[gambiting]

Yeah I do not understand what is going on with HN today. Half of the comments here are showing Germans as some racists bastards with tight border controls - when the reality couldn't be further from the truth. And I am not even German.

[oakaz]

are you europen, american or middle eastern?

[gambiting]

Are these the 3 only options? Define "European"? Sweden, Greece, Russia and Turkey are all parts of Europe,but I imagine you would be a lot quicker to call someone from Turkey "middle eastern". Also, with this classification someone from Brazil or Mexico is also American, since they live in one of the Americas, and you seem to prefer continental or regional denominations rather than ones based on state.

But technicalities aside - I am from Poland. Country which has every reason to hate Germans the most. Yet my opinion of Germans is that they are incredibly polite, worried to be perceived as even a little bit racist, and the part about border crossings is completely made up. Even before the Schoengen zone was opened, if you were stopped at the German border, sure, they could disassemble half of your car - but then they would put everything back together exactly as it was, and they would apologise for taking your time. Compared to the Belorussian, Ukrainian or Russian borders, where you have to be careful to not get shot.

[oakaz]

Turkey is the shittiest name to call Thrace, Anatolia and North Mesopotamia. Thrace is the european part, Anatolia is the asian part, and North Mesopotamia is the middle eastern part of this country. And majority is the influenced by persian & middle eastern culture rather than European.

I'm saying this as somebody grew up there. You have to ask the experience of those who actually experience the discrimination, not speaking on behalf of them. Where else in the world we have racists burning houses belong to minorities alive in 2010s? Even last year, a singer couldn't give a concert to the Turkish people there because she couldn't get a visa. If she gets visa, she may not pass the border since all the officers ask you "why are you in Germany?" and if you say you wanna travel they keep asking "travelling where?" "shopping what?" "studying what?" Now even celebs bring newspapers to show the officers to prove that they won't stay too long there!

It's a fact that being a middle eastern or being from a middle eastern influenced country let you face different attitude everywhere in the world. I'm saying this as an atheist guy who had to face it.

[lispm]

Isn't Turkey one of the more minority unfriendly and oppressive countries?

www.minorityrights.org/download.php?id=183

http://usefoundation.org/view/869

Some christians seem to have a hard time in Turkey:

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/christians-in-turkey-fearfu...

http://www.speroforum.com/a/YGCTQMTWMQ13/73995-Turkey-Christ...

http://morningstarnews.org/2014/07/hostilities-at-catholic-c...

http://armenpress.am/eng/news/717094/christian-churches-atta...

[oakaz]

Yes it is, and that's why I left there. By the way, I doubt it's as worse as countries where minorities are burnt alive in 2010s.