The 1st of November 2022 marked exactly one hundred years since the Ottoman Empire officially ended. In existence for over 600 years, and widely regarded as one of the greatest ever empires, the Ottomans left an indelible mark on our lives. Now a new book by Diane Darke, The Ottomans: A Cultural Legacy, re-examines the impact […]
Renowned Turkish author Orhan Pamuk’s new novel Nights of Plague is set in 1901. It opens with the royal ship Azizye approaching the famous vistas of Mingheria, the 29thstate of the ailing Ottoman Empire. Aboard are Princess Pakize, daughter of a deposed sultan, and Bonkowski Pasha, her doctor husband and the Royal Chemist. Each holds […]
Being cancelled as an author for writing about books inspired by your homeland is not what you expect to happen, especially when the article is for one of Britain’s most progressive papers. Yet that’s what occurred when Metin Murat submitted his Top 10s to The Guardian, which proudly claims to be “giving a voice to […]
Meliz’s Kitchen, the debut cookbook by British Turkish Cypriot cook and food blogger Meliz Berg, has topped the book charts just three days after its release! The 288-page hardback featuring classic Turkish Cypriot recipes went straight in at Number One under the Manuals section of The Sunday Times Bestsellers List – the oldest and most […]
Holidays offer a fantastic opportunity to get stuck into a good novel or two. If you are looking to find the latest English-language page-turner by a Turkish writer or on Turkish themes, look no further than this Top 5 list of great reads for summer 2022. Keeping the House by Tice Cin Thrust right into […]
Metin Murat’s page-turner debut novel is an ode to all the people of Cyprus and their culture. A self-declared work of fiction set against the historic and political realities of the last 80 years between his ancestral home of Turkish Cyprus and London. The novel starts in 1930s Cyprus and Bamyakoy (based on the author’s […]
The Crescent Moon Fox – the debut book by Turkish Cypriot author Metin Murat – was launched in London last week. The novel, set in Cyprus from the British colonial rule era through to the turn of the millennium, was promoted by the publisher Armida Books at the London Book Fair. The three-day event in […]
Nizami Ganjavi is one of Azerbaijan’s greatest poets and thinkers. Following a decree by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, in Janury, 2021 was declared the “Year of Nizami Ganjavi”. The aim is to promote Nizami throughout the world and to further explore his legacy. It should be noted that although there […]
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week in Britain, making it the perfect time to put the spotlight on Pantelis – a trilogy on mental illness. The debut work of Turkish Cypriot author Kazim Altan, it captures the struggle of immigrants in a strange country, and their feelings of estrangement, disappointments, loss, upset and, naturally, […]
Any visitor to Turkey will know how important music is to the local culture. From Turkish pop to Ottoman-inspired classical music (Türk Sanat Müziği), folk (Halk Müziği) and the blues (Türkü), live renditions can be seen and heard everywhere. One of the country’s biggest modern entertainment traditions has been the gazino – a high-end cabaret […]
