Illustration by Liz Lee Offset against grey skies and the black uniform of an average Istanbulite bundled against the cold, the bright yellow and turquoise banners of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) bring a hint of the Arab Spring to Taksim Square. Occupying the symbolic heart of a vibrant, modern Turkey, Kurdish demonstrators have gathered to protest a move to ban 12 of their candidates from the Turkish general election – a ripple in an oc...
photo of 2006 P5+1 Meeting from Wikimedia Commons Last week, the second round of the seminal P5+1 (the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany) talks surrounding Iranian uranium enrichment concluded in Baghdad. The powers had met with Iran in April in Istanbul and plan to commune a final time in late June in Moscow. In classic fashion, and altogether unsurprisingly, the outcome of the Baghdad talks seems inconclusive and vague: Russi...
...beyond his control. The United States and the other members of the P5+1 group (the permanent five members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany) are entering “last chance” negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program in Istanbul this week. Even as the United States and its allies demand that the Iranians close the heavily-fortified Fordow nuclear facility and surrender its enriched uranium, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has asserted...
Illustrations by Amalia Rinehart Ever since Egypt’s great Pharaonic dynasties and through the successive apogees of Athens, Rome, and Istanbul, the Mediterranean Sea has been at the world’s political center, constantly in the grip of global powers. Thanks to its geographical position, the Mediterranean basin has played a critical role in commercial and cultural exchanges between mighty Asia, old Europe, and the great new world. However, current...
..., at least in the long run. So, I start off with an examination of Syria. In the past year, Syrian opposition movements have formed an official council against President Bashar al-Assad‘s regime. It is reported that the Istanbul-based council unites various groups, yet the movement still seems to be at a standstill. While this news is both personal and exciting in many ways, it is also one of the most dangerous. Syria’s and the Greater Lev...
Three years ago, 17-year-old Ogün Samast entered the upscale Sisli district of Istanbul, Turkey, wearing a white beret and carrying a gun. He turned onto the street of Sebat Sokak, reached the publishing house of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, and waited. Moments later, when the newspaper’s editor-in-chief Hrant Dink stepped out, Samast shot him dead in broad daylight. Dink’s assassination on January 19, 2007, was but one tragic...
...r I will go over there and say ‘No, it wasn’t genocide.’ Then I will come back here and say ‘Yes, it was genocide’ and I’ll just wait and see which country arrests me first.” Three months later, Dink was assassinated in Istanbul. That a figure as conciliatory as Dink could be targeted by fanatic nationalists shocked the country. Thousands marched at his funeral with banners proclaiming, “We are all Armenian,” expressing solidarity with the...
...n it an upper hand in international diplomacy, renewed reason to maintain relations with the Middle East, and the welcomed status of a vital partner for the West. Starting in 1453 and for almost five hundred years afterwards, Istanbul was the seat of power for an empire that maintained accord between Jews, Muslims and Christians in the Holy Land. But since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the founding of modern Turkey in 1923, the secular Turki...
Follow us at
Like us on
Recent Comments