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The best food they ate in 2015

December 17, 2015, 7:40 am
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Mavi Boncuk |

2 out of 32 from Turkey.


From Guardian Observer | The best food they ate in 2015
top chefs and food writers share their favourite meals this year
Source

Çiya Sofrasi and Kadiköy market, Istanbul
René Redzepi
Chef-patron, Noma, Copenhagen

Walking through Kadiköy market in Istanbul you see dried aubergines hanging from stalls, dried chilli peppers and fresh dürüm, and Turkish tea being poured all throughout. You hear street merchants calling out their catch of the day, maybe a bag of sardines, turbot from the Black Sea or a kilo of mussels. I was there en route to Çiya, in the heart of this picturesque market. Çiya to me embodies the perfect restaurant: full of tradition but not afraid of innovating, with a generous and welcoming space. The meal is a cornucopia of all there is to offer from Anatolia – lamb stewed with dried cherries, chopped parsley with vinegar, rice cooked with raisins and fistfuls of whole spices... I would happily put myself on a plane just to go and have lunch there on a beautiful spring day.

Lamb köfte at Sultanahmet Köftecisi, Istanbul
Karam Sethi
Chef-patron, Gymkhana, Trishna, London

I went to Istanbul for the first time this year and ate at a place called Sultanahmet Köftecisi. After visiting the Blue Mosque nearby, we saw the big queue outside and decided to find out what was going on. They specialise in lamb köftes grilled very simply over charcoal and served with bread, pickled chillies and their house chilli paste. We ordered one and ended up having six. It’s tough to find something so succulent and juicy and flavourful. I think it’s down to the quality and fat content of the meat, and that they serve them hot off the grill, so you can still taste the charcoal. They’ve mastered the recipe over years and years. It’s the ultimate kebab.

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EU Watch | Table manners

December 17, 2015, 10:25 am
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Academy Awards | Go Mustang Go

December 18, 2015, 6:49 am
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"Mustang" made it "Sivas" the nominated entry for Turkey did not.

Mavi Boncuk |

Nine features will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 88th Academy Awards®.  Eighty films had originally been considered in the category.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

     Belgium, "The Brand New Testament," Jaco Van Dormael, director;

     Colombia, "Embrace of the Serpent," Ciro Guerra, director;

     Denmark, "A War," Tobias Lindholm, director;

     Finland, "The Fencer," Klaus Härö, director;

     France, "Mustang," Deniz Gamze Ergüven, director;

     Germany, "Labyrinth of Lies," Giulio Ricciarelli, director;

     Hungary, "Son of Saul," László Nemes, director;

     Ireland, "Viva," Paddy Breathnach, director;

     Jordan, "Theeb," Naji Abu Nowar, director.

Foreign Language Film nominations for 2015 are being determined in two phases.

The Phase I committee, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based Academy members, screened the original submissions in the category between mid-October and December 14.  The group’s top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, constitute the shortlist.

The shortlist will be winnowed down to the category’s five nominees by specially invited committees in New York, Los Angeles and London.  They will spend Friday, January 8, through Sunday, January 10, viewing three films each day and then casting their ballots.

The 88th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 14, 2016, at 5:30 a.m. PT at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
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Top 10 street food Istanbul has to offer

December 18, 2015, 9:06 am
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Mavi Boncuk |
Top 10 street food Istanbul has to offer

Sometimes a luxurious restaurant won't just beat the ready-to-eat food sold by a street vendor. Here are the best 10 street food Istanbul has to offer

1. Döner, also known as gyro, or shawarma, is one of the most popular choices especially for students as it is sold at relatively affordable prices and has a good taste. You can find one of the best döner Istanbul has to offer at Karadeniz Dönercisi in Beşiktaş district.

 2. The best place to go to taste spiced mutton liver is undoubtedly the Manifaturacılar (drapers) Bazaar in Unkapanı district. There are many street vendors over there and no luxurious restaurant can beat the taste.

3. The best places to have fish sandwiches in Istanbul are Eminönü and Karaköy. You can stop by the floating boats on the Golden Horn to enjoy a nice sandwich with preferably pickle juice.

4. Known as 'içli köfte' in Turkish, Kibbeh is one of the masterpieces of Turkish cuisine. You can find the best kibbeh of Istanbul in the entrance of Danışman alleyway on the famous Istiklal Avenue.

5. You should also try the best meatballs of Istanbul, especially sold by Street vendors in Beşiktaş and Mecidiyeköy districts.

6. Best kokoretsi ('kokoreç' in Turkish) in Istanbul can be enjoyed in Çengelköy district on the Asian side and Tepebaşı district on the European side.

7. Kumpir, or baked potato is a reminder of famous Ortaköy district on the Bosphorus. Street vendors in Ortaköy offer the best kumpir you can find in Istanbul.


8. You can enjoy the freshest stuffed mussels in stalls around the Zincirlikuyu metrobus stop and Kadıköy square.

9. Rice, one of the classics and fundamentals of Turkish cuisine, is a street favorite. You can prefer ayran (yogurt drink), chilli pickles with traditional rice with chicken, dried beans or chickpeas as toppings. You may stop by the vendors in Manifaturacılar Bazaar to enjoy a nice plate of rice with a wide range of choices.

10. You can find Street vendors selling corn on the cob around Istanbul. You can choose to eat it either boiled or roasted, salted or unsalted.

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Word origin | Ordu, asker, milis

December 18, 2015, 12:29 pm
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Mavi Boncuk |

Ordu:Army[1], militia [2]

TR, AZ: ordu, Kazakh, Kirgiz, Uygur: armiya, Tatar: gaskar, Uzbek: go'shin. 

horde (n.) 1550s, "tribe of Asiatic nomads living in tents," from West Turkic (compare Tatar urda "horde," Turkish ordu "camp, army"), borrowed into English via Polish, French, or Spanish. OED says the initial -h- seems to have been acquired in Polish. Transferred sense of "any uncivilized gang" is from 1610s. Related: Hordes.


Asker: soldier EN [3] [ Dede Korkut Kitabı, 1400] Tekür daχı ˁaskerini cem edüp [ordusunu toplayıp] karşu çıkdılar AR ˁaskar عسكر  Persian laşkar لشكرordu, leşker

[1] Army (n.)  late 14c., "armed expedition," from Old French armée (14c.) "armed troop, armed expedition," from Medieval Latin armata "armed force," from Latin armata, fem. of armatus "armed, equipped, in arms," past participle of armare "to arm," literally "act of arming," related to arma "tools, arms". Originally used of expeditions on sea or land; the specific meaning "land force" first recorded 1786. Transferred meaning "host, multitude" is c. 1500.

The Old English words were here (still preserved in derivatives like harrier), from PIE *kor- "people, crowd;" and fierd, with an original sense of "expedition," from faran "travel." In spite of etymology, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, here generally meant "invading Vikings" and fierd was used for the local militias raised to fight them.

arm (n.2) "weapon," c. 1300, armes (plural) "weapons of a warrior," from Old French armes (plural), "arms, war, warfare," mid-13c., from Latin arma "weapons" (including armor), literally "tools, implements (of war)," from PIE root *ar- "fit, join" (see arm (n.1)). The notion seems to be "that which is fitted together." Meaning "heraldic insignia" (in coat of arms, etc.) is early 14c.; originally they were borne on shields of fully armed knights or barons.

arm (n.1)  "upper limb," Old English earm "arm," from Proto-Germanic *armaz (cognates: Old Saxon, Danish, Swedish, Middle Dutch, German arm, Old Norse armr, Old Frisian erm), from PIE root *ar- "fit, join" (cognates: Sanskrit irmah "arm," Armenian armukn "elbow," Old Prussian irmo "arm," Greek arthron "a joint," Latin armus "shoulder"). Arm of the sea was in Old English. Arm-twister "powerful persuader" is from 1938. Arm-wrestling is from 1899.
They wenten arme in arme yfere Into the gardyn [Chaucer]

[2] Militia (n.) 1580s, "system of military discipline," from Latin militia "military service, warfare," from miles "soldier" (see military). Sense of "citizen army" (as distinct from professional soldiers) is first recorded 1690s, perhaps from a sense in French cognate milice. In U.S. history, "the whole body of men declared by law amenable to military service, without enlistment, whether armed and drilled or not" (1777).

Military (adj.) Look up military at Dictionary.com
mid-15c., from Middle French militaire (14c.), from Latin militaris "of soldiers or war, of military service, warlike," from miles (genitive militis) "soldier," of unknown origin, perhaps ultimately from Etruscan, or else meaning "one who marches in a troop," and thus connected to Sanskrit melah "assembly," Greek homilos "assembled crowd, throng." Related: Militarily. Old English had militisc, from Latin. Military-industrial complex coined 1961 in farewell speech of U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower.

[3]Soldier (v.) "to serve as a soldier," 1640s, from soldier (n.). Related: Soldiered; soldiering. To soldier on "persist doggedly" is attested from 1954. 

Soldier (n.) c. 1300, souder, from Old French soudier, soldier "one who serves in the army for pay," from Medieval Latin soldarius "a soldier" (source also of Spanish soldado, Italian soldato), literally "one having pay," from Late Latin soldum, extended sense of accusative of Latin solidus, name of a Roman gold coin. From Late Latin solidus worth about 25 denarii[*] (“an imperial gold coin, in Medieval Latin applied to various coins, also any piece of money”). 

[*] The word denarius is derived from the Latin dēnī "containing ten", as its value was 10 asses[**], although in the middle of the 2nd century BC it was recalibrated so that it was now worth sixteen asses or four sestertii. It is the origin of several modern words such as the currency name dinar; it is also the origin for the common noun for money in Italian denaro, in Portuguese dinheiro and in Spanish dinero.
[**] The as (plural asses), also assarius (rendered into Greek as ἀσσάριον, assarion) was a bronze, and later copper, coin used during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire.

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Turkey in Turkic Languages

December 18, 2015, 12:32 pm
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The Ottoman Imperial Yachts

December 18, 2015, 3:24 pm
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Mavi Boncuk |

The Imperial Ottoman Government and the Republic of Turkey has used many yachts for its Head of State. These include:

The Imperial Yacht, Tesrifiye  (pictured)
The Imperial Yacht, Teşrifiye, designated for the imperial riding / Abdullah Frères, Constantinople. Library of Congress



The Imperial Yacht, İzzeddin (pictured)

The Imperial Yacht, Sultaniye (pictured)[1]


The Imperial Yacht, Talia (pictured)



The Imperial Yacht, Ertuğrul[2]

Presidential

Yacht Savarona [3]– The current Turkish Presidential Yacht; prior to 2010 privately leased while her replacement (below) was in development

New Presidential Yacht – The Turkish Government has currently commissioned a new 50 m yacht for the personal use of the President and visiting Heads of State. Details of this new yacht first surfaced in September, 2008. The yacht is being built at the Istanbul Naval Yard, Pendik, Istanbul and is reported to have a ballistic hull, surface-to-air missiles and high-tech equipment.

[1] Sultaniye Yatı İmalatçı:Mare,İngiltere İnşa:1852 Ağırlık:3095 ton Boy:119,2 m En:12,2 m Su Çekimi:4,8 m Motor Gücü:750 HP Hız:15 knot Yakıt:300 ton kömür Personel:140 Silahlar:2x120 mm ve 2x37 mm top Osmanlı Devlet Yatı.1852 yılında,İngiltere'de Feyz-i Cihad ismiyle inşa edilmiştir.Tek bacalı,yandan çarklı ve büyük kısmı tahta olan bu yat,1862'deki tadilatları takiben,Mısır Hidivi İsmail Paşa tarafından,Osmanlı Padişahı Abdülaziz'e hediye edilmiştir.Genellikle devlet gezilerinde kullanılan bu yat,1905 yılında,eskidiğinden dolayı hizmet dışı bırakılmıştır.Ne yazık ki 1912 yılının Ekim ayında,İtalyan Savaş Gemilerinin,İzmir Limanı'na girmelerini önlemek amacıyla içine taş doldurularak,Yenikale geçidinde batırıldı. 

[2] Sultan II. Abdülhamid hükümranlığı sırasında ne karada, ne de denizde uzun yolculuklar yaptı. Sadece Ramazan aylarının on beşinde Hırka-i Şerif ziyaretlerine, Beşiktaş’tan denizyolu ile gitmeyi daha güvenlikli bulurdu. 1903 yılında, İngiltere’ye Ertuğrul Yatı sipariş edildi. İnşası kısa zamanda tamamlanan gemi, aynı yılın sonunda, 30 Aralık günü düzenlenen bir resmi törenle denize indirildi.Önce II. Abdülhamid, ardından V. Mehmed Reşat ve en sonunda VI. Mehmed Vahdeddin olmak üzere üç sultan döneminde hizmet veren gemi, I. Dünya Savaşı sırasında 1915 yılı içinde, donanma hizmetine alınarak Gelibolu’ya cephane ve kargo taşımakla görevlendirildi. 1916’da Ertuğrul bu görev sırasında küçük bir kaza geçirerek, Haydarpaa önünde karaya oturduysa da kısa sürede tekrar yüzdürüldü. Ertuğrul, mütareke ile savaşın sona ermesinin ardından yat niteliğine geri döndü ve işgal yılları da dahil 1919-1924 yılları arasında İstanbul’da yattı.

[3]The MV Savarona is the Presidential yacht of the Republic of Turkey reserved for the use of the President of Turkey. She was the largest in the world when launched in 1931, and remains, with a length of 136 m (446 ft), one of the world’s longest. Although owned by the government of Turkey, she had been briefly leased out to Turkish businessman Kahraman Sadıkoğlu. However, upon orders of the Turkish Government her lease was terminated and she reverted to the Turkish State. The MV Savarona is now the State Yacht of the Republic of Turkey and reserved for the use of the President. The first time she was used again for an official reception was in March 2015. Named for an African swan living in the Indian Ocean, the ship was designed by Gibbs & Cox in 1931 for American heiress Emily Roebling Cadwallader, granddaughter of John A. Roebling, engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge. The ship was built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, Germany. She cost about $4 million ($57 million in 2010 dollars).Equipped with Sperry gyro-stabilizers, she was described in 1949 by Jane's Fighting Ships as "probably the most sumptuously fitted yacht afloat." 

In 1933, the ship was used as a film set while on the North Sea off the German coast. It appeared prominently in the German science-fiction film Gold, starring Hans Albers and Brigitte Helm. The movie premiered in 1934. 

(pivtured) Wills (Bohnen) and Holk (Albers) butting heads in Wills’ floating office on board Savarona.

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Review | Abluka (Frenzy) by Emin Alper

December 21, 2015, 12:10 pm
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Mavi Boncuk |
Venice Screening | Toronto Screening

'Frenzy' ('Abluka'): Venice Review
9/7/2015 by Boyd van Hoeij

Writer-Director: Emin Alper; Production companies: Liman Film, Paprika Films, Insignia Yapim
Cast: Mehmet Uzgur, Berkay Ates, Tulin Ozen, Mufit Kayacan, Ozan Akbara, Fatih Sevdi, Mustafa Kirantepe; Producers: Nadir Operli, Enis Kostepen, Cem Doruk; Co-producers: Laurent Baujard, Dorul Acar, Ture Karahan, Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurentin; Director of photography: Adam Jandrup
Production designer: Ismail Durmaz; Costume designer: Nurten Tinel; Editor: Osman Bayraktaroglu; Music: Cevdet Erek; Casting: Ezgi Baltas; Sales: The Match Factory

Courtesy of Venice International Film Festival

A fascinating but increasingly frustrating tale of two brothers.  

Turkish actors Mehmet Ozgur and Berkay Ates play two brothers in Istanbul in the second feature from Turkish filmmaker Emin Alper ('Beyond the Hill').

Two siblings try to survive in an increasingly dystopian Istanbul in Frenzy (Abluka), the second feature from Turkish writer-director Emin Alper. To a large extent, this impressively staged drama is a big-city variation on Alper’s hinterland-set, award-winning first feature,Beyond the Hill, which looked at a small family trying to shift the blame for all sorts of things onto unseen “others,” supposedly in the titular location. Here, two brothers are charged with ridding the city of unwarranted elements, though their work interferes with their fragile fraternal bond that risks being consumed by violence and paranoia from both within themselves and from those around them. Though a tad too long and too cryptic in its home stretch to sustain audience interest throughout, this is nonetheless an exciting second work from what’s looking more and more like an interesting new voice in Turkish cinema.

Both of Alper’s films contrast family structures with society and the outside world at large, though because Frenzy is set in a metropolis and its outskirts and not in the countryside, the stakes are raised and the impact of the decisions seems bigger since they could potentially affect more people. And it seems that the threat has at least already partially arrived in Istanbul, which is occasionally rocked by explosions and where neighborhoods are being sealed off one by one. 

Into this chaos, elder brother Kadir (Mehmet Uzgur, from Beyond the Hill) finds himself when he’s suddenly released from jail two years early, on the condition that he becomes a special kind of garbage man who works for the government. His job will be to literally sniff out the contents of trashcans for potential explosives or other materials that terrorists could be using to make bombs.

Since he was locked away for 20 years, it is no surprise that his younger brother, Ahmet (Berkey Ates), who’s still under 30, doesn’t immediately recognize him when he turns up at his doorstep. Ahmet doesn’t work for the government but for the city, though he also helps to keep the streets clean, so to speak, killing stray dogs. Clearly, the animals could be read as a metaphor for the terrorists that seem to be slowly taking over the city, and the myriad ways in which Alper, who also wrote the screenplay, suggests how the men are similar, how they differ and in which ways their world says something about ours is part of the pleasure of watching this complex and frequently fascinating story unfold.

Things often don’t play out as expected. Though there are no signs of real childhood traumas between the two, Ahmet doesn’t seem thrilled to have Kadir back in his life and seems annoyed by his frequent visits to the point of starting to pretend he’s not at home. Indeed, he’s something of a loner and even Ahmet himself seems surprised when he strikes up a friendship with a black mutt who’s been wounded. Consumed with a need to fill his days now that he’s out of jail, Kader throws himself into his work a little too enthusiastically, hoping to please his stern boss (Mufit Kayacan) by filing endless reports on all sorts of “suspicious activities” of people in the neighborhood. Interesting paradoxes abound here, as Ahmet kills dogs by day (for money) but takes care of one by night (for company), while Kader’s reports suggest how surveillance might end being compromised by too careful scrutiny, which might reveal threats and conspiracies where there’s really just (sometimes admittedly odd or not immediately understandable) human behavior.

As the film progresses, and again like in Beyond the Hill, some footage that is divorced from the real world in which the story is set worms its way into editor Osman Bayraktaroglu's increasingly intricate timeline. Some of these might be subjective point-of-view shots, or dreams, nightmares or hallucinations. They are occasionally more problematic to identify here, since the film’s real world isn’t as clearly defined, with Istanbul really seeming to be in the grip of increasing chaos and paranoia (as quite often in Turkish films, including those of Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the landscape -- or here, cityscape -- can be read as a projection of the characters' psychology). Some scenes are also revisited several times from the perspective of different characters, further adding to the confusion. Since practically all of the film’s second hour consists of scenes that could potentially be questioned, what madeFrenzy initially so intriguing ends up making it rather heavy and increasingly hard to follow.

That said, the acting is top-notch, with Uzgur providing his character with a mixture of world-weariness and a necessity to please and be distracted, while Ates’s Ahmet, with those huge, sad eyes, slowly seems to transform himself into a human with suspiciously canine traits. They are ably supported by a small ensemble and superb craft contributions, including AdamJandrup’s crystalline cinematography with its Vermeer-like lighting for some of the daytime interior scenes. Also of note is the standout work of production designer Ismail Durmaz’ and especially his exterior locations, which impressively suggest that a major metropolis is falling prey to madness and anarchy with relatively few but very effective means (some shoddy CGI work in the cityscapes notwithstanding). Crisp if sometimes pounding sound work and Cevdet Erek's ditto percussion score complete the package. 

SOUNDTRACK by Cevdet Erek

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Word Origin | Abluka

December 21, 2015, 12:31 pm
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Mavi Boncuk |

Abluka: Block, blockade[1], stoppage, jam; obstacle; chunk, piece, block, stop; bar; obstruct; hinder EN;  abloka [ Bianchi, Dictionnaire Turc-Français, 1851] fromIT blocco bahriyede bir limanı giriş çıkışı kesecek şekilde muhasara etme; Nautical term for blocking a port to stop access. FR blocus; Dutch bloc-huis’ müstahkem mevki, karakul.

Uniting a force to defend. (coalizione) : bloc, coalition (di of)
il blocco delle sinister | left-wing coalition parties
blocco di potenze | power bloc
fare blocco | to side together
fare blocco con qualcuno | to side with somebody
fare blocco contro qualcuno | to unite against somebody

[1] Blockade (n.) mid-17c., from block (v.) + -ade, false French ending (the French word is blocus, 18c. in this sense, which seems to be in part a back-formation from the verb bloquer and in part influenced by Middle Dutch blokhuus "blockhouse").
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Turkish Box Office 2015

December 21, 2015, 12:58 pm
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Mavi Boncuk | 516 Films released with total ticket sales of 57.813.251. 


Rank | Dist. | Tickets

1Düğün Dernek 2: SünnetMars. 4.464.242
2MucizePin.3.582.552
3Fast and Furious UIP2.960.487
4Kocan Kadar KonuşUIP1.930.677
5Ali Baba ve 7 CücelerMars.1.814.048
6Selam: Bahara YolculukMars.1.683.497
7Bana Masal AnlatmaUIP1.576.979
8Aşk Sana BenzerMars.1.406.620
9Age of Ultron UIP1.284.365
10Yapışık KardeşlerMars.1.014.630
11Niyazi Gül DörtnalaUIP994.016
12MinionsUIP964.454
13Sevimli TehlikeliWB911.833
14Kara BelaMars.891.175
1550 Shades of GreyUIP875.585
16Son MektupPin.810.138
17Son Umut/The Water DivinerMars.765.894
18Labirent: Alev Deneyleri TME752.073
19Hunger Games Mocking Jay Part 2 TME737.861
20Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation UIP718.646

Turkish Films in BOLD



All Time (1989-2015)
Rank | Dist. | Tickets

1Recep İvedik 4Tiglon 

7.369.098
2Düğün DernekUIP 6.980.070
3Fetih 1453Tiglon 6.572.618
4Düğün Dernek 2: SünnetMars Dağıtım 4.464.242
5Recep İvedik 2Özen Film 4.333.144
6Recep İvedikÖzen Film 4.301.693
7Kurtlar Vadisi: IrakKenDa 4.256.567
8G.O.R.A.Warner Bros. 4.001.711
9Eyyvah Eyvah 2UIP3.947.988

10CM101MMXI FundamentalsTiglon 3.842.535
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The Best Museum Exhibitions of 2015 | “The Channel” at Istanbul Modern

December 21, 2015, 1:09 pm
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Mavi Boncuk | 

The Best Museum Exhibitions of 2015 “The Channel” at Istanbul Modern Part of the Istanbul Biennial, “The Channel,” at the Istanbul Modern museum, included contributions by scientists, philosophers, historians, fiction writers, and artists. 

“I continue to believe that the specificity of the field of art is a bit passé,” Christov-Bakargiev told ARTINFO in August. 

The Istanbul Biennial Is Not an Easy Ride, and That’s the Point 
BY NOELLE BODICK, MODERN PAINTERS | SEPTEMBER 11, 2015 

Interview: Marcus Graf on Contemporary Istanbul 2015 
BY NICHOLAS FORREST | NOVEMBER 09, 2015 

The Gospel According to Istanbul Biennial Curator Carolyn Christov-BakargievBY NOELLE BODICK | SEPTEMBER 04, 2015
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Kadikoy Pier | Wharf

December 21, 2015, 1:43 pm
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Mavi Boncuk |
Kadıköy İskelesi / the Kadikoy Pier looking towards Haydarpasa.



1920's before the coastal fill.
Tubini Quay





Kadıköy Şehremaneti |Prefecture de Kadikeuy, S. Saatdjian. Arch: Yervant Terziyan [1] 1912-14.


Charles Eduard Goad map of Haydarpasa

[1] Yervant Terzian was the assistant of architect Giulio Mongeri between the years 1911-1917 at the Fine Arts Academy | Sanayii nefise mektebi. He was also the architect of Fatih prefecture building.
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Tulips and Lilacs

December 21, 2015, 3:06 pm
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The introduction of tulips are questioned yet the lilac is definitely introduced by Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq.

Mavi Boncuk |



Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq was an ambassador of the Holy Roman Emperor at the Sublime Porte (the Turkish Sultan's court in Constantinople) from 1555-62. In essence Ogier was a was a writer, herbalist and diplomat.

De Busbecq was the illegitimate son of the Seigneur de Busbecq, Georges Ghiselin, and his mistress Catherine Hespiel. He was born in 1522 and spent his lifetime in the employ of three generations of Austrian monarchs. The majority of what is known of de Busbecq's experiences in the Ottoman lands is as according to his accounts written in letters which he wrote. These letters were part of personal correspondence to his friend, Nicholas Michault, who was also a Hungarian diplomat. 

In his first letter de Busbecq says: "As we passed through this district [on the road from Adrianople to Constantinople] we everywhere came across quantities of flowers--narcissi, hyacinths, and tulipans, as the Turks call them. We were surprised to find them flowering in mid-winter, scarcely a favourable season....The tulip has little or no scent, but it is admired for its beauty and the variety of its colours."- Busbecq, Turkish Letters (I, pp.24-25)

Ogier wrote a lot about plants and animals that he saw in the Ottoman lands. It was because of this that he sent some tulip bulbs to his friend Charles de l'Écluse, who breeded and adapted them to life in the European climate. Other than this, de Busbecq is also credited to have been the first European to describe yoghurt and by so doing introduce it to Europe.

It was from Istanbul that the Flemish scholar and traveler Ogier Ghiselen… brought back to Vienna in his baggage in 1563 gifts from the Sultan’s gardens. Among them was a plant called the ‘’lilac’’[1]. Planted in Ogier Ghiselen’s garden in Vienna, the Lilak or Turkischer Holler as the Austrians called it, attracted much attention. There the lilac bloomed for the first time in western Europe. 

Ogier Ghiselen moved to Paris in 1570 and remained in France until his death in 1592. He brought a shoot of lilac with him to Paris. The lilac began to fill the gardens of Paris.... Besides the wild blue-flowered lilac, two color variants sprang up early on in European gardens; a white-flowered form and a purple-flowered form. Literature does not provide a record of their origins, only the gardens in which they grew.... The deep purple lilac was first grown by James Sutherland in the Edinburgh medicinal gardens in 1683 and was therefore called the Scotch Lilac. The botanic homeland of ‘’Syringa vulgaris’’ was identified in 1828, when naturalist Anton Rocher found truly wild specimens in the Balkans.

In the American colonies, lilacs were introduced in the eighteenth century. Peter Collinson, F.R.S., wrote to the Pennsylvania gardener and botanist John Bartram, proposing to send him some, and remarked that John Custis of Virginia had a fine "collection", which Ann Leighton interpreted as signifying common and Persian lilacs, in both purple and white, "the entire range of lilacs possible" at the time. 

[1] In modern Turkish the word is spelled ‘’leylak’’ and means Lilac tree and Lilac color. The venerable etymology dictionary by Walter Skeat (1888) derives the English from the Turkish, the spelling of which Skeat has as ‘’leilaq’’. Skeat says the Turkish is from Persian, and he cites the 19th century Richardson’s Persian-Arabic-English Dictionary, wherein are the Persian words ‘’līlaj’’ = ‘’līlang’’ = indigo or blue; and ‘’nīlak’’ = blueish. Richardson’s contains no Arabic word along the lines of ‘’Lilac’’. The closest to Lilac of any word in Arabic in Richardson’s is “nīlaj” = indigo, and also Arabic ‘’nīlīy’’, which is translated as “blue, [or] livid [color], [or] blackish” (and neither of those words are capable of generating ‘’lilak” in Arabic).

Older English spellings for lilac included “laylock”, “lilack” and “lilock”. The generally pretty good etymology dictionary by Ernest Weekly (1921) states that Lilac’s path of descent is “Old French (now only in plural ‘’lilas’’), Spanish, Arabic ‘’lilak’’, Persian ‘’lilak’’,… [et cetera].... Earlier ‘’laylock’’ is via Turkish ‘’leilaq’’.” There, Weekly’s statement is that the deceased English wordform ‘’laylock’’ came via one path while the surviving wordform ‘’lilac’’ came via another path. That makes no sense of the evidence. There are no attestations of the Persian word meaning the bush; only the color word was in Persian. The language that changed the primary meaning from the color to the bush must be on every path of descent. Which language was that? Arabic provides no hard info to answer that question because the word is not attested in Arabic either as a color or as a bush (except at a date too late). But since the bush couldn’t flower in the climate of the Arabic speaking lands, it is safe to say it couldn’t’ve been Arabic that changed the meaning to the bush.

Spanish couldn’t’ve borrowed an oral dialectical Arabic word for the Persian color word because the date, early 17th century, is way too late. Today’s online official dictionary of the Spanish language, the (DRAE), says the Spanish word is from French. It also says the French is from Arabic: “Del fr. lilac, este del ár. līlak, este del persa lila[n]ǧ o lilang....” The official dictionary of the French language, CNRTL, says too that the French is not from Spanish. It says the first attestation in French is in year 1605 spelled ‘’lilac’’ and its meaning was the lilac tree. The color sense is not recorded in French until 1757 and was an extension of the botanical meaning, it says. What was the origin of the 1605 French? The official dictionary of the French language often has detailed word etymologies, but in this case it has a terribly short answer with no supporting citations and no supporting facts: “Empr. à l’ar. līlāk” = “borrowed from Arabic līlāk”. No explanation for how French was borrowing a word for an ornamental flower tree that does not flower in Arabic-speaking lands. A word with no attestations in Arabic writings!

Modern Arabic dictionaries have the word ‘’al-līlak’’ meaning the lilac flower, but NOT the lilac color. My English-Arabic dictionary translates the lilac color as لون أرجواني فاتح ‘’lawn arjawani fatah’’ which translates back as “light purple color” or “light fuchsia color”. Since lilac trees do not thrive in Arabic-speaking lands for the reason mentioned above, and so are not well-known to Arabs, the name ‘’līlak’’ would be too arcane to get circulation as a color name in Arabic. It’s highly likely that the botanical name ‘’al-līlak’’ is a modern import, since it’s absent from older Arabic dictionaries and older Arabic botanical writers.

In what language was the meaning of lilac modified from the Persian “a pale purple-ish blue hue” ("blue, as the fingers with cold”, says Richardson’s Dictionary), to the European “the lilac tree and its lilac-blueish flower”? I expect it was Turkish. My modern English-Turkish dictionary—namely translate.google.com—says English lilac is Turkish “leylak” and is also “leylak rengi” where “rengi” is the Turkish for “color”. I don’t know how for how long the Turkish is attested in Turkish. I know that to get a color name established in a language to the point where it’s in the dictionaries requires lots of supporting practical context in the society.

Asking translate.google.com for the Persian word for Lilac returns two results which I can’t interpret except for the fact that they have no relationship whatsoever to the old Persian ‘’lilak/nilak’’.

The old Persian ‘’lilak/nilak’’ color word had natural linguistic support in Persian because it’s a dimunitive of a common, general Persian word for blue, ‘’nil’’; the diminutive means “blueish”. In Arabic it doesn’t have such support because “nil” is not in common general use for blue, and the Pesian diminitive “ak” is not recognizable as any such thing in Arabic. Arabic does use “nil” for indigo dye, and for the Nile river, but the word we’re talking about Lilak not Nilak, and Arabic would never connect a “nil...” with a “lil...”. For Arabic to adopt the foreign Persian word “lilak” it would need a practical application, a commonly seen visually defining reference, and I’m not aware of any. The same goes for Turkish before the plant got introduced.


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ABCFM Mission Stations

December 21, 2015, 3:56 pm
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The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM)[1] founded many colleges and schools in the Ottoman Empire and the Balkans. 

Mavi Boncuk |
[1] The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the largest and most important of American missionary organizations. In 1961 the ABCFM or the American Board, as it was often called, merged with other societies to form the United Church Board for World Ministries, an agency of the United Church of Christ. Other organizations that draw inspiration from the ABCFM include InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference, and the Missionary Society of the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches.

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, The Annual Report,  
1917 full text pp. 62-95.

ABCFM-sponsored missionaries: 

Mary Louise Graffam (1871 - 1921), Sivas, Ottoman Empire
Thomas Davidson Christie (1843–1931) Missionary-Educator to Central Turkey (1877–1920)
George E. White (October 14, 1861 – April 27, 1946), Marsovan, Ottoman Empire
Clarence Ussher (1870 - 1955), Van, Ottoman Empire
William Goodell (1792–1867) | One of his chief labors was the translation of the Bible into Armeno-Turkish (Turkish written in Armenian letters), in making and revising which he spent 20 years.
Rev. Benjamin Schneider, D.D. Near East Mission (Turkey), Broosa (1834–1849) and Aintab

Mary Louisa Matthews, Monastir, Macedonia Girls' School, Turkey in Europe, 1888–1920
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Where in the World Manufacturing Index is Turkey...

December 22, 2015, 8:01 am
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Where in the World Manufacturing Index[1] is Turkey...

Mavi Boncuk | 


Where in the World? Manufacturing Index 2015. A Cushman & Wakefield Publication

KEY RESULTS
– Cost competitive Malaysia retains pole position
– The US climbs five places to rank fourth
– Turkey leads charge for Europe in eighth

 LINK

[1] WHAT ARE THE INDEX AIMS AND OBJECTIVES? To identify the parameters manufacturers consider to be critical when assessing the most suitable location to expand or relocate their plant and facilities to.

Main Index Ranks the 30 largest countries by manufacturing output, defined by the UNCTAD (United Nations Conference for Trade and Investment)


Growth Index Ranks the top 15 manufacturing locations by growth which currently are less established in terms of output
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Who Goes There!

December 22, 2015, 10:16 am
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More than the 3 million who reads mavi Boncuk, the Greeks read 3 times more than the Turks. France tops the population corrected ranking.

Mavi Boncuk |
Who Goes There! Mavi Boncuk Blog Readers
Country  Rank | Connection percentage | corrected for population (Rank)

1. United States |  61.99%  |  20.58%  (2)
2. France |  22.63% |  41.33%  (1)
3. Russia |  5.42% | 4.62%  (5)
4. Turkey |  3.67%  | 5.57%  (4)
5. Germany |  2.21%  |  3.19%  (6)
6. Greece |  1.67% |  17.70%  (3)
7. United Kingdom |  1.10%  | 1.98%  (8)
8. South Korea |  0.62%  |  1.42%  (9)
9. Ukraine |  0.48%   |    1.30%  (10)
10. Belgium | 0.22%  |  2.31%  (7)
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Turkish Airlines Go for PurePower

December 22, 2015, 1:24 pm
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With 20 years of research and development, component rig testing on all major modules, extensive ground and flight testing of a full-scale demonstrator engine complete and extensive ground and flight testing of its first two engine series well underway, the PurePower PW1000G engine with Geared Turbofan™ technology delivers game-changing reductions in:

• Fuel burn
• Environmental emissions
• Engine noise
• Operating costs


In the PurePower PW1000G engine family, a state of the art gear system separates the engine fan from the low pressure compressor and turbine, allowing each of the modules to operate at their optimum speeds. This enables the fan to rotate slower and while the low pressure compressor and turbine operate at a high speed, increasing engine efficiency and delivering significantly lower fuel consumption, emissions and noise. This increased efficiency also translates to fewer engine stages and parts for lower weight and reduced maintenance costs.

Mavi Boncuk |
Turkish Airlines[1] has signed a Definitive Agreement for Pratt & Whitney's PurePower PW1100G-JM engines to power its order of 92 firm A321neo aircraft, the largest engine order in Turkish Airlines' history. The order was originally announced during the 2015 Paris Air Show as a Memorandum of Understanding with 72 firm and 20 option aircraft. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2018. The deal is also the largest engine order in 2015 for Pratt & Whitney, representing a year of pivotal milestones as it leads the industry into a new age in aviation history. Pratt & Whitney is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) company.

The PurePower® Geared Turbofan engine family has about 7,000 orders, including options with more than 70 customers from more than 30 countries.

"Turkish Airlines is proud to have Pratt & Whitney's PurePower engines power our A321neo aircraft order," said Dr. Temel Kotil, deputy chairman and CEO, Turkish Airlines. "This historic deal for our company is a statement on our commitment to develop the most technologically advanced fleet of aircraft in the industry."

"Pratt & Whitney is honored that Turkish Airlines has selected the industry-leading PurePower engine to power its aircraft," said Greg Gernhardt, president, Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engines. "We look forward to delivering game-changing results in fuel consumption, emissions reduction and noise reduction without compromise. We deeply appreciate Turkish Airlines commitment to the Geared Turbofan engine."

The A320neo, powered by PurePower engines, received joint Type Certification from the Federal Aviation Administration and from the European Aviation Safety Agency in November. The PurePower engine family has completed more than 36,000 cycles and 20,000 hours of testing.

[1] Established in 1933 with a fleet of five aircraft, Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines is a 4-star airline today with a fleet of 299 (passenger and cargo) aircraft flying to 282 destinations worldwide with 234 international and 48 domestic. According to Skytrax survey of 2015, Turkish Airlines was chosen "Europe's Best Airline" for the fifth and "Best Airline in Southern Europe" for the seventh consecutive time. Having won in 2010 the world's "Best Economy Catering Service," in 2013 the world's "Best Business Catering Service," and in 2014 "Best Business Catering Service" awards, Turkish Airlines was this year awarded the world's "Best Business Class Lounge Dining" and "Best Business Airline Lounge" prizes in the Skytrax survey. 
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EU Watch | To Barricades! To Barricades!

December 22, 2015, 1:34 pm
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Vahan Cardashian | His Mother, Sister and Brother Survives

December 23, 2015, 11:28 am
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Interestingly enough, Cardashian actually was the representative for the Ottoman Embassy in the US. As he learned of the Ottoman government’s plans to exterminate his own people–including his mother and sister, who became victims of the Genocide–he resigned his post and transformed himself into a “one-man army” fighting for the Armenian Cause. His obituary claims otherwise. See also:


See this PDF for "Land Grabbing War, says Turk's Friend". May 30, 1912 article on the occupation of Tripoli.


 Mavi Boncuk |
In his 1934 obituary it's stated that Cardashian was survived by his sister, mother and brother. 

Vahan Cardashian (Armenian: Վահան Քարտաշեան; 1882/3 – 1934) was an Ottoman born Armenian-American political activist and lawyer. Born in the city of Caesarea (now Kayseri), Ottoman Empire on December 1, 1882 or 1883, Cardashian studied in the local French lyceum and Talas American College.


He emigrated to the United States in 1902. He got accepted at Yale University in 1904 and earned a Law degree in 1908. In 1907 he married Cornelia Alexander Holub, a women rights advocate. Cardashian entered the New York State Bar Association in 1909 and began practicing law. In 1913 he was the Fiscal Agent of the Ottoman Empire in the US. Prior to the Armenian Genocide of 1915, he served as a counselor and statistician to the Ottoman Chamber of Commerce in America and was a counselor for the Ottoman Embassy in Washington, D.C. and then to the Ottoman Consulate General in New York from 1910 to 1915[1]. He authored several books on the Armenian Question. 


In 1908, he wrote a book named "The Ottoman Empire of the Twentieth Century". 

As he learned of the Ottoman government’s plans to exterminate his own people–including his mother and sister, who became victims of the Genocide–he resigned his post and transformed himself into a “one-man army” fighting for the Armenian Cause. 

He did not abandon his post, but started a secret campaign of letter-writing to inform American officials of the ongoing annihilation. He had already warned Secretary of War Lindsay Garrison in July 1914: "I have information, bearing on the program of the Turkish Government, to be put into operation in the event of Turkey’s being involved in the European War with reference to all the native and foreign Christians in Turkey . . . Unless some powerful restraining forces are brought into play from without, you can rest assured that the Turk, with the opportunity for untrammeled action, such as he now believes to enjoy, will perpetrate upon helpless humanity the most ghastly horrors of his entire loathsome career."

When the Ottoman embassy discovered Cardashian’s backdoor work, he was fired. In early 1916, he sued for divorce from his wife. At the end of the war, Cardashian relied on his diplomatic and high society contacts to spearhead a lobbying effort, to which he committed his own personal resources.

In early 1919 he founded the American Committee for the Independence of Armenia (ACIA), the predecessor of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). He continued his efforts until his death.

[1] The Panama–Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) was a world's fair held in San Francisco, in the United States, between February 20 and December 4 in 1915. Its ostensible purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely seen in the city as an opportunity to showcase its recovery from the 1906 earthquake. The fair was constructed on a 635 acre (2.6 km2) site in San Francisco, along the northern shore, between the Presidio and Fort Mason, now known as the Marina District.
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Word origin | İhanet, hain

January 4, 2016, 10:11 am
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Mavi Boncuk |

İhanet:"aşağılama, düşmanlık" [ anon., Ferec ba'd eş-şidde, 1451]
beni depdiler uyardılar, bu ihānetile ḳatuŋa getürdiler [ Meninski, Thesaurus, 1680]
ihānet: χorlamak, hakāret e., ġarez, düşmenlik. (...) ihānetü χıyānet üzere olanlar.
"... hıyanet" [ Şemseddin Sami, Kamus-ı Türki, 1900]

1. tahkir ve istihfaf etme, haksızlık, 2. hıyanet etme. fromAR  ihāna(t) إهانة   aşağılama, horlama, küçük düşürme fromAR r hāna هَانَ alçak ve önemsiz idi, ucuz idi

Hain: traitor EN[1][ Erzurumlu Darir, Kıssa-i Yusuf terc., 1377] ben tuz etmek hakkını bilsem gerek / χāin olmayup vefā kılsam gerek fromAR χāˀin خائن  hıyanet eden fromAR χāna خان hainlik etti

[1] traitor (n.) c. 1200, "one who betrays a trust or duty," from Old French traitor, traitre "traitor, villain, deceiver" (11c., Modern French traître), from Latin traditor "betrayer," literally "one who delivers," agent noun from stem of tradere "deliver, surrender" (see tradition). Originally usually with a suggestion of Judas Iscariot; especially of one false to his allegiance to a sovereign, government, or cause from late 15c.

tradition (n.) late 14c., "statement, belief, or practice handed down from generation to generation," especially "belief or practice based on Mosaic law," from Old French tradicion "transmission, presentation, handing over" (late 13c.) and directly from Latin traditionem (nominative traditio) "delivery, surrender, a handing down, a giving up," noun of action from past participle stem of tradere "deliver, hand over," from trans- "over" (see trans-) + dare "to give". The word is a doublet of treason (q.v.). Meaning "a long-established custom" is from 1590s. The notion is of customs, ways, beliefs, doctrines, etc. "handed down" from one generation to the next.
"Nobody can make a tradition; it takes a century to make it." [Hawthorne, "Septimius Felton," 1872]

traitorous (adj.) late 14c., "guilty of treason," apparently from Old French traitros "treacherous" (13c.), from traitor (see traitor). Related: Traitorously; traitorousness.

Iscariot "traitor," 1640s, from the surname of Judas, betrayer of Jesus, in New Testament, from Latin Iscariota, from Greek Iskariotes, said to be from Hebrew ishq'riyoth "man of Kerioth" (a place in Palestine).

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