On The Road: Tractor Ticket, Taxi Tumult

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 6 March 2016)


"Let's get the bureaucrats out here to drive my tractor!"

The HGS (toll booth) penalties have turned comical, with
tickets coming to Yozgat farmers accused of having driven
their tractors across the Boğaziçi Bridge in Istanbul without
paying.  The recipient farmers are in shock.

The Transportation Ministry sent HGS tickets that had
accumulated to citizens after the November election.  One
summons for 45 TL (about 15 USD) came to a Yozgat
farmer named Mehmet Baran, who owns a 1969 model tractor
in Sağlık village, for crossing the bridge in Istanbul without paying.

Baran lamented that "it's hard enough for me to drive the tractor
to Yozgat, let alone across the Istanbul bridge.  I never saw
Istanbul in my life.  How could I go to Istanbul with my tractor?
Other farmers in other villages have gotten similar tickets. I
wrote a petition of objection to the ministry."



                     A bridge too far...

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türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 7 March 2016)


              Among those arrested.

In Ankara, an argument between two families working at the same
taxi stand turned into an all-out war.  In the clash, 28 people were
wounded from buckshot from hunting rifles and three of them are
in serious condition.

The Ankara Governor's office reported that 14 of the injured in the
incident, which occurred in the Plevne neighborhood of Altındağ,
have been released after tretment at various local hospitals.  Those 14
and another 6 individuals have been taken into custody.  Police
seized three pump-action hunting rifles and 3 knives.


Plevne neighborhood in Altındağ, Ankara, is near 'Ankara' on map.

 

Vegetarian Inmate's Hunger Strikes Pay Off

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 6 March 2016)


Dauntless Vegan Hero: hunger strikes during prison odyssey.

Osman Evcan was sentenced to life in prison in 1992 for being
a member of an 'illegal organization'.  Evcan, a vegetarian,
complained in 2011 that he wasn't getting enough vegetarian
food in jail, an F-type prison in Kırıkkale, so he went on a 43-
day hunger strike.  This prompted a "vegetarian food for Osman"
campaign on the internet, which turned into a global movement
and reached to the halls of the Turkish Parliament.

As a result, on 28 March 2012 the Justice Ministry changed the
prison food regulations and gave inmate vegetarians their menu
rights.  However, Evcan demanded that his meals be prepared
with fresh and seasonal vegetables and he went on another 33-day
hunger strike in April 2014.

On 10 November 2015, Evcan was transferred to the Kocaeli
No. 1 F-type prison, where he claimed his vegetarian rights
were being infringed upon.  This time, his demands were met
on the 40th day of his hunger strike.  But when he was sent
to the Silivri No. 6 L-type prison he experienced similar problems
and made an appeal to the Constitutional Court.

(Incredibly!) the Constitutional Court agreed, in part, to Evcan's
plea and ordered that the government pay him 3,000 TL in
compensation. The order was sent to the Justice Ministry and
the Silivri public prosecutor for implementation.


   Scene of fine vegetarian dining henceforth.
 

Sledgehammer Remembrance; Stinging Butterfly

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 5 March 2016)


  A not-so-subtle reminder of the cause of death.

The Aşiyan cemetery in Istanbul is home to one of the most
interesting gravestones in the world.  The grave is that of Rona
Altınay, who was a flight attendant on the Turkish Airlines (THY)
DC-10 that crashed in France in 1974. She was one of the 345
people who lost their lives that day.

Altınay's grave has a marble model of a DC-10 type airplane
in nose-down crash configuration and the words "Hostes Rona
Altınay' are written on the body of the plane.  Written on the wings
of the plane model are the birth and death dates of Altınay, and
the THY emblem is on the tail.


Kerem Gök (whose surname means 'sky'!) took a photograph of
the headstone for his book "Airplane Crashes of Importance in
Turkish Civil Aviation History".  The 'Ankara'-named THY DC-10
had 335 passengers and 11 crew members on board when it crashed
after take-off from Paris Orly Aiport en route to London on 3 March
1974. There were no survivors.


     May she rest in peace.

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türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 5 March 2016)


    This time, the 'butterfly effect' hurt!

Egyptian tourist Yehia Elsayed Abdelailim Aly (23) came for a
vacation with his friends to Fethiye district of Muğla province.
Yesterday, Aly and two of his friends decided to descend 400
meters into Kelebek Vadisi (Butterfly Valley).  However, Aly
lost his balance on the path and plunged down 20 meters into a
crevice.

UMKE (rescue) and Gendarmerie teams were dispatched to
rescue Aly, who could not walk because of broken bones.  The
rescuers descended into the crevice by ropes and the nail-biting
rescue effort began.  Because of the steepness of the crevice,
the team decided to take Aly down to the valley floor.

Setting up relay points on the rocks, the rescuers carried the
injured man on a stretcher for 2 kilometers to the Kelebek Vadisi
beach.  There, Aly was put on a tourist boat and taken to Öludeniz,
where an ambulance awaited him.  The rescue took 5 hours.

Counterfeit Robin Hood

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Posta Newspaper, 4 March 2016)


        Robin Hoodoğlu and his masterpieces.

In Istanbul, police have nabbed a gang that has been passing
counterfeit Turkish Lira and foreign currency on the economy.
Central Bank officials could not even tell the fake money from
real notes. The gang was savvy enough to use special ink containing
metal powder so that the purple light detection machines couldn't
tell the difference.


He's right! The resemblance is uncanny...

Additionally, the gang included a cipher for the money related to
bank codes. Gang leader Erkan A. owns two villas in Yeniköy and
Beykoz, along with luxury automobiles.  In his statement to police,
Erkan A. likened himself to the popular English hero of old, Robin
Hood, saying that he steals from the rich and gives to the poor: "I
didn't spend any of the fake money on myself, I gave it all to poor
people. Because I'm rich anyway."

Erkan A. was captured at his print shop in Seyrantepe Industrial
Park, along with graphic artist Selim D.  About 1 million liras
worth of TL and foreign currency were taken in the raid.

Spiderman Look Catches Fire in Erzurum

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 3 March 2016)


                  Accidental Spidermen 

In Erzurum, Oğuzhan Kayaoğlu and Muhammet Köksal took
a ride in a car driven by their friend Ahmet İlker.  For fun (!)
the friends sprayed perfume on each other, but then İlker lit a
cigarette with the car windows closed.

The flame from İlker's cigarette lighter ignited the perfume
fumes, turning the car into a ball of flames.  İlker was slightly
injured, while his two friends were more seriously hurt.  Köksal,
wrapped like a mummy at the local hospital, noted that "if the
car had been going faster we would have burned to death."


    Early trendsetters - September 2015.

spidertriplets  the look that's setting Erzurum on fire!


Kayaoğlu explained how the incident developed: "we noticed the
perfume in the car and sprayed it, thinking it would make the
car smell better.  We got a bit carried away and sprayed each
other with the perfume and a couple of minutes later Ahmet lit
his cigarette.  With fire all around us we all started to burn as
the car was moving.  As soon as Ahmet was able to stop the
car we got out and people took us to the hospital. Because of a
perfume joke we all almost died."


                         Erzurum province

Don't Gamble With This Proctor!

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 2 March 2016)


    If you get a uniform, that means you passed.

In Muzafferpur, India, the candidates taking an enlistment
exam for the armed forces were forced to strip down to their
underwear to prevent copying.  The photograph of the recruits'
treatment had engendered outrage in the country.

Military officials in Bihar state explained that "in order to
save time and control a large candidate group, this method
was preferred."  One of the 1,500 recruits told the Hindistan
Express newspaper that "it was humiliating and an insult to
my honor. When we entered the field where the exam was
held we had to take off all our clothes, except underwear. We
all thought it was strange but we had to comply."


 Scaling the walls in Bihar, where Kinko's has its world HQs.

There was a distance of 2.5 meters between each candidate.
Military officials claimed that it wasn't they who made the
decision about stripping.  Extreme precautions are taken to
prevent copying in India. Last year, scenes of family members
scaling the walls of a school to give their children copies was
on the nation's agenda for a long while.


               Bihar state, India

Serial Killer Would Rather be in Prison

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 1 March 2016)


             Homesick

Hamdi Kayapınar was convicted of killing 6 people in Kayseri
and sentenced to life in prison.  Nevertheless, taking advantage
of chance for supervised freedom, Kayapınar tried it but then
asked to be taken back to prison.


                     Who wouldn't be?

Between 1998 and 2001 Kayapınar killed 6 people and wounded
four.  After completing 16 years in jails in Kayseri and Sivas,
Kayapınar became eligible for supervised freedom and was
released from the Ankara prison on 12 February.

However, once back in Kayseri Kayapınar feared for his life
and applied to authorities to be returned to jail.  Kayapınar was
then taken from a relative's house in Talas district of Kayseri
and brought to Kayseri prison.


                         Kayseri province.