Istanbul-born Çiğdem Aslan brings her multi-lingual skills to this year’s Rebetiko Carnival, singing the songs of her roots. Çiğdem came to the forefront of the UK Rebetiko revival with her stunning 2013 debut release Mortissa, which breathed new life into 1920s and 1930s Rebetiko and Smyrnaic songs. The album received great reviews from all around […]
A car bomb targeting a police bus has killed seven offers and four civilians, while injuring scores more. The explosion occurred in central Istanbul at rush hour this morning. At 8.35am, a bomb was detonated by a police station in Vezneciler, located in the city’s historic Fatih district, just as a bus carrying a riot […]
Turkey’s ambassador to London Abdurrahman Bilgiç told journalists, “Turkey is doing its share” and urged other countries to do more to relieve human suffering at a press briefing about the World Humanitarian Summit being held in Istanbul on 23-24 May. The historic event is being attended by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and over 50 heads […]
A short film and talk in mid-May will celebrate the achievements of the late Dr. William Brown, a British structural engineer and suspension bridge specialist whose design was used to construct the historic First Bosphorus Bridge, which linked Europe to Asia. While ideas for such a bridge had existed since antiquity, it took until the […]
A female Turkish tennis player entered the history books today after beating Danka Kovinic from Montenegro in the final of the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup. Coming from a set down, Çağla Büyükakçay beat her opponent 2.1 (3-6, 6-2, and 6-3) in front of her home crowd at the Garanti Koza Arena in Istanbul. Her […]
A Cambridge coffee shop is hosting a special display of photographs that capture Turkey’s vibrant Roma community. The photos were taken last year by Luana Burton, Artur Conka and Jesse Wood as part of the Music Beyond Barriers project organised by local arts body Balik Arts. The free exhibition is on at the Hot Numbers […]
There’s just eleven days left to sample 1970s Istanbul in a unique exhibition at London’s Somerset House. Inspired by the 2008 novel of the same name by Nobel prize laureate Orhan Pamuk, The Museum of Innocence tells the story of Kemal Bey, a wealthy socialite, and his obsessive love for Füsun through his collection of […]
The Turkish authorities have said that an ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) recruit from Gaziantep, southeast Turkey, carried out the suicide bombing, which killed four and injured dozens more on İstiklal Caddesi on Saturday. Mehmet Öztürk, 24, was named by Turkey’s Interior Minister Efken Ala at a press conference yesterday following DNA […]
Turkish authorities have named Nabil Fadli as the militant behind yesterday’s bombing in Istanbul’s historical district of Sultanahmet, which killed at least ten people and injured fifteen others. Of Syrian heritage, the 28-year-old bomber was born in Saudi Arabia and is thought to have become a Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL) operative in […]
If you’re young, British, musically gifted, and free to travel for a fortnight at the end of October, this project needs you! A British arts charity is arranging for 30 young musicians from Britain to travel to Turkey to perform alongside their Roma peers as part of an exciting new project called Music Beyond Barriers. […]
