So off I went, to the Turkish Airlines crisis centre near Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport. Twittering some names from the passenger list that I heard on the radio while crossing the Bosporus Bridge in a taxi, and calling the news agency to tell them I had heard some Dutch names mentioned on the list that they didn’t yet have. Of course …
An enthusiastic mail from the news agency I work for: your news story on the film about Armenians was published in nine newspapers, among them nation-wide ones! Of course, it’s always nice when my articles reach a lot of people, but this time I couldn’t help having mixed feelings.
I recalled a discussion I had some time …
Row over press freedom in Turkey
ISTANBUL – A restriction of the freedom of press, or simply an effort to get big businesses to pay their taxes too? A tax fine of 700 million lira (325 million euros) for tax evasion by a big newspaper publisher, has sparked a debate about press freedom in Turkey.
Dogan Publishers is part of Dogan Holdings, one of Turkey’s biggest businesses, …
The audience went quite silent when the Turkish-Dutch literary translator answered the question: “Which Turkish book do you like the most?”. She replied: “That would have to be Istanbul, by Orhan Pamuk.” It turned out a majority of the audience of about thirty people had started to read Istanbul but only two had made it all the way …
‘It’s an attack on a free and independent press!’, say newspapers belonging to Dogan Publishing, the biggest media conglomerate in Turkey, which in turn is part of the Dogan Group, one of Turkey’s biggest companies. ‘Just obey the law and pay your taxes’, says Prime Minister Erdogan. Dogan Publishing was heavily fined for a tax irregularity, and the country is …
ISTANBUL – The Turkish Education Ministry has stopped distributing a documentary about the events leading up to the mass killings of Armenians in the latter days of the Ottoman Empire, almost a hundred years ago. The film, distributed to primary schools, was heavily criticised because it could stir up hatred between different ethnic groups, daily newspaper Radikal reports today….
I got both (soft) criticism and (warm) compliments after writing about the Kurdish question. Thanks for both. I feel a bit reluctant to write about it again, but what can I do? It’s an important issue and it keeps coming up in the news. Tonight, I deliberately went to see something about Kurds; I admit… I went to see …
Diyarbakir was a troubled city yesterday: protests by Kurds against the arrest of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, ten years ago this weekend, lead to riots, some people were wounded and a dozen were arrested. Some of the disturbances took place in front of the headquarters of DTP, the pro-Kurdish party that is also represented in parliament. A crowd gathered there. …
Yours truly has started twittering. In English of course (and now and then some private twitterings in Dutch, never mind those). I’ll be twittering about daily life in Turkey, and of course about the news. At the moment, I’m working on getting my mobile devices in order, so that I can twitter on the road too. Can you believe how …
‘Baby, I started counting down the number plates today.’ I know, this makes no sense to anybody who never had a Turkish lover in the army, but for any woman that ever did, it’s clear what this means: only 81 days left till army time is over.
Okay, I’ll explain. Number plates on cars in Turkey always start with the code …
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