When talking about the Kurdish issue and the initiative that the AKP government is taking to solve the problems, it sometimes seems that there is a big gap between Turks and Kurds. That the whole matter is black and white, two adversaries standing opposite each other. That this is not the case becomes clearer now that the Kurdish question is …
Two weeks ago, Arzu Erbas, a Dutch woman of Turkish descent, was killed in Amsterdam. Amsterdam local newspaper Het Parool quickly found out that the killer was probably a man of Turkish descent as well, and it could be the case that it was the father who was forbidden by court order to see his child and was several …
Ununderstandable really, that I never watched ‘Wilco’s bus’ before. Wilco’s bus (in Turkish: Wilco’nun karavanı) is a programme on Iz TV made by Wilco van Herpen, a Dutchman who has been living in Turkey since 1999. With his bus he travels around Turkey and shows Turks their own country through his Dutch eyes. Wonderful TV, especially when you …
Is opposition party CHP launching its own initiative to help solve the Kurdish issue? Some people say they are working behind the scenes, talking to NGO’s and representatives of the Kurds. It’s also pointed out that more than ten years ago the CHP wrote a report about democratisation as a possible solution to the Kurdish issue. The CHP is nowadays …
Inhabitants of earthquake city Izmit look to the future
ISTANBUL – Ten years after the devastating earth quake that hit the Turkish city of Izmit and surrounding area, the quake is hardly a subject of conversation any more. The people who were made homeless at the time have a roof over their heads again, the city is standing more solidly on its foundations than ever before, and the people …
I practiced fishing on the street, with the owner of the shop where I bought my very first fishing rod ever. Last Friday that was. The guy taught me how to handle the reel, when to release the line, when to stop it again, and how to cast the sinker as far as possible into the sea. We had to …
Arzu Erbas an ‘angel’ in Turkish press
ISTANBUL – An ‘Angel of goodness,’ she is called in the Turkish press, the crèche owner of Turkish descent, Erzu Erbas, who was murdered in Amsterdam on Monday night. Several Turkish newspapers report on the Turkish émigrée and mainly focus on the fact that she helped poor people in Turkey with the income she earned in the Netherlands.
Arzu appears on …
You can see helicopters over Istanbul daily for all sorts of reasons, but yesterday, there was a “Cem Garipoğlu alarm”. Cem Garipoğlu is a young guy suspected of killing his 18 year old girlfriend Münevver Karabulut earlier this year, in March, and ever since he has been on the run. Somebody phoned the Istanbul police yesterday because he said he …
A concert of Zülfü Livaneli is guaranteed to give you goose bumps. Zülfü Livaneli? Outside Turkey he is not very well known, but in Turkey he has been popular for decades. He is a singer/composer, novelist, and you could call him an activist for humanity too. All these sides of his personality came together in last night’s concert in Harbiye …
Üsküdar for beginners (4): historic hamam, historic restaurant
Most tourists in Istanbul take a hotel either in Sultanahmet or in Beyoglu, and those who want to visit a hamam don’t know which luxury one close to their hotel to go to. If you want my advice, take a boat to Üsküdar and go to Çinili Hamam. Not luxurious, but clean, frequented by locals not by tourists, so just …
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