For the past few weeks Turkish owned mosques in Northeast London, like many others across the British capital, have been calling the faithful to prayer (ezan in Turkish) from their roofs and minarets at sunset every day. Yet in these extraordinary times none have been able to visit Aziziye Mosque...
British citizens with homes in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC) but currently stranded in the UK were given a massive boost today. Speaking live on BRT television, TRNC Foreign Minister Kudret Özersay said that foreigners with residency would be able to return on a date “close to 1 J...
For the past two months, eighteen families have been campaigning to have their deceased loved ones returned to North Cyprus for burial. Last week, eleven of those families received the news that their applications had been successful. An announcement by the government of the Turkish Republic of N...
After an absence of three years, British Turks make a return to this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, which lists the country’s richest one thousand individuals. Mustafa and Fatma Kiamil are joint 923 on the 2020 list with an estimated fortune of £130 million from their food business. The Turkish Cypr...
A British Turkish Cypriot chef has featured in an international series of Recipes for Ramadan (‘Ramazan’ in Turkish). Hulya Erdal appears in a ten-minute online clip cooking homemade Tepsi Kebabı, the perfect meal for iftar (breaking of the daily fast). Speaking entirely in Turkish, Hulya first w...
Turkish Cypriot businessman Ersu ‘Eddie’ Ekrem, currently recovering in hospital from Covid-19, has featured on the BBC’s main evening news discussing his “terrible hallucinations” after being induced. The short clip, broadcast on Tuesday 12 May, opens with Mr Ekrem being helped to sit up in bed...
British and Turkish officials have refuted British media reports that personal protection equipment (PPE) from Turkey has fallen short of required standards. On Thursday evening, Britain’s envoy to Ankara Sir Dominick Chilcott took to Twitter to say, “Stories in the UK media that 400K items of PP...
Not many words were shared, but the language of love took over all those years ago in a white house in Elephant and Castle, south London. The road name was Elliotts Row, house No. 32. It was 1986, spring time. My mother Carole Mitchell had come over from Essex with her best friend Corrine. Money...
T-VINE’s İpek Özerim will this afternoon appear on a live link up with Gizem Özgeç, the editor of one of North Cyprus’ leading newspapers Kıbrıs Haberci, to discuss a host of issues affecting the UK Turkish Cypriot community during the coronavirus pandemic. Among the leading issues on today’s age...
A councillor for the London of Borough of Haringey has paid tribute to key workers on May Day, while calling for their position as the “lowest paid workers” to change. Cllr Peray Ahmet made the comments in a short clip broadcast online earlier today. In her opening remarks, the Labour councill...
