Next Sunday, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus will go to the polls to elect a new President. Seven candidates are vying for the political hot seat, including incumbent, Dr. Derviş Eroğlu. The TRNC operates a Parliamentary political system, which means the Presidency is primarily a symbolic...
One of Turkish cinema’s legendary figures, Yılmaz Güney was an award-winning film director, scenarist, novelist and actor. Of Kurdish origin, he made his mark championing Turkey’s most marginal citizens on and off the screen. During his career, he directed 25 films, wrote 61 scripts, and appeared in...
Back in June, Dr. Kudret Özersay – a respected academic, leading civil society activist and the current Turkish Cypriot Negotiator for the Cyprus talks – visited London to meet with high level officials in the British Government. While in the capital, he also gave an illuminating talk at the London...
Forty years ago today the war in Cyprus ended, but not before the gruesome discovery of a variety of mass graves containing the bodies of Turkish Cypriots. One of the worst was the Tochni Massacre: 85 inhabitants from Taşkent (also known as Tochni), a mainly Turkish village located in the Larnaca Di...
Record numbers are expected to turn out for tonight’s Şafak Nöbeti (Dawn Watch), the annual remembrance event at Yavuz Çıkarma Plajı in Girne – the beach where Turkish troops first landed in 1974. This year not only marks the fifth such event, but will also commemorate the 40th anniversary of the...
Mimar Sinan, born 15 April 1489 Considered to be one of the greatest architects of all time, Mimar Sinan served several sultans during the classical Ottoman period: Süleyman the Magnificent, Selim II and Murad III. The son of a stonemason, Sinan grew up in Kayseri where he received a technical educ...
UN Resolution 186, 04 March 1964The United Nations sought to intervene in Cyprus following the outbreak of the conflict in December 1963, when the Greek Cypriots brutally seized power. On 4 March 1964, the UN unanimously passed Resolution 186 calling for measures to be taken “to stop the violence”,...
Kebabs are to Turks what fish and chips are to the English, an integral part of our food culture. The first wave of Turkish immigrants in Britain arrived from Cyprus in the 1950s, bringing with them their key cultural traditions. By 1966, the first British kebab restaurant had opened: Hodja Nasre...
Described as a "romantic revolutionary", Nâzım Hikmet was repeatedly arrested for his political beliefs and spent much of his life in prison or in exile. His poetry has been translated into more than fifty languages and his innovative writing style broke literary boundaries in Turkey. His imprisonme...
