Airplane Edition: 'Conair' Redux, Champagne Detour

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper, 31 August 2015)


Nick Cage drafted as technical advisor for the caper.

Because of the number of arrests of PKK members in eastern
cities like Diyarbakır and Elazığ, there's no room left for them
in the prisons there. So the decision was made to send about
100 of the terror suspects to prisons elsewhere


Nick holding forth in 1997. What a guy!

The Justice Ministry rented a special plane from Turkish
Airlines and each prisoner, with a Gendarmerie escort, was
boarded on the plane under tight security precautions.

The night before last, the plane landed in Trabzon amid heavy
security measures taken by the Gendarmerie there. The suspects
were taken off the plane and boarded into buses waiting on the
apron for the trip to prisons in the area.


                   The set.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

türkçe  links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper, 31 August 2015)


   Celebrating something very special, no doubt.

When the cork from a bottle of champagne struck the ceiling
of an English Easyjet Airlines plane the oxygen masks dropped
to the passengers. The incident occurred during a flight from
London to Dalaman in southwestern Turkey.

Because the open masks created a danger to the flight, the plane
made an emergency landing in Italy.


    Dalaman airport in right corner of the map.

Ladies Takin' It to the Streets (Signs)

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 29 August 2015)


Turks aren't good at giving directions anyway. What now?!

Women in Ankara have taken inspiration from the women
of Paris who have protested the male street names there and
changed them to women's names. Around midnight women
emerged to change steet and avenue signs around Ankara and
replace them mostly with the names of murdered women.

The Ankara Municipality promised to file a criminal complaint
against the women. The city's spokesman Avni Kavlak said
that "this is just another way of polluting the city. This is
vandalism. If there's an accident on a street whose sign has
been changed how will an ambulance find it?"

The women activists changed the name of the street where
the ruling AK Party's headquarters is located from Dr. Mediha
Eldem Street to Özgecan Aslan Street, to commemorate a young
girl murdered some months ago by minibus driver.

'Sponge Bob' Restoration

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaperi 27 August 2015)


     I'm leaning more toward Bart Simpson...

After the restoration of a 2,000 year-old fortress (sic, probably
more like 800 year-old) left over from the Genovese traders,
the appearance had caused quite a reaction. The fortress is the
symbol of today's Şile, on the Black Sea coast, but some people
are likening its new look to Super Mario and Sponge Bob.


         ...the resemblance is uncanny.

The 12-meter high fortress is said to have been built by the
Byzantine Emperor Andronicas (sic, maybe he had a Genovese
grandmother) and was restored once by the Byzantines and then
by the Ottomans. The current restoration was undertaken by the
Bekiroğlu construction firm, under the watchful eye (!) of the
Istanbul Number 6 Cultural Treasures Preservation Council.

Airport Security Edition: ...or Lack Thereof

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 27 August 2015)


Follow the yellow brick road - from parking lot (right),
through the presidential gate and onto the runway (!).

On 14 July a 63 year-old passenger who had just arrived
at Ankara's Esenboğa Airport from Istanbul, got into his
car in the parking lot, intending to head for Ankara. The
driver then mistakenly entered through the presidential
gate to the runway amid taxiing aircraft.

The driver continued on and as he was about to enter the
second runway the alarm was sounded at the airport. The
control tower told approaching aircraft not to land, as the
panic-stricken driver put on his blinking emergecy lights.

The driver was taken to the airport police station where
he explained that "I wanted to head to Ankara but I lost
my way. When I first saw the runway I said to myself
'Wow! I've never seen a nicer highway!' Then I figured
out that I was on the runway, so I put on my blinkers and
waited."

The airport authority launched an investigation into the
incident, thinking that it probably occurred during the
evening fast-breaking meal 'iftar' given for employees
during the holy month of Ramazan. The Ankara governor's
office reassigned two policemen after the incident. They
denied that they had left the gate open at the presidential
entrance but allowed that they may have opened the gate
thinking the vehicle was an official one.


Esenboğa Airport, Ankara (blue marker)