Again the judiciary has shown itself in its most fiercely secularist mode: an Ankara court has ruled that President Abdullah Gül can be tried for a fraud case that dates from his past involvement in a political party that no longer exists. According to the Constitution, the president can only be prosecuted for treason, but […]
The real estate prices are low, the sun almost continuously shines and according to the Dutch who spend their winters there, the atmosphere is relaxed, open, friendly and hospitable. Southern Turkey is the ideal spot for anyone wanting to escape Dutch winters. On Dutch wooden clogs John Slot approaches his visitors. Obtained especially for […]
The tourist season has started, and I always giggle a bit when I see them coming off the boat in my part of town, Üsküdar. They stand there with their travel guide in their hands, looking puzzled at the traffic jam and at the construction works going on for Marmaray, the tube under the Bosporus […]
Babayan and Sinassos: two names of towns you will not find any more on any map of Turkey. Or it would have to be an old map, from the Ottoman times. You would find Babayan and Sinassos in the middle of what is now Turkey, in the province of Nevsehir. Lots of Greeks once lived […]
Since the murder of 44 people at a wedding in the south-eastern village of Bilge (read more about it here and here), the system of village guards has been subject to intense debate. The village guards system was introduced halfway through the eighties: villagers were given arms to protect their villages against PKK attacks. Now […]
A regular visitor of my site mailed me this week: ‘I haven’t been able to reach your site for a few days now. You didn’t quit, did you?’ No, of course not, I don’t stop working just like that. Technique on the other hand, sometimes does. Well, sometimes, I hope it will never happen again […]
ISTANBUL – A hundred and twenty people from twelve families have fled from Bilge, the Turkish village where on Monday night 44 people were murdered at a wedding ceremony. The families fear for their lives, as they have ties to the gunmen and they have been threatened with revenge. Since the killings the families fleeing […]
The shooting at a wedding in Bilge, a village in the south eastern province of Mardin, went on for fifteen minutes. Using machine guns a few masked men killed 44 people. You could also say 47, since three of the murdered women were pregnant and almost ready to deliver their babies. The TV reports about […]
My man’s military service, which started about fifteen months ago, is over. And while he has some difficulty believing that he is really not expected back at the army base, there is something I can’t get out of my mind. That is: the little boy on the orange bike. My man, H., worked the last […]
Excuse me for beginning this blog by giving myself a pat on the back: today I read a column in a Turkish newspaper, didn’t give up halfway, didn’t have to look up too many words in the dictionary and understood it completely. My Turkish is getting somewhere! The column I was reading was by Elif […]