Arts, Culture & History

The years between 1900 and 1940 were more than a little eventful for the Turks. The period saw numerous wars fought on many fronts,...

Nowadays Istanbul is known for its mosques, but prior to 1453, Constantinople was a completely Christian city replete with churches. Many of them exist to this day:...

Maybe you’re thinking of traveling to eastern Turkey. Perhaps you want to get on better terms socially with Kurdish-speaking friends. Or maybe you just...

Yeşilçam, which translates to “Green Pine”, is a shorthand for Turkey's old film industry. The name comes from Yeşilçam Street, an area of Beyoğlu...

Sometimes it’s the unseen that is the most fascinating. The imagination can drift back to a time far before we existed to wonder about...

The Golden Horn was of great importance during the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. This deep, natural harbor was a strategic point to defend the...

Located within quick reach of the historical Chora Museum, Pages, the first Arabic bookstore in Istanbul, marks a historic moment for the city and...

Republic Day (Cumhuriyet Bayramı) is this Wednesday, 29 October, and the holiday officially begins Tuesday afternoon. Republic Day commemorates the declaration of the Republic of...

                They spoke to me of people, and of humanity. But I've never seen people, or humanity. I've seen various people, astonishingly dissimilar, Each separated from the next...

Being a proud plant mother and a witch-in-training, I couldn't find a better place to live than in Istanbul. The city thrives with spice...

My wife and I visited Konya, May 2023. Never having been to Konya before, we decided to hire a guide for an all-day walking...

Protest in Turkey can take many forms. Sadly enough, few of them will leave a positive imprint on your memory: TOMAs and tear gas,...

You may not be aware that there is either a museum or a synagogue in central Karaköy, downhill from Galata Tower and directly facing the tram stop....

Guest Post by Sheldon Heyes. This post first appeared on Sheldon Heyes' website, Istanbul in Ink.  What do you get when a Brazilian diplomat, a Syrian...

When you traverse the streets of Turkey you can see it all around. Everyone is sitting around consuming it. It’s red, it’s hot and...

C. M. Kosemen is an artist and independent researcher born in Ankara, Turkey in 1984. He studied at Cornell University, Istanbul’s Sabancı University and...

I discovered a great passion for cooking when I started traveling around the world. I couldn’t believe what I’d been missing! I wanted to...

With its long and colourful history, its unique geographical position, its collection of characters, cultures, and creeds, Istanbul has no shortage of laudable attributes....

İstiklal Caddesi is home to many eateries, stores and coffee shops. Although chains such as Shake Shack have been cropping up, the promenade manages...

Istanbul was the capital of the Ottoman Empire for centuries. Sultans and their wives, princes, viziers and pashas loved to show their power and...

In the midst of all the fairytale magic of Cappadocia, there lies an overlooked jewel embedded in the valley known as Mustafapaşa. Despite its...

Writing about the allure of ayran has been on my agenda for over a year now. Every time an expat informs me that they...

There’s a moment in The Time Regulation Institute, the novel by acclaimed Turkish author Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, where the protagonist Hayri Irdal explains the...

Yes, I just did that. Referred to the joke-question we all hear from home: Do they eat turkey in Turkey? Well, yes, yes they...