Banned!

Access to this blog, as well as to the millions of others ones that use the Blogger hosting service, was recently blocked in Turkey by court order. Although the ban was provisionally lifted after five days, the Blogger ban is part of a worrying trend in Turkey, which has seen overzealous bureaucrats and ill-informed judges blocking access to more and more websites. YouTube has been blocked in Turkey since May, one of the more than 850 websites banned so far this year. Is Turkey on its way to becoming a leading internet censor? Read more....

Turkey's Military Under Fire

My article in today's Christian Science Monitor about how Turkey's powerful military is facing unprecedented criticism from an unlikely source: the public. It may be a sign that Turkish democracy is maturing, but the generals are already striking back. Read on....

Photo of the Day

An old woman sitting in the courtyard of an Assyrian church in Midyat, southeast Turkey. The Assyrians are one of the oldest Christian sects in the world, living mostly in Turkey and Iraq. Recent decades have seen the Assyrians flee the region because of war and ethnic violence, but the last few years have seen a slow revival of the religious minority in its ancestral homeland in southeast Turkey. You can read more about this in a photoessay I wrote for Eurasianet in 2006. (Photo by Yigal Schleifer)

Unearthing a Painful Past in Cyprus

My article in today's Christian Science Monitor, about a project in to unearth mass graves in Cyprus, reminders of the violence that gripped the island in the 1960's and 70's. The project, perhaps the most successful bi-communal effort in Cyprus, is being seen as an important step in helping reunify the divided island.

In a related story for Women's eNews, I profiled Sevgul Uludag, a Turkish Cypriot journalist whose brave pioneering work helped bring the mass graves issue to the top of the agenda on the island.

Photo of the Day

Mannequins wearing knock-off designer jeans in the Turkish half of Nicosia, the divided capital of Cyprus. Ever since a downtown border crossing was opened up in the city on April 3, 2008, Greek Cypriots have been coming over to the Turkish side to buy fake, yet cheap, Dolce & Gabbana and Armani jeans, while Turkish Cypriots have been going over to the other side to buy the more expensive real thing. June 1, 2008. 

(Photo by Yigal Schleifer)

Photo of the Day

A child walks in front of a home being demolished in Istanbul's predominantly Roma Sulukule neighbhorhood, located just inside the city's Byzantine walls. Sulukule, a Roma enclave for centuries, is being completely torn down and its residents are being moved to the outskirts of town, some 40 kilometers (26 miles) away. More pictures and an audio feature at Eurasianet. (Photo by Yigal Schleifer)

Torn Between Two....

The recent crisis in Georgia has left Turkey in a tight spot, torn between its obligations to NATO and its alliance with the west, and its growing trade and energy relations with Russia. My story in Eurasianet.