Turkish soap operas are getting more popular in Greece
Starting with the big success of Foreign Groom (Yabanci Damat) a few years ago, Turkish soap operas have been getting increasingly more popular in Greece. Following the Foreign Groom, Binbir Gece (1001 Nights) was shown from October 2009 on and broke the record by drawing 1.1 million Greek viewers each day. Even on the first day of the World Cup, Binbir Gece captured 30.5 percent of viewers, overshadowing the opening game between France and Uruguay – the first time that a soap opera ever beat the ratings of a soccer match in Greece. In the winter season, additional Turkish soap operas, Forbidden Love (Ask-i Memnu) and Silver (Gumus), will start broadcasting on Greek channels.
The strong interest of Greek viewers in Turkish soap operas is seen as the indication of strong similarity between Greek and Turkish cultures by many. The rapprochement that started between Greece and Turkey in 1999 turned the two countries once enemies into strategic partners. During Turkish Prime Minister’s last visit, Turkey and Greece had a joint cabinet meeting and formed a High Level Cooperation Council between the two countries.
Turkish Music Concert in Central Park
The countdown has started for this weekend’s Turkish music concert at Central Park Summerstage. The concert, which the Turkish American community has been looking forward to after last year’s successful first concert, will start at 3:00 pm on Saturday, July 3rd and will feature some famous singers and bands from Turkey, including Kenan Dogulu, Duman, Ilhan Ersahin and Sukriye Tutkun. Last year’s concert was a huge success with close to 7,000 Turkish music fans and most people sang with Mazhar Fuat Ozkan for hours despite the pouring rain.
Istanbulive II, the official name of this year’s concert organization, presented by Serdar Ilhan and Mehmet Dede, is intended to bring the sounds and colors of Istanbul, the 2010 European Capital of Culture, to New York. Please check out the below given website for more information on Istanbulive II:
Turkish Economy Rebounding Despite The Eurozone
Turkish economy is rebounding better than expectations, despite the growing problems in the Eurozone. After four consecutive quarters of contraction, the first signs of a strong recovery showed itself with 6% GDP growth in the last quarter of 2009. The first quarter of 2010 does look even more promising for the Turkish economy with some analyst growth forecasts of up to %15, making it the second fastest growing economy after that of China among the G-20 countries. The unemployment rate, the biggest challenge for the Turkish economy, has been on a sharp decline from 16.5% in January 2009 down to 14.4% in February 2010, resulting in creation of roughly 1,5 million new jobs.
Even though the percentage of bilateral trade volume with the Eurozone countries went down to 43% from over 50% a while ago, the Turkish economy is still heavily influenced by what happens in the Eurozone. The AKP government’s attempts to reach out to Russia, currently Turkey’s largest trading partner, the Middle East and Africa are paying back in terms of sharply higher trade and greater investment, and Turkey is achieving increasingly more economic integration with its newly found partners every day. Hence, Turkish economy’s vulnerability to the bumps in the Eurozone is decreasing and the country is becoming more of a global player, thanks to its strengthening economy. What is really helping this picture are the solid and liquid state of the Turkish banking system and the low debt ratio of the public sector: The Turkish public sector debt constitutes 49% of Turkey’s GDP, whereas this number reaches an average of 84% in the Eurozone countries. As a reflection of this strong recovery, the Turkish lira is attracting bullish recommendations against the dollar in 2010, with forecasts ranging between 6% to 12%. The Turkish currency has gained 2.4 % last month, the best performance among 26 emerging market currencies.
As a result, IMF raised its forecast for 2010 Turkish economic growth from 3.7% in October to 5.2% in April. Similarly, Goldman Sachs revised its growth forecast for 2010 from 5.5% to 7.0%.
29th Annual NYC Turkish Day Parade: No Parade in 2010
New York Turkish Day Parade
This year’s Turkish Day Parade will be held only as a festival in Manhattan’s Dag Hammerjskold Park on Sunday, May 23. Different than every other year, there will be no parade this year. The festivities in Dag Hammerjskold Park will start at 12:00 noon on Sunday and several prominent singers from Turkey will take stage during the festivities. Among the special guests from Turkey, there will be the Turkish national soccer team, Turkish and Azerbaijani folk dance troupes, pop singer Serdar Ortac and the Ottoman military band (Mehter Takimi).
Turkish Day Parade usually takes place on the third or the fourth Saturday of every May, however, it was rescheduled to Sunday this year, as the Turkish national soccer team was scheduled to play against the Czech Republic team on Saturday, May 22nd. The parade part was then canceled, as Sunday, May 23 is the designated day for the Israeli parade, and it was instead planned as a full day festival in the Dag Hammerjskold Park in Manhattan. The city doesn’t allow more than one parade on the same day in Manhattan for security reasons.
Turkish Russian Relations: A Rapprochement with Global Importance
Turkish – Russian relations in the fast lane: Russian President Medvedev’s recent Turkey visit marked an important cornerstone in Russian – Turkish relations. With the signing of 17 agreements during his visit, the rapprochement between the two countries in the recent years elevated the bi-lateral relations to the strategic partnership level. This is especially remarkable, when one thinks of the numerous bloody wars between the two nations in the last few centuries. Not to mention the different camps that the two neighboring countries were in during the Cold War, Turkey being the frontier state for the West and feeling the Soviet threat right outside of its borders.
During Medvedev’s visit, Turkey and Russia formed a High Level Cooperation Council and the visa requirement between the two countries was lifted. Officials signed 17 agreements, the most important ones being in the energy and trade fields. Russia is currently Turkey’s largest trading partner with the yearly volume of $ 38 billion (2008) and this number is projected to reach $ 100 billion in the next five years. There are currently nearly 300 Turkish construction companies operating in Russia. In the energy sphere, Russia will build and operate four nuclear reactors in Turkey and a new oil pipeline will be built between Samsun and Ceyhan that will divide Turkey from north to south, connecting the Black Sea with the Mediterranean. There are also plans for building a joint refinery in Ceyhan and joint efforts to market the Russian energy.
Turkish foreign policy aims zero problems with neighbors and one of the main pillars of this policy is economic integration with neighbors. In the past, Turkey lifted visas and formed “High Level Cooperation Councils” with many of its neighbors, including Iraq, Syria, Jordan, the Gulf States and Greece. Bulgaria and Ukraine are also expected to be added to this list soon. High Level Cooperation Councils are official bodies formed by high level officials of two governments and meet more than once a year under the supervision of prime ministers to find ways to improve the level of cooperation between two countries. Some of these meetings also include joint cabinet meetings.
This strategic partnership between Turkey and Russia has a significant importance, as both countries are members of the G-20 and follow active policies in the Middle East as well as in the the Eurasian basin. More noteworthy than the two regional powers pursuing similar policies in major regional issues, including the Iranian nuclear standoff and the Middle East conflict, is the fact that this cooperation in the energy field may change the balances in the energy game.
Although Turkey’s global geopolitical importance will increase because of its strengthened energy hub position, on the down side, the country will be more and more dependent on Russian energy. Turkey currently buys 62% of its gas and 35% of its oil from Russia, and with the new Russian nuclear reactor, the country will be 100% dependent on Russia in nuclear energy.
Turkish Soap Operas Draw Thousands to Istanbul
- Turkish Gümüş became a hit in Bulgaria
The staggering popularity of the Turkish soap operas in Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans draw thousands of Arab, Bulgarian, Iranian and Greek tourists to Istanbul. Tour operators organize special tours to the venues in wealthy neighborhoods of Istanbul, where the series are filmed.
The overwhelming popularity of the first Turkish soap opera ” Yabancı Damat ” (Foreign Groom) in Greece in 2005 was followed by Dubai-based MBC’s interest in Turkish soap operas. Now, 18 different Turkish series are watched by millions in 22 different countries from Kazakhstan to Algeria, increasing the interest for Turkey and the Turkish culture.
“Perla” (i.e. “Pearl”) – the name of the most popular Turkish soap opera in Bulgaria so far (known in Turkey as Gümüş) – was the number one word Bulgarians entered in Internet search engines in 2009.
Turkish Economy Shining Despite The Global Crisis
New York based Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has been the fourth international credit agency raising Turkey’s credit rating in the last three months despite the global crisis. S&P said on Friday that it raised Turkey’s long term foreign currency and local currency sovereign credit ratings to BB and BB+ respectively. S&P cited Turkish economy’s strong track record in steadily reducing the debt burden over the past decade and said it believes Turkey’s banking system to be one of the strongest and least-leveraged in Eastern Europe. S&P also noted that the outlook on the ratings is positive, reflecting the possibility of another upgrade over the next 12-24 months.
During a period in which only 14 countries had a credit rating upgrade, S&P has been the fourth international credit organization raising the long term credit rating of the Turkish economy. Recently New York based Moody’s, Paris based Fitch and Tokyo based Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) also upgraded Turkey’s long term credit ratings. “40 countries including Russia, Mexico, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland had their credit ratings recently downgraded by the international credit rating organizations and it is a great success for the Turkish economy to be among the few strong economies of the world despite the global crisis”, said Turkish Economy Minister Ali Babacan yesterday. “We are in a better shape than our ratings suggest and we can see another upgrade in the near future”, he added.
Turkish economy is the world’s 17th and Europe’s 6th largest economy and has been on a fast growth track in the last decade. Turkey’s “zero problems with neighbors” principle of its new foreign policy helped boost the trade with neighbors and diversified its trading partners. Turks are inspired to have one of the world’s top 10 largest economies by 2023.
Secret Turkey: Six Hidden Holiday Spots
Published in the Times on February 20, 2010
Annabelle Thorpe
Talking Turkey’s lesser-known delights, from a hillside Turkish village to a car-free island
FARALYA
Twenty minutes beyond the bling and bright lights of Oludeniz (Fethiye), the hillside village of Faralya feels like another world. The road winds along beside the sea before climbing vertiginously and snaking around the edge of Butterfly Valley, a sheer-sided gash in the mountain with a beautiful, boat-accessible beach at the bottom.
Faralya is the sort of village where the shops are still vine-clad shacks offering pide (Turkish flatbreads) and çorba (soup), and there’s a giddy, merciful lack of neon.
A good range of places to stay includes simple backpacker pensions to a couple of stylish boutique hotels (don’t let this put you off, there really isn’t much else). The Lycian Way, a long-distance walking route, runs through the village and there are other waymarked trails from its center.
There’s good kayaking potential and it’s worth keeping an eye out for dolphins — a local pod has taken a shine to Faralya’s quiet waters and often glide by in the mornings and evenings.
SELIMIYE AND SOGUT
The western side of the Bozburun peninsula is a world away from the busy beaches and bright lights of Turunc and Icmeler (Marmaris) on the eastern side. One road weaves its way up the coastline through sleepy hamlets such as Selimiye and Sogut, where simple waterfront restaurants serve fish caught each morning.
There is little to do here but laze by the sea, watch the sunsets and stroll up to one of the restaurants for dinner, so hiring a car to explore inland is a good idea. The peninsula offers some good walking and the small village of Bayir, with a delightful church and shady tea garden, is worth a visit.
If you’re looking for a lazy beach day, head for the eastern side to the long sandy bay at Kumlubuk where there’s a chic beach club, open only to Exclusive Escape guests. A scattering of wild and untended ancient sites — Amos, Loryma and Physkos — adds to the overall unspoilt feel.
AKYAKA
While not completely off the mainstream track, Akyaka retains a beautiful, tranquil feel, mostly because of its riverside location. It also remains a favorite destination of holidaying Turks, who come to eat at the fish restaurants, with terraces on the banks of the river, and to walk through pine woods to the small beaches.
The beach, ideal for young families as the water is shallow and clear, has a few low-key bars and restaurants. Akyaka is also ideally located for exploring the more authentic side of Turkey; 40 minutes over the mountain lies the regional capital of Mugla, with a delightful old quarter and one of the best markets in the area (on Thursdays).
Forget Turkish delight and apple tea, buy wrought-iron lamps, hand-dyed fabrics, and fresh fruit and veg before stopping at one of the roadside cafés for the best chicken kebab you’ll ever taste.
SOVALYE
The bay of Fethiye is one of the most beautiful parts of Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, and staying on a car-free island surrounded by mountain scenery is an unforgettable Turkey experience. Sovalye, ten minutes across the water from the busy resort town of Fethiye, has one small hotel and a clutch of private residences dotted between the sand and shingle coves.
Staying here is about living at a slower pace: pottering around the tracks that criss-cross the island, paddling over submerged houses and city walls in a canoe and exploring the remains of a Crusader castle. Fethiye has a delightful old quarter, with great restaurants.
BEZIRGAN
Once an atmospheric, pretty fishing village, Kalkan has grown into a big resort and, although the old town retains its charms, it’s a place to dip in and out of rather than to stay put in. Take your lead from the local people and stay in Bezirgan, an unspoilt farming village about 15 minutes’ drive inland.
It’s a world away from the bright lights and busy streets of Kalkan: ramshackle cottages, lush farmlands and quiet lanes, watched over by forest-clad mountains. There’s no luxury , but if you want a real sense of escape, and to watch local people going about their lives as they have done for centuries, this is the place to be.
There’s only one place to stay — Owlsland, run by Erol, whose farm has been in the family for generations, and his Scottish wife, Pauline. The rooms are rustic, the breakfasts hearty and days are filled with walking, lazing with a good book or hopping into your hire car for the short journey to the stunning beach at Kaputas, or Kalkan itself. Blissful.
ORTAKENT
The long peninsula that stretches from the busy resort of Bodrum has remained surprisingly unspoilt. The sparkling coastline is scattered with small, bougainvillea-clad villages that mix simple agricultural cottages with elegant villas, the holiday homes of Turks from Istanbul and Izmir.
Ortakent, in the middle of the peninsula, has one of the best beaches in the area, separated from the village by a strip of market gardens, lush with fig, mandarin and olive trees. It is known for its tower houses, built in the 17th century to defend the village. It’s easy to spend a week here, reading and lazing on the beach and trying out the different restaurants. But if you fancy the bright lights, Bodrum is only a short dolmus ride away.
Istanbul: From the Orient Express to European 2010 Capital of Culture
Published in Daily Mail on February 14, 2010
The most expensive gin-and-tonics in Istanbul, the crown of Turkey, are served in a poorly-lit hotel bar unchanged since Greta Garbo, Agatha Christie and Ernest Hemingway haunted the Pera Palas.
The quirky Palas opened in 1892 as the first hotel built in Istanbul for Europeans. Its horse-drawn carriages would meet the Orient Express as it steamed in below the Turkish sultan’s palace at Topkapi.
Spies such as Graham Greene and Mata Hari also out in the bar with dispossessed Russian emigrés and professional intriguers.
Today, the Turkish city has expanded rapidly to become an economic and cultural powerhouse - and now it’s being honoured as European 2010 Capital of Culture.
In the backstreets of Pera, less has altered. As I dive between the time-blackened houses that line the streets of the old diplomatic quarter, there are still puddles in potholes and housewives hoisting home deliveries up in rope baskets, the smell of sweet apple tea wafting from their doorways.
The Crimea Memorial Church (built to honour British soldiers who died despite Florence Nightingale’s best endeavours) is still hidden away behind a mosque in Serdar Ekrem Sokak.
This very British church, designed by George Street, architect of London’s Royal Courts of Justice, was only rediscovered in the Eighties. And yet it’s just off Istiklal Caddesi, the trendiest shopping street in Istanbul, the fashion powerhouse of modern Turkey.
The artSumer Gallery, which opened in September, is the place for cutting-edge contemporary Turkish painting while 360 Istanbul is one of the city’s most fashionable restaurants because of its uninterupted 360-degree view over the whole city.
You get the same panorama from the 200 ft-tall Galata Tower that dominates this side of the Golden Horn, the famous inlet of the Bosphorus that cuts into the European side of this city.
It was built by the Genoese who held Pera as an independent colony until 1453 when the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul.
Istanbul has a ‘Big Five’ - Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar, Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and the Great Cistern - and these should not be missed.
Then there are the Lesser Five - Galata Tower is one - the Crimea Church and the restaurants under the Galata Bridge and others.
Until recently, Galata Bridge was on of the few places you could eat in Istanbul and get a view of the Bosphorus.
The old city turned its back on the water but now there is Aqua, the restaurant at the new Four Seasons Bosphorus. There’s also Angelique further north along the Bosphorus, which serves the best Asian fusion food in this city.
But I head past the colourful, musty Spice Market, another 16th-century structure where visitors should call in to shake hands with a caviar salesman called ‘Al Pacino Turco’.
On a side street called Bahcekapi, in 1777, an immigrant to Istanbul called Haci Bekir created the dish that was to make him famous.
Bekir called his soft, sweet cubes lokum and they proved so popular that Sultan Abdulhamid appointed him Royal Confectioner. When we English discovered lokum in the 19th century, we renamed the heavenly product ‘turkish delight’.
Haci Bekir’s family still runs the shop, and always offers you a taste as you enter. I’m unable to resist. A delight indeed.
Can’t take the Ottoman out of the Balkans
For some Macedonians, this is just a mirage. Skopje's Turkish quarter (Photo: Ranopamas)
Five centuries of Turkish domination left their mark on culture, cuisine, language and even gestures in Balkan countries. It is an influence that is still apparent in attitudes that have affected the pace of integration in the European Union for a number of Balkan states.
For the most part, Balkan scholars tend to overlook the influence of Ottoman heritage on contemporary Balkan identities. In so doing they are largely aligned with public opinion in the Balkans, which also prefers to minimize the significance of an Ottoman legacy that is nonetheless omnipresent. Maria Todorova, author of Imagining the Balkans (Oxford University Press, 1997), has sparked controversy by accusing official historians and other Balkan state sanctioned academics of disguising the truth about the region’s Ottoman past and heritage, which is often denied or perceived with disdain. In her native Bulgaria, where “Turkish subjugation” is the only officially sanctioned term for the Ottoman era, Todorova goes even further to suggest that it is no longer a question of studying “the Ottoman legacy in the Balkans,” but rather of studying the “the Ottoman legacy that is the Balkans.” And as a starting point, she proposes the etymology of the word “balkan,” which comes from the Turkish for “wooded mountain.”
This heritage is perceptible on every level of social interaction. For example, in political life, it is expressed by an exclusively extra-institutional approach to problem solving (pazarlık – bargaining). Then there is the absence of an indigenous cultural elite. In all of the regions of the Ottoman empire, elites were mainly composed of intellectuals who had been educated abroad: a situation that remained relatively unchanged when the different nations of the empire finally obtained their independence. At the same time, the lack of a local bourgeoisie or aristocracy, and the failure to industrialize that characterized the Ottoman era continued to contribute to the economic weakness of Balkan countries well into the 20th century.
Centuries of Turkish power have left their mark
The Ottoman era has also left extensive traces in everyday customs and gestures that figure large in our cultural codes. Along with the wealth of Turkisms in our speech, our non-verbal discourse is marked by distinctive “post-Ottoman” tropes that are completely incomprehensible to Westerners. In particular, they are astonished by well defined abrupt gestures like spitting to show disappointment or indignation (which is often highlighted with a loud shout of Yazık ! – “calamity”) and are immune to the subtleties of Oriental body language e.g. leaning heavily on one knee to show one is serious. Cuisine is another area in daily life which has no shortage of Turkish influences: sarma (stuffed vine or cabbage leaves), moussaka, tourlitava (ratatouille) and börek savoury pastries are first and foremost Oriental specialities. We drink Turkish coffee and we love baklavas, touloumbas, boza and other Ottoman sweets. And lets not forget the preponderant role of the kafeana in determining public opinion in cities and small villages, which makes it radically different from a restaurant or a bar in the Western world.
If we indulge in a little introspection, it is easy to cite several other examples: patriarchy, corruption, judiciaries controlled by political and financial elites, the black economy and the systematic recourse to bargaining are typical of Ottoman culture. Such is the deep rooted influence of five and half centuries of Turkish power and presence in our cultures that it has had a unique and not wholly beneficial impact on our progress towards the liberal Western model. It has also created an enduring obsession with defining characteristics of the Ottoman empire, which is why — at a time, when everyone uses the internet and speaks English as second language — debate is still focused on the opportunity to build new mosques and churches.