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Turkish Cinema | SİYAD 2015 Nominees

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Mavi Boncuk |

SİYAD 2015 Turkish Cinema Nominees | 2015 Türkiye Sineması Ödülleri  

Best Film
Abluka
Bulantı
Nefesim Kesilene Kadar
Rüzgarın Hatıraları
Sarmaşık

Best Director
Emin Alper (Abluka)
Özcan Alper (Rüzgarın Hatıraları)
Emine Emel Balcı (Nefesim Kesilene Kadar)
Zeki Demirkubuz (Bulantı)
Tolga Karaçelik (Sarmaşık)

Best Screenplay
Emin Alper (Abluka)
Özcan Alper, Ahmet Büke (Rüzgarın Hatıraları)
Emine Emel Balcı (Nefesim Kesilene Kadar)
Zeki Demirkubuz (Bulantı)
Tolga Karaçelik (Sarmaşık)

Best Female Actor
Demet Akbağ (Nadide Hayat) 
Nesrin Cavadzade (Kuzu)
Ece Dizdar (Çekmeceler)
Algı Eke (Guruldayan Kalpler)
Esme Madra (Nefesim Kesilene Kadar)

Best Male Actor
Tansu Biçer (Toz Ruhu)
Mehmet Özgür (Abluka)
Ertan Saban (Limonata)
Nadir Sarıbacak (Sarmaşık)
Onur Saylak (Rüzgarın Hatıraları)

Best Supporting Female Actor
Şebnem Hassanisoughi (Bulantı)
Nursel Köse (Kuzu)
Tülin Özen (Abluka)
Tilbe Saran (Çekmeceler)
Ece Yüksel (Nefesim Kesilene Kadar)

Best Supporting Female Actor
Berkay Ateş (Abluka)
Kadir Çermik (Sarmaşık)
Çağlar Çorumlu (Bulantı)
Mustafa Uğurlu (Rüzgarın Hatıraları)
Özgür Emre Yıldırım (Sarmaşık)

Best Cinematographer
Adam Jandrup (Abluka) 
Norayr Kasper (Çekmeceler)
Vedat Özdemir (Çekmeköy Underground)
Andreas Sinanos (Rüzgarın Hatıraları)
Gökhan Tiryaki (Sarmaşık)

Best Music
Ahmet Kenan Bilgiç (Sarmaşık)
François Couturier (Rüzgarın Hatıraları)
Cevdet Erek (Abluka)
Betül Esener, Ezgi Baltaş (Toz Ruhu)
Acarkan Özkan, Uran Apak, Erhan Seyran (Çekmeköy Underground)

Best Editing
Özcan Alper, Baptiste Gacoin (Rüzgarın Hatıraları)
Osman Bayraktaroğlu (Abluka)
Ayhan Ergürsel (Çekmeköy Underground)
Evren Luş (Sarmaşık)
Dora Vajda, Emine Emel Balcı (Nefesim Kesilene Kadar)

Best Art Direction
Hüseyin Binay , Aslıhan Tiryaki (Çekmeceler)
İsmail Durmaz (Abluka)
Gamze Kuş (Rüzgarın Hatıraları)
Osman Özcan (Toz Ruhu)
Meral Efe Yurtseven, Yunus Emre Yurtseven (Nefesim Kesilene Kadar)

Best Documentary
Bakur
Gavur Mahallesi
Hasret
Haziran Yangını
Koloni
Soluk


Profile | Renan Ozturk

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Mavi Boncuk |

Renan Ozturk

A climber and artist brings home deeply human stories from the edges of our world.

Climber, artist, and filmmaker Renan Ozturk has been held at knifepoint in the deserts of Chad, sustained a traumatic head injury while backcountry skiing in the Tetons, and suffered through hallucinations on Himalayan big walls. Through it all, the cameras have been rolling.

Over the course of the last two years, the 32-year-old’s athleticism, creativity, and storytelling have come together in accessible, inspirational tales consumed by hundreds of thousands of people online.

“The creativity and climbing go hand in hand,” says Ozturk, who calls Boulder, Colorado, home. “I developed them side by side. When I’m part of a team, I always pay attention to how much energy I’m putting into the creativity versus the brass tacks, the things in the mountains that could kill you.”

After graduating from Colorado College, Ozturk jettisoned most of his worldly possessions and decided to make his home in the deserts around Moab, Utah. His art flourished in pencil sketchbooks and then grew into large canvases laid out across the desert. Those visions became Internet videos from burly Himalayan and South American climbs. Ozturk preferred to shoot, edit, and publish the videos live, during the expedition. The stories he tells require only a lightweight, bare-bones team.

With his latest and most ambitious project, Meru, Ozturk has gone one step further—a feature-length documentary following Ozturk, Jimmy Chin, and Conrad Anker’s much heralded 2011 return to and first ascent of the Shark’s Fin on Meru in the Indian Himalaya. The climb itself required living on the wall for 12 days in temperatures that hovered around minus 20ºF. Ozturk was still recovering from cranial and spinal fractures sustained in a near-lethal skiing accident in Wyoming’s Tetons almost six months earlier.

“This climb nearly killed us,” says the soft-spoken Ozturk. “Making the film [was] even harder. Meru is the mountain that keeps on giving.”

Upon returning home, Ozturk realized he was sitting on the story of a lifetime and went to work. A feature-length film required collaborators, countless hours of editing, and a near-obsessive persistence to root out the deeper ideas behind the climb the three men consider to be their greatest climbing accomplishment. With themes of mentorship, obsession, and passion, the film is poised to reach a larger audience. Ozturk hopes to premiere it at the Sundance Film Festival.

Ozturk topped off 2012 with the first successful completion of the Tooth Traverse, a five-mile-long enchainment of peaks in Alaska’s Ruth Gorge, and traveling to Nepal’s Khumbu region to work on a time-lapse photography and art project with Sherpa Cinema. In late October, Ozturk went to Oman on a story with The North Face for National Geographic magazine.

“It was a big year with some very personal goals,” says Ozturk of the Tooth Traverse and Meru, which both required several attempts over the last few years. “I now feel a lot more free to explore other things.”

—Fitz Cahall

THE INTERVIEW

Adventure: You just returned from Nepal’s Khumbu region on a creative mission. What were you up to?

Renan Ozturk: Nepal is my favorite place. I lived there for a year in college and learned the language. This was a creative vision quest. We went to do time lapses, but the monsoons meant that we couldn’t see the mountains, so we went deep into the culture. We spent some time with Carma Tsering, an 80-year-old monk. He was so happy working with us. The Khumbu is one of the most documented parts of the Himalaya. I hope we came away with something unique. I was leveraging all the years I’ve spent there [and] my knowledge of the language.

A: Is that unflinching instinct to keep the camera rolling important?

RO: Even when I had my head injury I was asking Jimmy Chin [who was also on the trip] to point the camera at me. It’s so easy to not point the camera when it gets tough. It’s tough when someone might die, and in cultural situations, but they understand. If you have a pure heart, if your intentions are right, they understand. To be dedicated to storytelling you have to push that boundary. It’s hard to do it respectfully, but you have to try.

A: What do you look for in your stories?

RO: Good characters. Some sort of conflict. A narrative arc. It’s good to go in with a single sentence to describe the story and work toward that. The bare essence though is that adventure is unscripted. You have to keep your eyes and ears open to find the moments.

A: Do you always see the climbing and the creativity going hand in hand?

RO: I do see myself wanting to separate the climbing and the creativity, especially to explore filmmaking a little more. There is this Hollywood climbing horror film that they want me to be the director of photography for. It will be physically demanding, but it would definitely mean giving up climbing for a little bit.

A: You returned to Meru before you were fully recovered from your nearly deadly accident. You’ve been working almost nonstop. Your passion for your pursuits seems singular and consuming. Is that the case?

RO: You have to ask yourself, How do you draw the line between obsession and passion? You have to ask yourself, What am I willing to sacrifice? With Meru, I think I was obsessed. I pretty much sacrificed my relationship. I could have sacrificed my life. You have to have that conversation with yourself.

Article | What happens next in Aleppo will shape Europe’s future

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Mavi Boncuk |What happens next in Aleppo will shape Europe’s future
Natalie Nougayrède[1]
The Guardian 
Friday 5 February 2016 

If there were any doubts about Vladimir Putin’s objectives in Syria, the recent Russian military escalation around this city must surely have set them aside

If Aleppo falls, Syria’s vicious war will take a whole new turn, one with far-reaching consequences not just for the region but for Europe too. The latest government assault on the besieged northern Syrian city, which has caused tens of thousands more people to flee in recent days, is also a defining moment for relations between the west and Russia, whose airforce is playing a key role. The defeat of anti-Assad rebels who have partially controlled the city since 2012 would leave nothing on the ground in Syria but Assad’s regime and Islamic State. And all hope of a negotiated settlement involving the Syrian opposition will vanish. This has been a longstanding Russian objective – it was at the heart of Moscow’s decision to intervene militarily four months ago.

It is hardly a coincidence that the bombardment of Aleppo, a symbol of the 2011 anti-Assad revolution, started just as peace talks were being attempted in Geneva. Predictably, the talks soon faltered. Russian military escalation in support of the Syrian army was meant to sabotage any possibility that a genuine Syrian opposition might have its say on the future of the country. It was meant to thwart any plans the west and the UN had officially laid out. And it entirely contradicted Moscow’s stated commitment to a political process to end the war.

The aftershocks will be felt far and wide. If there is one thing Europeans have learned in 2015, it is that they cannot be shielded from the effects of conflict in the Middle East. And if there is one thing they learned from the Ukraine conflict in 2014, it is that Russia can hardly be considered Europe’s friend. It is a revisionist power capable of military aggression.

In fact, as the fate of Aleppo hangs in the balance, these events have – as no other perhaps since the beginning of the war – highlighted the connections between the Syrian tragedy and the strategic weakening of Europe and the west in general. This spillover effect is something Moscow has not only paid close attention to, but also in effect fuelled. The spread of instability fits perfectly with Russia’s goal of seeking dominance by exploiting the hesitations and contradictions of those it identifies as adversaries.

Aleppo will define much of what happens next. A defeat for Syrian opposition forces would further empower Isis in the myth that it is the sole defender of Sunni Muslims – as it terrorises the population under its control. There are many tragic ironies here, not least that western strategy against Isis has officially depended on building up local Syrian opposition ground forces so that they might one day push the jihadi insurgency out of its stronghold in Raqqa. If the very people that were meant to be counted on to do that job as foot soldiers now end up surrounded and crushed in Aleppo, who will the west turn to? Russia has all along claimed it was fighting Isis – but in Aleppo it is helping to destroy those Syrian groups that have in the past proved to be efficient against Isis.

Vladimir Putin has duplicated in Syria the strategy he applied to Chechnya: full military onslaught on populated areas so rebels are destroyed or forced out. There is a long history of links – going back to the Soviet era – between the Syrian power structure and Russian intelligence. Just as Putin’s regime physically eliminated those in Chechnya who might have been interlocutors for a negotiated peace settlement, Assad has conflated all political opposition with “terrorism”. And as there was never any settlement in Chechnya (only full-on war and destruction until the Kremlin put its own Chechen leader in place), in Putin’s view there can be no settlement in Syria with the opposition.

Russia’s strategic objectives go much further, however. Putin wants to reassert Russian power in the Middle East, but it is Europe that he really has in mind. The defining moment came in 2013, when Barack Obama gave up on airstrikes against Assad’s military bases after chemical weapons were used. This encouraged Putin to test western resolve further away, on the European continent. Putin was certainly caught off guard by the Ukrainian Maidan popular uprising, but he swiftly moved to restore dominance through use of force, including the annexation of territory. He calculated – rightly – that his hybrid war in Ukraine could not be prevented by the west. Russian policies in Ukraine have as a result shaken the pillars of Europe’s post-cold-war security order – which Putin would like to see rewritten to Russia’s advantage.

Likewise, Russian military involvement in Syria has put Nato in a bind, with one of its key members right on the frontline. Turkey’s relations with Russia have been on the brink for months. Now Moscow has openly warned Turkey against sending forces into Syria to defend Aleppo. How the Turkish leader will choose to react is another western headache.

All this is happening at a time when European governments are desperate to win Ankara’s cooperation on the refugee problem. If Turkey now turns into a troublemaker for Nato on its Middle Eastern flank, that serves Russian interests. Similarly, if Europe sees a new exodus of refugees, Russia will stand to benefit.The refugee crisis has sowed deep divisions on the continent and it has helped populist rightwing parties flourish – many of which are Moscow’s political allies against the EU as a project. The refugee crisis has put key EU institutions under strain; it has heightened the danger of Brexit (which Moscow would welcome); and it has severely weakened Angela Merkel, the architect of European sanctions against Russia.

Of course, it would be an exaggeration to say that Putin had all this worked out from the start. He has been led by events as much as he has wanted to control them. Russia is not responsible for the outbreak of the civil war in Syria, nor does it have its hand in everything that happens in Ukraine. But the way Russia has cynically played its pawns should send more alarm bells ringing in the west and in the UN than is the case now.

Putin likes to cast himself as a man of order, but his policies have brought more chaos, and Europe is set to pay an increasing price. Getting the Russian regime to act otherwise will require more than wishful thinking. Aleppo is an unfolding human tragedy. But it is necessary to connect the dots between the plight of this city, Europe’s future, and how Russia hovers over both.



[1] Natalie Nougayrède,  (born May 29, 1966, Dijon, France), French journalist who served as executive editor and managing editor of the flagship French newspaper Le Monde from 2013 to 2014. She was the first woman to head Le Monde since its founding in 1944.

After graduating (1988) from the Institut d’Études Politiques (Institute of Political Studies) in Strasbourg, Nougayrède studied in Paris at the Centre de Formation des Journalistes (Training Centre for Journalists) and successfully completed a certification exam in 1990. In 1991 she began reporting for various French media outlets, covering events in eastern Europe following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, notably the war in South Ossetia (1991–92) and the breakup of Czechoslovakia (1993). Four years later she became a full-time editor for the left-leaning newspaper Libération. She joined Le Monde as a full-time correspondent in 1997 and became a prominent voice in the French media through her coverage of Russian politics—in particular, the civil war in the Russian republic of Chechnya. Nougayrède received two major French journalism prizes, the Prix de la Presse Diplomatique (2004) and the Albert Londres award (2005), both of them for her coverage of the Chechen conflict and the Beslan school attack.

As a Paris-based diplomatic correspondent for Le Monde from 2005, Nougayrède gained a reputation as a rigorous and independent-minded journalist who consistently posed difficult questions to French officials despite government pressure on the newspaper to restrain her. In 2008 Le Monde accused the French Foreign Ministry of unofficially boycotting Nougayrède—by rescinding her invitations to press conferences and other official events—because of her pointed questioning of Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

After Le Monde’s executive editor and managing editor died of a heart attack in the newspaper’s offices in 2012, the newspaper’s three main shareholders nominated Nougayrède to replace him. Their choice was unexpected, because Nougayrède, though a respected journalist, had never occupied a managerial position. In 2013 Le Monde’s association of journalists (the Société des Rédacteurs du Monde), which has the power to confirm nominees for the directorship, approved her selection by a vote of 80 percent, well above the required 60 percent. At a time when newspapers and the publishing industry in general faced the disruptive impact of online media, Nougayrède advocated capitalizing on the core journalistic strengths of Le Monde—namely, original content, investigative reports, and in-depth analysis. However, she faced staff resistance to several of her proposals, notably personnel changes and a redesign of the newspaper’s print format, and her management style drew criticism. In May 2014 Nougayrède resigned..

France's Constitutional Council on Genocide

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Mavi Boncuk |

France's Constitutional Council: An Event Cannot Be Considered A Genocide Unless It Is Established As Such By A Competent Court


On January 8, 2016, the French Constitutional Council, France's highest Court (equivalent to the U.S. Supreme Court), pronounced a landmark decision in a trial wherein an NGO founded by the Turkish community in France called "Association Pour La Neutralité de L'Enseignement de l'histoire Turque Dans Les Programmes Scolaires" (ANEHTPS) --Association For The Impartial Teaching Of Turkish History-- was involved as a third party claimant. In this decision, the Constitutional Council validated the Gayssot Act which criminalizes the denial of Holocaust. 

The Constitutional Council's verdict affirms that whether an act of genocide (or crime against humanity [1]) has been committed or not can only be determined as a fact by a competent court and, further, legislatures or governments cannot declare an event as genocide. The Council's verdict demolishes the potential effects of the law adopted on January 29, 2001 by the French Parliament that recognizes the 1915 events as genocide and hinders the adoption of any laws criminalizing the denial of Armenian genocide.

The case is about a French citizen named Vincent Reynouard, who was characterized by the French press as a neo-Nazi and who, after being tried and condemned twice by the French courts for having denied the Jewish Holocaust, challenged, on February 2015, the provisions of the Gayssot Act. Article 24a of the Gayssot Act condemns the denial of crimes against humanity recognized as such by a court. The applicant argued that the restriction imposed by the words "recognized as such by a court" violates the principle of equality before the law and justice. However, removing these words would amount to a considerable extension of the scope of Article 24a. Devoid of this restriction, Article 24a would serve as the justification for criminalizing acts of any denial of crimes against humanity not only recognized by a court but also by legislatures or governments. If the Constitutional Council had followed the argument of the applicant, the definition of the crimes against humanity would have been broadened considerably and a legal equivalence between the Holocaust and the "Armenian genocide" would have been established, thus making any denial of the so-called "Armenian genocide" a criminal act.

This is why French Armenian groups, hoping that the Council may declare a decision that would strengthen their claims, participated in the case as third party claimants and were represented by two French-Armenian lawyers. But this put them in a very unfavorable position since they were obliged to support the claims of a neo-Nazi who wanted to make the Gayssot Act worthless by expanding it to all claims of genocide. Indeed, the Armenian side argued that as Holocaust and the alleged Armenian genocide are both historically proven facts, they should be treated on an equal footing and, therefore, the denial of both should be made punishable by law. 

MRAP (Movement Against Racism And Friendship Between People) and LICRA (International League Against Racism And Antisemitism), both renowned NGOs in France and Europe fighting against racism and anti-Semitism, were also third-party claimants. They argued for the constitutionality of the article 24a, asserting that the denial of Holocaust is the same as expressing anti-Semitism. They argued that as Holocaust has been judged and determined as such by an international tribunal, it cannot be equated with the "Armenian genocide" claims. 

The French-Turkish organization ANEHTPS, demanding impartiality in the teaching of Turkish history, had asked the French Government to remove any reference to the alleged "Armenian Genocide" from school books. The ANEHTPS also joined the case to uphold the Gayssot Act. They also wanted to prove that the 2001 law which accused Turkey of "Armenian genocide" is unconstitutional and therefore should be abrogated. 

The Constitutional Council in its January 8, 2016 decision rejected the claim of the applicant and upheld the constitutionality of the Gayssot Act. It also dismissed the claims of French-Armenian groups by drawing a clear distinction between the Holocaust which is unambiguously established as a crime by the Nuremberg International Tribunal, and the Armenian claims that are devoid of any legal basis.

On this matter the Constitutional Council is very clear. It asserts that whether an act of genocide has been committed or not can only be determined as a fact by a competent court and that legislatures or governments cannot declare any event as genocide. This is perfectly in line with the United Nations Genocide Convention which prescribes that any accusation of genocide should be subject to legal due process by competent judicial authorities as provided in the Convention's articles 6 and 9.

The Council also emphasizes that for the criminalization of the denial of a crime against humanity it is requisite that the crime against humanity in question must have been qualified as such by an authorized court, adopted one of the main requests of ANEHTPS, the French-Turkish organization. The result of this decision is that the French Parliament can no longer resort to the 2001 law that accuses Turkey of genocide and pass bills criminalizing the denial of the "Armenian genocide." It should be noted that the Council by this decision opposed the exploitation of history and law for political motives. 

Further, the Constitutional Council of France gave a clear message to the members of the European Union as well as to the international community that parliaments and other political institutions are not the appropriate organizations to pass judgments on disputed periods of history and that this should be left to the historians for their dispassionate study and evaluation.

ANEHTPS welcomed the decision of the Constitutional Council as an important development that will contribute significantly to the strengthening of bilateral relations between France and Turkey by stopping further enactment of laws criminalizing the denial of the so called "Armenian genocide" induced by the Armenian lobby. 

The Constitutional Council did not approve the request of ANEHTPS to repeal the 2001 Act. The reason was ANEHTPS was a third party in the Gayssot affair and the repeal of the 2001 Act was not directly submitted to the Council. The Council, however, repudiated the decision of the Conseil d'Etat (the highest court of appeal) that had denied a previous appeal of ANEHTPS on the same matter, and implicitly made it possible for ANEHTPS to question again the unconstitutionality of the 2001 Act before the Constitutional Council. 

The Constitutional Council's decision bolsters and strengthens the recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Perinçek v. Switzerland case. The ECHR ruled that the criminalization of the denial of a crime against humanity is justified if the denial reflects an incitement for racial hatred. It drew a clear distinction between the Holocaust and the 1915 events and established that although the denial of Holocaust leads to an automatic presumption of incitement for racial hatred, the statement of Mr. Perinçek that "Armenian genocide is an international lie" does not promote a racist and antidemocratic provocation. This is why the court found that disagreeing with the opinions of the Armenians on the 1915 events is an exercise of the freedom of speech which is not punishable by law. 

The Constitutional Council's decision prescribes that the criminalization of the denial of a crime against humanity must be based on an authorized court decision. The decision's article 7 states: "Remarks disputing the existence of crimes committed during the Second Word War qualified as crimes against humanity and punished as such by French or international jurisdiction constitutes themselves incitement to racism and anti-Semitism." The Council's decision which parallels Turkey's legal approach on this matter completes the jurisprudence of the ECHR. For the ECHR, the punishment of the denial of a crime against humanity is warranted if the denial reflects an incitement to racial hatred, whereas for the Constitutional Council the criminalization is justified because there is a court decision that this denial is necessarily an incitement to racial hatred. The Council therefore binds the mental element (incitement to racial hatred) to the procedural element (court decision). 

As a final note, it should be stressed that the Constitutional Council's decision is in reality the reiteration of the principle of the presumption of innocence that is the foundation of law and justice. According to this principle, which is also prescribed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as by the Constitution of the United States, no person can be charged with a criminal offence unless tried fairly and indicted by a court. Parliaments and governments cannot act as substitutes for judicial organs. We expect that the understanding of law and justice manifested by the decision of France's Constitutional Council will be an example to the United States Congress. 

________________________________________
[1] The expression "crimes against humanity" used by the Constitutional Council, covers the crime of genocide.

The Turks of Berlinale 2016

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Berlinale 2016. World Premiere of Asli Özge's first German language feature film and 4 Turkish Films by first time directors.


Mavi Boncuk |


Berlinale Panaroma 2016  (PDF Brochure)
Auf Einmal
Asli Özge
Regie, Buch: Aslı Özge Kamera: Emre Erkmen Schnitt: Muriel Breton, Aslı Özge Produzenten: Fabian Massah, Aslı Özge Darsteller: Sebastian Hülk, Julia Jentsch, Hanns Zischler, Sascha Alexander Gerşak, Luise Heyer, Natalia Belitski, Lea Draeger, Christoph Gawenda, Atef Vogel Produktion: EEE Productions, Berlin (Deutschland) Deutschland /Niederlande / Frankreich 2016 112 Min. ∙ DCP ∙ Farbe

Following a party in Karsten’s flat, everyone goes home – except Anna. Karsten feels drawn towards the mysterious young woman. An unexpected event and a moment of weakness change everything, and Karsten loses control of his well-ordered life in a small town in Germany. Tensions in the family and in his circle of friends follow. His attempt to live life as if nothing has happened fails. Disappointment breeds rage and injustice, calamity takes its course and, just as Karsten thinks he has his life under control again, he has become a different person. Berlin writer and director Aslı Özge prefixes her film with a quote from Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” The film’s unassuming, carefully composed, well-lit images and fitting sound design creates tension which allows the audience to sense the growing unease and looming disaster. Questions of guilt and morality, justice and hypocrisy are addressed.
Aslı Özge Born in Istanbul, Turkey, she has lived in Berlin since 2000. After graduating from the Film and Television Academy at Marmara University, she directed short films and a documentary. Her cinema debut MEN ON THE BRIDGE celebrated its international premiere at Locarno in 2009 and went on to win numerous awards. Her second feature HAYATBOYU (LIFELONG) screened in the Berlinale Panorama in 2013. AUF EINMAL is her first German-language feature film.


Generation KPlus (PDF Brochure)

Genç Pehlivanlar| Junge Ringer | Young Wrestlers
Mete Gümürhan
Dokumentarfilm Regie Mete Gümürhan Niederlande/Türkei 2016 Produktion Aslı Akdağ, Aydin Dehzad, Kaan Korkmaz, Zeynep Aşkın Korkmaz Kamera André Jäger Schnitt Ali Aga, İnèz Poortinga Türkisch dt. Einsprache · engl. UT · 90 Min

Like other boys their age, Baran, Ahmet and their classmates wrestle with the desire for recognition, with homesickness and with their target weights. Most of all though, they wrestle with, and against, one another. They are comrades and competitors, united by one and the same dream: Olympic gold! In their wrestling academy in the Turkish province of Amasya, which is well known for this traditional form of combat sport, they undergo strength and endurance training, they learn lifts and throws, they urge each other on and they console one another. Always responding to the boys’ needs, the trainers give the boys tough love, sometimes fatherly, sometimes strict and disciplinary. The film’s intimate documental camera bears close witness to the fine line between friendship and competition, victory and the lesson of how to lose.

Born in 1975, he grew up in Rotterdam. In 2009 he graduated in filmmaking at the Willem de Kooning Academy. He participated in Berlinale Talents in 2012. GENÇ PEHLIVANLAR is his debut film as a director.

Mavi Bisiklet | Das blaue Fahrrad  | Blue Bicycle
Ümit Köreken

Regie Ümit Köreken Türkei/Deutschland 2015 Produktion Ümit Köreken, Nursen Çetin Köreken Buch Ümit Köreken, Nursen Çetin Köreken Kamera Niklas Lindschau Schnitt Ali Aga Musik Cafer Ozan Türkyılmaz mit Selim Kaya, Eray Kılıçarslan, Bahriye Arın, Katya Shenkova Türkisch dt. Einsprache · engl. UT · 94 Min

 Twelve-year-old Ali’s mother sells the clothes she knits on the streets of a Turkish town, while he himself earns a little money on the side working in a garage when he’s not in school. Ever since his father’s been gone, the family has been struggling to avoid financial ruin. The beautiful blue bicycle that he admires regularly in a shop window on his way home seems far removed from his reality. Ali’s heart belongs to Elif, the school’s head prefect. When she is forced to step down from her office and make way for Hasan, the new kid in class, on the orders of the headmaster, Ali is unable to just accept this undemocratic move. In spite of his family’s precarious situation, Ali and his best friend risk getting expelled in order to fight for justice – and for pretty Elif.

Ümit Köreken
Born in Akşehir in the Turkish province of Konya in 1978, he studied management at Anadolu University in Eskişehir. He has written radio plays, theatre plays and short stories. He began studying filmmaking in 2011.

Rauf 
Barış Kaya, Soner Caner

Regie Barış Kaya, Soner Caner Türkei 2016 Produktion Selman Kızılaslan, Kazım Uğur Kızılaslan, Burak Ozan Buch Soner Caner Kamera Vedat Özdemir Schnitt Ali Emre Uzsuz, Ahmet Boyacıoğlu Musik Ayşe Önder, Ümit Önder, Kemal Sahir Gürel, Kayhan Kalhor mit Alen Hüseyin Gürsoy,Yavuz Gürbüz, Şeyda Sözüer, Veli Ubic, Muhammed Ubic Türkisch/Kurdisch dt. Einsprache · engl. UT · 94 Min

First love is often painful. Still, that’s not going to stop Rauf from showing Zana how much he fancies her. Alas, the eleven-year-old’s advances only elicit amused smiles from the young woman. Fortunately, Rauf has a couple of loyal friends at his side that he can count on for advice and perspective. Undeterred by the tragic consequences of war, or the fact that he’s already dropped out of school to apprentice as a carpenter, the boy holds on to his one hope: Rauf sets off on a quest to find the special colour that symbolizes his love. This turns out to be no trivial undertaking in his snowy little isolated corner of Anatolia. When he finally happens upon the object of his quest, as winter snow gives way to the early flowers of spring, Rauf isn’t a little boy anymore.
Barış Kaya
A graduate of the Anadolu University in Eskişehir, he has worked for film production companies and directed numerous television commercials. 
Soner Caner 
He worked in the areas of production design, art direction and special effects make-up. Won the award for Best Art Director at the Altin Koza Film Festival in 2009.

Forum (PDF Brochure)

Toz Bezi | Dust Cloth (Mavi Boncuk link)
Ahu Öztürk
Produktion: Ret-Film, Istanbul; Fiction 2.0, Hamburg Buch: Ahu Öztürk Kamera: Meryem Yavuz Mit: Asiye Dinçsoy, Nazan Kesal, Serra Yilmaz, Didem Inselel, Mehmet Özgür, Asel Yalin, Yusuf Ancu Länge: 99 Minuten Sprachen: Türkisch, Kurdisch

Nesrin and Hatun are cleaning ladies in Istanbul. They are friends, neighbours and Kurds. Nesrin has kicked her husband out. It was only intended as a warning, but now he hasn’t returned, and Nesrin and her young daughter Asmin find themselves in increasingly difficult circumstances. To enjoy proper social benefits, Nesrin would need to find a real job. Hatun, on the other hand, dreams the dream of moving up in the world and of a life in the fashionable district of Moda, where she cleans the apartments of her middle-class clients. Her desire is so strong that she, a Muslim, even prays for it in a Christian church. Toz bezi is a sensitive, thoroughly unsentimental portrait of a friendship between two women. But beyond the personal story of their relationship and its conflicts, Ahu Öztürk also paints a picture of an entire society in which social and ethnic origin can be insurmountable obstacles. She shows this almost in passing, in the scenes of Hatun and Nesrin at their clients’ homes. And when the camera follows the two of them moving between Istanbul’s different worlds, it becomes clear that the distance they are traversing is not just geographical. 
Anna Hoffmann

Ahu Öztürk (Istanbul, 1976) studied philosophy and cinema. In 2004, she directed her first documentary, Chest. In 2009, she took part in the Festival on Wheels inspired ‘Tales from Kars’ project, directing the short film, Open Wound. This film has since been shown at numerous international film festivals, among them Rotterdam, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Sarajevo and Beirut. Her first feature film project Dust Cloth has been selected to Istanbul Film Festival, Meetings on the Bridge, and won the CNC award. It also received the EAVE Producers’ award at the Sarajevo Film Festival, CineLink. Dust Cloth was one of the three projects that have been selected to Holland Film Meeting. It also received the Ministry of Culture Production support in November 2012.

An ultimate guide to Anatolian Istanbul

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An ultimate guide to Anatolian Istanbul

ÖZLEM SAKIN
Çengelköy
Çengelköy

Tourists in Istanbul come with a to-do-list including places mostly on the city's European side. Travelers may ask why it is worth visiting the Asian side, but these are must-see places that should not be missed

An ultimate guide to Anatolian IstanbulWhen most people think of Istanbul, the attractions of the European side come to mind, including the Hagia Sophia, Taksim Square and the Golden Horn. The European side is where most of the historical artifacts, buildings, mosques, cultural events and attractions are gathered. However, while relatively more suburban, quiet and organized, the Anatolian side has its perks, from the hip cafes and restaurants in Kadıköy, to the high-end shops on Bağdat Avenue.

Moda: the Brooklyn of Istanbul

Moda, located in Kadıköy, is now one of the most hip districts in Istanbul, with its cafes, restaurants and bars, yet it was once home to the Greek population and called Chalcedon, before they settled in the Golden Horn. Besides enjoying views of the Princes' Islands and being one of the most distinguished neighborhoods of Istanbul, Moda offers various attractions including the famous ice cream shops - some of the best in Istanbul are at the old Moda pier, where you can watch the perfect sunset while sipping your tea, and various cafes, including Mambocino Coffee, Cherrybean Coffees for various flavored coffees and Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi for traditional Turkish coffee, that are full of young freelancers and students and lively throughout the week.


Cherrybean Coffees
It is still home to plenty of families and elderly, which helps preserve the sense of the old neighborhood, and due to its relatively affordable housing, is increasingly drawing young professionals. While Moda lacks five star gourmet restaurants, it makes up with local restaurants that are preferred and visited by the locals, such as Beppe for its pizza; Yer, a hip bar and restaurant, for its handmade pastas and vegetarian dishes; and Kırıntı, the flagship restaurant of the chain, which offers a different menu and much more affordable and sometimes tastier options than other restaurants in the Kırıntı chain. It is the ultimate stop (along with many options along the Bosporus) for a Sunday brunch, with its unique eateries including Moda or Bomoti Çay Bahçesi, where you can enjoy the sea view, Van Kahvaltı Evi, where you can enjoy a breakfast with more than 30 choices, and Dodo and Moda Teras, the most deluxe and fancy options offering an open-buffet brunch.

Shopping in Bağdat Avenue

An ultimate guide to Anatolian Istanbul
Along with Nişantaşı, Bağdat Avenue is a great stop for those who are not fond of shopping malls. Lined with trees on both sides, this wide and lively avenue offers everything, from stores offering top fashion labels to well-known restaurant chains, from cafes to luxury automobile galleries, and from haute couture boutiques to interior design stores. You can easily spend a whole day shopping at the branches of famous stores including Zara, H&M and Mango, while stopping for a bite and a coffee at coffee shops such as Starbucks, or more posh cafes like Cafe Cadde and Jerfi.

Head to Kadıköy for antiques

An ultimate guide to Anatolian Istanbul
Kadıköy has various options for shopping, not just clothing retail and chain bookshops. Along with various (especially silver) jewelry shops; you can find a number of specialty boutiques; accessory shops (Müzeshop, Bugga) and comic book stores like Gerekli Şeyler, Büyülü Rüzgar and the Dreamers Figure, along with a number of second hand clothing shops and second hand book shops hiding away. One of the best-kept secrets of Kadıköy is "Antikacılar Sokağı" (Antique Stores Street), which offers everything an antique lover would look for along with various vinyl dealers. These shops also sell gramophones and old record players.

The pearl of the Anatolian side
The district of Üsküdar, previously known as Scutari, is one of the oldest neighborhoods of Istanbul, established in 7th century B.C., and is home to over 180 mosques including Büyük Selimiye Mosque, Mihrimah Sultan Mosque (built for one of the daughters of Suleiman the Magnificent), Şemsi Pasha Mosque, Rum Mehmet Pasha Mosque and Ayazma mosque, just to name a few. The district is also home to various churches, synagogues and dervish houses (tekke); palaces including the Beylerbeyi Palace; fountains; parks; old Ottoman barracks, such as the grand Selimiye Barracks, which is a magnificent site at night when all the lights are turned on and reflect onto the water of the Bosporus. Along with these historical sites and buildings, the Maiden's Tower, sometimes mistakenly called the Leander's Tower (a name dating back to the Byzantine Period), is the pearl of the district.

Rising from the waters of the Bosporus on a small islet off the coast of Üsküdar, the tower has been used as a watchtower, garrison and a lighthouse and has witnessed the centuries of Constantinople, site of many legends over the centuries. According to the most popular version of a Turkish legend, an unknown emperor locked his daughter in the tower after an oracle told him that she would be killed by a venomous snake on her 18th birthday. In order to save her from this early death, he locked his daughter up to keep her away from the land and snakes. However, the prophecy could not be prevented, as the fruit basket sent as a gift for her 18th birthday contained a poisonous snake. Currently the interior has been transformed into a cafe and restaurant, offering great views of Istanbul and is sometimes a venue for events including weddings. The tower can be visited by taking private boat tours from the shore of Üsküdar. Üsküdar's Beylerbeyi and Çengelköy districts are also famous for their fish restaurants, so feel free to head to the shores of Üsküdar, a short ferry ride away from Beşiktaş, for a night of delicious mezzes and fish dishes.

Word Origin | Gergedan, korna, zürafa

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Gergedan: Rhinoceros EN[1[kergeden [ Yadigâr-ı İbni Şerif,  1421?] [ Evliya Çelebi, Seyahatname,  1683] sığır boynuzı ve kuknus burnı ve kergerdān كرگردان boynuzı from AR/PE karkadan كرگدن gergedan Sanskrit khaḍgadhenu खड्गधेनु  [fem.] dişi gergedan   Sanskrit khaḍgá खड्ग boynuz, kılıç

Korna: horn EN[2] [ Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar, 1930] bir arkadaşın korna çalarak, tozu dumana katarak geçtiğini gördüm fromIT corno boynuz, boynuz şeklinde üflemeli çalgı L. cornu boynuz, boynuz şeklinde olan şey, borazan IE *kr-no- IE *ker-1 kafatası, boynuz

Zürafa: giraffe EN[3] [ 1477] zurāfe didükleri cānāver ki boynı deve boynı bigi uzun olur ve ayakları sığır ayağı bigidür ve gövdesi peleng gibi alacadur.[ Lugat-i Ni'metullah, 1540] uştur-gāv-i peleng [Fa.]: zūrnapā didükleri cānāverdür ki zürāfeden galatdur. AR zurāfa(t) زرافة   Afrika kökenli bir hayvan PE zurnāpāy زرناپاى .

[1] Rhinoceros (n.) c. 1300, from Latin rhinoceros, from Greek rhinokeros, literally "nose-horned," from rhinos "nose" (a word of unknown origin) + keras "horn" (see kerato-). 
What is the plural of rhinoceros? ... Well, Liddell and Scott seem to authorize 'rhinocerotes,' which is pedantic, but 'rhinoceroses' is not euphonious. [Sir Charles Eliot, "The East Africa Protectorate," 1905]rhino- before vowels rhin-, word-forming element meaning "nose, of the nose," from Greek rhino-, comb. form of rhis "nose," which is of uncertain origin.
rhino (n.)  short for rhinoceros, 1884. As slang for "cash" (also rino) 1680s, of unknown origin. Hence cant rhinocerial "rich" [Grose, 1788].

Nose (n.) Old English nosu, from Proto-Germanic *nusus (cognates: Old Norse nös, Old Frisian nose, Dutch neus, Old High German nasa, German Nase), from PIE *nas- "nose" (cognates: Sanskrit nasa, Old Persian naham, Old Church Slavonic nasu, Lithuanian nosis, Latin nasus "nose"). Used of any prominent or projecting part from 1530s. (nose cone in the space rocket sense is from 1949). Used to indicate "something obvious" from 1590s. Meaning "odor, scent" is from 1894. Kiv, It could bee no other then his owne manne, that had thrust his nose so farre out of ioynte. ["Barnabe Riche His Farewell to Military Profession," 1581]

Pay through the nose (1670s) seems to suggest "bleed." Many extended meanings are from the horse-racing sense of "length of a horse's nose," as a measure of distance between two finishers (1908). To turn up one's nose "show disdain" is from 1818 (earlier hold up one's nose, 1570s); similar notion in look down one's nose (1921). To say something is under (one's) nose "in plain view" is from 1540s.

[2] Horn (n.) Old English horn "horn of an animal; projection, pinnacle," also "wind instrument" (originally one made from animal horns), from Proto-Germanic *hurnaz (cognates: German Horn, Dutch horen, Old Frisian horn, Gothic haurn), from PIE *ker- (1) "horn; head, uppermost part of the body," with derivatives refering to horned animals, horn-shaped objects and projecting parts (cognates: Greek karnon "horn," Latin cornu "horn," Sanskrit srngam "horn," Persian sar "head," Avestan sarah- "head," Greek koryphe "head," Latin cervus "deer," Welsh carw "deer"). 

Late 14c. as "one of the tips of the crescent moon." The name was retained for a class of musical instruments that developed from the hunting horn; the French horn is the true representative of the class. Of dilemmas from 1540s; of automobile warning signals from 1901. Slang meaning "erect penis" is recorded by 1785. Jazz slang sense of "trumpet" is by 1921. Meaning "telephone" is by 1945. Figurative senses of Latin cornu included "salient point, chief argument; wing, flank; power, courage, strength." Horn of plenty is from 1580s. To make horns at "hold up the fist with the two exterior fingers extended" as a gesture of insult is from c.1600. 

Symbolic of cuckoldry since mid-15c. (the victim was fancied to grow one on his head). The image is widespread in Europe and perhaps as old as ancient Greece. The German linguist Hermann Dunger ('Hörner Aufsetzen' und 'Hahnrei', "Germania" 29, 1884) ascribes it to a custom surviving into 19c., "the old practice of engrafting the spurs of a castrated cock on the root of the excised comb, which caused them to grow like horns" [James Hastings, "Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics"] but the image could have grown as well from a general gesture of contempt or insult made to wronged husbands, "who have been the subject of popular jest in all ages" [Hastings].

[3] Giraffe (n.) long-necked ruminant animal of Africa, 1590s, giraffa, from Italian giraffa, from Arabic zarafa, probably from an African language. Earlier Middle English spellings varied wildly, depending on the foreign source, and included jarraf, ziraph, and gerfauntz, some apparently directly from Arabic, the last reflecting some confusion with olifaunt "elephant." In Arabye, þei ben clept Gerfauntz; þat is a best pomelee or spotted .. but a lityll more high þan is a stede, But he hath the necke a xxti cubytes long. [Mandeville's Travels, c. 1425]
The modern form of the English word is attested by c. 1600 and is via French girafe (13c.). Replaced earlier camelopard, a compound of camel (for the long neck) and pard (n.1) "leopard" (for the spots).

Word origin | Zikzak, Kasis

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Zikzak: zigzag EN[1][ Tıngır & Sinapian, Istılahat Lugati, 1892] Zigzag [Fr.]: zikzak, dolambaç. fromFR ziczac/zigzag kırık çizgi, kırık çizgide hareket etme (possibly onomatopoeic)


Kasis: [ TDK, Türkçe Sözlük, 2. Baskı, 1955] kasis: Bir yolun bir yanından öbür yanına geçen hark. fromFR cassis[2] yol kırığı, yolda hız kesmek amacıyla yapılan enine keski fromFR casser kırmak oldL. quassare [freq.] L. quatere, quass- darbe vurmak, çarpmak, kırmak  IE *kʷət- IE *kʷēt- sarsmak, çarpmak, kırmak

[1] zig-zag (n.) also zigzag, 1712, from French zigzag (1670s), perhaps from German Zickzack (though this is attested only from 1703), possibly a reduplication of Zacke "tooth, prong."[3] Earliest use in German is in reference to military siege approaches. Originally in English used to describe the layout of certain garden paths. As an adjective from 1750; the verb is recorded from 1774. The brand of cigarette paper is from 1909. Related: Zig-zagged; zig-zagging.

[2] Cassis: masculine noun (= fruit) blackcurrant [de route] (= creux) dip (= bosse) bump 

[3] die Zacke Pl.: die Zacken jag, blip, indentation, cusp EN- Zahnrad:gear

Ottoman Jews in Vienna | Turkish Posting

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Viyana-İstanbul arasında gidip gelen elçiler iki devlet arasındaki diplomatik yoğunluğu gösteren önemli bir ölçektir. 1488-1792 yılları arasında İstanbul’a gelen 130 imparatorluk elçisine karşılık Viyana’ya giden Türk elçilerinin sayısı seksen-doksan kadardır (Teply, Österreich in Geschicte, s. 14). Bunların da Avusturya tarafından gelenlerin aksine ikamet elçileri olmadığı bilinmektedir. Avrupa’nın önde gelen bazı merkezlerinde ikamet elçiliklerinin ihdası III. Selim devrinde gerçekleşti. Viyana’ya ilk ikamet elçisi olarak İbrâhim Afif Efendi tayin edildi ve itimatnâmesini 1797 Eylül ayında sundu (Kuran, s. 43). Elçiliğin Osmanlı Devleti’nin başından itibaren, hatta II. Abdülhamid döneminde bile Viyana’da bir kira evinde temsil edilmesi (Akyıldız, s. 147), geç başlayan münasebetlerin artık tamamen önemini yitirmiş ve sıradan bir komşuluk ilişkisine indirgenmiş olduğunu göstermektedir. Viyana’da ilk Türk diplomatik temsilciliği şehbender (konsolos) adıyla 1718 Pasarofça Antlaşması ile sağlandı ve 1726’da Viyana’ya gönderilen Kazgancızâde Ömer Ağa âdeta bir ikamet elçisi gibi orada bulunan ilk Osmanlı diplomatı oldu (Çelebizâde Âsım, s. 307-308; Uzunçarşılı, IV/1, s. 151). 1665’te Viyana’ya sefirlik vazifesiyle gönderilen İbrâhim Paşa’nın kethüdâlığını yapan ve birtakım tanışıklıklar peyda eden Ömer Ağa bu vazifeyi 1732 yılına kadar sürdürdü. Osmanlı tüccarlarının işlerine bakmak, onların rahatça gidip gelmelerini sağlamak, vâris bırakmadan ölenlerin terekelerine devlet adına el koymak, çeşitli yerlere ticarî imtiyazlarla vekiller tayin etmek gibi yetkilerle donatıldı. Ömer Ağa ayrıca İbrâhim Müteferrika’nın sipariş ettiği haritaları temin etti, hatta Viyana’da bir cami açılması talebinde bulundu. Nihayet gerçek bir elçi gibi davranmasından ötürü baştan beri böyle bir temsilciliği içine sindirememiş olan Avusturya’nın rahatsızlığına ve istenmeyen adam olarak geri dönmesi için çeşitli girişimlerde bulunulmasına yol açtı (Wurm, XLII [1992], s. 169 vd.). Pasarofça’ya istinaden yapılan ticaret antlaşmasıyla Osmanlı vatandaşları Viyana’ya serbestçe girebilme hakkını elde ettiğinden müslüman ve gayri müslim tüccar şehre gidip gelmeye başladı (Tomenendal, s. 57). Osmanlı vatandaşı oldukları için yahudiler yerli yahudiler gibi horlanmadı ve şehre giriş resmini ödemek zorunda kalmadı. Osmanlı yahudilerinin sayısı 1761’den itibaren artış gösterdi. Bunlar Avusturya’da uygulanan yahudilerle ilgili kısıtlamalardan etkilenmediler. XIX. yüzyılın sonlarında yaklaşık 800 kişi Osmanlı vatandaşı olarak Viyana’da yaşamaktaydı. Nazi Almanyası’nın 1938’deki ilhakında elli kadar Türk yahudi pasaportlarını ibraz ederek tâciz edilmeden şehri terkedebildiler. 



Viyana’daki Türk-Yahudi Sinagogu 1885-1887 yılları arasında inşa edildi. Giriş avlusunda Franz Joseph ile II. Abdülhamid’in resimleri asılıdır. Bu sinagog Türk Mâbedi (Türkischer Tempel)[1] olarak anılmıştır.

Kemal Beydilli 

SOURCE 



 [1] The Türkischer Tempel (English: Turkish Temple) was a synagogue in Vienna. It was built specifically for a community of Sephardi Jews, who originally came from Turkey. The synagogue was built in a Turkish, almost Islamic style, with a dome. The building was destroyed during the Reichskristallnacht in 1938. Architect: Hugo von Wiedenfeld. 

See: Zur Geschichte des türkischen Tempels in Wien und seines Architekten Hugo von Wiedenfeld (1852–1925) Ursula PROKOP LINK

The Leopoldstädter Tempel was the largest synagogue of Vienna, in the district (Bezirk) of Leopoldstadt. It was also known as the Israelitische Bethaus in der Wiener Vorstadt Leopoldstadt. It was built in 1858 in a Moorish Revival style by the architect Ludwig Förster. The tripartite facade of the Leopoldstädter with its tall central section flanked by lower wings on each side became the model for numerous Moorish Revival synagogues, including the Zagreb Synagogue, the Spanish Synagogue in Prague, the Tempel Synagogue in Kraków and Templul Coral in Bucharest. It was destroyed during the Reichskristallnacht on November 10, 1938. Source: Bob Martens, Herbert Peter: "The Destroyed Synagogues of Vienna - Virtual city walks". Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2011. 

See also: 

Die sephardische Diaspora im osmanischen Reich und die sephardisch-türkische Gemeinde in Wien | Univ. Prof. Dr. Jacob Allerhand LINK 


Jüdisches Museum zeigt "Die Türken in Wien"LINK

Word origin | Saray

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Saray: Seraglio [1] palace [2]EN [ Kutadgu Bilig, 1069]  saray karşı itme ay ilig kutı [saray konak yapma ey devletli hükümdar] [ Codex Cumanicus, 1303] palacium.

Persian and TR: saray fromPersian sarāy سراى kapalı büyük mekân, konak, özellikle hükümdar konağı oldPersion srādik/srāh. Armenian  srah սրահ "kapalı büyük mekân, salon" from Parthian AR surādiḳ سرادق "otağ, büyük çadır" from Pahlavi.

[1] Seraglio (n.) "harem," also the name of a former palace of the sultan in Istanbul, 1580s, from Italian seraglio, alteration of Turkish saray "palace, court," from Persian sara'i "palace, inn," from Iranian base *thraya- "to protect" (cognates: Avestan thrayeinti "they protect"), from PIE *tra-, variant form of root *tere- (2) "to cross over, pass through, overcome" (see through). 

The Italian word probably reflects folk etymology influence of serraglio "enclosure, cage," from Medieval Latin serraculum "bung, stopper" (see serried). sultan (n.) 1550s, from Middle French sultan "ruler of Turkey" (16c.), ultimately from Arabic sultan "ruler, prince, monarch, king, queen," originally "power, dominion." According to Klein's sources, this is from Aramaic shultana "power," from shelet "have power." Earlier English word was soldan, soudan (c. 1300), used indiscriminately of Muslim rulers and sovereigns, from Old French souldan, soudan, from Medieval Latin sultanus. Related: Sultanic.

Sultana (n.) wife, mother, daughter, or concubine of a sultan, 1580s, from Italian sultana, fem. of sultano (see sultan). Middle English had soudanesse "sultaness" (late 14c.).

Sultanate (n.) 1794, from sultan + -ate (1).

[2] Palace (n.) early 13c., "official residence of an emperor, king, archbishop, etc.," from Old French palais "palace, court," from Medieval Latin palacium "a palace" (source of Spanish palacio, Italian palazzo), from Latin palatium "the Palatine hill," in plural, "a palace," from Mons Palatinus "the Palatine Hill," one of the seven hills of ancient Rome, where Augustus Caesar's house stood (the original "palace"), later the site of the splendid residence built by Nero. In English, the general sense of "splendid dwelling place" is from late 14c. 

The hill name probably is ultimately from palus "stake," on the notion of "enclosure." Another guess is that it is from Etruscan and connected with Pales, supposed name of an Italic goddess of shepherds and cattle.

Palazzo (n.) 1660s, from Italian palazzo.

Palatial (adj.) 1754, from French palatial "magnificent," from Latin palatium (see palace). Related: Palatially.

Palatine (adj.) mid-15c., from Middle French palatin (15c.) and directly from Medieval Latin palatinus "of the palace" (of the Caesars), from Latin palatium (see palace). Used in English to indicate quasi-royal authority. Reference to the Rhineland state is from c. 1580.

Ottoman Photography | Viçen, Hovsep and Kevork Abdullah

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Viçen (1820–1902), Hovsep (1830–1908) and Kevork Abdullah (1839–1918) later named Abdullah Brothers, joined the studio opened in Istanbul by the German chemist/photographer Rabach[1] 1856 and took over the studio on his return to Germany in 1858. They were promoted to the Photographers of the Palace and became famous in Europe under the name of Abdullah Brothers. They were given Ottoman citizenship upon their success in their career. The monumental fifty-one-volume photographic record of the realm of sultan Abdul Hamid II of Turkey, the last of the Ottoman Emperors, involved more than six photographic studios. The survey was directed by the sultan's court photographers, the three Armenian brothers who formed the Istanbul firm of Abdullah Freres. The work appears to have been conceived by the sultan as a portrait of his empire for the 1893 World Columbian Exposition, but was not exhibited there. It dwells on the accomplishments and westernizing improvements of the regime, such as the well drilled and equipped military, the technologically advanced lifesaving and fire fighting brigades, customs bureaucracy, and life at the lavish Imperial court. A copy of the survey was presented by Sultan Abdul-Hamid to the Library of Congress in 1894. (Gift of H.I.M. the Sultan Abdul Hamid II) 


Bibliography: 

Abdullah Freres : Ottoman Court Photographers by Engin Özendes YKB Publication 1998 Yapı Kredi Yayınları; İstanbul, 1998, 23 x 33 cm., 247 pages, Hardcover ISBN 9753638434 
See ARTICLE in PDF 

Mehmet Bahadır Dördüncü: Mecca - Medina. The Yıldız albums of Sultan Abdülhamid II. The Light, Somerset 2006, ISBN 1-59784-054-8.

Nimet Seker: Die Fotografie im Osmanischen Reich. Ergon Verlag, Würzburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89913-739-2. Nimet Seker Profil


[1] The German chemist Rabach visited Istanbul during the Crimean War together with units under the command of Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke (26 October 1800, Parchim, Mecklenburg-Schwerin – 24 April 1891, Berlin) and opened a studio. Abdullah Şükrü,(né Viçen) (1820 - 1902) a miniaturist on ivory by trade began his photographic career touching up photos for Rabach, who opened his photography studio in 1856 in the Bayazid district of Constantinople. In 1858, when Vickens younger brother Kevork (1839 - 1918) returned from his studies at the Murad Raphaelian Armenian Academy in Venice, they and another brother Hovsep (1830 - 1908) decided to take over Rabach's photography studio and open their own, The Abdullah Frères. In 1867, they sold their shop in Beyazid and moved to a more favorable location in Pera. The Abdullah Frères subsequently became one of the most famous photographers in the Ottoman Empire. In 1863 Sultan Abdulaziz declared the Abdullah Frères as the official court photographers and Outstanding Artists of the City, an epithet they used until the closure of the shop in 1899. In 1886, at the request of the Khadive in Egypt, they opened a branch in Cairo, Egypt.The Abdullah Frères have taken pictures of numerous Ottoman Sultans, Mark Twain, Ibrahim Edhem Pasha, Osman Nuri Pasha, scenic views, and more.

A renowned Greek photographer Nikolaos Andriomenos[*] embarked his photography adventure when he was 11, as an apprentice at the studio that Abdullah Brothers took over from Rabach in Beyazıt. After working as an apprentice for a couple of years, he continued his career as a retouching artist. In 1867, Abdullah Brothers transferred the studio to Andriomenos and moved to Pera. Therefore, Andriomenos had his own professional studio at an early age (around 17). After working in Beyazıt for almost 30 years, he opened a branch in Pera. Andriomenos was one of the successful photographers, who managed to enter into the palace. He gave photography lessons to Sultan Vahdeddin, before he succeeded to throne. His 4 photographs were displayed at Paris exhibition in 1903, and he received empery medal from Sultan Abdulhamid II. He took photographs until his death in 1929, and after his decease, his son Tanas Andriomenos continued photography. Changed the studio’s name as “Foto Saray”, Tanas settled in Athens in 1980s. 

[*] SOURCE 

Review: Die Fotografie im Osmanischen Reich

Göran Larsson | CyberOrient, Vol. 5, Iss. 2, 2011

Besides its value as an excellent introduction to the early history of photography in the Ottoman Empire, Nimet Șeker’s book Die Fotografie im Osmanischen Reich provides the reader with valuable insights into Muslim debates about images and Islamic theology and the transformation of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th and early 20th century. Even though it is possible to argue that the development of the art of photography clashed with the prohibition against images it is difficult to find a stark homogenous opposition against photography among the Ottomans. For example, in his analysis of fatwas from the 19th century Șeker demonstrates convincingly that the Muslim authorities often came to different conclusions. Without going into any theological details in this review, it is more plausible that local contexts and social factors were of greater importance than theological considerations. For example, in the Ottoman Empire the Sultans’ and the power elite had no problems with miniature paintings and this acceptance was a positive driving force for the recognition of photography. Together with other technological innovations, new ideological and political influences, and a novel fashion, the introduction of the camera and the photography was part of a general modernisation of the Ottoman Empire. From this point of view the photography could be seen as an epitome of the western world, an understanding that also could be contrasted to the backward Orient.

In his thorough and well-documented study, Șeker gives the reader a first hand introduction to the early photographic studies that were established and opened in the Ottoman Empire in the middle of the 1850s. The first studios were set up by members of the non-Muslim minorities (e.g. Greeks, Armenians) in the European part of Istanbul in the quarters of Pera (Beyoğlu). According to Șeker’s analysis – and I believe that he is correct – the absence of so-called Muslim photographers in this first phase has nothing to do with a religious hesitation to take photos. The members of the minority communities were better equipped to take up the new technology. They were often closely connected with the rest of Europe and several of the early photographers had learnt the necessary skills in Paris or Berlin and several of them had also backgrounds as painters or chemists. Even more importantly, their non-Muslim background was not a hindrance and the Sultan and the Muslim elite in Istanbul soon requested their skills. Even though I find Șeker’s analysis plausible it seems to be unnecessary to make a sharp distinction between Muslims and non-Muslim photographers and the explanation for who took part or not seems to be more closely related to class and social belonging that religious identity. To make this distinction – that we partly find in Șeker’s analysis – it would be necessary to say something about how we define a Muslim. Are we referring to a cultural/religious background, or are we referring to a person that follows current guidelines of Islam in the Ottoman Empire? The distinction between non-Muslim and Muslim photographers becomes even more blurred since several of the early non-Muslim photographers also converted to Islam. Should we still count them as non-Muslim photographers? However, this is only minor critic and Șeker’s analysis is mainly based on social and economical differences that prevailed in the society at the time. 

In the final section of the book, Șeker links the discussion about photography to the question of self-identification and representation. As shown in many studies on photography and art, the early photographic studios soon realised that they could earn more money by selling images and pictures that meet the expectations of the visitors and travellers to the Orient. Hence, they started to produce and reinforce the Orientalist image of the Orient as something different from the West. At the same time it is also clear that the photography became immensely popular by the large audience in Istanbul and this was the rise of the so-called family photo albums. 

Last but not least, the art of photography was also put to use at the end of the Ottoman Empire by the final Sultans’ as a method for showing western states (and presumable money lenders and investors) how they have improved and modernized the empire. These documentary pictures were taken with the aim to show a prosperous and modern state that lives up to the expectations of the west.

In sum Șeker’s study of the early history of photography in the Ottoman Empire is an excellent book that is of great interest to all scholars of the history of religions, the social and economical culture of the Middle East, and media and communication studies. SOURCE

Hilmi Yavuz'dan 80 yıllık yaşamının muhasebesi: SÜKUT-U HAYAL VE HÜSRAN | Turkish Posting

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Mavi Boncuk |
Hilmi Yavuz'dan 80 yıllık yaşamının muhasebesi: SÜKUT-U HAYAL VE HÜSRAN

Genç Cumhuriyet’ten bugüne çok önemli dönemlere tanıklık eden Hilmi Yavuz günümüz olaylarını şöyle özetliyor: "Türkiye’nin gerçek bir demokrasiye geçmesi için en az iki yüz yıl daha gerekli. Onda da bir garanti yok"
Fatih VURAL

O, Türkiye’nin en büyük şairlerinden biri değil sadece… Çok önemli bir yazar, filozof ve hoca… Rahle-i tedrisinden geçen yüzlerce öğrenciyle de bu topraklara yeni tohumlar ekti. Bilkent Üniversitesi’nde ekmeye de devam ediyor.
Bu yıl 80 yaşına giren Hilmi Yavuz, genç Cumhuriyet’ten bugüne kadar çok önemli dönemlere tanıklık etti. Yaşadığımız bugünleri, ‘lümpenliğin zirve yaptığı dönem’ olarak gören Yavuz, gelecekten hiç de ümitli değil! 80 yılı "sükut-u hayal ve hüsran" olarak özetliyor. “Tayyip Bey gidecek, başka birisi gelecek. Yine ara bir demokrasi dönem yaşayacağız ve kısa sürede bitecek. Türkiye’nin gerçek bir demokrasiye geçmesi için en az iki yüz yıl daha gerekli. Onda da bir garanti yok” diyen Yavuz, sözlerini şöyle tamamlıyor: “Türkiye demokrat o-la-maz!”
Cumhuriyet’in kuruluşundan bu yana aydın ve iktidar ilişkisi nasıl bir düzlem üzerinden yürüdü?
Tanzimat’tan bu yana, entelektüel kimlikleri olduğunu söyleyebileceğimiz birtakım insanlar var. Onlara gerçekten aydın diyebilir miyiz, şüpheliyim. Tanzimat’ta Şinasi’den söz edersek, tamamıyla Batıcı bir adamdır. Ahmet Cevdet Paşa’dan söz edersek tamamıyla gelenekselci bir kimliktir. 2. Meşrutiyet’e geldiğimizde, Şinasi’nin kimliğinin devamı olarak Batıcı, modern anlayış iki düzlemde yürümeye başladı: Pozitivistler ve materyalistler. Pozitivistlerin arasında Ahmet Nebil’ler, materyalistlerin arasında Baha Tevfik’ler var.

MATERYALİSTLER MARKSİST, POZİTİVİSTLER İSE KEMALİST OLDU
Ya Cumhuriyet dönemi?
Cumhuriyet dönemine gelindiğinde 2. Meşrutiyet’in materyalistleri Marksist, 2. Meşrutiyet’in pozitivistleri de Kemalist oluyor. Böylesine bir dönüşüm var. 1930’lardaki Kadro dergisinde ve daha sonra Doğan Avcıoğlu’nun Yön dergisinde Marksist ve Kemalistler arasında bir uzlaştırma çabası gözümüze çarpar. Kemalistler iktidarla ‘organik aydın’ olarak bütünleşirken, Marksistler ‘organik aydın’ların karşısında muhalefeti temsil eder olmuştur.
Cumhuriyet döneminde iktidara karşı muhalefet, hem Batıcı ve modernleşmeci Marksist aydınlar, hem de muhafazakâr, İslamcı aydınlar tarafından yürütülüyor. Sait Halim Paşa, Felibeli Ahmed Hilmi gibi İslamcı muhaliflerin, 2. Meşrutiyet döneminde olduğunu da unutmayalım.

 HALİDÎ KOLU, NAKŞİBENDİLİĞİ SİYASİLEŞTİRDİ
Cumhuriyet dönemindeki İslamcı aydınları, bunların devamı olarak okuyabilir miyiz?
Elbette. İslamcı muhalif entelektüellerin daha çok ve özellikle Nakşibendiler arasından çıktığını görüyoruz. ‘Halidî Nakşibendiler’ diye bilinen grubun iki büyük kimliği vardır. Bir tarafta Abdülhakim Arvasi, diğer tarafta Abdülaziz Bekkine vardır. Arvasi’den Necip Fazıl, Bekkine’den ise Nurettin Topçu akımı devam eder. Topçu’nun grubu, bugün daha ziyade Dergâh dergisinin çevresinde toplanan kimliktir. Necip Fazıl’ın Büyük Doğu grubu ile Dergâh grubu arasında bugün dahi ciddi bir rekabet söz konusudur. Bunlar tamamen Nakşibendilik üzerinden bir İslami muhalefet oluşturdular. Halidî Nakşibendilik, Nakşibendi tarikatının doğrudan doğruya politik bir misyonu olması ve bu anlamda dünyevileşmesi gerektiği üzerinde durmuştur.

MARKSİST BAZI AYDINLAR, BİRDEN İKTİDARIN ADAMI OLUVERDİ!
Marksist ve İslamcı muhalif aydınlar, Demokrat Parti’nin kuruluşu sırasında bir araya geliyorlar, değil mi?
Evet, doğru. Sertel Ailesi, başlangıçta Demokrat Parti’yi destekledi. Şevket Süreyya Aydemir ise çok uzun bir süre Demokrat Parti’yi destekledi. Bu işbirlikleri ilginçtir ve bende, onlara dair, bir sınıf bilincine sahip olmadıkları fikrini uyandırmıştır.
Nazım ve Kerim Sadi için bunu söyleyemem. Vedat Nedim mesela… Gizli Komünist Parti’nin genel sekteridir.  Ama ne oldu, İsmet Paşa döneminde Radyo Müdürlüğü yaptı. Kadro Hareketi içinde Vedat Nedim’le birlikte Yakup Kadri, İsmail Hüsrev’le birlikte yer almış Şevket Süreyya da 2. Dünya Savaşı döneminde, CHP’ye bağlı olarak İaşe Müsteşarlığı yapmıştır. Adam komünist, sonra birdenbire iktidarın adamı oluyor!
Onları da anlayabiliyorum, zira Kadro dergisinde Marksizm’le Kemalizm’i uzlaştırmaya çalıştılar. Ama bu uzlaşıyı Mustafa Kemal kabul etmedi. Kadro dergisi de onun emriyle kapatıldı. Derginin ilk sayısında Başbakan İsmet Paşa’nın önsözü vardır. Kapatılma sonucunda, hareket içindeki isimler, CHP ile bütünleşmeye gitmiştir.
27 Mayıs’tan sonraki aydın panoraması bize neler söylüyor? 
Darbeden sonra, 1961 sonunda, Doğan Avcıoğlu yönetiminde Yön dergisi kurulur. İlhan Selçuk, Şevket Süreyya gibi isimler, bu hareketi desteklemiştir. Bunun yanı sıra, ayrıca bir Marksist hareket de vardır.
Türkiye İşçi Partisi…
Evet. Bu defa İşçi Partisi’nin içinde bir bölünme ve rekabet başlar. Milli Demokratik Devrimciler (MDD), bir devrimin ancak askeri darbenin sonucunda gerçekleşeceğini iddia eder.
O sürece kadar en ağır bedeli ödeyenler sosyalistler, komünistler mi oluyor?
İslamcılar da büyük bedel ödüyor. Bediüzzaman’ı düşünün, o da Nakşi’dir… Necip Fazıl’ı düşünün… Çok sayıda İslamcı okur-yazar, hem CHP, hem de DP döneminde ciddi haksızlara uğramıştır.

TOPLUM, DESPOTİZM DIŞINDA BİR YAŞAMA BİÇİMİ KAZANAMADI
Tek parti döneminde ideolojik olarak yürütülen iki yönlü bir cadı avı var. ‘Komünist’ diye bakılanlara yapılanlar arasında, Tan Matbaası’nın yıkılışını, Sertel’lerin kaçmaya zorlanmalarını, Nâzım’ın yok yere 12 yıl hapis yatmasını, Sabahattin Ali’nin öldürülmesini sayabiliriz. Daha sonra hortlatılan ‘şeriat’ tehlikesi altında özellikle Said Nursi’ye yapılan zulümleri biliyoruz. Devlet sürekli bir düşmanlık kodu mu üretiyor?
Türkiye’de siyasal muhalefetin, herhangi biçimde, özellikle de entelektüeller bakımından, toleransla karşılandığını söylemek mümkün değil! Bu, devletin yapısıyla ilgili bir meseledir. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti de dâhil olmak üzere, demokrasi, arızi bir ortam olmuştur. Yani bizde askeri ya da sivil despotizm ve vesayet esastır! Demokrasi ise füruattır! Yani öncelikli değildir.
1923’ten 2016’ya kadar kaç yıl askeri ve sivil vesayetle, kaç yıl demokrasiyle geçmiştir? 1923’ten 1950’ye kadar daha en başta avans verilmiş! Bunun bir despotizm olmadığını söylemek mümkün mü? Sonra Menderes geliyor. 5 yıllık bir demokrasi oluyor.
1955’ten sonra Menderes despotizmi başlıyor. O bitiyor, 27 Mayıs Darbesi oluyor. Askeri vesayet başlıyor. 1961-1962’den 1971’e kadar Türkiye’de yine bir demokrasi var. 12 Mart 1971’le yine bir despotizm geliyor. Arada kısa bir demokrasi süreci var. Sonra küt diye 12 Eylül 1980 Darbesi çıkageliyor.
Bunlara bakarak, Türkiye’nin demokrat mı, despotik mi olduğunu anlamak çok kolay. Despotizm arası demokrasiler, ara rejimler! Parlamento’nun olması, insanların seçimle iş başına gelmesi, o ülkenin demokrat olduğunu göstermez. Menderes de seçimle iş başına gelmiştir, Tayyip Bey de seçimle iş başına gelmiştir! Bu toplum, despotik bir yapılanmanın dışında kendisine demokrasiyi üretme imkânı bulamıyorsa, o zaman bu toplumda muhaliflere hiçbir şekilde kendi görüşlerini dile getirme olanağı verilmeyecektir. Bu toplum, despotizm dışında bir siyasal yaşama biçimini henüz kazanabilmiş değil!

“YETMEZ AMA EVET”Çİ DEĞİL, DİREKT “EVET”ÇİYDİM!
AK Parti döneminde ‘despotizm-ara rejim demokrasi’ döngüsünün kırılacağına inandınız mı?
Evet! Sol bunu yapamadı. Dolayısıyla, Türkiye’de demokratikleşmenin olsa olsa sağdan ve muhafazakârlıktan gelebileceği konusunda belki çok naif bir hassasiyet oluştu bende.
İnsanlar, özellikle 28 Şubat döneminde başlayan ‘mazlumluk’ kavramının tuzağına mı düştü?
Evet! Bu önemli bir noktadır… Referandumda ben, “Yetmez Ama Evet”çi değildim! Ben, direkt “Evet”çiydim! Üç gerekçem vardı. Bir, Genelkurmay Başkanı Yaşar Büyükanıt’ı şüpheli sıfatıyla sorguya çekmek isteyen Van Savcısı Ferhat Sarıkaya, HSYK kararıyla savcılıktan uzaklaştırıldı. Bununla kalmadı, meslekten ihraç edildi.
İki, Abdullah Gül’ün Cumhurbaşkanlığı seçimi sırasındaki Sabih Kanadoğlu formülasyonu: 367. Ondan önceki hiçbir aday böyle bir dayatmayla karşılaşmamış! Anayasa Mahkemesi de bunu onayladı. Üç, TSK’dan birtakım insanların, eşleri başörtülü ya da kendileri karargâhta namaz kılıyor diye ordudan tard edilmesi. Bunların başvuracakları bir makam da yoktu.

TAYYİP BEY’İN TEK ADAM OLMAK İSTEDİĞİNİ 2012’DE ANLADIM
Onlar arasında edebiyatçı İskender Pala da var…
Evet. Bu üç gerekçe, vicdanen benim kabul edebileceğim bir şey değil. Bunları da o dönemde yazdım. O nedenle referandumda “Evet” dedim. O zaman AK Parti bütün bu sorunlara, 28 Şubat despotizmine karşı bir alternatif getiriyordu. 2012’ye kadar da bu tavrı sürdürdüm.
Kopuş noktanız neresiydi?
Kopuş noktam, Tayyip Bey’in bu ülkeyi tek başına yönetme eğilimine kapılmış olmasıdır. 2012’deki bir yazımın sonunda Tayyip Bey için “Mağrur olma padişahım, senden büyük Allah var” demiştim. 17-25 Aralık ya da Gezi Olayları daha ortada yoktu.

SİYASAL İSLAM’IN TEK ADAMLIĞIN ÖNÜNE GEÇECEK ENTELEKTÜEL GÜCÜ YOK
Siyasal İslam’ın içindeki entelektüel unsurlar, Tayyip Bey’in tek adamlık arzusuna bir denetim mekanizması oluşturamaz mıydı? Ya da siyasal İslam’ın böylesine bir gücü var mıydı?
Siyasal İslam’ın böyle bir entelektüel gücü yok! Bunu anlama sürecimin bir başlangıcı var… Siyasal İslam, medeniyeti mi yoksa dogmaları mı yani akaidi mi referans alıyor? İkisinin birbirinden ayrılmazlığını düşünmek gerekir. Zira İslam aynı zamanda çok büyük estetik medeniyetidir.
SİYASAL İSLAM, MEHMED AKİF GİBİ MEDENİYETİ DIŞLADI
Bu anlamda hep Yahya Kemal örneğini verirsiniz…
Evet. Sermet Sami Uysal, Yahya Kemal’e sorar: “Üstadım siz de Müslümansınız, Mehmed Akif de. Aranızda ne fark var?” Yahya Kemal diyor ki: “Akif, akaidin şairidir. Ben, İslam şiirinin şairiyim.” Bu çok önemli bir tespittir. Yahya Kemal’in “İslam şiirinin şairi” ifadesinin kapsamını genişletebiliriz. Aslında “Ben, İslam medeniyetinin şairiyim” diyor, Yahya Kemal. İslam, bir estetik ve ahlak medeniyetidir. Böyle felsefi bir arka planı var. Artistik ve entelektüel…
Mevlânâ da “Zevki olmayanın imanı olmaz” diyor…
Doğru. Böyle olunca, bugünkü siyasal İslam’ın neyi öne çıkardığını ve neyi geriye ittiğini düşünmeye başladım. Akaidi yani Akif çizgisini öne çıkarıyor. Akif’i asla inkâr etmiyorum, çok büyük bir şair. Ama medeniyeti ‘tek dişe kalmış canavar’a benzetir. İslam’ın artistik ve ahlaki anlamda medeniyet boyutu geriye itilince siyasal İslam da ister istemez bir forma dönüşmüştür. Siyasal İslam, Türkiye’de, Müslümanlığı, altını çizerek söylüyorum, kamusal alanda görünür olmaya indirgemiştir.

DÜNYEVİLEŞTİKÇE MANEVİYATTAN VE AHLAKTAN UZAKLAŞTILAR
Bunu açar mısınız? 
“Adam, evinde içki içer içmez. Beni ilgilendirmez. Meyhanede görünüyor! Adamın alnı evde secde-i Rahman’a değiyor mu, beni ilgilendirmez. Cuma namazına geliyor mu?” İslam’da her şeyden evvel bir Peygamber ahlakından söz edilir. Ama siyasal İslam’da bu yok! Bu da Nakşibendi tarikatının Halidî kolunun dünyevileşmesiyle ilgili. Ne kadar dünyaya dönük bir tavrı öne çıkıyorsa, manevi ve ahlaki yanı da geriye itiliyor.
İSMET ÖZEL SÖYLEDİ: “İSLAM’IN MEDENİYETE İHTİYACI YOK!”
Medeniyetten akaide kayış, bir medeniyet tasavvurunun olamadığının, olamayacağının itirafı mı?
Bunu söyleyenler oldu. “İslam’ın kendisi bir medeniyettir. Medeniyete ihtiyacı yoktur” gibi bir retorik üretildi. Bunu İsmet Özel söyledi. Başta ben olmak üzere birçok arkadaşımız da bu nedenle eleştirildi.
Hep zikrettiğiniz taassup noktasına burada mı kaydılar?
Kesinlikle öyle. Estetik ve ahlak medeniyeti, kendiliğinden bir tolerans anlayışını da beraberinde getirir. Böylesine bir yoksunluk da bugünkü sonuçları, taassubu doğurdu.
TÜRGEV Mİ SİVİL?
Özellikle kamusal alandaki taassuba dayalı bakış açısı, laikçi endişeleri de haklı çıkarıyor mu?
Türkiye’de hiçbir kavram açık ve seçik biçimde tarif edilmiş değil. “Kamusal alan” dediğimiz zaman ne anlıyoruz? Kamusal alanı, sivil toplumu kimse tarif etmiyor. Tayyip Bey, “STK’ları topladım” diyor. Aralarında TÜRGEV var! TÜRGEV, STK mı? Bir yapının sivil olması için her şeyden önce devletten özerk olması lazım.

BEN DE AYNI GEMİDEYİM
İngilizce karşılığı da ‘devletten bağımsız’ demek…
Evet. Hükümetin ideolojisiyle organik bir ilişkiye girmiş herhangi bir kurum, sivil toplum kuruluşu değildir. Entelektüel anlamda tam bir kafa karışıklığı hâkim. Bir kavramsal zemin olmazsa düşünce üretimi de olmaz.
O zeminin yokluğu, entelektüel asgari müştereklerin dahi olamamasından mı kaynaklanıyor? Bir diyalog problemi mi var?
Bu, Tanzimat’a kadar uzuyor. Düşüncede tarihsel süreklilik ve devamlılık yok. Kendi geçmişimizi bilmiyoruz. Batı’yı da sadece birtakım kavramları tanımlamadan ele alıyoruz. Hem gelenekseli hem de moderni birlikte edinebilme imkânına sahip olsaydık, böyle bir derbederliğin içine düşmezdik. Ben de aynı gemideyim. Ama daha eleştirel bakıyorum.

BİR KARŞILIK BULMA BEKLENTİM BİTTİ!
Bu gemide olmanın size ödettiği en ağır bedel neydi?
Sükût-u hayal ve hüsran! Bir şeyler söylediğimde bir karşılığını bulabilme iyimserliğiyle konuşuyordum. Artık böyle bir iyimserliğim yok! Çünkü her şey sebeplere değil, gerekçelere indirgedi. Söylediğiniz şeyin tartışılmasından ziyade, sizin onu neden söylediğiniz önemli bugün. Tipik bir örnek vereyim, bundan yirmi sene önce Enis Batur tasavvuf üzerine bir yazı yazdı. Tasavvuftaki ‘vahdet-i vücud’u, ‘gövde’ zannetti!  “Tasavvuf, gövdelerin birliğidir” dedi. Ben de bir yazı yazdım: “Enis Batur, vahdet-i vücud’u, Brigitte Bardo’nun vücudu zannediyor!”

ALEV ALATLI’YLA CELAL ŞENGÖR’E Mİ AYDIN DİYECEĞİZ?
Reaksiyonları ne oldu?
“Ağabey sen neden Enis’e böyle dedin?” Doğruyu söyleyip söylemediğime bakılmadı. Okuma Notları diye bir kitap yazdım, Türkiye’de dil bilmeyen okura bir hizmet olsun diye… Bazı çeviriler alarak, bildiğim yabancı dillerde, o çevirileri karşılaştırdım. Akıl almaz hatalar var. Bu hatalar Avrupa’da yapılsa, size bir daha yazı yazdırmazlar! Ensesti, ‘akraba sevgisi’ diye çeviren bir psikiyatri profesörü var! Adam, Freud uzmanı! Celal Şengör diye bir adam çıkıyor, “Bok yemek zararlı değildir” diyor. Biz orada bunun zararını değil, zorla bok yedirmeyi konuşuyoruz. Kendince lafı çeviriyor. Böyle bir ortamda kime entelektüel, aydın diyeceğiz? Chomsky’i dilbilimci olarak savunduğum halde, onun ideolojisini savunduğumda ısrar eden Alev Alatlı’ya mı, Celal Şengör’e mi?
Alevli Alatlı gibi iktidara ideolojik meşruiyet üretme çabasındaki entelektüellerin varlığı sizde bir hayal kırıklığı yarattı mı?
Yaratmaz mı? Sabahtan akşama kadar bu hayal kırıklığını yaşıyorum ben yahu? Türkiye’de masum okura saygısı olan insan çok az.

NİYE ZAMAN’DAN AYRILAYIM?
Şu andaki toplumsal ve siyasal kriter ‘paralel’ kelimesi üzerinden yürüyor. Siz ise 17-25 Aralık süreci sonrasında bile Zaman gazetesinden ayrılmadınız. Bir baskı gördünüz mü?
Mahalle baskısı gördüm. Onlar, daha başından itibaren Zaman’da yazmama itiraz eden kişiler. Bunlar başta eski solcu ve Kemalist dostlarım. 17 Aralık öncesinden itibaren beni hidayete davet ettiler! 17 Aralık’tan sonra da “Bak gördün mü? Demedik mi sana?” dediler. Ki, beni gerçekten seven insanlar. Bunların sayısı az değil.
‘Paralel’ damgası yemenizden mi korktular?
Evet. Bu furyada benim zarar görmemden endişe ettiler.
Sizi Zaman’da tutan neydi?
Ben, 17-25 Aralık’tan önce AK Parti’ye muhalefet etmeye başlamıştım. Ama balık hafızalılar, bunu 17-25 Aralık’a yordu. Zaman’dan niye ayrılayım? Benim Türkiye’de söyleyecek sözüm var. Kendime birtakım salahiyetler vehmediyorum yahu! Bana imkân verin, yazayım! 1997 yılında Zaman gazetesi geldi bana. 19 yıldır yazıyorum orada. Niye ayrılayım ki?

‘PARALEL’ DAMGASI YEDİM!
Zaman’da yazdığınız için ‘paralel’ damgası yediniz mi?
Yedim tabii! Boğaziçi Üniversitesi’nde, 1980’den 2005’e kadar bir ders verdim: “Türk-İslam Düşüncesine Giriş”. Bu dersi vermeye başladıktan sonra, entelektüel donanımının fevkalade yüksek olduğunu zannettiğimiz birtakım arkadaşlardan bana şöyle mesajlar geldi: “Sen dinci mi oldun?” Onlara da söyledim. Dine iki türlü bakılabilir. Bir, bilgi objesi olarak. Batı’da bir sürü oryantalist İslam’ı en ince ayrıntısına kadar biliyor. Onlar dinci mi oldu? İki, inanç objesi olarak. Böyle düşünsem üniversitede ders değil, camide vaaz veririm. Ya da “Hilmi Yavuz, Zaman’da yazıyor.  Gerici oldu. Geçelim.” 80 yaşıma geldim ve burama geldi yahu! Bu ağzı olup da konuşanların büyük kısmı da ‘saygın’ konumdalar!

TÜRKİYE, DEMOKRAT O-LA-MAZ!
Lümpenleşmenin zirve yaptığı zamanları mı yaşıyoruz? Sığ olanın değerli, derin olup da sorgulayanın ise değersizleştirildiği zamanlar…
Kesinlikle öyle. Ne olacağını bilmiyorum; ama çok da ümitli değilim. Tayyip Bey gidecek, başka birisi gelecek. Yine ara bir demokrasi dönem yaşayacağız ve kısa sürede bitecek. Türkiye’nin gerçek bir demokrasiye geçmesi için en az iki yüz yıl daha gerekli. Onda da bir garanti yok. Türkiye demokrat o-la-maz! Çünkü bizim insanımız demokrasiyi sevmiyor. Burası, bir Doğu toplumudur. Doğu toplumlarının koşullarında da iktidarlar daima despotizme meyillidir.

NOKTA HABER |


Winners of 66th Berlin International Film Festival

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Mavi Boncuk |

Winners of 66th Berlin International Film Festival
PRIZES OF THE INTERNATIONAL JURY
Members of the Jury: Meryl Streep (Jury President), Lars Eidinger, Nick James, Brigitte Lacombe, Clive
Owen, Alba Rohrwacher and Małgorzata Szumowska 

GOLDEN BEAR FOR BEST FILM | Fire At Sea (It-Fr), dir. Gianfranco Rosi
SILVER BEAR GRAND JURY PRIZE | Death In Sarajevo (Fr-Bos), dir. Danis Tanovic
SILVER BEAR ALFRED BAUER PRIZE | A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery (Phil-Sing), dir. Lav Diaz 
SILVER BEAR FOR BEST DIRECTOR | Mia Hansen-Love for Things To Come
SILVER BEAR FOR BEST ACTRESS | Trine Dyrholm in The Commune
SILVER BEAR FOR BEST ACTOR | Majd Mastoura in Hedi
BEST FIRST FEATURE AWARD (€50,000) | Hedi (Tun-Bel-Fr), Mohamed Ben Attia

Berlin Europa Cinemas Label Europa Cinemas, a network of 977 cinemas in 42 European countries, will now assist the film’s distribution with promotional support and through the offering of a financial incentive for cinemas that are part of the Europa network to screen the film. The First, The Last (Les Premiers Les Derniers) has been awarded the 2016 Berlin Europa Cinemas Label as best European film in the Berlinale’s Panorama strand. 

The jury also commended Zrinko Ogresta’s On The Other Side and Aslı Özge’s Euf Einmal | All Of A Sudden. Europa Cinemas is supported by the European Commission’s MEDIA programme, CNC and Eurimages. 

International Jury Generation Kplus
Members of the Jury: Anne Kodura, Nagesh Kukunoor and Kathy Loizou

THE GRAND PRIX OF THE GENERATION KPLUS INTERNATIONAL JURY
for the best feature-length film, endowed with € 7,500 by the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk
Genç Pehlivanlar | Young Wrestlers | Junge Ringer by Mete Gümürhan

OFFICIAL SITE 

Produced by: Kaliber Film, Filmaltı With the support of: Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry’s General Directorate of Cinema, Netherlands Film Fund

The 26 boys living at the sports academy in the Turkish province of Amasya will endure a lot to realize their wrestling dream. In Young Wrestlers (Genç Pehlivanlar) they face the usual challenges of adolescence in a male dominated environment and contradictory contemporary Turkey. The camera remains observational and discreet while still allowing us to experience their everyday life at close range – somewhere between camaraderie and competition. 


METE GÜMÜRHAN Biography:

Mete Gümürhan (1975) was born in Rotterdam. He graduated in 2009 from Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam Audiovisual Design & Art department. While studying at Willem de Kooning Academy he co-found Kaliber Film in 2007. In 2012 Mete established Kaliber Film in Istanbul. He is based in Rotterdam and Istanbul.

Genç Pehlivanlar/Young Wrestlers will mark his directorial debut. He is currently working on his fiction film-project MNK Boy, which has gained the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture. He is an alumnus of the Berlinale Talents, IDFAcademy, CineMart’s Rotterdam Lab and EAVE.

In Memoriam | Umberto Eco: Istanbul as Unity and Trinity

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"The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else." Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco OMRI (b.5 January 1932- Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy d.19 February 2016) Milan, Lombardy, Italy) was an Italian novelist, essayist, literary critic, philosopher, and semiotician. He is best known for his groundbreaking 1980 historical mystery novel Il nome della rosa (The Name of the Rose), an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory. He later wrote other novels, including Il pendolo di Foucault (Foucault's Pendulum) and L'isola del giorno prima (The Island of the Day Before). His novel Il cimitero di Praga (The Prague Cemetery), released in 2010, was a best-seller. 


Eco also wrote academic texts, children's books and essays. He was founder of the Dipartimento di Comunicazione (Department of Media Studies) at the University of the Republic of San Marino, President of the Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici (Graduate School for the Study of the Humanities), University of Bologna, member of the Accademia dei Lincei and an Honorary Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford.

Mavi Boncuk |
Istanbul as Unity and Trinity - Umberto Eco 

The "Story of the Slave and the Warrior" in Jorge Louis Borges’ Aleph has a character called Droctulft, a barbarian from Lombardy who arrives with his tribe to besiege and capture Ravenna one day. Droctulft comes from the forests of his country, he is "brave, innocent and ruthless," the only kind of settlement he knows of are the huts in the forest and he now sees a city for the first time.


We may imagine him watching the city walls, towers and other things that he had never seen before as Ravenna slowly emerges on the horizon. As Borges recounts, he encounters the cypresses and marbles of the city, the integrity of a large number of elements that have come together without causing disorder, an organization consisting of regular and open spaces with its statutes, temples, gardens, columns and capitals. Not having known refinement before yet endowed in the recesses of his soul with the immortal gift of discernment, Droctulft notices a kind of complex process. He kneels instantly and indicates his defeat in front of the "thing" he come to conquer and destroy. Droctulft is hit by the unexpected surprise of the "the city," abandons his tribe and fights (and dies) for Ravenna.


I believe that coming to Istanbul after reading innumerable books about the city would reproduce the astonishment of this mythical Lombardian. (For a long time, the voyage to Istanbul has constituted a literary genre with its own rules and the arrival is always predicated on speed.) Perhaps the reason for this is that some cities resist being described from afar and then suddenly draw one in (London, Rome and Paris) while others reveal themselves gradually without reservation (New York may be considered as such). Istanbul undoubtedly belongs to the second category. At least for those who come from the sea -as it once used to be customary... Whether the boat comes from the Strait of Istanbul or Çanakkale, it passes by the Golden Horn and reveals the city from different perspectives through a kind of cinematographic displacement.


Perhaps the most cinematographic among all descriptions of Istanbul is the one by Nerval, who is little known worldwide. His is followed by those of Gautier, Flaubert, Loti and Edmondo de Amicis. All adolescents in Italy (at least from 1886 up to my generation) were raised on De Amicis’ A Child’s Heart, a thought-provoking book charged with positive emotions. Besides being a good author, De Amicis was a good journalist as attested by his book Constantinopoli (1874). De Amicis’ little-known, lovely interview accompanied me on my first trip to Istanbul.


Like De Amicis, I had postponed this trip for years out of different and totally unexpected reasons. I continued to imagine this city through photographs, engravings, paintings, stories and even old maps. There are cities that are understood through a coincidence. Others require a long period of preparation and can be grasped through a mixture of in-depth knowledge and the imagination. Perhaps many visited Istanbul to discover it. This is why I had to excavate like an archaeologist to unearth the real city again, I had to process and use what I found below this personal Istanbul.


Another requirement is to excavate what others have found... This is why I had De Amicis’ text ready when I came to Istanbul. For he had seen what I cannot see today. First of all, De Amicis comes from the sea. On the last night of the nine-day boat journey, he makes a thorough mystical preparation when he hears the captain announce, "Gentlemen! Tomorrow at dawn, we will see the first minarets of Istanbul." Passenger De Amicis sleeps little, goes to the deck as soon as he sees the faint light heralding dawn and curses in disillusionment, for there is fog.


But the captain comforts him. The fog will enhance the beauty of entering Istanbul. The Prince’s Islands are distinguished in the direction of the boat’s bow, and given the speed of those times, there are two more tiresome hours before they can see Istanbul. They approach the city enjoying every moment. After a sea journey of one hour the captain points to a white dot, the tip of a very high minaret. Then, the shapes and colors of houses are gradually perceived below the minaret, the pointed tips of other minarets tinged with a rosy color, the city walls below the houses and their dark towers are slowly discerned, but the houses stretch in an interminable row and the city appears to spread over a plain. And then, amidst the fog; "a huge shadow still covered with a layer of fog, a very large, graceful and imposing building rose toward the sky from the top of a hill, it rounded out magnificently in the middle of four very long and thin minarets whose tips glistened like silver under the first rays of the sun." This was the Hagia Sophia and to suddenly see it rise in the void must have been beautiful...


At this point the unexpected surprise facing them continues, new towers and new domes, again colorful houses above bright houses are revealed in the morning mist, jagged and capricious, white, green, pink and glittering shores emerge. But fog still blocks entry to the Bosphorus and the boat has to stop. This gives the passenger the opportunity to observe the city acting single-handedly to shake off the fog still covering it. At the end, the ship starts again and from below the Palace hill, listening to the symphony of cypresses, firs and plane trees, it passes by the roofs of mansions and annexes, domes, grated windows, arabesque doors barely perceptible through binoculars, labyrinthine gardens, passages and secret corners that the passenger tries to understand.


It is unnecessary for me to repeat page after page of what De Amicis wrote about this arrival; the sudden appearance of Üsküdar in the sunlight, the bright image of Galata and Pera, the symphony of little houses with thousand colors, clusters of trees and "small harbors, seaside mansions, summer palaces, groves, other barely perceptible villages only whose roofs glistening in the sun can be seen amidst the distant fog, a medley of colors that makes one want to shout with joy, a botanical wealth, something not thought of before, a grandeur, a pleasure, a grace..."


I was unable to see this Konstantinopolis because I came to the city from inside. For as I crossed the Marmara Sea by ship from the Asian shore, at the moment that the city flashed in front of my eyes, it was the middle of the day and there was no fog. (During my stay there was only one sunny day, I saw Istanbul immersed in light, the green of the gardens and the hills tinged with the color of gold only for one day.) For if there had been fog, as it slowly dispersed, it would have revealed not streets and villages but the coexistence of domes, minarets and other modern buildings... Nonetheless, a couple of hours after my arrival I was at the top of the Galata Tower and saw the city bathed in the light of the setting sun. And another day I toured the shore of the Bosphorus by car. Even as I crossed the harbor of the Golden Horn, I felt a part of the excitement of De Amicis.


No matter how much may have been written on it, it is not always possible to comprehend a city described by others. At the harbor of Galata, I cannot insist on seeing the flow of human beings that De Amicis observed from dawn till dusk; that Armenian lady gently stretching her head from a mother-of-pearl and ivory inlaid palanquin, the old Turk with his silk turban and blue caftan and behind him a Greek on horseback followed by his dragoman, a dervish with his conical hat, Iranian soldiers with their astrakhan calpacs, the disheveled Gypsy woman, the Catholic priest, the old Jew, an eunuch walking in front of the women of the harem, an African slave carrying a monkey, a charlatan in the guise of a soothsayer (But may De Amicis really have seen these? Or at least, may he have seen them all at once? Or has he made a patchwork by putting together what he saw on different days?). In any case, I should discover my own Istanbul and leave aside that of the others.


My travel experience tells me that touring in a city by going from place to place by car escorted by an experienced guide who describes every avenue and square is almost a scientific method to not understand it. On the contrary, the only way to get to know a city well is to stroll alone without asking for help, walk, get lost and if possible not use a plan, to go where you smell something interesting, to follow the path shown by the city sun, the smell and the echo.


It goes without saying that before getting lost in a city one needs to designate a place of return (there is no problem here, this may at least be the hotel) and a point of arrival. Otherwise, if you just hit the streets, you will have difficulty making choices and will never get lost. Getting lost in a city is only possible through erring.


For instance in his travels De Amicis sets out on a clearly defined route which is rather long, traverses three civilizations and which he will cover on foot. The itinerary is physical because its history is known. From the antique city walls along the Byzantine Palace to the shores of the Marmara Sea and to the Golden Horn... This itinerary is at the same time symbolic. For the cross and the crescent fought along this route, the city was besieged by Mehmet II in 1453 and captured here.


An eminently sensible, inevitable route from the perspective of a Westerner. Considering that the places visited belonged to Second Rome until that moment, that the entire East was under the sway of Christian civilization and turned into the symbol of the greatness of the Ottomans in the very same place... Big churches turned into mosques and the radical change of the skyline on the evening of the same day... These thoughts render De Amicis’ visit pathetic. For until Konstantinopolis, he is in the capital of a Christian empire. A target that Western Christianity regards as exterior, where it identifies the beginnings of decline and avoids because of the difference in sect. When the city becomes the capital of the Muslims opposing Christianity the first shock is gradually overcome (between the 16th and 17th centuries), thus Constantinople turns into an object of desire and triggers the exotic imagination of the West. The city turns into an object on which literary essays are written. While Western Christianity does “almost” not like it until that moment, it turns into the temple of difference once it is subjected to a radical transformation.


To fully understand and be able to talk about conflicting feelings, I chose to look for another face of the city by following another line of siege, and I looked for the traces of Konstantinopolis in 1204. I laid De Amicis’ book to rest and toured the city from the perspective of historian Niketas Khoniates (from the Byzantine side) and Robert de Clary and Cillehardouin, two historians on the side of the Crusaders.


This siege and this fall was even more terrifying, -at least spiritually- it was like a preparation for the Ottoman siege in the 15th century. For this was the first siege and devastation of Konstantinopolis. The capital of Western Christianity had gathered Christian militiamen and had set out to recover the "Holy Land" in the name of Christ.


The Crusaders (the French and the Flemish) depart for the Holy Land in 1203; in the meantime they have to use Venetian boats as Jerusalem has been recaptured by Selahattin Eyyubi but do not have enough money. The Venetians ask for their help in subduing the city of Zara on the way. So they conquer Zara. The son of Emperor Isakios II, Aleksios, who was deposed from the Byzantine throne by his brother Aleksios Angelos III resurfaces here. The young prince asks for the help of the Crusaders in capturing the Empire, and promises in return a real treasure and strong military support for future Crusades. But Aleksios will later delay keeping his promises. So on the morning of July 26, 1203, Venetian fleets parade in front of the city walls on the shore of the Marmara Sea. Banners and standards wave in the wind, and shields of every color extend from the sides of the galleys. While the Byzantines witness this scene with concern from the city walls, the Crusaders notice the city gradually emerge in the morning light (like De Amicis) and start to cheer...


The Crusaders’ fleet arrives in Üsküdar to drop anchor. But on August 6, it attacks Galata. Here it sees Konstantinopolis in all its splendor, and on an instinct, believes that it has to subdue it. Like knights sent to rescue the lovely and faithful bride from her master, the Crusaders do not only want to take back this dazzling beauty but also start to desire it. Thinking that another cause of their presence is to restore the city to its rightful owner, the Crusaders sack it as soon as they capture it, unconscious, as though tasting a good game.


My visit starts at the place where the siege started, toward the north from the front of the city walls, from in front of Blakhernai (Ayvansaray). A groundless siege was laid here; a fancy parade, a few brave skirmishes, colorful outfits and weapons glittering from Venetian boats and attacking from the sea. Following a more or less straight line along the city wall, they reach Blakhernai, which close to the current day Atatürk Bridge. The first Venetians to reach the city walls put the nearby houses on fire, the first fire spreads and turns to ash a large part of the city from Blakhernai to the Cristo Benefattore Monastery, and almost the entire section until the city walls.


Faced with these events, emperor Aleksios III takes his gemstones and gold coins and runs away. The residents of the city are at a loss, they rush to prison to release the deposed Isakios and enthrone him. They also recognize under equal terms the empire of Aleksios (Aleksios IV), son of Isakios who is supported by the Crusaders. In this way the Crusaders enter the city, and as they wait for their payments to arrive, they set camp in Pera and settle there. Isakios and Aleksios have promised more than they can give and do not have enough gold. They impose new taxes and confiscate the assets of their subjects. Meanwhile, the Crusaders hold the city gates and start to clash with the locals. A group from Flanders, Pizza and Venice starts a squabble in the street of the North African Muslims. Worse to come, the Crusaders put the nearby houses on fire. The fire spreads instantly, it burns down the city along the Golden Horn, reaches the Hippodrome and almost the Hagia Sophia.


In January 1204 Aleksios Murtzuphlos V has the young Aleksios Angelos strangled and takes over the empire. Afterwards the Crusaders and Byzantines come into open conflict and an attack is launched. During these events the assailants put to fire a large number of houses again (and the third fire spreads). Ravaged by fire for nine months, Konstantinopolis is exhausted, Aleksios V has fled as well and this time the Crusaders have no one left to enthrone in his place (later on Baudouin of Flanders will be chosen emperor and the Eastern Empire will be administered from the West for more than half a century).


Konstantinopolis was sacked in the war, the enemies who were annihilated were the residents of the city. Churches were ransacked, palaces were occupied and plundered. The residents were subjected to torture because they could not indicate the location of their treasures; the chastity of children was threatened... Western historians usually disregard the consequences of these events. Byzantine historians, on the other hand, perhaps exaggerate a little in describing the destruction of the city. Of course an ugly period was being chronicled; so that when the raging Niketas Khoniates lamented the fate of the city, he would remember Selahattin, who fought against the Crusaders and recaptured Jerusalem, as a magnanimous person. Still it is also difficult to say that Selahattin, who beheaded the cavalry officers protecting the pilgrims, was innocent... But no comparison is needed: The fighting witnessed in Jerusalem was between ruthless enemies. This one, on the other hand, was an act of banditry among brothers...


Thus I ended my days in Istanbul, looking for the traces of these moments of siege and capture, and later trying to rediscover the route followed by Niketas Khoniates and his family along the burning avenues of the city and the rubble during their flight to Silivri. Following faded ruins and lost traces, reaching antique Byzantium in the Yerebatan Cistern with subterranean paths whose surfaces had lost their luster, I walked to rediscover the Christian ruin of San Salvatore in the Hagia Irini by chance and almost coincidentally...


But the goal was still to get lost. And by losing myself, I also found the city that I did not explicitly seek. Thus on the traces of the siege of 1203-1204, lost in dreams around the Galata Tower and then climbing towards the northeast, I was able to see the ritual of the whirling dervishes. Asking myself where the Crusaders may have set camp, I discovered the night life in the cafés and restaurants along İstiklal Avenue, in visiting the shore where they landed upon arrival, I suddenly found myself in Kadıköy (or I thought I did but it may be the same), this mosaic of nations and their attires which De Amicis saw on the Galata Tower and infuriated him, a kind of ethnic jazz constituted of Anatolian peasants with tanned faces, youths with their heads covered and bare legs, sailors...


In looking for the monastery mentioned by my historians, I left behind alleys and -suddenly- found myself in front of Mimar Sinan’s imposing building. From the shore of the Golden Horn where the Venetians and Genoese had settled, I seeped into a long crevice teeming with people and at once found myself in the Spice Bazaar. And even though the guidebooks state that it is not as told by 19th century travelers, even though warehouses and stores were built in the place where once stood bags brimming with colorful wares and plastic goods reigned victorious, a genius loci which was not visible but could be sensed lingered in the Spice Bazaar. The fragrant voyage to the past and the East ended in a slightly dizzying fashion here. I had to go to the pier to not get dazed, I sat on the tiles opposite the door in Pandeli, which can almost be considered mysterious, and ordered one of the sweets made with honey. The flow of the blood through the veins recalled the excitement of a sin that had been committed.


At this point I could no longer tell if I was in Byzantium, Konstantinopolis or Istanbul. I realized that I made a trip where I traversed three civilizations and three periods at the same time. But this city with three names and three histories was in fact still the same. I thought that it was perhaps not coincidental that amidst the city walls, bearded church fathers had discussed to the point of exhaustion the secret of the trinity, that is how "one thing" could be at once "one" and "three."


This is where my impressions of my first trip to Istanbul end. Next time I will discover another face of the city.


Translated by: Seyra Faralyalı | ATLAS, 1999 special issue

Recommended | Kurdish Studies Network

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Mavi Boncuk |

Kurdish Studies Network 

The Kurdish Studies Network (KSN) is a global research network established in 2009 for researchers and scholars working in Kurdish Studies. KSN aims to revitalize and reorient the research, scholarship and debates in the field of Kurdish studies and provide valuable resources by sharing knowledge and encouraging interaction and collaboration through its vast online network. KSN also promotes Kurdish Studies in general and the published work and research profiles of its more than 1000 members in particular, through this portal but also through various other channels such as the interdisciplinary and peer-reviewed journal Kurdish Studies. Kurdish Studies is an interdisciplinary and peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing high quality research and scholarship.

Umberto Eco Foreword for Edmondo de Amicis

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Mavi Boncuk believes that if anything can be remembered about Umberto Eco we must concentrate on aspects of his life and intellect as it relates to our part of the world.

Mavi Boncuk |

Download Umberto Eco Foreword PDF LINK

See also Tulumbadgi!

England’s Mustaphas

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One of the most powerful Ottoman viziers was the eunuch Hasan Aga, formerly known as Samson Rowlie from Great Yarmouth in England. The janissary general known as “Ingiliz Mustapha” was, in fact, a Campbell from Inverary in Scotland. Read on. 

See also: The Problematic of Turning Turk in Philip Massinger's The Renegado | 

Mavi Boncuk |
Mustafa Sahiner, Inönü üniversitesi, English Literature, Faculty Member
England’s Mustaphas

For two hundred years, from the mid-15th century, the Ottoman Empire was the most powerful force in all Eurasia, and Constantinople was the Mediterranean’s greatest port.  From behind the Sublime Porte, the Sultan and his Viziers ruled a great glittering patchwork of peoples and languages and religions, an Empire comparable in size and importance to that of Rome, whose last capital it had conquered as its own.

By contrast, 16th and 17th century England was a small and relatively impoverished mono-religious and mono-lingual state of little economic importance, perched precariously on the cold Northern edge of Christendom.  Compared to the might of the Ottomans, it was neither a major political nor military power.  Although Britain’s navy was sufficient to defend it from its immediate neighbours, Ottoman technological superiority at sea led at this period to the capture of large numbers of British vessels and sailors.

Yet for all this, much of the contact between Britain and the Ottoman Empire was peaceable, and from the early 16th century onwards - and particularly after the founding of the English Levant Company in 1581 - Britain was closely engaged with the Turks as the Ottoman Empire expanded westwards through central Europe, and Britain’s trade network expanded eastwards to meet it.  Daniel Goffman’s intriguing Britons in the Ottoman Empire 1642-1660 is the first full-length study of the odd - yet remarkably successful - relationship between these two utterly different countries….Goffman convincingly demonstrates that the behaviour and attitudes of these early Jacobean travellers was utterly different from the arrogance of their Victorian successors: “In the Ottoman Middle East - in the port towns where the Englishmen resided - it was they and not their alien associates who had to conform” writes Goffman.

Sir Henry Hyde was the English Levant Company’s Consul in the Morea (Pelopponese) whose domination of the lucrative currant trade led to great personal wealth.  This he used to buy himself a place in the Ottoman political and economic administration, so that in addition to his consular position, he also transformed himself into both a Pasha and the Ottoman customs collector.  Throughout the 1630s and ‘40s he successfully entrenched himself in his fiefdom, fending off all attempts by his English employers to remove him from office.  Eventually, fatally falling out with the Levant Company over his Royalist sympathies during the Civil War, he was abducted from the Levant and shipped home where he was tried and executed.

As the book progresses it narrows its field of vision to tell the less surprising tale of diplomatic machinations in the Constantinople Embassy during the English Civil War … rather than telling the far more interesting tale of the effects on individual Brits of exposure to Ottoman society in all its strangeness and variety.

One of the most powerful Ottoman eunuchs during the late 16th centure, Hasan Aga[1], was the former Samson Rowlie from Great Yarmouth.  Goffman actually refers to Hasan Aga, and records his dealings with the English merchants of Istanbul, but seems to be unaware of his English origins.  Hasan Aga was not alone: all over the Ottoman Empire, British travellers and traders were likely to find compatriots in unlikely positions of power: in Algeria, for example, the “Moorish King’s Executioner” turned out to be a former butcher from Exeter called “Absalom” (Abd-es-Salaam).  There was also the Ottoman general known as “Ingliz Mustapha”: in fact a Scottish Campbell who had converted to Islam and joined the Janissaries.  In these cases, as so often later in India, Islam overpowered the British by its power of attraction, not by the sword; in 1606 even the English consul in Egypt, Benjamin Bishop, converted and promptly disappeared from the public records.

None of these extraordinary stories appears in Goffman’s book.  Neither does he tell the very revealing story of how Charles II sent one Captain Hamilton to ransom some Englishmen who had been enslaved in Ottoman North Africa.  In the event, Hamilton’s mission was spectacularly unsuccessful, as all the captives unanimously refused to return: the men, so it turned out, had all converted to Islam, risen in the ranks, and were not “partaking of the prosperous Successe of the Turks”, living in a style to which they could not possibly have aspired back home.  The frustrated Captain Hamilton was forced to return empty handed: “They are tempted to forsake their God for the love of Turkish women”, he wrote in his official report, at a loss how to convey the failure of his mission.  “Such ladies are”, he added, by way of explanation “generally very beautiful”.

Taken from an article by William Dalrymple in the Observer.  He reviews “Britons in the Ottoman Empire 1642-1660” by Daniel Goffman, University of Washington Press.

See also: William Dalrymple: Two civilisations entwined in history | 12 October 2001 

[1] Hasan Aga and a Deaf-mute from the palace. According to the description of the plates, Hasan Aga was an English eunuch, born Samson Rowlie in Great Yarmouth (Norfolk County). He was captured off Algiers sometime before 1580, and ended up Uluj Hasan’s treasurer. His clothes are described as silver and mauve brocade with a golden sash, covered by a caftan of scarlet broadcloth lined with blue. The deaf-mute (dilsiz) was one of the sultan’s most trusted servants. Yes, they were deliberately made deaf and mute. He is seen on f. 50r.

IIFF 2016 | Jury presidents announced

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Mavi Boncuk |  Argentine director Pablo Trapero[1] will serve as the jury president of the International Golden Tulip Competition, and actress Müjde Ar[2] will head the National Golden Tulip Competition jury of the 35th Istanbul Film Festival. SOURCE

[1] The jury president of the International Golden Tulip Competition, director Pablo Trapero was born in Argentina in 1971. He directed his first feature, Crane World, in 1999 and won the Critics Prize at Venice. In 2002, he established his production company, Matanza Cine that produces films for fellow filmmakers, as well as his own. Among his films screened in Istanbul Film Festival, El Bonaerense (2002) premiered at Cannes, Familia Rodante (2004) at Venice and Nacido y Criado (2006) at Toronto film festivals. In 2008, Leonera, in 2010 Carancho, and in 2012 Elefante Blanco were presented at Cannes. His films have covered the most important festivals, receiving critical acclaim and awards. He has sat on the main festival juries at Venice, San Sebastian and Locarno, among others. In 2014, he served as President of the Un Certain Regard jury in Cannes. In 2015, the Ministry of Culture of France awarded him with the “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres”, becoming the first South American director to receive this honour. With his latest film, El Clan / The Clan, also in the festival programme, he won the Silver Lion for Best Director at the Venice International Film Festival. Trapero is considered as one of the biggest creative forces in Latin American Cinema.

[2] The jury president of the National Golden Tulip Competition, actress Müjde Ar, studied German Language and Literature at the Istanbul University. During Oraloğlu Theatre’s 1962-63 season, Müjde Ar performed in Helen Keller’s The Miracle Worker as a child actress. In the 80s, with her taboo-breaking acting, Ar transformed the representation of women in Turkey and broke the acting patterns of earlier generations. She left an indelible mark with her performances in Adı Vasfiye/ Her Name Is Vasfiye, Asiye Nasıl Kurtulur, Aaahh Belinda, all directed by Atıf Yılmaz, and Asılacak Kadın, Kupa Kızı / Queen of Hearts by Başar Sabuncu. She won the Best Actress Award with Aaahh Belinda at the 23rd Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, performed in Teyzem / My Aunt by Halit Refiğ, and Ertem Eğilmez’s legacy film Arabesk and won the Best Actress Award at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival with her role in Başar Sabuncu’s final film, Yolcu / The Ship Anchored in the Desert. Her filmography includes Dar Alanda Kısa Paslaşmalar / Offside, Komser Şekspir, Eğreti Gelin / Borrowed Bride. Müjde Ar received the Cinema Honorary Award of the Istanbul Film Festival in 2004.

Article | Children of the PKK By Katrin Kuntz

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Mavi Boncuk |

Children of the PKK: The Growing Intensity of Turkey's Civil War
By Katrin Kuntz[1], Onur Burçak Belli and Emin Oezmen (photos) Spiegel SOURCE

Article in PDF

[1] Katrin Kuntz was born in 1982 in Neunkirchen / Saar . Studied French and Spanish Philology at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz with stays in Sucre / Bolivia and Dakar / Senegal . German School of Journalism in Munich . Participation in German newspapers and magazines such as " Süddeutsche Zeitung " , " Neon " , "Focus" and " Evening News " . Station for the TV magazine " ZDF Reporter " . Since December 2012 the SPIEGEL , first as an editor, since January 2015 foreign editor .

E: Katrin(dot)Kuntz(at)spiegel(dot)de

Constantinopoli | Cesare Biseo (1844–1909)

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De Amicis' Costantinopoli 1882 edition included scenes by Cesare Biseo (1844–1909).

Mavi Boncuk |

Cesare Biseo (1844–1909) was an Italian painter known mainly for his orientalist themes.
He was born in Rome to a family originally from Brescia. He trained under his father. He initially worked in decorative paintings of houses. Biseo was invited by the Viceroy of Egypt to Alexandria, Egypt, to decorate his palace. This trip gave him subjects for future works as painter. He returned to the Muslim world; for example, in the company of Stefano Ussi and Edmondo De Amicis. They were part of the first embassy to Morocco. With De Amicis, Biseo published a book on observations in Morocco and Costantinople, edited by the brothers Treves of Milan. In the 1887 Mostra di Venezia, he exhibited watercolors titled: Ricordi de Cairo.




Dolap, drawing by Biseo from De Amicis' Costantinopoli (1882 edition)
Georgian Woman and Armenian and Turkish retail vendors, by Biseo from De Amicis' Costantinopoli (1882 edition)   
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