In many countries around the world it’s traditional to give a key as a present when someone turns 21. It’s a sign they’ve reached maturity and are now an adult. Famous people like sportsmen, film stars and successful residents are sometimes also given the ‘keys to the city’ to acknowledge their contributions to a particular…
On the 12th of March, 2021, Turkey’s national anthem the Istiklal March – the Independence March – turned one hundred years old. The Istiklal March is performed frequently in Turkey, at state and military events, on assorted national holidays and in all Turkish schools. If you’ve spent any time here at all you’ll have no…
In her latest novel, Blood Business, Nadel tackles the topic of illegal organ trafficking within the context of the enormous movement of displaced people around the world. Turkey currently hosts four million refugees and asylum seekers, the vast majority of them from Syria and the largest number living in Istanbul. Blood Business begins with a…
Turkey has a long and rich history easily seen in thousands of mosques, fountains, palaces and graveyards throughout the country. Library shelves groan under the weight of academic studies and research papers while internet sites and tourist guides abound, providing large swathes of information explaining important events and grand occasions. However within those places and…
Once upon a time, before the advent of television and cinema, Karagoz and Hacivat were superstars of the Turkish entertainment industry. If you’re an aficionado of Turkish miniseries I know you’re imaging handsome moustachioed men with dark flashing eyes strutting their stuff on screen. However Karagoz and Hacivat are puppets, and are the main players…
Turkey has long produced exquisite and practical Turkish homewares and objet d’art made from paper, stone and glass. Careful attention to detail and a focus on maintaining tradition, means many items are still being made using production methods dating back hundreds of years. Beautiful on their own merit, they conjure up images of distant lands…
The name Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is known the length and breadth of Turkey and beyond. There are statues, memorials and monuments in his honour all over the place and even a street named after him in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. One of the first places I ever visited related to Ataturk was the huge…
Back in April this year I wrote a list of must try Turkish foods for CNN Travel. My aim in putting it together was to let people know there’s more to Turkish cuisine than kebab and baklava. I made a conscious decision not to include a famous dish called Adana Kebab because, well, it’s famous….
Istanbul always rewards you if you take the time to stop and look around. So it was that on an outing in Istanbul to research another article when I discovered Ali Uskudari’s work. I wasn’t in a museum. The photos accompanying this post are reproductions of his work in tile, on the walls of Bağlarbaşı…
A few years ago, when the Coronavirus pandemic was ramping up I marked my birthday by sharing a selection of my favourite images from Istanbul mosques. I’m a Leo so I usually go large on birthdays with celebrations lasting at least a week and sometimes as long as a month. In the past I’ve enjoyed…