IPN survey: The journalistic community of Moldova also expresses its compassion and solidarity with the Republic of Turkey and its people in this difficult period of loss caused by the terrorist attacks. The journalistic community of Moldova has an additional reason for these feelings and possibly understands better than other social groups from our country the enormous damage caused by these attacks in a country that set out on a path of very serious peaceful development. We had doubts whether to publish, in these days of national mourning, the given survey that emanates a lot of optimism and light not only for Turkey. The decision was in favor of the publication because namely now Turkey and its people need optimism and light.
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Recently, a large delegation of Moldovan journalists, including myself, paid a visit to the Republic of Turkey, organized by the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA). It was a very interesting and useful visit both because of what we saw there and because of the possibility of looking with fresh eyes at the own country. Surely, each member of the delegation will produce or already produced articles about the visit and this will be the personal approach of each journalist. But I also thought that Turkey, and Moldova too, deserves a general, panoramic view that would include all the personal approaches formulated by journalists, who sometimes are very different by occupation, language, working language, political and geopolitical views. For the purpose, I asked all my delegation mates to answer two questions. The first was “What impressed you the most during this visit?”. The opinions of nine of the 15 members of the delegation are stated below.
Maria Bzovaia, publication “Spros i Predlojenie” (“Supply and Demand”), Balti
This visit destroyed some stereotypes concerning the fact that Turkey is the country where only the business tourism is developed, with services of a high quality for those who go to holiday resorts and on cultural-historical trips. Earlier, I thought that these are concentrated on the seaside and in Istanbul. As a result of the trip, I realized that this is a country with a high level of general economic development, where the state supports businesses in a real way and in different forms, not only by creating favorable working conditions, but also by developing technologies.
I was also impressed by the size of constructions in the capital Ankara and in other cities. I saw large and new quarters, sports and other kinds of facilities and these are an indicator of intense development of the country. Given that we practically everywhere contacted especially with young people, the general impression of Turkey is that this is a state that develops vertiginously and has a great future.
Dmitri Kalak, economic publication “Logos press”, Chisinau
Even if it may seem strange, I was impressed by the elementary normality and reasonability of the actions of the state bodies and businesses of Turkey in many aspects. In Moldova, they often say correct things, adopt necessary laws and work out plans and strategies, but not many of these are put into practice. In Turkey yet, the power at local and state levels looks at the things through the angle of the interests of the people and businesses, not of the personal interests.
This is the general overview. In particular, I was impressed by the way they designed and built in the city of Konya, one of the best stadiums in Europe, during only two years. This cost only €62 million, which was allocated from the local budget. The interaction between the local authorities and the population, through the street-level councils, deserves respect. I was impressed by the way the people in this city as well as in Ankara and Istanbul are informed about the things taking place at the city hall and about the citizens’ involvement in the debates on city problems.
I was surely impressed by the historical and cultural monuments of Turkey that we saw during the trip. Not only the moments themselves are amazing, but also the caring attitude of the Turkish people to all the aspects of their multi-century and very diverse history. I was also impressed by the special spirit of entrepreneurship by which all these ‘trump cards’ are used to develop tourism in the own country.
Liubovi Chegarovskaya, publication “Panorama”, Chisinau
The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency organized a wonderful trip and the impressions I got gave me positive emotions and energy that were greater than the effect produced by my annual leave that is coming to an end. I returned from Turkey somehow renewed, as if I went through an internal reformation that gave me new strength to live.
I visited Turkey for the first time and I’m very glad that I discovered this wonderful country in a correct way. I refer to the fact that the visit for journalists was so appropriately and multilaterally planned that during one week only we managed to form a complex impression about this welcoming country and its people. This would have been impossible within private visits.
I was impressed by a lot of things during our fact-finding visit. First of all, I was impressed by the way the activity of press centers of the city halls was organized and by the fact that the local authorities possess their own press bodies that inform the people about the activity of the city hall and do not promote the interests of the party that fills the seat of mayor.
I was impressed by the organogram of the Istanbul City Hall, which includes over 40 municipal enterprises whose revenues represent an important part of the local budget. I was fascinated by the neat and clean streets of Istanbul, Konya and Bursa. It was impossible not to notice that the activity of the public services was very well organized and order is maintained permanently, not only on the occasion of visits paid by high-ranking officials. During a short period, it’s not possible to make places so clean. I was delighted by the way the public services bring to life the pillars of bridges and the concrete walls inside tunnels with the help of landscape design. I was impressed by the inventive way in which the flower beds were laid out, by the rational use of each piece of ground and by the method of reinforcing ground in the areas affected by landslide.
I was nicely surprised by the interest of the Turkish businessmen, governmental and nongovernmental organizations in developing the cooperation with Moldova and in creating joint enterprises, despite the fact that our market and the purchasing power of our population are small.
I was glad to see so many young people working at enterprises. This means that the young generation remains in the country and does not go abroad to look for a better life.
I can enumerate many other things as I was impressed by everything because it was felt that in Turkey the people work for their country (not many people there will dare to damage or steal public property), while in our country the people behave like temporary visitors who do not care how their state will look like tomorrow.
Tudor Yashchenko, regional publication “Cuvantul” (“The Word”)
I saw another country than the one I imagined based on the stories heard from other people. It is a prosperous country from economic and social viewpoints. It is a country where the people feel comfortable (at the enterprises we visited, on the street, I saw many respectful and sociable young people). It is a country with a special care for the socially deprived categories and with a respectful attitude towards the elderly people; a country with solid customs and traditions that are observed horizontally and vertically.
Ludmila Barba, National Public Broadcaster “Teleradio-Moldova”
The fact-finding visit staged by the TIKA for the Moldovan journalists was for me a good occasion of doing away with the stereotypes established at the start of the 1990s. Then, Turkey was the top country of destination for the primitive Moldovan businesses. Now I saw a modern country that is developing swiftly. Despite particular political crises, the rulers know how they want their country to look like in a period and know how to achieve this goal.
Dmitri Popozoglo, publication “Edinaia Gagauzia” (“United Gagauzia”), Comrat
It wasn’t my first trip to Turkey as I visited already Istanbul, Ankara and Eskisehir. I also read about this country and even studied its language and continue to study it. That’s why it was important for me to strengthen particular impressions and to test my knowledge, including to use this trip as a linguistic practice. I also didn’t forget that I’m a journalist too.
Konya astounded me the most of the cities I saw. I knew that Istanbul was a grand city as I visited it earlier (though there is always something new to be seen there). I imagined Konya would be a provincial town. In reality, it is a new and beautiful city that is kept clean and well-ordered. I’m sure that this depends exclusively on administration. I heard there for the first time a mayor saying that his predecessors weren’t worse. Is this possible! In our country, each next successor mandatorily discredits the predecessor to justify his coming to power. We haven’t yet reached such soul liberality.
Besides its architectonic grandness, Istanbul astounded me by its flower beds, parks and gardens. This is where we should go to attend seminars on the issue!
Bursa looks like a classical city from the Middle East. It is a solid city that knows what it should do. It is somehow chaotic compared with Konya, Ankara and Eskisehir. I never visited Beirut, but I’m inclined to think that it is like Bursa.
Anatolii Pasat, Infotag News Agency
The visit helped me to considerably enrich my knowledge of this wonderful country. As it turned out, Turkey is not only a piece of heaven for holiday makers, but also a highly developed economy that is attractive for investments and that has a favorable business climate. I was impressed by the relations between the power and society, the Turkish people’s patriotism and their caring attitude to the history of their country, city, town and even of the company where they work.
Liudmila Kovali, publication “Profsoiuznyie Vesti” (“Trade union news”), Tiraspol:
I knew only the recreational side of Turkey until now, which also impresses by its services, prices, amenities and hospitality. However, during our visit we discovered another Turkey – a developing industrial, scientific and self-sufficient country. I was impressed by the tendency and wish of the Turkish people to go on, by the flexibility in business, the stake on science, the scientific inventions and nanotechnology without which there is no development. All the countries realize this, but not all of them can (or want) to afford this. Turkey can and wants. Moreover, it makes effort to occupy a leading place in this regard.
As regards the daily life, I was impressed by this life in Istanbul, with its magnificent architectural monuments and clean streets (how can they manage to keep a city with 15 million people so clean?), with neat greenswards, with national cuisine and with the Bosphorus.
Cristina Danuta, Radio Sputnik, Chisinau
In the many institutions I visited together with my guild colleagues, I saw that the Turkish people lay emphasis mainly on the relations between the people rather than on money and incomes. Maybe this is why things last in Turkey. One mayor can be elected for three consecutive terms. A business is transmitted from father to son, while those who visited Turkey want to return because they are welcomed there.
In Turkey, one can become a mayor at the age of 18. For many of Moldovans, this would seem strange, especially for the public functionaries who got stuck in their seats. However, the fact that in Turkey the young people are regarded as more responsible and more trustworthy arouses questions. I wonder if many of our young people would have the courage to become involved in the process of managing their communities. The Turkish people managed yet. In the Istanbul City Hall, for example, I saw more young people than older ones on corridors and in offices.
Valeriu Vasilica, IPN
I saw a developed country and people with a great development potential. The economic and social life there is organized super-rationally. I saw open faces and minds, oriented mainly to European production and living standards. Not long ago, the Turkish people, as the Moldovans, travelled through the world in search of a purpose in life. Now the experience of such bodies as the Association of Balkan Industrialists and Businessmen in Bursa, which we visited, impresses, not speaking about the very large turnover figures of its members. I speak about the inverse tendency of this process. But maybe the most powerful and convincing index of the high organizational level of the internal life in Turkey is the effort the people of this country make to support development projects outside the own borders, in many places of the world, including Moldova. I think only one argument is enough: the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency supports development projects to the value of €3.5 million all over the world, ranking third in this regard, after the U.S. and the UK.
By this part of the survey and by the whole survey, I want we to be sufficiently convincing when we want to transmit our convictions about the incontestable status of Turkey and the Turkish people of developed and developing country and people that have what to defend at economic, social and cultural levels.
Survey carried out by Valeriu Vasilica, IPN
