Democratic Turkey may at times be touted as a model for the Middle East to follow, but, when it comes to Turkish prisons, there is little that ranks as exemplary, rights watchdogs say.
After more than 28 years of fighting and an estimated 40,000 dead, the Turkish government has been reportedly holding new talks with Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the PKK, with an aim to end the long-standing conflict.
Justin Vela is a freelance reporter based in Istanbul.
In Turkey, it is not just the cost and questionable necessity of massive government development projects that are giving citizens pause. It is also what critics charge is the undemocratic way the city of Istanbul is being transformed without local input.
Court proceedings are dragging on in Turkey for 44 Kurdish media workers accused of supporting terrorism. While human rights groups say the trial, which opened in September, is an attempt to clamp down on free speech, the Turkish government maintains that some of the defendants are not actually journalists, but propagandists.
The face of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic, is seen in the process of being tattooed on a man's leg at Istanbul's first tattoo convention, which was held September 15-16. The owner of the tattoo stepped outside for a cigarette in the middle of getting the inking on his upper leg.
Images of Ataturk and his signature are popular tattoos for Turks, who want to express their belief in his secular ideals. Often, tattoo artists will give Ataturk tattoos for free on November 10, the anniversary of his death.
Many tattoo artists say the permanent ink image of Ataturk has become more popular recently as Turkey's ruling Islamist-based Justice and Development Party (AKP) gives fresh importance to religion in Turkish society.
Justin Vela is a freelance reporter based in Istanbul.
As Turks debate the pros and cons of more traditional versus more liberal social values, one subject remains off the table -- sexuality and sex education.
The bulbous brass samovar on a table in the Tatar-Turkish village of Osmaniye is definitely not a historic relic. Nearly 120 years after its arrival in Turkey from Russia, villagers say it is one of the few links left to their Tatar homeland in the Volga River.
An Alawite woman prays in a shrine in Samandag, Turkey on July 13. Alawites, who in Turkey are sometimes called Arab Alevis, compose a small minority in the country. Alawites in Samandag said that the support of Turkey's ruling Sunni Justice and Development Party (AKP) for Syrian rebels seeking to topple the Alawite-dominated Assad regime in Syria has marginalized Alawites in the country.
Justin Vela is a freelance reporter based in Istanbul.
Nearly 90 years after its transformation from provincial market town to capital city, Ankara, to most foreign tourists, still remains in the cultural shadow of Turkey’s snazzy, onetime Ottoman capital, Istanbul. Yet as Turkey reconsiders everything from the role of the military to the role of Islamic beliefs, a revaluation of Ankara’s role in the country’s modern art scene is also gaining pace.
For decades, the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Republic of Turkey’s first president, has served as the country’s guiding force. Yet, amidst an unprecedented debate on the role of secularism, has Turkey begun to steer away from Atatürk?
