For the past few weeks Turkish owned mosques in Northeast London, like many others across the British capital, have been calling the faithful to prayer (ezan in Turkish) from their roofs and minarets at sunset every day. Yet in these extraordinary times none have been able to visit Aziziye Mosque in Stoke Newington, Shacklewell Lane Mosque […]
British citizens with homes in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC) but currently stranded in the UK were given a massive boost today. Speaking live on BRT television, TRNC Foreign Minister Kudret Özersay said that foreigners with residency would be able to return on a date “close to 1 June.” Dr Özersay was speaking […]
The Turkish government provides free universal health care, and made early investments in its health care infrastructure that are paying off now. Our efforts and strategy have been central in turning the tide. The number of new cases of coronavirus has decreased significantly in recent few weeks to its slowest pace since the first case […]
For the past two months, eighteen families have been campaigning to have their deceased loved ones returned to North Cyprus for burial. Last week, eleven of those families received the news that their applications had been successful. An announcement by the government of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC) on Thursday, 14 May, stated […]
Turkish Cypriot businessman Ersu ‘Eddie’ Ekrem, currently recovering in hospital from Covid-19, has featured on the BBC’s main evening news discussing his “terrible hallucinations” after being induced. The short clip, broadcast on Tuesday 12 May, opens with Mr Ekrem being helped to sit up in bed by nurses in full personal protective equipment (PPE) at […]
Two photographs, two family tragedies. The first of these show a three-year-old girl, Ayşe, wiping tears off her grandmother’s face with a tissue, oblivious to the tragedy her family has just suffered. The grandmother, also called Ayşe, is shedding tears for her daughter, little Ayşe’s mum Sonya Kaygan, who has just lost her life to […]
It took residents of Istanbul just 55 hours to raise $1.4 million in response to a campaign by the city’s Mayor to help families struggling to pay their bills during the coronavirus pandemic. The “Askıda Fatura” (Bill on the Hook) scheme was launched by Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on Monday 4 May in response to […]
British and Turkish officials have refuted British media reports that personal protection equipment (PPE) from Turkey has fallen short of required standards. On Thursday evening, Britain’s envoy to Ankara Sir Dominick Chilcott took to Twitter to say, “Stories in the UK media that 400K items of PPE sent from Turkey are unusable are untrue.” The […]
There has been no shortage of strange scenes of animals around the world running amok during the coronavirus pandemic, as nature seeks to assert itself into spaces abandoned by humans during the lockdown. Cameras have captured thousands of flamingos gathering by Mumbai’s lagoons, dozens of hungry monkeys fighting it out over a banana in Lopburi, […]
Local councils in North Cyprus and the main state hospital in the capital Lefkoşa are fifty thousand pounds better off this week following a generous donation by the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation – the charity vehicle of Greek Cypriot business tycoon Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou. The Foundation announced earlier today that it was making donations to four […]
