The call to prayer that blares out over the city from dozens of minarets, the shrieking of big flocks of seagulls, the horns of the ferries over the Bosporus: these sounds are inextricably bound up with Istanbul. I would like to add a sound: a deep and massive singing, a monotonous but sometimes also melodious cheering. Tonight it was there …
A courageous and heartless, but above all a typical Turkish prosecutor
Who is the man that filed a complaint against the AK Party in the Constitutional Court?
A ‘typical Turkish prosecutor’, that’s the most emotionally neutral description of Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, the highest public prosecutor in Turkey. Yalcinkaya filed a complaint against governing party AKP because the party is allegedly the focal point of anti-secular activities. The characterization comes from Levent Korkut, constitutional …
Tulips, narcissuses and violets
I would like to write something about flowers in Istanbul. About how I walked in a cemetery where spring had burst forth and the graves were loaded with tulips and narcissuses. About a competition held by the Istanbul municipality, in which a hundred residents can win 300 liras by giving lots of love, care and attention to a tulip …
It was one of the first times that I went to a market in Turkey. I had just picked up my first Turkish words, my beloved was going to cook that night and one of the things I was going to buy was onions. Not too much. So I said to the onion vendor at the market: …
“Turkish judges don’t understand the internet”
Once again youtube in Turkey has been blocked. The biggest problem according to many people: Turkish judges don’t understand the internet.
(published in daily newspaper De Pers)
It’s ridiculous, says economy student Hatice, to think you protect Atatürk by banning the whole of youtube because of one insulting video. Turkey closed the popular video website again last week because of a video …
The newspaper “Cumhuriyet” has a new TV spot to boost the sales of their daily. You see a young, modern Turkish woman getting covered in black Islamist chador. Then you hear her saying with a male voice: “It’s me who decides on what to wear, of course”. A voice-over says: “Women of the republic are vanishing. Stand up and defend …
I heard that twice this week from media I work for: ‘Contact us again if things get out of hand’. First about the strikes and protests that are organised against social reforms the government wants to carry through. And a few hours earlier today about the lawsuit that the chief prosecutor filed to the Constitutional Court requesting the closure of …
“This is where the action will be, not in Europe”
Turks all long to move to Europe. Isn’t it? Well, not the more highly educated Turks. Turkey offers them enough opportunities!
Exactly one week after finishing his studies, he found a job. Majoring in environmental technology, Kaan Alpaslan (24) modestly says he ‘was lucky’, but there is more. Not only the company that hired him apparently sees a future for him, …
Yesterday, there was a trial in Ankara concerning article 301, the infamous Penal Code Article on ‘insulting Turkishness’. Thursday there’s one in Istanbul, Friday in Iskenderun. I get an update on trials that concern ‘freedom of expression’ every week. The trials are not only about 301, but also about other articles that are misused to limit the freedom of expression. …
I’m getting ready for the most exciting International Women’s Day for years, or actually, in my life. I thought I would be reporting on some demonstration somewhere, but over the last few weeks, this plan has changed. At the request of Press Now, an organization that promotes an independent press in different countries, I will give a three day journalism …
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