Freemuse, a Danish NGO that monitors the censorship and persecution of musicians, has been following two disturbing cases in Turkey, both involving Kurdish performers. In one case, well-known singer Ferhat Tunc is on trial for allegedly supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) because of comments he made at a concert in southeastern Turkey last August. More here.
More serious is the case of a band called Grup Munzur, whose members were recently sentenced by a court to ten months in prison, also charged with supporting "a terrorist organization." From Freemuse's report:
The court based its' sentence on the lyrics of the particular song: "This song tells about the mountains, on the barricades, fields, plains, revolution and freedom struggle and martyrdom for a nice community where children want to read" (rough translation), reported the Dersim News Agency.
The particular Kurdish dialect used in the song required assistance from numerous translation experts who after some confusion confirmed that the song also included the following words:'Guerrillas', 'shoot', 'Kurdistan' and 'victim'.
Even if the Turkey-Armenia reconciliation process appears to be stuck, at least on the official level, there's a good amount of work happening on other levels in order to bring the two countries closer together. For anyone interested in getting a better sense of who the players are on the subject, the European Stability Initiative, an Istanbul-based think tank, has just come out with a manual that takes an exhaustive look at who's doing what on the Turkey-Armenia issue, with profiles and contact information. This very good resource can be found here.
The Hurriyet Daily News, meanwhile, has a report out about a Turkish-Armenian initiative to bring NGO's from both countries together to work on joint projects as a way of moving the reconciliation effort forward. The article is here.
Turkish Airlines recently started flying between Istanbul and the Azeri enclave of Naxcivan, but now something else is linking the two places: both are cracking down on street food vendors.
As RFE/RL reports, authorities in the enclave have started giving a hard time to people selling food on the street, most of them poor farmers who can't afford to rent government certified stalls. More disturbingly, some of the vendors who have protested the crackdown have been sent to psychiatric hospitals in punishment. You can read the full report here.
Meanwhile, in Istanbul, it looks like municipal authorities in some parts of town are also going after some of the city's unlicensed -- but, let's face it, very appealing -- food carts. According to one official in the city's heavily-visited Beyoglu district, the only kinds of carts that will be licensed are those selling chestnuts, corn and simit (a sesame-encrusted bread ring). So much for showing off the diversity of Istanbul's street food. You can read an article about this travesty here.
A lone congregant at a church in Diyarbakir, a city in southeast Turkey
In a post yesterday on another Eurasianet blog, I wrote a bit about the problems a Syriac (or Assyrian) winemaker in southeast Turkey is having getting his new winery off the ground. As I wrote in the post, some of the problems he is facing might stem from the friction being created by the slow return of Syriacs -- who have had a presence in the region since early Christian days -- to the southeast after decades of migration.
In a related story, the Hurriyet Daily News brings a report of a Syriac village in southeast Turkey were two churches were recently reopened after being shut for 30 years. The restoration work for the two churches were paid for by a group of 87 Syriac families that came back from Europe to live in the area. The article can be found here.
For anyone who has visited Istanbul, the sight and smell of kokorec -- grilled lamb intestines -- are likely a lasting (if not haunting) memory. Late night revelers in the city swear by the stuff and Istanbul Eats recently tried three kokorec spots in Istanbul's Galata neighborhood and came away surprisingly satisfied. Their roundup is here.
Boston University anthropologist Jenny White, a very keen observer of trends in Turkey, rounds up on her blog disturbing signals of some potential political and societal shifts. You can find her roundup -- which also includes something written about on Eurasianet's Kebabistan blog -- over at Kamil Pasha, her wonderful Turkey blog.
The Hurriyet Daily News has a story today about the travails of a Syriac (or Assyrian) Christian in southeast Turkey who is struggling mightily to get a winery off the ground. The Syriac minority, who have lived in southeast Turkey since early Christian times, have long been known in the region for the winemaking. But it appears that Yuhanna Aktas, the budding winemaker, is running into local and bureaucratic resistance to pumping up the region's wine production. From the HDN story:
The Syriac Christian and Turkish citizen living in the Midyat district of the southeastern province of Mardin has built a wine factory but said he has been unable to secure a water supply and a road for the facility.
Syriac families living in the region commonly produce wines, but it is hard for consumers to find them since they are not usually sold in shops.
Aktaş, a former jewelry maker, said in his letter that he had prepared a proposal to build a factory to produce homemade Syriac wines, a practice significant for Christians both culturally and religiously. He submitted his proposal to the Agriculture Ministry and obtained permission from the Tobacco and Alcohol Market Regulatory Agency, or TAPDK, to build the facility two years ago. He was granted permission, but, he said, his troubles only began there.
A traditional spread at Pera Sisore, a Turkish restaurant in Istanbul
National Public Radio in America has made it official: Turkish cuisine is among the world's best, right up there with Chinese and French. That was the verdict made by Bonny Wolf, a well-known food writer and radio commentator who recently visited Turkey and ate her way around the country, in a recent piece on the Weekend Edition program.
You can listen to her radio piece or read a transcript here.
As Eurasianet's Nicholas Birch reported yesterday, the Turkish government and military are engaged in a test of strength revolving around the military's efforts to promote a crop of officers that are currently accused of being involved in alleged coup plot.
This is part of a larger struggle that's being played out, with the government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) trying to clip the wings of the military, which has long had free rein in Turkish politics and which sees itself as the ultimate guardian of Turkey's secular system.
A new report published by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), an Istanbul-based think tank, shines a light on what is an undiminished source of the Turkish military's strength: it's financial, industrial and commercial interests. For example, the Army Solidarity Fund (OYAK), a large holding company controlled by the military, is involved in numerous industrial areas, including making cars in a partnership with Renault.
Perhaps it will take some of the charm of the "It tastes good, that's why we eat it!" response that most people give to the reasons behind why they eat certain traditional foods, but a group of researchers has embarked on a trip along the ancient Silk Road to uncover the "genetics of taste." From a release by Terra Madre, one of the groups behind the expedition:
The researchers will follow the historical journey of Venetian explorer Marco Polo, focusing on a number of topics including the genes that determine sensorial perception and taste, how these influence food preferences, the consequences of climate change on native populations, as well as documenting local food traditions. “We hope to gain a better understanding of genetics of taste and food preferences and their relationships with traditions and health of communities,” lead researcher Paolo Gasparini explained.
The expedition will work its way through the Caucasus and Central Asia, stopping at communities along the way that have managed to maintain traditional food production and cooking methods.
