‘We have to support it, what else can we do?’ I was talking to a teacher last night at a huge gathering to commemorate the first anniversary of the incident involving the Mavi Marmara, the aid ship that was violently stopped on the way from Turkey to the Gaza strip, which led to the death of nine people. Thousands of …
Why publishing in Turkish made me cry
I got so happy when huge Turkish language news portal HaberX asked me to publish some of my blog posts on their site. I want to reach as many people as possible with my writing, so publishing on a site with 80,000 visitors per day, in a language that I don’t yet publish in, is wonderful. …
Turkish ultranationalists switch to pro-Kurdish party
ISTANBUL – In a remarkable decision by a politician of ultranationalist political party MHP in Turkey, he has switched to pro-Kurdish party BDP, along with 16 members of the local MHP Board, daily Radikal reported on Tuesday. There are hardly any parties more ideologically opposed than the MHP and the BDP.
The ex-ultranationalist, Ömer Bozkurt, was a local leader of …
I wrote an article (read it here) for a Dutch monthly feminist magazine about discrimination in the labour market in Turkey against women who wear a headscarf. Since the elections are coming up, I interviewed the only candidate with a headscarf who stands a chance of being elected, Aynur Bayram from Ankara. She was an example …
Headscarf conquers Turkish parliament
The Turkish parliament has up to now been a forbidden area for women wearing a headscarf. And in the labour market women who cover their hair are discriminated against. Aynur Bayram tries to change that by standing as an independent candidate in the upcoming general elections.
A hundred thousand votes. That’s how many votes Aynur Bayram (30) has to collect in
…
‘Are there any tea wanters?’ That’s the example sentence I often use when explaining how different the structure of Turkish sentences is from West Germanic languages, like Dutch. The sentence is a literal translation of how Turks ask whether anybody wants tea. Years ago I didn’t know that and would build some rudimentary sentence myself in such a situation. Turks …
Thousands of Turks protest for internet freedom
ISTANBUL –Tens of thousands of people have protested in several Turkish cities against censorship on the internet. The turnout was particularly high in Turkey’s biggest city Istanbul and in the western coastal city of Izmir.
In Istanbul at least 15,000 people turned out, especially young people up to about age 35. The protests were aimed against internet censorship in general, but …
Poisonous mud flow threat in Turkey
ISTANBUL – In Kütahya in West-Turkey environmental organizations and people in villages close to a silver mine fear a disaster from a mud flow of toxic cyanide. Earlier this week an embankment of a waste pit collapsed. Within twenty days an emergency storage pond will be made ready and the danger will come to an end, a mine spokesperson says. …
Turmoil over sex tapes in Turkey
ISTANBUL – First they kiss rather clumsily, then a bit later they are laying on the bed together. She – a young student – on top. She moves, and he – an older, married politician – slaps her bottom. The sex videos of two politicians from the ultra nationalist National Action Party (MHP) have caused turmoil in Turkey. The men …
ISTANBUL – North of the Turkish metropolis Istanbul the construction of two new cities is set to start, both with a potential population of at least one million inhabitants. At least, that’s what the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan wants. He announced the plan on Wednesday at an election meeting in Istanbul.
Both cities will be built on the Black Sea …
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