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Happy birthday, dear Osman Kavala!

It must have been more than 20 years ago. I was in Istanbul for a meeting. Afterwards, I needed to take a taxi to my destination. Since I didn’t know much about Istanbul, I asked Osman Kavala which side of the road I should take the taxi. “Don’t take a taxi, there is a metro, […]

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HDP staffers death: time for Turkey to decide on what kind of future it wants

Deniz Poyraz, an employee with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) İzmir headquarters was killed in an armed attack on the party’s head office in the western province on June 17. We understand from photos shared on social media that 27-year-old assailant Onur Gencer had in the past went to fight in Syria. We do […]

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Let’s strike the Kurds

A Kurdish family was attacked in Turkey’s southern Mersin province in May. The Kurdish family, who came to Mersin as tourists from Erbil, the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), sustained injuries of a racist attack by a group of people with stones and batons. The Governor’s Office of Mersin has denied the […]

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İlhan Çomak: Not to destroy the ants’ nest

“After all these years, I do not have a proper answer for such a question of what justice is. Because everything is so volatile and hopeless. Wherever a person hurts, that’s where the life is. Justice; is not being judged for long, justice; is that the law applies to all, justice; is not to be […]

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How happy is the one who says ‘I am a tourist’

I was talking to a friend from Brussels, where we have vacationed together for many years. She told me that the COVID-19 pandemic measures were easing and she was planning a vacation for this summer, before asking me about the situation in Turkey. “This place is amazing, but for you, the tourists,’’ I told her. […]

Silvan in Turkey is abandoned and deserted

It’s hard to believe that five and half years have passed since my last visit to Silvan in Diyarbakır. We had gathered together some aid on the morning of Nov. 28, 2015 and headed to the city with a few activists. It was in ruins. While out visiting some local families, Fırat Anlı, who was […]