Portal:Turkey/Selected article/Archive

21/01/2008 – 01/05/2008 (Turkish)

Atatürk introducing the new Turkish alphabet to the people of Sivas. September 20, 1928. (Cover of the French L'Illustration magazine)

Turkish (Türkçe IPA ) is a language spoken by 65–73 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey, with smaller ranges in Cyprus, Bulgaria, and other parts of Eastern Europe. Turkish is also spoken by several million immigrants in Western Europe, particularly in Germany.

The roots of the language can be traced to Central Asia, with the first written records dating back nearly 1,200 years. To the west, the influence of Ottoman Turkish—the immediate precursor of today's Turkish—spread as the Ottoman Empire expanded. In 1928, as one of Atatürk's Reforms in the early years of the new Turkish Republic, the Ottoman script was replaced with a phonetic variant of the Latin alphabet. Concurrently, the newly-founded Turkish Language Association initiated a drive to reform the language by removing Persian and Arabic loanwords in favor of native variants and coinages from Turkic roots.

The distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination. The basic word order of Turkish is Subject Object Verb. Turkish has a T-V distinction: second-person plural forms can be used for individuals as a sign of respect. Turkish also has no noun classes or grammatical gender.

18/10/2007 – 21/01/2008 (Walls of Constantinople)

Map showing Constantinople and its walls during the Byzantine era

The Walls of Constantinople are a series of stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (today Istanbul in Turkey) since its founding as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they are one of the greatest and most complex fortification systems ever built.

Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, protecting it against attack from both sea and land. As the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Although the other sections of the walls were less elaborate, when well manned, they were almost impregnable for any medieval besieger, saving the city, and the Byzantine Empire with it, during sieges from the Avars, Arabs, Rus', and Bulgars, among others (see Sieges of Constantinople). Only the advent of gunpowder siege cannons rendered the fortifications obsolete, resulting in the final siege and fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans on 29 May 1453.

The walls were largely maintained intact during most of the Ottoman period, until sections began to be dismantled in the 19th century, as the city outgrew its medieval boundaries. Despite the subsequent lack of maintenance, many parts of the walls survived and are still standing today. A large-scale restoration programme has been under way in the past twenty years, which allows the visitor to appreciate their original appearance.

30/08/2007 – 18/10/2007 (Raki)

Raki (Turkish: rakı [ɾakɯ]) is a usually anise-flavored apéritif that is produced by twice distilling either only suma or suma that has been mixed with ethyl alcohol in traditional copper alembics of 5000 lt (1320 US gallon, 1100 UK gallon) volume or less with aniseed. It is similar to several kinds of alcoholic beverages available in the Mediterranean and parts of the Balkans, including pastis, sambuca and ouzo. The general consensus is that all these liqueurs preceded arak, a similar arabic liqueur, but it remains a theory. In the Balkans, however, raki refers to a drink made from distilled pomace, similar to Italian grappa, Bulgarian rakia, Greek ouzo, Cypriot tsikoudia, Cypriot zivania and Spanish orujo.

In Turkey, raki is the unofficial 'national drink' and it is traditionally drunk mixed with water; the dilution causes this alcoholic drink to turn a milky-white colour, and possibly because of its colour, this mixture is popularly called aslan sütü or arslan sütü, both literally meaning "lion's milk" (aslan and arslan also mean strong, brave man, hence milk for the brave men).

13/08/2007 – 30/08/2007 (Turkish literature)

A page from the Dîvân-ı Fuzûlî, the collected poems of the 16th-century Ottoman poet Fuzûlî

Turkish literature (Turkish: Türk edebiyatı or Türk yazını), is the collection of written and oral texts composed in the Turkish language, either in its Ottoman form or in less exclusively literary forms, such as that spoken in the Republic of Turkey today. The Ottoman Turkish language, which forms the basis of much of the written corpus, was heavily influenced by Persian and Arabic and used a variant of the Perso-Arabic script.

The history of Turkish literature spans a period of nearly 1,500 years. The oldest extant records of written Turkic are the Orhon inscriptions, found in the Orhon River valley in central Mongolia and dating to the 8th century. Subsequent to this period, between the 9th and 11th centuries, there arose among the nomadic Turkic peoples of Central Asia a tradition of oral epics, such as the Book of Dede Korkut of the Oghuz Turks—the ancestors of many of the modern Turkish people—and the Manas epic of the Kyrgyz people.

Beginning with the victory of the Seljuks at the Battle of Manzikert in the late 11th century, the Oghuz Turks began to settle in Anatolia, and in addition to the earlier oral traditions there arose a written literary tradition issuing largely—in terms of themes, genres, and styles—from Arabic and Persian literature. For the next 900 years, until shortly before the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, the oral and written traditions would remain largely separate from one another. With the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the two traditions came together for the first time. Read more >>

02/08/2007 – 13/08/2007 (Ottoman Empire)

Ottoman Coat of Arms as used in the 19th century.

The Ottoman Empire (1299 to 1922) (Ottoman Turkish: دولت عالیه عثمانیه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Turkish: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu, also known as the Turkish Empire or Turkey by its contemporaries, see the other names of the Ottoman State), was a multi-ethnic and multi-religious Turkish ruled state which, at the height of its power (16th – 17th centuries), spanned three continents, controlling much of Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar (and, in 1553, the Atlantic coast of Morocco beyond Gibraltar) in the west to the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf in the east, from the edge of Austria, Slovakia and parts of Ukraine in the north to Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Yemen in the south.

The empire was at the centre of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for six centuries. The empire was the only Islamic power to seriously challenge the rising power of Western Europe between the 15th and 19th centuries. It steadily declined during the 19th century and met its demise after its defeat in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. In the aftermath of the war, the Ottoman government collapsed and the empire's lands were partitioned.

Following the victory of the Turkish revolutionaries led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk at the Turkish War of Independence, the Ottoman Sultanate was abolished on November 1, 1922. The last Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed VI Vahideddin, left Istanbul on November 17, 1922. Turkey was declared a republic on October 29, 1923. Read more >>

30/01/2007 – 02/08/2007 (GRGDN)

GRGDN is a Turkish music production and artist management company as well as a record label based in Istanbul. The name of the company originates from the Turkish word gergedan which means rhinoceros.

It was founded in 2003 by OIART-graduated producer Haluk Kurosman and Hadi Elazzi, who had previously worked for such companies like Sire Records (Warner Music) or Sony Music Turkey. The company has its own recording studio in Ulus, Istanbul and does the management of several renowned Turkish artists. Read more >>

27/12/2006 – 30/01/2007 (Atatürk’s Reforms)

Atatürk’s Reforms (Turkish: Atatürk Devrimleri or Atatürk İnkılapları) are a series of political, legal, cultural, social and economic reforms following the Turkish War of Independence in the wake of World War I, by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and the first president of the Republic of Turkey. The reforms, initiated between 1922 and 1938, were accomplished hand-in-hand with the foundation of the new Turkish state, following the continuous decline and losses of the Ottoman Empire up to the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and finally its collapse after World War I. The main motive behind the reforms was termed "to raise Turkey up to and above the level of modern civilization". Although commonly referred to as a reform movement in English, these might more accurately be termed as the steps of a revolutionary movement (as is the meaning of Atatürk Devrimleri in Turkish), given their distinctly fundamental nature. The accomplished reforms can be grouped under five categories:

Read more >>

16/12/2006 – 27/12/2006 (Galata Bridge)

The first bridge on the Golden Horn which was built by Justinian the Great can be seen near the Theodosian Land Walls at the western end of the city in this rendering of old Constantinople

The Galata Bridge (in Turkish Galata Köprüsü) is a bridge that spans the Golden Horn in Istanbul, Turkey. From the end of the 19th century in particular, the bridge has featured in Turkish literature; in theater, poetry and novels.

File:Panoramic view of the Golden Horn.jpg

Panoramic view of the Golden Horn and Galata Bridge, as seen from Galata Tower

History

Golden Horn Bridge designed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1502

The oldest recorded bridge over the Golden Horn in Istanbul was built during the reign of Justinian the Great in the 6th century AD close to the area near the Theodosian Land Walls at the western end of the city. In 1453, during the Fall of Constantinople, the Turks assembled a mobile bridge by putting their ships next to each other and used it for transporting their troops from one side of the Golden Horn to the other.

In the years 1502–1503 plans to construct the first bridge in the current location were discussed. Sultan Bayezid II solicited a design and Leonardo da Vinci, utilizing three well-known geometrical principles, the pressed-bow, parabolic curve and keystone arch, created an unprecedented single span 240 m long and 24 m wide bridge for the Golden Horn, which would become the longest bridge in the world of that period if constructed. However, the ambitious design did not meet with the Sultan's approval. Another Italian artist, Michelangelo was also invited to design a bridge for Istanbul. Michelangelo rejected the proposal, and the idea of building a bridge across the Golden Horn was shelved until the 19th century.

A smaller scale version of Leonardo da Vinci's Golden Horn Bridge was brought to life in 2001 near Oslo, Norway by the contemporary artist Vebjørn Sand, the first civil engineering project based on a Leonardo da Vinci sketch to be constructed. The Leonardo Bridge Project hopes to build the design as a practical footbridge around the world, including the Golden Horn in Istanbul, using local materials and collaborating with local artisans as a global public art project. The Wall Street Journal referred to the Project as a "...logo for the nations." (WSJ, Nov. 5-6, 2005) Read more >>

22/11/2006 – 16/12/2006 (Constitution of Turkey)

The current Constitution of Turkey, ratified in 1982, establishes the organization of the government of the Republic of Turkey and sets out the principles and rules of the state's conduct along with its responsibilities towards its citizens. The Constitution also establishes the rights and responsibilities of the latter while setting the guidelines for the delegation and exercise of sovereignty that belongs to the Turkish Nation.

Article Five of the Constitution sets out the raison d'être of the Turkish state, namely "to provide the conditions required for the development of the individual’s material and spiritual existence".

History

Main article: Constitutional History of Turkey

The current Constitution of Turkey was ratified in 1982 by popular referendum during the military junta of 1980–1983.

It is the fourth constitution of the Republic of Turkey: The first Turkish Constitution was the Constitution of 1921, followed by the Constitution of 1924 and the Constitution of 1961. It was last amended in 2004.

Overview

Founding Principles

The Constitution asserts that Turkey is a secular and democratic republic, deriving its sovereignty from the people. The sovereignty rests with the Turkish Nation, who delegates its exercise to an elected unicameral parliament, the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Moreover, Article 4 declares the immovability the founding principles of the Republic defined in the first three Articles, "laïcité, social equality, equality before law, the Republican form of government, the indivisibility of the Republic and of the Turkish Nation", and bans any proposals for their modification.. The preamble also invokes the principles of nationalism, defined as the "material and spiritual well-being of the Republic". Thus, it sets out to found a unitary nation-state based on the principles of secular democracy.

It also establishes a separation of powers between the three main powers of the state. The separation of powers between the legislative and the executive is a loose one, whereas the one between the executive and the legislative with the judiciary is a strict one.

Delegation and exercise of sovereignty

Article Seven provides for the establishment of a unicameral parliament as the sole organ of expression of sovereign people. Article Six of the Constitution affirms that "sovereignty is vested fully and unconditionally in the nation" and that "the Turkish Nation shall exercise its sovereignty through the authorised organs as prescribed by the principles laid down in the Constitution". The same article also rules out the delegation of sovereignty "to any individual, group or class" and affirms that "no person or agency shall exercise any state authority which does not emanate from the Constitution". Article 80 (A80) affirms the principle of national sovereignty: "members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly represent, not merely their own constituencies or constituents, but the Nation as a whole". Read more >>

30/10/2006 – 22/11/2006 (Mustafa Sandal)

File:Mustafa sandal - Aya Benzer.jpg

Mustafa Sandal on the cover of "Aya Benzer"

Mustafa Sandal is a famous Turkish pop star, born on January 11, 1970 in Istanbul. He can speak English, Turkish, Italian, and French.

He emerged in the early 90s with the revival of Turkish pop music and is amongst the most successful pop music singers in Turkey. He is internationally famous and his albums regularly sell millions of copies. His latest international hits "Moonlight" and "Isyankar" topped not only the Turkish charts, but charts in Europe too, such as Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Biography

Mustafa Sandal accomplished his high school studies in Geneva (Switzerland) and did two years of Marketing studies in New Hampshire College (United States), but he gave up his studies for music and went back to Istanbul (Turkey), his native country.

In 1994, his album Suc Bende sold 1,7 million copies and became the biggest selling album of the year. With this success he played 140 concerts in Turkey and 30 in Europe. Also known for his songwriting and producing talents, Sandal worked that same year with singer Sibel Alaş on the album Adam that sold 400,000 copies.

In 1997, 27 years old at that time, Sandal decided to move to London. His second album Golgede Ayni sold 3,1 million copies and Sandal gave over 200 concerts on the back of this success. The visuals to his video to the song "Bir Anda" from the album was a first for domestic fans, in which he used tie-clip techniques. This success meant that moving to London would have to wait. The same year also saw the release of the Sandal produced successful album "Emanet", for the then young rising Turkish artist Izel. Sandal's singing can be heard on the opening track. In 1998, he recorded and released the album "Detay" of which "Aya Benzer" was the first single. The song quickly went to number one in the Turkish charts and the album won two Kral Awards. In that same year, he toured in the United States, in Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, England, Sweden, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

In 1999, Sandal signed a contract with Sony in France, which made him worldwide operational. Araba, one of his largest hits, came out with remix-versions for the European market.

In June 2000 Mustafa Sandal published his album "Akisina Birak", a joint venture work with the composer and musician Iskender Paydas. "Tek Gecerim" and "Hatirla Beni" were two hits form this album. Sandal established his own label Yada Productions, in order to be able to produce other artists more independently.

In June 2002 Mustafa Sandal released "Kop” which produced the hits "Pazara Kadar" and ”Kop”. This album's success led him to Russia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. That same year, Mustafa won a Kral Award for "Best Pop star".

In 2003, with the remix of his Top hit "Aya Benzer" Mustafa Sandal (featuring Gulcan) was back to Europe. He reached the top 10 in Germany, entered the Austrian Charts and charted on Star Radio’s top 40, then released the single "Araba 2004". Read more >>

09/10/2006 – 21/10/2006 (Bursa)

Zafer Plaza shopping centre

Bursa (formerly known as Brusa) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of Bursa Province. With a population of 1,194,687 (2000 census), it is Turkey's fourth largest city. The city is famous for its ski resorts (on the mountain of Uludağ), the mausoleums of Ottoman sultans, and the surrounding fertile plain. It is also the home of some famous Turkish foods, especially chestnut desserts and a meat dish called İskender kebap.

History

The earliest known site at this location was Cius, which Philip V of Macedonia granted to the Bithynian king Prusias I in 202 BC, for his help against Pergamum and Heraclea Pontica (modern Karadeniz Ereğli). Prusias renamed the city for himself, Prusa.

It was later a major city, located on the westernmost end of the famous Silk Road, and was the capital of the Ottoman Empire following its capture from the Byzantines in 1326 until the capture of Edirne in 1365 and remained an important administrative and commercial center even after it lost its status as the capital. During the rule of the Ottomans, Bursa was the source of most royal silk products. It received the raw silk from Iran, and occasionally China, and was the 'factory' for the kaftans, pillows, embroidery and other silk products for the royal palaces up through the 17th century. Some of these included golden or silver silk thread which were of particular luxury because they were made by wraping extremely thin gold or silver wire around a single silk thread by hand. The Algerian resistance fighter Emir Abd el-Kader resided here for a while (1852 to 1855), as well as Ayatollah Khomeini in his first year of exile (1963) before leaving for Nejef in Iraq and later for Paris, and Ismail Hakkı Bursevi a famous Islamic scholar and Sufi is buried here.

Economy

Bursa is the center of the Turkish automobile industry, where FIAT and Renault have located their factories, as well as textile and food industries where Coca Cola, Pepsi and many canned food factories are present in the city's organized industrial zones. Traditionally Bursa was famous with its fertile soil and agricultural activities, which are decreasing due to the heavy industrialization of the city. Bursa also is a major tourist attraction and one of the best ski resorts of Turkey is located at Uludağ in Bursa, as well as the ancient Nicea where the four bibles were united. Read more >>

01/10/2006 – 09/10/2006 (Valley of the Wolves Iraq)

Valley of the Wolves Iraq (Turkish: Kurtlar Vadisi Irak) is a popular and controversial 2006 Turkish film based on a television series of the same name that has been a hit in Turkey for three seasons.

Filmed with a budget of $10 million, Valley of the Wolves is the most expensive film ever made in Turkey.

Cast

Necati Sasmaz	Polat Alemdar
Billy Zane	Sam William Marshall
Tito Ortiz	American Major Commander
Ghassan Massoud	Sheikh Abdurrahman Halis Kerkuki
Bergüzar Korel	Leila
Gürkan Uygun	Memati Bas
Diego Serrano	Dante
Kenan Çoban	Abdulhey Coban
Erhan Ufak	Erhan Ufak
Gary Busey	Doctor
Spencer Garrett	Journalist George Baltimore

Read more >>

23/09/2006 – 01/10/2006 (Hakan Şükür)

Hakan Şükür, (born on September 1, 1971 in Adapazari, Sakarya, Turkey), is a Turkish footballer playing the striker position. He is nicknamed "Bull of the Bosphorus" but the fans of Galatasaray prefer "Kral" meaning "The King."

Along with then team-mate Gheorghe Hagi, he was a member of the UEFA Cup-winning Galatasaray side of 2000. He is remembered by supporters for his scoring in European competition that year, including his superb goals against Leeds United, one in which he danced past three of their defenders to score and help send his team to the final, despite the racist chants echoing throughout Elland Road that night and projectiles being thrown at him during the match in addition to other racist acts against the team surrounding the second leg of the semifinal. He is also remembered for his penalty in Galatasaray's penalty shoot-out victory over Arsenal F.C. in the final.

Hakan currently plays for the Turkish club Galatasaray SK, having spent eight seasons with them in the 1990s. In 2000, he moved to Inter Milan (Italy) then spent short spells at Parma (Italy) and Blackburn Rovers (United Kingdom) before rejoining Galatasaray SK in 2003.

In the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Şükür's national team went all the way to the semifinals even though he was hopelessly out of form for most of the tournament. He finally showed a glimpse of his talent when, in the third-place game against South Korea, he scored the fastest goal ever in a World Cup finals match. İlhan Mansız forced a Korean defender into a blunder immediately off the opening kickoff, Şükür pounced on the free ball and put the ball into the Korean net after only 10.8 seconds.

Hakan was capped for the 100th time in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Ukraine. He is the third Turkish player, after Bülent Korkmaz and Rüştü Reçber, to receive this honor.

His fame in Turkey is such that his 2002 wedding was televised live. Read more >>

27/08/2006 – 23/09/2006 (Islam in Turkey)

Interior of the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey, June 1994. It was first built as a Cathedral; it remained the central cathedral church of Eastern Christianity (which came to be known as "Eastern Orthodox" Christianity after 1054 a.d.) for nearly 1,000 years (mid-6th century until 1453 a.d.) and then 500 years as a mosque. The Turks converted it to a museum for visits of Christians and Muslims. It was the largest domed structure in the western world until the building of the basilica of St. Peter the Apostle in the Vatican City, Rome.

The region comprising modern Turkey has a long and rich Islamic tradition stretching back to the dawn of the Ottoman Empire. About 99% of the population is officially Muslim, the majority of whom are Sunnis.[1]. Religious observance in comparison to other predominantly Muslim-populated countries is low and Muslim identity tends to be based more on tradition and cultural heritage rather than actual belief in religious dogma. The Turkish governmental system are based on European republican state with strong flavour of secularism.

The actual percentage of Muslims is slightly lower; the Government officially recognizes only three minority religious communities—Greek Orthodox Christians, Armenian Orthodox Christians, and Jews—and counts the rest of the population as Muslim, although other non-Muslim communities exist.

The secularization of Turkey started in the society during the last years of Ottoman Empire and it was the most prominent and most controversial feature of Atatürk's reforms. Under his leadership, the caliphate—office of the successors to Muhammad, the supreme politico-religious office of Islam, and symbol of the sultan's claim to world leadership of all Muslims—was abolished. The secular power of the religious authorities and functionaries was reduced and eventually eliminated. The religious foundations were nationalized, and religious education was restricted and for a time prohibited. The influential and popular mystical orders of the dervish brotherhoods (tarika) also were suppressed.

Although Turkey was secularized at the official level, religion remained a strong force at the popular level. After 1950 some political leaders tried to benefit from popular attachment to religion by espousing support for programs and policies that appealed to the religiously inclined. Such efforts were opposed by most of the political elite, who believed that secularism was an essential principle of Kemalism. This disinclination to appreciate religious values and beliefs gradually led to a polarization of society. The polarization became especially evident in the 1980s as a new generation of educated but religiously motivated local leaders emerged to challenge the dominance of the secularized political elite. These new leaders have been assertively proud of Turkey's Islamic heritage and generally have been successful at adapting familiar religious idioms to describe dissatisfaction with various government policies. By their own example of piety, prayer, and political activism, they have helped to spark a revival of Islamic observance in Turkey. By 1994 slogans promising that a return to Islam would cure economic ills and solve the problems of bureaucratic inefficiencies had enough general appeal to enable avowed religious candidates to win mayoral elections in Istanbul and Ankara, the country's two largest cities.

Read more >>

10/08/2006 – 27/08/2006 (Turkish hammam)

A hammam in Chefchaouen, Morocco

The Turkish hammam (also Turkish bath or hamam) is the Turkish variant of a steam bath, which can be categorized as a wet relative of the sauna. They had played an important role in Ottoman culture, serving as places of social gathering, ritual cleansing and as architectural structures, institutions, and (later) elements with special customs attached to them.

In Western Europe, the Turkish bath as a method of cleansing the body and relaxation was particularly popular during the Victorian era. The process involved in taking a Turkish bath is similar to that of a sauna, but is more closely related to the bathing practices of the Romans.

Taking a Turkish bath firstly involves relaxing in a room (known as the warm room) that is heated by a continuous flow of hot dry air allowing the bather to perspire freely. Bathers may then move to an ever hotter room (known as the hot room) before plunging themselves into a cold pool. After performing a full body wash and receiving a massage, bathers finally retire to the cooling-room for a period of relaxation.

In Turkey, the advent of modern plumbing systems, showers, and bathtubs in homes caused the importance of hammams to fade in recent times.

The word "hammam" simply means "bathroom" or "toilet" in many dialects of vernacular Arabic.

Architecture

The hammam (Arabic:حمام) combines the functionality and the structural elements of its predecessors in Anatolia, the Roman thermae and Byzantine baths, with the Turkish-Muslim tradition of bathing, ritual cleansing and respect of water. It is also known that Arabs have built many of their own version of the Greek-Roman baths they encountered following their conquests of Alexandria. However, the Turkish hammam has a more improved style and functionality from these structures that emerged as annex buildings of mosques or as re-use of the remaining Roman baths.

The hammams in the Ottoman culture started out as structural elements serving as annexes to mosques, however quickly evolved into institutions and eventually with the works of the Ottoman architect Sinan, into monumental structural complexes, the finest example being the Çemberlitaş Hammam in Istanbul, built in 1584.

A typical hammam consists of three interconnected basic rooms similar to its Roman ancestors: the sıcaklık (or hararet -caldarium) which is the hot room, the warm room (tepidarium) which is the intermediate room and the soğukluk which is the cool room.

The sıcaklık usually has a large dome decorated with small glass windows that create a half-light; it also contains a large marble stone at the center that the customers lie on, and niches with fountains in the corners. This room is for soaking up steam and getting scrub massages. The warm room is used for washing up with soap and water and the soğukluk is to relax, dress up, have a refreshing drink, sometimes tea, and where available, nap in private cubicles after the massage. A few of the hammams in Istanbul also contain mikvehs, ritual cleansing baths for Jewish women.

The hammam, like its early precursors, Roman (?at least pre-Christian) thermae, is not exclusive to men only – hammam complexes usually contain separate quarters for men and women. Being social centers, in the Ottoman Empire, hammams were quite abundant, and were built in almost every Ottoman city. Integrated in daily life, they were centers of social gatherings, populated on almost every occasion with traditional entertainment (e.g. dancing and food, especially in the women's quarters) and ceremonies, such as before weddings, high-holidays, celebrating newborns, beauty trips etc.

There existed some special accessories of which some still are being used at modern hammams: such as the peştemal (a special cloth of silk and/or cotton, to cover the body, like pareos), nalın (special wooden clogs that would prevent the wearer from slipping on the wet floor, often decorated with silver or mother-of-pearl), kese (a rough mitt for massage), and sometimes jewel boxes, gilded soap boxes, mirrors, henna bowls, perfume bottles and such. Read more >>

30/07/2006 – 10/08/2006 (Atatürk International Airport)

Atatürk International Airport (IATA: IST, ICAO: LTBA) is the major international airport in Istanbul, Turkey. Located in Yeşilköy, on the European side of the city, it is 15 kilometers (9 s) southwest of the city centre. The airport is named in honor of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic.

There are two terminals, one domestic and one international. Inaugurated in 2001, the international terminal is considered one of the most efficient and modern terminals in the world. Before the new terminal opened, a single terminal handled both domestic and international traffic and was very crowded. The domestic terminal, now relieved of international traffic, is spacious, despite its 1970s design.

The airport terminals are operated by TAV (Tepe-Akfen-Ventures) since January 2000, who has invested 600 Million US$ since 1998. In 2005 TAV has won the concession agreement to operate the Ataturk for 15.5 years at a record breaking amount of 3 Billion US$, which also represents the highest figure for such a privatization project in Turkiye, Eastern Europe, Middle East, CIS and North Africa.

Ataturk still faces capacity issues; it ranks somewhere between thirty-first and fortieth in the world by cargo traffic and handled handled over 573,000 tonnes of cargo traffic in 2004 and was expected to handle 615,000 tonnes of cargo in 2005.

In terms of passenger traffic, IST had 15.6 million passengers in 2004, 10.2 million of whom were international travelers. It is expected to have 20 million passengers in 2005, 12.5 million of whom will be international. That means that Atatürk will a nearly thirty percent increase in passenger traffic and a nearly twenty-five percent increase in international passenger traffic. [2]. Its rated capacity of 14 million international passengers per year and 7 million domestic passengers per year will not be enough for the demand in 2006. Istanbul is expected to have a demand of 30 million international passengers per year and 20 million domestic passengers per year by 2010.

Atatürk shares traffic with Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, which is on the Asian side of Istanbul. The two airports both provide domestic and international service to the Istanbul area, but booming passenger demands (as well as the physical impossibility of expanding Ataturk) suggest that a 4th airport will be required by 2007, as the Hezarfen Airport is not big enough to support international flights. This new airport is planned to be located north of Istanbul in Kemerburgaz which is close to the Levent business district.

2006 – Fire

At about 3:30 p.m. (local time, GMT+3) on May 24, 2006, a fire broke out in the cargo area of Terminal C, billowing clouds of black smoke, and forcing the suspension of some air traffic. Local officials have reportedly attributed the fire to sparks from a soldering iron. 3 people were treated due to smoke inhaling.

The fire was under control after 90 minutes of work by firemen and accompanying 2 Bombardier CL-215 fire-fighting planes which were hired 2 days ago by the Metropolitan Municipality. [3] Read more >>

23/07/2006 – 30/07/2006 (Turkish Airlines)

Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800

Turkish Airlines (Turkish Türk Hava Yolları) (THY) is the national airline of Turkey based in Istanbul. It operates a network of scheduled services to Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, North Africa, South Africa and the United States. The airline's main base is Atatürk International Airport (IST), Istanbul, with secondary hubs at Esenboga International Airport (ESB), Ankara, and Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SAW), Istanbul.

History

The airline was established on May 20, 1933, as the State Airlines Administration – Hava Yolları Devlet Işletmesi Idaresi. It began operations with an Istanbul, Eskisehir, Ankara service in August 1933. The name was changed to Devlet Hava Yolları Umum Müdürlüğü (DHY) in June 1938. The first international flight was launched in 1947 to Athens but it was another 40 years before the introduction of long-haul flights to the Far East and across the Atlantic.

In a major reorganisation the state company DHY was replaced with a mixed corporation, Türk Hava Yolları AO (THY) on 20 February 1956. The airline's shares were passed to the prime ministry public participation administration in 1990 and about 24.8% of the shares were sold to the public. The airline is owned by TC Privatisation Administration (75.2%) and private shareholders (24.8%). The airline has around 12,000 employees. It also has a 50% holding in affiliated airline SunExpress, the other half of which owned by Thomas Cook of Germany.

Destinations

Main article: Turkish Airlines destinations

New Routes

It inaugurates a nonstop services on May 2006, as follows :

• Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen-Van (Turkey): daily service is operated with a Boeing737-400 and is in addition to daily B737-800 service operated from Istanbul's Ataturk .
• Istanbul-Minsk: 2 flights a week, on Mon/Thursday, using an Airbus 320.
• Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen-Hannover on June 2006 : 2 flights a week dep Istanbul on Mon/Thursday and Hannover on Tue/Friday operated with a Boeing 737-800. This service is in addition to 8 weekly B737-800 flights from Istanbul's Ataturk increasing to 13 in July 2006.
• Istanbul-Lagos on June 2006 : 2 flights a week, on Thu/Saturday, using an Airbus 310-300.

Major Incidents and Accidents

During its 72 year history, Turkish Airlines had only one accident on its international flights, and a few on the domestic. The most disastrous was Turkish Airlines Flight 981, that crashed in France on 3 March 1974 due to explosive decompression, killing all 346 passengers aboard. The main cause of this terrible event was a design fault on the cargo doors of DC-10 aircraft. Before the Tenerife disaster, it was the worst aircraft disaster. Read more >>

09/06/2006 – 23/07/2006 (Ferit Orhan Pamuk)

File:Orhanpamuk.jpg

Orhan Pamuk posing with his most popular book My Name is Red.

Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born on June 7, 1952 in Istanbul, Turkey) is a leading Turkish novelist of post-modern literature. His long-standing huge popularity in his homeland dipped in 2005 (see statements below), but his readership around the globe continues to grow. As one of Turkey's most prominent novelists, his work has been translated into more than forty languages. He is the recipient of major Turkish and international literary awards.

Biography

Pamuk while writing.

Pamuk was born into a wealthy family; his father was the first CEO of IBM Turkey. He was educated at the American high school Robert College in Istanbul. Then he attended an architectural program at the Istanbul Technical University, because of family pressures to be an engineer or architect. However, he dropped out after three years to become a full-time writer. Pamuk graduated from the Institute of Journalism at the University of Istanbul in 1977. He was a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York City from 1985 to 1988, a period which also included a stint as visiting fellow at the University of Iowa. He then returned to Istanbul.

Pamuk married Aylin Turegen in 1982, but the couple divorced in 2001. They have a daughter named Rüya meaning Dream in Persian. Pamuk continues to reside in Istanbul.

His older brother Şevket Pamuk-who sometimes appears as a fictional character in Orhan Pamuk's work-is a professor of history, internationally recognized for his work in history of economics, working at the Bogazici University in İstanbul.

Work

Orhan Pamuk

Pamuk started writing regularly in 1974. His first novel, Karanlık ve Işık (Darkness and Light) was a co-winner of the 1979 Milliyet Press Novel Contest (Mehmet Eroğlu (* tr) was the other winner). This novel was published with the title Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları (Mr. Cevdet and His Sons) in 1982, and won the Orhan Kemal Novel Prize in 1983. It tells the story of three generations of a wealthy Istanbul family living in Nişantaşı, the district of Istanbul where Pamuk grew up. Read more >>

30/06/2006 – 09/07/2006 (Cappadocia)

In ancient geography, Cappadocia (Greek: Καππαδοκία; see also List of traditional Greek place names; Turkish Kapadokya) was an extensive inland district of Asia Minor (modern Turkey). In the time of Herodotus the Cappadocians occupied the whole region from Mount Taurus to the Euxine (Black Sea).

Cappadocia, in this sense, was bounded in the south by the chain of Mount Taurus, to the east by the Euphrates, north by Pontus, and west vaguely by the great central salt lake. But it is impossible to define its limits with accuracy. Strabo, the only ancient author who gives any circumstantial account of the country, greatly exaggerated its dimensions; it is now believed to have been about 250 miles (400 km) in length by less than 150 in breadth.

Etymology

The earliest record of the name of Cappadocia dates from the late 6th century BC where it appears in the trilingual inscriptions of two early Achaemenid Kings, Darius I and Xerxes, as one of the countries (Old Persian dahyu-) which are part of the Persian Empire. In these lists of countries the Old Persian name is Katpatuka but it is clearly not a native Persian word. The Elamite and Akkadian versions of the inscriptions contain a similar name.

Herodotus tells us that the name of the Cappadocians (Katpatouka) was applied to them by the Persians, while they were termed by the Greeks "Syrians" or "White Syrians" (Leucosyri). One of the Cappadocian tribes he mentions are the Moschoi, associated by Flavius Josephus with the biblical figure Meshech, son of Japheth, "and the Mosocheni were founded by Mosoch; now they are Cappadocians." AotJ I:6.

Under the later kings of the Persian empire they were divided into two satrapies, or governments, the one comprising the central and inland portion, to which the name of Cappadocia continued to be applied by Greek geographers, while the other was called Pontus. This division had already come about before the time of Xenophon. As after the fall of the Persian government the two provinces continued to be separate, the distinction was perpetuated, and the name Cappadocia came to be restricted to the inland province (sometimes called Great Cappadocia), which alone will be the focus of this article.

The kingdom of Cappadocia was still in existence in the time of Strabo as a nominally independent state. Cilicia was the name given to the district in which Caesarea, the capital of the whole country, was situated. The only two cities of Cappadocia considered by Strabo to deserve that appellation were Caesarea (originally known as Mazaca) and Tyana, not far from the foot of the Taurus.

History

Cappadocia was known as Hatti in the late Bronze Age, and was the homeland of the Hittite power centred at Hattusa. After the fall of the Hittite Empire, with the decline of the Syro-Cappadocians (Moschoi) after their defeat by Croesus in the 6th century, Cappadocia was left in the power of a sort of feudal aristocracy, dwelling in strong castles and keeping the peasants in a servile condition, which later made them apt for foreign slavery. It was included in the third Persian satrapy in the division established by Darius, but long continued to be governed by rulers of its own, none apparently supreme over the whole country and all more or less tributary to the Great King. Thoroughly subdued at last by the satrap Datames, Cappadocia recovered independence under a single ruler, Ariarathes (hence called Ariarathes I), who was a contemporary of Alexander the Great, and maintained himself on the throne of Cappadocia after the fall of the Persian monarchy. Read more >>

25/06/2006 – 30/06/2006 (Flag of Turkey)

Flag ratio: 2:3

The Flag of Turkey consists of a white crescent and star on a red background. The flag is called Ay Yıldız (Turkish for "moon star") or al bayrak ("red flag").

The flag has a complex origin since it is an ancient design, being almost identical to the last flag of the Ottoman Empire. Red is a prominent color in Turkish history, especially regarding the bloody battles of the Turkish War of Independence. The crescent and star, while generally regarded as Islamic symbols today, have for long been used in Asia Minor and by the old Turks, quite before the advent of Islam. The flag was originally simply a crescent on a green field, but this was changed in 1793 when Sultan Selim III changed the background to red. In 1844, the star was added.

The shade of red used in the flag is approximated by Pantone 186, or RGB (227, 10, 23).

The flag is described according to various legends in the country, the most popular of which include:

• A dream of the first Ottoman Emperor in which a crescent and star appeared from his chest and expanded, presaging the dynasty's seizure of Constantinople.[4]
• A crescent and star were spotted on the night of the fall of Constantinople to Mehmet II in 1453.
• The most widely believed, however, tells of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Republic of Turkey, walking on a battlefield one night after a victorious battle in the Turkish War of Independence, and seeing the reflection of the star and crescent formation, in a large pool of blood on the rocky hill terrain of Sakarya.

Another theory regarding the flag dates it back to the Byzantine Empire. It states that a Crescent and Star were used as the symbol of the Greek city of Byzantion for centuries, and when the Ottomans took Constantinople, it was adopted as the symbol of the Ottoman Empire (the moon refers as Artemis, Goddess of hunting, while the star refers to the blessed virgin mary).

Legal Basis

The fundamentals of the Turkish Flag were laid down by Turkish Flag Law No. 2994 of May 29, 1936. Turkish Flag Regulation No. 2/7175 dated July 28, 1937, and Supplementary Regulation No. 11604/2 dated July 29, 1939, were enacted to describe how the flag law would be implemented. The Turkish Flag Law No. 2893 dated September 22, 1983, and Published in the Official Gazette on September 24, 1983, was promulgated six months after its publication. According to Article 9 of Law No. 2893, a statute including the fundamentals of the implementation was also published. Read more >>

21/06/2006 – 25/06/2006 (Mustafa Kemal Atatürk)

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk 1881–10 November 1938), until 1934 Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha, Turkish army officer and revolutionist statesman, was the founder and the first President of the Republic of Turkey. Mustafa Kemal established himself as a successful military commander while serving as a division commander in the Battle of Gallipoli. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the hands of the Allies, and the subsequent plans for its partition, Mustafa Kemal led the Turkish national movement in what would become the Turkish War of Independence. His successful military campaigns led to the liberation of the country and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. As the Republic's first president, Mustafa Kemal introduced a range of far reaching reforms which sought to create a modern, ostensibly democratic and secular state. According to the Law on Family Names, the Turkish Grand Assembly presented Mustafa Kemal with the name "Atatürk" (meaning "Father" or "Ancestor Turk") on 24 November 1934. Read more >>

12/06/2006 – 21/06/2006 (Ferit Orhan Pamuk)

File:Orhanpamuk.jpg

Orhan Pamuk posing with his most popular book My Name is Red.

Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born on June 7, 1952 in Istanbul, Turkey) is a leading Turkish novelist of post-modern literature. His long-standing huge popularity in his homeland dipped in 2005 (see statements below), but his readership around the globe continues to grow. As one of Turkey's most prominent novelists, his work has been translated into more than forty languages. He is the recipient of major Turkish and international literary awards.

Biography

Pamuk was born into a wealthy family; his father was the first CEO of IBM Turkey. He was educated at the American high school Robert College in Istanbul. Then he attended an architectural program at the Istanbul Technical University, because of family pressures to be an engineer or architect. However, he dropped out after three years to become a full-time writer. Pamuk graduated from the Institute of Journalism at the University of Istanbul in 1977. He was a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York City from 1985 to 1988, a period which also included a stint as visiting fellow at the University of Iowa. He then returned to Istanbul.

Pamuk married Aylin Turegen in 1982, but the couple divorced in 2001. They have a daughter named Rüya meaning Dream in Turkish. Pamuk continues to reside in Istanbul.

His older brother Şevket Pamuk-who sometimes appears as a fictional character in Orhan Pamuk's work-is a professor of history, internationally recognized for his work in history of economics, working at the Bogazici University in İstanbul.

Work

Pamuk started writing regularly in 1974. His first novel, Karanlık ve Işık (Darkness and Light) was a co-winner of the 1979 Milliyet Press Novel Contest (Mehmet Eroğlu (* tr) was the other winner). This novel was published with the title Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları (Mr. Cevdet and His Sons) in 1982, and won the Orhan Kemal Novel Prize in 1983. It tells the story of three generations of a wealthy Istanbul family living in Nişantaşı, the district of Istanbul where Pamuk grew up. Read more >>

05/06/2006 – 12/06/2006 (Dolmuş)

A Dolmuş

A dolmuş (pronounced DOLL-moosh) is a privately owned vehicles, normally with a capacity of 14 passengers, that runs on set routes within cities. It also runs to and from outlying towns and villages.

Dolmuşes work on a fixed fee system: whatever the distance, passengers pay a set amount (around 1 YTL within cities, more for longer rural routes). Cities have dedicated dolmuş stops as for buses, but on quieter routes a dolmuş may be hailed at any point on the route.

Dolmuş means "stuffed", as they depart not on fixed schedules but when sufficient passengers have boarded. It is customary for the passengers to cooperate in passing fares forward to the driver and passing change back.

Since rapid transit in Turkish cities is still being developed, a dolmuş is often the only alternative. Dolmuş drivers have a reputation for being aggressive, fearless and rude; and driving dangerously fast without paying attention to traffic rules. However, a dolmuş ride is also considered the only reliable form of rapid transit in Istanbul, and the only form of mass transit running 24 hours a day in Turkey. Read more >>

29/05/2006 – 05/06/2006 (Anıtkabir)

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Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Kemal Ataturk, in Ankara, Turkey

Anıtkabir is the mausoleum of Kemal Atatürk, the leader of Turkish War of Independence and the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey. It is located in Ankara, Anittepe quarter. It is designed by architects Prof.Emin Onat and Asst.Prof.Orhan Arda, who won the competition held by the Turkish Government in 1941 for a "monumental mausoleum" for Ataturk, out of a total of 45 international proposals.

The site is also the final resting place of İsmet İnönü, the second President of Turkey, who was interred there after he died in 1973. His tomb faces the Atatürk Mausoleum, on the opposite side of the Ceremonial Ground.

Architectural Properties

The period of the Turkish Architecture in between 1940 and 1950 is known as The Era of Second National Architecture. This period is characterized by mostly monumental, symmetry oriented, cut-stone clad buildings, with great emphasis given to detailing and workmanship in construction. Anitkabir carries the same characteristics of this period, and is considered by many to be the ultimate monument of the era. In addition, Anitkabir features Seljuk and Ottoman architectural and ornamentation features. As in the example of the external walls and eaves all around the towers, are the Seljuk style borders, known as sawtooth in Seljuk cut-stone art. Cut stone ornamentation, namely passion flower and rosette used in some other parts of Anitkabir (on Mehmetcik Tower, for example) can also be found in Seljuk and Ottoman architecture.

Construction

The hill chosen for Anitkabir was Rasattepe (Observation Hill), which was a central location in Ankara and had an unobstructed, general view of the city. Archeological excavations unearthed artifacts belonging to Phrygian civilization, and those were carefully excavated and put on display in the museum of Anatolian Civilizations, in Ankara.

The construction of Anitkabir, which took nine years and spanned four stages, commenced on October 9, 1944 with the ceremony of laying the first stone of the foundation.

The first stage of the construction, comprising the preparatory excavation and the construction of the retaining wall of the Lions Road, started on October 9, 1944 and completed in 1945. Read more >>

22/05/2006 – 29/05/2006 (İzmir)

İzmir (Greek: Σμύρνη), the third most populous city of Turkey and the country's largest port after İstanbul, is located on the Aegean Sea near the Gulf of İzmir. It is the capital of İzmir Province. The city of İzmir is composed of 9 metropolitan districts (Balçova, Bornova, Buca, Çiğli, Gaziemir, Güzelbahçe, Karşıyaka, Konak and Narlıdere) and the 2000 population of this urban zone was 2,409,000. (2005 est. 3,500,000).

Name

The name of a locality called Ti-smurna is mentioned in some of the Level II tablets from the Assyrian colony in Kültepe (first half of the 2nd millennium B.C.), with the prefix ti- identifying a proper name, although it is not established with certainty that this name refers to İzmir. Some would see in the city's name a reference to the name of an Amazon called Smirna. The oldest Greek rendering of the city's name we know is the Aeolic Greek Μύῥρα Mýrrha, corresponding to the later Ionian and Attic Σμύρνη Smýrnē, both presumably descendants of a Proto-Greek form *Smúrnā. The Romans took this name over as Smyrna which is the name used in English for the pre-Turkish periods. The name İzmir is the Turkish version of the same name.

History

The city is one of the oldest cities of the Mediterranean basin. Until recently, the original urban site was thought to be established in the 3rd millennium B.C. on a small hill (possibly an island at that time) in the northernmost corner of the gulf's end (in present day Bayraklı, Karşıyaka) making it one of the most advanced cultures in Anatolia of its time (on a par with Troy). But the recent discovery (2004) of two höyük (tumulus), very close to each other (Yeşilova and Yassıtepe), situated more to south (dotted in red in the image below) in the plain of Bornova, and the findings of the first season of excavations carried out in the Yeşilova Hoyuk in 2005 by a team of archaeologists from İzmir's Ege University under the direction of Assoc.Prof. Zafer Derin, resets the starting date of the city's history three millennia back in time. Indeed, the tumulus contains three levels, first of which is a loose tissue of occupation from the late Roman-early Byzantine periods, while the Level 2 bears traces of early to mid-Chalcolithic, and the Level 3 of Neolithic settlements, with continuity. These two levels would have been inhabited, very roughly, between 6500 to 4000 B.C. With the seashore drawing away in time, the place had been transformed into a cemetery (several graves containing artefacts dating, roughly, from 3000 B.C. were found) [5] Read more >>

15/05/2006 – 22/05/2006 (Ankara)

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A recent view from Kızılay, the central district of Ankara.

Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after İstanbul. The city has a population of 4,319,167 (Province 5,153,000) (as of 2005), and a mean elevation of 850 m. (2800 ft) It was formerly known as Angora or Engürü, and in Roman times as Ancyra, and in classical and Hellenistic periods as Άγκυρα Ánkyra.

It is also the capital of Ankara Province.

Centrally located in Anatolia, Ankara is an important commercial and industrial city. It is the center of the Turkish Government, and houses all foreign embassies. It is an important crossroads of trade, strategically located at the center of Turkey's highway and rail network, and serves as the marketing center for the surrounding agricultural area. The city was famous for its long-haired goat and its wool (Angora wool), a unique breed of cat (Ankara cat), white rabbits, pear, honey, and the region's muscat grapes.

Ankara is situated upon a steep and rocky hill, which rises 500 ft (150 m) above the plain on the left bank of the Enguri Su, a tributary of the Sakarya (Sangarius) river. The city is located 39°52'30" North, 32°52' East (39.875, 32.8333). The city, which is one of the driest places in Turkey and surrounded by a barren featureless steppe vegetation, with various Hittite, Phrygian, Ottoman, Byzantine and Roman archeological sites. It has a harsh dry continental climate with cold snowy winters and hot dry summers. Rainfall occurs mostly during spring and autumn.

The hill is crowned by the ruins of the old castle, which add to the picturesqueness of the view; little else is preserved of the old town, which was not well built. Many of its houses were constructed of sun-dried mud bricks along narrow streets. ^[6] There are, however, many finely preserved remains of Greek, Roman and Byzantine architecture, the most remarkable being the temple of Augustus, on the walls of which is the famous Monumentum Ancyranum^[7] Read more >>

08/05/2006 – 15/05/2006 (Turkish new lira)

The Turkish new lira is the current currency of Turkey and of the de facto state Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Introduced on 1 January 2005, it is equivalent to 1,000,000 Turkish old lira (which remained valid in circulation until the end of 2005) and divided into 100 new kuruş.

Currency specification

• Symbol: YTL (Yeni Türk Lirası), The ISO 4217 code of Turkish new lira is "TRY".
• Banknotes: 100, 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1 YTL
• Coins: 1 YTL and 50, 25, 10, 5, and 1 new kuruş

Design

Same banknote and coin designs are shared with the Turkish old lira, to prevent any confusion.

All notes and coins show portraits of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk from different points of his life, and images of various historical and otherwise important buildings and places in Turkey.

The design of the 50 kuruş and 1 lira coins, to the dismay of the European Central Bank, clearly resembles that of the €1 and €2 coins respectively. This could cause confusion in the eurozone. Also, it caused trouble to businesses using vending machines (particularly at airports) in the eurozone since a number of vending machines at the time accepted the 1 lira coin as a €2 coin. Since €2 is worth roughly 3-4 times more, vending machines affected had to be upgraded at the expense of their owners.

History

Owing to the chronic inflation experienced in Turkey from the 1970s through to the 1990s, the Turkish lira experienced severe depreciation in value. Turkey has had high inflation rates compared to developed countries but has never suffered hyperinflation. From an average of 9 lira per U.S. dollar in the late 1960s, the currency came to trade at approximately 1.65 million lira per U.S. dollar in late 2001. This represented an average inflation of about 38% per year. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had called this problem a "national shame". In late December 2003, the Turkish Parliament passed a law which allowed for the removal of six zeroes from the currency, and the creation of the Turkish new lira. The introduction of the Turkish new lira has also been accompanied by two new banknotes which did not have equivalents in the old system: TRY 100 and TRY 50. Read more >>

01/05/2006 – 08/05/2006 (Turkish cuisine)

Turkish cuisine is well-known, especially in Europe. Frequently used ingredients in Turkish dishes include eggplant, green pepper, onion, lentil, bean, tomato, garlic, and cucumber. Grape, apricot, cherry, melon, fig, lemon, pistachio, pine nut, almond, hazelnut, watermelon, and walnut are among the most abundantly used fruits and nuts. Preferred spices and herbs are parsley, cumin, pepper, paprika, mint, and thyme.

Turkish cuisine is highly influenced by its Ottoman heritage. Ottomans fused various culinary traditions of their realm, with particular influence by the Greek and Middle Eastern cuisines, along with traditional Turkish themes from Central Asia. The best flavored white cheeses and yogurt are prepared from sheep milk. Although rice, which is named as pilav (pilaf), is the essential part of many foods, bulgur (prepared from wheat) can also used for the same purpose. Especially in the western parts of Turkey, where olive trees are grown abundantly, olive oil is the major type of oil used for cooking. The bread is prepared from wheat, barley or corn. Pide (broad, round and flat kind of bread made of wheat) and tandır ekmeği (baked on the inner walls of a round oven called tandır) are some examples for authentic types of bread in Turkish cuisine. Another type of bread commonly eaten in Turkey is simit (or "gevrek"), a ring shaped bread covered with sesame seeds, eaten either plain or with cheese or jelly. Read more >>

23/04/2006 – 01/05/2006 (Public transport in Istanbul)

Public transport in Istanbul consists of an extensive bus network, various rail systems, funiculars and maritime services for the more than 10 million inhabitants of the city with an area of 5712 km².

Early days

Public road transport in Istanbul dates back to August 30, 1869, when a contract to build a tram system in the capital of the Ottoman Empire, was signed. With this agreement, Konstantin Krepano Efendi’s "Société des Tramways de Constantinople" obtained the concession to operate public transportation for forty years. The inauguration of four lines of horse-driven trams was in 1871. In the first year, the horsecars transported 4.5 million people on the lines Azapkapi-Galata, Aksaray-Yedikule, Aksaray-Topkapi and Eminönü-Aksaray. More lines were added in the following years. 430 horses were used to draw the 45 carriages, including 15 summer-type and some double-deckers, on meter gauge track. In 1912, the horse-drawn tram had to cease to operate for one year because the Ministry of Defense sent all the horses to the front during the Balkan War. The tram network was electrified by overhead contact wire on February 2, 1914. The tram began to run on the Anatolian part of Istanbul on June 8, 1928 between Üsküdar and Kisikli. By the 1950s, the length of the tram lines reached 130 km. The trams were on service on the European part until August 12, 1961 and on the Anatolian part until November 14, 1966. Read more >>

16/04/2006 – 23/04/2006 (Istanbul)

Istanbul (Turkish: İstanbul) is Turkey's largest city, and its cultural and economic center. It is located on the Bosphorus strait, and encompasses the natural harbor known as the Golden Horn (Turkish: Haliç), in the northwest of the country. Istanbul extends both on the European and on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world which is on two continents. Its 2000 Census population is 8,803,468 (city proper) and 10,018,735 (metropolitan area), making it, by some counts, one of the largest cities in Europe. Census bureau estimate of July 20, 2005 is 11,322,000 for the metropolitan area. Istanbul is located at 41° N 28° E, and is the capital of Istanbul Province. The city was officially known as Constantinople until 1930 when its name was changed to Istanbul. Due to its three-thousand-year old history it is considered as one of the oldest still existing cities of the world. Istanbul has been chosen as the European Capital of Culture for 2010.

Etymology

Originally founded by Greek colonists as Byzantium taking its name from their leader Byzas from Megara, it was made into the eastern capital of the Roman Empire in AD 324, by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great; Byzantium was renamed Nova Roma ("New Rome"), but this name failed to impress; and the city soon became known as Constantinople, "the City of Constantine". The name Istanbul comes from the Greek words εις την Πόλη – eis tēn Pólē (pronounced [is tim boli]) or στην Πόλη, from ancient Greek eìs tēn Polin (εἰς τήν Πόλι(ν)) and meaning "in the city" or "to the city", Constantinople being the largest city in the world. The intermediate form Stamboul was commonly used by the Turks in the 19th century. Because of the custom of affixing an i before certain words that start with two consonants (as in "İzmir" from Smyrna: in a coincidence of s + m, the s turns to z in pronunciation as has been attested since early Byzantine times and in modern Greek usage), it was pronounced in Turkish İstambul. (The '/m'/ in the middle is also the Turkish linguistic custom of changing the '/n/' before a '/p'/ or /'b'/, as in çenber → çember, anbar → ambar, although rules like this are not always observed in proper nouns like Istanbul). Also in Greek an /n/ before a /p/ becomes an [m], and the /p/ after /n/ becomes a [b] in pronunciation. Similar examples of modern Turkish town names derived from Greek are İzmit (from İznikmit which was Nicomedia and İznik (from Greek, Nicaea: "eis tin Nikaia" (pron. [is tin nikea]), becoming [znik]. Since before the conquest, Turks called the city Istanbul, but officially used the name Konstantiniye, which means "The City of Constantine" in Ottoman Turkish. Read more >>

( ) – 12/04/2006 (Tarakan)

Tarkan is one of the most successful pop music singers in Turkey. His albums regularly sell millions of copies.

He is also known in Europe and the Americas, especially for the song Şımarık (Spoilt/Kiss Kiss/Chanson Du Bisou/Besos). This was reincarnated as Kiss Kiss by Holly Valance after Sezen Aksu sold the music rights. This song is also rumoured to have ended the successful working relationship between Tarkan and Aksu as they fell into dispute about the ownership of the copyright to Şımarık. They had collaborated on most of Tarkan's hits in Turkey and Europe. Another hit single was Şıkıdım (Shake).

Istanbul Plak was Tarkan's first record label, his record label is now his own music company HITT Music, which he established in 1997.

Tarkan's first English album Come Closer was released in Europe on 7th April, 2006. Read more >>