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 Bamy...
Binge watching the Harry Potter series during the Christmas season has become a yearly tradition for many regardless of age. If we’re being honest, television networks and streaming services take advantage of almost every public holiday where there’s a family gathering to air Harry Potter marathons,...
A small charity in North London is hoping to hit their £5,000 fundraising target with their cover of Huey Lewis and the News’ hit 80s song The Power of Love. Enfield’s Family Based Solutions (FBS), which supports vulnerable families, have teamed up with local stars and businesses to produce a fun vi...
Taner Öngür has been the torch-bearer for Turkish pop rock for decades, even baptising the genre with the name ‘Anatolian Pop’. The bass guitarist cum multi-instrumentalist has played with many of Turkey’s seminal artists, including Barış Manço, Erkin Koray, Ersen Dinleten and Selda Bağcan, and feat...
RootsThe effects of the French Revolution in 1789 reached the Ottoman Empire nearly fifty years later. Starting from 1839 until 1876, during the regression period of Ottoman Empire, a set of reforms were implemented to modernise, centralise and improve the legal, economic, social and political struc...
On this day twenty years ago, actor Kemal Sunal suffered a fatal heart attack as he boarded an early morning domestic flight from Istanbul to the Black Sea city of Trabzon. He was just 55 years old. Sunal is said to have had a lifelong fear of flying and had not been on a plane for many years,...
If you are curious about history or Cyprus, the Cezire Association is organising a fascinating afternoon of talks about the ancestors of present-day Turkish Cypriots. Four speakers will present different aspects of Turkish and Islamic influence on the island before the Ottoman conquest of 1570-71.&n...
Serkan Nihat has worked on some of the UK's most successful TV dramas such as Broadchurch and Taboo. Since switching from editing to directing, he has also filmed commercials and short films for major beauty, fashion and corporate brands. In 2018 he won a Cannes Silver Dolphin award for a Barclays B...
Competing plans to hold separate June festivals celebrating Turkish Cypriot culture on the same day in north London have been averted after one of the camps decided to postpone its event by a week. In a surprise move, the UK-based Council of Turkish Cypriot Associations (CTCA), an umbrella organisat...
With two degrees under his belt, former male model Mem Ferda could have secured a steady, well-paid job. Instead the South Londoner plumped for the life of an actor and all the risks that this brings. And he’s never looked back!The first thing that strikes you when you meet Mem is his height. At 6ft...
