Ghost town... Kayakoy is a tragic monument to how Christians and Muslims can live together in peace.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2005/jan/30/turkey.observerescapesection

I certainly have to buy that, once I am better

In 1961 Hughette Bouffard, a native of small town Canada, became the gelin or bride of her long - time pen pal and friend Mehmet Eyuboğlu, son of two of Turkey's most illustrious artists. Bedri Rahmi and Eren Eyuboğlu. It is in the midst of the Eyuboğlu family's circle of artist, writer, and poet friends that Hughette first comes to know Turkey.
She shares with us those first glimpses into the foreign culture that she would later call her own and spares us neither the pains nor the pleasures of her acculturation process as she comes to create a niche for herself in her new environment, learning the fineties of intercultural negotiation step by step. Her views on the tumultuous decades of violent clashes between the left and the right as well as the military juntas that took place in Turkey are woven in with her experiences as a medical professional in Turkey, as an ex-patriot struggling for the rights of foreign spouses in Turkey, and as a mother and grandmother.

Full of scenes painful, joyful, downright comical, absurd and enlightening, this is the story of Hughette Bouffard Eyuboğlu's cultural transformaiton...


MyMerhaba

Yapı Kredi Vedat Nedim Tör Museum hosts "Phrygia" exhibition until April 13, 2008. Phrygians created a rich culture in Anatolia and has influences on the Greek and Roman civilizations. It is also the first Phrygia exhibition in the world.

Phrygia was a unique civilization founded in the Central Anatolia Ankara-Polatlı short after the Hitites. Phrygians spread in the region, witnessing historical and mythological events. Alexander the Great's cutting the Gordion Knot with a stroke of his sword is one of the legends. In later periods the Romans took the meteor shaped idol of Phrygian Mother Goddess Magna Matar (Cybele) from Pessinus (Sivrihisar) to Rome in order to win the war against Carthaginian Hannibal.

Phrygian King Midas, also called "Donkey-eared King Midas", was known for his ability to turn into gold whatever he touched which also indicates the wealth of Phrygia. The God Dionysos rewarded King Midas due to a favor and this myth has reached today. Midas' myths are not limited with his "Golden Touch". Midas was the arbiter at the first music contest of the world which was between Apollon and Marsyas. Apollo was not pleased by Midas who stood for Marsyas and he changed Midas' ears into donkey ears as a punishment.

Besides myths, Phrygians achieved many firsts. For example, they were the first civilization that discovered mosaics and used them in architecture. The mosaics they made by using the pebbles of Sakarya River were the inspiration of the stunning Greek and Roman artworks. Golden embroidery, fibula (safety pins), flute and tumuli (tombs) were also discovered and used by Phrygians for the first time in history.

Phrygia Exhibition is composed of Phrygian 275 artifacts brought from Anatolian Civilizations Musem in Ankara, Istanbul Archeology Museum, and Eskişehir, Afyon, Kütahya, Burdur and Gordion Museums.

MyMerhaba

"Those who know themselves and others will recognise here, too, that the Orient and the Occident can no longer be separated”
The works of the painter and sculptor Heinz Mack bear tribute to his very individual approach to the links between the “Orient and the Occident”. The audience likes them, both in Berlin and in Tehran.
http://www.goethe.de/ges/rel/prj/ffs/kuo/en2770693.htm

Eighty-two nations endorsed a strongly worded draft treaty on cluster munitions, moving the world closer to a ban on weapons that cause horrific civilian casualties, Human Rights Watch said today at the end of a week of diplomatic talks in Wellington, New Zealand. The push for a comprehensive ban on clusters, which harm civilians during and after conflict, came despite efforts to water down the text by a handful of states with stockpiles of the weapon.

http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/02/22/global18135.htm

Reuters

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,536828,00.html

The Khevsur men, dressed in chain mail and armed with broadswords, wore garments decorated with crosses. They had a strict system of physical training in martial arts preserved as a warrior dance Khevsuruli. They worshiped flags adorned with crosses and considered themselves permanent members of the army of the sacred flags and guards of Georgian kings.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khevsureti

BBC news