Turkey’s famous ‘kings statues’ go to museum

ISTANBUL – The famous ‘kings statues’ on Nemrut Mountain in EastTurkey will most likely be transferred to a museum. In their place, replicas will be erected on the mountain. The move to a museum is intended to protect the statues from further erosion by the extreme weather conditions in the area. This story appears in several Turkish media.

There has been …

Turkey returns property to religious minorities

ISTANBUL – Turkey adopted a law to return immovable property to foundations of religious minorities. It solves one of the biggest judicial problems of religious minorities in Turkey. The changes to the law will be announced tonight by Prime Minister Erdogan during an iftar dinner with members of religious minorities.

The legal amendment pressed for not only by religious minorities, but …

The sound of cutlery: Ramadan in Üsküdar

‘Istanbul is not very different than usual during Ramadan, is it?’ I’m with a group of Turks, we are in Beyoglu, a shopping, nightlife and tourist hub, and they look at me, they want to hear the foreigner’s opinion. ‘Well’, I start my answer, ‘you know, I live in Üsküdar and…’, and don’t get the chance to finish my sentence. …

‘At night we have some time for a social life’

Go to school during the summer holidays? In Turkey that’s quite normal. Without ‘summer school’ it’s impossible to get a place at a good university. 

The bell rings, the break is over. Özden Korkmaz (17) and Onur Vural (18) want to hurry off to class immediately, but reluctantly make time for a picture. ‘Now I really have to go, class is …

Stop labelling PKK-fighters as terrorists

Turkey is bombing PKK camps in Northern-Iraq in retaliation for the killing of soldiers by the PKK. The first civilian deaths have been reported. The EU doesn’t protest the violence, because the PKK is on the EU list of terrorist organizations. But the label ‘terrorist’ contributes to maintaining the crux of the problem, which is the still unsolved Kurdish issue. …

A million packs of coloured crayons

Emine Erdogan hugs a Somali woman holding a child. Erdogan himself is about to gently squeeze the cheek of a kid to whom he just gave a pack of coloured crayons. Erdogan is on a mission. A mission to relieve the suffering of the Somali people? Or is it a business mission? A promote Turkey trip? Or a PR mission …

Violence hampers solution to Kurdish question

ISTANBUL – Amid increasing PKK violence and Turkish bombings of PKK camps in Northern Iraq last night, a solution to the Kurdish question seems further away than ever. It is not only increasing violence that hampers a solution, but also legal action against Kurdish politicians adding to the rising tensions.

PKK violence started increasing last month, when thirteen Turkish soldiers were …

Karayilan caught! Blunder, or strategy?

Saturday the news came in: Murat Karayilan has been arrested in Iran! That’s what you could really call ‘breaking news’: Karayilan is the leader in the field of the PKK, so the second man after jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan, and high on the ‘most wanted’ list of the Turkish state. But soon it turned out the news wasn’t true, or …

Losing a loved one, and then all faith

‘I am sure the state is behind it’, says Kadriye Ceylan. Her son, Tolga Baykal Ceylan, disappeared in August 2004. He lived in Istanbul, where he was studying, went on a short holiday to the small town Igneada and never returned home again. Gone. Kadriye has no hope left that the state will ever listen to her. So she, and …

The municipality broom

‘It was about time they cleaned the mess up around there’, says my Turkish friend S. I look at him surprised, and ask him if he is being cynical. ‘No, I’m very serious’, he replies. ‘You couldn’t even walk there properly. The bar owners protest now, but they really don’t have my sympathy.’

We talk about Asmali Mescit, the area with …