Category: Culture/Art

Turkey has a star role in more than just TV drama

Thomas Seibert

ISTANBUL // During a recent visit to the UAE, Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s president, was confronted with an unexpected request.

“Please tell us how the Turkish soap operas on television will end. Otherwise, we will not be able to pry our women away from their TV sets,” Mr Gul quoted his Emirati hosts as saying last week.

Turkish television series have long been popular in the Middle East. Yet they are one reason why Turkey topped a recent poll of most admired nations in the region.

In the survey, carried out by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (Tesev), 78 per cent of those polled in 16 countries the Middle East had a very or somewhat favourable opinion of Turkey. The UAE was second with 70 per cent.

In the case of Turkey, respondents said it was a regional model because of its democratic system, economic development and Muslim identity. Three-out-of-four of those surveyed also said they had seen a Turkish television soap – a testament the country’s expanding influence, said Gokce Percinoglu.

“TV series form a part of Turkey’s soft power,” said Ms Percinoglu, an analyst at Tesev, an independent think tank.

Not all Turks were impressed with the survey’s findings.

They said that the country’s high favourability ratings across the region – like the much-touted “Turkish model” – were both soft and misleading.

On the one hand, maintaining Turkey’s positive image depended on democratic progress in the country, they said. On the other hand, its reputation is tarnished by limits on media freedom and a hardening of fronts in the long-running Kurdish conflict.

“More democratisation is the biggest chance for Turkey” to keep improving the favourable perception of the country in the region, Mensur Akgun, a co-author of the Tesev study, said. “But a military intervention or authoritarian tendencies of a civilian government would be risks.”

The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, has been accused of overseeing the arrest of about 100 journalists and an increasing number of university students and of abandoning efforts to solve the Kurdish conflict by democratic means. The government rejects the accusations.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the secularist opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), wrote in Monday’s Washington Post that Turkey under Mr Erdogan could not be a model for the Middle East.

“Turkey today is a country where people live in fear and are divided politically, economically and socially. Our democracy is regressing in terms of the separation of powers, basic human rights and freedoms and social development and justice,” Mr Kilicdaroglu said.

The Tesev poll was conducted by telephone and by in-person interviews between October and December last year among 2,323 people in the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Tunisia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen and Libya.

According to the survey, 77 per cent of respondents thought Turkey had a positive effect on peace in the Middle East. Another 71 per cent thought Turkey should play a bigger role in the region, 67 per cent said Turkey was a “successful combination of Islam and democracy”, and 61 per cent of people in the Middle East considered Turkey a possible model for the region.

Support for the Turkish model is highest in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, Tesev said, three countries that overthrew their long-time regimes during the Arab Spring and were visited by Mr Erdogan last year. Support for Turkey is lowest in Syria, reflecting deteriorating ties between Ankara and Damascus over the violence of Syrian government forces against protesters.

The main reason people regard Turkey as a model are its democratic system (32 per cent). Its strong economy (25 per cent) and its identity as a Muslim country (23 per cent) were also at the top of the poll.

While political and economic factors play vital roles in Turkey’s image, the poll also found strong cultural influences, especially its soaps. Murat Yetkin, a columnist, wrote in the newspaper Hurriyet Daily News that Turkish soaps were so popular in the Middle East “because they show that to live a modern and open life in a modern society is possible”, adding that “Turkish soap operas give messages of hope that a modern political, social and economic life can be lived by Turks, as well as by Arab viewers”.

The role of cultural factors such as television shows was hard to quantify, “but the influence is there”, Mr Akgun said.

For Zayed University students, that seems indisputable.

When Mr Gul, Turkey’s president, met them during his recent visit to the UAE, they asked about Muhtesem Yuzyil, or Magnificent Century, a Turkish TV series about the life of Suleiman the Magnificent, an Ottoman sultan of the 16th century.

“They are all following that show,” he later told reporters.

via Turkey has a star role in more than just TV drama – The National.

February 10, 2012
HAYDARPAŞA RAILWAY STATION

For over a century, the historic Haydarpaşa Railway Station has stood as an iconic image on Istanbul’s skyline and as the symbolic gateway to the city. Built by the German-owned Anatolian-Baghdad Railway and designed by architects Otto Ritter and Helmuth Conu, the station was a terminus of the Istanbul-Medina-Damascus railway line and later for routes to Anatolia. Heavily damaged during World War I but rebuilt in its present configuration, Haydarpaşa witnessed the country’s transformation from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic. Generations share a nostalgic attachment to the building and all it represents.

New transportation avenues will render the station obsolete, and there are plans to redevelop the building, which was recently damaged by fire, along with a large tract of adjacent rail yard. Improvements in transportation planning and infrastructure in many urban areas increasingly challenge the capacities and functionality of traditional stations and similar, large-scale historic structures. Their redevelopment presents important opportunities for protecting cultural resources while improving quality of life. There is strong community support for an adaptive reuse of Haydarpaşa Railway Station that will preserve public access and open space, as well as balance economic, environmental, and social concerns. Its redevelopment requires public engagement and transparency, and could serve as an important model for reinventing cultural heritage in the context of changing cities.

UPDATE

In January 2012, Haydarpaşa Railway Station closed to allow for the construction of a high-speed rail line between Istanbul and Ankara. Planning for transportation in the greater region and for development of the area around the station is in formative stages, and the future use of the station has yet to be determined.

February 2012

via HAYDARPAŞA RAILWAY STATION | World Monuments Fund.

February 9, 2012
The boom of the Turkish art market

By Ivan Watson and Yesim Comert, CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

In past 10 years, Turkish economy has stabilized, and people have taken interest in art

Today, Turkish works are selling for tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars

But are people buying the art for its beauty or because they see it as a good investment?

Istanbul (CNN) — The auctioneer rattled off prices and artists’ names with breathtaking speed, punctuating every sale with the announcement “Saa … saa … saa — TIM!” meaning sold in English.

The bidding was fast and sometimes competitive at the Nisantasi Auction House, in one of Istanbul’s most posh neighborhoods. Within an hour, auctioneer Ali Ulukaya sold off more than $300,000 worth of paintings, almost all of them by living Turkish artists.

After being virtually ignored for decades, both at home and abroad, Turkish modern art has rapidly developed into a booming market.

“These numbers have gotten quite astronomical,” said Kerimcan Guleryuz, owner of the recently opened Empire Project art gallery.

Guleryuz is the son of Mehmet Guleryuz, one of Turkey’s most famous living painters.

“Unfortunately, until five or 10 years ago … the number of artists I could count who were making a living just off of their work was three to five, maybe,” Kerimcan Guleryuz said. “Now you can look at a work from Taner Ceylan being put in the Sotheby’s auction and reaching more than 280,000 pounds sterling ($444,000).”

Just 10 years ago, artist Kezban Arca Batibeki said, she had a hard time explaining her art to Turks. Her loft studio in a rapidly gentrifying Istanbul neighborhood was decorated with large tableaus, one of them featuring a cartoonish, scantily clad woman lying bound, gagged and frightened in the corner of a ruined house.

Industry insiders say the Turkish art market has paralleled the rapid growth in Turkey's once crisis-prone economy.

“Everybody asked … ‘Is it a painting? Is it an illustration or what?’ I was always trying to explain what I was doing,” she said.

Now, Batibeki’s pop-art confections sell for tens of thousands of dollars, mostly to Turkish buyers.

“Turkish people like trends,” she said with a smile. “When it became a trendy movement, they began buying contemporary works.”

In 2009, Sotheby’s held its first auction of Turkish modern art in London. The auction grossed more than $2 million in sales. The next year, those numbers nearly doubled.

Traditionally, wealthy industrialist families have been the biggest art patrons in Turkey. The privately funded Sakip Sabanci Museum opened in Istanbul in 2002. Two years later, the Eczacibasi family launched the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art.

Independent collectors, however, have started making inroads. Downtown Istanbul has seen dozens of new art galleries in just the past few years.

“It’s like mushrooms after rain,” said William Greenwood, a curator at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar.

Industry insiders say the booming Turkish art market has paralleled the rapid growth in Turkey’s once crisis-prone economy. Since a financial meltdown brought Turkey’s banking sector to its knees in 2001, the economy has stabilized and more than doubled in size the past 10 years.

“The influence of the Turkish economy’s growth has unquestionably been one of the most important catalysts to this growth in the sales of artwork,” gallery owner Guleryuz said. “They go hand in hand. Unless you have economic stability, unless you have growth, you will not have sales in art. It’s just not possible.”

But Turkey’s transformation is not only economical; it is also cultural. Since its launch in 1987, the Istanbul Biennal Contemporary Art exhibition has introduced many once-skeptical Turks to contemporary art.

“The impact of the Biennal on the Turkish art scene has been immense,” said Susan Platt, art critic and author of “Art and Politics Now.” “The artists are now exposed to many, many different strategies and media and also artists from all over the world.”

Batibeki said her work is now being displayed in a New York gallery after its owner saw her pieces on display in Istanbul’s Biennal. But she conceded that newfound Turkish appreciation of modern art is not what has been driving sales.

“Very few of them buy because they love the piece,” she said. “Most of them are buying because you’re famous.”

Guleryuz notices this, too.

“We’re starting to lose track of why it is that we are looking at the art,” he said. “Are we looking at it because it’s worth $150,000 or because it describes something about the human condition?”

At the Nisantasi Auction House, Ulukaya said the majority of his buyers were looking for something valuable to invest in.

“We see it as a lucrative business,” said Salime Adali, who came to watch the auction. Adali said that in addition to his iron business, he recently opened an art gallery with his wife in Istanbul.

“We see this as a good investment for our retirement and something to leave our daughter,” he said.

And there is one rule to collecting art that still appears to dominate this newfound market.

After a series of landscapes of the Turkish countryside sold for 1,000 lira ($568) a piece, one buyer in the back of the crowded room quipped to his neighbor, “Those paintings will only become valuable after the artist dies.”

CNN’s Joe Duran contributed to this report.

via The boom of the Turkish art market – CNN.com.

February 9, 2012
Photographing Turkey’s Cultural Heritage: Aydin Cetinbostanoglu

Culture Vulture — By Liana Aghajanian on February 1, 2012 3:18 pm

Born in 1954 in Izmir Turkey, photographer Aydin Cetinbostanoglu has been documenting Turkey’s Gypsy, Alevi, Jewish, Christian Arab and Armenian communities for years, forming relationships, building trust and as a result gaining exclusive access to cultural intricacies that have for the most part remained allusive to outsiders.

Hoping to break down cultural barriers, Cetinbostanoglu concentrated on documenting these various cultures for the last four decades, using photography as his tool to educate and expose Turkey to its cultural treasures.

“I shared both their happiness and sadness,” he writes on his website. “They looked at me laughing, smiling, worried and crying…I made many friends. How lucky I am, am I not?”

After exhibitions all over Turkey and in Italy, Germany and Yugoslavia as well as awards, Cetinbostanoglu spoke to ianyanmag about the art of photography, how he’s formed relationships with his subjects, how he’d like to travel to Armenia and what it felt like to photograph the last Christian Armenian village in Turkey.

An Alevi family in Turkey. This cultural and religious community numbers up to 15 million/ © Aydin Cetinbostanoglu

Q. What inspired you to become a photographer?

A. When I was young, because of economic reasons, I had to learn a job and earn money. In 1960′s the only way to learn a job was working with a master. I had to choose this path. So, to become a photographer was more of a necessity. In 1966-1967, I spent my summer holidays working in a photography studio. In 1970 I took my first photograph with the camera which I borrowed from a friend. I was able to earn money by selling out to photos which I was took. Besides earning money, I started taking pictures by myself and showed them to my art teacher. He asked me why I was not opening my own photography exhibition and he sent me to a friend who manages a library. And I opened my first exhibition while I was a high school student in 1973.

Q. You have taken a great amount of photos and concentrated on minority cultures and ethnic groups in Turkey like the Alevis and Gypsies that are generally not photographed or talked about in the press a great deal. What is your interest in documenting these sub-groups and why do you think it’s important to do so?

A. After graduating from high school in 1973, I traveled around Anatolia with money I had saved. This was the first encounter with the people of Anatolia, and culture. I opened a photo exhibition with my first travel photographs when I returned. I studied political sciences at Ankara University Faculty of Political Science between1974 and1978. Both my earliest training as well as the turbulent era of economic and social events influenced the way in which we see the today’s photos.

I have witnessed many historical events during this period, and photographed them. In the Labor Day celebration in May 1977 while taking pictures, 37 people were killed. I saw and experienced their pain.

I continued to travel and photograph Anatolia. I shared people lives many times. I accepted the colors of different cultural traditions of the riches of Anatolia. These colors are to be photographed and documented.

A line of Gypsy girls in Turkey/ © Aydin Cetinbostanoglu

Some of the estimated 40,0000 marchers who honored slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink last month/ © Aydin Cetinbostanoglu

Q. A big segment of your photography also has been documenting Armenians who live in Turkey. Why did you choose to do this and what have you learned from it?

A. There are Alevis, Gypsies, and Arabs in my photo works as well as Armenians. In fact, I have been photographing Gypsies since 1999, and the project is still ongoing. The difference in working with Armenians is that they have a richer cultural experience than some societies. We follow these “Masters of the Grand Bazaar” as well as in the church ceremonies and rituals. I began to work with Masters of the Grand Bazaar in 2006, establishing friendships over time which still exist.
I photographed a church wedding ceremony in 2010. I had forgotten my flash after the ceremony. When I came home I realized it and the day after I went to church again, people from the church gave it to me. I was affected by this honest behavior.
In the priest consecration ceremony which I photographed the pastor asked to the congregation about the candidate whether it is an obstacle. If a person says a negative response about the candidate, the ceremony would be cancelled. Everyone gave their positive thoughts, and the ceremony is completed. Even though this behavior is also a participatory ritual of the church, I was interested because it shows the structure.
These similar observations are in my projects about Armenians and carry it to the future.

An Armenian baptism ceremony in Turkey/ © Aydin Cetinbostanoglu

Q. What are your thoughts about the Turkish Armenian community?

I certainly learned a lot from this culture during my work. Friendships are valuable for them.

I participated in Armenian Easter ceremonies in 2011 with my wife. We brought a bottle of liquor and parsley patterned Easter eggs painted with onion skins. After the ceremony, we put our eggs and liquor on the table. Some members of the community told us not to break our eggs. Instead, they took them to take home to keep. This behavior undoubtedly lies in the basis of respect for labor.

Q. Many of the minorities you have documented are fighting for equal rights in Turkey. From your interactions with them, what have you learned about their struggles and what do you think is the best solution to solve this problem?

A. The struggle for democracy is a necessity for everyone, and should be given to everybody. If this is provided it is possible to express themselves and protect their cultures.

Q. In your travels, you visited the last Christian Armenian village in Turkey, Vakifli. What was it like to be there?

A. Avedis is the oldest man of Vakıflı village who is also a friend of mine and he is the father of Artin. During Astvadzazin festival in 2009 I was the guest of that family. Avedis is a living history. He told me about history of the village and took me to the past. He had relatives living abroad. All of us created a large group and participated to the festival.
Vakifli is the only Armenian village in Antakya city located in South Turkey. Every year in mid August thousands of Armenians meet there and celebrate their religious holiday called Aztvadzadzin. On the first day, the priest of the church blesses the “salt” as a first step of the celebrations. Village women and men begin to prepare the traditional food “Harisa” (Largely used as “keskek” in Anatolia). Meats boil in seven large cauldrons during the night till morning. Seven symbolizeseven villages living in the past on the “Muse Mountain.”

During the night people dance and have fun with traditional music and Armenian songs. On the second day, the priest blesses the grapes and organizes a religious ceremony in the garden of the church. After the ceremony, he blesses the “Harisa” before distributing to the people. Then village people share the food.

A scene from a celebration in Vakifli, Turkey’s last Armenian village/ © Aydin Cetinbostanoglu

Avedis’ uncle told me that a big part of Armenians living there left the villages and went to Lebanon after the French withdrawal. A sad story. If the people in the seven villages could be alive, that area would be richer. Today they are busy with organic agriculture and provide higher value-added agricultural products to the market. At the festival time population was around 2500-3000 people with guests, after the festival the village population is around 100.

Q. How do you establish a relationship with the people who you are photographing? Is it difficult? Are they accepting you to photograph them or do they need to be convinced? How do you approach them?

A. One of the founder of Magnum Agency, Robert Capa has a nice saying: “Your photo is not close enough to the subject if it is not nice,” he says. This means “Be a part of the subject.” I also use this philosophy for myself. I take photographs with people and cultures of Anatolia for a long time. Because of this I can work with them more easily and have nice relationships with them today. I share life with them and over time, the photo subjects come to me.

Two Alevi women in Turkey/ © Aydin Cetinbostanoglu

Q. What subjects or people have you not photographed yet that you would like to, and why?

First of all I’d like to visit Armenia and take photographs. The most important reason is to combine them with my works and create a whole Armenian work. Another option would be India which is a big country where many cultures live together. I would like to walk around extended periods of time and do a colorful study. Because of the ancient cultures of Mexico, Egypt and the Far East are some of my future projects.

Q. What do you hope people take away from your photography?

A. I wish people who follow my work could think a little more about these cultures and appreciate them.

February 6, 2012
Digiturk launches international OTT service

Turkish pay TV provider Digiturk is making its DigiturkWebTV service available internationally via over-the-top TV set-tops supplied by Istanbul-based technology provider AirTies.

Digiturk is making DigiturkWebTV’s premium content and LigTv HD available to subscribers abroad in real time, video-on-demand, and catch-up playback up to 12 hours after initial screening, enabling international subscribers to view Turkish Super League football matches, TV series and various Turkish content to suit the time zone of the country in which they live.

The service will be delivered via AirTies Air 7120 boxes using Microsoft Playready DRM and adaptive bit-rate streaming. The Air7120 also supports internet radio, YouTube, and will support social media features including Facebook and Twitter in the near future by software updates.

Kerem Ertan, assistant general manager of Digiturk, responsible for international sales, said: “DigiTurk works hard to deliver all its customers its premium content anytime, anywhere throughout the world with the highest quality viewing experience from TV, PC, iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. Today we are delighted to announce the newest development in this unique partnership with AirTies because it will keep expatriate Turks living abroad more connected than ever to premium Turkish content, and it allows that content to be watched on a TV screen.”

via Digiturk launches international OTT service » Digital TV Europe.

February 5, 2012
Erdogan vs. Auster: Why Is the Turkish Prime Minister Feuding with a Brooklyn-based Writer?

By Pelin Turgut

An Internet-fueled war of words raged across the Atlantic this week between the unlikeliest of opponents: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an Islamic-leaning politician of fiery rhetoric and oft-bellicose disposition, and the erudite Brooklyn-based American novelist Paul Auster. At issue was the state of press freedom in Turkey, which currently ranks alongside China in the number of journalists it has jailed.

The spat was prompted by Auster’s comments to a Turkish newspaper that he would not visit Turkey, or China, in protest of the jailing of dozens of journalists and intellectuals. “How many are jailed now? Over 100?” said Auster, a well-read author in Turkey where his new book Winter Journal has just been published.

Around 100 members of the Turkish press are currently in jail, according to the Turkish Journalists Union – they include two well-known investigative reporters critical of the government, Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener, whose detention has made them an international cause célèbre. The government insists they are not being prosecuted because of what they wrote, but for engaging in illegal activities.

In Ankara, Erdogan seized on Auster’s words during an address to party members. “Ah, we really depend on you,” he said, sarcastically. “Who cares if you come or if you don’t? Would Turkey lose prestige?”

The Prime Minister went on to accuse Auster of being hypocritical in view of the author’s recent visit to Israel, with whom Ankara has icy relations. “Supposedly Israel is a democratic country, a secular country, a country of limitless freedom of expression, individual freedoms and human rights. What an ignorant man you are… Israel is a real theocracy,” Erdogan said. “Didn’t [Israel] shower Gaza with bombs? Didn’t [Israel] launch phosphorus bombs and use chemical weapons?”

Auster quickly shot back: “Whatever the Prime Minister might think about the State of Israel, the fact is that free speech exists there and no writers or journalists are in jail.”

Most of Turkey’s jailed journalists work for the Kurdish press and were detained as part of a sweeping plan to eradicate a group called KCK, which the government says is an urban offshoot of the Kurdish separatist group PKK. But those arrested for alleged KCK related offenses include people like Busra Ersan, a well-known and respected Istanbul professor, and publisher Ragip Zarakolu, whose work has been commended internationally. Due to the glacial pace of the Turkish court system, it might take months before they appear before a judge. “According to the latest numbers gathered by PEN, there are nearly one hundred writers imprisoned in Turkey, not to speak of independent international publishers such as Ragip Zarakolu, whose case is being closely watched by PEN Centers around the world,” Auster said.

The Auster affair instantly became headline news in Turkey. “One of the last things I could ever have imagined is that Prime Minister Erdogan, who has become an important global political figure, would engage in coffeehouse style polemics with the famous author Paul Auster,” wrote commentator Cengiz Candar in the Radikal newspaper. “Yes, this will make Turkey lose altitude (internationally).”

The charismatic Erdogan, who was re-elected by an overwhelming majority for a third term in June, has become an increasingly high-profile leader in recent years, particularly in the wake of the Arab Spring. Under him, Turkey is now the most popular country among people in 16 countries in the Middle East, according to a new survey by the research group TESEV. More than 60 percent of respondents said they thought Turkey was a positive role model.

Ironically, the main reason cited for Turkey’s appeal was its “democratic regime.” This came above other factors like its booming economy or Muslim identity. Yet it is precisely on that score that Erdogan’s authoritarian bent has drawn increasing criticism at home and from Europe and the US. In 2011, Turkey was the worst violator of press freedoms in Europe, according to the European Court of Human Rights. Erdogan himself brooks little dissent and does not hesitate to sue journalists or cartoonists who are critical of him. So although Paul Auster is the first novelist of international stature to earn his wrath, he might not be the last.

via Erdogan vs. Auster: Why Is the Turkish Prime Minister Feuding with a Brooklyn-based Writer? | Global Spin | TIME.com.

February 5, 2012