Istanbul to host jazz legends

Only great names are on the list of performers at 15th International Istanbul Jazz Festival between July 2-16. During two-week event legends as Herbie Hancock, Marcus Miller, Stacey Kent or Buena Vista Social Club’s Omara Portuondo, to name only a few, will perform live in front of Turkish and international audience

ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News

Istanbul Jazz Festival Celebrates 15th Anniversary

This summer from July 2 the International Istanbul Jazz Festival will celebrate its 15th anniversary, presenting nearly 40 concerts and featuring both jazz artists and musicians from genres as diverse as pop, rock, folk, and world music.

The festival began in 1984 with the performance of Chick Corea and Steve Kujala at the Atatürk Culture Center, and since then it has featured some 300 concerts. Over the years, the musical spectrum of the festival has widened to include different genres, and in 1994 jazz even became a separate festival category. Since then, some of the world's top musicians, including Eric Clapton, Sting, Lou Reed, Bryan Ferry, Dead Can Dance, Suzanne Vega, Patti Smith, Bobby McFerrin, Jan Garbarek, Keith Jarrett, Wynton Marsalis, Goran Bregovic, Tori Amos and Elvis Costello, have performed.

Lifetime Achievement Award for Tuna Ötenel

Each year the festival features a Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing the great masters who have shaped and popularized jazz, not only in Turkey, but around the world. This year the award will be presented to multi-instrumentalist and performer Tuna Ötenel, who entered the Turkish jazz scene in the 1960s, and whose efforts to promote jazz in Turkey are since regarded as immeasurable. Throughout his career, he has performed with such renowned artists as Buster Williams, Peter King, Herbie Hancock, Victor Sproles and Hilton Ruiz. The award ceremony will take place July 1 at Esma Sultan Palace.

Herbie Hancock's “River of Possibilities"

Music icon Herbie Hancock is an honorary guest at this year's festival, returning with two concerts after memorable performances in both 1996 and 2002. This year brought Hancock another Grammy award for his “River-The Joni Letters album”, a re-interpretation of songs by Canadian folk and jazz songwriter Joni Mitchell. Hancock will perform songs from the album at Cemil Topuzlu Open Air Theater on the night of July 2, accompanied by Sonya Kitchell and Amy Keys. The trio will also perform Thursday, July 3 at Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall. In both his concerts, Hancock will also be accompanied by world-renowned bassist Dave Holland, famous percussionist Vinnie Colaiuta, and rising stars of the jazz world saxophonist Chris Potter and guitarist Lionel Loueke.

Tribute to Nina Simone

In recognition of the fifth anniversary of Nina Simone's death, the Istanbul Jazz Festival is hosting a special concert on July 15 at the Sepetçiler Kasrı. The "Sing the Truth" night will bring together Al Schackman, Nina Simone's musical director, and the original group members. Simone's songs will be performed by famous jazz vocalists, including Dee Dee Bridgewater, Stacey Kent, and Sibel Köse, one of the most famous jazz vocalists in Turkey and winner of the International Jazz Vocalists Competition in Poland. Raul Midón, a rising star of soul music whose music reflects the influence of Stevie Wonder and Prince, will also feature.

Istanbul, the center of new folk

Presenting names like Antony and the Johnsons, Coco Rosie and Kings of Convenience in past years, Istanbul Jazz Festival will this year present another key performer of the new folk and baroque pop movement, Rufus Wainwright. This will be his first concert in Istanbul, taking place July 8 at Hagia Eirene Museum.

Spanish voices of the festival

Among the performers of this year's festival, there are a number of Latin-origins as well as Spanish-singing artists. On July 9, the most important living member of the Buena Vista Social Club, Omara Portuondo, celebrating her 60th year in music, will perform her Cuban and Brazilian songs to present a retrospective of Latin music. Her new project “Gracias” takes its name from her yet unreleased album, realized in collaboration with such world-class masters as Trilok Gurtu, Avishai Cohen, Roberto Fonseca, and Jorge Chicoy.

Another name belongs to Jerusalem-born Yasmin Levy, considered, despite her young age, to be a leading performer of Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) songs. Blending Sephardic music with Andalusian flamenco and the musical traditions of the Middle East and Anatolia, Levy's acquaintance with this culture goes back to her early years in life. Levy has worked with musicians from around the world, spanning from Paraguay to Iran for her first album “Romance & Yasmin” (2000). Her most recent album, “Mano Suave,” has strong flamenco elements, and features the appearance of Mümin Sesler. Levy will perform July 14 at Esma Sultan Yalısı.

The sound of Taksim

Despite its international character, the Istanbul Jazz Festival tries also to emphasize Turkish musicians, especially emerging artists. On July 7 at the Hagia Eirene Museum, the great table player Zakir Hussain will meet with Taksim Trio, composed of Hüsnü Şenlendirici (clarinet), Aytaç Doğan (qanún) and İsmail Tunçbilek (bağlama). Performing in Spain last year at the Womex Music Fair, Taksim Trio received a standing ovation from an audience of key players from the world music industry. Presentation of new Turkish jazz performers, following an evaluation of their performances that took place May 25, will be held July 5-11 at the Nardis Jazz Club. The new names, worth to keep in mind for the future, include Serkan Çakıt & Barış Arslan Project, Bümk Caz Korosu, Neutrio and Trio Iff.

Lenny Kravitz for dessert

A star with more than 30 million albums sold worldwide, Lenny Kravitz will perform in Istanbul this summer as part of his "It is Time for a Love Revolution" world tour. The singer of such hits as "Fly Away", "Are You Gonna Go My Way?" and "It Ain't over Till It's over", Kravitz has been consecutively awarded with four Grammy awards for "Best Male Rock Vocal Performance." Despite his childhood memories featuring family friends like Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis, Kravitz has pursued a different musical path, breaking into the rock music scene. He continues to draw from rock, soul, pop, funk, hard rock and folk music. His concert in Turkcell Kuruçeşme Arena will close the Istanbul Jazz Festival on July 30.

Best place to play jazz?

Istanbul jazz festival doesn't only consist of a number of concerts, but also of additional musical events. The Jazz Boat Project will depart from Istanbul's European side next weekend, featuring a musical crew formed by members of the band Coolbone and the Istanbul Saxophone Quartet, a group known for its performance at last year's festival. Setting sail from the Kabataş ferry pier at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, July 6, The Jazz Boat will stop at Anadolu Kavağı and return to Kabataş after a two-hour break.

Concert venues:

Archaelogical Museum, Osman Hamdi Bey Yokuşu, Gülhane, Eminönü

Hagia Eirene Museum, Topkapı Sarayı 1. Avlusu, Sultanahmet, Eminönü

Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall, Harbiye

Cemil Topuzlu Open Air Theater, Harbiye

Esma Sultan Yalısı, Muallim Naci Caddesi, Yalı Çıkmazı Sokak, No: 20 Ortaköy

İstinye Park, İstinye Bayırı Caddesi

Nardis Jazz Club, Kuledibi Sokak No: 14 Galata, Beyoğlu

Sepetçiler Kasrı, Kennedy Caddesi No: 3 Sarayburnu, Eminönü

Turkcell Kuruçeşme Arena, Muallim Naci Caddesi, No: 60, Kuruçeşme

www.iksv.org/caz/english

Inform,30.06.08

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Industrial heritage, modern art and university life: santralistanbul

ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News

The city of Istanbul reveals its loud and, sometimes, hectic side in Taksim Square in the centre of the city where a never-ending flow of taxis, cars, busses and pedestrians continuously arrive, depart, wait and move on. It's the white busses with the distinct black and white santralistanbul writing, almost stoically making their way every twenty minutes through the thick traffic at Taksim, which provide commuters a way out of this tumult: only a twenty-five minute ride later and one finds oneself amidst a lush green campus with large plane trees, whose leaves rustle in the breeze blowing across from the adjacent Golden Horn. We have arrived at santralistanbul, the metropolis' newest cultural and educational centre, built on the grounds of Istanbul's first power plant which provided the city with electricity from 1911 until 1983. After lying idle for two decades, the private Istanbul Bilgi University took up the task of revitalizing the seven hectares site in 2004 with the legal stipulation of having to preserve the historical buildings which made up the power plant.

And indeed, after three years of arduous construction work, one can confidently say that the ideal of revitalization in the name of culture and education has been achieved: the power plant has been transformed into an energy museum where visitors can marvel at the aesthetics of the now-silent electric turbines which, enormous yet almost graceful, speak of a different age in which heavy industries still meant might and progress. Take just a few steps across the entrance hall and one is catapulted back into today's (post) modern age: within the five floors of the adjacent newly built museum of modern art, one can view the history of modern Turkish artists beginning in the 1950s. Together with a residence programme for international artists, a library for the university and the surrounding quarter, as well as the new buildings of the university, vitality has, indeed, been returned to this area at the tip of the Golden Horn. Groups of school children visit the museum in the morning, students come and go to their lectures, companies hold conferences, and local and international artists, as well as art lovers, drop by.

As with her other two campuses in the quarters of Kuştepe and Dolapdere, Istanbul Bilgi University has, with santralistanbul, once again deliberately chosen to place itself in a socio-economically deprived quarter of the city, with the intention of functioning as a catalyst for change and development. Indeed, the contrasts between “inside” and “outside” are striking; the worlds of artists, intellectuals and working families come face to face here in a situation that will hopefully, in the future, turn into exchange and dialogue. To this goal, the gates of santralistanbul are kept open to everyone as will be the library, to open in the coming year, which will not only serve the university but is explicitly designed as a library for the surrounding quarter. Much has been accomplished, while much still lies ahead. For example, an amphitheatre is envisioned on the shores of the Golden Horn, a “Street of Arts” just outside the project's gates and the library is still under construction.

Nevertheless, santralistanbul has, since its opening in September 2007, already managed to become a new focus of creative and intellectual activity, pointing to the possible future of Istanbul's formerly industrial areas along the beautiful shores of the Golden Horn. Brittle beauty of early-twentieth century industrialization, challenging sights of modern art, thought-inspiring university life, lush green of trees and meadows – all that to be found simply by a short ride on one of the little busses with the conspicuous black and white label.santralistanbul

Eski Silahtarağa Elektrik Santralı

Kâzım Karabekir Cad. 1

34060 Eyüp/Istanbul

www.santralistanbul.org

Inform,28.06.08

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Turkish music days to shake German fest

ISTANBUL - TDN with wire dispatches

Turkey will be hosted in one of the most important music festivals this year, besides being a guest country in the Frankfurt Book Fair. Popkomm, a festival which gets more than 400 bands from all over the world onto the stages of Berlin's hippest clubs, will promote Turkey in the German capital and to the worldwide music scene. The festival has been held in Berlin since 2004 and is now well established as the meeting place for the music and entertainment business around the world.

During the festival there will be 15 live performances of Turkish folk, pop and art music. The streets of Berlin will be dancing to Turkish music for three days starting from Oct. 8. The festival starts right before the Frankfurt book fair.

Third biggest festival

Culture and Tourism Ministry Copyrights and Cinema Manager Abdurrahman Çelik said that Popkomm is the third biggest festival in the world and stated that the chance to perform live during the festival makes the event different than others.

“The festival creates a big chance to promote Turkish music to the world. Turkey will have advantages while it is hosted as this year's guest country,” said Çelik. At the opening of the festival, there will be an open air concert in the center of Berlin.

“We gave importance to evening schedules. One night there will be a concert of folk music, one night classical and art music and on the last night of the festival there will be hip hop, rock and pop concerts. Turkish music will also be performed in other venues around the city,” stated Çelik.

The Tourism and Culture Ministry plans to organize concerts, which will be accompanied by folk or modern dance. To work on this, they put together a commission comprised of MESAM, or Turkey Musical Work Owners' Professional Union, MÜYAP, or Turkish Phonographic Industry Society, MSG, or Music Work Owners Group, and MÜYORBİR, the Musicians Professional Union.

Çelik emphasized that they have not yet defined the artists who will perform during the festival, and added, “With the commission we will decide on what kind of shows and which artists will take part at the festival. Berlin is a city that has a large Turkish population. We are focused on what would interest the people living Berlin as well as the ones who come from outside.”

Turkey will also have a 200-square meter fair area during the festival. Music firms and production companies will be able to exhibit their work. “That's where the marketing and promotion of Turkish music begins,” emphasized Çelik.

The promotion of Turkey in Germany began with the Berlin Film Festival, which took place in February. After the Popkomm music festival, Turkey will be a guest country for the Frankfurt Book Fair. Turkey will have a stand in the book fair, where people will be able to find Turkish movies as well. There will also be film screenings and the fair will welcome Turkish artists and musicians. Exhibitions are another part of the fair. “This is a serious promotion of Turkey,” said Çelik.

MESAM's Manager Ali Rıza Binboğa said that they are eager to promote Turkish music to the whole world. “This will have good reflections on Turkish music. World music expends all around the world. If we listen to Spanish, Brazilian or any other country's music today it is because they spread and were heard in festivals and performances,” said Binboğa. “These kinds of festivals host organization managers, musicians and musicologists from all around the world.”

About Popkomm

Popkomm is a festival that hosts more than 400 bands from all over the world on the stages of Berlin's clubs and streets. The Popkomm Conference covers topics such as the live sector, digital marketing, mobile music, pop and politics as well as covering important artist-relevant issues. Popkomm is synonymous with innovation and the latest trends. The Popkomm-IMEA, or Innovation in Music and Entertainment Award, distinguishes young companies that have creative business ideas. With a top-class international conference and a festival covering 30 Berlin clubs, Popkomm offers an optimal platform for live music and is essential for experts who wish to shape the future of the music business. With an exhibition, a festival and a conference, Popkomm attracted in 2007 over 880 exhibitors and more than 15,000 trade visitors from 57 countries to Berlin.

Inform,June 2008

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Blue voyage in Gökova

Famous for its natural beauties, the coves of Gökova in the Aegean city of Muğla are a destination for both local and foreign tourists who wish to take one of the famous blue cruises.

Also know as blue voyage, the cruise takes passengers along the southwestern coast of Turkey on a traditional wooden boat called a gulet. “100,000 tourists go on a blue cruise in a year,” said Ahmet Çalca, the mayor of Akyaka, one of the tourist spots in the gulf of Gökova.

Çalca said that thanks to daily boat tours, tourists in the gulf of Gökova had the opportunity to visit the underwater cave, Tavşanlı cove, İncekum beach, Zeytinli cove, Sedir Island, Lacivert, Okluk and Akbük coves. Noting that tourists were stirred by the untouched nature of Gökova,, Çalca said, “We try to supply the best service to tourists. They meet their needs on the boat or during the breaks in coves. We provide them with the comfort of a five-star hotel.”

He said private and tour boats, which offer the blue cruise services, also contributed to the region's economy, adding, “Locals and tourists going on tours revive the economy. We do our best to for tourists to feel at home.”

100,000 people join blue voyage annually

Dağlar Gökovalı, the manager of the Akyaka Sea Motor Vehicle Tour, said they had been organizing blue cruise tours for 10 years. Stating that they organized two types of programs, daily and long tours, Gökovalı said they introduced unique coves and underwater caves of Gökova to tourists.

He said the long tours were organized in July and August, and continued, “Locals and tourists show great interest in blue cruise in Gökova. Domestic tourism gains speed when the schools are closed. More local groups come during June and August. Thanks to our communication with travel agencies, groups from the Russian and Baltic markets come to the region beginning in May.”

He said tours in the gulf of Gökova begin in June and continue until the end of October. “We have nine boats in different capacities. There is a high degree of interest, especially in July and August. Every season we introduce unique blue coves of Gökova to nearly 100,000 tourists.”

Inform,June 2008

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An inexpensive holiday choice

The Aegean city of Muğla's Akyaka district is very popular among those who want to spend their holiday in a tent. The camp area, surrounded by pine trees on a 600,000-square meter plot of land, hosts thousands of campers every summer. The cleanliness of the sea and sand contributes a lot to the district's appeal

MUĞLA - Anatolia News Agency

People with low incomes find an alternative holiday option in tents in the forests of Akyaka, a district of the Aegean city of Muğla.

“We make strenuous efforts for the promotion of those untouched beauties on the shores of Akyaka and the tourism potential of the district,” said Akyaka Mayor Ahmet Çalca. Noting that the popularization of tent tourism in Akyaka made both tradesmen and citizens pleased, Çalca said, “There are nearly 600 tents on a 600,000-square meter plot of land in the district. And nearly 20,000 people spend their holidays in these tents.”

He said the cleanliness of the sea and sand contributes much to Akyaka's popularity, adding, “Akyaka is a convenient place to have a holiday. The sea and the beach are in perfect condition. The sun is just as holiday goers want. We have created alternatives for tourists, who want to spend their holidays in the district. The tent camp is a big opportunity for low-income people. Tourists can have their holiday in this camp at reasonable prices.”

Stating that they had a field with an area of 600,000 square meters within the borders of Akyaka, Çalca said a private company owned by the Forest Management Directorate operated the field for tourists. “This place has benefited from regular visitors of Akyaka as a camping area for 35 years. We charge YTL 14 from those who pitch tents here. Tents are either for three-four people or six-seven people. The period from June 15 to Sept. 15 is the busiest one. It is a breezy area, it is surrounded by pine trees. People have a chance to swim in the early hours of the day and do water and nature sports. This area, where up to 600 tents can be pitched, hosts 20,000 people during a season.”

Organic products offered to campers

Çalca said Akyaka also had significance in terms of agriculture, and added that organic products growing in villages were sold in the Akyaka district bazaar and offered to campers.

He said, “Tent holiday is a good opportunity for those who have less income. The camping area presents an alternative holiday for tourists. People from different parts of Turkey and abroad have been camping here for about 35 years. They stay at least three or four months.”

Inform,26.06.2008

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Flaming Asian Dragon of the Bosporus

Offering a slightly limited yet well selected list of options from its original menu, Dragon makes for an unforgettable night on the Bosporus with chopsticks and plenty of excellent Asian fare.

Dragon restaurant, established initially in 1985 at Hilton Istanbul, has been a landmark in Istanbul's ethnic culinary scene for two decades. Although a few Chinese restaurants exist in the city today, Dragon is clearly the leader with its established and high-end clientele. Now the mouth-watering Asian establishment opens its doors inside the picturesque Reina in Kuruçeşme

MİNA ERÇEL
ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News

Entertaining visitors from overseas in Istanbul is slowly becoming an enjoyable summertime practice. When it comes to food and especially dinner, it's usually classic fish restaurants on the waterfront; Nevizade street meyhanes; or the pictorial gardens of Sunset and Ulus 29 up the hill with amazing views. Hence when guests from Beirut, Lebanon requested to eat Asian and especially Chinese food one evening, I was puzzled. A name that stands out every season for Chinese food is without doubt Dragon, located at the Hilton Hotel. Thank God Dragon opened their summer branch inside the attractive Reina Club – a table was reserved at once. Personally a bit disappointed, as there were so many other restaurants I would have preferred to take my guests to for Turkish and Ottoman cuisine rather than greasy and overfilling Chinese food…

Astonishing view

Yet what a surprise! Not only does Dragon have an amazing corner right on top of Reina, the food is in fact world class. For those familiar with regional Chinese cuisines, Dragon concentrates on Cantonese and Schezwan flavors. And dishes are not too fatty or heavy but simply juicy and so appetizing! A friendly waitress showed the table and was cooperative as we requested one of the tables closest to the water. Surrounded by a mirror wall, practically everyone has a view of the gleaming Bosporus waters, the sparkling bridge or the prominent military academy across the water. Tables with a Lazy Suzan are available for bigger tables reserved in advance.

Initially jasmine green tea is served, followed by a warm soup. The Seaweed Soup is an appetizing mix of petite seafood chunks with straps of seaweed. So yummy I was seriously tempted to request a second round but abstained as so many dishes had been ordered. Next came the bite-size Steamed Crab and Shrimp Dumplings, steamed in a light and fluffy dough – handmade by their Chinese chefs – and served with a semisweet sauce. Afterward Fried Wonton Shrimp, weightlessly fried seafood triangles and sauce. Although not an enthusiast of fried dishes, these wontons do not feel fried and have a delicate and light savor.

Authentic seafood dishes

In addition to the remarkable duck, other shared dishes, especially seafood specials and in particular the squid, were outstanding. The noteworthy, fresh and moist Squid in Black Bean Sauce has a faintly distinctive and flavorsome sauce. Five Spice Squid is another seafood platter worth mentioning – not too spicy or full of unfamiliar authentic spices, yet mildly favored with genuinely and distinctly Chinese spices. Shitake Mushrooms with gorgeous black sauce might be a vegetarian's dreams come true! For side orders like noodles, Fried Noodles with Seafood is crispy and not oily or too soggy from the light sauce.

Signature Fried Banana

For dessert, Dragon's 23-year signature desserts like Fried Ice-cream, Fried Pineapple and all-time favorite Fried Banana are offered. Also for summer time at Reina, the menu incorporates walnut ice cream and lemon sorbet (both by Mövenpick ice creams). Although about to burst from all the succulent Asian dishes, the irresistible Fried Banana with vanilla ice cream was so tender, and evenly sweet, it was gulped down without delay.

As a result, for an authentically delicious dining night on the Bosporus, Dragon tops the top of all the ethnic culinary lists. Advanced reservations essential for a table! Yet eating top-notch Asian on the Bosporus does not come cheap: The average cost per meal with duck per person – without alcohol – is YTL 120-150 …

Dragon

Reina Muallim Naci St. No: 44

OrtaköyTel: 0212 259 5919

Hilton Hotel

Elmadağ Istanbul

Tel: 0212 231 6200.

Succulent Beijing duck:

The famous Beijing duck at Dragon is presented as a whole or half. Served with thin pancakes, cucumbers and onions, and a sweet sauce, rolling juicy duck slices into pancakes at the table makes for an entertaining and authentic Chinese meal! Apparently Dragon gets its birds from Antalya, where they have a special and exclusive arrangement with a Beijing duck breeding farm. After being roasted for almost four hours in a 480-degree oven, the duck has its fat cautiously removed before being served. One can taste the juiciness and authentic flavor with each individually made hand-rolled duck dürüm!

Inform,23.06.08

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Turks to attend NY food show

NEW YORK – Anatolia News Agency

Turkish food companies are set to participate in the "Summer 2008 Fancy Food & Confection Show" in New York from June 29 to July 1.

Recent Fancy Food Shows have attracted from 19,000 to 24,000 attendees from specialty food, wine, gift and department stores, supermarkets, restaurants, mail order and other related businesses.

A statement by the Office of the Turkish Commercial Attaché in New York said that Turkish Foreign Trade Undersecretary Tuncer Kayalar will attend the inauguration of food show in New York. Around 28 Turkish food companies with pistachio and olive oil promotion groups will take part in the fair.

About 2,500 American and foreign companies will attend the 54th Fancy Food Show this year in New York. Almost 20,000 buyers are expected to visit the show. These attendees come to see thousands of exhibitors from around the world, presenting more than 180,000 specialty foods to discover and sample.

Inform,23.06.08

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Sunken city Kekova in photographs

Kekova Island and sunken city, one of the most visited places in the Mediterranean, is home to many underwater beauties. With special permisson from the Culture Ministry, Anatolia News Agency reporter Cem Özdel took photos of the island and its hidden beauties

DEMRE -Anatolia News Agency

Located close to the Mediterranean city of Antalya's Demre district, the Kekova Harbor and sunken city that was once a Lycian trade center, now submerged under water as a result of earthquakes, draws the attention of local and foreign tourists.

Kekova is one of the places most visited by tourists because it boasts historical attractions and has the cleanest waters in the Mediterranean. It is also home to many under and above water beauties. With special permission from the Culture Ministry, Anatolia Agency photojournalist Cem Özdel, accompanied by museum official İlknur Erdoğan and divers Erkan Çağlar and Cem Gazivekili, photographed Kekova, which can be easily reached by people on Blue Cruises.

In this region where swimming is forbidden but diving is allowed with special permission, the photos revealed that most of the historical buildings underwater have been ruined and some have been covered by sea sand because of currents. In addition, 30 meters from Kekova Island's coast and 20 meters under the surface, hundreds of amphoras have been broken by treasure hunters.

Photos showed that staircases from Kekova Island to the sea still exist. The breakwaters belonging to two harbors on the north of the island have not collapsed yet, but it was discovered that they are surrounded by waste thrown from vessels. �Demre and its vicinity is a complete tourism center due to its rich history and geographical position,� said Demre district governor, Murat Sefa Demiryürek.

Noting that the St. Nicholas Church, the ancient city Myra and its theater, rock cemeteries and the ancient cities of Andreake and Simena draw tourists to Kekova, Demiryürek said, �As well as the natural beauties, the richness of ancient and historical artifacts make the region attractive in the field of archaeological tourism. There are many small settlements in the district, which were under the influence of Lycian and Roman civilizations for long years. Üçağız (Theimiussa) and Kaleköy (Simena) are residential areas today. Also, the region has a rich heritage including tombs with inscriptions in the Lycian language, sarcophaguses on the coast of Lycia, ruins of breakwaters and buildings, a theater, caved in rock in the Medieval Castle, rock cemeteries, water cisterns, necropolis etc. Moreover, there are lots of sunken cities in the area. It is suggested that an area named �Tersane' in Kekova Island was an ancient naval yard.�

Demiryürek said hundreds of thousands of tourists visited the island ever year, adding that they put great effort into promoting the region to the world.

Kekova should be launched as a national park

Diving trainer and owner of Demre Diving School, Erkan Çağlar, who guides specially permitted diving events in Demre, said the region would be more active in tourism if Kekova was designated as a national park.

"Many countries abroad have places where diving is forbidden. Those who want to dive or swim in these regions can pay a fee of 50-100 euros. There are many areas in Kekova and its vicinity available for swimming or diving. This region can be designated as a national park. Then more tourism revenue can be obtained.�

Inform,23.06.08

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Council of Europe Secretary General:new concerns about freedom of expression in Turkey

Strasbourg, 19.06.2008 – “Recent amendments to the controversial Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code had raised hopes that the attitude of the Turkish authorities towards freedom of expression in Turkey had changed.

These hopes have now been overshadowed by reports of three court cases in which a publisher, a singer and a children’s choir have been sentenced or charged with offences related to freedom of expression. As a friend of Turkey, I should like to remind the authorities that respect for freedom of expression is essential in a real democracy. It is also a right guaranteed by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which Turkey signed when it joined the Council of Europe in 1950.”

Council of Europe Press Division
Tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 25 60
Fax:+33 (0)3 88 41 39 11
pressunit@coe.int
www.coe.int/press

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Turkish culture and arts promoted in Bonn

Tuesday, June 17, 2008BONN - Anatolia News Agency

A festival organized in the German city of Bonn to introduce modern Turkish art called "Bienal Bonn 2008 Boğaziçi Festivali" (Biennial Bonn 2008 Bosporus Festival) got underway yesterday.

Biennial Bonn 2008 is being held to introduce Turkish modern theater, dance, music, literature, film and art to residents of the city.

During the festival, which will run through June 22, 12 theater plays, seven dance performances, five literature conferences in the evenings, four entertainment programs and also many film screenings, exhibitions and panels will be organized.

At the opening ceremony, which took place in Bonn Opera House, Zülfü Livaneli, author and musician who made a speech in the presence of Bonn's Mayor Helmut Josten, said he was actually planning to attend the funeral of the famous writer Cengiz Aytmatov, who died last week, but he attended the opening of the biennial ceremony because he had made a promise to come.

Livaneli, pointing out that Turkey always bears toward the West not East, said he was so excited to be in Bonn, Beethoven's birth place. �I wonder what Beethoven would say if he could wake up and visit operas and theaters, and what would he say if he could have seen the success of the Turkish people. It is not an easy thing for a country to reflect her own spirit to the world,� said Livaneli.

Festival director, Stephen Kopetzky, emphasized that they invited Turkey to the festival thinking that Turkey would bring a novel touch to Europe and said, �We successfully introduced New York in 2004 and India in 2006. �In Biennial Bonn Festival 2008 we gave a place to Turkey and for that I went to Turkey seven times to prepare this event and I wandered around national theaters one by one and invited the best plays here.�

Inform,17.06.08

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Turkey seeks an exit strategy from headscarf crisis

16/06/2008

After his election victory last year, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged to become a "prime minister of all Turkey", but opponents accuse him of spearheading an Islamic agenda rather than moving on broadly supported liberal reforms. As the controversy threatens to engulf Turkish politics, some are urging a new consensus.

By Ayhan Simsek for Southeast European Times -- 13/06/08

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, could face a ban from politics. [Getty Images]

Turkey has entered into a deep political crisis, following the Constitutional Court's ruling earlier this month against amendments pioneered by the Islamist rooted ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to allow headscarves at universities.

The ruling delivered a major blow to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the decision is likely to increase the chance that the Court will also ban Erdogan's AKP for allegedly undermining the secular character of the state.

Turkey's chief prosecutor has asked the Court to ban AKP and exclude 71 of its leaders from politics for five years. In his indictment, he described the headscarf amendment as one of the main elements showing that the party has a "hidden Islamist agenda". A court ruling is expected in July.

The demand for the right to wear headscarves at universities has been a controversial issue in Turkey for decades. While some Muslim women interpret the Koran as not obliging them to cover their hair, others use various types of headscarf. The strictest version, covering the whole hair, is seen in Turkey as the symbol of political Islam.

Generally, Turkish women are free to wear or not to wear headscarves. But they are forbidden for public servants and also for students. Proponents of lifting the ban argue that freedom of expression is at stake, while opponents feel political Islam is driving the issue.

The debate came to a highly sensitive point last week. On a TV news programme, a young woman with a headscarf said that she and her friends "admire Khomeini", the leader of Iran's Islamic revolution, and believe that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk -- the founder of the secular Turkish Republic – "betrayed the Islamic nation".

A woman stands under a line of Turkish flags during a protest in Istanbul against a decision by Turkey's top court to annul a law enabling women to wear Islamic headscarves at universities. The June 5th ruling was seen as a bellwether for a pending closure case brought against the ruling Justice and Development Party. [Getty Images]

Ergun Ozbudun, a prominent liberal professor who earlier led the preparations for a new civil constitution, has criticised the Constitutional Court's latest ruling against headscarves, saying the judges exceeded their power. "Also, the Court makes a very rigid, illiberal interpretation of secularism, which we don't see in any Western democracy today -- even in France, which is very strict on secularism," he told Kanal D television.

According to Ozbudun, those who really want an Islamic state in Turkey amount to below 10% of the population, so the threat is slight. A recent survey found that the majority of Turks respect the separation of state and religion, while 76% also want headscarves to be allowed at universities.

Not all Turkish intellectuals agree with Ozbudun, however. Gülsüm Bilgehan, a politician from the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and a respected former member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, warns that under the AKP Turkish women are in danger of losing their rights.

"Political Islamist groups are carrying on systematic efforts to Islamize the country, and today we are seeing even young primary school girls being forced to wear headscarves in some parts of the country," she said.

Criticizing what she described as the "freedom rhetoric" of the AKP, Bilgehan said more and more women were being excluded from the public sphere and assigned the traditional role of stay-at-home mother. According to statistics, female participation in the work force has indeed dropped from over 34% in 1990 to just over 22% at the end of 2007.

Only 25 out of the AKP's 340 deputies are women, and there is only one female minister in Erdogan's cabinet.

A prominent Turkish writer, Soner Yalçın, investigated the families of AKP leaders in his recent popular book "Who are you fooling?" He concluded that most of the women in these families decided to wear headscarves after getting married, and that while the majority had a university education, they sought no job after marriage and decided to stay at home.

According to Yalçın, the traditional conservatism among political Islamists kept them out of the public sphere.

While Turkey’s intellectuals and politicians may be divided over headscarf ban, there is a near-consensus that Erdogan has mismanaged the issue following his decisive election victory last July.

Thousands of Turks visit Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's mausoleum in Ankara in February to protest against lifting the ban on Islamic headscarves in universities. [Getty Images]

AKP won 46.6% of the vote, gaining the support of business circles as well as liberals who wanted stability and a continuation of EU political and economic reforms.

In his victory speech in July 2007, Erdogan said his party was committed to Turkey's democratic, secular and social system and rule of law. He reached out to those who voted for the secular opposition, saying "I can understand your concerns; your votes are also valuable for us. You are richness for our democratic life".

According to Cüneyt Ülsever, a leading columnist who once saw the AKP as having the potential to transform Turkey into a liberal democracy, the prime minister has not delivered on his pledge.

Instead of being a "prime minister of all Turkey" and moving forward with liberal democratic reforms, Erdogan has mostly spearheaded changes meant to benefit his Islamist core constituency, Ülsever says.

Currently, Turkey's politicians and intellectuals are discussing an exit strategy to the crisis, which has already started to undermine the country’s economic prospects and its credibility as an EU candidate country.

Turkey's most popular columnist, the editor in chief of the mainstream Hurriyet newspaper, issued a call to both camps to work for the good of the country.

"We should now forget everything and open a new page for a new social consensus," Ertuğrul Özkök wrote in his column on Thursday. "We should avoid further controversy and come together around our common aims, starting from the EU membership," he said.

Özkök suggested a new comprehensive discussion on the headscarf controversy and suggested the ban could be lifted as long as new assurances were given to secularists, such as forbidding such Islamic symbols in primary and high schools, as well as for public servants.

"A new social contract is possible for a democratic and secular Turkey," he said. "But we should first start gaining confidence among each other."

This content was commissioned for SETimes.com

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Göztepe:A restaurant of excellence on Asian side

ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News

Istanbul's Göztepe district on the Asian side hosts a popular restaurant, the Göztepe Et Lokantası (Meat Restaurant), on İstasyon Caddesi that is causing a stir. Not a very elegant name for a restaurant, but it's the taste of the food that matters.

The restaurant prides itself on providing customers with a unique taste and on making each customer feel special. The master chefs and experienced staff have won the approval of the restaurant's customers with the rich menu they have to offer.

Göztepe Et Lokantası, headed by manager-owner Fatih Bedir, offers many different dishes from terbileyi kuzu şiş, fıstıklı kebap, acılı kebap, beyti dürüm, kaburga, karışık kebap, kuzu pirzola and patlıcanlı kebap to wings and ribs, and these are just some of the dishes that may be found there. Expert chefs create marvelous salads, different kinds of hors d'ouevres and great desserts. Not to mention their specialty, �Kuseleme� made from specially selected pieces of lamb that are marinated in a hot sauce for 24 hours and then barbequed.

This is a large restaurant, but nobody gets overlooked. There is room for 350 guests indoors and 400 more outside. The outside area is lush with plants and trees and even a small waterfall. And in addition to the great atmosphere and food, there's a big television screen to watch football matches and a room where the children can play. A large car park is also provided.

Address: İstasyon Cad. Rıdvan Paşa Sk. No: 17 Göztepe. Telephone: 0216 411 1415

Inform,16.06.08

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Turkish army launches anti-PKK operation

ANKARA, Turkey -- The army launched on Sunday (June 15th) a special operation aimed to eliminate Kurdish militants after a series of attacks by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) extremists that injured at least three Turkish railway workers. The General Staff announced the operation is ongoing in Bingol province. (Hurriyet, ITAR-TASS - 15/06/08; Reuters, AP, Anadolu news agency, Xinhua - 14/06/08)

Inform,15.06.08

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Güllüoğlu

Gaziantep's famous Güllüoğlu baklava prepared with ingredients from the Anatolian heartland is enjoyed with relish all across the region and in many places in Europe.
Esther Brunner
The durum wheat from the Anatolian heartland, pistachios from Barak in the East and tasty butter from Şanlıurfa are the ingredients that have made Güllüoğlu's baklava into a success. From Gaziantepe to Istanbul, across the region and to many places in Europe, the Turkish sweets are being eaten with relish.
Baklava, or baklawa, is a sweet pastry consisting of thin layers of dough, butter, nuts and syrup and can be found in many regions of the former Ottoman Empire.
And due to its popularity, it is also claimed by different countries as their invention. While baklava cannot be traced back to a particular place, it seems to be of Central Asian Turkic origin, with its current form being developed in the imperial kitchens of the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. Apparently, the oldest known recipe of a sort of baklava was found in a Chinese cookbook written in 1330.
Quite unexpectedly, the sweet and sticky looking pastry turns out to be rather light and literally melts in one's mouth. This is due to using high quality ingredients and the mastery of this particular baklava maker, I'm told by a Turkish friend. A baker using only the highest ingredients for his baklava is Nadir Güllü from Güllüoğlu. His father, who opened the first Güllüoğlu shop in Istanbul, still travels throughout Turkey to hand-pick ingredients, including pistachios from Barak and butter from Şanlıurfa (Urfa) made from sheep's milk, which is made clear in the heat of the sun and sealed in airtight containers. Also, only the finest sugar beets are selected to make baklava syrup. The flour comes from the Anatolian heartland and gives the yufka enough elasticity to roll it by hand. “The ingredients can vary slightly, but the essence of all kinds is the dough which is rolled out again and again until it is so thin and transparent that a newspaper can be read from behind it.”
The dough will then be layered into a rectangular form. Each layer – between 30 and 40 – is covered in a thin coating of butter. After half the layers are in the form, either pistachios or walnuts are spread across the form and then more layers are added. Baklava gets cut into pieces before it goes into the oven and after the pieces come out, they are covered in massive amounts of hot syrup, causing each square to sizzle and rise to the surface.
Laying down 40 layers might sound like a lot, but as the story has it, in ancient times, before a celebration, the master of a house would require his cook to produce baklava with 100 layers of dough. Before placing the baklava tray into the oven, the cook would have to appear before the master, who would drop a gold coin from half a metre above onto the tray below. If the dough was thin enough for the coin to pass through all the layers of baklava and touch the bottom of the tray, it was considered properly prepared baklava. If not, the baklava was sent back to the kitchen and the cook had to start all over again.
Baklava plays an important role in Turkish life. Not only is it served to visitors, but hardly any engagement, wedding or circumcision ceremony would take place without the sweet pastry. Baklava is also one of the delicacies many people wouldn't miss for iftar (the evening meal) or suhoor (the meal before dawn prayer) during the fasting period during Ramadan. This can be traced back to a tradition during the Ottoman Empire when the sultan presented trays of baklava to the Janissaries (elite soldiers in the Turkish guard until 1826) during Ramadan. This custom was to become known as Baklava Alayı (baklava procession).
Today, for many Istanbulites, baklava means Güllüoğlu. Most of them have grown up with the sweets from this family, who brought baklava to the region. In 1871, Çelebi Güllü introduced the dessert, which he had learned to bake from a chef in Damascus, to the citizens of Gaziantepe. An instant success, it was also the beginning of a very prosperous business. In 1949, Mustafa Güllü brought the family business to Istanbul and opened a shop in Karaköy. But what seems to be one brand has now become three different businesses. While Nadir and brother Ömer stayed with their father and continued running the original Güllüoğlu business, his brother Nejat left the business in 1986 and brother Faruk opened his first shop in Azerbajan in 1993. These days, Nejat and Faruk own what could be called a Baklava-empire. Both of them have numerous shops around Turkey, in New York and London and run massive production sites. Unlike his brothers, Nadir focuses on the original shop, but it doesn't mean that he doesn't have big plans for his beloved baklava. It's his ambition to teach people across the world how to eat baklava properly. “Chew twice, breathe - don't forget to breathe - and you should be able to identify each ingredient: the butter, the pistachios, and the syrup,” said Nadir. Sounds too complicated? Well, just eat and enjoy and, like Nadir himself, have baklava as often as possible. “I couldn't imagine life without baklava,” proclaimed Nadir.

Inform,14.06.08

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Summer movies:Part 1

Take a look at some of the movies hitting the screen this summer. There’s a movie for everyone from art-house films to blockbuster animationsEMRAH GÜLERISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News
The dry season for movies has now officially started. With little more than a dozen films hitting the theaters in the coming months, the most anticipated movies of the summer are listed here. There's a movie for every taste, from art-house award winners to literary adaptations and CGI animations. Watch this space for Summer movies: Part 2 next week.

Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame
The Sofia Coppola of Iranian cinema, director Hana Makhmalbaf is the daughter of famous director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. This heart-breaking tale of a small girl in Taliban Afghanistan was directed by Makhmalbaf when she was only 19. Little Baktay's struggle to go to school under the oppressive Taliban regime that bars girls' right to education won three awards at the Montreal and San Sebastian film festivals. The film's name is a reference to the centuries-old giant Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban.
Why all the fuss?
Having won awards at two different festivals, the movie also won the FIPRESCI Film Critics award at the recent Flying Broom Women's Film Festival in Ankara, with a Turkish writer, Burcu Aykar Şirin, among the prestigious jury.
Release date: June 20

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
One of the most anticipated movies of this summer, the second film in the C.S. Lewis fantasy series �The Chronicles of Narnia� will hit the screens next month. In �Prince Caspian,� the Pevensie children will face new adventures in the magical realm of Narnia. The children will reprise their roles, with Ben Barnes playing Prince Caspian and Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan. A little reminder for pop culture fans: Check for similarities between the island the Pevensie children will find themselves in, and the mysterious island in the TV phenomenon �Lost.�
Why all the fuss?
If you've watched the first movie in the series, �The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,� you'll know what all the fuss is about. If not, think back of the time when you were waiting for the sequel to the first �Lord of the Rings� or �Harry Potter� movie.
Release date: July 11

Kung Fu Panda
The hero of the latest DreamWorks animation film is a lazy and chubby panda with dreams of becoming a great Kung Fu fighter one day. Working in his family's noodle shop in ancient China, Po finds out that he is the chosen hero of an ancient prophecy to save the Valley of Peace. In this story of transformation, Po needs to become a master Kung Fu warrior in order to fulfill his heroic role. While Jack Black provides the voice of the slacker-turned-warrior protagonist, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu and Angelina Jolie lend their voices to the other characters.
Why all the fuss?
DreamWorks is the studio that brought us the �Shrek� movies, �Bee Movie,� and �Madagascar.� We are yet to see an average animation from the studio.
Release date: July 4

Mamma Mia!
Adapted from the West End musical of the same name, the film features songs from ABBA in a story that has nothing to do with ABBA. On the eve of her wedding, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) brings together three possible fathers to the same Greek island where she was conceived more than two decades ago. Meryl Streep plays Sophie's mother, while the father candidates are played by Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard. Although a couple of original songs from the stage musical like �Thank You For the Music� and �Knowing Me, Knowing You� were removed from the film, the U.S. hit �When All is Said and Done� was included in the movie.
Why all the fuss?
�Mamma Mia!� has been a success on stage for almost a decade now. And nobody can deny the magical touch of Hollywood when it comes to musicals.
Release date: July 18

Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Ready to see more of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi? The very first animated �Star Wars� to be released in theaters is going to hit the screens here on the same date as in the United States. The movie will serve as a pilot for the upcoming CGI animated TV series of the same name. The Clone Wars between the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Galactic Republic take place between �Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones� and �Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.� Anakin and Obi-Wan will go on a search for the kidnapped son of Jabba the Hutt. Actors from the original films, including Samuel L. Jackson, will lend their voices.
Why all the fuss?
An animated �Star Wars� in theaters? This is what some audiences have been waiting for the past three decades.
Release date: Aug. 15

Inform,14.06.08

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Istanbul to host Salvador Dali paintings

TNA with wire services

Sakip Sabanci Museum in Istanbul will host "Salvador Dali: A Surrealist in Istanbul" exhibition between September 19th, 2008 and January 19th, 2009.

Akbank is said to spent 7 million YTL (almost 5.6 million USD) Dali's paintings to Istanbul. Suzan Sabanci Dincer, chairperson of Akbank's Executive Board used her personal influence for the most expensive art organization of Turkey which will begin on September 19th.

The collection, which will take place in the exhibition, was promoted in Salvador Dali Museum in Figueres, Spain on Wednesday where Salvador Dali was born.

The exhibition is expected to host at least 150,000 people. The exhibition will display 269 works of art.

Salvador Dali was born on May 11th, 1904 and died on January 23rd, 1989. He was a Spanish surrealist painter born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain. Dali was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in 1931.

Inform,June 2008

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15th Istanbul Jazz Festival scheduled for July 2

The New Anatolian/Ankara

Once again Istanbul will host a musical extravaganza as the 15th International Jazz Festival is held between July 2 and 16.

International jazz stars will give nearly 40 concerts during the festival hosted by the Istanbul Culture and Art Foundation (IKSV) under the aegis of Garanti Bank.

Those concerts will take place in different locations like Cemil Topuzlu center, Sepetciler Palace, Esma Sultan Mansion, Hagia Eirene Museum, Cemal Resit Rey Concert Hall, Archeology Museum, Nardis Jazz Club and Istinye Park.

The festival will begin with an opening ceremony at the Esma Sultan Mansion on July 1 where prominent Turkish jazz musician Tuna Otenel will be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

A similar award was given to Ahmet Ertegun in 2002, Arif Mardin in 2003, Suheyl Denizci in 2004, Muvaffak "Maffy" Falay in 2005, Cuneyt Sermet in 2006 and Selcuk Sun in 2007.

Academy Award and Grammy award-winning American jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock will be the guest of honor of this year's festival. Hancock will give two concerts on July 2 and 3.

Lenny Kravitz, one of legendary names of rock music, will meet his fans in Istanbul on July 30 as a part of his world tour --"It Is Time For A Love Revolution".

Five time Grammy award winner Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist Caetano Veloso; Italian trumpet and flugelhorn jazz player Paolo Fresu, Carla Bley who is considered one of the most important composers of modern jazz, worldwide famous bass guitar player Marcus Miller, seven time Grammy award winner Al Jarreau, Dianne Reeves, Nnenna Freelon, Ivan Lins, Omara Portuondo, Yasmin Levy and Rufus Wainwright are among guests of this year's festival.

Trumpet master Muvaffak "Maffy" Falay will perform for jazz fans with "Maffy Falay Quintet- Turkey Meets Scandinavia".

Coolbone Band from New Orleans will conquer jazz fans with street concerts on July 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8.

"The Jazz Boat" accompanied by a musical crew formed by members of the fun loving band Coolbone and the Istanbul Saxophone Quartet will set sail from the Kabatas ferry pier at 11.00 am on July 6. The Jazz Boat will stop at Anadolu Kavagi and return to Kabatas after a two-hour trip.

Tickets ranging from 15 YTL to 120 YTL will be available through Biletix web-site and at the IKSV Office in Istanbul as of May 24.

Inform,June 2008

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Drawing a panoramic view of Istanbul

The people of Istanbul and visitors are now able to get up close and personal to see two important panoramas by Melling and Dunn in the small boutique art gallery run by the Istanbul Research Institute (IRI) just a few doors up from the Pera Museum

GÜL DEMIR and NIKI GAMM
ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News

Virtually anyone who's curious about the Ottoman Empire and Istanbul prior to the advent of photography in the 19th century will have seen engravings or paintings by various professional and amateur artists who passed through Istanbul.

Some stand out more than others, depending on their abilities and training. Some chose to celebrate architecture, while others depicted people, street scenes and action. Yet they all had one thing in common – they were foreigners.

Of the foreign artists one name in particular stands out: Antoine-Ignace Melling.

His beautiful depictions of the city and of the Bosporus are reproduced frequently in books, or as prints. They show an Istanbul that one wishes still existed today, one the Turks until late in the 20th century didn't value as they should have.

There is also the work of Montagu B. Dunn, who is much less known but somewhat more recent. Looking at his work one can readily identify buildings – and not just the Galata Tower – that still exist today in spite of large scale fires in the 19th century.

The people of Istanbul and visitors are now able to get up close and personal to see two important panoramas by these artists in the small art gallery run by the Istanbul Research Institute (IRI) just a few doors up from the Pera Museum.

Both are part of the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation, set up in 2003 in order to foster research in culture, arts, education and healthcare. The IRI takes as its central focus the city of Istanbul from its beginning to the present day and moving outward from that center to the peripheries. So exhibitions mounted by the IRI are in line with the organization's goals.

For example, there was the display of drawings and buildings by Italian architect D'Aronco who was in Istanbul in the 19th century.

The current exhibition, “Long Stories: Istanbul in the Panoramas of Melling and Dunn,” will run though Aug 3. It consists of two panoramas that belong to the IRI and to the Kıraç Foundation. For the viewer, it offers a taste of what Istanbul was like historically in the eyes of two very good observers.

Melling's Panorama was originally 23.5 by 180 cm and provides a microcosmic view of Istanbul and how it looked prior to the advent of the photograph. The artist (1763-1831) was an exceptional person who came from a family of artists in the Karlsruhe area of Germany and arrived in Istanbul in 1784 as part of his travels in the East.

He was introduced to the sister of Sultan Selim III, Hatice Sultan, and she was so pleased with his drawings that she hired him to work for her. And thanks to his architectural training, Sultan Selim later on appointed him the imperial architect and he stamped his personality on a number of buildings in Istanbul such as the Çırağan Palace and the Besiktaş Palace.

When he went to Paris after 18 years in Istanbul, he became the landscape painter to the Empress Josephine. He later set up an engraving studio in Paris where he produced prints of his Istanbul works.

The result of course is that Melling's work is particularly well-known, so much so that his subsequent travels and drawings from the Netherlands are for the most part ignored.

Montague B. Dunn, on the other hand is so little known that a Google search doesn't bring up any results. So we have to thank the IRI for making him known to today's world.

He arrived in Istanbul as a naval officer at the time of the Crimean War (1853-56) and found a city undergoing changes initiated by the changing ideas initiated in the Tanzimat or Reform period of 1839. What is apparent in his drawings is his interest in the harbor of Istanbul, in ships and in buildings of military importance – especially in ships.

His depiction of the city (12.3 by 417.5 cm is strikingly realistic, much more so than Melling, although perhaps one can't actually say that since so many of buildings in his panorama no longer exist. But it is the closest record of what existed in that period since there was no photography.

The exhibition has been curated by Ekrem Işın with M. Baha Tanman as advisor. Işın is a writer and historian with a particular interest in Istanbul and in Sufism. He has been involved in curating other exhibitions elsewhere.

Tanman is a historian of art and architecture, he is particularly interested in mysticism and the architecture of the various Sufi sects that flourished in Istanbul.*

Istanbul Research Institute

Mesrutiyet Caddesi No. 47

Tepebasi, Istanbul

Tel: 0212 334 0900

Development of panoramic Istanbul

Maps have been found on clay tablets as early as the Babylonians around 2300 B.C. and the earliest maps as we know them were produced in the Greek and Roman eras. The name of Ptolemy is associated with the earliest known map although it is only known from a 15th century copy.

Panoramas on the other hand are relatively modern. “Panoramas constitute the visual narratives of a city. In each and every tale, we pursue the adventures of the cities that have created their own myths. Emperors and sultans cast their shadows in the images stretching before our eyes; the symbols of power piercing the sky are surrounded by the cultural texture of daily life, as well as the city's architectural composition and nature. The raison d'être of a panorama is to bear witness to the urban image that appears as a protagonist on the stage of history, set against the civilizational décor that the eye perceives at first sight.”

Panoramic maps of cities date from the 15th century and possibly the reason why the Ptolemy map was copied at this time. Although there are panoramic maps of Constantinople, the earliest one known today is that of Cristoforo Buondelmonti who was a Florentine.

His panorama was drawn in 1422, making it the only pre-Ottoman conquest map of the city. The work shows a small area surrounded by high walls. Recognizable monuments dot the landscape that also features small houses drawn as if from an eagle surveying the land from above and the main roads. It also includes the Galata area.

Subsequent panoramic views of Istanbul include that executed by Hartmann Schedel in 1493, Giovani Andrea di Vavassore in the first part of the 16th century and Guillaume-Joseph Grelot in 1680.

By the time of the latter, panoramic views have become much more realistic, more scientific, according to Ekrem Işın, the curator of the IRI exhibition. He sees Grelot as the harbinger of Melling whose work was carried out a century later. Grelot drew a picture of the old city of Istanbul from the hills of Galata.

Topkapi Palace and the waterfront pavilions assume their place in meticulous detail for the first time in a depiction where the natural texture comprised of cypress trees is strongly emphasized.

The foreground in the Grelot depiction does seem rather surrealistic. The buildings depicted are undoubtedly realistic but the scene is decidedly bucolic although that area of Galata must have been heavily populated by the end of the 1600s.

“Long Stories: Istanbul in the Panoramas of Melling and Dunn is not only a visual feast, but also a historical survey, which compels viewers to reconsider the identity of a city that left its mark on the art of panoramic engraving.”

Inform,07.06.08

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Biennale Bonn:The Bosporus,looking at each other and at ourselves

Walking newspapers, biographical theater and the Istanbul State Ballet. This year’s Biennale Bonn focuses on Turkey and its people. Visitors will find a mind-boggling mix of modern and traditional Turkish art and culture

Dorte Huneke
BONN – Turkish Daily News

This year the German city of Bonn's annual festival celebrating artists from different countries around the world will feature Turkish art, music, theater and film at the lively event on the banks of the Rhine.

From June 14 through June 22, artists from Turkish state theaters and the Istanbul State Ballet, as well as independent groups and artists, will be performing on various stages across the former German capital as part of Biennale Bonn.

Among the participating artists are Zülfü Livaneli, Perihan Mağden, Ara Güler, Dolapdere Big Gang, Taksim Trio, and Berlin-based DJane Ipek Ipekçioğlu, the daughter of Turkish immigrants to Germany and a star of the Berlin club scene since the mid 1990s.

In addition, a wide range of Turkish movies will be shown, from the award-winning Takva and Beyaz Melek (White Angel), to action and comedy films.

Introducing Turkish culture

A major reason for making Turkey the focus of the 2008 Bonn Biennale was to transform people's vision of contemporary Turkey. According to organizers, the festival will be a chance for the audience to discover different aspects of Turkish performing and visual arts, along with music and film.

For many visitors it will be the first time that they hear the names of some of Turkey's most popular artists and are exposed to the performer's talents.

The Biennale is, however, more than simply visual spectacle. Audiences will be invited to share and discuss what they see and hear with other visitors and participants. Most of the dance and theatre productions will provide opportunities for the audience to talk to the artists after their performance.

Among the main themes raised in the productions are question of identity and about European-Turkish relations. Where is Turkey going to position itself between Europe and Asia? How is the European Union's enlargement process going to affect Turkey and the rest of Europe? What role does Islam play in Turkey and in Europe?

The festival team also cooperated with the city's schools, with the aim of introducing local students to contemporary Turkish culture beyond preconceived stereotypes, and to look at how young people of Turkish origin can contribute to modern culture in Germany.

Given the strong presence of Turks and Turkish culture in Germany, the festival is also a chance to take a closer look at Turkish-German relations.

Bursa-born Muhsin Omurca who, with his partner, Şinasi Dikmen, founded the first Turkish cabaret in German (Knobi-Bonbon in Ulm) and is therefore considered the "father of migrant cabaret" in Germany, will present his popular show �Die EU manen kommen� (The EU manes are coming), in which he humorously dissects the difficult, sometimes ridiculously complicated relations between Germans and Turks and their attempts at getting to know one another.

Turkish life stories

Frank Heuel, the director and artistic director of a Bonn-based fringe ensemble, says he learned a lot about Turkish culture while preparing his own contribution to this year's Biennale.

His experimental reality-theater-production �Geschichten, getürkt � eine Expedition� (Stories Turkicized � an expedition�) will premier on June 12. The key question his play examines is how Turkish migrants live in the city of Bonn. In order to find answers to this question, Heuel interviewed migrants of Turkish origin living in Bonn who were interested in telling him about their lives. �We found a highly heterogeneous Turkish community,� says Heuel.

Among the people Heuel and his group met was an insurance broker, a butcher, a hotel reservation supervisor, a boxer, a housewife and mother, a 16-year-old boy in a wheelchair, a jobless gastronome, and a dilettante. �The youngest person we interviewed was 17 years old,� says Heuel. �The older generation was more difficult to approach, but we also talked to some people in their 50s.� Their stories will be presented on stage in the original words of those interviewed but performed by professional actors and actresses.

According to Heuel, the collected stories represent a cross-section of experiences within Turkish society. There is an upwardly mobile generation that does not want to have too much to do with the Turkish community, and a young generation which is struggling to integrate itself into German culture and language.

�What worries me most is the tendency among the third generation of Turks in Germany toward �ghettoization,'� said Heuel. Unlike the second generation, they hardly speak German and have established themselves in their own Turkish worlds within the German society.

Reading and writing a city

The cultural and social connections, essential for every form of dialogue, will be explored by the Turkish-German co-production The display Walking newspaper, part of the Tauschen (Exchanging) exhibition is a performance art piece in which several Turkish and German artists explore the city and use their experiences for their art. The walking newspaper will result in an actual newspaper that can be taken home as part of the Tauschen exhibition, which is presented in the Künstlerforum Bonn.

The idea of a walking newspaper was developed by German artist Hans Winkler who calls it a �self-made� publication in living opposition to the outdated historical practice in public spaces of �plop� art--the tradition of �plopping� sculptures in public spaces to beautify urban environments without there being a direct connection between the art and its context.

Winkler claims walking through a city, discovering aesthetic elements of daily life and working on objects found in the streets is like reading it. In 2005 Winkler produced his first walking newspaper in San Francisco and later conducted the same project in New York, Istanbul, Havana, and Sierre in Switzerland. The Turkish version of Winkler's walking newspaper was called Yürü.

The full program of Biennale Bonn can be seen online at biennale-bonn.de.

Inform,07.06.08

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A funny Russian 'Shark Tale'

Seaside view- Marmaris

Sedat Kirt

Last week's hottest news occupying international and local press about Marmaris was the funny � tragicomic, actually � story in Russian media about sharks on the coast of Marmaris.

According to Russian radio news and some Web sites, the beaches around Marmaris and Bodrum were closed off because of shark attacks! The source of the news was unknown, and some Web sites even used shark photos from different parts of the world to decorate their pages.

As expected, this shocking information provoked genuine panic among Russian and Ukrainian tourists preparing for a holiday in the area. Russian tour operators answered hundreds of phone calls from their clients asking about the situation. Tour operators and hoteliers in the area immediately asked Turkish officials for an explanation, although they knew there was not a bit of truth to the shark news.

In a written explanation, the Culture and Tourism Ministry denied the information aired by Russian press on the closing of several beaches on the Aegean coast because of sharks in the area. �Nothing of the sort is possible. No sea resorts were closed,� the ministry said. So, what did really happen and how did it turn out in the press?

All it was was a bit of �over-imaginative journalism.� The truth about sharks around Marmaris is completely different and has indeed been known for a long time. Boncuk Bay in the Gulf of Gökova was declared a protected site in 1990.

Another declaration was made by ICRAM (Italy's Central Marine Research Institute) in 2004 at a meeting of the EEA (European Elasmobranch Association) to explain the results of the observation of the sandbars in the bay. The bay hosts sandbar sharks (Carcharhinus Plumbeus) every year from May to August in what is the only known procreation area of sandbar sharks in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry's Authority for the Protection of Special Areas (ÖÇKKB) started a project in Boncuk Bay in 2007 aiming to observe, research and protect sandbar sharks, �sensitive� inhabitants of the coast. For this reason, the bay was sealed off to tourism, or any visits, a short time ago. Currently, officials in Boncuk do not allow people to enter the bay.

Under the protection rules, all kinds of fishing, swimming and scuba diving, as well as anchoring and sailing activities have been prohibited in the area along the bay marked with buoys. The project will hopefully save the sandbar sharks, which are no danger to humans, and it is a blow to the long-established tourism business in the region.

The next phase will also include the education of the people. Visitors, local people and especially fishermen will be educated by volunteers and SAD (Underwater Research Society) members in order to increase their awareness and environmental consciousness regarding sandbar sharks. A variety of marketing material including brochures, presentations, small books and VCD and DVD films will be prepared and used for this purpose.

Unfortunately, some Russian journalists misunderstood and mangled all these scientific efforts and they announced to their people �shark attacks� instead of �shark protection�! This greatly affected many people in Russia, Ukraine and other neighboring countries. Moreover, several Web sites in Germany and the UK quoted the discussions and carried the topic on their forum pages.

But it is likely the panic mood will be over in a few days after the explanations of local and national authorities. Ali Acar, mayor of Marmaris, summarized the truth in a very clear way when talking to a Ukranian TV channel about the misunderstanding on sharks, �Since my birth in Marmaris, I have never seen or heard of any sharks in our bays, except the sandbar sharks in Boncuk Bay. It would be nice to see some of them in other bays, because they really are harmless and very sensitive animals.�

The words of a British diver on a forum page prove how the Russian journalists made a big mistake by saying �sharks attacks:� �I think someone is pulling someone's chain! Although sharks are present in that part of the world, they are few and far between. I've been diving in Turkey for years and would love to come across a shark in those waters, but have failed miserably! … The waters around Marmaris don't offer the right habitat characteristics for most shark species, not ones you'd be concerned with anyway… It would be useful if they reported on species, if indeed they even know what they were. The authorities are right to be cautious, but journalism like this doesn't do anyone any good and will only harm the tourist industry.�

That was the whole story about sharks around Marmaris!

Inform,07.06.08

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Turkey's Constitutional Court upholds ban on headscarves at universities

ANKARA, Turkey -- In a major blow to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Constitutional Court rejected on Thursday (June 5th) amendments to the constitution that lifted the ban on Islamic headscarves at universities. Though the Constitutional Court's rapporteur recommended against considering the case for jurisdictional reasons, the court decided otherwise. Judges voted 9 to 2 to reinstate the ban, saying that wearing Islamic headscarves at universities violates the principle of secularism. The AKP had pushed the amendment through parliament in February in a bid to strengthen religious freedoms and increase public access to education. Many young women refuse to attend universities because they would have to give up headscarves.

The BBC reports Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is meeting with fellow AKP officials on Friday to discuss their next move. Thursday's ruling may signal how the Constitutional Court will rule in a pending case aimed at closing down the AKP entirely. (Zaman, Hurriyet, BBC - 06/06/08; NTV, Anadolu Agency, AP, Bloomberg - 05/06/08)

Inform,06.06.08

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Turkey's Gul makes landmark visit to Japan

Turkey's Abdullah Gul will participate in Japanese economic forums this week.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul arrived in Japan on Tuesday (June 3rd). [Getty Images]

Abdullah Gul arrived on Tuesday (June 3rd) in Japan for the first-ever official visit to that country by a Turkish president. He will meet Emperor Akihito, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and parliament members. Gul will also participate in Tokyo and Osaka economic forums.

Inform,03.06.08

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Cappadocia district attracts investors in tourism industry

Nevşehir's Uçhisar district is currently experiencing a tourism boom. The transformation of houses and mansions from the late Ottoman and Republican periods into boutique hotels, restaurants and other tourist facilities turn the district into a tourism magnet, says Mayor Mustafa Zühal

NEVŞEHİR - Doğan News Agency

Tourism investments made in a popular district of the central Anatolian city of Nevşehir over the last four years has created employment for more than 700 people.

Tourism has become a considerable source of economic strength for Uçhisar district, said Uçhisar Mayor Mustafa Zühal. �The number of people employed in boutique hotels currently under construction and in other tourism facilities will soon exceed 1,000,� he added.

Zühal said Uçhisar's Cappadocia region has succeeded in becoming a popular tourism spot due to its fairy chimneys, dovecotes and tranquil natural scenery. Noting that the transformation of houses and mansions from the late Ottoman and Republican periods into boutique hotels, restaurants and other tourist facilities has turned the district into a tourism magnet, Zühal said those facilities also attract investors in the tourism industry to the region.

Zühal said the concept of the �boutique hotel� was an important starting point for cultural tourism in 2004, adding, �At the same time, some 400 houses from the Ottoman and early Republican periods that were about to collapse but could not be restored due to financial problems and were taken under protection. They have also become a kind of smokeless industry in the region.�

Zühal said the municipality has made things easier for tourism investors like Mustafa Çankaya, who started running the Cappadocia and Cave Resort four years ago, along with other investments like the Kaya Hotel, the Yüksel Rug Company, the Cappadocia Handicrafts Center and the Rota Tourism Rug Company.

�Investors have found their employees through loudspeaker announcements. They employ many young people from Uçhisar. They still make announcements to find new employees. There is not a single unemployed young person in the district at the moment. We have lots of business opportunities for those who want to work.�

He said not only young people work in the industry, but local women can also work for tourism-related companies after sending their children to school. �People from the surrounding cities and villages, and even from Ankara, Istanbul, Adana, İzmir and Kayseri also contribute to the tourism movement in the region.�

Uçhisar's current official population is 3,422, but this number is likely to exceed 3,800 within a year, said Zühal. �We expect that the number of people employed will be more than 1,000 in the district with the opening of the Hilton Hotel and other boarding houses, restaurants and stores, which are still under construction,� he said.

Zühal noted that former Health Minister Bülent Akarcalı and former Labor Minister İmren Aykut, who came to the region to explore tourism developments, also bought houses and began restorating them. �Akarcalı's house will serve as boutique hotels as well. Some artists, businessmen and politicians are also planning to buy summer houses in the region,� he added.

Inform,02.06.08

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