elif shafak, welcome to hardtalk. thank you.n you write of turkey today, i wonder what emotions draw you? would it be anger or sadness or incomprehension? i think there is a lot of sadness. i feel sad. i feel worried. so much is changing in turkey and so fast. i think speed is important with many things that are happening, with a bewildering speed which almost prevents time to stop and analyse because something else happens next week and so it goes on and on. i am very sad when i look at the direction that my motherland has taken, and i think we have become a very unhappy nation, and unhappy people. do you feel that you and turkey have a greater distance between you than ever before? because i referred to the fact that you live most of your life in london. even from being a young girl, you were very used to travelling around the world, but doesn't the distance from your motherland feel much greater today? i wouldn't generalise like that because, as you know, turkey is a very polarised, bitterly divided, bitterly politicised coun