Prefab houses and tents are being sent to Elazig, the area in the east of Turkey that was hit by an earthquake early yesterday morning. And in the coming months, the people affected by the earthquake will have better houses than they had before. Not built of sun dried mud bricks like before, but of solid concrete.
In all the stories …
The Istanbul municipality recently started pulling down apartment blocks in the parts of town where heavy rain caused flooding and the deaths of 32 people last September. The apartment blocks were built in such a way that they blocked the natural run-off of rain to the Marmara Sea. By correcting these city planning mistakes, the municipality hopes to prevent more …
I wished for it to exist, but I thought it didn’t. Whenever I went to a beach, there would be some ‘beach club’ where very loud boom boom boom music was played and there would be people on the beach with their private stereo sound system playing something else, also loud. I admit that I even take ear plugs when …
It snowed. Most of it has melted away again, but in the fields around the village of Ortahisar, the snow still sparkles. Even in the middle of the night. I look up and see the moon is full. I turn around on the back seat of the car I’m in to take a better look. Then we turn a corner …
I was the guest of a Turkish family for a few days. The mother of the family sometimes likes to watch Roj TV, the Kurdish channel that broadcasts from Denmark and has for ages been a pain in the ass for Turkish citizens and the government, which labels it as a PKK propaganda channel. The mother watches …
Next to the truck a boy is polishing lemons with a cloth. Then he puts them in a plastic bag. For his mother I suppose. A bit further on an elderly man bites into a lemon. Whether his face grimaces or not, I can’t see very well from a distance, but actually I don’t think so. These few lemons …
I went walking in Cappadocia. I lived in the region for seven months, but never saw it like I did these last few days. That’s because Evelien – or Elif as the locals call her – showed me the way. She’s Dutch, lives in the small village of Ortahisar and organises walking tours. During the walks, the perspective …
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