Michael Sercan Daventry

Not saying you’re wrong, but you also know that yesteryear’s HDP ≠ today’s DEM

Love your daughter for this.

30?!

Oh, your view of how Turks *raise* their kids – I agree with a lot of it – should be the stuff of many a thesis. I do think all the stuff about restaurant etiquette and commenting on cuteness is not to be discounted though. You notice it when you travel elsewhere and it’s not there.

I’m totally with you on the unsolicited advice, though, especially from strangers . It’s far too normalised and mothers get the brunt of it.

All fair. My comment came principally from my experience, which involves my own family and – as you point out – a gender bias. I guess I was trying to make a more generic comment about Turks loving children, which isn’t always the case elsewhere in Europe. Again, in my experience.

It genuinely all comes from a good place, but I can totally see how all the interference would drive you crazy.

I've just come back from two weeks in Turkey with kids and (non-Turkish) wife. Maybe my relatives are more restrained, but I've really enjoyed batting away all manner of germ and temperature alarmism with a casual "he/she'll be fine". It was true.

That said, by Turkish standards my kids are feral.

“The inclusion of this image is free” is a pretty disgraceful way to say we will not pay you.

I was fascinated by Poilievre losing his seat partly because there were 90-odd people on the ballot. People gripe about first past the post in this country but there’s never been a protest like that here

@heissenstat.bsky.social thanks Howard, that’s very kind

Utterly shocked to learn of @ceren-iskit.bsky.social’s sudden and untimely death aged just 38. I knew her on the London Turkish beat: she was a good journalist with a good heart, taken far, far too young. t24.com.tr/haber/gazete...

You don't really need subtitles to see how well presenter Meltem Bozbeyoğlu handles the moment a 6.2 magnitude earthquake in Istanbul struck live on CNN Türk, but here they are in any case.

Always keen to hear an expert view. We’re thinking of Çıralı atm

In Turkish North Cyprus, an education ministry official is turned away from a school barricaded by parents who don’t want to admit a pupil who wears a headscarf.

It appears they’re fighting Turkey’s battles of the 1990s, but in the social media age.

Via HaberKKTC

“The terrorism charge is particularly serious because it could allow him to be removed from office. It means that by the end of the day Ekrem İmamoğlu may no longer be mayor of Istanbul.”

Me on the BBC World Service a little earlier.

A lengthy post from Ankara's mayor Mansur Yavaş, another possible candidate against Erdoğan, who comes out for İmamoğlu.

Notably, Yavaş himself declares he won't stand for president "while this unlawfulness persists".

We've now had the response from Ekrem İmamoğlu. He calls the verdict "unlawful" – and that only the board of the faculty that give him his diploma could decide to annul it.

This evening's announcement was made by the board of the entire university.

A new page in a long-running row: Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu's university diploma has been annulled.

It means that if a presidential election were called now, İmamoğlu – who is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's foremost challenger – would not be able to stand as a candidate.

Surely @jessofarabia.bsky.social is the expert here

Where should I go with the family in Turkey this summer?

Got two small children, so our demands are fairly sedate: a nice house, no pool, but next to a sandy beach.

My go-to is glorious Gökova — that's where I spent my childhood holidays — but help me break old habits: what does BlueSky think?

Ocalan has called to abolish the PKK, but that’s just the first step in making it happen | The National Converting this monumental announcement into real peace requires a series of concrete efforts from Turkey and the Kurds to build trust

Abdullah Öcalan has called to abolish the PKK, but that’s just the first step in making it happen – me in @thenationalnews.com on today’s momentous news

www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/2025...

There will be plenty of commentary about whether this call will be heeded but let’s be plain.

Öcalan just described the PKK as the biggest rebellion movement in the Turkish republic’s history, and he’s right. And he’s now called on it to disband.

This is epoch-making news.

‪And now in Turkish, where the top line is confirmed:‬

‪The PKK has lost relevance in the socialist struggle and must abolish itself. ‬

History in the making in Turkey, where a message from PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan – apparently calling for peace and an end to an armed conflict lasting nearly half a century – is being read out live.

But it’s in Kurdish first, so most of the country doesn’t know what’s in it yet.

Solo weekday pints in a quiet London pub are tremendous.

Oh, Paul, not you too. There I was thinking the Danish way reigned supreme on this side of the Atlantic

This is all well and good, but I will never understand why you North Americans think bacon is best when served fried to a crumbly consistency that resembles a household building material.

*spent decades trying to

I think you're probably right to do that. It's tricky trying to find the right English terms that distinguish between levels of religiosity in a country that's essentially trying to standardise religion.