The old Istanbul wall lives!

The old Istanbul city wall dates from the fifth century and protected the city for almost a thousand years: it served as a defensive structure till 1453. Since then it has beencrumbling down and has never been restored to its old glory. Which doesn’t mean a walk along the wall – about 6.5 kilometres long – is not worthwhile!…

Aferin, aferin!

Grandmother tosses a piece of meat towards me. Plop! About one and a half kilos I suppose, with quite a lot of fat on one side. I put the knife on the meat at an angle. First I want to get rid of this fat. With an arching motion I throw it into a bucket. The rest of the meat I …

A wonderful show

Military action against the PKK in northern Iraq is intensifying. Several planes have bombed targets and the army says no civilians were killed. And once again, I’m amazed by the way some newspapers write about it. One applauded the ‘wonderful show’  in which the Turkish army showed how well equipped and trained they are. Well, they probably are, but ‘ …

A beautiful mahalle

One thing I remember from the time I lived for two months in the Istanbul mahalle (neigbourhood) Kuzguncuk, is when my doorbell rang a few times and a man appeared to ask if ‘that car is yours and if so could you remove it?’. The man was maybe working for one of the film crews which quite often were on …

Religious attitudes?

Now, is the number of women wearing a headscarf rising or not? The conclusion of a survey seems to be a clear “yes”. In short, 69 percent of women cover their heads, against 64 percent in 2003. Of these women, 16 percent wear a ‘turban’ (a ‘religious scarf’ as apposed to a ‘traditional’ one), against 3.5 percent four years ago.
But …

The Turkish flag, symbol of unity and discord

The fight against the PKK is a boost for the Turkish flag industry. Flags are everywhere: they hang outside houses, stick to car windows or hang giant-sized on public buildings. “Everybody who waves the flag is convinced that he is defending the only true Turkish values.”

The Turkish national flag is constantly …

Short of money

She earns 500 liras per month, working six days a week, eight to twelve hours a day. Her rent is 300 liras, bills around 40 liras, transport to and from work about 75 liras. It’s obvious: she is seriously short of money. Now, I remember times when I too was seriously short of money. But that was as a student, …