Once again a discussion broke out about internet freedom. The cause of the uproar is the plan of Turkish authorities to introduce a system for internet filtering. Starting August 22, there will be four packages internet users can subscribe to: children, family, domestic and standard. Standard will be the normal setting and it provides Turkish internet users with the internet …
Sometimes, I just go travelling in Turkey without a specific goal, just to see where I end up. As I did this week. And where did I find myself a few days later? In the village of Entelköy! Never heard of it? You will: the movie ‘Entelköy’ will be released this year, or the beginning of next year – also …
Arabesk, the blues of Istanbul
Those of you who know Arabesk, Arabic-style music created in Turkey, will be shocked by the title of this blog post. Defining Arabesk as the blues of Istanbul! Ridiculous! Arabesk is a genre by itself, with its own history and development, you can’t call that the blues of Istanbul! I know, dear readers. Still, the title perfectly explains what this …
At some point in my life, I will have to find out if I am a writing personality or not. That may sound weird for somebody who has been earning her income by writing for twenty years now, but believe me, in writing I’m more of a bouncing type. Bouncing from story to story, from deadline to deadline. It pays …
Anybody who thinks the increase in the killings of women will vanish as soon as the AKP is no longer governing Turkey, should really very quickly wake up. One, because that’s not going to happen any time soon (they will probably win the coming elections). Two, because it is a dangerous form of denial of the complexity and seriousness of …
Turkey confusing terrorists and journalists
Now and then I publish guest blog posts on this website, written by Turkish journalists. The second guest blog post is written by Ayla Albayrak, who is …
About press freedom, or: shut up
Inciting hatred among the people, that seems to be the law most often used to shut up journalists. It’s been used again and again against Kurdish journalists writing about the PKK or other subjects related to the Kurdish issue, and journalists arrested for alleged links to Ergenekon are also accused of it. The latest victims: journalists of the online news …
I admit, I had sort of a panic moment at the beginning of the week. Too many things to arrange on very short notice, and they all seemed impossible to begin with. I complained to my colleagues at the office: ‘I was hired by an Indonesian TV crew to arrange all sorts of things for them to film, but how …
After one and a half hours of walking silently in the snow, the group arrives at a mass grave. The grave is old, the group is young: 45 boy and girl scouts are here to pay their respects to Ottoman soldiers who froze to death in the Battle of Sarikamis, fought in December 1914 and January 1915. ‘There is not …
What Turkish politicians can learn from WikiLeaks
Turkish politicians are very honest. You will, for example, never see CHP leader Kilicdaroglu warmly shake hands with Prime Minister Erdogan and tell him that the AKP government has made such a great contribution to the self-confident positioning of Turkey on the world diplomatic stage. And Prime Minister Erdogan would in return never thank Kilicdaroglu for trying to make the …
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