If you’re lucky enough to be invited on a state visit to Azerbaijan, you may well get the wonderful Ehtiqad Şükürov as your driver. A proud Azerbaijani who reflects the warm hospitality of his incredible country, loves all things Turkish, and drove us around in his fabulous disco-like minibus with all the skills of a […]
Last month, Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made history when he appointed Hafize Gaye Erkan as the governor of the Central Bank of Turkiye – the first ever woman to head the 93-year-old financial institution. Erkan enters the financial fray in her motherland armed with an impressive biography as she bids to find the optimum […]
Turkiye has a long history of male entertainers dressed as women. Under Ottoman times, they were known as köçek. More recently the country has had renowned drag artists such as the iconic Seyfi Dursunoğlu, better known by his stage name and drag character Huysuz Virjin (The Grumpy Virgin). Two young pretenders to Seyfi’s crown, Akış […]
Tributes have been paid to one of Turkiye’s greatest musicians, violinist Suna Kan, who died at the weekend aged 86. The virtuoso enjoyed a celebrated solo, orchestral and teaching career in Turkiye and abroad. Kan was described as “The symbolic name of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s ‘music revolution’” by Andante Magazine. Paying tribute with a series […]
Young people are often encouraged to go down the higher education route; to study for a degree, ideally one that sets you up on a vocational path, in order to achieve a secure and successful career. One young woman from North London decided to turn that approach on its head. Despite graduating with a psychology […]
On Sunday morning, the British Turkish community woke to the tragic news that broadcaster Hülya Nur Özdemir Alişoğlu had passed away. She was aged just 41. The popular presenter of ATV’s long-running television lifestyle show, Londra Aktüel, which she created with her producer-director husband Sevgin Alişoğlu, had been battling breast cancer for a number of […]
Ramiz Manyera, one of the leading business figures in North Cyprus, has died. The sad news was announced by his family on Tuesday. The pioneering Turkish Cypriot entrepreneur made his fortune selling soft drinks. He established Bel-Cola in 1958 – the first carbonated drink produced by a Turkish Cypriot, but it was Bixi Cola nearly […]
One of the most significant personalities from the British Turkish Cypriot community, Fikret Derviş, has passed away aged 86 years old. Derviş, a former President of the Council of Turkish Cypriot Associations (UK), had been struggling with ill-health for the past few years. He had been in a care home since last July and was […]
Hundreds of people came to pay their respects to Özkan Hasan at Palmers Green Mosque, North London, on Sunday, 5 February, ahead of his body being repatriated to North Cyprus where he will be buried. The iconic guitarist, who was a central figure in the entertainment scene of Turkish London in the 1970s and 80s […]
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do” — Steve Jobs An extract from my Q&A with Birkan Uzun for ‘Vision Matters’, broadcast on Kıbrıs Postası on 24 March 2021. Q: What did you want to achieve at Amazon? A: I wanted to develop applicable technologies […]
