# ayrışma



## seitt

Greetings

Apologies for lack of proper background details, but the word ‘ayrışma’ flashed onto our TV screen today. Literally it means ‘decomposition’, but my wife seemed to think it was used to mean paying money to families on condition that their women wore a headscarf.

Please can you help to clarify this term when used in political/religious context?

Best wishes, and many thanks,

Simon


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## Reverence

It means separation, divergence, cliquism, etc. While nothing new -actually beaten to death eons ago, and then some-, the attempts at polarizing the country around the issue of wearing headscarves are still going strong, and that's more than likely the context in which you stumbled on the word "ayrışma". I would go on, but it wouldn't do any good on a board such as this one.


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## seitt

Many thanks, excellent.


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## seitt

Does it always have to do with what clothes people wear, or is there more to it? Is used by secular-minded Turks or by religious Turks or by both groups?


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## ancalimon

seitt said:


> Does it always have to do with what clothes people wear, or is there more to it? Is used by secular-minded Turks or by religious Turks or by both groups?



ayrışma means "seperation of things (that used to be similar)". It can be used for anything.


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## seitt

Many thanks, most useful.

Could you please use ayrışma in two or three example sentences? The problem was that I only saw the word on its own.


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## Reverence

Devlet hastanesinde başörtüsüyle görülen doktorlar, "Biz ayrışmayı savunmuyoruz; yalnızca dinî özgürlüğümüzü kazanmak istiyoruz" diye konuştu.
_The doctors seen wearing headscarves in the public hospital said, "We are not advocating the separation; we only wish to earn our religious freedom."_

Note that I specifically translated it as "_the _separation" there.

Don't let the context fool you, though; it's just your plain old "divide" (ayır-) with a reciprocal suffix (-ş) shoved up its rear end. A legitimate word which has many uses outside politics and is in fact a term long used in geography, chemistry and what have you. Apparently, someone wished to find a pet name for the artificial dualism certain parties are trying to promote, and the word "ayrışma" simply sounded convenient. It's not even a measurably accepted term; a few people here and there are trying to mainstream it and who knows if it'll hold.


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## seitt

Much obliged - this is very interesting.

About thirty years ago, when the press first became aware of the existence of the Turkish Evangelical Christian church, I seem to remember a conservative newspaper complaining, "Bölündük!" Perhaps the word "ayrışma" hadn't been coined yet.


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## Reverence

Those were the times when people came up with terms that would find use among the general populace instead of the kitschy "elite". From a Turk's perspective, _ayrışma_ sounds rather snobbish compared to good ol' _bölünme_ which has actual colloquial value. They pretty much amount to the same thing.


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## seitt

Much obliged, good insight!


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## Reverence

No problem. Anytime.


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