Category Archives: Turkey

Mocha Musings #3: Turkey and Persia

Coffee, Iran, Lithographs, Orientalism, Orientalist Images, Turkey


Area: 63,800 sq. mi
Population: 4,490,000
Government: Absolute Despotism
Scenes: Merchants Buying Carpets

previous post I began a series on coffee advertising cards with Middle Eastern themes. One of the most colorful collections is that provided by the Arbuckle Coffee Company. In my great, great aunt’s album there were several Middle Eastern and North African nations represented, but from a different series than in the Arbuckle’s 1889 series. The 1889 version of Turkey is shown above, but my aunt’s version of Turkey is decidedly more imaginative:

Continue reading Mocha Musings #3: Turkey and Persia →

Trouble in Turkey

Film and Video, Luke R. E. Publican, Turkey, YouTube Watch

Anyone following the news the past couple of days may have noticed that the current government of Turkey has arrested a number of former military offices and accused them of plotting a coup. Consider this report on the al-Jazeera website today:

The action over the alleged plot, known as Operation Sledgehammer, has seen Turkey’s largest-ever crackdown on the military.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, said on Friday that no one should consider themselves “above the law”, in what was seen as a warning to the army.

“Those who make plans behind closed doors to crush the people’s will must see that from now on they will face justice,” he told a gathering of his Justice and Development Party (AKP).

“No one is above law, no one has impunity,” he said.

At a time when Turkey is trying to show that it’s Asiatic geography and Islamic polity overlay do not block entry in the EU, this may be a political move to show that democracy has trumped the long history of secular military hegemony. Why Turkey would still want to join the EU, given the debt crisis in neighboring Greece, is another issue. But I can think of several reasons why Turkey should be given top priority for entry into the regional entity that the Ottomans never fully conquered. There but for a successful capture of Vienna goes a different history, as even Martin Luther knew at the time. I think the best rationale is that modern Turkey is just as crazy and mixed up as the diverse nations currently allied in the EU. If you want proof, I suggest you look no further than Youtube. Check out the final scenes of the Turkish made-over version of Star Wars here on Youtube. But first check out the trailer. Eat your heart out, Flash Gordon fans…

Luke R. E. Publican

IUAES Conference in Turkey

Anthropology/Sociology, Archaeology and Antiquities, Conferences and Talks, Scholars, Turkey

The 2010 IUAES Inter-Congress Antalya, Turkey

The Ahi Evran University Department of Anthropology is proud to announce to you the 2010 IUAES (International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences) Inter-Congress to be held October 3-6 2010 in Antalya, Turkey.

Since our approval to host the congress, preparations and arrangements have been conducted in collaboration with various anthropology departments, professors, and graduate students across Turkey. Our collaborative efforts promise to bring a diverse, exciting, and informative Inter-Congress.

Turkey’s location at a point where three continents of the old world are closest to each other and where Asia and Europe meet has served as a crossroads that is one of the few areas that has been continuously inhabited since the dawn of mankind. The archeological richness is a telling measure of the human history of cultural interaction, conflict, and integration that shape the region. Since the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1925 anthropology as a discipline has assumed an important role in understanding and theorizing cultural exchanges between ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse Anatolian peoples and their neighbors; we are honored to strengthen this legacy with IUAES. Continue reading IUAES Conference in Turkey →

Mustafa Pasha Yamolki: From Istanbul to Suleymaniya

Iraq, Islamic History, Ottoman Empire, Turkey

Mustafa Pasha Yamolki: his life and role in the Kurdish nationalist movement

by Dr. Rebwar Fatah, Kurdish Media, 2005

A king is just like a chess king today in the world.

From a poem by Shukri Fazli, Kurdish intellect, journalist and poet

There are countless Kurdish figures that have been denied due credit for contributing to the cause of their people. Mustafa Pasha Yamolki is but one. Attempting to name the others would risk missing some and history already excels at this.

Therefore, this article seeks to reveal some unknown details of Yamolki’s life and to reintroduce him after an absence that is unjustified for a human of such stature. It was a significant, but worthwhile, challenge to discover information about Yamolki. I depended heavily upon his immediate family, whose acquaintance I treasure a great deal.

Prior to his death on May 25, 1936 in the Alwazyrya area of Baghdad, Mustafa Pasha Yamolki asked to have this verse of poetry etched into his grave:

Etirsm ey weten bimrim, nebînim bextiyarî to

Binwsin ba leser qebrim, weten xemgîn u min xemgîn.

Which can be translated to:

My homeland, I am scared that I may die without seeing your happiness

Etch into my grave that my homeland and I are both sad.

Continue reading Mustafa Pasha Yamolki: From Istanbul to Suleymaniya →

Sex, flies and videotape: the secret lives of Harun Yahya

Ethics, Islamic Sciences, Journalism and Media, Turkey

by Halil Arda, The New Humanist, Volume 124, Issue 5, September/October 2009

Inspired by the high profile of its Christian American counterpart, Muslim creationism is becoming increasingly visible and confident. On scores of websites and in dozens of books with titles like The Evolution Deceit and The Dark Face of Darwinism, a new and well-funded version of evolution-denialism, carefully calibrated to exploit the current fashion for religiously inspired attacks on scientific orthodoxy and “militant” atheism, seems to have found its voice. In a recent interview with The Times Richard Dawkins himself recognises the impact of this new phenomenon: “There has been a sharp upturn in hostility to teaching evolution in the classroom and it’s mostly coming from Islamic students.”

The patron saint of this new movement, the ubiquitous “expert” cited and referenced by those eager to demonstrate the superiority of “Koranic science” over “the evolution lie”, is the larger-than-life figure of Harun Yahya. Continue reading Sex, flies and videotape: the secret lives of Harun Yahya →

Smoke Rises in the Middle East

Development, Food and Drink, Journalism and Media, Turkey


Hooked on Hookah, 1909

No, this is not another post about terrorism, nor the violent protests following the recent Iranian election, nor more reports of suicide bombs in hotel lobbies. The smoke from these tragedies is not about to disappear any time soon. The smoke I am talking about is from the tobacco industry. Newsweek (July 27 issue) provides a breakdown of smokers worldwide. While China leads all populations with almost 334 million smokers (32% of the overall population), they are actually lower percentage wise than Turkey with its 19 million users, accounting for 36% of the population. Other Middle Eastern countries surveyed fare a bit better than the United States (24% of the population) with 21% (28 million users) in Pakistan, 17.6% (9 million users) in Iran and only 14.2% (2.4 million users) in Iraq. I suspect even these numbers are under reported, given the ubiquity of cigarettes in the region. Health warnings or not, tobacco is still sultan in the Middle East and indeed the entire world. Continue reading Smoke Rises in the Middle East →