Turkey, under the AK Party rule, claims to go through a fundamental change which according to the government authorities is tantamount to the emergence of «New Turkey». While there is little agreement on whether this change is for good or bad, there is little doubt that the country is going through fundamental changes. Islam appears
Kumbaraci Yokuşu
Kumbaraci is the main street of Tophane, a neighborhood of Beyoglu in Istanbul. The street links the touristic and commercial area of Istiklal on the top, to the Bosphorus shore on the bottom. Kumbaraci is one of the last streets in the area that has not been entirely gentrified yet and where new coffee shops
How New is New?
We may not always have a reason to expect something to improve on its previous performance. However, the irresistible allure of novelty excites us and pushes to look beyond what we take for granted. Long before neurobiologists discovered this effect, politicians, including Turkish ones, employed it in political discourse. Although the discourse of «New Turkey»
The Making of a Racist Myth
When General İlker Basbuğ, the highest ranking officer in 2010, in an interview on a popular TV show, defined some citizens as «people who don’t really have Turkish blood in their veins», he was revealing just the tip of an iceberg. General Basbuğ here was merely repeating what was established as one of the foundation stones
For Emek
Turkey is a country of contradictions. They abound and are sometimes impossible to understand for foreigners. A major one would certainly be the obvious contrast between the rising interest of modern Turks towards their own culture and history and the obstination of the government policies to sacrifice some of the most symbolic values of the
