TABLE OF CONTENTS
Turkey in Numbers
The National Obsession: Raki and Tea - Kaleydoskop
The Icon: Bulent Ersoy - Kaleydoskop
The Big Dig - Elif Batuman
Urban planners in Istanbul have a problem: too much history - and
too many agendas: which chapter of the past should they showcase?
Turkey's pre-Islamic origins, as promoted by Ataturk, or the
Ottoman glories so dear to President Erdogan's heart?
Don't Call It Soap Opera - Fatima Bhutto
Turkish TV series like The Magnificent Century are rivalling US
programmes for international popularity and taking the Middle East,
Asia and Latin America by storm. What is the reason for their
global success?
The Thirty-Year Coup - Dexter Filkins
Was an exiled Islamic preacher behind the attempted military coup
of 2016? Dexter Filkins probes the secrets and mysteries of the
Gulen movement and its clash with former ally President Erdogan,
following decades spent infiltrating Turkish bureaucracy to
undermine the secular state.
Business a la Turque - Alev Scott
A portrait of the Turkish economy, which is driven by an innate
entrepreneurial spirit and the great dream of instant wealth but
perennially forced to deal with political instability.
Eros and Thanatos at the Restaurant - Sema Kaygasuz
Although the Turkish feminist movement is more than a century old,
women still find themselves trapped between two opposing but
equally suffocating ideologies - one secular and one religious.
Only recently have they begun to make their voices heard within a
patriarchal system dominated by men who 'love them to death' but
have no hesitation in killing them to keep them quiet.
A Story of Dust and Light - Burhan Sonmez
Every summer the writer Burhan Sonmez returns to the Anatolian
village in which he was born - but the only remnant of that
unspoiled rural world, with its traditions and apolitical religious
faith, is the banned Kurdish language.
Turkish Nationalism and Its Historical Roots - Gerhard
Schweizer
From the ruins of the Ottoman Empire - where Turks, Kurds,
Armenians and Greeks lived together in peace for centuries in a
multi-ethnic state in which language played no role in politics or
identity - a new nationalism grew up that would separate the
different peoples and impose an enforced Turkification, the
principal victims of which were the Armenians.
No Fairy-Tale Ending: Hasankeyf and the Ilisu Dam - Ercan y
Yilmaz
In the heart of the Mesopotamian basin, the cradle of the world's
most ancient civilisations, the city of Hasankeyf should have been
an prime candidate for UNESCO's World Heritage List - but rather
than being flooded by tourists it has been drowned following the
damming of the River Tigris.
'I Can't Stay Silent': Turkish Rap - Begum Kovulmaz
Turkish rap first emerged in Kreuzberg, Berlin, and reached
Istanbul in the 1990s, where it remained a niche genre for many
years. When it exploded into the mainstream in the late 2010s the
time was ripe for it to become the Gezi generation's main forum for
protest and the reclamation of their physical and cultural
spaces.
The Pen(cil) Is Mightier ... - Valentina Marcella
Satire is one of the few remaining channels for criticising the
government in Turkey. Undeterred, amid protest and censorship,
cartoonists are continuing their fight against attempts to squash
the right to freedom of expression.
Ultras United: How the Gezi Park Protests Brought the Fans Together
- Stephen Wood
The 2013 protest movement was so widespread that it even achieved
the miracle of bridging the chasms between football's big three in
Istanbul - Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas - some of the most
deeply felt rivalries in world football.
A Sign of the Times - Kaleydoskop
An Author Recommends - Elif Shafak
The Playlist - Acik Radyo and Kaleydoskop
Further Reading
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