Mavi Boncuk

Where Are They in Anatolia

2012-01-31T21:23:00.000-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |
The Turkomen also known as Oghuz Turks (a linguistic term designating the Western Turkic or Oghuz languages from the Oghur languages) were a historical Turkic tribal confederation in Central Asia during the early medieval Turkic expansion. The name Oghuz is just the Common Turkic word for "tribe". They are referred to as "Western Turks" because they moved west from other Turkic peoples after the Göktürk empire collapsed, and because the majority of the areas in which they inhabit today (except Turkmenistan and the Turkmen Sahra) are west of the Caspian Sea, while those referred to as "Eastern Turks" live east of the Caspian Sea. The founders of the Ottoman Empire were also Oghuz Turks.

More information on settlements

24 TRIBAL UNITS OF OGHUZ/OĞUZ THAT SETTLED IN ANATOLIA

Boz-oklar/Grey Arrows

Gün-Han Oğulları
01- Kayı
02- Bayat
03- Alkaravlı
04- Kara-ivli

Ay_han Oğulları
05- Yazır
06- Döger
07- Dodurga
08- Yaparlı

Yıldız-Han Oğulları
09- Avşar
10- Kızık
11- Beg-Dili
12- Karkın

Üç-Oklar/Three Arrows

Gök-Han Oğulları
13- Bayındır
14- Beçene
15- Çavuldur
16- Çebni

Dağ-Han Oğulları
17- Salur
18- Eymür
19- Ala-Yuntlı
20- Üregir

Deniz-Han Oğulları
21- Yiğdir
22- Bügdüz
23- Yıva
24- Kınık

Bathonea | Istanbul Yields Ancient Treasure

2012-01-24T23:04:00.001-05:00

Dr. Şengül Aydıngün is an expert in prehistory at Kocaeli University and is leading the excavation of the Lake Küçükçekmece area. Photo by S Aydıngün.

Bathonea has been discovered in 2009 and it takes place in the 15 rankings of the world's most important discoveries on the American Institute of Archaeology. Mavi Boncuk |

After Being Stricken by Drought, Istanbul Yields Ancient Treasure
By JENNIFER PINKOWSKI
N.Y.Times | Published: January 23, 2012

ISTANBUL — For 1,600 years, this city — Turkey’s largest — has been built and destroyed, erected and erased, as layer upon layer of life has thrived on its seven hills.

Today, Istanbul is a city of 13 million, spread far beyond those hills. And on a long-farmed peninsula jutting into Lake Kucukcekmece, 13 miles west of the city center, archaeologists have made an extraordinary find.

The find is Bathonea, a substantial harbor town dating from the second century B.C. Discovered in 2007 after a drought lowered the lake’s water table, it has been yielding a trove of relics from the fourth to the sixth centuries A.D., a period that parallels Istanbul’s founding and its rise as Constantinople, a seat of power for three successive empires — the Eastern Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman.

READ MORE...

U.S. Department of State's Turkish Language Twitter Account | @ABDTurk

2012-01-24T16:22:00.000-05:00

U.S. Department of State Launches Turkish-Language Twitter Account, @ABDTurk

Mavi Boncuk |

Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
January 23, 2012

The U.S. Department of of State announced today the launch of its Turkish-language Twitter account @ABDTurk, joining the Department’s 10 official feeds in Arabic, Chinese, English, Farsi, French, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Urdu. These social media accounts serve as a conduit for the U.S. Department of State to inform and engage publics around the world on foreign policy issues.

U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Turkey Francis J. Ricciardone, Jr. said, “The addition of @ABDTurk to our digital diplomacy at U.S. Mission Turkey underscores the high priority that we place on our relationship with Turkey. We are always seeking to expand the ways in which we can inform and engage with the people of Turkey.”

@ABDTurk complements U.S. Mission Turkey’s existing outreach on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and represents another step in the United States’ commitment to building a strong 21st century partnership with the government and people of Turkey.

To kick-off @ABDTurk, Ambassador Ricciardone will lead an hour long “Twitterview” on January 31, 2012, at 16:00 hrs local (0900 EST) on U.S.-Turkey relations. U.S. Mission Turkey will begin accepting questions today on @ABDTurk or at http://twitter.com/USEmbassyTurkey.

The launch of @ABDTurk coincides with the Department’s celebration of 21st Century Statecraft month. Twenty-first Century Statecraft complements traditional foreign policy by harnessing the digital networks and technologies of an interconnected world. Throughout January 2012, U.S. officials in Washington, D.C. and at U.S. Missions abroad are hosting digital engagements across multiple social media platforms.

Cavalli-Sforza Version of Europe

2012-01-22T13:25:00.000-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |
Cavalli-Sforza’s principal component analyses revealed five major clinal patterns throughout Europe, and similar patterns have continued to be found in more recent studies.[15]
A cline of genes with highest frequencies in the Middle East, spreading to lowest levels northwest. Cavalli-Sforza originally described this as faithfully reflecting the spread of agriculture in Neolithic times. This has been the general tendency in interpretation of all genes with this pattern.

A cline of genes with highest frequencies amongst Finnish and Saami in the extreme north east, and spreading to lowest frequencies in the south west.
A cline of genes with highest frequencies in the area of the lower Don and Volga rivers in southern Russia, and spreading to lowest frequencies in Iberia, Southern Italy, Greece and the areas inhabited by Saami speakers in the extreme north of Scandinavia. Cavalli-Sforza associated this with the spread of Indo-European languages, which he links in turn to a "secondary expansion" after the spread of agriculture, associated with animal grazing.

A cline of genes with highest frequencies in the Balkans and Southern Italy, spreading to lowest levels in Britain and the Basque country. Cavalli-Sforza associates this with "the Greek expansion, which reached its peak in historical times around 1000 and 500 BC but which certainly began earlier"

A cline of genes with highest frequencies in the Basque country, and lower levels beyond the area of Iberia and Southern France. In perhaps the most well-known conclusion from Cavalli-Sforza this weakest of the 5 patterns was described as isolated remnants of the pre-Neolithic population of Europe, "who at least partially withstood the expansion of the cultivators". It corresponds roughly to the geographical spread of rhesus negative blood types. In particular, the conclusion that the Basques are a genetic isolate has become widely discussed, but also a controversial conclusion.

He also created a phylogenetic tree to analyse the internal relationships amongst Europeans. He found four major 'outliers'- Basques, Lapps, Finns and Icelanders; a result he attributed to their relative isolation (note: with the exception of the Icelanders, the rest of the groups speak non-Indo-European languages). Greeks and Yugoslavs represented a second group of less extreme outliers. The remaining populations clustered into several groups : "Celtic", "Germanic", "south-western Europeans", "Scandinavians" and "eastern Europeans".[16]

Turks and Greeks

2012-01-22T10:23:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk | Greeks are really a people genetically fall between Middle easterns and Europeans! Even the Turkmens and Armenians have more European genes than Greeks. This fact can be attributed to the population swaps of early 20th century and migrations to Anatolia from the balkans and the Caucasus.

Mavi Boncuk Editor is J2 (M172)

2012-01-22T10:07:00.000-05:00

Mavi Boncuk Editor is J2 (M172)

Mavi Boncuk |

According to Cinnioglu et al., (2004)[13] there are many Y-DNA haplogroups present in Turkey. The majority haplogroups are primarily shared with Middle Eastern, Caucasian, and European populations such as haplogroups E3b, G, J, I, R1a, R1b, K and T which form 78.5% from the Turkish Gene pool (without R1b, K, and which notably occur elsewhere, it is 59.3%) and contrast with a smaller share of haplogroups related to Central Asia (N and Q)- 5.7% (but it rises to 36% if K, R1a, R1b and L- which infrequently occur in Central Asia, but are notable in many other Western Turkic groups), India H, R2 - 1.5% and Africa A, E3*, E3a - 1%. Some of the percentages identified were:

Y chromosome Haplogroup distribution of Turkish people.

J1=9% - Typical amongst people from the Arabian Peninsula and Dagestan (ranging from 3% from Turks around Konya to 12% in Kurds).
J2=24% - J2 (M172) Typical of populations of the Near East, Southeast Europe, Southwest Asia and the Caucasus, with a moderate distribution through much of Central Asia, South Asia, and North Africa
R1a=6.9% - Typical of Central Asian, Caucasus, Eastern Europeans and Indo-Aryan people.
I=5.3% - Typical of Central Europeans, Western Caucasian and Balkan populations.
R1b=14.7% -Typical of Western Europeans and Eurasian People [14]
E1b1b1=10.7% - Typical of people from the Mediterranean
G=10.9% - Typical of people from the Caucasus and to a lesser extent the Middle East.
N=3.8% - Typical of Uralic, Siberian and Altaic populations.
T=2.5% - Typical of Mediterranean, Northeast African and South Asian populations
K=4.5% - Typical of Asian populations and Caucasian populations.
L=4.2% - Typical of Indian Subcontinent and Khorasan populations.
Q=1.9% - Typical of Northern Altaic populations.

Tebowing in Istanbul

2012-01-18T19:04:00.006-05:00

Can't find a better place to Tebow than Hagia Sophia (Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, Holy Wisdom) in istanbul.

Mavi Boncuk |

Tebowing is a photo fad named after Tim Tebow in that involves getting down on one knee, placing one’s elbow on the knee and fist against the forehead, similar to a prayer or Thinker’s pose[15], named after the Rodin sculpture.The fad originated from the Denver Broncos’ quarterback Tim Tebow, who was photographed in the position as early as December 2010. The pose itself is similar to the body building A Christian, Tebow is known for praying in this stance before games. However, on October 23rd, 2011, Tebow was photographed dropping to one knee after the Broncos came from behind to beat the Miami Dolphins 18-15.

SOPA PIPA 2

2012-01-18T18:17:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk | What is bad for Wikipedia and Google is not good for Mavi Boncuk...

What is SOPA trying to do...

2012-01-18T10:10:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk | Protect Intellectual Property Act under consideration in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, a pair of bills backed by the motion picture and recording industries that are intended to eliminate theft online once and for all. Simply put, S. 968 and H.R. 3261 would require ISPs to block access to foreign websites that infringe on copyrights.

Online piracy from China and elsewhere is a massive problem for the media industry, one that costs as much as $250 billion per year and costs the industry 750,000 jobs, according to a 2008 statement by Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). But how exactly the bills would counter piracy has many up in arms.

But the bill's many supporters -- including the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and News Corp., the parent company of FoxNews.com -- argue that those critics simply misunderstand the bill.

“Anti-piracy legislation now before Congress finally addresses the threat of foreign piracy, and it’s unfortunate that so many opponents have resorted to inaccurate and flatly dishonest claims in an attempt to derail it," said Timothy Lee, vice president of legal and public affairs for the Center for Individual Freedom.

Justin Vela does FP

2012-01-16T18:01:00.000-05:00

Behind Bars in the Deep State

Does a shadowy mullah in Pennsylvania really hold the reins of power in Turkey? If not, then why are the country’s leaders so intent on silencing a single investigative journalist?

READ FULL FP ARTICLE

Mavi Boncuk |

Justin Vela is an Istanbul-based journalist.

Born in San Francisco, USA, he has recently completed assignments in Turkey, Central Asia, and the Middle East. While focused on written reporting, Vela shoots photos to go with many of his articles, along with making a growing number of podcasts and videos.

Published credits include: The Independent, EurasiaNet.org,business new europe (bne), The Guardian, The National, Monocle,TIME, and The New Statesman, among others.

Visit his blog here and see recently published work here.

See also: Turkey: Has Gülen Movement Replaced Deep State?

Response: Foreign Policy's emotional and biased journalism on Turkey by İhsan Yılmaz

David Forbes

2012-01-01T08:48:00.000-05:00

Mavi Boncuk | This is the sticker (Ex-Libris = bookplate) on the inside cover of all the books formerly owned by David Forbes, and seems to be a created family emblem, with the image of the Forbes house on the hill in Buca, an image of fishermen possibly harking back to his Scottish roots and Scottish heraldic symbols with the words Lonach, possibly signifying family links to the Highland & Friendly Society founded by Sir Charles Forbes in 1823.

SOURCE from the Forbes photo album

Turkish Licorice and American Tobacco

2012-01-01T08:32:00.002-05:00

The history of Smyrna licorice is briefly given as follows: Over half a century ago, a traveler recently returned from Turkey, in a lecture before a London audience, referred to the enormous growth of licorice in the valleys of the Meander[1] and Hermus[2] in Asia Minor. This came to the attention of the MacAndrews [3], a Scotch firm of ship owners whose steamers were engaged in carrying licorice, licorice paste, oranges, etc., from Spain. MacAndrews sent a man named Clark (whose wife still lived near Smyrna in 1906) to investigate. He found a native (Graeco-Italian) paste works operating at Cutzarlee ( ED. today's Koçarlı). Mr. Clark gave a most favorable report to his employers, who started a factory at Sokia, (ED. today's Söke) across the Meander valley from Cutzarlee. The root was so abundant and labor so cheap that it cost but one-tenth the price the Spaniards and Italians paid in their countries. Consequently, the profits were enormous, and from this beginning, which has made great fortunes for the investors, the licorice industry of Turkey has developed. SOURCE

Mavi Boncuk |

Proceedings of the American Pharmaceutical Association at the Annual Meeting by American Pharmaceutical Association, National Pharmaceutical Convention, American Pharmaceutical Association Meeting (1907) "Speaking of licorice, Mr. Lloyd [3] said he had studied the subject last year in the Oriental home of licorice in the valley of the Meander and the valley of ..."

"There seems no probability of the exhaustion of this industry, notwithstanding the immense amounts demanded for export and consumed in the making of licorice paste to be used in the European and American tobacco Industries...The American duty on the extract necessitates the exportation of the crude drug to America, where the paste is then manufactured... Smyrna is the principal port of export for both licorice root and paste. The American Tobacco Trust controls the larger acreage of licorice land in the vicinity of Smyrna, and also in other sections of Asia Minor. Its aggressiveness has largely resulted in the destruction of the business of the licorice dealers who formerly supplied the drug and its extract..."
See Article: Licorice1920 by John Uri Lloyd [4]

[1] Meander or Maiandros (Ancient Greek: Μαίανδρος) is a river in Greek mythology, patron deity of the Meander river (modern Büyük Menderes River) in Caria, southern Asia Minor (modern Turkey). He is one of the sons of Oceanus and Tethys, and is the father of Cyanee, Samia and Kalamos.

[2] Hermus (pictured) is the god of the river Hermus (modern Gediz river) located in the Aegean region of Lydia (modern Turkey). Like most of the river-gods, he is the son of Oceanus and Tethys. He was the father of the Lydian nymphs. Son of Aegyptus Hermus was one of the sons of Aegyptus, by the naiad Caliadne. He married (and was murdered by) Cleopatra, daughter of Danaus and the naiad Polyxo.

[3] MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc. is a private diversified holding company with interests in consumer products, gaming, entertainment, financial services, defense, private security, medical devices, biotechnology and other industries. Among the companies in which it holds interests are AM General, Revlon, M&F Worldwide, Panavision, Allied Security, Nephros, SIGA Technologies, Transtech Pharma Inc. and Scientific Games Corporation.

MacAndrews and Forbes Company was bought out by the American company Mafco around 1902 and later this company in turn was bought out by E.V.D. of Marseilles. Mafco Worldwide has been the world leader in quality licorice products since 1850. The Company specializes in manufacturing licorice extract and related derivatives for use as flavoring and moistening agents in various consumer products, including candies, pharmaceuticals and tobacco products.

Approximately 73% of Mafco Worldwide’s licorice product sales are to the worldwide tobacco industry for use as tobacco masking and moistening agents in the manufacture of American blend cigarettes, moist snuff, chewing tobacco and pipe tobacco. While licorice represents a small percentage of the total cost of manufacturing American blend cigarettes and other tobacco products, the particular formulation and quantity used by each brand is an important element in the brand’s quality.

[4] John Uri Lloyd (19 April 1849 – 9 April 1936) was an American pharmacist influential to the development of pharmacognosy, ethnobotany, economic botany, and herbalism.

United States and Turkey Claims Commission

2012-01-01T07:18:00.000-05:00

United States and Turkey Claims Commission. (ca. 1923 - ca. 1937)

Related to 3 catalog description(s) Created 3 series Administrative History Note: By an exchange of notes dated December 24, 1923, the United States and Turkey entered into an agreement that provided for a four-member commission (two from each country) to recommend solutions to outstanding claims bteween them. In subsequent communications, the governments agreed that the Commission should undertake a summary examination of the cases to recommend a lump-sum settlement. The U.S. commissoners were Fred K. Nielsen [1] and John W. Connelly, Jr.[2] The commissioners for Turkey were A. Sevki and Mehmet Esat. The Commission met in Istanbul, where the United States presented 898 dossiers; no claims of Turkish citizens against the United States were presented. The records of the Commission are those presented by claimants and include no pleadings by the United States. The Turkish Government did not present rebutting evidence. Cases were discussed by the Commission on the basis of records submitted.

On October 13, 1934, the Commission recommended that Turkey pay the United States $1,300,00. This recommendation was confirmed by an agreement signed on October 25, 1934. The United States was free to distribute that sum among American claimants as deemed proper.

Mavi Boncuk |

See also : American-Turkish claims settlement : under the Agreement of December 24,1923, and supplemental agreements between the United States and TurkeyAuthor: Fred Kenelm Nielsen; American-Turkish Commission.Publisher: Washington : U.S. G.P.O., 1937.

[1] Fred Kenelm Nielsen (April 22, 1879 – January 12, 1963) was a Danish-American lawyer, diplomatic official, and college football coach. In 1913, Nielsen was named the Assistant Solicitor of the Department of Department. In 1914, he was assigned as a plenipotentiary during discussions in Christiania, Norway of a Spitsbergen government. As the assistant solicitor. Nielsen served in the United States Army until Armistice and attained the rank of major. He represented the United States at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.

The American Tobacco Company vs Guardian Assurance Company, Ltd.

2012-01-01T06:15:00.002-05:00

Claim of the American Tobacco Company

This series consists of documentary evidence submitted by the American Tobacco Company in support of its claim for the loss of 15,000 bales of tobacco destroyed by fire in Smyrna. The evidence includes copies of foreign court records and statements containing background information on the fire. Some of the records, labeled "Property of the American Tobacco Company," in French, include material entitled "Proclamations et rapports officials, 1923," and "Depositions faites aupres du Tribunal Consulaire de France a Smyrna."

SOURCE
Mavi Boncuk |

The epilogue of the Smyrna drama was played out in London at the High Court of Justice, during the first weeks of December 1924. The American Tobacco Company was bringing suit against the Guardian Assurance Company, Ltd. Maintaining that the fire was a result of “hostile and warlike operations”, the insurance company had invoked its exemption clause and refused to pay. The claim was for over $600,000, and it was understood that the outcome of the trial would govern other claims totaling $100,000,000.

A cast of familiar characters paraded to the witness stand before Mr. Justice Rowlatt. Spunky little Major Cherefeddin Bey described how he had been struck with a hand grenade as he led his cavalry regiment down the quay on 9 September two years before, but the Armenian culprit in his original story had now become “a uniformed, armed Greek soldier who threw the bomb”. Beyond this incident the Major had seen no disorder at Smyrna because, he said, “nothing took place”.

A Colonel Mouharrem Bey admitted that feeling ran high against the Armenians because “we used to read reports in our newspapers of their behaviour, which led us to believe they were not friendly to us”. Yes, the army had distributed proclamations referring to “the injustice and cowardice of the Greeks, who nevertheless proved to be the most cruel enemy unlike any nation in the history of the human race”, but the Colonel swore that his troops were well disciplined and denied that his patrols had participated in any looting, rape or murder. “The patrols would never do such a thing”, he said.

The Colonel was recalled to the stand after a witness for the plaintiff unwittingly revealed that a cordon of Turkish soldiers had held the victims in the fire zone. “Did you want to prevent the people going anywhere?” asked Mr. A. T. Miller, representing the Guardian Assurance Company.

“Yes, we prevent them.”

“Going where?”

“We prevent them to be not escape from there only to stay there.” Mr. Justice Rowlatt thought this wasn't much of a translation.

Miller tried again with another interpreter. “Why did you have the cordon on the quay? Did you want them burnt?”

“No, only to keep them by the boats.”

During his cross-examination of Mr. Chester Griswold (of Griswold and Brunswick, fig merchants), Mr. Miller again confirmed the presence of Turkish cordons around the city.

Did Mr. Griswold think it right that the people should thus be prevented from escaping the fire?

Mr. Griswold thought it was done for their own good. The roads leading from town were in bad neighbourhoods: “A good many bad characters live around there,” he said.

Did Mr. Griswold mean to say that the cordon was placed there by the Turks “to prevent the people from falling into bad hands?”

“I presume that,” said Mr. Griswold.

Griswold testified to having carried an American flag on his car, and to having placed American sailor guards at the bakeries - not to protect the bakers, who were Greek, but simply to keep them from selling bread. He had driven around town a good deal before and after the fire, in his capacity as secretary of the relief committee. The town was quiet and he had seen no violence.

Under cross-examination Griswold admitted that his Turkish business partner was the mayor of Smyrna and that he was also a friend and associate of a man named Archbell, a director of the American Tobacco Company - the plaintiff in the case.

Mr. Rene Guichet, chief engineer of the French railway company, with offices at the edge of the Armenian quarter, had seen nothing unusual before the fire except a little pillaging and heard nothing except a few “joy firings”; but he had to concede that there was essentially little difference in the sound of a gun being fired in joy or in anger. The Armenian population had not been molested so far as he knew because they were at first “closed in”, and later “they had left”. Again, he was forced to admit that it was not easy to tell the difference between people shut indoors and people absent, but he had an intuitive feeling of the way it had been.

Witnesses of every nationality, including an English business associate of the enterprising Mr. Archbell (this one in the garage and agricultural machinery business) supported the view that a single fire had spread accidentally, through the force of the wind.

Mr. Justice Rowlatt did not feel enlightened when the plaintiffs had rested their case. “This is one of the vaguest cases I've ever tried,” he complained.

“I’ m afraid it is very difficult, my lord,” Miller conceded.

“If this was a more civilized city,” mused the Judge, “one very probable explanation would be that somebody who was looting had got drunk. But as it is a semi-barbarous place the question of drink is not mentioned in the case.”

The haze began to clear as the defendant's witnesses took the stand. British naval officers offered their logs in evidence that while the wind was pleasantly brisk it was by no means stiff enough to fan the flames from the Collegiate Institute clear to the quay. Nurse Mabel Kalfa, the Reverend Charles Dobson, Major Maxwell of the Royal Marines, Sir Harry Lamb, members of the Smyrna fire department, and others were explicit about the origin and spreading of the flames and about the increase in violence as the days went on. A number of victims described their experiences. Among these was a lady who had been raped, whose daughter had been assaulted, and whose father had been slain by Turkish soldiers. In a dramatic cross-examination Mr. Wright, representing the plaintiff, implied that she was masquerading under a false name, but was unable to prove his Allegation. He had no better luck in trying to shake the firemen's stories. “It must have struck you as a remarkable thing that the Turks were saying they were allowed to burn down Smyrna,” he told fireman Katzaros.

“Why should it appear remarkable when I saw it myself?” “Did you mention it to your fellow workmen at the fire brigade afterwards ?”

“If I mentioned that,” said Katzaros, “they would have hanged me by the tongue.”

During his summation Wright noted severely, “This is a charge against a nation,” but he drew signs of amusement in the courtroom when he insisted that the Turks had “made every attempt to maintain order”. By now thoroughly frustrated, the counsel for the plaintiff asked the Judge to admonish the opposition: “With great respect, my lord, the case here is serious, the evidence is flimsy, and it is not made the less flimsy by my learned friend ridiculing what I am saying!”

“No, no,” said the Judge. “But I do not know that the other side, who will not be able to reply, are called upon not to laugh at what you said.”

On Friday, 19 December, Mr. Justice Rowlatt delivered a considered judgment in favour of the defendant insurance company. The Judge, according to the London Times, entertained no doubt about the occurrences.

Neither the trial nor the verdict made much of an impact on the historical record, even in England. Not long afterwards a British publisher informed George Horton that The Blight of Asia could not be published there because “the British public was now so interested in the Mosul oil interests that they did not wish anything circulated that might offend the Turks”.

There is no Way Out from kadikoy

2011-12-31T05:41:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

2011 Kadıköy (17 Games)

Turkish Cup:

Fenerbahçe-Gençlerbirliği......: 2-1

2010-2011 Premier Division:

week 19 Fenerbahçe-Trabzonspor.........: 2-0

week 21. Fenerbahçe-Kayserispor.........: 2-0

week 23. Fenerbahçe-Kasımpaşa...........: 2-0

week 25. Fenerbahçe-Konyaspor...........: 2-0

week 27. Fenerbahçe-Bursaspor...........: 0-0

week 29. Fenerbahçe-Gaziantepspor.......: 1-0

week 31. Fenerbahçe-İBB Spor............: 2-0

week 33. Fenerbahçe-Ankaragücü..........: 6-0

2011-2012 Premier Division:

week 1. Fenerbahçe-Orduspor............: 1-0

week 3. Fenerbahçe-Manisaspor..........: 1-1

week 5. Fenerbahçe-İBB Spor............: 4-2

week 7. Fenerbahçe-Samsunspor..........: 0-0

week 9. Fenerbahçe-Kardemir Karabükspor: 1-0

week 11. Fenerbahçe-Eskişehirspor......: 1-0

week 13. Fenerbahçe-Ankaragücü.........: 4-2

week 16. Fenerbahçe-Trabzonspor........: 1-0

lutte contre le racisme et répression de la contestation de l'existence des génocides reconnus par la loi

2011-12-23T23:18:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |
Discussion en séance publique
Download Full Text French National Assembly Public Session

Assemblée nationale | XIIIe législature

Session ordinaire de 2011-2012

Compte rendu

intégral

Culture : lutte contre le racisme et répression de la contestation de l'existence des génocides reconnus par la loi

(Les informations concernant les réunions à venir ont un caractère prévisionnel et sont susceptibles d'être modifiées)

Travaux préparatoires
Assemblée nationale 1^ère lecture
Assemblée nationale - 1^ère lecture
Proposition de loi de Mme Valérie BOYER et plusieurs de ses collègues portant transposition du droit communautaire sur la lutte contre le racisme et réprimant la contestation de l'existence du génocide arménien, n° 3842, déposée le 18 octobre 2011 (mis en ligne le 21 octobre 2011 à 18 heures)
et renvoyée à la commission des lois constitutionnelles, de la législation et de l'administration générale de la république

Amendements
- Amendements déposés sur le texte n° 4035
- Recherche multicritère

Travaux des commissions

- commission des lois
La Commission saisie au fond a nommé Mme Valérie Boyer rapporteur le 7 décembre 2011

Amendements déposés en commission

Rapport n° 4035 déposé le 7 décembre 2011 (mis en ligne le 12 décembre 2011 à 19 heures 05) :
Annexe 0 - Texte de la commission (mis en ligne le 7 décembre 2011 à 15 heures 20)

Discussion en séance publique
séance du jeudi 22 décembre 2011

Proposition de loi visant à réprimer la contestation de l'existence des génocides reconnus par la loi, adoptée en 1^ère lecture par l'Assemblée nationale le 22 décembre 2011 , TA n° 813

Fenerbahce Ulker Claims Top Spot

2011-12-22T22:28:00.000-05:00

Mavi Boncuk | Fenerbahce Ulker defeated Bennet Cantu 76-83 as Oguz Savas came through with a season-high 27 points. The win ultimately lifted the Turkish champs to first place in Group A.

The 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season ended with a bang as the last ticket to the Top 16 wasn’t decided until the last shot of the last game played was taken. In the end, Zalgiris Kaunas, Fenerbahce Ulker, newcomer Gescrap BB and EA7 Emporio Armani claimed the remaining Top 16 berths.

Two other lower ranking Turkish teams also made it to final 16.

Turkey moves far beyond Europe

2011-12-22T14:41:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

Turkey moves far beyond Europe

by Soner Cagaptay

December 22, 2011

The Turks are selling pasta to the Italians, educating Papua-New Guineans in their universities, building airports in Egypt, running schools in Nigeria and establishing diplomatic missions in Latin America. Turkey has not felt and acted like the confident global player it is today since the heyday of the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century.

After the decline of the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth century, the Turks tried to belong to Europe in hopes of eventually becoming an ordinary country subsumed by it. That dream has passed. In the past decade, a new Turkey was born, shaped by unprecedented political stability, domestic growth and new-found commercial and political clout overseas. This has instilled a sense of global confidence in the Turkish people, not seen since Suleiman the Magnificent ruled in Constantinople. "And the new Turkey is here to stay," says Namik Tan, the Turkish ambassador to Washington.

Like a Eurasian China, the new Turkey is interested in building influence across the globe and is no longer confined by a regional, European rubric.

MORE...

Book | Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean

2011-12-22T13:17:00.001-05:00

Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean By Philip Mansel [1]

Yale University Press (May 24, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0300172648
ISBN-13: 978-0300172645

Mavi Boncuk | Levant Review

Levant is a book of cities. It describes three former centers of great wealth, pleasure, and freedom—Smyrna, Alexandria, and Beirut—cities of the Levant region along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. In these key ports at the crossroads of East and West, against all expectations, cosmopolitanism and nationalism flourished simultaneously. People freely switched identities and languages, released from the prisons of religion and nationality. Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived and worshipped as neighbors.

Distinguished historian Philip Mansel is the first to recount the colorful, contradictory histories of Smyrna, Alexandria, and Beirut in the modern age. He begins in the early days of the French alliance with the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century and continues through the cities' mid-twentieth-century fates: Smyrna burned; Alexandria Egyptianized; Beirut lacerated by civil war.

Mansel looks back to discern what these remarkable Levantine cities were like, how they differed from other cities, why they shone forth as cultural beacons. He also embarks on a quest: to discover whether, as often claimed, these cities were truly cosmopolitan, possessing the elixir of coexistence between Muslims, Christians, and Jews for which the world yearns. Or, below the glittering surface, were they volcanoes waiting to erupt, as the catastrophes of the twentieth century suggest? In the pages of the past, Mansel finds important messages for the fractured world of today.

[1] Philip Mansel is a historian of France and the Ottoman Empire. His publications include histories of Constantinople and nineteenth-century Paris, as well as biographies of Louis XVIII and the Prince de Ligne. While writing Levant, he lived in Beirut and Istanbul.

Leave the French out of this...

2011-12-22T11:48:00.000-05:00

Mavi Boncuk | Leave the French out of this...

If you want to get mad in Turkish visit Angry Turks Blog

The Turks are Coming...The Turks are Coming...

2011-12-22T10:00:00.002-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |
Turkish citizens were the largest group of non-European Union citizens living in the EU at the start of 2009, while the biggest group of EU citizens living in another member-state were from Romania, the EU statistics office said Tuesday.

In total, 31.9 million foreigners were recorded in the 27-member bloc beginning 2009, or 6.4 percent of the total EU population, said Eurostat.

The largest contingent of foreigners chose Germany as home—7.2 million people—followed by Spain with 5.7 million.

But the country with the highest percentage of foreigners was tiny Luxembourg with 44 percent, followed by Latvia (18 percent), and Cyprus and Estonia (16 percent).

That proportion fell to one percent in Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria.

Of the total number of foreigners, 11.9 million (2.4 percent) were citizens of another EU state, and 19.9 million (four percent) came from countries outside the EU—Africa (4.9 million), Asia (4 million), and the American continent (3.3 million).

Citizens of Turkey were the largest group of non-EU citizens with 2.4 million or eight percent, followed by Morocco (1.8 million or six percent), and Albania (one million or three percent).

But more than a third of foreigners in the EU bloc came from another member state.

The largest groups were from Romania, with two million or six percent of the total, followed by Poland (1.5 million or five percent) and Italy (1.3 million or four percent).

Valérie Boyer Gets Her Way

2011-12-22T08:08:00.000-05:00

Valérie Boyer Gets Her Way...Now she can tell how she feels about the massacres of Turks in the Balkans, Greece and Caucasus.. Turks should press for the recognition of their sufferings instead of denying Armenian Atrocities in France under this silly law in the making.

France formally recognized the killings as genocide in 2001, but provided no penalty for anyone denying that. The bill sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of €45,000 ($59,000) for those who deny or "outrageously minimize" the killings by Ottoman Turks, putting such action on a par with denial of the Holocaust. Despite strong protests by Turkey, French lawmakers easily passed a measure Thursday to make it a crime in France to deny that the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 amounted to a genocide. There was no official vote count in the ballot in France's lower house of parliament since lawmakers simply voted by raising their hands. The measure now goes to the Senate, where its fate is less clear.

Mavi Boncuk |
"I am shocked with the activities of the Turkish side over the bill. Today the basis of Turkey's diplomacy is threat which is already an outdated practice in diplomacy. The recent steps of Turkey are being viewed as an attempt to interfere into France's policy. They can only reinforce the opinion and determination of the MPs to adopt the bill,"--Valérie Boyer[1]

Turkish “Hurriyet” daily has requested French MP Ms. Valerie Boyer, who authored Armenian Genocide denial bill. French MP has expressed confidence that this time (on December 19) French Senate will approve the bill.According to the MP the failed bill in 2006 was risky to have some conflict with the constitution; hence the new version, which is now in line with the country’s constitutions and EU norms, has been drafted.Asked that Turkey can push in its Parliament a document concerning French militia activities in Algeria decades ago, Ms. Boyer has first reminded of her Algerian origin, and highlighted that it wasn’t genocide in Algeria but a fight against colonial system and that in 1962 Algeria declared its independence.Turkish media claimed the document could be modernized depending on the forthcoming French presidential election results, Ms. Boyer said: “It doesn’t matter who will rule – the rights, or the lefts, France thinks Armenian Genocide is a crime. If France has recognized events in 1915 as genocide, it’s necessary to punish those who will deny it.”

[1] Valérie Boyer (born June 11, 1962 in Bourges, Cher) is a member of the National Assembly of France. She represents the Bouches-du-Rhône department, and is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement.

Habibi | A must read...However

2011-12-21T18:48:00.002-05:00

The story mentions Wanatolia, an executioner extrapolated from an Ottoman Sultan, images from Topkapi and Bosphorus plus a lot more evil. Read it and judge for yourself. Great story and artwork with offensive undertones.

Mavi Boncuk |

Sprawling across an epic landscape of deserts, harems, and modern industrial clutter, HABIBI tells the tale of Dodola and Zam, refugee child slaves bound to each other by chance, by circumstance, and by the love that grows between them.

At once contemporary and timeless, HABIBI gives us a love story of astounding resonance: a parable about our relationship to the natural world, the cultural divide between the first and third worlds, the common heritage of Christianity and Islam, and, most potently, the magic of storytelling.

672 pages
7" x 9"
Hardcover
Fiction; Graphic Novel; Black-and-white drawings throughout
$35.00 (Can. $40.00)
978-0-375-42414-4
Source

Osmanlıca-Türkçe Ansiklopedik Lûgat

2011-12-19T11:48:00.000-05:00

Why go thru 2012 without an Ottoman-Turkish Dictionary...

Mavi Boncuk |

Osmanlıca-TürkçeAnsiklopedik Lûgat
Author: Ferit Devellioglu

Download 7.0 MB PDF

1978 | The Maraş Massacre

2011-12-19T11:45:00.000-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

The Maraş Massacre (tr: Maraş katliamı) or Kahramanmaraş Massacre of December 1978 was the massacre of more than hundred civilians, mostly Alevis, a minority Muslim group in Turkey. The prime perpetrators were Greywolves. It was an attack by rightists on leftists, Turks on Kurds, Sunnis (probably Kurdish as well as Turkish) on Alevis.

Mavi Boncuk Archives (tr: Maraş katliamı files) PDF Files | 98 pages (text, photos, newspaper front pages) 2.1 MB | Download

Inscription on David Livingstone's grave | The Turk

2011-12-18T22:17:00.003-05:00

Mavi Boncuk | Inscription on David Livingstone's grave at Westminster Abbey: "All I can add in my solitude is, may heaven's rich blessing come down on everyone, American, English or Turk"

David Livingstone (19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

Václav Havel (1936 – 2011)

2011-12-18T19:46:00.001-05:00

Václav Havel (5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) , Czech leader of '89 'Velvet Revolution,' dead at 75. A former dissident playwright, was the revered first president of Czechoslovakia after it overthrew Communist rule. His slogan: 'May truth and love triumph over lies and hatred.'

Mavi Boncuk |

The authorized biography of Havel was based on unrestricted access to him, his circle, and even his enemies, and is the first definitive account of one of the great moral and political leaders of our time, a vivid portrait of the tumultuous events of this century.

Here is a curious section.

Vaclav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts By John Keane

pg 29

Baklava and Elena Hristova

2011-12-18T09:21:00.003-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

Baklava (Macedonian: Баклава) is a Macedonian ethno music acoustic band[1][2] with a minimalistic musical concept. The songs are performed by female vocal and traditional folk instruments, especially string and percussion instruments tambura and bendir. Their key challenge is to create original music based on the aesthetic achievements of traditional Macedonian music. They also perform old traditional songs of ethnic Macedonians living in Aegean Macedonia.

Band members

Elena Hristova, vocals, kaval
Nikola Nikolov, tambura
Vladimir Martinovski, tambura
Dejan Sibinovski, bendir
[edit]Discography

A Little More (1992)
Baklava (2006)
Kalemar (2008)

Recommended | Turcopedia

2011-12-17T08:53:00.003-05:00

Turcopedia, an encyclopedia-like website of interesting, surprising and entertaining pop culture facts about Turkey, aims to change th general presentation of the country. The website has three partners, Antoine Rolin (L to R) Gregoire d’Oultremont and Tolga Tuna.Antoine Rolin and Gregoire d’Oultremont are the two Belgian men living in Istanbul that are behind the encyclopedia-like website Turcopedia. The website has interesting, surprising and entertaining popular culture facts inspired by Turkey. While launching the site, they met Tolga Tuna from Endeavor Turkey, who eventually joined their venture. “Our main aim is not to reap a profit from this site. The aim is to reach as many people as we can,” Tuna said.

The website has been up for two months and has already gained 6,000 Facebook followers. Half of the followers are from Turkey and the rest are from abroad.

Antoine Rolin (L to R) Gregoire d’Oultremont and Tolga Tuna.

Mavi Boncuk |
Recommended | Turcopedia

Sample Posting:

A CITY STEEPED IN COMPLEXITY

Hillary Rodham Clinton | Istanbul Remarks

2011-12-17T07:53:00.000-05:00

Mavi Boncuk | Remarks at the Istanbul Process for Combating Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or BeliefRemarks by Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of StateWashington, DC
December 14, 2011

Link

"And I think interfaith dialogue, reaching out to those with whom you disagree, even agreeing to disagree, so to speak, is a part of the work we are struggling to do. And we can make progress where we have a new attitude in our world where we can believe strongly what we believe. We can think others are wrong, but we don’t feel so insecure and so fearful of their wrong views that we try to suppress them, imprison them, or even kill them. Instead, we trust that over time, if they are wrong, they will come to see the error of their ways. But we continue the conversation as fellow human beings and as people of faith."

TIME | People Who Mattered

2011-12-14T22:36:00.002-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |
People Who Mattered
Recep Tayyip ErdoganBy TONY KARON
Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011

No leader better personifies the dramatic changes in the Middle East over the past year than Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Leader of a party rooted in political Islam, he won re-election in July to an unprecedented third term of office, having overseen Turkey's emergence as the world's second fastest-growing economy (after China). He was hailed as a role model by ascendant Islamists in post-dictatorship Tunisia and Egypt, where he urged the building of secular democracies. And while he has openly challenged the U.S. on Iran and Israel — which once enjoyed close ties with Turkey — Erdogan remains a key U.S. ally, with a strong commitment to NATO. He has also challenged Tehran by working to topple its key Arab ally, the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. If anything, Erdogan is likely to become even more central to events in the coming year with the unfolding of the Arab rebellion, the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and mounting international tension over Iran.

Ottoman Exhibition March (1863)

2011-12-12T09:48:00.001-05:00

When the Turkish president Gul was a guest at Buckingham palace an old musical march welcomed him. That is what makes tradition a core value of UK.
Mavi Boncuk |

Ottoman Exhibition March | Osmanlı Sergi Marşı (1863) composed by Callisto Guatelli Paşa [1] performed under the direction of Emre Araci[2]

[1] Callisto Guatelli Pasha, an Italian who served the sultans as the director of the palace orchestra in Istanbul. Guatelli succeeded Giuseppe Donizetti Pasha in the same post; the eldest brother of Gaetano Donizetti

[2] Dr. Emre Araci is a musicologist at the University of Cambridge.
Article: HER EXCELLENCY THE WIFE OF OMER PASHA by Emre Araci

Game Fixing Case Goes to Trial

2011-12-09T12:04:00.001-05:00

Download the Full Text Submitted to the Court in Istanbul.

Mavi Boncuk |

Turkey's parliament is poised to override a presidential veto and approve a reduction in prison terms for match-fixing, a move that could lead to lighter sentences for suspects in a recent rigging scandal.The country's ruling and two main opposition parties say they will again vote for the new reduced term of a maximum three years in prison later Friday.

Parliament first voted for the changes earlier this month, only eight months after it approved sentences of up to 12 years for anyone convicted of rigging games.President Abdullah Gul vetoed it on the grounds that it was giving "the impression of a special arrangement" to save suspects in the recent match-fixing scandal, including Fenerbahce President Aziz Yildirim.

A court says a total of 93 suspects will go on trial on Feb. 14.

Anonymous Video on Fetullah Gulen and Turkey!

2011-12-08T20:32:00.001-05:00

I am sharing this propaganda video so that more people can watch and form an opinion, pro or con and think about its possible source. How similar is the content of this video to other similar allegations about the Gulen Movement. Who is behind the events that was used as clips.

Mavi Boncuk |

Anonymous Video on Fetullah Gulen and Turkey!

A monument to the 1918 Battle of Bash Aparan

2011-12-06T02:03:00.001-05:00

A monument to the 1918 Battle of Bash Aparan[1], at which the Armenians repelled a force of Ottoman soldiers (Aparan, Armenia, built 1979)
Photograph: Frédéric Chaubin.
Mavi Boncuk |

[1] The Battle of Bash Abaran (Armenian: Բաշ Աբարանի ճակատամարտ Bash Abarani chakatamart, Turkish: Baş-Abaran Muharebesi) was a battle of Caucasus Campaign of World War I that took place in the vicinity of Bash Abaran, in 1918.

The Ottoman divisions attacked on May 21, but after three days of fierce combat the Armenians remained firm and the Ottoman regiments retreated in defeat.Armenian forces headed by Drastamat Kanayan with the support of forces of Movses Silikyan, fought against the 3rd Regiment of the 11th Caucasian Division and then launched a counter-attack against the Ottomans in May 25.And then Drastamat Kanayan's forces, with also the support of Movses Silikyan's infantry, drew back the Ottomans to the north of Bas-Abaran on May 29.

The victory here, as well as at Sardarapat and Karakilisa, were instrumental in allowing the Democratic Republic of Armenia to come into existence.

See also: Armenian Sources

Ashura 2011

2011-12-05T16:34:00.001-05:00

The Day of Ashura (Arabic: عاشوراء‎ ʻĀshūrā’, Ashura, Ashoura, and other spellings; Turkish: Aşure Günü) is on the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar and marks the climax of the Remembrance of Muharram.

Mavi Boncuk |
Thousands of Shiites gathered in İstanbul's Halkalı district on Monday, the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar, to mourn the martyrdom of Husain ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the Battle of Karbala 1,372 years ago.

Ashura is a religious observance marked every year by Muslims. The word "ashura" literally means "10th," as it is the 10th day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic year. Ashura is a traditional observance that is now recognized for different reasons and in different ways by Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Even in predominantly Hindu country like India, Ashura (often called Moharram) is a public holiday.

Commemoration of Ashura has great socio-political value for the Shi'a, who have been a minority throughout their history. "Al-Amd" asserts that the Shi'a transference of Al-Husayn and Karbala ' from the framework of history to the domain of ideology and everlasting legend reflects their marginal and dissenting status in Arab-Islamic society

From the period of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1905–11) onward, mourning gatherings increasingly assumed a political aspect. Following an old established tradition, preachers compared the oppressors of the time with Imam Hosayn's enemies, the Omayyad. On the other hand some governments have banned this commemoration. In 1930s Reza Shah forbade it in Iran. The regime of Saddam Hussein saw this as a potential threat and banned Ashura commemorations for many years. In the 1884 Hosay Massacre, 22 people were killed in Trinidad and Tobago when civilians attempted to carry out the Ashura rites, locally known as Hosay, in defiance of the British colonial authorities.

A companion of Muhammed, Ibn Abas reports Muhammed went to Medina and found the Jews fasting on the tenth of Muharram. Muhammed inquired of them, "What is the significance of this day on which you fast?" They replied, "This is a good day, the day on which God rescued the children of Israel from their enemy. So, Moses fasted this day." Muhammed said, "We have more claim over Moses than you." Muhammed then fasted on that day and ordered Muslims too

Yes, I Would...: An American Woman's Letters to Turkey

2011-12-05T13:14:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

Yes, I Would...: An American Woman's Letters to Turkey

Author:	Katharine Branning
Publication Date:	June 16, 2010
ISBN:	1935295063 / 9781935295068
Price:	$18.95
Binding:	Cloth
Trim:	6" x 9"
Page Count:	320

Yes, I Would... comprises a series of imaginary letters written to Lady Mary Montagu, whose famous "Embassy Letters" were written in 1716-1718 during her stay in Turkey as the wife of the English ambassador. The author uses themes dear to Lady Mary, such as culture, art, religion, women and daily life, to reflect on those same topics as encountered during the author's past 30 years of travel in Turkey.

Author interviews:

Yes, I Would Love another Cup of Tea

2011-12-05T13:00:00.001-05:00

Katharine Branning, is the author of "Yes I Would Love another Cup of Tea: An American Woman's Letters to turkey."

Katharine Branning has degrees from the University of Paris, Sorbonne and the Ecole du Louvre, where she majored in Islamic arts, with a specialty in Islamic glass. A graduate of the Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science, she has been a librarian at the French Institute of Architecture in Paris, France, at the French Embassy Cultural Services and the Alliance Française in New York City. For her work promoting the French language and culture through the creation of numerous libraries in both France and the United States, she has been awarded the Ordre national du Mérite from the President of France, one of the nation's highest honors.

She has studied the Turkish language and literature at the Institute of Langues Orientales in Paris and with Prof. Talat S. Halman at New York University. As an independent researcher and glass artist, she has conducted annual field work relative to architecture and decorative arts in Turkey every year since 1978.

She currently lives in New York, where she is Vice President of Education at the French Institute Alliance Française.

Mavi Boncuk |

Yes I would Love another Glass of Tea : An American Woman's Letters to Turkey (38:54) LECTURE

Book | The Militant Kurds: A Dual Strategy for Freedom

2011-12-01T12:50:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |
The Militant Kurds: A Dual Strategy for Freedom (PSI Guides to Terrorists, Insurgents, and Armed Groups) [Hardcover]Vera Eccarius-Kelly

ISBN-10: 0313364680 | ISBN-13: 978-0313364686 |
Publication Date: December 7, 2010

The Militant Kurds: A Dual Strategy for Freedom explores the complexity of the 30-year guerrilla war of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) against the Turkish Republic, identifying longstanding obstacles to peace and probing the new dynamics that may lead to an end to the conflict. In doing so, the book provides fascinating insights into Turkey's national ethos, its dominant military culture, and civil society's struggle for increased democratization.The Militant Kurds offers an extensive analysis of the precarious position of the Kurdish minority, beginning with the establishment of the modern Turkish republic in 1923. Divided into five sections examining current political realities in Turkey, the book investigates the role of Islam and ethnicity, analyzes the rise of the PKK, discusses Turkish military culture, and explains the international dimensions of the Kurdish conflict. Comparative historical, political, and socioeconomic examples contextualize the long struggle for Kurdish self-determination. Each chapter offers an analysis of the underlying dynamics of the conflict and provides up-to-date explanations.

Download PDF / Contents, Abbreviations

Related PUBLICATIONS by
Vera Eccarius-Kelly | Siena College | Associate Professor of Political Science

316 Siena Hall T: +1 518 782 6743 | veccarius-kelly@siena.edu

“Reframing the Nationalist Perspective: Kurdish Civil Society Activism in Europe,” in Symbiotic Antagonisms: Competing Nationalisms in Turkey, ed. Ayse Kadioğlu and Fuat Keyman (Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 2010), 289-318.

"Nationalism, Ethnic Rap, and the Kurdish Diaspora,” Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, 22.4 (2010): 423-431.

co-authored with Robert Yoder and Suvarna Cherukuri, “Understanding Global Information Technology and Outsourcing Dynamics,” in Handbook of Research on Global Information Technology Management in the Digital Economy, ed. Mahesh S. Raisinghani (Hershey, PA: IGI Publisher, 2008), 257-280. (Reprinted in IT Outsourcing: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, ed. Kirk St. Amant (Hershey, PA: IGI Publisher, 2009).

"Interpreting the PKK's Signals in Europe," Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 2, no. 11 (2008): 10-14.

"Unresolved Questions and another Crossroads in Turkey," Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 2, no. 1 (2008): 3-6.

“The Kurdish Conundrum in Europe: Political Opportunities and Transnational Activism,” in Migration and Activism in Europe since 1945, ed. Wendy Pojmann (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 57-80.

“Party Preferences and Political Participation: The Emergence of the Turkish-Origin German Voter,” Migration Letters, vol. 5. 1, 2008, 21-40.

“Political Movements and Leverage Points: Kurdish Activism in the European Diaspora,” The Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 22. 1, 2002, 91-118.

“Radical Consequences of Benign Neglect: The Rise of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in Germany,” The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Vol. 24, No.1 (2000): 161-174.

Keşkek

2011-11-30T21:50:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

Keşkek is a traditional Turkish ceremonial dish prepared for wedding ceremonies, circumcisions and religious holidays. Women and men work together to cook wheat and meat called ‘Keşkek’ in huge cauldrons, then serve it to the guests. The wheat is washed with prayers the preceding day, and then carried to a large stone mortar, to the accompaniment of music from the davul drum and zurna double-reed pipe. At the mortar it is hulled by two to four persons using gavels in a fixed rhythm. Cooking is usually carried out outdoors: hulled wheat, chunks of meat on the bone, onions, spices, water and oil are added to the cauldron and cooked all night. Towards noon, the strongest of the village youth are called to beat the Keşkek with wooden mallets, while the crowd cheers and zurna players perform musical pieces, announcing the thickening of the stew with a specific melody. Numerous expressions associated with the dish – used during the selection of wheat, the blessings, praying and carrying the wheat, as well as preparing and cooking it – have become common expressions in daily life. In addition, the tradition encompasses entertainment, plays and musical performances. Neighbouring towns and villages are invited to feast collectively in the ceremony premises. The cooking tradition is safeguarded and transmitted by master cooks to apprentices.

Keskek gets UNESCO Nod

2011-11-30T20:58:00.001-05:00

A UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) intergovernmental board met for one week in Bali, Indonesia to discuss "living" cultural practices, examining oral traditions, art forms and generational rituals. This cultural traditions were evaluated based on their importance to their originating society and their danger of becoming extinct. Those selected were then added to the "List of Intangible Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding." 'Respect,' 'Harmony' and 'Cultural Values': These traditions are crucial not just from a historical or aesthetic perspective, but from a very pressing cultural one. They bind communities together, convey a country or people's outlooks and ideals and can even serve very practical, social purposes.
Mavi Boncuk |

Keskek (Turkey): Ceremonial meat or chicken cooked in wheat or barley stew. Found in Iranian as well as Turkish cuisine, it is a common meal consumed during religious festivals, weddings and funerals.

Shadow Puppetry (China): A form of theater involving colorful silhouette figures performing against a back-lit cloth screen. The puppeteer's skill, which include crafting the dolls, manipulating the puppets and employing improvisational singing and music playing, are passed down in families and troupes from master to pupil.

Tsiatista (Cyprus): A duel between warring poets, this tradition celebrates quick wits and a rich vocabulary. Competitors try to outdo each other by constructing improvising, elaborate verses of rhyming couplets.
(Looks like Asik Atismasi: See above)

2011Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
Ceremonial Keşkek tradition Turkey

2010Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
Kırkpınar oil wrestling festival Turkey
Semah, Alevi-Bektaşi ritual Turkey
Traditional Sohbet meetings Turkey

2009Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
Âşıklık (minstrelsy) tradition Turkey Karagöz Turkey
Novruz, Nowrouz, Nooruz, Navruz, Nauroz, Nevruz Azerbaijan – India – Iran (Islamic Republic of) – Kyrgyzstan – Pakistan – Turkey – Uzbekistan

2008Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
The Arts of the Meddah, Public Storytellers Turkey
The Mevlevi Sema Ceremony Turkey

One for Van

2011-11-29T17:13:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

Article | Why Turkey's Dream of Regional Leadership Failed

2011-11-23T02:12:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

STEVEN A. COOK - Steven A. Cook is the Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eatern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations at From the Potomac to the Euphrates. His book, The Struggle for Egypt, will be published by Oxford University Press in the Fall.

Why Turkey's Dream of Regional Leadership Failed

NOV 18 2011, 10:51 AM ET 4

The country's "zero problems" foreign policy was probably doomed from the start

Caption: Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu greets his Syrian counterpart at a regional summit in 2010 / AP

INSTANBUL -- With the sharp deterioration of Turkish-Syrian relations over the last two days, some Turkish and Western observers have declared Ankara's "zero-problems" foreign policy dead and buried. This sentiment has been building for some time, especially among critics of the ruling Justice and Development Party, but the denouement of the Erdogan/Davutoglu investment in Bashar al Assad--a signature policy--seems to have signaled the end of what has been billed as Turkey's transformative diplomacy. The facts are hard to ignore. In an era when Ankara aspired to no problems with its neighbors, it actually has cok(many) problems: Syria, Israel, Armenia, Iran, Cyprus, and the EU to name just a few.

To be fair, Ankara's neighbors have not exactly cooperated, but at the same time, it is not all that much of a surprise that zero problems has not delivered as promised. For all of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's many talents, his signature policy was not all that visionary. In fact, it was downright conventional. Stripped of all the romance about Turkey being a role model, zero problems was based on the central hunch that drives economic determinism: If people are getting richer and happier, they will accept the status quo because they will develop an economic interest in said status quo, in turn, providing incentive to avoid any problems for fear it might undermine people's newfound wealth and ipso facto, presto--zero problems.

In ways, this was a potentially genius way of dealing with Turkey's Kurdish problem. Drop trade barriers, visa requirements, and invest in Syria and Iraq and the economic and political benefits to Turkey's southeast would be enormous. By making Kurds richer and happier, Davutoglu assumed they would be less inclined to make cultural and national demands on the Turkish state. It hasn't exactly worked out that way. Regionally, the weakness at the heart of zero problems was that it had no commitment to any particular kind of government. As a result, it was bound up in the Middle East's old political order.

While AKP was driving democratic changes at home, the prime minister and foreign minister were courting nasty Middle Eastern leaders. Assad, to take an example, is the opposite of Erdogan. The Turkish prime minister owes his power and success to an appealing vision for Turkish society, the ability to deliver socio-economic benefits to Turks, and a whole lot of charisma. These factors have consistently returned him to office with ever-larger percentages of the popular vote. The Syrian president is the son of a brutal dictator who remains in power through his willingness to spill the blood of his own people. The same stunning irony was clear in Turkey's relations with Qadhafi's Libya. Once these regimes faltered, which, again in all fairness to Ankara hardly seemed inevitable, zero problems was likely to look like a bad bet. Once the game was up, revealing Turkey to be no different from any other major power in the region all too willing to do business with unseemly characters, Erdogan and Davutoglu were forced to tack hard against their own policies. Zero problems is now dead because it became unsustainable as Qadhafi massed forces against Tripoli or Bashar al Assad cranks up the violence to save his regime.

The combination of deft public relations, the help of some parts of the national press all too willing to engage in national self-aggrandizement, and an emerging consensus among international foreign policy elites about the benefits of the "Turkish model," has rescued the AKP's foreign policy from the gap between Ankara's principles and its actual conduct in the region. There are exceptions to this, of course. Erdogan has been consistent in his position on Gaza, which has won him widespread admiration in the Arab world. Still, for those who bother to look critically, zero problems and its demise reveal that like the United States, the EU, and other global powers, Turkey only became a champion of human rights and democracy in the Middle East world after Arabs took matters into their own hands and began bringing down Ankara's friends.

This article originally appeared at CFR.org, an Atlantic partner site.

S. Ferit Hafakan Ruhu

2011-11-23T01:26:00.001-05:00

"S. Ferit Hafakan Ruhu, hususi bir terkipte yapılmış olup her türlü asabi teheyyücatta, bayılmalarda, sinir nöbetlerinde, tıkanıklıklarda emsalsiz bir ilaçtır. seyahatte, deniz ve kara yolculuğunda herkese lazımdır. bir damlası bir miktar suda içildiği zaman taze hayat ve ferahlık vermekle tanınmış bir türk müstahzaratıdır" S. Ferit Eczacıbaşı[1] müstahzarat ve ıtriyat fabrikası. Hafakan: Heart palpitation

Mavi Boncuk |

Used by adding 5 to 25 drops of the alcoholate[2] (a tincture of an alcoholic extract.) to a cup of water This cure all was produced in Izmir. Provided without prescription it disappeared during the 60's. The medication was followed by rubbing the forehead and wrists with eau de colognes of the same era with names like Eczacı(chemist) Nizamettin Talip's Perihan Kolonyası, Eczacı Celal Ergun's Sinir Kolonyası and Eczacı Hasan Hassan's Hasan Limon Çiçekleri/Lemon Flowers Kolonyası.

[1] Süleyman Ferit Eczacıbaşı was the first university-educated pharmacist in the city of Izmir and distinguished himself with a long career of public service during the early years of the Turkish Republic.
[2]Similar concoctions of the era: Validobromine, Nerval Hoş, Va - Lu - Brome, Sinirol Kamil, Üç Kimyagerler Valdolu ve Nevrol Cemal

Puro Beauty Soap

2011-11-23T01:12:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk | Necip Akar (1904-1957)
History of Necip Akar Holding A.Ş. dates back to 1924 to when a pharmacologist- Necip Akar, established the first modern national pharmaceutical production facility. The company expanded its business volume and coverage fields over time and turned into a Holding Company in 1976 and currently upholds its operational sustainability through 7 unique companies within its framework.

Just Because....

2011-11-23T00:13:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

Gallipoli x 2 by Edward Erickson

2011-11-22T20:11:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

Gallipoli: The Ottoman Campaign
Edward Erickson
Hardback 288 pages
ISBN: 9781844159673

The Ottoman Army won a historic victory over the Allied forces at Gallipoli in 1915. This was one of the most decisive and clear-cut campaigns of the Great War. Yet the performance of the Ottomans, the victors, has often received less attention than that of the Allied army they defeated.Edward Erickson, in this perceptive new study, concentrates on the Ottoman side of the campaign. He looks in detail at the Ottoman Army - at its structure, tactics and deployment - and at the conduct of the commanders who served it so well. His pioneering work complements the extensive literature on other aspects of the Gallipoli battle, in particular those accounts that have focused on the experience of the British, Australians and New Zealanders. This highly original reassessment of the campaign will be essential reading for students of the Great War, especially the conflict in the Middle East.

EBook
Gallipoli and the Middle East 1914-1918by Edward Erickson

The Allied landing and subsequent campaign on the peninsula during World War I is usually known in Britain as the Dardanelles Campaign and in Turkey as the Battle of Canakkale. In Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Newfoundland, the term Gallipoli alone is used to describe the 8 month campaign. In early 1915 Russia was fighting a multi front war against Germany, Austria/Hungary, and Turkey. While it had a sizable army it struggled to deliver sufficient supplies to the troops. The landings at Gallipoli were an Allied attempt to clear a supply path through the Dardanelles to Russia. This would also assist them by putting pressure on Turkey by threatening Istanbul. On April 25, 1915, after failed attempts to force a passage through the Dardanelles by naval forces alone, a force of British Empire and French troops landed at multiple places along the peninsula. The battles over the next 8 months saw high casualties on both sides due to the exposed terrain, weather and closeness of the front lines. The invasion forces were successfully blocked by the Turkish troops and the subsequent Allied withdrawal meant the Russians would not be receiving supplies through the Dardanelles. The battle is often referred to for its successful stealthy retreat which was completed with minimal casualties, the ANZAC forces completely retreating by December 19, 1915 and the remaining British elements by January 9, 1916. Overall, there were around 300,000 Allied casualties including around 100,000 deaths and 150,000 Turkish casualties including around 20,000 deaths. The Gallipoli campaign gave an important boost to the career of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a little-known army commander who became a national hero, was promoted to Pasha, and became the founder of the modern Turkish state with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, at the end of World War I.

Published by Casemate PublishersPublish DateNovember 03, 2011 eBook ISBN 9781908273093Imprint Casemate PublishersFilesize 14.82 MB

Turkey as Leader | 2011 Arab Public Opinion Poll

2011-11-22T16:13:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk | 2011Arab Public Opinion Poll: Results of Arab Opinion Survey Conducted October 2011

Download Presentation PDF

TheBrookings Institution

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

On Monday, November 21, Shibley Telhami, AnwarSadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland andnonresident senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy atBrookings, released the 2011 Arab Public Opinion Poll, which is produced eachyear in conjunction with Zogby International.

This year’s poll surveyed 3,000 people in Egypt,Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates in October 2011

Among the key poll findings are:

· Turkey is the biggest winner of the Arab Spring. Inthe five countries polled, Turkey is seen to have played the "mostconstructive" role in the Arab events.

· Overall, Arabs polled strongly take the sides ofthe rebels against the government in Yemen (89%), Syria (86%) and Bahrain(64%). But there are regional differences. Those polle din the UAE mostly favorthe government of Bahrain. The Lebanese are divided on Syria; the Jordaniansare divided on Bahrain; and the Egyptians' support for the rebels in Bahrain isweaker than their support for the rebels in Yemen and Syria.

· While a majority of Arabs polled continue toexpress unfavorable views of the United States (59%) the number of those whohave favorable views has increased from 10% in 2010 to 26% in 2011. Thisimprovement could be related to the perception of the American handling of theArab Spring.

· A majority of Arabs polled (52%) remain discouragedby the Obama administration's policy the the Middle East, though this is downfrom 65% in 2010 and up from only 15% in 2009.

Amongother things, the poll also examined views toward a two-state solutionand the Arab-Israeli issue, the Egyptian elections, the role of the media,and Iran's nuclear program.

Book Review | Habsburgs, Ottomans and the Battle for Europe

2011-11-22T13:06:00.001-05:00

Painting by Johann Peter Krafft from “The Enemy at the Gate” [1]

Mavi Boncuk |

THE ENEMY AT THE GATE

Habsburgs, Ottomans and the Battle for Europe by Andrew Wheatcroft | Illustrated. 339 pp.

REVIEW | Empires in Collision By ERIC ORMSBY

Eric Ormsby’s latest book is “Ghazali: The Revival ofIslam.”

Published NYTimes : June 12, 2009

By 1683, Kara Mustafa, grand vizier of the Ottomans, wasstill a pasha with something to prove. He had been raised in the household ofthe illustrious Koprulu family, which would supply an unbroken succession ofbrilliant — if often ill-fated — grand viziers to the Ottoman court. Describedby a contemporary as “corrupt, cruel and unjust,” Kara Mustafa had risen tobecome admiral of the Aegean galley fleet but had also succeeded in navigatingthe treacherous crosscurrents of palace intrigue; by 1675, the sultan hadoffered him his daughter’s hand.

His steady rise did nothing to satisfy his fierce ambition.For Kara Mustafa, the ultimate prize lay to the West. More than a centurybefore, in 1529, Suleiman the Magnificent had besieged Vienna, but the onset ofwinter forced him to abandon the assault. To succeed where Suleiman had failedrepresented the pinnacle of imperial glory.

As Andrew Wheatcroft brilliantly shows in “The Enemy at theGate,” the skirmishes and the pitched battles that raged for centuries betweenHabsburgs and Ottomans, and their numerous vassals on both sides, representednot so much a “clash of civilizations” as a collision of empires. For all thepious sloganeering that accompanied it, the struggle was only incidentally onebetween Islam and Christendom. Territory was the aim, along with something lesstangible but equally compelling: the right to claim the legacy of the RomanEmpire. Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, took it as given that the legacybelonged rightfully to the Habsburgs, but the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV believedjust as fervently that the title of Roman Caesar was his. Had not his ancestor,Mehmed the Conqueror, toppled the Byzantines and seized Constantinople twocenturies before? Far from wishing to obliterate the Byzantine past, theOttomans meant to assume it as their own, and Vienna, the seat of the Habsburgempire, was the final prize.

Kara Mustafa is only one of many bold and complex charactersWheatcroft brings swaggering to the stage in his scholarly but fast-pacednarrative. He is especially attuned to the hidden contradictions of hispersonages. Leopold I is seen as simultaneously rigid and dithering, adisastrous combination, while Mehmed IV, though bookish and retiring, reveledin martial exploits; he would lead his vast army as far as Belgrade beforetransferring command to Kara Mustafa. Wheatcroft relies on such adroitcontrasts to depict these distant figures. Thus, Prince Eugene of Savoy, the“noble knight” of Habsburg legend, was not only the greatest general of the agebut an impassioned bibliophile, a discerning connoisseur who managed hisprivate life so discreetly that it remains a mystery to this day. Beside him,Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, another Habsburg hero, emerges as all raw courageand bristling audacity, a man most alive in the saddle amid the thick ofbattle.

Charles once remarked, “He that feareth not an enemy knowsnot what war is.” That observation is central to Wheatcroft’s account. Histheme isn’t merely “Europe’s fear of the Turks” but “fear itself.” (As he notesin his coda, that fear is still rampant, camouflaged beneath recent —especially Austrian — dismay over Turkey’s continuing campaign to join theEuropean Union.) Despite his best intentions, Wheatcroft’s narrative isn’tlikely to allay such fears. Describing an attack by Ottoman cavalry andinfantry — the dreaded sipahis and janissaries — he writes, “To face a howlingtide of janissaries racing towards you, to watch the heads and limbs of yourcompanions spin off the sharp edge of a sipahi sabre required exceptionalcourage.” He conveys the spooky sense of stifled panic the besieged Vienneseexperienced as Turkish attackers began tunneling beneath the city’s defensesand the populace had to prick up its ears day and night for the telltale“noises of picks and shovels below the streets.”

Wheatcroft, the author of several earlier books on bothHabsburgs and Ottomans, states that he set out here to portray the Ottoman“face of battle,” borrowing a phrase from the classic work by John Keegan, andin this he succeeds; his narrative is thrilling as well as thoughtful, a rarecombination. Even so, a subtle imbalance prevails. The Ottomans inspired dreadin their enemies; fear was part of their arsenal. But, as Wheatcroft repeatedlydemonstrates, the Habsburgs were fearsome too, and perhaps even crueler thantheir opponents, engaging not only in full-scale massacres but in flayings,beheadings and impalements.

Perhaps because Wheatcroft hasn’t drawn on Ottoman Turkishsources, his Ottomans, for all his skill at depicting them, appear oddlyimperturbable. After Kara Mustafa’s debacle before the walls of Vienna, heretreated to Belgrade; there, on Christmas Day 1683, he greeted the sultan’sexecutioners, kneeling with “stoic Ottoman calm,” and even courteously liftinghis beard to expose his throat to the silk garrote. The story is legendary, andWheatcroft recounts it well. Still, here as elsewhere, we’d like to hear thefierce heart beating beneath the legend.

[1] The battle was a siege of the Szigeth fortress in Baranja (near todays Croatian/Hungarian border).It was fought between the Austrian (Habsburg) Monarchy under the command of the Croatian Viceroy Nikola Šubić Zrinski and the Ottoman Empire under the command of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.The battle lasted from the 6th of August 1566 to the 8th of September 1566.It resulted in an Ottoman victory but both sides have suffered heavy loses,the Ottomans have lost more than 20000 soldiers while the Croatian-Hungarian army has lost 2300 soldiers (including 600 soldiers in the last day of the battle).But commanders (Nikola Šubić Zrinjski and Suleiman the Magnificient) were killed in the Battle of Szigetvar.It was an Ottoman victory but the Ottomans were stopped in its advance to Vienna until 1683.

The Last Sultan

2011-11-21T12:55:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

Robert Greenfield’s new book, “The Last Sultan,” is about Ahmet Ertegun, the Turkish-born record company executive, seen here with Bette Midler in an undated photo.

Read NYTimes review

Time to Say Farewell to Ömer Lütfi Akad

2011-11-21T12:19:00.001-05:00

Time to say farewell to a master. The ceremony was held at MSU Film &TV Institute[1]

Mavi Boncuk | One of the most momentous titles in the prolific filmmaker’s career, his 1966 crime drama “Hudutların Kanunu” (Law of the Border) was restored this year by the World Cinema Foundation and premiered to great acclaim in the classics section of the 64th Cannes film festival. “Law of the Border” was the first film on which Akad worked with the legendary actor-filmmaker Yılmaz Güney. Many believe that Akad had a positive influence on Yılmaz’s acting style with a difference having been detected by many in his performances before and after “Law of the Border.”

A pioneer of a dynamic period in the history of Turkish cinema, Akad’s films with their powerful cinematography delivered bold and realistic depictions of social problems, especially those in the east of the country. “The Law of the Border,” which underlines the importance of education and provides context and understanding to the ongoing struggles in the east of Turkey, had its Turkish premiere at the Altın Portakal Film Festival in September and was screened only last Monday at the TÜRVAK Cinema-Theater Museum in İstanbul as the film of choice to commemorate the 97th anniversary of Turkish cinema.

[1] After Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts turned into Mimar Sinan University, Turkish Film &TV Institute was restructured. The Institute has been maintaining its activities under the titles "Turkish Film& TV Institute" and "Department of Cinema-TV". The title "Turkish Film &TV Institute" is used for archive and film center at international relations.

FILMOGRAPHY

Vurun Kahpeye 1949
Lüküs Hayat 1950
Tahir ile Zühre 1951
Arzu ile Kamber 1951
Kanun Namına 1952
İngiliz Kemal 1952
Altı Ölü Var 1953
Katil 1953
Çalsın Sazlar Oynasın Kızlar 1953
Bulgar Sadık 1954
Vahşi Bir Kız Sevdim 1954
Kardeş Kurşunu 1954
Görünmeyen Adam İstanbul´da 1954
Meçhul Kadın 1955
Kalbimin Şarkısı 1955
Ak altın 1956
Kara Talih 1957
Meyhanecinin Kızı 1957
Zümrüt 1958
Ana Kucağı 1958
Yalnızlar Rıhtımı 1959
Cilalı ibo´nun Çilesi 1959
Yangın Var 1959
Dişi Kurt 1960
Sessiz Harp 1961
Üç Tekerlekli Bisiklet 1962
Tanrı´nın Bağışı Orman 1964
Sırat Köprüsü 1966
Hudutların Kanunu 1966
Kızılırmak Karakoyun 1967
Ana 1967
Kurbanlık Katil 1967
Vesikalı Yarim 1968
Kader Böyle İstedi 1968
Seninle Ölmek İstiyorum 1969 [renkli]
Bir Teselli Ver 1971
Mahşere Kadar 1971
Vahşi Çiçek 1971
Yaralı Kurt 1972
Gökçe Çiçek 1973
Gelin 1973
Düğün 1974
Diyet 1975
Esir Hayat 1974

Politi’s Turkish Delight Factory Today

2011-11-20T22:44:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

Politi Turkish Delight Works

2011-11-20T22:09:00.001-05:00

D. Politi & Sons Ltd. Creme De Menthe Tin

Mavi Boncuk |

Politi [1] Turkish Delight Works | Source

At one time Politi's Turkish Delight Factory 10 Manor Road, Stoke Newington N16, had stationary steam engines, probably to stir Turkish-delight mix. Steam would also have been used for process purposes and there were boilers as a square-cross-section brick chimney was built at the back of the works, to the north east. The chimney remains with the white lettering Politi running vertically downwards clearly visible. The grid reference is TQ 335 870. Looking across the railway a fairly good view of the chimney can be had from the Safeway supermarket to the east in Stamford Hill (the A10).

The yellow brick building which fronts Manor Road is two story, of two bays with double pitch roofs. The gables are decorated with the Star of David and on the eastern gable is the date 1911. In the centre of the façade at first floor level there is a loading loophole with a cathead. This loophole may be a fairly recent addition. The brick chimney is immediately behind this building and has iron bands and a lightening conductor.

According to the article by David Perrett in London's Industrial Archaeology number one (p8), Politi's had a 1901 horizontal single-cylinder steam engine by Marshall Sons & Co Ltd of Gainsborough still at work c1978. There was also on standby an inverted vertical single-cylinder enclosed engine made about 1950 by W Sisson and Co Ltd of Gloucester. It is understood that a GLIAS member visited Politi's about 25 years ago. They probably ceased to use steam engines in the early 1980s.

D Politi and Sons Ltd were well-known for the manufacture of Rahat Lacoum, British Manufacture Turkish Delight which was marketed in wooden drums with paper seals. The red labelled boxes were a popular luxury at Christmas about 45 years ago. On opening the drum one came to a white paper lining and on disturbing this clouds of fine white powder would be created which could make quite a mess. The powder, used to pack the Turkish Delight, was a mixture of cornflour and icing sugar. The Turkish Delight itself was of several flavours indicated by colour and the powder packing was to stop it fusing together into one great lump.

This is the traditional way of retailing Turkish Delight and in more recent years it has been possible to buy it like this loose, weighed out into paper bags in the shop. This Turkish Delight was probably made by people in London who were of Cypriot origin and was generally sold in Cypriot shops. More recently still it has been possible to buy Turkish Delight in Hackney and thereabouts which is made and packed in Turkey. This is generally sold in printed cardboard boxes. Very recently supermarkets have started to stock a range of Turkish Delights made in Turkey but packed in the UK. These are displayed on the shelves in transparent plastic boxes. Turkish Delight is a common accompaniment to a small cup of Turkish coffee — finely ground coffee in suspension, which settles as a sludge at the bottom of the cup.

An example of a Politi wooden Rahat Lacoum drum measures just over five and a quarter inches in diameter across the lid and is overall about two and a quarter inches deep. It is marked one and a quarter pounds nett and cost nine shillings including purchase tax. The address London N16 is given on the lid of the drum. It is probably the order of 25 years old. This method of presenting luxury Turkish Delight by Politi's was in marked contrast to the cheaper mass-produced Turkish Delight made by the big sweet manufacturers which in some cases could be chocolate coated and just bought like a chocolate bar.

Politi's Turkish Delight was eaten with orange sticks or a wooden fork. From memory there used to be one on top of the Turkish Delight when the drum was opened. Even removing the fork spread about a good deal of white powder, the mixture of cornflour and icing sugar used for packing. The fork was rather like the disposable ones still in use by some traditional fish and chip shops.

David Politi was a Greek Jew who moved to England and started the manufacture of British Turkish Delight in 1872. Politi's seem to have gone out of business before 1987. According to a steam engine website both their steam engines were removed for preservation. Does anyone know where?

Politi's occupied quite small premises. Looking at the site now it is hard to believe that all that Turkish Delight was made there. Bob Carr

Follow-up: Bob Carr's Politi drum is perhaps a bit older than the 25 years he suggests. Decimalisation of the currency was imposed in February 1971, and purchase tax was replaced by VAT (then 10%) on All Fools' Day 1973. Richard Graham

[1] The family, Sephardic Jews, is believed to have migrated from Spain and Portugal, almost certainly during or before the Spanish expulsion of the Jewish community in 1492. They travelled to Venice and then to Corfu. There is record of the murder of two members of the Politi family by the Inquisition in Italy in 1519. They must have been Jewish and others may have been forced to convert to Catholicism. The earliest known ancestor of Jacob Politi is Vita Abraham David Politi born in Corfu about 1757. Jacob Politi’s father David Politi, a British subject, was born in Corfu on 22nd June 1845. He came to England in 1862. The British Politi family is descended from him. The Politi family which remained in Corfu were transported to Auschwitz by the Germans on 20th June 1944. David Politi founded the Turkish Delight confectionary company D. Politi & Sons Ltd in 1870. Source

Turkish Delight Works

2011-11-20T22:00:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

D.POLITI & SONS LTD LONDON,TURKISH DELIGHT TIN

The Old Politi Turkish Delight Works at Stamford Hill10 Manor Rd Royal Close, Hackney, London N16 5SE, UK

Like Maynard’s, Bassett’s and others, Politi was a representative of the Stoke Newington and Lea Valley sugar candy industry.
Rahat Locoum ( perfumed sweetness ) is a sugary gelatinous confection suggestive of the scent of roses and white or pink in cloudy color. In the UK it is known as “Turkish Delight” and imports, from the Ottoman Lands, substantially commenced in the 1830’s, when steam began to permit the rapid transit of the readily-spoiled sweetmeat through torrid climes.

In 1872 the Greek Jew, David Politi, emigrated to Britain.

Like many of his race, he settled in Stamford Hill and developed his Turkish Delight specialism within the local candy industry.
Politi “British Manufacture Turkish Delight” was an up-market Christmas delicacy divided into bite-sized chunks dusted in a mixture of cornflour and castor sugar to stop them coalescing into a sticky mass. The sweet was wrapped in cover-all paper and packed into 5.25-inch diameter wooden tubs 2.25 inches deep. A complementary wooden fork was packed inside atop the wrapping. Chocolate was not involved.

The premises, at 10 Manor Road, was built in 1911 and housed a 1901 Marshall of Gainsborough horizontal steam engine that was still at work at least as late as 1978, and also a 1950 standby inverted vertical made by Sisson of Gloucester.

It is thought that both engines were still in use during the first half of the nineteen-eighties, but that by 1987 Politi’s had ceased to trade. It is also said that both engines were then removed to an unknown place for preservation.

Recently the premises was occupied by a Jewish manufacturing bakery and is now the Royal Furniture works. The factory next door specializes in making the distinctive black Homburg-type hats worn by conservative Orthodox Jewish males.

Word origin | Muz

2011-11-20T20:32:00.001-05:00

Turks are not contrarians. Calling it a Muz in Turkish is more accurate. Almost all modern edible parthenocarpic bananas come from the two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana.

Mavi Boncuk | Mentioned in Ahmet Vefik Pasa's Lugat-I osmani 1876A tropical tree like plant and its fruit | sıcak iklimlere özgü bir ağaç ve meyvesi, musa sapientium ~ Ar/Fa mūz موز
Bananas were introduced to the Americas by Portuguese sailors who brought the fruits from West Africa in the 16th century. The word banana is of West African origin, from the Wolof language"banaana," and passed into English via Spanish or Portuguese. The banana may have been present in isolated locations of the Middle East on the eve of Islam. By the 10th century the banana appears in texts from Palestine and Egypt. From there it diffused into north Africa and Muslim Iberia. During the medieval ages, bananas from Granada were considered among the best in the Arab world.

Top banana, second banana, etc. are 1950s, from show business slang use of banana for "comedian, especially in a burlesque show."In political science, the pejorative term Banana Republic denotes a politically unstable country dependent upon limited primary productions (e.g. bananas), which is ruled by a plutocracy, a small, self-elected, wealthy group who exploit the country by means of a politico-economic oligarchy.

Globally Yours | Hamburg

2011-11-19T15:49:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk | Globally Yours | Hamburg

TIME's Person of the Year Voting

2011-11-19T14:31:00.001-05:00

Who Should Be TIME's Person of the Year 2011?From tsunamis to budget battles to revolutions, 2011 has been a tumultuous, news-packed year. Who influenced the news most, for better or worse? Tradition dictates that TIME's editors choose the Person of the Year, but we want to know: if you were in charge, who would it be? And remember, a person's inclusion as a candidate in the poll doesn't mean he, she or they are serious candidates to be named Person of the Year by the magazine

The CandidatesRecep Tayyip ErdoganBy TONY KARON Friday, Nov. 11, 2011

No leader better personifies the dramatic changes in the Middle East over the past year than Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Leader of a party rooted in political Islam, he won re-election in July to an unprecedented third term of office, having overseen Turkey's emergence as the world's second fastest-growing economy (after China). He was hailed as a role model by ascendant Islamists in post-dictatorship Tunisia and Egypt, where he urged the building of secular democracies. And while he has openly challenged the U.S. on Iran and Israel — which once enjoyed close ties with Turkey — Erdogan remains a key U.S. ally, with a strong commitment to NATO. He has also challenged Tehran by working to topple its key Arab ally, the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. If anything, Erdogan is likely to become even more central to events in the coming year with the unfolding of the Arab rebellion, the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and mounting international tension over Iran.

Buckingham Ready for Turkish President

2011-11-19T14:00:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

"Du bist verrückt"

2011-11-19T09:08:00.001-05:00

German Secret Services linked to Doener Murders[1].Derisively dubbed the “Döner (Kebab) Murders” because the victims included eight Turks and one Greek, the bumbling authorities assumed they had somehow been involved in a foreign criminal underworld rather than victims of wanton neo-Nazi violence. But that all changed last week when it emerged that they had actually been brutally slain between 2000 and 2006 by a far-right terror group calling itself the Nationalist Socialist Underground (NSU). Intelligence services had at least three informants in the neo-Nazi scene linked to the terror group that went on to kill at least ten people, according to Der Spiegel magazine. Chancellor Angela Merkel called for authorities to work more effectively together, and lessons to be learned from their failure to stop the group. “I never want a secret service to have total power again. But the authorities have to inform each other, of course,” she said in a weekly podcast. Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has called for the federal prosecutor to have increased powers to be able to take on a case, particularly when a criminal case crosses state borders. “The Brown Army Faction” was the title story on the new edition of Der Spiegel news magazine, a reference to the colour of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party and the name of the Red Army Faction (RAF) responsible for attacks in the 1970s and 1980s.
About three million people with Turkish roots live in Germany, a third of whom are German citizens. Germany last month commemorated the 50th anniversary of the labour agreement which first brought large numbers of Turks to the country to help meet its dire labour shortage.
Mavi Boncuk |
Two suspects believed to be members of a neo-Nazi terror cell involved in killing at least 10 people[2], mostly of Turkish, have been arrested, German prosecutors said.In a video which they apparently planned to send to German media outlets, the alleged terrorists claim to have killed eight ethnic Turks, one ethnic Greek that looked like a Turk and a police officer from 2000 to 2007, prosecutors said.The attacks occurred all over Germany and became known as the "Doener Murder Series."

[1] Until the arrests, police had not thought they were committed by the same people.The Bosphorus serial murders also known as Döner murders, the term often used by the media, were a series of murders that took place in Germany between 2000 and 2006, leaving ten people dead and one wounded. The perpetrators called themselves National Socialist Underground (NSU) (German: Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund). The primary target of these right-wing extremist-oriented crimes were predominantly immigrants of Turkish origin and one person of Greek origin. The victims were mostly small business owners (doner kebab vendors, grocers, locksmiths, alteration tailors, internet café) who were murdered in broad daylight by being shot in the face with a CZ 83. According to the parents of the Turkish victim who worked in an internet café, the police originally suspected foreign organised criminals. Furthermore, a German policewoman, Michéle Kiesewetter, was shot as well and her partner was critically wounded. Other crimes, in particular a bomb attack, have allegedly been committed by the group. The murders, according to the acting Attorney General of Germany, Rainer Greisbaum, have Neo-Nazi links.

The German authorities identified three suspects, Uwe Böhnhardt, Uwe Mundlos, and Beate Zschäpe as responsible for the murders and attempted murders. Böhnhardt and Mundlos were found dead[3] by police after they robbed a bank on 4 November 2011. Police say they committed suicide. Zschäpe turned herself in on 11 November 2011. She will probably face charges of murder, attempted murder, arson, and belonging to a terrorist organization. Zschäpe is only willing to testify if she is considered a state witness, with mitigation of sentence.[citation needed] The police had discovered a hit list of 88 people later.

[2]Enver Şimşek, Nuremberg 9 September 2000 |Abdurrahim Özüdoğru,Nuremberg 13 June 2001|Süleyman Taşköprü,Hamburg 27 June 2001|Habil Kılıç,Munich 29 August 2001| Yunus Turgut,Rostock 25 February 2004| İsmail Yaşar,Nuremberg 5 June 2005| Theodoros Boulgarides,Munich 15 June 2005| Mehmet Kubaşık,Dortmund 4 April 2006|Halit Yozgat,Kassel 6 April 2006| Michéle Kiesewetter Heilbronn 25 April 2007.

[3]Michéle Kiesewetter's death in a parking lot in Heilbronn on 25 April 2007 is considered by some to be linked to the Bosphorus murder series. This is mainly due to the fact, that she was killed by the same weapon as the other victims. Kiesewetter, who was a police officer, was killed, when she and her partner were attacked during lunch break. Her partner was critically wounded, but survived with no memory of the attack. While in the other cases the motive is assumed to be xenophobia and/or racism it is unclear why Kiesewetter and her partner were attacked. Theories about the murder include a variety of motives such as a personal link between Kiesewetter, who came from Thuringia as the alleged perpetrators, or the acquisition of firearms. The service pistols of Kiesewetter and her partner had been stolen and turned up later on the scene of the suicide of two of the alleged perpetrators.

In Memoriam | Ömer Lütfi Akad (1916-2011)

2011-11-19T08:54:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |
Ömer Lütfi Akad, (September 2, 1916 - November 19, 2011) was a Turkish film director,[1] who directed movies from 1948-1974. In 1949, he debuted as a film director with Vurun Kahpeye ("Kill the Whore") an adaptation of Halide Edip Adıvar's book of the same title. He became one of the pioneers of the period in the "Director Generation". The 1970s trilogy, The Bride[1]; The Wedding; and The Sacrifice, is considered his masterpiece. Afterwards, he withdrew from movie making instead directing adaptations for TV.

[1] The Bride (Turkish: Gelin) is a 1973 Turkish drama film written and directed by Ömer Lütfi Akad about a young woman who moves with her husband and sick child to Istanbul. The film, which won three awards, including best film, at the 5th Adana "Golden Boll" International Film Festival, was voted one of the 10 Best Turkish Films by the Ankara Cinema Association. "Akad uses the experiences of a provincial family as his medium for drawing attention to a period of disintegrating feudal relationships and burgeoning proletarianism. And this strikes the kind of political chord that is rarely encountered now in Turkish cinema; an approach that is borne out by the film’s ‘happy ending’. The Bride is profoundly impressive as a film that explores and comments on the painful period of change sweeping Turkey at the time, but also for its standpoint, a combination of social realism and socialist reality. The Bride stands out for its economic perspective on the problems of the time, for its allegorical quality, its simple and well-structured narrative and a memorable soundtrack, which merely reinforces its realism." Tunca Arslan

A Concise Gagauz Dictionary

2011-11-18T16:09:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |DOWNLOAD PDF (111KB)

A Concise GagauzDictionary

with etymologies andTurkish, Azerbaijani and Turkmen cognates

by Andras Rajki

The Gagauz language (Gagauz dili) is a Turkic language, spoken by the Gagauz people, and the official language of Gagauzia, Moldova. There are two dialects, Bulgar Gagauzi and Maritime Gagauzi. This is a different language from Balkan Gagauz Turkish. Originally, it used the Greek alphabet. Beginning in 1957, the Cyrillic alphabet was used. The current Gagauz alphabet is a Latin-based alphabet, modelled after theTurkish alphabet.

LISTEN "YASA HALKIM"

Turkish-Native American Investment Bill

2011-11-18T11:36:00.001-05:00

Turkish-Native American Investment Bill One Vote From Passing House.
Mavi Boncuk |

On November 17 the House Committee on Natural Resources voted 27-15 to pass the Indian Tribal Trade and Investment Act, H.R. 2362, which will now be reported favorably to the House for a final vote.

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs, championed the bill during the committee markup, telling Committee Members that as Native American Tribes are sovereign nations within a sovereign nation, they should be allowed to choose their business partners.

Bill supporters successfully argued that Turkey and Turkish companies were the only foreign entities to express interest in working with Native American Tribes, and that if the pilot program is successful, it could easily be expanded to include other countries.

"Even though this legislation has not yet been enacted," said McCurdy, "debate in Congress this month has helped to increase knowledge about a robust and modern Turkey and the challenging economic realities that Indian Country still must deal with. We hope that this legislation, if passed before the end of the year, will make a positive difference in 2012."

H.R. 2362, if passed by the full House, will establish a limited demonstration project that will authorize up to six Tribes or Tribal consortia to partner with Turkish companies to establish commercial ties without requiring federal government approval. Turkish companies' interest in working with Indian Country, coupled with their strengths in construction, uniquely positions them to help spur private-sector economic growth and create jobs. The activities authorized by the legislation would be funded by private-sector entities, without any expenditure of federal funds.

Articles | TIME

2011-11-17T17:34:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

Read "Prime Minister Erdogan: Turkey's Man of The People."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2078021,00.html
See photos of the streets of Istanbul.
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1736261,00.html
See pictures of homelessness in Istanbul.
http://lightbox.time.com/2011/10/03/a-family-revisited/#1
See photos of the Kurdish rebels.
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1674319,00.html

Watch TIME's video "Turkey's Unconventional Muslim Minority."
http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,1539385008_1813188,00.html
Read "Why Syria and Turkey Are Suddenly Far Apart on Arab Spring Protests."
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2074165,00.html
Read "Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan Faces Many Challenges in Third Term."
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/06/17/turkeys-prime-minister-erdogan-faces-many-challenges-in-third-term/
Read "Turkey Crisis: Unconditional U.S. Backing Has Helped Israel to Isolate Itself."
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/09/06/turkey-crisis-unconditional-u-s-backing-has-helped-israel-to-isolate-itself/
Read "How Syria and Libya Got to Be Turkey's Headaches."
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2068633,00.html
Read "Israel and Turkey: How a Close Relationship Disintegrated."
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/09/12/israel-and-turkey-how-a-close-relationship-disintegrated/
Read "Why Turkey's Erdogan Is Greeted like a Rock Star in Egypt."
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2093090,00.html

Article | Erdogan's Moment

2011-11-17T17:06:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

Erdogan'sMoment

By BOBBY GHOSH / ISTANBUL Monday,Nov. 28, 2011

The standout Erdoganwith his party's newly elected MPs after June's landslide

Photograph by Adem Altan

Red carpets, honor guards and gun salutes are for garden-varietyvisiting politicians and monarchs: for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Cairo put on thekind of reception usually reserved for rock stars. Turkey's Prime Minister wasgreeted at the airport by thousands of cheering fans, many holding aloftposters of their hero. Fusillades of flashbulbs turned night into day.Journalists eager for a quote thrust microphones into Erdogan's face, but hewas drowned out by the chanting throngs. "Erdogan! Erdogan! A real Muslimand not a coward," went one incantation. Another: "Turkey and Egyptare a single fist."

Totalitarian regimes routinelyorchestrate massive, faux-spontaneous welcomes for visiting dignitaries, butthe beleaguered interim administration in Cairo didn't need to rent a crowd forErdogan: the Turkish leader is genuinely popular across the Arab world. He wasranked the most admired world leader in a 2010 poll of Arabs by the Universityof Maryland in conjunction with Zogby International. His stock has soaredhigher still since the Arab Spring. In countries where young people have risenagainst old tyrannies, many cite Erdogan as the kind of leader they would liketo have instead.

A good politician knows how to milk his moment: the Cairo visitwas the first leg of Erdogan's triumphant mid-September sweep through the newlyliberated North African states. There were tumultuous welcomes, too, in Tunisand Tripoli. Then it was time for Erdogan to take a bow on the biggest stage.The trip culminated at the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, wherePresident Obama, ignoring Erdogan's recent criticism of U.S. policy in theMiddle East and his flaming diplomatic row with Israel, lauded him for showing"great leadership" in the region.

It's not every day that a U.S.President and the Arab street are of one mind. But like the throngs chantingErdogan's name (not all of them aware it is pronounced Erd-waan; the g is silent) in Egypt, Tunisia andLibya, Obama is hoping that the new governments emerging from the ashes of olddictatorships will look a lot like the one the Prime Minister has built overthe past eight years. Erdogan has greatly enhanced Turkey's internationalreputation, has reined in its once omnipotent military, has pursued economicpolicies that have trebled per capita income and unleashed newentrepreneurship, and has for the most part maintained a pro-West stance.

He has, it is true, alsodisplayed an occasional autocratic streak, running roughshod over politicalrivals, tossing enemies into jail and intimidating the media. Many politicalanalysts, in Turkey and the West, suspect his desire to rewrite theconstitution is designed to amass more executive power. But to his admirers,these failings pale against his successes. Democratic, economically ascendantand internationally admired: as political templates go, Turkey's is prettyirresistible to people shaking off decades of authoritarian, impoverishing rule— and for Westerners worried about what those people might do next.

But perhaps its greatest virtue, in the eyes of many MiddleEastern beholders, is that the Turkish model was forged by an Islamist: Erdoganand his Justice and Development Party — better known by its Turkish acronym,AKP — have traditionally drawn support from the country's religious andconservative classes and are regarded with suspicion by secular absolutists.For Arab Islamists, Turkey's success is proof that they can modernize theircountries without breaking away from their religious moorings. Erdogan'sWestern admirers see it the other way around: proof that political Islam needn'tbe an enemy of modernity. And if any evidence were needed that Erdogan's wayleads to political success, the AKP won its third general election in June, bya landslide.

But can Erdogan's way leadEgypt, Tunisia and Libya to the political stability and economic strengthTurkey now enjoys? Erdogan claims to be ambivalent whether Arab states seek toemulate his success. "If they want our help, we'll provide any assistancethey need," he told TIME in an interview during his visit to New York."We do not have a mentality of exporting our system." But he doesn'tdeny reaching out to the potential leaders of the Arab Spring states: "Iintentionally wanted to talk to the presidential candidates, the new politicalparties there, and I had the opportunity to get together with lots of people inorder to grasp the situation."

His message to them: be good Muslims, but make sure yourconstitution is, like Turkey's, secular. "Do not fear secularism, becauseit does not mean being an enemy of religion," he said in an interview onEgyptian TV. "I hope the new regime in Egypt will be secular." Thiscame as a shock to some in the Muslim Brotherhood, who retorted that theydidn't need lessons from the Turk. Feathers were soon smoothed, but the episodewas a reminder that Turkish Islamism, rooted in a secular democratic tradition,is not so easily transplanted to societies where neither secularism nordemocracy is well understood. The template, says Michael Werz, a Turkey expertat the Center for American Progress, "can be inspirational for ArabIslamist parties, but it can't be a model."

All the same, manypoliticians in the Arab Spring countries are plainly modeling themselves afterthe Turkish leader. "Erdogan wears a business suit, but he prays in themosque. That is something we can identify with," Essam Erian, a top leaderof Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, told me in Cairo in the summer. (There's anobvious echo in the name of the Brotherhood's new political arm: Freedom andJustice Party.) Abdelhamid Jlassi, a leader of Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda partywas just as starry-eyed when I met him in Tunis a few days later. "Erdoganspeaks our language," he told me. "When he speaks, we listen."

Ennahda has since won alarge plurality in Tunisia's first free elections, on Oct. 23, to form anassembly that will write a new constitution. The Muslim Brotherhood is expectedto do just as well in elections scheduled beginning in late November. Libya isnot expected to hold elections until the middle of next year, but there, too,Islamist groups are expected to be significant players. Where — and to whom —they look for inspiration could change the way the world views them.

The Ideal Islamist
for some western observers, the rise of political Islam conjures up visions ofextremist, reactionary states, like Afghanistan under the Taliban or Iran. Thatlimited view informed the anxiety that greeted the AKP's 2002 election victory.Even Turkish secularists feared Erdogan would seek to undo the separation ofmosque and state that is the foundation of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's Turkey. Theypointed to comments Erdogan made in the 1990s, as mayor of Istanbul, like thisone: "Democracy is a tram that gets you to your destination, and then youget off." Turkey's decision not to participate in the 2003 Iraq war led tofears that Erdogan would take his country out of NATO and turn away from theWest.

But AKP's critics werewrong: Turkey didn't become another Iran. Apart from a quiet repeal of along-standing ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities last year, Erdogan'spolicies have hardly been an assault on Ataturk's secular legacy. (Domesticcritics complain, however, of an Islamist agenda in the steep hiking of taxeson alcohol and cigarettes.) And far from drifting away from the West, Erdoganpushed harder than his secular predecessors for the ultimate Westernendorsement: admission into the European Union, whose repeated cold-shoulderingof Ankara says more about European hangups than Turkey's qualifications.Erdogan tells TIME he is "still determined" to pursue E.U. membershipbut can't help smiling at the irony that his country, once described as"the sick man of Europe," is now economically ascendant, while many membersof the club that won't admit him are all but bankrupt.

From Zero Problems ...
For all its Islamist leanings, the AKP government also reached out to JewishIsrael and the secular Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad; previousgovernments in Ankara had at best cool relations with Damascus. There wereovertures, too, to neighbors in the Balkans and around the Black Sea, and evento Armenia, with which Turkey has long-standing historical hostilities. Thesewere all consistent with a doctrine Erdogan and his Foreign Minister, AhmetDavutoglu, dubbed Zero Problems: Turkey would mend fences with all neighborsand make friends anew in the wider world.

It worked: Erdogan seemedto form a close bond with Assad, even inviting the Syrian dictator to vacationin Turkey. And Turkey quickly became Israel's best friend in the Islamic world— that bar was, admittedly, low.

Zero Problems also servedTurkey's economic ambitions. Turkish entrepreneurs, nudged along by thegovernment — but without the overwhelming financial backing of the stateenjoyed by, say, Chinese companies — were able to rapidly grow business in theimmediate neighborhood and farther afield, notably in Africa. Turkishconstruction companies in particular fanned out across the Middle East, Africaand Asia, competing with (and often beating) Chinese rivals.

There was prosperity athome too: since the AKP first came to power, Turkey's GDP has trebled, thebudget deficit has fallen by two-thirds. From 2002 to '10, GDP grew by acompounded annual rate of 4.8%, more than Russia, Brazil and South Korea. In2010, Turkey's GDP grew 8.9%; the E.U.'s grew 1.9%. Already the world's 17thlargest economy, behind South Korea, Spain and Canada, Turkey is expected toslow this year, and some analysts warn that its economy is in danger ofoverheating. But compared with much of Europe, it is a picture of health.

Emboldened by economic andforeign policy successes, Erdogan grew more ambitious abroad. With U.S.support, he sought to turn Turkey into a moderator of other regional rifts,bringing Syria and Israel as close as they have ever come to peace talks. Thatdream was dashed in December 2008, when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmertordered the start of Operation Cast Lead, a three-week assault on Gaza thatleft more than 1,300 Palestinians dead. Israel said it was provoked by rocketsfired from Gaza; Syria withdrew from Erdogan-brokered negotiations.

Associates of the Turkishleader say he was personally affronted. Olmert, he felt, had left him holdingthe bag. His anger boiled over at a panel discussion in Davos, when he stormedoff after telling Israeli President Shimon Peres, "You know very well howto kill."

Relations with Israellimped along for a while before breaking down completely in May 2010, whenIsraeli commandos halted a Turkish-led aid flotilla bound for Gaza. Ininternational waters, the commandos rappelled down into the MaviMarmara, a ship belonging to a Turkish charity. In the fighting that brokeout, eight Turks and one Turkish American were killed. Israel says its soldierswere attacked on board.

Turkey has since all butbroken off relations with Israel. Erdogan says nothing short of a formalapology and the lifting of Israel's blockade of Gaza will repair a oncepromising friendship. "The Israeli government is not being honest atall," he tells TIME. Israel has responded with angry rhetoric of its own:Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman suggested one way to get back at Erdoganwould be to support the Kurdish terrorist group known as the PKK, which hasrecently stepped up attacks against Turkish military and civilian targets.(Turkey accepted Israel's aid after a devastating Oct. 23 earthquake in Vanprovince killed over 600, but Davutoglu said that would not soften Turkey'sposition.)

... To Plenty of Problems
The Arab Spring finally made the Zero Problems doctrine untenable. AlthoughErdogan was ahead of many Western leaders in calling for Egypt's Hosni Mubarakto step down in the face of a popular uprising, he was hesitant to send thesame message to Syria's Assad and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi: Turkey had sizablebusiness interests and expat populations in both countries. Erdogan initiallyresisted pressure to join the NATO campaign against Gaddafi and maintained thathis relationship with Assad would allow him to coax the Syrian leader intoimplementing political reforms. "Erdogan thought of himself as Assad'stutor," says F. Stephen Larrabee, an expert on Turkey at the Rand Corp."He overestimated his ability to persuade Assad."

Erdogan belatedly changedhis mind and then acted decisively: Turkey backed Libya's transitional councilagainst Gaddafi, and once Assad had reneged on his promise of reforms (anotherslight Erdogan took personally), it began calling for regime change inDamascus. Whereas once he had invited the Assad family to holiday in Turkey,Erdogan grew openly contemptuous of the Syrian strongman. "It isimpossible to preserve my friendship with people who are allegedly leaders whenthey are attacking their own people," he says. Turkey now provides shelternot only to refugees from Assad's crackdown but also to opposition groups thatare actively plotting his downfall.

The break with Israel and Syria may have dashed Erdogan's hopes ofbeing a regional peacemaker. It also greatly complicates matters for the U.S.,which had hoped Turkey could gradually draw Syria away from the Iranian sphereof influence. Nor does it help that the U.S.'s two closest allies in theregion, Turkey and Israel, are now at loggerheads. Pro-Israel Congressmen havethreatened to block military supplies to Turkey, giving the White House yetanother brush fire to put out. The consequences for Turkey are uncertain. Erdogan's anti-Israelrhetoric plays well with the AKP voter base and Arab audiences. But by turningon Assad, says Rand's Larrabee, Erdogan also risks antagonizing Syria'ssponsor, Iran. Relations with Tehran have already cooled since Turkey agreed inSeptember to install new NATO radar systems designed to detect missileslaunched from Iran. Erdogan long pushed back against the radars for fear ofantagonizing the Iranians. Now Turkish officials are seeking cover behind thefig leaf that data from the systems will not be shared with Israel; NATO saysthat's just not true. So much for Zero Problems.

The New Ottoman Empire
Inevitably, Erdogan's new foreign policy doctrine, aimed at increasing Turkey'spolitical and economic influence in the Middle East and North Africa, has beendubbed "neo-Ottoman," after the dynasty that ruled much of the Muslimworld from Istanbul for 600 years until shortly after World War I. Erdogandoesn't shirk from the comparison. "Of course, the empire had somebeautiful parts and some not-so-beautiful parts," he says. "It's avery natural right for us to use what was beautiful about the Ottoman Empiretoday." Turkish officials envision an arrangement similar to the BritishCommonwealth, with a constellation of Balkan, East European and Arab states alllooking to Istanbul for benign guidance.

But invoking a long-gone —and not especially lamented — empire is no basis for foreign policy. Thecompetition for influence in the new Middle East emerging from the Arab Springis bound to be fierce. Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are the region's traditionalpowers; there are American and European fingers in the pie too. Relativenewcomers China and India have a growing economic interest in the region.Turkey's head start in the Arab Spring countries — it is already one of thelargest investors in Egypt and Libya — will be difficult to maintain.

If there's growingcompetition for Turkey abroad, for Erdogan there are also growing problems athome. That autocratic tendency has become more pronounced since June's hugeelection win. Political rivals complain that he has never quite shaken off thebullying streak he developed in the mean streets of Istanbul's Kasimpasaneighborhood. Despite his lofty position, he rarely misses a chance to rub hisopponents' noses in the dirt, often using crude rhetoric unbecoming of a leaderwho aspires to statesmanship. He is notoriously thin-skinned about criticismand paranoid about coups. (This last is perhaps understandable: the Turkishmilitary overthrew four elected governments in the 40 years before the AKP's2002 victory.) For all its desire for Turkey to be seen as a modern state equalin freedoms to any in Europe, his government has jailed 68 journalists,accusing them of complicity in coup plots. On a recent trip to Istanbul, twotop journalists agreed to talk with me about Erdogan only if I promised not toname them.

Erdogan's treatment ofTurkey's Kurdish minority had fluctuated between promises of politicalcompromise and old-fashioned military repression. Violence has flared in recentmonths after a series of tit-for-tat attacks between the PKK and Turkishforces. Sezgin Tanrikulu, deputy chairman of the main opposition party, theRepublican People's Party, scoffs at Erdogan's international popularity:"Before Turkey can be held up as a role model for the Middle East, itneeds to sort out its own domestic conflicts."

Conflicts in theneighborhood will have an impact on Turkey's economy: trade with Syria, a majorpartner, is imperiled by Erdogan's open falling out with Assad. The longer thedictatorship lingers in Damascus, the greater the cost. Antagonistic relationswith Israel have not yet had a great economic effect, mainly because tradebetween the two countries is relatively small.

In the political arena,Erdogan's next challenge is to rewrite the Turkish constitution. Fears that hewill dilute Turkey's secularism have been replaced by a growing concern that hewill push for executive power to be concentrated in the office of thePresident, and then seek that office himself. The Turkish presidency iscurrently a mostly ornamental position, held by Erdogan's longtime allyAbdullah Gul. Istanbul salons are rife with talk of the two men switching rolesafter the constitution is rewritten, drawing inevitable comparisons to theMedvedev-Putin swap in Moscow. It's a testament to how far the Islamist iconhas come that his critics no longer worry that he may turn Turkey into anotherIran. They now fear he will turn it into another Russia.

— with reportingby Pelin Turgut / Istanbul

TIME magazine US cover is for Birds

2011-11-17T16:16:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk | Erdogan's Way for Europe | Asia | South Pacific Editions

CoverNovember 28, 2011 No. 21

The Space Between: The History of Turkish Cinema, 1930s – Present

2011-11-17T14:07:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |
The Space Between: The History of Turkish Cinema, 1930s –Present

at Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center in New York City

The film series curated by Richard Peña, Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, features 25 feature films ranging from the 1930s to recent works, all restored, copied and subtitled in English. Films are selected for their quality, themes, and significance in artistic and international recognition levels as well as being a milestone in Turkish film history.

Program
 25 feature films ranging from the 1930s to recent works, all restored, copied and subtitled in English
and all to be screened at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center;
 A catalog to accompany the series featuring essays/articles on Turkish film history as well as detailed
information on all of the films to be included in the series;
 An international conference featuring scholars from Turkey, the United States and elsewhere, to
address topics such as the development of Turkish film, its relationship to American, European and
other approaches to filmmaking, its current status and future prospects;
 In-person appearances by Turkish directors, actors and film critics;
 A national, and possibly an international tour, of the entirety or portions of the series.

This program is co-presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center

Save the Date: April 27- May 10

Article | Ties to Neighbors, Not Their Dictators

2011-11-17T13:55:00.001-05:00

Mavi Boncuk |

Ties to Neighbors, Not Their Dictators

By Soner Cagaptay

Soner Cagaptay is director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute.

NYTimes.com, November 15, 2011

The Middle East is not Benelux, unfortunately -- not yet. In 2002, when Turkey's newly elected Justice and Development Party began a policy of rapprochement with the country's Middle Eastern neighbors, including Syria, the hope was that this would jump-start integration between Turkey and its neighbors, creating something like the 1950s "Benelux" bloc of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Ankara also hoped to benefit from this process by building soft power across the Muslim Middle East, in hope of rising up as a regional leader.

Until the Arab Spring, this policy seemed to be inconclusive, largely because of the hard reality on the ground: Turkey's counterparts in rapprochement were not its neighboring peoples, but rather their undemocratic regimes.

Syria is a case in point: whereas Ankara hoped to reach out to the Syrian people, the Assad regime took advantage of its close ties with Turkey, a member of NATO, to gain legitimacy while oppressing its people.

The Arab Spring has ended the mirage. Even though Ankara repeatedly asked President Bashar al-Assad to stop killing civilians, he chose to ignore these calls -- demonstrating that there was never true rapprochement between Turkey and Syria, and that Ankara had been unsuccessful in establishing effective soft power over Damascus.

Subsequently, Ankara has dropped Assad, emerging instead as the chief regional opponent of his policies. This is Ankara's new policy toward the Arab Middle East: leading the world in dropping dictators in favor of the pro-democracy movements, from Egypt to Libya to Syria.

Accordingly, Turkey now has a chance to promote democracy in the Middle East, build ties with its neighboring peoples, and rise to leadership in the region, all at the same time.

Turkey's time to become a Middle East power seems to have arrived. Challenges remain, of course, including the future of Turkish-Israeli ties and Iran's hostile attitude to Ankara's rising influence in the region. If Turkey and Israel can come to some accord, this would help Ankara's ambitions to become a regional leader, respected and liked by the peoples of the region. Iran is a more tricky case: Tehran envisions itself as the Middle East hegemon and will do all it can to undermine Turkey's ambitions to be the leader of a democratic Middle East.

Turkey is already rising to the challenge to lead the region by example. For instance, its prime minister recently called for secular democracy during his trip to Egypt, upsetting that country's Islamists. Not since the heyday of the Ottoman Empire have the Turks had this much clout in the Middle East. The sultans must be green with envy.