[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.
There’s a new face around town, an e-journal that aims to fill the sweet spot of desire for fresh, cutting-edge, edgy and real reportage about Turkey. The first issue has hit the e-stands. Get it here — http://bulentjournal.com/
With 18 million TV homes, Turkey is one of Europe’s major markets… [But t]he introduction of the cellphone at the end of the 1980s and its immediate spread was a major factor in Islamist political organizing, making it possible to set up phone trees and mobilize large numbers of people through their personal networks.
Good news. I just learned that my book, Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks, will be translated into Turkish and published by the well-regarded Iletişim Press. There have been quite a few reviews, quite positive ones I’m gratified to report. Most recently, a review in Al Jazeera (in Arabic). I’m also giving a few talks, in [...]
There’s so much good news in a row that it’s giving me vertigo. First, the Turkish government and the PKK call for an end to their long, vicious war. Then Israel makes up with Turkey by apologizing for the Mavi Marmara incident. And now, oh the irony, the Turkish government has kindly offered the financially ruined [...]
The irony doesn’t escape me that the new constitution (a preliminary draft of which was leaked last week) appears to be being written primarily by a coalition of AKP and the Kurdish BDP (Peace and Democracy Party), with the internally divided CHP and the nationalist MHP on the margins. All four parties have a place [...]
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 [...]
According to Interior Minister Muammer Güler, in the last ten years 327,946 people gave up their Turkish citizenship and 17,826 lost their citizenship rights. He mentions a handful of people who lost citizenship because they were serving a foreign country in inappropriate ways (1), serving a foreign army during war (3), and 5 military personnel did [...]
According to an interview with 90-year-old Dikran Çerçiyan in Hurriyet Daily News, Ataturk’s emblematic signature, familiar to everyone in Turkey, was developed by his father, Hagop Vahram Çerçiyan. For 55 years Çerçiyan was a teacher of math and geography at Robert College, which graduated former Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit, former foreign ministers Selim Sarper and Turgut Menemencioğluları and former [...]
Another review of my new book, Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks, has just appeared, this time in Muftah.org (click here). In case anyone is interested, all the reviews are listed on my website here.