City Hall Pool Water Douses Bike Fire

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Korkusuz Newspaper, 3 June 2017)


   Bucket Brigade was waiting in the wings, if needed.

Those who live in Istanbul know the Haşim İşcan underpass as the
bicycle market.  For those who don't know, the bike market is near
the Istanbul Municipal Building, 50 meters away from the Fire Dept.
HQS.

Yesterday a fire in the bike market at 09:20 in the morning and
quickly spread to the entire underpass.  But although firefighters were
at the scene quickly, citizens noticed that they were using water from
the Municipal Building's decorative pool to fight the fire, leading to
rumors that the firefighters didn't have enough water in their trucks.
In response, the Fire Dept. declared that firefighters have to use the
nearest water source available. (!)


Impending bike and stroller shortage stalks Istanbul.

Damage to bikes and baby strollers was quite extensive, although no
one was hurt.  Fire fighting units from around the area responded to
help bring the fire under control.


                  ...in happier days.

Village Women Protest Against Museum

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 3 June 2017)


                   Wonder(ful) Women!

In the village of İnköy in Kütahya province, local women demonstrated
against the construction of an archeological museum proposed to be
built on the fields where they graze their livestock.  The women, armed
with pitchforks, axes and sickles, blocked the intercity road that runs
between Kütahya and Eskişehir.

About 500 villagers came to the field with their tractors and animals
to demonstrate against the museum project.  After the highway was
blocked, Kütahya Governor Ahmet Hamdi Nayir and Mayor Kamil
Saraçoğlu arrived at the scene and agreed with the protestors to enage
in a dialogue about the matter, ending the demonstration.


                Kütahya Province

Russian Soldier's Link to Polish Resistance

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 2 June 2017)

the rest of the story when first reported by TNT in April, it appeared
that the Russian soldier in the coffin was General Vasiliy Geyman.
Subsequent research determined the true identity of the soldier.


Body found in Ardahan, first identified as General Vasiliy Geyman,
later determined to be that of Col. Karl Karloviç Rjepetski.

The body of a Russian soldier was found in a coffin in Ardahan on 25
April at a construction site.  Initially, the body was identified as that of
Vasiliy Geyman, a Russian general.  Later it was determined that the
dead soldier was Karl Karloviç Rjepetski and a related photograph of
him was said to have been found, as well.

According to the Russian archives, Colonel Rjepetski was a member of
the 78th Navaginski Regiment of the 20th Infantry Division, 1st Caucasus
Army.  He was born in Reval (Tallinn) in 1847, the child of a prominent
family there.  After joining the army, Rjepetski served for many years
in the 69th Tashkent Guberniyası Battalion, beginning in 1875, and rose
to the rank of colonel in the 1st Turkistan Artillery Battallion in 1891.
 

   Photo thought to be that of Col. Karl Karloviç Rjepetski.

Rjepetski died on 12 November 1894 in Ardahan.  He was buried in
the Armenian Catholic church in Ardahan because there was no Roman
Catholic church in the city.  His daughter Mariya was born in 1883, and
another daughter, Yelena, was born in 1885 in Tashkent.  Yelena's
daughter Evgenia, who was born in 1905, married Waclaw Siedzik on 2
July 1926.  Their daughter Danuta Siedzikowna was born on 3
September 1928.

Waclaw Siedzik was exiled  by the Soviets to Siberia during the Second
World War and he died there in 1943.  His wife Evgenia was executed
in September 1943 for joining in the Polish resistance against the
occupying Germans.  Their daughter Danuta joined the Polish Peoples
Army and fought first against the Germans and then the Communists,
in the cause of Polish independence.


                                 Danuta 

Danuta was a nurse in the Polish Peoples Army.  She was killed by a
Soviet firing squad  on 28 August 1946.  In a letter to her family before
her death, Donata wrote "I'm sad that I will die.  Tell my grandmother that
I did what I had to do."  Her last words were "Long Live Poland!".
Like her grandfather Karl Karloviç Rjepetski, her grave was found years
later and she was re-buried in 2016.


         Ardahan province

Unscheduled Stop: Tram Waits As Man Prays

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper, 2 June 2017)


Like the Tianamen Square picture, but context a bit nicer.

In Karşıyaka, Izmir, a person stopped his minibus on the side of the road
where a tramway runs and got out to pray.  Approaching the man's make-shift
prayer site was a tram driven by machinist Aysu Tuna.  She stopped her tram
to wait for the minibus driver to finish praying.  The scene was recorded by
a citizen across the street on his balcony.


      Tram driver of the year honors in the bag.

Once the man finished praying he got up quickly and gestured a 'thank you'
to Aysu hanım and the tram's passengers.  Relating the incident, Aysu
hanım said "the passengers weren't upset at all. They were all very
understanding.  Normally, I would have honked my horn but since he was
praying I didn't want to disturb him."


                                    Izmir

Putin Steps on the Gas, Big-Time

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 1 June 2017)


                      That is one big ship!

"Pioneering Spirit":

Length: 382 meters
Width: 124 meters
Depth: 27 meters
Maximum lift capacity: 48,000 tons
Number of cranes: 3,
Maximum speed: 14 knots
Personnel: 571
On-board factories: 5 installation, 6 welding, 6 painting.

The day before yesterday the 382-meter long "Pioneering Spirit"
construction ship that will be used to build the TurkStream natural
gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey under the Black Sea, passed through
the Dardanelles Strait.  Yesterday, the ship passed through the Bosphorus
Strait at Istanbul, as it continues its journey from Rotterdam, Holland,
to the Russian Black Sea port of Anapa.

The giant pipe-laying ship was shepherded through the strait by three
pilot boats and two salvage ships, along with Coast Guard and police
boats.  The 4 pipelines of TurkStream will each transport 15,750,000,000
cubic meters of gas across the bottom of the Black Sea for 910 kilometers.
Once the pipeline makes landfall at Kıyıköy in Turkish Thrace, it will
be layed overland for another 260 kilometers.  Russia's GAZPROM will
build the pipeline alone.


                Clearly, anything is possible.

Cuban Dancers Reluctant Bar Girls in Ankara

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 1 June 2017)


 Dragana J. (or a look-alike) and his dancers, in happier days.

40 Cuban girls, who make a living by dancing in their home country,
got in touch with a management agency in Macedonia.  The agency
claimed to have booked engagements for the dancers fırst in Istanbul
and then in Ankara.  The agency's owner, Macedonian citizen Dragana J.,
began to stay with the dancers at a hotel in Ulus, Ankara.

Soon afterwards, the dancers found themselves working at night clubs
as bar girls, as arranged by Dragana J.  The girls objected but were
essentially  imprisoned in the hotel during non-working hours and
Dragana J. took their passports away, as well.

After two months in the hotel, one of the girls fled to the Cuban Embassy
to relate her and her friends' nightmare.  The embassy contacted the
Turkish Foreign Ministry, which then alerted the police to the situation.
A subsequent police raid of the hotel freed the girls and Dragana J. was
taken into custody.

The Cuban dancers have returned to their country.  Meanwhile, in court,
Dragana J. refuted the charges against him and his lawyer claimed that
no laws had been broken.  Nevertheless, Dragana J. was sent to Sincan
Prison for the crime of "human trafficking".

Noah's First Stop, After the Flood

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 31 May 2017)


Animal mosaic provides incontrovertible proof of Noah's visit.

As the waters began to recede after The Great Flood, one of the first stops
for the Prophet Noah's ark was Misis Antique City in Adana's Yüreğir district.
The source of this claim comes from a mosaic which has emerged at the
excavation of Misis.  There are similar mosaics in Israel and Jordan.

The excavation at Yüreğir, named "The Immortal City Misis Project", began
in 2012 led by Prof. Dr. Anna Lucia D'Agata and Prof. Dr. Giovanni Salmeri
of Pisa University in Italy.  Project sponsor Yüreğir Mayor Mahmut Çelikhan
explained that "we're making new finds every day. This will give us great
tourism potential for the next 10 years.  Work will be focused on the fortress
gate, which belongs to the Late Hittite Period."


Preparing to dock at Misis.  The first Rainbow Coalition.

Misis Antique City has been settled uninterruptedly for 7,000 years, having
been founded soon after Trojan Commander Mopsos fought the Troy War.
Misis was famous for its hospitals and doctors, diagnoses and treatments.
According to legend, the physician Lokman found the secret of immortality
with the medicines he made from local plants.  However, the paper on which
the immortality formula was written by Lokman fell into the Seyhan River
while Lokman was crossing the Misis Bridge (!).  



                          Yüreğir/Misis (A)