Leaders of Turkey’s community of Turks with African ancestors have begun after many years to celebrate again their traditonal cow festival on the first Saturday of May.
photo from Today’s Zaman
From the article: Gülay Kayacan, who works for the History Foundation, an institute that researches and publishes articles on Turkish history, says that some of […]
Parliament has introduced an amendment to the law on alcoholic beverage sales, prohibiting the outdoor sale of alcoholic beverages and requiring that the drink be consumed directly from the bottle. The alcohol is served to the table in a bottle and the customer opens its cap. What about people who just want to order […]
From a news article by Goksel Bozkurt :
The [Constitutional Court trial to close the AKP has] ushered in a period of turmoil within the party, with some formerly vocal senior members slowly withdrawing to the background while others are making their presence felt in anticipation of future prizes.
The closure case was filed based on statements […]
New laws regarding alcohol licensing and sales go into effect today that place confusing restrictions on the sale of alcohol and impose extremely high fines. The government says it is necessary to regulate small, illegal operations (someone setting a table behind their shop and serving alcohol). Others see this as one more effort by the […]
A recent survey found that women working as public employees in Turkey face a variety of serious problems, ranging from low wages to sexual harassment. 3.4 percent of single women, 1.9 percent of married women and 10.0 percent of widowed women complained about violence and sexual harassment in the workplace. The much higher percentage […]
Some of the results of a 2007 study on middle-class identity in Turkey by Dr. Hakan Yilmaz of Bosphorus University: (JW: I find it particularly intriguing that the headscarf is not seen as a symbol of piety, but of good character, as I have long argued that the meaning of “covering” to those who practice […]
From Ihsan Dagi’s column:
Anti-Westernism used to be a distinguishing feature of the Islamic political identity. Now it is the mark of the Kemalist-secularist stance. The renewed demand of the West, particularly the EU, for democracy and the rule of law has highlighted sharp differences between the vision of a Turkey Europeanized as a natural outcome […]
Excerpt from article by Saban Kardas:
What is the identity of the AK Party, then? The party promoted “conservative democracy” as a catchphrase during its first years in government… Seeing the AK Party as a center-right actor captures very well the populist and catch-all nature of the party in terms of its access to diverse […]
Photo by Jenny White
I just tried to access a charming safari video on YouTube that was mentioned in The New York Times (”Battle at Kruger“), but discovered that instead of YouTube, the site brought up the by now familiar red sign announcing that the site has been banned by a Turkish court order. Not a particular video, but […]