A different take on Turkey. Pro-Kurdish demonstration, Brussels, 9/26/011.

Growing up in Istanbul, her sister would lock her in a closet, where, I was told, she was forced to memorize Das Kapital. So the lousy rumor went, as though it were a way of explaining both her trauma, and her brilliance. For the brief time we were involved, I never asked her about it.

The Bosnian war was in full swing. She had strong opinions about US plans for the region. They fascinated me, as  they paralleled the beginnings of the American-sponsored Mideast peace process. I can’t recall us ever discussing, in any similar depth, the Kurdish situation.

Kurdistan Workers Party  poster, Boxhagenerplatz. Friday, 16/7.