Turkish Forum

Category: Culture/Art

  • AFP: Turkey to become first Muslim nation to show Holocaust film

    (AFP) – 9 hours ago

    Turkey's broadcast of the film is the culmination of work by a group which tries to improve Jewish-Muslim relations (AFP/File, Andrei Nacu)

    ANKARA — Turkish public television will show an epic French documentary about the Holocaust, the first broadcast of its kind by national media in a Muslim state, it was announced Wednesday.

    A spokesman for Turkish public television TRT said the 1985 film “Shoah” would be shown on one of the network’s 14 channels, but did not say when.

    The director of nine-hour-plus documentary, Claude Lanzmann, called the Turkish move historic.

    “We should acknowledge the courage and determination of the Turks,” said Lanzmann, who spent 11 years working on the documentary. “Turkey is a country people don’t know and understand very badly.”

    Turkey’s broadcast of the film is the culmination of work by the Aladdin Project, a Paris-based group which tries to improve Jewish-Muslim relations.

    The group said in a statement the film would be shown Thursday, the day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, adding that it had never before been shown in its entirety in a Muslim country.

    Consisting largely of Holocaust-survivor interviews, the film examines the killing of European Jews in Nazi death camps during World War II.

    Its broadcast comes at a sensitive time in Turkey’s international relations.

    Ankara hopes to eventually join the European Union, but it is embroiled in a spat with Paris over the French senate’s approval of a law making it a crime to deny that the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces in World War II was genocide.

    Ankara’s relations with Israel were damaged in 2010 after Israeli commandoes stormed a Turkish aid ship bound for the Gaza Strip in an operation that led to the deaths of nine Turkish activists.

    via AFP: Turkey to become first Muslim nation to show Holocaust film.

  • God in the details

    God in the details

    God in the details

    LISA VAN WYK

    Great heights: The Nizamiye Mosque, currently being built in Midrand, is based on Ottoman architect Sinan's Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, Turkey. (Madelene Cronjé)
    Great heights: The Nizamiye Mosque, currently being built in Midrand, is based on Ottoman architect Sinan's Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, Turkey. (Madelene Cronjé)

    “Breathtaking” is a word that is overused, but if you have been fortunate enough to visit one of Ottoman architect Sinan’s masterpieces, such as the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, you will know exactly what that word can mean.

    Everything about the building, from the dizzying scale of its elaborately decorated central dome, to details such as the hand-painted Iznik tiles which seem to adorn every available surface, takes one’s breath away. Upon entering the mosque for the first time, I gasped.

    The Süleymaniye Mosque was built more than 500 years ago, and it is rare to find modern buildings that demonstrate the same meticulous and time-consuming craftsmanship. South Africans will soon be able to experience first-hand the attention to detail and proportion that is so characteristic of Ottoman design.

    The Nizamiye Mosque complex in Midrand, which will be completed in early 2012, is based on the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, Turkey, a building that was designed by Sinan in 1568. Like the original, the complex includes community facilities — a school for 800 pupils, a conference room, shops, a restaurant and a clinic.

    No expense has been spared in the building’s design and execution, with total costs estimated at about R210-million.

    Mandela’s blessing

    The man behind the project is Turkish businessman Ali Katircioglu, who has relocated to South Africa with his wife for the duration of the project, and will return to his home in Istanbul when the building is complete.

    Uncle Ali, as he is affectionately known, was encouraged to build the mosque and the school by his close friend Fethullah Gülen, an influential and often controversial Turkish cleric and philanthropist who now lives in the United States.

    Katircioglu said the project was given Nelson Mandela’s blessing when he met the former president in 2007, who encouraged him to include facilities that would benefit the larger community, such as a clinic.

    While these facilities are far from complete, the mosque itself is in the finishing stages, with a few skilled artisans (imported from Turkey) putting the final touches to its decorative elements.

    The basic building blocks of the project, such as the 800 tonnes of concrete that was used to build the main structure of the mosque, have all been sourced locally and put together using a local workforce. The details, such as the tiles, the calligraphy, the painting on the dome and the stained glass windows, have all either been shipped to South Africa from Turkey, or have been completed locally using imported materials.

    Imposing scale

    The mosque’s distinctive silhouette is a welcome sight in the otherwise bland and uniform Midrand landscape that surrounds it, but it is only once one enters the complex that its scale becomes apparent. The mosque can accommodate 3 500 people, and many more if one includes its courtyard and the balconies on either side. Its central dome is 24 metres across and 32 metres high, only slightly smaller than Sinan’s imposing original, and the courtyard is bordered by 22 smaller domes.

    Despite its size, no shortcuts have been taken when it comes to small details. The Iznik-style tiles have been used throughout the mosque’s interior and exterior, some embossed, some hand-painted. The heavy, carved doors have been imported from Turkey, and lead visitors into a room that, even in its unfinished state, is almost too much for the eye to take in at once. In January, the carpet was still to arrive but Mehmet Naci Kaya, who will be the headmaster of the school and who showed the Mail & Guardian around the complex, explained that it will mirror the hand-painted decorations that adorn the dome and ceiling.

    The tour guide and Uncle Ali insisted that visitors would be welcome to explore the complex, and they hoped it would become a tourist attraction and meeting place for those of many faiths and backgrounds. Mosques, after all, have always been more than places of worship.

    Hidden between the domes are solar panels that provide enough electricity to power the mosque’s lights and heat the water in the ablution rooms.

    Full of life

    While the juxtaposition between new technology and old design is probably worth noting, it was more interesting to learn about the mosque’s resident pigeons, who have been encouraged to make their homes in niches around the domes to ensure that the mosque is never devoid of life, even in the middle of the night.

    But what is most striking about the building, and, I suppose, should really be the most notable part of any architecture, is how welcoming it is.

    There is no doubt that Uncle Ali’s charm had something to do with this (he insisted on filling our pockets with sweets as we left), as did the patience with which my terrible attempts at basic Turkish conversation were tolerated.

    But there is something the sanctuary of its courtyard, the generosity of its proportions, and the affection with which every detail has been produced, that leaves a visitor reluctant to leave, even if one only had the pigeons for company. Driving back to Jo’burg through endless stretches of anonymous, mass-produced and meanly-built complexes and construction projects only made this all the more obvious.

    via God in the details – Leisure – Mail & Guardian Online.

  • Can Bonomo looks forward to see Baku’s rich culture

    Can Bonomo looks forward to see Baku’s rich culture

    can bonomoTurkish participant at “Eurovision-2012” song contest Can Bonomo hopes that this contest will give him a lot of friends and experience. “I have never been to Baku yet. That’s why I am doubly excited. I’m looking forward to see its rich culture and meet some new friend,” he said.

    Semifinal rounds of the contest will be held in Baku on May 22 and May 24, Final will be held on May 26.
    TRT’s decision was a surprise for me, too. Maybe they wanted something different than Turkish POP music this year, something alternative. However, the list of Turkey’s representatives included Hande Yener, Atiye, Murat Boz.

    It’s too soon to think about choreography or the stage performance for now. We are still focusing on the song that we are going to present. We all have ideas in our minds but it will be fully shaped after the song is finished, he said.
    “Our song will have our ethnic instruments, a healthy dosage of POP and a good beat to make people dance,” he said.

    The honor and pride of being selected to represent my country is good enough.

    “I trust my work,” he said. “I don’t think that anything will go wrong.”
    Can Bonomo is Turkish jazz singer of Jewish origin. He was born in Izmir in 1987. He began singing from 8 years old. At the age of 17 he moved to Istanbul. His first performances were heard on the radio during his college career. Later, he began appearing on television.

     

     

    Today.Az

  • We must stop this corporate takeover of American democracy

    We must stop this corporate takeover of American democracy

    Unless we can reverse the supreme court’s dreadful Citizens United decision, US politics will become a plutocrats’ plaything

    Bernie Sanders

    David Koch and Charles G Koch
    David Koch and Charles G Koch: the US supreme court's Citizens United decision has enabled the industrialists to fund conservative groups to the tune of $200m already in this electoral cycle. Photograph: Getty

    The corporate barbarians are through the gate of American democracy. Not satisfied with their all-pervasive influence on our culture, economy and legislative processes, they want more. They want it all.

    Two years ago, the United States supreme court betrayed our Constitution and those who fought to ensure that its protections are enjoyed equally by all persons regardless of religion, race or gender by engaging in an unabashed power-grab on behalf of corporate America. In its now infamous decision in the Citizens United case, five justices declared that corporations must be treated as if they are actual people under the Constitution when it comes to spending money to influence our elections, allowing them for the first time to draw on the corporate checkbook – in any amount and at any time – to run ads explicitly for or against specific candidates.

    What’s next … a corporate right to vote?

    Don’t laugh. Just this month, the Republican National Committee filed an amicus brief in a US appeals court contending that the natural extension of the Citizens United rationale is that the century-old ban on corporate contributions directly to candidates and political parties is similarly unconstitutional. They want corporations to be able to sponsor candidates and parties directly while claiming with a straight face this would not result in any sort of corruption. And while, this month, they take no issue with corporations being subject to the existing contribution limits, anyone paying attention knows that eliminating such caps will be corporate America’s next prize in its brazen ambition for absolute control over our elections.

    The US Constitution has served us very well, but when the supreme court says, for purposes of the first amendment, that corporations are people, that writing checks from the company’s bank account is constitutionally-protected speech and that attempts by the federal government and states to impose reasonable restrictions on campaign ads are unconstitutional, our democracy is in grave danger.

    I am a proud sponsor of a number of bills that would respond to Citizens United and begin to get a handle on the problem. But something more needs to be done – something more fundamental and indisputable, something that cannot be turned on its head by a rightwing supreme court.

    That is why I have introduced a resolution in the Senate (introduced by Representative Ted Deutch in the House) calling for an amendment to the US Constitution that says simply and straightforwardly what everyone – except five members of the United States supreme court – understands: corporations are not people with constitutional rights equal to flesh-and-blood human beings. Corporations are subject to regulation by the people. Corporations may not make campaign contributions – the law of the land for the last century – or dump unlimited sums of money into our elections. And Congress and states have broad power to regulate all election spending.

    I did not introduce this lightly. In fact, I have never sought to amend the Constitution before. The US Constitution is an extraordinary document that, in my view, should not be amended often. In light of the supreme court’s Citizens United decision, however, I see no alternative. The ruling has radically changed the nature of our democracy. It has further tilted the balance of power toward the rich and the powerful at a time when the wealthiest people in this country have never had it so good.

    At a time when corporations have more than $2tn in cash in their bank accounts, make record-breaking profits and swarm Washington with their lobbyists 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the highest court in the land to suggest that there is just not enough corporate “speech” in our system defies the bounds of reason and sanity. The ruling already has led to plans, for example, by industrialist brothers David and Charles Koch to steer more than $200m – potentially much more – to conservative groups ahead of election day 2012. Karl Rove has similar designs.

    Does anybody really believe that that is what American democracy is supposed to be about?

    I believe that the Citizens United decision will go down as one of the worst in our country’s history – and one that demands an amendment to our Constitution in order to restore sovereign power to the people, as our nation’s founders intended.

    If we do not reverse it and the culture of corporate dominance over our elections that it has exacerbated, there will be no end to the impact that corporate interests have on our campaigns and our democracy.

    Bernie Sanders is a US Senator, and a member of the Senate budget committee. He represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress.

    www.guardian.co.uk, 20 January 2012

  • Eurovision choice divides Turkey

    Eurovision choice divides Turkey

    ISTANBUL // Turkey has chosen a young Jewish singer to represent the country at the Eurovision Song Contest this year, triggering criticism from both fellow musicians and Islamist circles and fanning a broader debate: Do you have to be a Muslim to be a “real” Turk?

    fo22ja Turkey Eurovision

    Can Bonomo, 24, a singer from the city of Izmir, was little-known when TRT, Turkey’s state television, picked him this month as the country’s entry for the contest.

    The yearly event is watched by tens of millions of people around Europe and beyond. The 57th edition will take place in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in May.

    Bonomo, who released his first album of alternative pop music less than year ago, said he did not expect TRT to select him.

    “Eurovision is really a big deal in Turkey,” he said earlier this week. “Usually TRT picks much more experienced musicians,” he added. “So that was the surprise.”

    Since TRT announced its decision on January 11, the discussion about Bonomo’s selection has been overshadowed by a debate about his religion. “A Jew will represent Turkey,” the Islamist news website Habervaktim reported. The website also said some video clips of the artist were alleged to have shown symbols of Free Masons. Bonomo has been confronted with questions about his religion in television interviews. In one interview on the Haberturk channel, for example, he was asked to respond to allegations that he was nominated to curry favoured with the “Israeli lobby”.

    The Eurovision Song Contest is hugely popular in Turkey and the country’s representative always attracts widespread interest.

    Turkey, which has participated in the Eurovision contest since 1975, has won the competition once, in 2003. That victory, by the singer Sertab Erener, was a source of national pride, and the show has been followed very closely in the country ever since. Recent Turkish entries, which included rock bands and both male and female solo singers, reached the top ten of the competition four times in five years. More than 40 countries, including Israel, are expected to take part this year.

    Reaction from fellow artists to Bonomo’s nomination has been mixed, with some critics pointing to his lack of experience. Kirac, a popular rock musician who uses only one name, called Bonomo an “amateur”.

    Bonomo admits his blend of pop and alternative rock with folk and jazz influences is not the standard fare in Turkish popular music, but insists he can bring a new flavour to the Eurovision contest.

    “I’m not doing conventional pop music which is clearly more popular in Turkey,” he said, adding that the song he will present in Baku “will have the orient and ethnic tunes of Turkish music with a healthy dose of pop and world music in it”.

    While working on his song for Baku, Bonomo has had to deal with the issue of his religion. Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country of more than 70 million people, but also a secular republic in which a citizen’s religion should play no role. Some Muslim conservatives and nationalists, however, maintain that Islam is crucial for national unity.

    In comments on the Habervaktim website, one reader asked “how much money this Bonobo person will cost Turkey?”.

    On Twitter, one commentator accused TRT of having chosen Bonomo “to get the support of the Jewish lobby”. Another tweet read: “The Jew Can Bonomo will represent the Muslim country of Turkey – where are the Turkish singers?”

    Other commentators in social media and newspapers defended TRT’s decision and said Bonomo’s religious beliefs were his own affair. “Some have started a black propaganda against this young man because he is Jewish,” wrote Ali Topuz, a columnist for the Radikal daily. He reminded his readers that the Turkish constitution banned every kind of discrimination based on religion, politics or beliefs.

    Bonomo showed irritation about the fact that his religious beliefs had become a public issue.

    “I’m a Turkish Jew. I can believe what I want to believe,” he said.

    “I don’t believe art has a religion or ethnicity,” Bonomo said. His ancestors had been “living in this land for over 500 hundred years. We’ve been raised in Turkish culture so the only culture I can bring into an art form would be Turkish. Nothing else.”

    tseibert@thenational.ae

    via Eurovision choice divides Turkey – The National.

  • Megan Fox : I thought Istanbul was a town

    Megan Fox : I thought Istanbul was a town

    Megan Fox revealed in an interview at a Tv show in Turkey, she believed Istanbul was a town.

    Istanbul / NationalTurk – Megan Fox arrived in Istanbul for a commercial for Doritos chips and gave her first interview at a Turkish morning show to Saba Tümer, the host of the show.

    Here is what Megan Fox shared with her Turkish fans in the interview

    SABA TÜMER: Hi Megan, how are you? It’s your first time in Turkey, you just arrived yesterday? What did you know about Turkey prior to your visit? What did you expected and what have you seen so far here?

    MEGAN FOX: I knew a few things about Turkey. Like you have the most ancient temple on earth..and it is not far from where we are right now.

    SABA TÜMER: And you made this research before or after the offer for the ad was made ?

    MEGAN FOX: I knew this already, because i’v watched a show called ”Ancient Alliens”. It sounds silly but it is about ancient temples and pyramides. I watched the special episode about this temple, i can’t pronounce it correctly right now but it is a ‘Göbekli Tepe’.

    SABA TÜMER: So you are interested in archeology and history, do you read a lot ?

    MEGAN FOX: No, i really don’t take a book and read. I read from I-book from my I-pad.

    Megan Fox wish to visit Istanbul with husband

    SABA: How did you find Istanbul? Did you go shopping? Have you tried traditional Turkish cuisine yet ?

    MEGAN FOX:: No, not yet. Haven’t found the chance yet. But i will do it today. I want to visit The Grand Bazaar and the Mosques. I want to eat Turkish food as soon as possible. This is not like what i did expect here. I thought Istanbul was a town. But it is a metropolis, with big urbanization and industry. so many buildings everywhere, i didn’t expect this.

    Megan Fox : How did her husband propose ?

    SABA: You are here for business, would you like to return here as a tourist next time ?

    MEGAN FOX: Yeah, very much, i’d bring my husband too, i’d like to visit everywhere here with him.

    SABA: Speaking of your husband, how did he proposed?

    MEGAN FOX: He proposed way back before we got married, it was nothing big or romantic.

    SABA: You got married at a beach, as a woman i can’t stop thinking, if you go and get married at beach then the proposal shoul have been somewhat very unique, that why i’m asking.

    MEGAN FOX: I was 19 when he proposed, just entered 20. I came from work and was very tired. He was sitting on the couch and bought a ring for me. He asked if i will marry him. Nothing sumptuous really.

    SABA: So what about your private life ? you are a very popular woman, global celebrity and you wish to protect your private life as well? How do you hold the balance between these two? I know, that paparazzis are after you since the moment you get out of the plane?

    MEGAN FOX: Very difficult situations such as this one he heard the news recently, that i have an doublure however, i had a friend close to me, whereas me looked like to me. Many çıkmıyorum out. Paparazilerden can not go places because of the trend. We spend time at home alone with my husband.

    SABA: So you always wanted be a very famous actress as a kid?

    MEGAN FOX: Yes, I thought a lot of people thought that this industry
    but I did it. I did not know why I thought this kid is still in the
    I do not know.

    SABA: Everyone can be actor, but not everyone can be star. Why do you think you became a star ?

    MEGAN FOX: I think that God is relevant. It is faith completely.

    SABA: Your mother did not want you to be an actress, but you so you güçlüymüşsün
    you know that you’ve continued on the road.

    MEGAN FOX: worried at first because we came to a very small space. Things like that
    would not have been there. But it was not discouraging. Later was a lot of support. Obstinately
    I went and did.

    SABA: Are they proud of you right now?

    MEGAN FOX: Yes, very much

    SABA: What did you do with the first money tou earned?

    MEGAN FOX: I put it in the bank. We have never been a big spender For people like us myself do not like spending money
    I do not like to spend for myself, i love spending for the persons i love and care I began to spend money after i met Bryn.
    I bought him cars and motorcycles. He hated that i d buy him expensive gifts but I loved it.

    SABA: Would you like to be an actress again in a second life?

    MEGAN FOX: No, I would not be.

    SABA: Why?

    MEGAN FOX: I’d go back to school I’d be an archaeologist.

    SABA: d be admired as a child to whom?

    MEGAN FOX: When I was little up to Judy Garland fan. Esther Williams, he is a
    singer, swimmer and aktrisdi. O. The only actress I can recall a very long time ago
    Almışımdır always sit back enjoy watching.

    SABA: celebrities tattoos much as you do. How many have a tattoo?

    MEGAN FOX: I have 8 units ..

    SABA: Just see it..

    MEGAN FOX: Yes, but i will have it removed.

    SABA: Why?

    MEGAN FOX: It is a Marlyn Monroe tatoo. I’ve done it at 18, I do not want it anymore

    SABA: I guess you do not want it because she had a bad life?

    MEGAN: Most def.

    SABA: You are a very thin woman, do you eat anything?

    MEGAN FOX: I’ll eat. My mother is also a petite woman. For different characters i’v done many different diets

    SABA: I heard you’ve done a diet and lost your eyebrows and eyelashes, correct?

    MEGAN FOX: No, but I have lost so much weight that my hair and fingernails
    became  unhealthy. Ostrejene is what the female body needs.

    SABA: How old were you then?

    MEGAN FOX: That was a few years ago. I ‘ve done it for health, but it was too much.

    SABA: Now what are you doing?

    MEGAN FOX: I eat 5 meals a day in small portions. I eat meat
    I’m not a vegetarian. My favorite dish is…hmm  I really like Italian ravioli .

    SABA: One day you eat, the next eat not from what I understand.

    MEGAN FOX: No, I am eating all the time. İts genetic.

    SABA: How much do you weigh?

    MEGAN FOX: 50-60 pounds

    SABA: Pleased to meet you Megan

    MEGAN FOX: My pleasure Saba