Turkish coffee and politics go hand in hand

Paul Smithson

24/11/2011 12:43:36

The centuries-old tradition of discussing current affairs over cups of Turkish coffee is a valuable phenomenon, it has been claimed.

Writing for The Guardian, novelist Kaya Genç described how Turkey’s coffee houses have played a key role in the country’s society for hundreds of years, with citizens heading to such places to discuss politics and tell each other stories.

He made his comments in response to the news that a branch of Turkish coffee chain Kahve Dünyasi has opened in London’s Piccadilly Circus to compete with better-known American stores.

“Turks didn’t invent democracy, and there are plenty of signs that the country is still working out what the term really means (just look at the latest arrests of Kurdish politicians). But our coffee houses, in Istanbul or London, are great locations to discuss it,” said Mr Genç.

For people who want to replicate the experience at home with their own coffee machine, the Turkish author insisted that coffee beans from his homeland are a vital ingredient.

Turkey has played a key role in the history of coffee and its significance in the etymology of the word ‘coffee’ was recently discussed by Oxford University Press blog’s Anatoly Liberman, who revealed that the European pronunciation is believed to have Arabic origins, but arrived in the continent via Turkey.

He explained that all sorts of words have been used for coffee over the past few hundred years, with the European term reportedly derived from the Arabic word ‘quahwa’ and the Turkish ‘kahveh’.