Familiar animal noises brought cheer to earthquake survivors in Turkiye’s southeastern city of Kahramanmaraş last week, as a retired imam sang the children’s song “Ali Baba’s Farm” through loudspeakers. “Uncle” Ömer Faruk Şirikçi, the former imam of the city’s Abdülhamid Han Mosque, sat in a tent w...
“What an immoral, shameless, ungrateful being”. These words and more were spouted out by the President of the Republic of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in desperation and anger. Such insults are so commonplace with him that one expects the opening lines of his address to the nation to be equally le...
Football fans from two of Istanbul’s biggest clubs grabbed the headlines in Turkiye and abroad with their earthquake related actions at the weekend. Beşiktaş players warmed up at the Vodafone Stadium before their home game on Sunday, 26 Feburary, against Antalyaspor wearing tops bearing the names o...
Turkish start-ups are looking highly attractive to investors. Last year saw a record $1.6 billion inward investment in the country. The tech sector, and in particular gaming and fintech companies, are leading the chase for funding. The industry is seeing investment at every level in Turkiye, with t...
On New Year’s Eve, Mustafa Varank, Turkiye’s Minister of Industry and Technology, donned a biker’s helmet and Getir uniform, and went on a mission to deliver groceries to the shopping app’s customers in Ankara. The Minister said he wanted to “better understand” the working conditions of motorbike c...
As we reach the end of the 2022, we look back at some of our biggest stories of the year, reflecting the highs and the lows of the British Turkish community.For many mainstream media in Britain, the defining moments of 2022 will include the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the Ukraine War, the climate c...
Thousands of women across Turkiye took part in the annual International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls on Friday, 25 November. Yet for some, their attempts at peaceful protest were met with a heavy-handed and violent response from police in several districts. In Istanbu...
Şebnem Korur Fincancı, the chair of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), is facing up to seven and a half years in jail if convicted of “making propaganda for a terrorist organisation”, local media reported on Friday. A court in Ankara ordered Fincancı to be detained at the Sincan Women’s Prison...
Zehra Hassan, my grandmother and the person who raised me, passed away aged 85 on 6 July 2022 on Crebor Street, London SE22 0HF, where she had lived for 34 years. Sadly, many non-English speaking women of colour with little formal education are stripped of their complex stories, multiple belongings...
At least six people have been killed and 81 wounded in an explosion in the heart of Istanbul. The blast happened at about 16:20 local time (13:20 GMT) on İstiklal Caddesi in Taksim – one of the city’s busiest shopping boulevards. The Turkish authorities believe the blast is a terrorist attack, with...
