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What is the size of a large cookie pan, made out of baklava, and looks like a lumpy version of the famous Hope portrait of Barack Obama? The “Baracklava”.
The idea was cooked up in the Gulloglu baklava shop in Istanbul. In the shop’s six decades in business, only three other historical figures, all Turks, have been so honored. Owner Nadir Gullu says the portraits require enormous craftsmanship. Continue reading “In Turkey, President Obama in 55 Layers of Pastry”
In many Muslim towns and villages around the world, drummers march through the streets to wake up residents for a meal before sunrise. Matthew Brunwasser reports from a neighborhood in Turkey where the drummers are no longer welcome by all.
With thousands of mosques broadcasting the call to prayer five times a day, it only takes one muezzin singing with a froggy voice to make life miserable for neighbors. To make it easier on the ears – and nerves – of local residents, the city’s chief religious official has set up singing lessons. From Istanbul, Matthew Brunwasser reports. Continue reading “Singing lessons for muezzins”
Published in Monocle Issue 31 Vol 3
Journalism in Turkey has always been a political contact sport. Even so, the size of the tax penalty given to the Dogan Media Group – Turkey’s largest – had global reverberations. The conflict between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Dogan first surfaced when the papers dug into the allegations swirling around the premier of corruption. Erdogan publicly accused the group’s founder, 73-year-old Aydin Dogan, of blackmailing the government for policies favourable to his investments. Continue reading “Loud and Proud – Istanbul”
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