Patriotism?

These past few weeks have been filled with interesting displays of patriotism throughout the day and night. It's been "exciting" to watch as these spontaneous parades and rallies pop up anywhere at any time. All of this excitement originated as Turkey's Parliament finally decided to do something about the Iraqi-Kurdish rebels. They are located in Northern Iraq and come across the border and cause problems for Turks and even Kurds in Turkey. Turkey has yet to make a full incursion into Iraq, as they are waiting to see what the U.S. does about the problem first. It should provide plenty of interesting conversations and certainly more parades over the coming weeks, especially tomorrow as it is Turkey's Independence Day. We continue to feel completely safe and know that plenty of people are monitoring the situation. One of which will soon be my mom. She is coming on Friday and we know if anything gets out of hand while she is here, she will do her best to straighten it out. Here are two examples of the festivities.