The 10 most influential!

Newspaper Hürriyet published an article this weekend about the 10 most influential names in Turkey. Four men (no women) gave their top 10 and explained their choices. It caused discussion of course, for example because Atatürk wasn’t in any of the lists (which was because it was a list of living people, but of course some people say Atatürk will …

Turkey put aid on hold on purpose

The Turkish deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay caused uproar with his explanation as to why Turkey refused foreign help in the first two days after Sunday’s earthquake. ‘We first wanted to see our own potential’, he said today during a press conference in the disaster area.

Many Turks and media reacted angrily, because in the meantime many people died. According …

Erdogan wants safer villages

ISTANBUL –Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan announced in a speech on Wednesday morning that he wants to make villages in earthquake areas safer. In the villages practically all houses that were built with ‘mud bricks’ collapsed in the strong earthquake that hit the area on Sunday. ‘We want sturdy houses there of not more than one floor’, he said.

Erdogan didn’t give …

Why I am in Istanbul and not in Van

I’ve been asked these days why I didn’t hurry to the earthquake area in the east of Turkey but stayed in Istanbul. In different tones of voice: angry, interested, surprised. I thought it might be interesting to answer this question in a blog post, to give some insight into the daily realities of a freelance correspondent.

The short answer is: I’m …

‘Aid to Kurdish municipalities delayed’

ISTANBUL – Although the earthquake in the east of Turkey intensifies brotherhood between Turks and Kurds, on the other hand ethnic tensions are rising. Saban Isiktas, working for the Istanbul office of pro-Kurdish party BDP: ‘There are rumours that the aid to Van is being delayed because Van is governed by the BDP and not by governing party AKP. I …

Turks give en masse aid to earthquake victims

ISTANBUL – After the heavy earthquake yesterday in the East Turkish province of Van, everywhere in Turkey initiatives have started to gather aid for the victims. Municipalities coordinate the aid, arrange boxes and transport, and civilians bring blankets, coats, nappies,  socks and sweaters.

A truck arrives at the town hall of Kadiköy, a municipality of Istanbul. it parks by the entrance, …

More deaths Turkey due to bad building constructions

ISTANBUL – The bad state of many buildings in Turkey results in more deaths than necessary after yesterday’s earthquake. Really solving the problem would mean pulling down and renewing parts of cities. Also the education on how the behave during and after an earthquake, is often not sufficient.

In many Turkish cities and villages people live in appartment blocks of at …

Brave step

We’re counting around eighty deaths this last week. In the early hours of Wednesday the PKK killed 24 Turkish soldiers, on Tuesday five soldiers died, and now the Turkish army is hunting down the perpetrators and has, they claim, killed around fifty of them. It is totally obvious that this will only lead to more deaths. But politicians don’t seem …

PKK attack hampers work on new Turkish constitution

ISTANBUL (ANP) – “Our revenge will be great”, stated the Turkish president Abdullah Gül after PKK attacks in the country’s south east. The attacks on several police and army posts left 24 soldiers dead and 22 wounded.

Turkish ground troops crossed the border with Northern Iraq for the first time since 2008 in pursuit of the PKK fighters.

The increasing violence …

The paralysing message of the Balyoz case

‘I’m going to convince you in half an hour’s time that the whole Balyoz case is fake’. I had an interview today with Celal Ülgen, the lawyer for eight suspects in the Balyoz case (Balyoz is an alleged coup plot). Some of the suspects he is defending are ‘big fish’ who had high military positions, like Cetin Dogan and Dursun …