In the 19th century, the Orient Express began carrying passengers from Paris to Istanbul. Its final stop was at Istanbul’s most important hotel of the era—Pera Palas—where Agatha Christie famously wrote her novel Murder on the Orient Express. After watching the Netflix series about the Pera Palas, memories of my
On one side, we have our women’s national volleyball team—world champions and consistently ranked among the top—and Zeynep Sönmez, who won her first WTA title just last week. On the other side, there’s the world of Turkish men’s football, where insults fly freely, failure is hidden behind PR spin, and
When we look beyond the ceremonies prepared for the 100th Anniversary of our Republic on 29 October 29 and look at the bigger picture, the question, “Is the Republic where it should be 100 years after its founding?” is important for all of us. In this article, I will address
The placement of over 2,000 fanatics in the lodges during a very serious period of the pandemic, using the privileged permission of healthcare workers, the unspeakable curses they uttered throughout the game, the federation president’s statement that “we conducted a trial,” and the Fenerbahçe president’s silence revealed the state of
Last April, I wrote an article entitled Our country’s English name should be ‘Turkia.’ Following this article, I received a wide range of reactions, mostly messages of support but also criticism. Today, I’m pleased to see that ‘Turkia’ is starting to appear not only in articles but also on products,
While I believe that Turkey’s biggest problem is education, I also believe that the prejudiced and narrow-minded majority within the educated segment, who fail to develop themselves, their horizons, or their knowledge, and who fail to keep up with the times, are equally part of the problem. Some of the
I have previously written various articles about the content and ideal duration of my duties as Honorary Consul of Costa Rica, which I have held since 2008, and I have shared my views on potential innovations and potential foreclosures. At this point, I would like to share current developments that
Last week, I delivered the opening speech at the Urban Transformation Roundtable, which we’d been planning since the beginning of the year. In my opening presentation at 10 a.m., I discussed my area of expertise, ‘Ecological Buildings,’ a key component of sustainability. The announcement of this event was posted on
As the Basic Needs Association, we opened our second Support Market last week in one of Istanbul’s most needed areas. In line with our “umbrella organization” mission, we are updating the definition of food banking and creating a pioneering model that is economically and socially sustainable. When we founded our
