Sometimes, when I’m on a boat on the Bosporus, I get this urge to shout YAHOOOOO very loud, just out of happiness. And yesterday, I finally did it. Only I was not on a boat, but in the Bosporus, swimming back-stroke beneath Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridge (the northern-most of the two Bosporus bridges). Now and […]
Quite a fuss this week in the Netherlands about immigration laws. A judge ruled that it is not legal to ask non EU citizens to do a language and culture test before coming to the Netherlands to get married or to reunite with their family. The test has been common practice for some years now, […]
I recently read that the amount of ‘Islamic hotels’ is increasing in Turkey. No alcohol is served there and there are separate swimming pools for men and women. I don’t really have an opinion about that. I think there’s apparently a market for this sort of hotel, and if there are people who want to […]
A first aid kit, a flashlight with spare batteries, a stock of non-perishable food and a fire extinguisher. Where to get the last one, no idea. But I should buy these things, according to a website that informs about what to do when an earthquake occurs. There is an earthquake about to happen in Istanbul, […]
The shipbuilding business is growing rapidly in Turkey. Especially in Tuzla, south of istanbul, it’s powering ahead. Unfortunately the number of fatal accidents is also on the rise. The employers say: “Accidents are inevitable in this industry. Here in Tuzla we’re not working with wool.” After her husband died, nobody from his work-place came to […]
I read a lot of newspapers, but the local rag is not one of them. Probably it’s called ‘Our Istanbul’ or something like that. I’m told this rag publishes a list of which days the water will be cut off in which parts of the city – that’s how the municipality tries to make the […]
Always something unexpected, that’s a good description of political developments in Turkey. At the beginning of the week, it seemed that the closure case against the ruling AK Party would be dominating the news, but it turned out totally differently: on Tuesday more then twenty people were arrested for suspected links with the Ergenekon gang, […]
This week, the closure case against the governing AK Party started. And I found out how it is possible for there to be Turks who call themselves democrats and at the same time support the closure of the AKP. Let me explain. The AKP won almost half of the votes in last year’s general election, […]
When she puts one foot on the grass, she already feels it, says Şerife Bayraktar. ‘The park in Eyüp is not just another park”, she says. “There’s a spiritual atmosphere here. I live quite far away from here, but it’s worth the trip.” Şerife and her husband Ali and teenage son Osman are sitting in […]
This week, Fethullah Gülen was elected most important intellectual in the world in an internetpoll organized by the US magazine “Foreign Policy” together with the British magazine “Prospect”. Who? Fethullah Gülen. He’s a Turk, but he lives in the USA. He leads the Gülen Movement, an Islamic path that preaches a modern interpretation of Islam […]