Etude: Response to "Istanbul's Choice"

In perusing through Asu Aksoy’s essay, “Istanbul’s Choice,” I was struck by the final section discussing exclusionism in Istanbul:

“With high levels of unemployment, an unqualified labor force and the continuing influx of immigrants from the rule areas of turkey…social exclusion finds fertile ground in Istanbul.” (82)

…and later:

“Defensive and fearful responses to what are in fact ‘complex, confusing, and often highly contradictory implications of this ongoing neoliberalisation of urban political-economic space’ start slipping easily and seamlessly into an exclusionary language, to rejection of difference and diversity and ultimately to nationalistic fanaticism” (83)

Yet, according to the NPR article linked to us (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99189265), exclusion also seems woven into the German mindset:

“Jan Techau of the German Council on Foreign Relations says the German concept of identity is based on exclusion.

‘For hundreds of thousands of years, identities were created by excluding those who weren't part of the crowd, by drawing up borders,’ he says."

In both Istanbul and Germany, exclusionism appears to play a significant role in society. However, the logical endpoints couldn’t be further apart; Dr. Aksoy argues that Istanbul may head toward nationalistic fanaticism whereas Germany is the last country that will resort to such a mindset (at least according to Misha Neininger). I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens—history may not have ended yet.