Kurban Bayram, known as Eid el-Adha in Arabic, is the most important Islamic festival of the year in the Muslim world. It falls about seventy days after Ramazan and the start dates for each are determined by the Muslim calendar, thus changing every year. Traditionally, all Muslims are expected to mark this occasion by sacrificing…
While the country known as Turkey has a history going back hundreds of years, had it not been for the Turks’ decisive victory during the Turkish War of Independence in a key action in the province of Kütahya, led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha (now famously known as Atatürk, father of the Turks) in 1922, the…
When I first came to Turkey more than 20 years ago, I experienced the sweet frenzy then known as Şeker Bayramı (sugar festival) for the first time. It marks the end of the fasting month of Ramazan. It would be logical to think the name Sugar Holiday comes from the amount of chocolate, baklava and…
I can vividly remember the first time I came face to face with the results of the feast known in Turkey as Kurban Bayram. It’s the traditional religious holiday when all Muslim are expected to commemorate the strength of Ibrahim’s faith by sacrificing a cow, sheep or goat (read more about the meaning of Kurban…
Sanliurfa (Şanliurfa in Turkish) in south east Turkey is famous for three main things. Baliklı Göl, Urfa Kebab and Göbekli Tepe and I’ve been there four times. The first time I went to Sanliurfa in 2001, Göbekli Tepe wasn’t a tourist site. I hung around Baliklı Göl, talked with Turkish school kids eager to practice…
Depending on the time of year you go, there are a number of easy daytrips and outings you can make from Ayvalik. Here’s what you need to know if you want to visit Cunda Island, Küçükköy and Seytan Sofrasi. CUNDA ISLAND (ALI BEY ADASI) When most people think of Ayvalik, they think of a fun…
The first time I went to Ayvalik was in August 2020. It was stinking hot, madly crowded with holidaymakers despite being under COVID conditions, and I really didn’t get what people saw in the place. It hadn’t helped that my hotel of choice cancelled my booking, forcing me to choose another option which turned out…
I’ve long appreciated cemeteries. As a teenager I spent a lot of time pondering over the lives of the many people buried in the Gore Hill Cemetery in St Leonards, Sydney, where I grew up. Even aged 14 I thought it ironic that rooms in the adjacent hospital overlooked the graves. Gore Hill was established…
On Turkish national public holidays, banks, post offices, schools, government departments and many private businesses are closed. If the weather’s good it feels like everyone is on the road, headed somewhere, and waterfront walks and breakfast places are jampacked with mums, dads and kids plus all their relatives. During two of the longest breaks in…
When I studied history at high school we learned about World War I from an Antipodean perspective. Heroic Australian Johnnies fought local Mehmets at Gallipoli, the Germans were eventually defeated and everyone went back home again. What we weren’t told about was what happened next, the Liberation of Istanbul and Turkey. Even before the war…