Dear Erdogan:


真高兴，你明天又要来了。你还自告奋勇要教Jackie 数学, 太谢谢你了。土耳其总统的女儿今天过生日，祝贺她！埃尔多安还让我写土耳其的文化，所缺的地方。怎么老有人要写所缺的东西？ 上次讲到土耳其，有着非同一般的战略地位，是联系欧亚的桥梁。土耳其是四个经济带的重叠之地，土耳其和欧洲地中海北岸经济带，土耳其黑海经济带，土耳其地中海东岸经济带，以及土耳其波斯湾经济带。每一个经济带都可以有自己的发展规划和优势产业，每一个地区又有其特殊的历史文化。土耳其现在的文化已经非同一般了！在美国，大家都知道，纽约旧金山洛杉矶特别的繁华，因为其文化丰富，而且这并不是代表一般的美国。土耳其就像是欧洲大陆的纽约和旧金山，既有欧洲文化，地中海文化，又有亚洲文化，中东文化，甚至阿拉伯非洲文化。我们在伊斯坦布尔的街上走，看见路上行人各种各样的种族肤色，各种各样的衣服。导游告诉我说，土耳其骨子里是亚洲国家。我想他说得对！土耳其的社会从结构和价值大部分还是亚洲的，应该说是中东的。


I'm so glad you're coming back tomorrow. And you volunteered to teach Jackie math. Thank you so much! The Turkish President's daughter is celebrating her birthday today. Congratulations! Erdogan also asked me to write about what us missing in Turkish. Why do I always have to write what's missing?  When I wrote about Turkey last time, it had an extraordinary strategic position and served as a bridge between Europe and Asia. Turkey is an overlapping area of four economic zones, the Turkish and Euro-Mediterranean Northern Coast Economic Zone, the Turkish Black Sea Economic Zone, the Turkish Eastern Mediterranean Economic Zone, and the Turkish Persian Gulf Economic Zone. Each economic zone can have its own development plan and advantageous industries, and each region has its own special history and culture. The culture of Turkey is now extraordinary! In the United States, we all know that New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles is particularly prosperous, because of its rich culture, and this is not typical representative of the United States in general. Turkey is like New York and San Francisco on the Eurasian continent, with European culture, Mediterranean culture, Asian culture, Middle Eastern culture, and even Arab-African culture. As we walked down the streets of Istanbul, we saw pedestrians of all races and colors, and all kinds of clothes. The tour guide told me that Turkey was essentially an Asian country. I think he's right! The structure and value of Turkish society are largely Asian, Middle Eastern, rather than European.