View From Tophane
Photo by Jenny White
Photo by Jenny White
Click here to listen to Abdul Basit Abdus-Samad’s best recitation of Surat Al Faatiha, where he does his unique style of repetition and using the different manners of the Qur’an. This was recorded in Halab – Syria during the year 1957. (Source: www.youtube.com)
Images from Qantara.de
According to a Qantara.de essay (click here), independent art spaces are on the rise in Istanbul. One non-commercial project space is called “Hafriyat,” which means “excavation.” They have been encouraged by the Bethanien gallery in Berlin as part of the city’s partnership with Istanbul. This poster above is by the Hafriyat art collective [...]
Professor Berna Turam will give the fifteenth annual Campagna-Kerven Lecture on Modern Turkey at Boston University on November 4th. Dr. Turam, an anthropologist, recently joined the faculty at Northeastern University and is the author of the well-received book on the Fethullah Gulen Movement and Justice and Development Party (AKP), Between Islam and the State: The [...]
Photo from Radikal
UPDATE: The case was dropped after the parents testify that it wasn’t really a “course” (click here)
So much for the government’s new “Kurdish initiative”. Ten-year-old Medya Örmek in the eastern city of Diyarbakir turned a room in her family’s home into a classroom and for the past year has taught ten other children [...]
Did Turkish customs agents really find 18 1/2 billion dollars in gold and US currency in a truck coming from Iran? If so, who does it belong to? And who has it now? Apparently the money was seized last October, around the same time PM Erdogan announced the good news of a $18 1/2 billion [...]
The report by Gareth Jenkins on the complicated and hydra-headed Ergenekon trial has captured quite a bit of attention, so I link to it here via Yigal Schleifer’s blog. Ergenekon refers to an amorphous cabal that is alleged to have plotted coups against the AKP government and carried out assassinations and other activities designed to [...]
Today’s New York Times Sunday Magazine published a series of articles about the situation of women in the world — and what can be done about it — that are thought-provoking. (click here) The statistics and personal stories of abuse are horrifying, starting with the 100 million missing women who are aborted or left to [...]
Photos by Jenny White
This tiny restaurant, Antiochia, in Asmalimescit (in an alley off Istiklal at the Tunel end) has great food! Order a sampling of their unique, spicy mezze appetizers. And one of my favorites — smoky charred eggplant. Click here for a review.
The National Security Council, an advisory body to the Turkish government that includes top military officers, has approved the AKP government’s plan to solve the “Kurdish problem” by expanding Kurdish cultural rights and economic development. The ultranationalist opposition parties MHP (Nationalist Action Party) and CHP (Republican People’s Party) predictably have said they would fight against [...]