It’s not every day you discover a bit of family history you share with the British Prime Minister, but it happened to me late last summer. I was flicking through family photo albums with my father, Oktay Hamit, when I came across a large black and white one of him and seven other men. I […]
The Turkish lira has continued its downward slide this week, reaching a record-low against the dollar today. One US dollar is now worth 7.23 Turkish lira, with the currency losing 18% of its value to the dollar this year. The lira also fell against the pound and the euro. Today’s currency market shows £1 is […]
Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) is overseeing urgent medical and humanitarian aid to Lebanon following a deadly explosion at the Port of Beirut on Tuesday, which left at least 137 people dead, and an estimated 300,000 homeless. Details were announced by Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca after he spoke on the phone with […]
A Turkish pianist has broken the world record for ‘the greatest number of children reached by a project’. 34,558 children took part in Ozan Çoban’s educational classical music project called Müzikli Söyleşiler [Music Interviews]. Mr Çoban’s achievement was verified by the Geniuses Dünya Rekorları DerneğI (Geniuses World Record Association) and he was presented a certificate by […]
The Council of Turkish Cypriot Associations UK (CTCA) has launched a campaign to stop plans for commercial and residential development on Turkish Cypriot property in Britain’s Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs) in Cyprus, calling the plans “unlawful”. The CTCA accuses the UK government of “deliberately undermining” Turkish Cypriot legal and political rights in order to move […]
On 3 August 2020, the family and friends of Cüneyt Cebenoyan received the news that he and his wife Ayşegül had been involved in a fatal road traffic accident. The pair were travelling on a dual carriageway in Seydişehir, Konya, around 9am in the morning when Cebenoyan lost control of the car he was driving, […]
An East London mosque has been criticised for refusing to create space for women to pray on the first day of Eid al-Adha (the Festival of Sacrifice or Kurban Bayramı in Turkish). Poet and community activist Mohamed Mohamed and his wife had turned up at Suleymaniye Mosque in Dalston on Friday, 31 July, having reserved tickets […]
Today, Arsenal take on Chelsea in the FA Cup Final, the climax of what has undoubtedly been the strangest football season in living memory, primarily due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The two London sides will battle it out at Wembley Stadium without any fans in order to prevent the further spread of […]
Amnesty International, the US State Department, and Nacho Sánchez Amor, the European Parliament’s Rapporteur on Turkey, led the international calls for the immediate release of Osman Kavala. The Turkish businessman has been held in jail since November 2017 despite not being convicted of any crime. A crescendo of calls for Mr Kavala’s freedom came on […]
One of the UK’s biggest food wholesalers has introduced a new range of Turkish bakery products. Both trade and consumer customers can now purchase a tasty selection of Boreks, Baklava and Simits from JJ Foodservice. Part of its own-label Letsdough bakery range, the new products are authentically Turkish, produced by JJ’s suppliers in Turkey. The […]
