Turks don’t want war with Syria

ISTANBUL – Turks in general approve of their government’s decision not to start a military retaliation against Syria, after the shooting down of a Turkish jet last Friday. In most cases the Turkish media consider the reaction of the government to be cautiously measured. Only a handful of Turks would support an armed conflict. 

Prime Minister Erdogan announced on Tuesday that …

Boots, and other questions

How can you find two complete pairs of boots in the Mediterranean Sea, belonging to two missing soldiers who were in a plane that was shot down, and for the rest find nothing of the soldiers or the plane? Impossible, right? Yet Turkey did it. I just don’t believe it and the claim makes me doubt Turkey’s version of the …

Turkey to decide on Tuesday about response to Syria

ISTANBUL – The Turkish government will announce on Tuesday how they will respond to the shooting down of a Turkish jet by Syria last Friday. The Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Davutoglu announced this on Sunday in an interview with state-run TV channel TRT.

Davutoglu said that analysis of available intelligence shows that the plane, which was on a test …

Abortion will stay possible in Turkey

ISTANBUL – After national and international pressure, the Turkish government has decided not to introduce a de facto ban on abortion, as had been earlier announced. Turkish media report that on Friday.

Prime Minister Erdogan caused uproar at the end of May when he compared abortion to murder. Soon afterwards the information leaked out that the legal term in which abortion …

Tarlabaşı bubble

‘We have been dancing here’, says Fransesco Lupo. He shakes his head, desillusion in his eyes. ‘It was a lie. We were in a bubble that had nothing to do with reality.’

We are in Tarlabaşı, a neighbourhood in Istanbul, right southwest of the central Taksim Square. Tarlabaşı is in the middle of a ‘renewal’ process. That means: the old, …

The right to strike

Let’s go back in time 42 years, to 15 and 16 June 1970. Workers protested against a government plan to ban strikes. Around 75,000 people participated, mostly in Istanbul and Izmir. Many of the organizers of the strike were arrested and tried according to martial law. But in the end, the protest was successful: the proposed law was withdrawn.

Why is …

Health care

Countless people have told me over the last couple of weeks to visit a doctor when I’m in the Netherlands for a couple of days next week. You see, since my visit to Uludere in May, I have red bumps on my legs, arms and shoulders, and they just won’t go away. But no, thank you: I prefer Turkish health …

Kurdish class at state schools

ISTANBUL – The Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has announced that Kurdish will be an elective course at state schools across the country, According to Turkish media reports on Tuesday. Erdogan called it ‘a historical step’.

The elective course ‘Kurdish’ will be offered to children starting at age twelve, if at any school there are enough

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Historic handshakes

Usually a handshake only becomes historic when a remarkable deal has been made between two sworn enemies. Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat. Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk. Reagan and Gorbachov. Not in Turkey. Here, it’s already historic when two political opponents, CHP leader Kilicdaroglu and Prime Minister Erdogan, finally shake hands and talk for an hour about the biggest …

Tea tears

Can you imagine breaking down in tears when somebody pours you a cup of tea? I almost did, last week. I just couldn’t take it anymore. The joke that tea only becomes lethal after the 99th cup on a single day, could hardly make me smile again. All I could do was get up, murmur an apology and leave the …