The republic’s direction

It’s the Republic’s birthday today. It was born 85 years ago out of the remains of the Ottoman Empire. To turn Turkey into a modern, western nation state, that was Atatürk’s aim, and that’s what he accomplished. For days now, there have been banners over the streets and on bridges, wishing people a happy ‘cumhuriyet bayrami’ (‘republic’s holiday’) and even …

Down on my knees

I just had a fight on the phone with some guy from IS Bankasi. He maintained his polite manner to missus Geerdink, while I begged him on my knees (but he didn’t see that) to give me some real assistance. After going to the bank a few times to get the required numbers, codes and whatever else they wanted and …

Solutions for chaos

Tomorrow will be the second day of the Ergenekon trial, the case against dozens of people who tried to undermine the state and government (about whom I have already written). Monday, the first day, there was total chaos in the court room. Not enough space for the accused, family, lawyers and journalists, too much noise for anybody to …

Around the world

(For monthly magazine Onze Wereld – Our World – I often write short interviews that are used in bigger articles to which different correspondents contribute. My interviews are used alongside interviews on the same subject with people from countries in south-America, Asia and Africa.)

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One film, please!

Last year, I lived for about nine months in a rather boring town in Capadocia. My boyfriend and I would go to dinner now and then, and if we wanted to get out of the house at night, we could go visit friends or play billiards. If a movie came to town, we would go, no matter which movie it …

“Torture increasing in Turkey”

ISTANBUL – The Turkish Ministry of Justice is opening an investigation into the death of an arrested man who allegedly died after severe torture. Turkish human rights organisations don’t have much confidence in the investigation. They claim the government’s zero tolerance to torture has failed and that it might even have caused a rise in the incidence of torture.

The victim, …

Call me naive

I remember getting interested in human rights at primary school. I gave presentations in class about, for example, the work of Amnesty International, which totally impressed me. Prison guards beating up prisoners or secret services making them ‘disappear’, (my main obsessions at the time), I just couldn’t comprehend. Turkey was one of the countries I read about. …

Woman’s life

I met the most interesting woman today. At least, that’s how I see it after we talked for a bit. It started with my having to pay for my Turkish language class, actually a conversation class to get my speaking and listening on the same level as my grammar. So I went to the language institute to pay the bill …

Wet raincoats

Usually when a number of soldiers die in the fight against the PKK, you see more flags on the street over the following days. Not this time. Seventeen soldiers died last weekend in the southeast of the country, but even though the national grief is no less than any other time, now there’s a lot of criticism of the army. …

No typing mistake

The board of the Telecom authorities has announced that it has closed down 1,112 websites in Turkey since November 2007. No, that’s not a typing mistake: one thousand one hundred and twelve websites have been closed down. These are mostly sites that offer for example pornography or illegal gambling, but sites that (allegedly) support terrorism or separatism are also being …