on trial, even arrested. Self-censorship is widespread.

The Turkish government will never tolerate the creation of a Kurdish state.

Turkish people live football. Football is a passion of theirs. They demonstrate it with love and affection for their team.

I got a lot of influence from my father, honestly. He’d take me in his car. I’d hear Carlos Santana. I’d hear Queen. I’d hear all these Turkish people, like, bands that he grew up listening to. He was in a band as well.

I play for the Turkish National Team. I live there.

I speak German, Turkish and English perfectly. And I can communicate in Russian.

Various Turkish people invaded southwest Asia during the Middle Ages and carved an empire for themselves from lands occupied by the indigenous Semitic and Indo-European inhabitants.

These political movements flourish on the margins of Turkish society because of poverty and because of the people’s feeling that they are not being represented.

Some argue that recognition of the genocide has become even more problematic now, when the world is at war with terrorism and the United States cannot afford to offend the sensibility of our Turkish ally.

My message to the Turkish people is never to view any military intervention positively because through military intervention, democracy cannot be achieved.

Actually, I’ve taught creative writing in Turkey, at an English language university, where the students were native Turkish speakers, but they were writing their essays in English, and they were very interesting – even the sense of structure, the conventions of writing, the different styles of writing.

Ataturk sent several Turkish staff officers to Afghanistan, helped them build their own army.

You still miss Turkish people, talking Turkish, you still miss your culture. That’s why New York is the best place to be because everywhere you go there’s Turkish people, your friends are here, you can go to eat Turkish food every day.

When London first went into lockdown, Mum and I were in the car listening to the radio. We drove to our local Turkish supermarket and saw queues around the building. Everyone looked terrified. I burst into tears when I got home.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

I write with humour about sadness, to introduce an element of sweet to the sour, a bit like Turkish food.

Attempts by one ethnic group to exercise sovereignty over another are not fair. It doesn’t matter if that ethnicity is Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic, Chaldean or whatever.

I sometimes feel nervous because I give stupid answers to certain pointless questions. It happens in Turkish as much as in English. I speak bad Turkish and utter stupid sentences.

I go for long walks in Newlands Forest in Cape Town, and I go to the Turkish baths on Sunday mornings.

Everyone asks me why someone Turkish is making Greek yogurt. In Greece, it is not called ‘Greek yogurt.’ Everywhere in the world it is called ‘strained yogurt.’ But because it was introduced in this country by a Greek company, they called it ‘Greek yogurt.’

We invite our friends who hold high positions in the legislative branch of government and state institutions to master the skills of administration, so they could, when the time comes, reform the Turkish state and make it more fruitful at all its levels in the name of Islam.

Turkey is not an enemy of Israel. I have worked closely with the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It’d be great to be in a position where you can make choices regardless of money. My tastes are always gonna lead me to go for the amazing project where I’m being paid in Turkish cantaloupes.

During the Gezi protests and PKK terror campaigns, the unity and solidarity of the Turkish nation were attacked.

In Israel, we are sorry for the loss of life of Turkish citizens in May 2010, when Israel confronted a provocative flotilla of ships bound for Gaza. I am sure that the proper way to express these sentiments to the Turkish government and the Turkish people can be found.

The E.U. initially decided to end the isolation of Turkish Cyprus, to balance the accession of Cyprus. But the E.U. has not carried through on its promise.

Ataturk approved of the mevlevi dervish approach to God as being ‘an expression of Turkish genius’ that reclaimed Islam from what he saw as hide-bound, backward Arab tradition.

We do not only have a Turkish side, inherited from our parents and our families, we were born and raised in Gelsenkirchen. It is a city with a high percentage of emigrants.

Turkish cuisine is, to my mind, one of the most exciting and accomplished in the world.

We saw that on the Turkish side there was a sincere wish for peace. But before I could even put my foot back on Greek soil people called me a traitor.

When I say all of this stuff about Turkey, people don’t understand. They think I don’t like Turkey. I love Turkey. I love my people. I love Turkish food and everything. But my problem is with the government.

The problems in the Russian novel are quite similar to the problems of Turkish nationalism and Turkish culture, which was something that I grew up thinking didn’t affect me very much because my parents didn’t really talk about it.