Belly Ache :-(

Today is Victory Day (Zafer Bayramı) in Turkey to commemorate the victory in the Battle of Dumlupınar, the final battle in the Turkish War of Independence in 1922.

It is a public holiday so I get a day off, but I have spent the entire day at home recovering from belly ache that I contracted during a trip I made to Ankara on Tuesday this week. Two other colleagues fell ill at exactly the same moment with the same symptoms, right after we had a coffee in the morning during a meeting. I think it is related to the recent water cuts put in place by the Ankara authorities during August as a number of colleagues in Ankara have also been ill over the last few weeks. Having just read this article in the Turkish Daily News I am not surprised...

The cases of infectious diseases has increased in Ankara especially after August 1, the day the water cuts began,” said Secretary General of Ankara Chamber of Medicine Ercan Yavuz in an interview with the Turkish Daily News.

According to him, water cuts are not a remedy because the hygienic and fresh water should be kept in the pipes. It should be chlorinated and consumption limited. Otherwise, health problems arise due to practices employed to save water and the pressure shifts in the pipes when the water flow restarts.

You should not drink the tap water in Turkey anyhow, but when you see murky water coming out of your tap you wonder about bathing in it too. Take a look at Idili's istanbul polluted water photo in flickr.

Football Focus

Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe have both won a place in this years UEFA Champions League.
With just 17 days left in Istanbul it would be unfair to leave the city without having mentioned these beloved soccer teams. I have not had the pleasure of attending a football match here in Istanbul - although I was invited to attend the Beşiktaş match this weekend but my colleague has since blown me out! I am very disappointed, I live very close to the Beşiktaş stadium and enjoy the atmosphere as supporters arrive and depart from Taksim.

This post has also been prompted by Erkhan's field diary, a Besiktas fan, that points to this great site in english called TURKEY(TURKIYE) FOOTBALL(SOCCER)

The lights around the Fenerbahçe stadium are also something to behold.

Don't BLOCK the BLOG

DON’T BLOCK THE BLOG strongly opposes any form of internet censorship, and requests the support of national and international bloggers, media, and free speech organizations to help our cause by continuing to highlight the issue of the unfair blanket ban of blogs.

the current blogosphere...

On the news that Abdullah Gul is officially the 11th President of Turkey I decided to report on some of my favorite blogs...

me and others - reverts to the recent rain fall in Istanbul rather than talk about Gul

ignore me if you can- in the posting farewell my pretty, the author feels so strongly that it has provoked her to leave Turkey.

The Istanbulian a fantastic site that I just discovered today, reports that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan official website was hacked 3 days ago.

Erkan's Field Diary as ever points to a number of interesting articles, including this one from the New York Times.

James in Turkey posts about day two thousand, six hundred and fifty-nine of Ahmet Necdet Sezer, former President of Turkey.

and finally here is the BBC's Have your say

Mehmet Kavukçu

Mehmet Kavukçu, originally uploaded by louise makes stuff.

How cool is this! This is the work of the Turkish artist Mehmet Kavukçu in Eski Kilise /Zafer Meydanı, Çanakkale. The building is in fact a church in the gypsy area. This installation was part of the Troia Festival. The Arts projects were curated by Denizhan Özer and Seyhan Boztepe, under the title Borderline. I have uploaded my photos to Flickr.

Mehmet also made an installation on 2004 in the cistern in Istanbul. I found a photograph of it on the web - it looks amazing. Mehmet is based in Erzurum.

Geliblou

57. Alay Sehitliği (The 57th Regiment Cemetery for Martyrs, originally uploaded by louise makes stuff.

I visited Çanakkale Arts festival a few weekends ago and have only just got around to posting my photos on flickr. While I was there I took the opportunity to visit Gelibolu/Gallipoli battlefields. It was a memorable visit and I have enjoyed adding information from various websites about the cemeteries and monuments I visited.

Sites that were particularly informative include:
diggerhistory2
nzetc
wikipedia
e-turkey

COWS

The Cow Parade is in town. The cows are gathering around shopping malls, major squares and attractions around Istanbul including Şişli, Nişantaşı, Harbiye, Beyoğlu, Bebek, Ortaköy, Sultanahmet and shopping malls; Kanyon, Akmerkez, Profilo, Metro City ve Cevahir. The cows arrived on August 1st and will leave on 31 October 2007 (1 Ağustos – 31 Ekim 2007). People seem to be intrigued by them, both locals and tourists. The last time I saw cow parade was in Athens, most of the ones on central Athens were trashed, partly due I believe to the student riots that had been taking place around the city last year.



Continuing the cattle theme, it has been reported by the BBC today that Gordon Brown has been called back from his holiday because of an outbreak of foot and mouth has been reported in Surrey, England.