Even though the Turkey earthquakes of 2023 have largely moved off the front page of the news, that doesn’t mean the people affected by them are doing OK. If anything, their needs are greater, especially in south east Turkey and Syria where more than 50,000 people were killed, hundreds of thousands injured and people went…
My parents came from working class families and became middle class through a lot of hard work after winning university scholarships that lead to good jobs and comfortable incomes. However they were both born at the beginning of the Great Depression, and it marked their attitudes to money. We lived by the rule waste not…
When you move to a new country, getting involved in the same types of activities you do back home is a great way to get settled, make new friends and feel good. If you’re in Istanbul you’ll have probably already seen the way Turks look after street cats. People put out bowls of water, piles…
The internet is full of lists of top ten, eleven best or simply must buy Turkish souvenirs from your trip to Turkey. Carpets, apple tea and nazar boncuk are high on the list, but I can’t fit any more Turkish carpets in my house, apple tea is something only tourists drink and I have a…
The photo of three year old Aylan Kurdi lying dead on the beach in Bodrum, Turkey, in 2015, provoked a storm of emotion and galvanised people around the world into providing help for Syrians who had been forced to flee their country. However, those of us who lived and are still living in Turkey and…