My Kurdish & Turkish culture
Episode Stats
Summary
In this episode, I talk about my Turkish culture, food, the way we walk and the things we do at our weddings. I also talk about the differences between the Turkish and Kurdish culture and the food we eat.
Transcript
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assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh brothers and sisters and dear friends
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welcome to this video of my kurdish turkish culture i'm going to tell you guys a bit about
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what my culture is about different things that we do at weddings the foods that we eat
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maybe even the way we walk you know you know we have our own culture and everything that we do
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inshallah so today's video is going to be about that you know i know usually other videos on
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nasir or dawah but far make a bit different a bit fun inshallah and show you a little bit of
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the funny side or shall i say my cultural side uh to me which i don't really follow culture to be
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honest uh but yeah okay so i asked a couple of people on facebook and instagram so i'm gonna
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kind of go through them i'm mainly kurdish um and yeah i'm mainly kurdish but obviously i have
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we have a lot of turkish culture as well um and we have a lot of turks and kurds in my family
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we are originally kurdish we live in a part of turkey in a village in a village called kayseri
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which you will see on the map inshallah now as kurds um many many uh years ago uh politically
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i'm just going to talk about politically basically certain parts of iraq iran syria turkey um it's
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supposed to be kurdistan just that you know the bangladesh and pakistan got the independence
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we are still waiting for that and there's a big conflict between the turks and kurds you know they
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really don't like each other even though on both sides there's sunni turks and there's sunni kurds as
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well uh but my part of the family um they are alibi but not the alibi that i'm talking about in the
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syrian side the ones that do shirk on a big level um to be honest most of my family is that my dad's
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agnostic me personally i didn't have no religion myself i just believed in god always did my research
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for a couple of years and accepted islam um and there's a lot of sunni kurds um like kurds
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that actually you know uh follow the prophet uh uh there's a lot of curds that follow the quran
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and the sunnah um but some of them um like i said they uh they have their alibi now there's a big
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conflict like i said between the turks and kurds they don't really um like each other due to this
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because certain parts of turkey uh is supposed to be kurdistan and uh again with iran iraq but the
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majority of the part as far as i know if i'm not mistaken is uh in turkey but turkey uh doesn't want
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that they want they don't they don't want that they just want one country you know and uh etc etc so
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they have a lot of conflict uh moving away from that uh food when it comes to our food where we
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have a variety of food the turkish kurdish culture the food is just the variety is too much for example
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with the pakistanis the asians uh no offense i don't know about any other cultures uh yeah the the
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the their food as far as i know yeah look i like biryani i like asian food i like chinese food yeah
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but with the curry it's just to me it seems like it's just curry and it's just curry you know it's just
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that you have i don't know different kinds of curry it's just the same curry it just looks the
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same it's just like different ingredients ingredients inside with us we have a variety we
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have you know we have vine leaves you know we have pastry like pastry with chicken pastry with spinach
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pastry with cheese uh we have soups we have a variety of soups we have different kinds of dishes
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that we do with rice it's not just rice so i'm just going to put a couple of pictures on the screen
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you will see all the kind of foods that we have it's huge it's humongous the variety when it comes
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to desserts baklava as far as i know it's turkish some people say it's not i think it is we have
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for example this ice cream in turkey which you can have it's called maras doldo masa it's really
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really like it's it's it's it's a weird way of ice cream ice cream is really hard you need to
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actually chew it to eat it and they do a little bit funny thing with the ice cream which i i will show
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If that makes sense, yeah? Whichever one you want to use.
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So when you meet your granddad or your grandparents,
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It's just like you just, you know, you do this.
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The Arabs do it three times, like one, two, three.
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which you see on both sides, for men and women.
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As you can see, maybe it's got some Islamic values
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You just have arrangements. You just get to know each other.
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and the families get to know each other, etc, etc.
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if I'm not mistaken, because I don't know much about my culture.
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I don't know if that's bitter, but that's what they do.
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They plan everything, wedding, blah, blah, blah.
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Most of the times, I'm sure she's joyous that she's getting married.
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So after that, straight after maybe like a week in between,
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maybe two weeks, maybe three weeks or maybe a month,
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But on the non-religious side, music, they have music.
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The bride, what she would do is she would sit in the middle of the hall.
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For example, her close relatives, cousins, let's say,
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they dance around her pretending that they want her hand in marriage.
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They want her hand in marriage and they go up to her,
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trying to perform, trying to impress her, yeah?
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I'm not the kind of person that likes to dance.
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So I'm sure you guys are laughing at the way I danced a minute ago.
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So they dance around her, go up to her, give her something.
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And then basically what she does is she turns away, meaning,
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Then somebody else tries and he probably does back flips
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Then finally the groom comes and he goes in and he's like,
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ooh, yes, you know, he just does a bit of, you know,
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a backspin or something and then goes up to her.
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And then, yeah, she says, gives her hand and she says,
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ooh, everybody starts clapping, getting excited.
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And also they have this thing called testi, yeah?
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So what they do is they basically put money in it
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and the bride just goes and dances and just smashes it on the floor.
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And then there's money and sweets and the kids just start
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fire kicking each other, jumping there, make some money.
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You know, when it comes to giving gifts, it's mainly money and gold.
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I know like minimum 30,000, 40,000, 50,000, 60,000.
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There's times of 70,000, depends how wealthy your family is.
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For example, if you basically, I'll say something in Turkish.
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So basically, in my Kurdish culture, we have something called Nevroz.
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It's like a new year where it marks the beginning of spring.
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So that's where we, for example, celebrate every single year.
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Last time I know, I went to one, two people tried to jump over the fire
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and they headbutted each other and fell into the fire.
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So Nevroz is something that's celebrated in a big way.
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They wear traditional clothing, which you can see on the screen, inshaAllah.
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When it comes to tea, like my dad, he drinks so much tea.
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Like tea is served not in the big cups, like small cups.
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Turkish coffee, when it comes to Turkish coffee.
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Brother Oyun, would you like to come and express to us what happened with your Turkish coffee?
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Okay, if you're going to drink Turkish coffee with water, don't do that.
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So brother Oyun tried Turkish coffee with water only.
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Because what they usually do is, and this is shirk.
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They use water in a little cup and then they drink it.
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Then what they do is they turn the cup over, right?
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And someone in the family who pretends, you know, some kind of, like, sees the future or something.
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Turns it around and sees these signs and goes, oh yeah, you know, I can see a donkey.
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And yeah, you're going to have beef for lunch or something like that.
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We don't go and give the girl, like, there's no diary basically.
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You know, when they get married, they've got, like, 30, 40 grand.
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They can do whatever, open a business or a kebab shop.
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There is this thing before you ask for, basically, her hand.
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Like, you go and basically, if they put sugar in your tea or coffee, I don't know what it is,
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that it's like, yes, I'm happy, I want to marry you.
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But if they put salt or something along those lines, it's not happening.
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Just get the idea and just kind of walk out the door.
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Okay, somebody's asked, basically, why do most Kurdish guys pluck their eyebrows?
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Somebody's asked, why is Kurdish, Turkish guys so hairy?
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Okay, when it comes to culture and marriage, to be honest, with our culture, we are okay.
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We don't have that kind of cultural, like, thing of, oh, he has to be for my caste or my tribe.
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Or, like, you know, he has to be for my tribe, he has to dance the way we dance.
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Or, if he doesn't, you can't marry my daughter.
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Go to your Turkish supermarket and buy this Turkish sujuk.
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Yeah, like, it's not raw raw, it's kind of cooked.
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It's just got this flavour I cannot explain to you guys.
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I think it's not for my culture to eat with our hands.
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You know, I will eat with my hands with certain stuff.
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But rice and couscous or this, that, nah, I'm using spoon.
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And the Blue Mosque, as you guys know, somewhere I need to go.
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I haven't gone myself as well, even though I'm Turkish.
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Okay, yeah, somebody goes, why does my country rip people off?
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Well, to be honest, if you go to Turkey, if you seem like a foreigner,
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And if you're, you know, haggling, do tell them, you know,
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So, that means, brother, please make it a little bit cheaper.
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When it comes to drink, one of the things that you really need to try
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Aidan is something that's made with yogurt, water, and a bit of salt.
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Like, if you're having your kebab, you should try it.
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Also, when it comes to, like, for example, like, when I'm at home,
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Like, for example, yogurt, when you guys go buy it,
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For example, you guys go and buy it from Tesco's.
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Like, as far as I know, she uses milk that are about to go out of date
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Sometimes, near my house where I live, there's a tree that there's berries.
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So, basically, she goes and picks berries, brings them.
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And she just mashes them up and do some kind of stuff
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For two things that I would say to you about Kurdish-Turkish women
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There are women, as far as I know, from what I know,
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When it comes to hygiene, yeah, they are hygienic.
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Like, they would really, like, tidy up the house, etc.
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They're always in the house doing something, alhamdulillah.
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When it comes to men, one thing that I've noticed about the Turkish-Kurdish men,
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But the majority of them, they just, like, they're on this Romeo flex.
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Like, they're romantic. They're, like, really romantic.
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But as far as I know, from Turkish men, if you said one thing,
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I would say they are, you know, they listen to these Turkish romantic musics
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and they go in a mad one, go in front of the girl's house and say,
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They just write it down with roses in the middle of the road,
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Like, those kind of type of individuals, to be honest.
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I was not taught, to be honest, how to speak Kurdish.
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So I don't really know my own language, to be honest.
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You guys know, like, for example, Salahuddin Ayubi,
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basically one of the greatest warriors who was Kurdish, to be honest.
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But a lot of people really forget that in the Kurdish community,
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that, you know, they don't have that Islamic site and they actually hate Islam.
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But that's because of certain reasons, certain things, like, for example,
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certain Turkish, Muslim, Sunnis that have tortured them because of their beliefs,
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My culture, does it treat males and females the same?
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Well, just like in any culture, majority-wise, it's like, you know,
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men do get away with certain stuff that women cannot get away with, unfortunately.
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But obviously, as you know, in Islam, in the sight of Allah,
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in the sight of Allah, they're both the same with the stuff that they do, good or bad.
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Another thing, Turkish delight, yeah, I don't like.
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When it comes to the language, the Kurds in Iraq speak different to the Kurdish,
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Kurdish, the Kurdish language in Turkey spoken by Kurdish Turks.
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Also, one thing that I forgot to mention to you guys,
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and also at the weddings, what they do is we dance in a way that, for example,
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But, uh, males, males and females, they dance in a way where they're just, like, hand-to-hand,
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like, they hold like this, or they hold hands like that, and they just go round to certain music.
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Oh yeah, one thing that you would know about Turks and Kurds is this Nazar thing, blue-eyed thing.
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And to be honest, it's shirk, you know, it's, it's, it doesn't, because what they believe is,
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they put it on little babies, for example, they put it in their house or in their car,
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and it's just like, oh, it will protect you from Nazar, and that's shit,
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because I don't think we believe, protection comes from Allah,
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To be honest, when I first came to Islam, I had it in my car,
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and when I clocked, I just threw it out, to be honest,
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because I don't think it should, you should put your whole trust in Allah.
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And then also, guys, when it comes to that, for example, breakfast, our breakfast is variety.
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In the morning, you just have egg, cheese, olives, more cheese, yogurt, jam,
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all kinds of jam, tea, toast, tomatoes, cucumber, everything.
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It's just like a bit of everything on the table, it's, it's, it's crazy, you know.
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That's what it is, when it comes to food, that's something, the variety is huge.
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So, guys, here's a challenge for you guys. I'm going to ask you three questions in Turkish.
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Let's see if you guys can find out for your Turkish friends,
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through Google translation, what I'm saying, and type in the comments below.
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And, adın ney, kaç yaşındasın ve nerelisin?
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That are the three questions I asked you. Let's see if you can find out what I'm saying.
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Put it in the comment section. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
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And, adın ney, kaç yaşındasın ve nerelisin?
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That are the three questions I asked you. Let's see if you can find out what I'm saying.
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Put it in the comment section. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
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I'm saying, put it in the comment section. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.