Entelköy

Sometimes, I just go travelling in Turkey without a specific goal, just to see where I end up. As I did this week. And where did I find myself a few days later? In the village of Entelköy! Never heard of it? You will: the movie ‘Entelköy’ will be released this year, or the beginning of next year – also …

Canal for Istanbul

ISTANBUL – The Turkish metropolis will get a canal to connect the seas north and south of the city. The canal should reduce the number of ships passing through the Bosporus, the current connection between the Marmara and Black Seas, to zero. The Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan announced that Wednesday morning at a conference.

The canal, called Canal Istanbul, will …

Stories of suffering from Armenians and Turks

For the second time, Turks commemorated the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 yesterday, the day on which the mass killings, or genocide, are commemorated worldwide. In both Istanbul and Ankara a few hundred people went onto the street to mark the occasion, for example by reading out the names of Armenian intellectuals who were deported from Istanbul and perished. …

What got into the High Election Board?

Now, the Kurdish candidates who were banned from running in the elections at the beginning of the week have been ‘rehabilitated’: they are allowed to run, after the High Election Board discussed the matter again. Did they change their minds because of the intense protests in Istanbul and in the south east of the country? Was there an error in …

Kurdish candidates can run in Turkey

ISTANBUL – On Thursday afternoon the Election Board in Turkey decided to allow six independent Kurdish candidates to run in the general elections after all. The decision follows days of unrest, after the Board on Monday announced a ban on the candidates from participating.

Six of the seven banned Kurdish politicians are now allowed to run, among whom the well known …

Big Kurdish demonstration in Istanbul

ISTANBUL – Thousands of Kurds have demonstrated in Turkey’s biggest city, Istanbul, against the decision by the election board to exclude seven independent candidates from participating in the elections. On the central Taksim Square the flag of Kurdish separatist movement PKK and a portrait of PKK leader Ocalan were carried around. The police kept their distance for a long time, …

Arabesk, the blues of Istanbul

Those of you who know Arabesk, Arabic-style music created in Turkey, will be shocked by the title of this blog post. Defining Arabesk as the blues of Istanbul! Ridiculous! Arabesk is a genre by itself, with its own history and development, you can’t call that the blues of Istanbul! I know, dear readers. Still, the title perfectly explains what this …

Like a stranger

I have locked myself up in my house for two days. Turned my table into a home office, and only briefly went out to get bread, cheese and fish. Okay, and wine. From behind the window of my living room, I have been watching the city. The Bosporus with ships passing by, the Besiktas stadium across the water, I can …

Gold ATM in Istanbul

ISTANBUL – In need of gold? In the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul you can now go and get it from a ‘gold ATM’. For the small Turkish bank Kuveyt Türk, introducing a gold ATM was a logical step after specializing in the private gold market.

Turks love gold: it’s the most frequently given present for births, engagements and marriages. An estimated …

Woman with scarf won’t make it to parliament

ISTANBUL – Turkey’s governing party AKP put a woman with a headscarf on the list of candidates for the upcoming general elections. However the woman is a candidate in Antalya, where she stands no chance of being elected. This way the AKP avoids a fuss in parliament: the headscarf is unwelcome in the Turkish parliament because it would erode the …