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Greece and Turkey have been fighting against each other for many years. Greece was captured and ruled by the Ottoman Empire and in 1821 they started a war for their indpendence. After four hundred years of slavery the Greeks managed to become free after defeating the Ottomans. But still this was not the only conflict between the Greeks and the Turks. Some events are the Greco-Turkish war in 1897, the Balkan Wars in 1912, the First World War in 1914 and the Greco-Turkish war in 1919.

Even though the Greeks and the Turks had many conflicts with each other they did manage to live in harmony for many years. In Cyprus Greeks and Turks lived together and they were called Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots. They managed to live in harmony for years but on the 20th of July 1974 this relationship changed and they hated each other. On this day the Turks invaded Cyprus and captured half of it. They captured the North side and now it is called Northern Cyprus because it is ruled by Turks.

The reason why the relationship between Greeks and Turks was ruined because of this invasion is because Greeks are similar to Cypriots and in the past these two countries wanted to unite and become one. After the independence of Cyprus, Greece was always by their side and also the other way around. This is why Greece picked to help out the Cypriots instead of the Turks and this is why this relationship between them changed forever after 1974.

Back then this conflict caused many problems but now things are getting much better and for years politicians try to find a solution and arrange a treaty between Cyprus and Turkey. Many things have changed since then, like the borders for Cypriots were open to visit their old homes that were captured and observe them and other things they have not seen since that day. A treaty has still not been found but it is something that will be going on for years. The reason is because in order for Turkey to become a member of the E.U. they will have to arrange a treaty which Greeks and Cypriots would be satisfied with. Hopefully in the future there will be peace among Cypriots, Greeks and Turks.

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Cultural Blog # 4

During this semester I was trying to watch and explore the Persian cinema and one of my friends recommended the movie called "Wind will carry us". I decided to watch this movie as a listening exercises since the whole movie is talked in Farsi.
The movie starts with a beautiful countryside, the shot is very wide after several seconds you notice a car driving through a winding road. I found this scene very funny and interesting the people inside the car were talking about their destination which is not revealed to the viewers. They are describing to the the village and arguing how to get there. As a viewer you get the feeling that these people are city people and they are fascinated by the beauty of this countryside. In the middle of the road they find the boy who was waiting for them to get show them the place they are staying at. This movie is very long and simple, it is not the kind of movie where actions happens fast and plot line movies very quickly. Wind will carry us is very slow going and simple but at the same time has many details. We don't find what the visitors are doing and what is the purpose of their trip. Slowly we learn that they came to document a death ritual of an old woman. They find the deathly ill woman has not died yet and so they settle in and wait. This movie is focused on one man who struggles in the understanding of the ways to live a life. In this movie you see the relationship between villagers and how each one of them are dependent on each other and the traveler is fascinated by how the villager take care of each other. This visit changes the main guy and he wants to live the life. At the end of the movie the old woman dies and the reporter and other villages were surprised by her death and the funeral was not what we were expecting them. This movie is basically about city people getting to know the villagers, their way of living and how the friendship is build up between the villagers and the city travelers.
i really liked this movie and will defiantly recommended "the Wins will carry us". Even though this movie is very long and slow moving but each detailed is captured and it is very beautiful.
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My Summary of MLC 105

In my life I have been exposed to various different cultures and I experienced them and had the opportunity of interacting with the native people of that culture.Now when I wanted to learn Farsi, the MLC 105 has changed my way of view the languages. Since I am myself from Afghanistan Persian culture is very similar to mine , if not identical. However, I still discovered things that I have never thought about like the opinions of people on the public show of affections, how different cultures are related or about the existence and examples of some slangs.
In the MLC 105, I did not just learn and understand about the culture of the language that I was learning but also the two other languages that other students were studying. This was very fun and enjoyable of sharing different elements of cultures that each of us learned. The reading that we were assigned also made me think how much the world talks and discusses about the different subjects and issues of the various cultures.
At the end of this course, I am able to look at the different cultures, explore the unique tradition, national clothe or even their food and think how these factors shape the culture as a whole.
This course also helped me to see that I am able to do self direct studying and I can follow the daily practices, learning about new culture and get better in writing and reading Farsi. I am able to plan the different tasks and actually to go trough with them and finish them. I have had a great experience and learned many different ways of understanding the culture and learning its language.
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Cultural Blog #7

The Persian culture is very famous for its art. Their culture is very closely connected with its art. In Iran there are outstanding work of unique blue mosques. In this blog I will be talking about the Blue Mosque in Tabriz, the third largest city in Iran. The Blue Mosque was begun in 1611 an took 18 years to complete. It was built on the order of Jahan Shah, who made Tabriz the capital of his Kingdom. After his death the complex was completed under the supervision of Aziz-e-Din-Qapuchi in 1465 A.D. The mosque was severely damaged in an earthquake in 1778, leaving only the entrance iwan. The mosque was reconstructed at early 1900 by Iranian ministry of culture.
The mosque named as Blue Mosque because blue tiles were used to cover the building, most of the these tiles have been deteched by earthquakes.

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Cultural Blog # 6

In my first cultural blog I talked about the celebration of Nowruz, in this blog I want to talk about another celebration that is celebrated before Nowruz, it is called Festival of Fire or "Chahar Shanbeh Suri".
The words Chahar Shanber mean Wednesday and Suri means red. On the eve of last Wednesday bonfires are lit in public places which represents a hope toward enightenment and happiness throughout the coming year. Traditionally, it is believed that the spirits of the ancestors are visiting the living on the last day of the year. Many children run through the streets wrapped in shrouds banging on pots and pans with spoons, which is known as Gashog-Zani to beat out the last unlucky Wednesday of the year, while knocking on the door and asking for treats. It is very similar to American Halloween.
In this celebration there are gathering, with prayers, feasts and communal consumption of ritually blessed food.
Spring housecleaning and the dancing and welcoming souls over the bonfire is still carried out by today's Iranians. In Islamic tradition Wednesday represents a bad omen day with unpleasant consequences Therefore, the festival is celebrated on Tuesday night to make sure all bad spirits are chased away and Wednesday will pass happily.
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Cultural blog #5

I was amazed by the manner the movie Wind will care us was shot that I did a little research on the director whose name is Abbas Kiarostami and this what I learned about him and his work.
Kiarostami was born in, the capital of Iran, Tehran. He stated his career by creating advertisements for Iranian television.His first production was a short film The Bread and Alley about school boys confronting an angry dog. After that many other films followed such as The Experience, The Traveler, Report and many more. Abbas Kiarostami has unique style , unlike many other directors who create extravagant scenes in the large scale production his movies are very simple but at the same time they are very complex too, and often they are mix of fiction and documentary elements. His explanation for this is that "We can never get close to the truth except through lying".
As a director he has received a worldwide acclaim for his work and has won at least seventy awards during his career. The Ben Gibson, the director of the London Film School described Abbas Kiarostami by saying this "Very few people have the creative and intellectual clarity to invent cinema from its most basic elements, from the ground up". I really enjoyed Wind will carry us and will exploring and watching his other works.
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Culture Blog # 3

Iran has a very similar culture with Afghanistan and I always was interested in learning about the government of Iran. Therefore I learned this from the articles I read about Iran's political life.

Iran has a been going trough many changes in its government. In last twenty years of the government it went from being a "nominal constitutional monarchy" to a democratic theocracy. There is a president who is elected for a four year term and majles (unicameral legislature) of 270 members elected directly by the people. Suffrage is universal, and the voting age is sixteen. It is the president who selects other positions, the Council of Ministers and Expediency Council, the president is the head of the Council of National Security.

There is a supreme jurisprudent selected by an independent Assembly of Experts—a council of religious judges. Alongside the chief jurisprudent is a twelve-member Council of Guardians, six selected by the chief jurisprudent, and six by the Supreme Judicial Council ratified by the majles. The Council of Guardians rules on the Islamic suitability of both elected officials and the laws they pass.

The judiciary consists of a Supreme Judge and a Supreme Judicial Council. I found very strange that at this modern time Iran still discriminates people by their religion, since there is a law that all members must be Shi'a Muslim jurisprudents. Islamic Shari'a law is used as the main law in the court's decisions. Freedom of the press and assembly are constitutionally guaranteed so long as such activities do not contradict Islamic law.

There are several governmental units: the ostan (province), sharestan (county) and dehestan (township) .



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Culture Blog # 2 Iranian Etiquette

Ta'arof , literally "meeting together", is a big part of Iranian culture and in this event you can see how they show great respect and honor toward their guests . When invited as a guest a small present is appreciated, but as many Iranians are they are often receive the gift with a show of embarrassment. When Iranians give a gift it will usually not be unwrapped in front of the giver. It is always expected that a person returning from a trip will bring presents for family and friends. Do not give overly lavish gift, mostly something from your home are generally appreciated.
Do know that most of the meals are served on the floor, do not sit until you were told where to and do not use you left hand. As drinks most common will be water and alcohol beverages are illegal under most circumstances.
In Iranian culture they value and respect their guests greatly, this shows that their culture is for friendliness and peacefulness among different people.
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