Category: Culture/Art

Dutch Masters Travel to Istanbul

The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede,” circa 1670, by the Dutch artist Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael.

Turkey and the Netherlands are celebrating 400 years of diplomatic relations this year, and for Istanbul, that means compelling additions to the cultural calendar, including a major exhibit of Dutch Masters at the Sakip Sabanci Museum.

“Where Darkness Meets Light — Rembrandt and his Contemporaries: The Golden Age of Dutch Art,” which runs through June 10, takes advantage of the remodeling of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the availability of valuable 17th century portraits, still lifes, and objets d’art to travel as a result. (The Rijksmuseum is set to reopen next spring.)

Because the economy of the Netherlands was booming in the 17th century, thanks to a sailing fleet that could bring gold from the Americas, spices from Asia and carpets from the Ottoman Empire, there was a surge in the number of middle-class Dutch who could afford to buy or commission works of art. As trade boomed, so did painting.

“By choosing a couple of particular individuals from the Golden Era who had a kind of key role within society, we think that we will encourage the public a little bit more to identify with them,’’ said Pieter Roelofs, the Dutch curator, “and understand how the era’s art patrons functioned within Dutch society.’’

Turkish themes surface in many of the works, where tulips are given pride of place, and colorful carpets are shown decorating homes or artists’ studios. And be sure to look for the ingenious silver windmill cup, circa 1636, designed for drinking games: the brew had to be swallowed before the sails of the windmill stopped turning.

Other activities under the 400th-anniversary umbrella include a special floral design at the annual Istanbul tulip festival, and, throughout the year, special exhibitions at SALT Beyoglu in collaboration with the Van Abbe museum in Eindhoven, curated by Charles Esche and Vasif Kortun, the team that ran the 2005 Istanbul Biennial.

via Dutch Masters Travel to Istanbul – NYTimes.com.

May 16, 2012
Nederlander to Open Theatre Center in Istanbul in 2013

According to Variety, Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment has joined forces with Zorlu Property Group in Turkey to create an Istanbul-based performing arts center. Scheduled to open in 2013, the center will include both a 2,300 and 770-seat theatre.

The Nederlander Organization, founded in 1912 by David T. Nederlander and based in Detroit, Michigan, is one of the largest operators of legitimate theatres and music venues in the United States.

Its first acquisition was a lease on the Detroit Opera House in 1912. The building was demolished in 1928. It later operated the Shubert Lafayette Theatre until its demolition in 1964 and the Riviera Theatre, both in Detroit. Since then, the organization has grown to include nine Broadway theatres – making it the second-largest owner of Broadway theatres after The Shubert Organization – and a number of theaters across the United States, including its current Detroit base in the Fisher Building, plus three West End theatres in London, England.

via Nederlander to Open Theatre Center in Istanbul in 2013.

May 15, 2012
Warriors of Ankh head to Turkey!

A few months ago I sold Warriors of Ankh Turkish language rights to publisher Marti Yayinlari! Still very much in the early stages but I’m looking forward to seeing the final product and am pretty excited that my novels will be sold in a foreign country 🙂

I’ll keep you updated as things progress.

I’d like to re-emphasise how happy I am as a self-published writer. The only reason I chose to sell in this case was because it was a Foreign Rights deal in a market that I otherwise had no reach in.

Anyhoo…

Remember to pick up your FREE copy of Blood Past in kindle edition and don’t forget to enter the giveaway to win signed copies of the entire trilogy!

Sam x

via The Official Blog of Samantha Young: Warriors of Ankh head to Turkey!.

May 11, 2012
U.S.-Turkey Relations

U.S.-Turkey Relations

A New Partnership

Chairs: Madeleine K. Albright, Chair, Albright Stonebridge Group LLC, and Stephen J. Hadley, United States Institute of Peace

Director: Steven A. Cook, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies

U.S.-Turkey Relations – us-turkey-relations

Download Now

Order Print Edition

Publisher Council on Foreign Relations Press

Release Date May 2012

Price $15.00

96 pages

ISBN 978-0-87609-525-6

Task Force Report No. 69

Overview

Turkey is a rising regional and global power facing, as is the United States, the challenges of political transitions in the Middle East, bloodshed in Syria, and Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. As a result, it is incumbent upon the leaders of the United States and Turkey to define a new partnership “in order to make a strategic relationship a reality,” says a new Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)–sponsored Independent Task Force.

The bipartisan Task Force is chaired by former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright and former national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, and is directed by Steven A. Cook, CFR’s Hasib J. Sabbagh senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies. The Task Force includes twenty-three prominent experts who represent a variety of perspectives and backgrounds.

“Turkey may not yet have the status of one of Washington’s traditional European allies,” the report explains, “but there is good strategic reason for the bilateral relationship to grow and mature into a mutually beneficial partnership that can manage a complex set of security, economic, humanitarian, and environmental problems.”

The relationship should reflect “not only common American-Turkish interests, but also Turkey’s new stature as an economically and politically successful country with a new role to play in a changing Middle East,” argues the Task Force in the report, U.S.-Turkey Relations: A New Partnership.

Turkey is more democratic, prosperous, and politically influential than ever before. Still there are worrying domestic developments that raise questions about Turkey’s democratic practices. According to the Task Force, these concerns include: “the prosecution and detention of journalists, the seemingly open-ended and at times questionable pursuit of military officers and other establishment figures for alleged conspiracy against the government, the apparent illiberal impulses of some Turkish leaders, the still-unresolved Kurdish issue, and the lack of progress on a new constitution.”

The Task Force finds that overall, Turkey is not well understood in the United States. The Task Force “seeks to promote a better understanding of the new Turkey—its strengths, vulnerabilities, and ambitions—in order to assess its regional and global role and make recommendations for a new partnership of improved and deepened U.S.-Turkey ties.”

To make the vision for a new U.S.-Turkey partnership a reality, Ankara and Washington should observe the following principles:

equality and mutual respect for each other’s interests;

confidentiality and trust;

close and intensive consultations to identify common goals and strategies on issues of critical importance;

avoidance of foreign policy surprises; and

recognition and management of inevitable differences between Washington and Ankara.

via U.S.-Turkey Relations – Council on Foreign Relations.

May 9, 2012
Turkish Beauty Magazine Ties Muslim Veil to Glamor

Editor of Ala Magazine Hulya Aslan at her office in Istanbul on March 2. It is exactly the type of challenge posed for a little less than a year by Ala, the first fashion magazine dedicated to Turkish women wearing headscarves. (AFP Photo/Ala Magazine).

Can the Muslim headscarf be synonymous with glamor? Turkey’s first fashion magazine for conservative Islamic women hopes to prove that it can.

Launched last June, the monthly Ala, which means “beauty,” has become a mainstream glossy.

With a circulation of 20,000, it is only slightly behind the Turkish versions of Cosmopolitan, Vogue and Elle magazines.

Ala’s pages are splashed with models reflecting a conservative Islamic style, all wearing headscarves and long dresses, with their arms and necks covered.

Ala’s editor, 24-year-old Hulya Aslan, has first-hand experience with Turkey’s headscarf troubles. Because she insisted on wearing one, she had to give up a university education, instead finding work at a bank.

Ala, created by two advertisers, offers the usual fare of health tips, travel pages and celebrity interviews, supplemented by a strong dose of loud and clear Islamic activism.

“Veiled Is Beautiful” proclaims one advertisement, driving home the point with the words: “My way, my choice, my life, my truth, my right.”

But such slogans sound more like a reference to the struggles of the past, when secularism monopolized the social scene and the Islamic headscarf, often viewed as a political symbol, met hostile reactions.

The struggle continues despite the 2002 poll victory of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has Islamist roots and many of whose members have spouses who wear headscarves, including Erdogan’s wife, Emine.

Although the strict application of secularism has been loosened under AKP rule, headscarves are still off-limits for civil servants. It is now allowed in some universities, while many others ban them.

In Turkey, 60 percent of women wear some type of hair covering, according to a 2006 survey conducted by the Istanbul-based Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation.

“There are now much prettier things than before,” said Merve Buyuk, a 22-year-old trainee at Ala. “Designers have now understood that we exist. They’ve started making clothes that are not necessarily black or brown. … I’m pretty happy with this change.”

Communication scientist Nilgun Tutal of Istanbul’s Galatasaray University said Ala attested to the rise of middle- and upper-class Muslims who were adapting to the consumer society, thanks to almost 10 years of AKP rule and Turkey’s sustained economic growth.

“At one time, Islam, to distinguish itself from the West, took a position hostile to consumer society. But today, these people, to express their success, can only do that through consumer society,” Tutal said.

AFP

via Turkish Beauty Magazine Ties Muslim Veil to Glamor | The Jakarta Globe.

May 8, 2012
Homesick for Istanbul

It happens every time I go to Istanbul. I visit for a few days and the city embeds itself so far under my skin that I find it emotionally distressing to leave. This is how it used to feel when I left Rome during my bright college years when I was coming and going for thesis research. But back in the early 2000s, I was ballsy and my brain was more malleable, so I could see myself moving abroad (I did!) and learning the language (did that, too). Now, a move doesn’t seem so easy and the complexities and financial sacrifices of relocating makes the pangs of homesickness I feel for Istanbul that much more acute.

This trip was particularly special, as it is springtime in Istanbul and my friend Şemsa and I made the most of it with daily breakfasts and dinners on her balcony. We both enjoyed the ridiculous view of the Bosphorus Bridge and I felt particularly pampered by her extraordinary artichoke-driven cooking.

I had a few really wonderful meals out, including lunch with Tuba at Çiya, a place everyone freaks out over, but which I sometimes find disappointing (world’s worst içli köfte, anyone?). This was not the case on Wednesday. We had some amazing seasonal kebabs like sarımsak kebabı (garlic kebab) and yeni dünya kebabı (loquat kebab).

Lunch at Kasap Osman in Sirkeci was downright disgusting…they put melted cheese on my doner! Vomitous. So I went across the street to Namlı Rumeli Köftecisi for a nice plate of redeeming, palate-cleansing köfte.

Another meaty highlight were the köfte at Ali Baba in Arnavutköy, my ideal comfort food.

I also enjoyed strolling along the Bosphorus admiring the houses I will never be able to afford.

Back in the thick of it all, I spent an afternoon in the Grand Bazaar, something I never do because the hawkers are so profoundly obnoxious. But this time I went after a good lunch at Şeyhmus Kebap Evi with my buddy Ansel of Istanbul Eats.

Sufficiently nourished and armed with headphones and a stone face, I braved the hey ladys and where you froms shouted by the tchotchke vendors and hightailed it to the antiques section where I window shopped for sugar bowls, marble mortars and copper samovars.

Then it was back to Şemsa’s for another fabulous meal. With a spread like this, leaving seems like a crime against good sense.

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May 7, 2012