Goodbye to an idol in Dersim

DERSIM/TUNCELI – ‘Our heart cries blood’, laments Kurdish politician Aysel Tugluk into the microphone. With long sustained tones she speaks to the thousands of people attending the funeral of Sakine Cansiz, one of the founders of the armed Kurdish movement, the PKK. Cansiz was murdered in Paris two weeks ago.

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‘Saint Nicolas must return to Turkey’

ISTANBUL – The remains of Saint Nicolas must be brought back to Turkey, according to Navzat Cevik, archaeology professor at the Turkish Akdeniz University, as reported by Turkish press agency Anadolu. The professor claims to know that would also be the wish of the saint himself.

Saint Nicolas is currently buried in the Italian province of Bari, after being, according to …

Turkey to ban TV series about Sultan

ISTANBUL – Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (1494-1566) spent thirty years of his life on a horse, stated the Turkish PM Erdogan. But in the highly popular TV soap ‘Muhtesem Yüzyil’, ‘The Magnificent Century’, he is mainly focused on the feminine beauty in the harem. A distortion of historical facts, according to the Prime Minister, and that’s why the series has …

‘Poison found on remains President Özal’

ISTANBUL – The investigation into the death of the Turkish President Turgut Özal, who died of a heart attack in 1993, continues. The head of the judicial forensic service, Haluk Ince, said that on Friday at a press conference. He denied earlier reports in the media that the ‘rat poison’ strycchine was found on the remains of Özal.

Ince said ‘some …

A paper of four pages

He’s being looked at as he turns into the street, leaning on his hand cart laden with sunflower seeds. Bandage around his head, unsteady on his feet. He coughs. The people in the street laugh. Damn, there he is again!

Diyarbakir, capital of the Kurds, south-eastern Turkey. Don’t ask what year it is, it could be 1992, 1995,or even 1998. For …

Gaziantep keeps calm after bomb blast

Nearly two weeks after the car bomb in Gaziantep, locals share mixed views of the “city of peace” and tolerance.

The shattered pavement, local shop owners say, was repaired the day after a car bomb exploded on Koruturk Street in central Gaziantep on August 20th, leaving 10 dead and nearly 70 wounded. But not everything could be fixed so quickly: some …

Visa requirements for Turks illegal

Is the famous Turkish musician Arif Sag just a hot headed Turk who just can’t deal with the fact that he needs to follow certain rules to enter the Netherlands? Or is his frustration about the treatment he got from the border control at Amsterdam Schiphol airport justified, and part of a bigger problem, namely the illegal way Turks are …

‘Dutch airport treats Turkish singer scandalously’

ISTANBUL – A concert of the Turkish singer Arif Sag was cancelled last weekend because of the strict visa restrictions on nonEU citizens arriving in the Netherlands. Sag was questioned at length at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and was made to wait so long that he no longer wanted to enter the country and took the first plane back to Istanbul. …

The Netherlands go where Turkey is coming from

“Abdullah Gül has no right to speak”, I hear all the time as a reaction to President Gül resisting the ideology of Dutch politician Geert Wilders, which discriminates against people and marginalises them. That’s because Gül has a problem handling minorities in his own country, the argument goes. Kurds and Christians in general and Armenians in particular are mentioned as …

Arrest warrent for coup participants

ISTANBUL – In Turkey on Thursday morning arrest warrants were issued for the perpetrators of the ‘post-modern coup’ that ended the government of Prime Minister Erbakan in 1997. House searches were carried out at more than 31 addresses, according to Turkish media reports.

The arrest warrants concern 31 high, now retired, military officials, among them one of the leaders of …