To know some people

Sunday night, I decided to go to Diyarbakir, ‘capital’ of the Kurds living in southeastern Turkey. The Turkish government and army have been threatening for weeks to cross the Iraqi border to attack PKK camps, and I wondered how the Kurdish population felt about the plans and what the atmosphere in the city was like. It struck me how silent …

Smokers’ country

It’s not easy to live in a smokers’ country as a non-smoker. Like tonight, on the boat from Kabataş back to home in Üsküdar. The weather is still nice, so I decided to sit outside to get some fresh air. I should have known better: in Turkey, people don’t sit outside for fresh air, but to smoke. So there I

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