If you had one chance to spend Eurovision in any country, it would surely be Sweden and in particular Stockholm, wouldn’t it? The Swedes have got this Eurovision thing sussed. Winners of this most prestigious song contest umpteen times, no-one knows this contest better than the birthplace of the mighty Abba. And if you are […]
I heard the bad news on a cold November night. 17th November 2015 to be exact. Two friends had gone to see him at Croydon Hospital. They rang to tell me in floods of tears that we had lost him. I had visited him a few days before, and was planning to go and see […]
Yet again we march. With arthiritic knees, painful backs, we march on. What are these compared to the suffering of refugees, victims of wars, destruction. Victims of Western foreign policy, western greed. We march to demand compassion, justice and humanity for refugees. Refugees, facing inhumane treatment, at home and in Europe. The Europe where they thought they […]
I sincerely apologise Aylan, but we shall forget you too. You, your brother Ghaleb, your mum. We shall forget you all. We human beings are like that. We forget all too easily. We have forgotten many children before you. Do you remember those poor people who met a horrible death in an airless truck […]
A bitterly cold March day. Only yesterday [Friday 20th], on a warm, sunny day I sat on a park bench at Ally Pally and watched little children feed the ducks. This is England. It is possible to witness a few seasons in a few day. I leave home, my wife’s warnings to be careful ringing […]
Happy 8th March International Working Women’s Day! Here are some apt words for this day from renowned writer and poet Nazım Hikmet. The faces of our women are the book of our pains. Our pains, our faults and the blood we shed carve scars on the faces of our women like plows. And our joys are […]
Former Culture Minister of Turkey, a cultural historian, poet and translator Prof. Dr. Talat Halman once observed that Osman Türkay’s (16 February 1927 – 24 January 2001) work combined Blake’s apocalyptic vision which Eliot’s gloomy depictions of modern civilisations. Not only does Dr. Halman make this comparison, but he goes further to say that the […]
One of the local Turkish language papers posed an important question for the Turkish speaking communities in Britain. “Are we actually united?” The paper, Londra Gazete/London Turkish Gazette is printed bilingually. In the main Turkish pages the question takes the form of “Are we really one?”Freudian slip, or lost in translation? Being “one” and being […]
The United Nations estimates that more than 2,000 people have died this year while making their journey from North Africa into Europe. The Mediterranean Sea became the route of hope for many migrants and refugees. It was also a deadly route for many whose boats capsized and sank; for those who couldn’t make it to […]
Cyprus is known in Greek mythology as the island of love and it is fair to say that Aphrodite had no qualms about individual sexual persuasion. She may have had a personal preference for men but the Olympic Gods, according to this link would have affairs with both men and women. Fast forward to 2014 […]
