Cupcake morons trying to let the Turkey’s free into their larger yard.
Cappadocia,Turkey by gozef on Flickr.
Blood Freak. Looks hilarious but it’s not.
temporary site! Konomi in Turkey!!:drop your address in the ask box to get a postcard!
“Thank you so very much, yes?”
Amazing Bird Paintings of Ralph Costantino
Vogue Turkey
The “extra” artifacts they don’t have anymore room for, or the ones still waiting to be examined and cataloged?
While ballooning in the gorgeous valleys of the Cappadocia region of Turkey, the captain pointed out a single eagle perched atop one of the areas famous Fairy Chimneys. He moved the balloon around the spire and I was able to capture this photo of the baby eagles chillaxin in the nest. What a fabulous sighting!
honey roasted turkey sandwich.
Yerebatan Sarayi Cistern, Istanbul Turkey: “Every year I go here for like an hour and just sit doing nothing, taking in all of the beautiful architecture and details each visit renders new inspiration!” -Mevesh (Designer)
Istanbooool.
(by chalchiuhtlicue on Lomography)
i really want to go to turkey.
Turkey: Backward Step for Women’s Rights - HRW:(Istanbul) - The Turkish government’s changes to the current Ministry for Women and Family is a step backward in its struggle to combat gender inequality and violence against women, Human Rights Watch said today. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an announced that the “Ministry for Women and Family” will be replaced by a “Ministry of Family and Social Policies,” ending a much-needed explicit focus on women’s rights, Human Rights Watch said.
Erdo?an made the change on June 8, 2011, four days before the June 12 general election, as part of a revised structure for the Council of Ministers. This is much more than just a name change and signals a reduced emphasis on women’s rights, and efforts to promote the rights to non-discrimination and freedom from violence will suffer, Human Rights Watch said. Rather than taking the spotlight off women’s rights, Turkey needs to take urgent steps to combat endemic violence against women, Human Rights Watch said.
“The Turkish government’s decision to scrap the Ministry for Women flies in the face of research showing major shortcomings on women’s rights and horrendous violence against women,” said Gauri van Gulik, women’s rights advocate and researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Women in Turkey need more determined action by the government, not less, to protect women’s rights in practice.”
The existing ministry’s mandate was dedicated to working on issue relating to women’s rights and the family. The new ministry, however, will deal with issues of concern relating to children, the aged, the disabled, and the families of soldiers who die during active service, as well as family and women’s rights. The existing Directorate for the Status of Women will be a department within the ministry.
A Human Rights Watch report issued in May documents brutal and long-lasting violence against women and girls in Turkey by husbands, partners, and family members, and the survivors’ struggle to get protection. A study by Turkey’s Hacettepe University has shown that about 42 percent of Turkish women experience physical or sexual violence inflicted by a relative at some point in their lives.
Turkey has improved its laws, setting out requirements for shelters for abused women and protection orders. However, gaps in the law and implementation failures by police, prosecutors, judges, and other officials make the protection system unpredictable at best, and at times downright dangerous, Human Rights Watch said.
In addition to the high rates of domestic violence in Turkey, other statistics speak to broader gender inequality in the country. In 2010, Turkey ranked 83 on the United Nations Development Programme’s global Gender Inequality Index - down six places compared with 2008. Women hold just 9 percent of seats in the national parliament, and only 27 of the country’s nearly 3,000 mayors are women.
Women are 27 percent of the paid work force. Only about 19 percent of women are engaged in income-generating work in Turkey, and in the eastern part of the country, the figure is about 10 percent. Illiteracy figures released by the government show great disparities between men and women: 3.8 million of the 4.7 million people who are illiterate are women. “Women in Turkey have a long way to go to get their rights or even to be protected from violence,” Van Gulik said. “The government needs to send a strong signal to all women that it cares and intends to protect and promote their rights.”
Istanbul.
HANDS UP IF YOU FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gives Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu a high five at the start of their bilateral meeting in Abu Dhabi.
(Photograph by Reuters)
Sultan Ahmed Mosque, Istanbul - Turkey
Turkey bagel with cranberry jam
By Hugh Sykes, BBC News, Turkey, June 11, 2011
Turkish ambitions both in the Middle East and the EU have created a divided nation, as public opinion, and even politicians, appear unsure about the path Turkey should take.
Sitting at an open-air kebab cafe—which is like a big tree house with tables on platforms straddling a waterfall and some of the tables in the water—the sun shining through wide leaves on fig trees, families eating their lunch and a little girl throwing pieces of bread to some geese—Syria seems far away.
But it is not.
At the souvenir stalls by the waterfall, alongside a corny portrait of Che Guevara (in classic pose with beret), there is a corny portrait of President Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian border is half an hour away.
There is a no-visa agreement between Damascus and Ankara.
Syrian businessmen and tourists often visit the mountain gorge where this cafe is.
Many of the road signs in southern Turkey point to Halep, Turkish for Aleppo, the must-visit ancient city in northern Syria.
But the inscrutable and rather baby-face of Syrian terror is hardly an association Turkey wants to project to the world in election week or during EU accession talks.
The prime minister went on TV this week to reassure frightened Syrians heading across the border that it would not be closed to them.
Turkey is trying to, and has mostly succeeded in, moving away from its dark past of army coups.
After the most recent military takeover, not so long ago—in 1980—hundreds of thousands of Turks were rounded up and jailed without trial. And 50 were hanged.
The army here has always regarded itself as the custodian of Turkish secularism, as promoted by the founding father of the modern Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Now the politicians here say: “No, we are in charge.”
The last elections, in 2007, were in effect a referendum on the power of the army. The generals threatened to take over if the very Muslim Abdullah Gul became president.
The Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held the 2007 election early, calling the army’s bluff. He won. They lost.
Abdullah Gul became president. There was no coup.
And the crackdown in Syria is an alarming disappointment to the Turkish government.
Turkey’s foreign policy has been described as “zero problems, maximum trade, with neighbours”.
Through the Levant Forum, Ankara has been promoting a free trade area with Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
And Turkey has a huge trade surplus with Iraq, selling fridges, air conditioners, electric fans, food, cosmetics, chemicals, construction materials, electronics, vehicles and tyres.
Turkey is still officially trying to get into the European Union.
But enthusiasm for membership is waning. Many people I have met here over the past 10 days have told me they do not want to join.
“Too many problems,” said Ahmed, a market trader in the bazaar in the southern city of Antalya.
“Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland. We don’t want any part of that.”
There is a deep instinct for courteous behaviour here and there is immense kindness.
I have been greeted with nothing but friendly smiles everywhere I have been—town and country.
Children seem confident, happy and well-treated.
In old neighbourhoods they play in the street.
And they are friendly to strangers, which suggests they feel safe. That is priceless.
Coiffeur by sputnik 57 on Flickr.
derinkuyu underground christian city bathroom - cappadocia, turkey.
That pretty much ends the game.
