Which flags?

Due to fighting with the PKK in the southeast of the country, flag sales are booming in Turkey. Last week, I visited the biggest flag company in the country and they had a growth in sales of nearly a hundred percent this year – and still couldn’t meet the demand. You see the red flag with white moon and star …

Public servant

So, if you are a journalist and you write a report about something involving a crime, you have to immediately call the authorities and report it. That’s what the lawsuit against reporter Emin Bal makes clear. He wrote a story about a funeral of PKK combatants, and during the funeral slogans supporting the PKK and its leader Öcalan were shouted. …

Açık women

A friend from Holland came to visit me this weekend. We were having dinner at Kanaat Lokantasi and after dinner of course we wanted tea. I ordered it ‘açık’. Friend asked what sort of tea I ordered. Well, normal Turkish tea, but then ‘açık’, meaning light. That’s the nice thing about a

…

Extinguish a fire

You could have seen it coming: Turkey’s highest prosecutor will start a procedure to close down the pro-Kurdish DTP (Democratic Society Party). They are accused of taking orders from the PKK and promoting its aims and therefore being a threat to national unity. The DTP denies having ties with the PKK and says its aim in politics is to …

Slow life

Life in Üsküdar is slower than around Taksim on the European side of town, where most foreigners live. Friendlier too, I think. Now that I hop around on one healthy foot and the other one broken – (three weeks ago, I ran to catch the last boat to Üsküdar and stepped into a hole in the pavement) – people in …

Hostages

It’s quite a mystery what happened during the abduction of eight Turkish soldiers by PKK militia a bit more then two weeks ago. They have now been released, but were soon afterwards arrested because questions arose about their loyalty to the Turkish state. Were they really kidnapped, or were some of them moles for the PKK, telling them of their …

Unexpected power

It’s chopping time. For months and months there has been a big pile of wood behind the house in which I live on the second floor. There are trees, there are the remains of walls of a former house, there’s rubbish, there are two dish antennas attached to the trees, and, as I mentioned, there’s wood. Pallets, boards, a broken …