Mostly material damage at Istanbul train station fire

ISTANBUL – No deaths or injuries were reported from the fire that hit the historical Haydarpaşs train station in Istanbul on Sunday afternoon. The material damage though seems huge: the roof was completely gutted, parts of it collapsed and the fire damaged several floors down from the roof, according to several Turkish media reports on Sunday. Exactly how serious the …

Visa balance

For decades foreigners who wanted to live in Turkey could do so without ever getting a residence permit. All you had to do was go abroad and return to renew your tourist visa every three months. But Turkey has had enough of it and they have changed the rules: a tourist visa will now be valid for ninety days within …

Gavur

A small translation matter this weekend turned into an interesting cultural discussion. It began with the word ‘gavur’. The most logical translation for that is ‘infidel’. But ‘infidel’ doesn’t have anything like all the implications and connotations that ‘gavur’ has in Turkish.

The word came up because I wrote a short article about Caroline, a Dutch character in a Turkish soap. …

Row about Dutch ‘infidel’ in Turkish soap

ISTANBUL – Her beauty is dazzling, but she’s not particularly loved, Dutch Caroline in the Turkish soap opera ‘How time flies’. She is the forbidden love of a man from a middle class family and is referred to again and again as ‘gavur’, meaning infidel. A Turkish government commission has now warned the writers of the series about this ‘discrimination’, …

‘It’s hard in Europe, but even harder in Afghanistan’

More and more illegal  regufeesare trying to reach the European Union via Turkey. They secretly cross the border with Greece. Europe is doing its very best to stop the immigrants.

All of a sudden it gets noisy on the inside square of the ‘detention centre’ for immigrants in Greece. About fifty young men are allowed to leave the centre today and …

The train’s old-fashionedness

It’s not the train that is old fashioned. The train itself is modern and comfortable, and the seats spacious. Nevertheless, travelling by train gives me an old-fashioned feeling. The sound of the wheels on the iron tracks! The noisy and always a little bit scary passages between the wagons! The view of the front of the train when it takes …

Turkey’s highest religious leader replaced

ISTANBUL – Ali Bardakoglu, president of the Turkish Directorate for Religious Affairs, Diyanet, was unexpectedly replaced Thursday by his deputy, Mehmet Görmez. There is wide speculation in Turkish newspapers about the reason for Bardakoglu’s dismissal. The Turkish government has stated that Bardakoglu’s term of leadership had lasted long enough, Bardakoglu says it was his choice to retire.

Bardakoglu was appointed in …

Happiness – 4 women share their story

Are you happy? Where ever in the world you ask that question, you can always identify with the answers. Journalist Frederike asked women in the Turkish city of Bursa. What defines their happiness?

‘Green Bursa’ is how Turkey’s fourth biggest city, Bursa, about a hundred kilometres south of Istanbul, is often referred to. And indeed, there is …

The EU as Turkey’s dietician

I’d like to predict some news, possibly for the end of 2013 or beginning of 2014. By that time, Turkey will have fulfilled all requirements necessary to become an EU member – at least that’s what Egemen Bagis, Minister for EU Affairs, said last night at a dinner with journalists, which I attended. But then, Turkey could also reach its …

Let the race begin!

Eight months. Eight months to go till the general elections in Turkey. Is that enough for the biggest opposition party CHP to kick the AKP out of power, or at least to take away their monopoly on power? It should be. There are enough topics that the party can focus on to draw voters. But they have to start now. …