Long, excitable queues form every day outside Ahmet Cicek’s restaurant in Besiktas, one of Istanbul’s busiest neighbourhoods, with locals and tourists alike flocking to try his speciality dish of mussels stuffed with lemon-spiked rice. Outside, the burly Cicek is a familiar figure, posing proudly for photos with customers and passers-by; as many as 400 a day, he says, even more on weekends. Mussels are a very popular Istanbul street food and there are many shops like Cicek’s throughout the city …

The battle over skyrocketing vegetable prices has become a new frontline in Turkish politics, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blaming various culprits for creating “food terror”. According to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute last month, prices have risen by more than 70 per cent in just one year. For instance, onions cost one to two Turkish lira (0.15 – 0.30 euro) per kilogramme last year and currently sell for four to six liras (0.60 – 0.90 euro) in …

When 18-year-old Pınar decided to take part in the popular #10YearChallenge – in which people post current pictures of themselves on social media alongside an old photo – the reaction stunned her. In the 2017 photo the textile worker posted on Twitter she was wearing hijab; the new one showed her bareheaded. She received a surge of scathing criticism from complete strangers as well as members of her own family. Pinar, who lives in southern Turkey and asked to remain …

In late 2017, the ministry of national education announced that evolution was too complex a subject for Turkish high school children. “Our students don’t have the necessary scientific background and information-based context needed to comprehend the debate about evolution,” the New York Times quoted education ministry chairman Alpaslan Durmuş as saying in 2017, shortly after the topic was removed from the curricula of both public and private schools across Turkey. The government claimed that the theory of evolution was better …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpGlODfxo6U Istanbul’s new airport, that was officially opened in October 2018, should finally start to operate in full capacity this month. However, critics say that the new airport is too far from the city center and will not be easy to reach. They are also concerned with the environmental impact of this mega project and high costs of its maintenance. Fatih Pinar reports …

Istiklal Street, the pedestrian thoroughfare that runs through Istanbul’s historic Beyoglu district, has been a symbol of the city diverse cultural life for decades. Stretching for a kilometre-and-a-half, this tree-lined boulevard was once filled with bookstores, theatres, nightclubs and bars popular with both locals and tourists in a city of more than 14 million inhabitants. But Istiklal looks very different now, with its specialist shops, cinema halls and pubs being replaced by a growing number of shisha cafes, restaurants that …

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stepped up his already inflammatory political rhetoric ahead of March 31 local elections that some analysts predict may deliver a power shift in favour of the opposition. Erdogan’s aggressive oratory has become a traditional feature of all pre-election periods, and it seems to resonate with his constituency. Analysts say that his tactic of focusing campaigns on supposed enemies threatening Turkish society has been effective in distracting public attention from real problems such as high …

Funda Tanrıverdi, a stay-at-home mother-of-three from Istanbul, has a clear political hero: Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “His attitude and rhetoric are powerful. He is able to remain strong in every situation,” the 33-year-old enthused. “Erdoğan is good at ruling the country and managing problems, regardless of their nature – be they economic, political, or social.” Tanrıverdi represents a demographic that may have been crucial in ensuring the Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) ongoing success. A total of 51 …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched a new political battlefront ahead of upcoming local elections – social media. Until now, it has been Turkey’s opposition groups – who are routinely denied access to state-controlled television, radio and newspapers – that have used social media as their primary tool for communications. But Erdogan’s Justice and Development (AK) Party have announced that their campaign for the March 2019 local elections will be fought largely on social media. “Starting from the 2019 …

Deniz, a 20-year-old observant Muslim who lives in Istanbul, works as a sign language translator and is studying gastronomy in his spare time. But Deniz, who prefers to use the pronoun “they”, also identifies as genderless and pansexual. This means that gender and sex are not determining factors in romantic or sexual attraction. Although Deniz sees no contradiction between devotion to Islam and sexual identity, others are not as tolerant. “As soon as I declare myself to be a Muslim, …