[T]he new Ottoman archive … has just opened its doors in Istanbul’s Kağıthane neighborhood on April 22. The most important [news] is that the documents have not made their way to the new building and the staff is unsure of when they will arrive.
I found this image of a 19th century Istanbul tram ticket decorated with a map of the routes on a wonderfully intriguing site exploring eclectic Turkish and Ottoman maps, Afternoon Map. It’s a site that I love to peruse and have just added to my blogroll. Afternoon Map gives the provenance of each map and discusses [...]
I just heard that the venerable Inci Pastanesi, the bakery and cafe that opened by Luka Zigoris in 1944 and was a destination for generations seeking Turkey’s best profiterole, has been evicted from its premises on Istiklal Boulevard. They had fought the eviction in court and lost, but before the court decision even reached them, [...]
Publication date is early November. The excitement (well, my excitement) is mounting. Here’s the publisher’s website with a pdf of chapter 1.
Andy Finkel takes on the AKP government’s latest outrageous and one might say wacko city planning nightmare — a gigantic nearly 3-mile square assembly ground (for political rallies?!) on landfill in an area of vast archaeological significance. (Click here; excerpt is below). The AKP’s “projects”, usually planned without public or professional input (or ignoring these), [...]
I’ve been following the out-of-control gentrification bulldozer rolling through some of Istanbul’s oldest neighborhoods, many of which were populated by poor, “ethnic” populations. (click here for the Sulukule saga) The bulldozers banished the residents to the outskirts of the city, where many were unable to find work and pay for replacement homes, and thereby “freed [...]
I’ve written about my dear friend and now member of Turkey’s parliament Şafak Pavey before (here is her story) . On Thursday, she received the US State Department 2012 International Women of Courage Award along with nine other women at the US State Department. (There is a video below of Şafak receiving her award; click here for a video [...]
An essay by Bernd Brunner about Istanbul’s hundred thousand stray dogs. No, you’d rather not cuddle with them. They seem a little too unpredictable and unkempt for that. And it’s not tempting to project human characteristics on them either. But it is easy to feel sorry for some of them, who bear traces of injuries, [...]
Suzy Hansen writes about “The Istanbul Art-Boom Bubble” in the New York Times. (click here) It’s an interesting look inside the glittering, hot-money world of contemporary art in Istanbul. Hansen gives us a sense of the out-of-this world scope of activities, galleries, events, and art production, but also a critique of its limits, its lack [...]
The rector of Kütahya Dumlupınar University has removed the statues of a lion and eagle that graced the university entrance because people kept complaining that it reminded them of the Armenian coat of arms. The sculptor, Atanas Karaçoban, who teaches at Gazi University, said he was shocked and pointed out the irony that on the [...]