I want to share with you the story of a young, brave journalist whose age equals the number of court cases that have been brought against him. This is the story of Ferhat Parlak, a journalist from the town of Silvan in southeastern Turkey, who spent 14 months behind bars, waiting for justice. Ferhat’s story […]
When mulberries ripen and fall from the trees in southeast Turkey, we often walk right over them, squashing the berries as we go. Especially if you are living in Mesopotamia, which is some of the world’s most famously fertile ground, mulberries are everywhere — on the ground, in the streets, and often making stains on […]
Tuna Altınel, a mathematics professor at France’s Lyon-1 University and a peace advocate, has been jailed in Turkey on terrorism charges since May 11. Altınel is one of more than 2,000 academics across Turkey who signed a petition called “We will not be party to this crime” in January 2016 that called for a peaceful […]
Visiting my hometown of Diyarbakır last week, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate for Istanbul mayor, Binali Yıldırım, said that when Turkey’s parliament was first established, “a Kurdistan deputy” was among those invited to participate by the country’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Yet for years, many people, including myself, have been subject to […]
[Baysal, an award-winning Ahval columnist, was detained by Turkish authorities on Monday and charged with terror links.] One year after my last visit, I have returned to the city of Nusaybin along Turkey’s border with Syria. New developments built by the government’s public housing agency, TOKI, are more or less finished. There are still checkpoints at […]
A photograph on the Voice of America website last month showed Armenians in Diyarbakır, my hometown, celebrating Easter in a café, as they still had no access to their church. The curfew put in place by Turkish authorities in December 2015 remains in effect in the 6 districts of Sur, the ancient centre of Diyarbakır, […]