April in Turkey sees the start of spring, and nothing says life is for living better than displays of colourful flowers. The Istanbul Tulip Festival delivers this and more, with tulips growing in a former private garden belonging to the Ottoman Sultans or cascading down the banks of the Bosphorus in a public park in…
I’m a winter baby and I love when the temperature drops so I can roam Istanbul to my heart’s content without getting too hot. It’s really lovely to experience Istanbul in winter, as Julia Bayne, business owner at Istanbul Place Apartments – offering historic apartments for short stays in Galata – knows well. You remember…
When I studied history at high school we learned about World War I from an Antipodean perspective. Heroic Australian Johnnies fought local Mehmets at Gallipoli, the Germans were eventually defeated and everyone went back home again. What we weren’t told was what happened next in Istanbul and Turkey. Even before the war came to an…
On a recent trip I visited the Eskisehir Museum of Independence. Housed in an early example of Turkish first national architecture built in 1915, the museum celebrates Atatürk and the Turkish Republic through hundreds of photos, paintings and collages. It includes displays of events such as the battles of Gallipoli, Sakarya and Dumlupınar, models of…
With the Games of the XXXII Olympiad originally scheduled for 2020 taking place in Tokyo this year despite much controversy, I decided to write a post about Halet Çambel, the first female Turkish athlete ever to compete in the Olympic Games. This remarkable woman represented Turkey in fencing, helped decipher Hittite hieroglyphics and founded Turkey’s…
In many countries around the world it’s traditional to give a key as a present when someone turns 21. It’s a sign they’ve reached maturity and are now an adult. Famous people like sportsmen, film stars and successful residents are sometimes also given the ‘keys to the city’ to acknowledge their contributions to a particular…
On the 12th of March, 2021, Turkey’s national anthem the Istiklal March – the Independence March – turned one hundred years old. The Istiklal Marşı is performed frequently in Turkey, at state and military events, on assorted national holidays and in all Turkish schools. If you’ve spent any time here at all you’ll have no…
When Atatürk uttered the words “Ne mutlu Türküm diyene!” meaning “How happy is the one who calls themselves a Turk!” to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Turkish Republic in 1933, he wanted to promote unity. Although the majority of Turks are and have always been Sunni Muslims, they can also be Alevi, Bektaşi or…
If you’ve ever walked along the waterfront from Üsküdar to Salacak, you’re likely to have passed the number 1453 in big bright red letters. That was the year Mehmet II laid siege to Constantinople, the city now known as Istanbul. Constantinople was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 324 AD and was the…
On this day in 1915 sixteen battleships, including six English and four French, set sail for the Dardenelles intending to wrest control of this vital waterway. The stakes were high as the strait had been heavily mined, but if victorious, the rewards would be great. Just one kilometre wide at its narrowest, this strip of…