In January 1993 hundreds of thousands in Turkey mourned the assassination of investigative journalist Ugur Mumcu.
All of a sudden if you saw Hrant Dink on the street, what would you say to him?
I would like to lie down on the pavement
Surprise yourself, go Turkey.
A country of contrasts…
There is blood on the pavements. . Years pass but we all hear the same. The rain falls down on last year’s man. Ugly politics your hands, red. Hrant is still there in the millions of tiny rain drops.
This is an orgasmic wafer with hazelnut cream. No I have not brought it this time from home and it was not me who throw this package to the pavement.
A total of 138 words have been banned from Turkish Internet domain names and now tens of thousands of Turkish websites face closure.
The Telecommunications Directorate sent the list to Turkish web-hosting firms on Thursday, ruling the words are not allowed to feature in domain names and websites that do use them will be shut down.
The affect of the decision could see the closure of many website that feature the banned words. For example, the website “donanimalemi.com” (hardwareworld.com) because the domain name has “animal” in it, a banned word and likewise “sanaldestekunitesi.com,” (virtualsupportunit.com) would not be able to operate under its current name because it has “anal” in it; also among the 138 banned words. Websites cannot have the number 31 in their domain names either because it is slang for male masturbation.
Some more banned English words are: “beat,” “escort,” “homemade,” “hot,” “nubile,” “free” and “teen.” Some others in English have different meanings: “pic,” short for picture, is banned because it means “bastard” in Turkish. The past tense of the verb “get” is also banned because “got” means “butt” in Turkish. Haydar, a very common Alevi name for men, is also banned because it means penis in slang.
“Gay” and its Turkish pronunciation “gey,” “çıplak” (naked), “itiraf” (confession), “liseli” (high school student), “nefes” (breath) and “yasak” (forbidden) are some of the other banned words.
Source: Hurriyet Daily News
I have a crazy project on mind. Instead of using sun we will use the street lights to illuminate our world. Yeap this is a crazy idea, I came with it just a minute ago by myself. Our globe needs such crazy projects, just like the one the Prime Minister of Turkey announced today:
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will build a canal from the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea, turning the city of Istanbul into “two peninsulas and an island” and diverting shipping traffic from the Bosporus. The “Istanbul Canal,” which will be up to 50 kilometers (30 miles) long, 150 meters wide and 25 meters deep, will carry as many as 160 ships per day including the largest oil tankers, Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul today. Planning will take two years, he said. Erdogan declined to give a cost estimate or exact location for the canal, saying they would be kept secret to “avoid any kind of negativity or injustice” before the project begins. In response to a reporter’s question, Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas said the project would cost more than $10 billion and take eight years to build.
Source: Bloomberg
As a transport economist with my humble experience in transport infrastructure project evaluations I do not know if I can be suitable for giving guidance to Mr. Erdogan but I would already like to suggest him to develop a second phase of this crazy project. Why not go for horizontal canal just like the Grand Korean Waterway, that can cross Turkey from the center of Anatolia. Project can start from the port of Izmir and make its way all the way to the East and finish in the Armenian border. Along the inland waterway canal we can ask Mehmet Aksoy to establish a variety of statues so that one day Mr. Erdogan can enjoy his boat (gemicik) rides with his son.
Duchamp is in my town. Simple things on pavements can be interpreted as art and I love it. Speaking about art…
EU disapprovingly remarked demolition of Kars Monument to Humanity
The demolition of the Monument to Humanity erected in the Turkish city of Kars has been disapprovingly remarked by the European Union (EU). The co-president of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, Hélène Flautre called it a disturbing reality.
“The demolition of the unfinished monument, in fact, is a censorship against art. That monument used to be a project towards Armenian-Turkish relations, while having it demolished, the message of the statue becomes ineffective,” Turkish “Hurriyet” quotes Hélène Flautre as saying.
The Monument to Humanity was erected in Kars and it was dedicated to the relations of Armenia and Turkey. Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan called the statue “ugly”.
Source: Panorama.am
I really do not understand my country. I really hate the narrow mind attitude ruling this country.
Demolition work has begun to tear down the controversial “Monument to Humanity” in the eastern province of Kars, a sculpture described as “freakish” by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in January.
“If [sculptor Mehmet Aksoy] wants to have the parts [of his monument] back, we can give them back,” Kars Mayor Nevzat Bozkuş. April 7, 2011 Turkey.
The area where the monument currently stands was cleared Sunday in accordance with environmental procedures. The massive statue will be cut from top to bottom into large pieces and carried away using a 200-ton piece of machinery that is being brought to Kars from Istanbul.
Work to demolish the monument continued despite heavy rain in the area, according to reports.
Avçin İnşaat, a Turkish construction firm, won the tender held March 7 for the 272,000-Turkish Lira job to tear down the statue, erected in the border region to symbolize Turkish-Armenian friendship.
During a visit to Kars earlier this year, the prime minister called the monument “freakish” and said it threatened to overshadow historical sites in the area such as the Seyyid Hasal El Harakani tomb and mosque. After Erdoğan called for the sculpture’s demolition, the municipal assembly in Kars passed a motion to tear down the monument, saying it had been illegally erected in a protected area.
Source: Hurriyet Daily News
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