Why Did the Turkey Cross The Road?

First let me say that since I've been in Turkey, I have never seen a car - or rather a car driver - stop for a pedestrian at a crosswalk. In fact, I could expand upon that theme and state that since I've been in Turkey, I have never seen a car - or rather a car driver - stop for a pedestrian (period. full stop) ... but that's not terribly relevant to what I want to relate (but I did want to say it).

Today, however, on the way back from (the italics demand that you pay attention to the preposition) Carrefour, Mr. This Cat's (Not) Abroad and I actually saw two real live traffic police officers not sitting idly in their cars stationed along a very busy stretch of road - at crosswalks. At crosswalks. And what were they doing? you ask. They were stopping traffic to allow passengers, descending from the gazillion dolmuşes - the veritable stuffed grape leaves on wheels - which pull over willy-nilly to the sides of the road, to safely cross at the crosswalks. Without the traffic police officers, the cars, buses & trucks which careen perilously along these roads would never have stopped. Even with the traffic police officers, many of the cars, buses & trucks which careen perilously along these roads didn't stop.

Nonetheless, this is a mighty step forward.

But why were the traffic police there in the first place rather than sitting idly in their cars? An hour earlier, on the way to Carrefour, Mr. This Cat's (Not) Abroad and I saw a woman enter a crosswalk and get beaned by an oncoming truck. Although to be accurate, Mr. This Cat's saw a woman enter a crosswalk and get beaned by an oncoming truck - I didn't. As soon as Mr. This Cat yelled omigodthattruckisgoingtohitthatwoman! I closed my eyes and turned my head (just for good measure). And although she wasn't killed, she was nonetheless hit. By a truck. By a truck who completely disregarded the crosswalk sign - like every other driver in Izmit.

And the moral of the story? Well, there is none. But whenever I bring up the issue of Turkish drivers and their wanton disregard for human - i.e., pedestrian - life, my students snigger. Sometimes that snigger is accompanied by a what-can-you-do shrug which I think is supposed to pass as acknowledgement but without any accountability. Frankly, it makes my blood boil. And although I know that the government says that it's taking the fact that drivers routinely plough through crosswalks seriously, it's a little hard to believe when

a) you've never seen a driver stop at a crosswalk, or
b) you've never seen a police officer ticket a car who failed to stop at a crosswalk

Of course, one might observe that the truck in question did stop at the crosswalk, but only to extricate the pedestrian from his front right wheel well. The good news - if there is any - was that it took less than 5 minutes for the ambulance to arrive.

Theoretically Turkey still wants in to the EU, although popular support is waning. Many many people believe that the EU is either putting up insurmountable roadblocks to Turkey's accession because it either hates Islam or just hates Turkey. For Turkey to join the EU, it must first successfully complete negotiations with the European Commission on all 35 chapters of the so-called acquis communautaire - the corpus of EU law. Once this has happened, all other EU members vote and, if they are unanimous, Turkey will become a member state. Turkey has performed miserably on many of the chapters - notably, on issues concerning the environment, justice, and freedom. But I'd like to add one more: crosswalks. Until drivers here are fined or trained or enlightened to the point where they stop for pedestrians, they don't belong in the EU.

End of rant ...

Oooops, I almost forgot: and why did the turkey cross the road? Because it had a death wish.