Welcome to the week that was in the Turkish Blogosphere….
Both Metroblogging:Istanbul [1] and Turkish Torque [2] reported this week about the new Picasso in Istanbul exhibit at the Sakip Sabanci Museum from the 24th of November till the 26th of March 2006. Continuing with the art theme Metroblogging:Istanbul also revisited a topic that they originally covered last month but has recently been covered in the local television station [3]. As part of a new security survallience system in the city of Istanbul the police have installed/in the process of installing 4000 security cameras on the streets. This system, called MOBESE [4] has spawned a group of university students to protest it called NOBESE [5]. They perform and protest in front of these cameras. According to Metroblogging, their motto is “since we are being watched, why not perform?” [6]
Turkish Torque writes about the ongoing discussions of the Turkish National Identity [7] and posts an interesting article from Dogan Hizlan from Hurriyet Newspaper entitled “Our Leaders Don't Have Any Hobbies” [8]. He writes about how Turkey is changing, specifically in relations to the Turkish Military involvement in the government. He says: “Turkey is changing faster than some of us think. Where this change will lead Turkey, that's another discussion of course. But at the descriptive level, there are things happening in Turkey today that would be unthinkable just a few years ago.” [9] Torque also gives a more personal reaction to a proposed ban on smoking law in Turkey [10].
Mustafa Akyol from The White Path was recently interviewed by the BBC about Intelligent Design [11], the sound file of the interview is available for download.
Mavi Boncuk [12] has a few book reviews posted: “Turks, Moors, and Englishmen in the Age of Discovery” [13] by Nabil Matar, “The Ottoman Story Today” [14] by Virgina Aksan, and information about the 1795 Barbary Treaties [15] taken from the “Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America” edited by Hunter Miller.
This week I decided to focus on some of the more personal postings from Erkan's Field Diary, an excellent archive of information about Turkey and the EU. Erkan writes about the power a professor has in jumpstarting the campus shuttle [16]. November 24th was Teacher's Day in Turkey [17] and a picture was posted showing some gifts that his office mate received. Also a new picture of Ataturk [18]was posted that is interesting to look at. And finally Erkan notes that in the new Freedom Press Survey, Turkey has advanced its ranking [19] in regards to the freedom of its press.
Flipping through the archives of Talk Turkey [20] I came across this older post about the Young Turks radio show on Satellite radio [21]. The Young Turks [22] advertise themselves as a “liberal nationwide (US) talk-show”, and while a US newsradio program doesn't overtly seem to be about the Turkish blogosphere, one of the members of the program, Cenk Uygur, is a Turk. He blogs on the Huffington Post [23]mostly about issues that occur in the US, but should also be added to our list of Turkish bloggers.
Amerikan Turk has a short but very funny post speculating why Turkey lost to Brazil in the 2002 World Cup [24] (and it probably isn't a reason you would normally think of). Also within the realm of speculation is this post: Is Turkish Raki a defense against birdflu?” [25] Finally, he has a post about reaching out to the Turkish Community in Rhode Island (which I understand is rather large) to find other local Turkish athletes [26].
And for our last item for today's post: the weather in Istanbul. Idil from Ignore me if you Can has a post about being stranded in the rain with a cold [27]. Phanja from The Need to Know writes about the traffic in Istanbul when given even a small hint of snow [28].
Interesting finds of the week:
1. Wikipedia in Turkish! [29]
2. For you Tarkan [30] fans out there, Tarkan Deluxe [31].
3. Elvis Fansite in Turkish! [32]
4. Personal website of Turkish Artist Metin Bereketli. [33]