Author: Sonya Karafistan

Columnists
As a resident, I’m fed up with Barnet Council normalising anti-Turkish bias and hate. It’s time to speak out!

I’m a Londoner of mixed Turkish and Turkish Cypriot descent, who has lived in the London Borough of Barnet for twenty years. Like many other British Turks inside and outside of this north London borough, I have seen my local authority’s relentless anti-Turkish and anti-Turkish Cypriot bias over many years. It’s gotten to the point […]

HP Culture
Review: Altın Gün at the Troxy – an unmissable date that hit all the required spots deliciously

This week, Altın Gün packed out East London’s art déco gem Troxy for an exhilarating evening of infectious music and vibrant energy as 3,000 fans danced with wild abandon to the sounds of these Amsterdam-based masters of Anatolian pysch-folk. Thursday’s concert was likely the last London performance with front lady Merve Daşdemir. Her vocal talents […]

Books
Review: poetic, immersive and original, Tice Cin’s debut novel Keeping the House has broken new ground

British born, Turkish Cypriot inter-disciplinary daughter of a Tottenham DJ and artist, Tice Cin weaves a quirky, beautifully poetic depiction of a community and world hitherto unrepresented in English literature. Both lyrically and visually, Keeping the House is full of evocative descriptions of ‘Turkish Cypriotisms’. Could this be the only widely publicised, mainstream British novel […]

Home
Award-winning Turkish homeware brand Karaca opens first store in Britain

British buyers looking for stylish, high quality and affordable homeware products now have a fantastic new option to shop from: Karaca. Expect to find over 1,000 design-led products, ranging from everyday living to luxury pieces for the home. The Turkish brand entered the British market quietly earlier this year with its online shop. On Thursday, […]

Books
Review: Metin Murat’s The Crescent Moon Fox is a “page-turner ode to all the people of Cyprus and their culture”

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 […]