One year has flown by since 25 November 2019. Exactly 365 days since we demonstrated globally to raise awareness of violence against women and girls, and what has changed since that day? Nothing! Nothing has changed, and unfortunately with the Covid-19 pandemic with lockdowns and quarantine day...
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...
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,...
On June 23 at around 6pm a disabled woman in her 80s stood on the tarmac at Ercan Airport, supporting herself on crutches, heart heavy with the fear of deportation. She and her husband were one of a number of people who had been asked to step off the passenger transit bus by the police and told they...
The jessamine is odorous; so Maid lilies are, and clematis And where tall meadowsweet flowers grow A rare and subtle perfume is;- What can there be more choice than these? – A rose when it doth bud and blow.By Christina Rosetti (1830-1894) When I began interviewing people about t...
Two photographs, two family tragedies. The first of these show a three-year-old girl, Ayşe, wiping tears off her grandmother’s face with a tissue, oblivious to the tragedy her family has just suffered. The grandmother, also called Ayşe, is shedding tears for her daughter, little Ayşe’s mum Sonya Kay...
Ten days ago, I highlighted the plight of some 120 British nationals, many of Turkish Cypriot descent, stranded in North Cyprus due to the coronavirus pandemic. Lots of affected individuals, their British MPs, and community groups have all been lobbying the UK Foreign Office to demand their return.&...
Over 120 British nationals, many of them of Turkish Cypriot descent, are currently stranded in North Cyprus, unable to get any flights back to the UK. All international flights on both sides of the Cyprus divide were grounded In March to contain the coronavirus pandemic. In the same month, UK F...
With the circumstances that we are all experiencing at present, it is paramount that we look after our health and wellbeing. An important and crucial defence against any virus or infection is our immune system.Compromised nutritional status and poor lifestyle choices weaken the immune system. Howeve...
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS Ladies, if you are after some fun and want to support a good cause, get yourselves a ticket to the Rauf Raif Denktaş Turkish School Ladies Night. Taking place at the Orpington branch of the stylish Hisa...
