Row about Dutch ‘infidel’ in Turkish soap
ISTANBUL – Her beauty is dazzling, but she’s not particularly loved, Dutch Caroline in the Turkish soap opera ‘How time flies’. She is the forbidden love of a man from a middle class family and is referred to again and again as ‘gavur’, meaning infidel. A Turkish government commission has now warned the writers of the series about this ‘discrimination’, …
YouTube banned again in Turkey
ISTANBUL – Un-blocked last Saturday, but now re-blocked: a Turkish judge has ruled that access to YouTube has to be denied once again, according to several online papers on Tuesday.
The decision was made following a complaint by Deniz Baykal, who was opposition leader in parliament till earlier this year. He had to step down after erotic videos were put online …
Turkish Prime Minister accuses Europe
ISTANBUL –Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan accuses Europe of supporting terrorists, and thus ascribes to them responsibility for the bomb attack in Istanbul yesterday. In the attack 32 people were wounded and the suicide bomber himself was killed.
Erdoğan mentioned the bomb attack in a speech he gave to an international congress in Istanbul. He blamed European countries for failing to get …
Referendum Turkey is about more than constitution
ISTANBUL – While the latest polls suggest that a majority of Turks will approve the package of constitutional changes in a referendum this Sunday, the campaigning came to a halt on Thursday. It’s Idul Fitri, and that makes Turkey quiet:: no noisy election caravans any more, no rousing music any more from stands of a wide range of political parties, …
Girl imitates suicide and dies
ISTANBUL – In the Turkish city of Istanbul an 8 year old girl died Friday night while trying to imitate a suicide scene from a TV series. She was standing on her bed with her mother’s headscarf around her neck and the heating pipe, and slipped. This was reported on the website of daily paper Radikal …
Turkish press happy with Hiddink
ISTANBUL – The new ‘national chief’ Guus Hiddink makes it to the front pages of several Turkish newspapers. Mostly short articles, but on the sports pages there is a lot of attention for the man who, according to the headline in Vatan, ‘said ‘Yes’ for 8 million lira per year’.
For one of Turkey’s biggest newspapers, Hürriyet, Hiddink’s coming to Turkey …
ISTANBUL – The in Turkey well known journalist and documentary film-maker Can Dündar will be sued for the film ‘Mustafa’, a biography of Turkey’s founding father Atatürk. The film is said to insult Atatürk, as daily newspaper Vatan writes today.
The documentary drew more than 1 million viewers in Turkey at the end of last year. Immediately debate about the film …
Closure of websites intensifies ‘homophobic atmosphere’ in Turkey
ISTANBUL – The closure of several internet forums for gays is another example of homophobia and a new step towards silencing gay organisations in Turkey. That’s the view of spokespersons for huge gay forums that were closed this week on the order of a government organisation.
The sites seem to have been closed because of ‘inappropriate content and immoral actions’, but …
Arzu Erbas an ‘angel’ in Turkish press
ISTANBUL – An ‘Angel of goodness,’ she is called in the Turkish press, the crèche owner of Turkish descent, Erzu Erbas, who was murdered in Amsterdam on Monday night. Several Turkish newspapers report on the Turkish émigrée and mainly focus on the fact that she helped poor people in Turkey with the income she earned in the Netherlands.
Arzu appears on …
Google Sites closed down in Turkey
ISTANBUL – Following a court order access to “Google Sites”, a site where people can build their own website, has been blocked in Turkey, according to several Turkish media today. The reason for the closure? Google Sites would admit sites with content insulting to Atatürk, Turkey’s founding father.
Insulting Atatürk is forbidden by law in Turkey. An organisation that defends the …
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