Rust Bucket Slams Into HistoricBosphorus Yalı

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper,  22 July 2015)


                   Like getting a black eye.

At around noon yesterday, the rudder of the 106-meter long
cargo ship Majed and Randy (!), bearing the flag of Sierra
Leone, locked up and the ship crashed into the Ethem Pertev
Yalısı in Kanlıca on the Bosphorus. Both the ship and the
mansion suffered damage.

One of the nicest yalıs on the Bosphorus, the other name
for Ethem Pertev Yalısı is 'Süslü Yalı' (pretty mansion).
It was built in the 1860's for one of Sultan Abdulmecid's
favorites, Fatma hanım. When Fatma fell on hard times in
the early 1900's, pharmaceutical magnate and statesman Ethem
Pertev Paşa took the yalı.


                     ...in happier days.

In 2000, Murat Köprülü, a descendant of the famous Ottoman
statesman Köprülü Mehmet Paşa, purchased the yalı. Now
the yalı is owned and occupied by the family of Etel Baler,
the daughter of Sami Herman, who was once president of the
Turkey Jewish Community. Etel Baler married Robert Baler
in 2011 and has made a name for herself as a fashion and
style designer.

Same Plates, Separate Cars. Hmmmm...

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 22 July 2015)



               Ah, where's the tradecraft?!

In a photograph taken with a cellphone in Seyrantepe, Istanbul,
the same license plate is seen on an Audi car and a Volkswagen
'Transporter 2' minibus parked meters away from each other.
Interestingly, the vehicles were parked on the same street as the
Istanbul provincial headquarters of the CHP (Republican Peoples
Party) and MHP (Nationalist Movement Party).

The license plate in question is registered to a 2012 model
Mercedes (!) in Ankara. Both vehicles had a 'çakar' (red siren
light) on their fronts and were parked 50 meters from the CHP
building and 100 meters from the MHP building. This brought
to mind the claims of illegal monitoring that occured during the
Ergenekon and Çukurambar investigations.


                                      Whoops!

The listening devices are mounted inside the Transporter 2 and
the vehicle is parked at a spot close to its target. The citizen who
took the photograph did not want his name mentioned but he
said that "when I saw that both the vehicles had the same license
plate I took the picture. When the Audi left it pulled alongside
the Transporter 2 and talked with those inside for a bit. Both
vehicles had a 'çakar'."

 

Turks Let Geogians Pick Tea Henceforth

//ed. note: internet link to original Turkish article unavailable.//


Steep slope tea picking in Ardeşen, Rize.


"Miço (Georgian for 'man')! Hey miço! How much will you
work for? I need four people but I won't give more than 90 lira."
These days in the Black Sea region, and especially around Rize,
this is what you will hear as tea growers try to hire helping hands.
It's early morning in Ardeşen district of Rize in a place the locals
call "above the bridge".

The sun has just risen and tens of people are at work because
they have to beat the punishing sunlight that will come later to
the tea gardens. Black Sea people used to gather tea themselves
or have day workers from other parts of Turkey do it. But in
recent years, illegal workers from Georgia have been doing the
picking

The Georgians come with a change of clothes and wait by the
side of the road to be hired. Then they pick tea in the gardens
that slope 70 degrees for 90 or 100 lira for a full day's work.
Tea producer Selçuk Kaynak finds workers begging to be hired
at the 'Georgia market'. After tough haggling, he makes a deal
with four Georgians. Kaynak frets that he can't make any money
selling his tea for 1.5 lira per kilo.

We go with the four Georgian workers - Nalia Çicavadze, Tamina
Kabulaşvili, and Levter and Tariel Mikadze - to the tea garden.
Actually, Nalia (27) is a successful nurse in her country but she
needs the money she makes in Turkey to help pay her bills.  She
explains her situation as follows: "I came the first time last year.
A friend recommended it. Now whenever I get vacation time I
come to Rize.

As for Tamina, she leaves her children in Poti, Georgia, and
comes to Turkey because of her ailing mother: "I need money
for her treatment. It's hard to find work in Georgia, but no
problem in Turkey."


Georgians come to Ardeşen with tea picking on their minds.

'Psychedelic Neonfest' Draws 'Digital Hippies' to Bursa

türkçe links to original Turkish article.

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 19 July 2015)

saykodelik neonfest maybe you can catch the next one.


After Haight-Ashbury, we wondered where they went...

The 'Saykodelik Neonfest' (Psychedelic Neonfest) music and
arts festival is continuing at the Alaçam picnic grounds at
Uludağ in Bursa, organized by a group calling themselves the
'digital age hippies'.  The day before yesterday a team from the
Bursa Provincial Gendarmerie Command made a holiday visit
to the 'digital hippies'.

The Gendarmerie troops mixed with the youths and offered
them candy and cologne.  In response to complaints about
the festival, which began on 13 July, by nearby residents, the
Gendarmerie took some security measures. The youths wore
some interesting outfits and created a very colorful scene at
the festival, which concludes today.

Syrian Strife Moves Frog Hunting to Turkey

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 18 July 2015)


Plaintive cries of "ribbet! ribbet!" led to frogs' rescue.

When a number of frog factories closed in Syria because
of the civil war there, hundreds of frog hunters descended
upon lakes and ponds near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
in southeastern Turkey for illegal frog poaching.

In operations conducted by the Diyarbakır Gendarmerie
Command in wetlands over the past six months, 457
kilograms of live frogs have been seized. The frogs were
returned to their habitat, whereas 15 frog hunters who were
caught red-handed were fined a total of 563,475 TL (about
250,000 USD), in accordance with the Environment Law.

It turned out that the illegal hunters were selling the frogs
to a factory in Adana for 8 TL per kilo. The factory then
packaged the frogs and sold each one for 20 euros to
countries like France, Germany and England.

It is estimated that between 15 and 20 tons of cooked
frogs legs are sold in touristic hotels in Antalya each
year.  The Diyarbakır chief of the Nature Protection
and National Park Service, Erdal Seven, stated that
"we're not letting the illegal frog hunters see the light of
day, in an effort to prevent the destruction of nature."


Where the frogs are...

Russian Mafia Dons Ready for Turkey Summit

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 18 July 2015)


Learning how to say 'offer you can't refuse' in Turkish.

Nearly 100 of Russia's leading mafia dons are preparing to
hold a summit meeting in Turkey. According to information
provided to the Rosbalt news agency by a source in the Russian
security forces, the choice of Turkey for the summit came
after Russian police told the mafia dons that "if you gather in
any region of Russia we will intervene."

The idea for the Turkey summit came from mafia boss Gela
Kardava and was approved by the leader of the Russian mafia
bosses, Zahariy Kalaşov (a.k.a. Genç (Young) Şanro). The
date for the summit is as yet unknown but it is thought it will
take place on the Mediterranean coast toward the end of the
summer.


          Better stock up on vodka.

Cellphone Traffic Snares 5 Shepherds' Killers

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 17 July 2015)


           Çadır cousins shepherded to jail.

Between 2010 and 2013 in Kayseri, the following murders
of shepherds occurred: in 2010 Zularneyn Taşdelen (52) in
Havadan village of Develi district; in 2011 Bayram Aki (56)
in Yeregeçen village of Pınarbaşı district; Salih Aksoğan (56)
in Mimarsinan hamlet of Melikgazi district; in 2012 Durdu
Mehmet Pınarbaşı (70) in Koçcağız village of Talas district;
and in 2013 İsmail Eser (80) in Kuruköprü hamlet of Talas
district. After each shepherd was murdered his flock was stolen.

The police and Gendarmerie set up a special team to solve the
shepherds' murders. They determined that the five murders
had happened along the Kayseri-Malatya highway around the
time of Kurban Bayramı (feast of sacrifice) and that each
had been shot from afar by a rifle first, and then from close
range. It appears that the shepherds were chosen because at their
advanced ages they would be unable to resist.

Police examined 1,470,000 telephone records and discovered that
at the time of the murders three cousins who lived in a village
near the sites of the incidents - Fatih Çadır (20), Metin Çadır
(21) and Fevzi Çadır (37) - were engaged in intense telephone
communications.

The three Çadır cousins denied the murder charges but gave
conflicting stories under interrogation. They were arrested
for the murders of Salih Aksoğan and İsmail Eser. The police
and Gendarmerie team continues its work regarding the other
three murders, with their efforts focusing on the three cousins.

 
           Kayseri province and its districts.