Nazlan Ertan

author@duvarenglish.com
ALL ARTICLES
Turkish glass artist Feleksan Onar’s glass birds come home Feleksan Onar’s glass birds nest among the Sadberk Hanım Museum’s artifacts, creating the museum’s first-ever contemporary art exhibition.
Turkey's small festivals Turkey’s numerous small events combine music or gastronomy with sumptuous historical settings. As new trends in tourism emerge in the post-pandemic era, they can be the balm to the country’s tourism woes, but only if they can combine authenticity, creativity, sustainability and bipartisan support. Why a puppet may be a timely reminder for Turkey’s migration policy Standing on an Aegean beach in Çeşme, the 3.5-meter-puppet of a Syrian refugee girl aims to drive home to message that refugees can make a lasting contribution to the host country. Is that a message people of Turkey want to hear now?
Pig’s eye view of post-pandemic personas So who will you be in the new normal? A post-pandemic missionary determined to battle the inequalities that have become more pronounced under the pandemic; the love-thy-neighbor community builder or the introvert unable to shake off his cave syndrome? Turkey’s summer house pandemic The pandemic has brought back the revival of the summer house -  a remnant of the times when multi-generations found themselves under the same roof and around the same huge table, trying to keep their cool under the heat. Turkey’s summer of discontent Unveiling Turkey’s own “national and local” plan to combat violence against women, President Erdoğan said that Turkey was against violence of any sort. Given the events of the last week, from the police’s treatment of the LGBT to an AFP journalist, the words added insult to injury. Why Istanbul’s relation with sea is not so easy As one of Turkey’s top swimwear brands shutters its last boutique, let us just go down the memory lane on beaches and beachwear in Turkey. By the mid-2010s, both local swimwear companies and foreign ones trying to break into the Turkish market knew better than showing too much skin on city billboards, so they made sure that the bikini-clad model had a chic sarong or a shirt over the bikini.  A brief if explosive history of shorts in Turkey While headscarves doubtlessly remain Turkey’s most controversial item of clothing, shorts do come a close second. Shorts are the dividing line between conservative and modern, coastal and land-bound, toxically masculine and rebelliously feminist/feminine, and at times, gay and homophobic.  Istanbul Convention belongs to women President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s legally dubious overnight decree might claim to take Turkey out of the Istanbul Convention, but it has failed to take the spirit of the Convention out of Turkish women. It is yet to be seen whether the presidential decree could be reversed in courts or be won on the streets - and online. AKP’s two-decade-long battle against alcohol Ever since 2002, a string of laws and regulations adopted under the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) sought to make alcohol impossible to advertise and promote, expensive to drink and unprofitable to sell. Here is looking at the past and present of alcohol restrictions in Turkey and to Kemal Atatürk’s civil disobedience to Turkish Parliament’s alcohol ban.   Turkey’s iconic actors are in courts, not on stage Turkey’s iconic thespians spend more time in courts than on stage as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s crackdown on dissidents continues by unearthing the long-published tweets of journalists, actors and politicians. Turkey’s rulers need to stop using the word ‘infidel’ Gavur, a Persian word derived from Aramaic, means an infidel, but was originally used in the Ottoman Empire by tax registers to refer to Orthodox Christians. Unlike its Arabic equivalent kafir, it now refers to a fanatical and obstinate “other" either a non-believer or a non-Muslim. The term has been used repeatedly since 2016, particularly when the ruling AKP wants to claim righteousness or invoke the threat of a grand conspiracy plotted by foreign powers against Turkey. Sofagate points to EU representation problem   It was not us who put Ursula von der Leyen on the sofa, it was her own in the EU, shrugs off Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu while international media has field days with the hashtag #GiveHerASeat and #sofagate. Despite Erdoğan being a convenient scapegoat for the “snub of Ursula,” the sofagate may be the tip of an iceberg on the problematic representation between the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission. Woman at Point Zero The shackles that bind women to abusive marriages, a topic that Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi tackled, remain relevant today – particularly since Turkey’s government got rid of the Istanbul Convention overnight. Turkish artist’s perched birds pay tribute to the displaced Turkish glass artist Felekşan Onar’s perched birds at Dresden Museum deliver a poignant message on the frailty of refugees and migrants - from Syrians in Turkey and Turks in Germany to the Turkish and Greek population exchange of 1923. Boğaziçi 101 for the confused From snakes to LGBTI, Duvar English provides a glossary on who is who in the Boğaziçi University protests that are being dubbed, by some advocates and critics, as Gezi 2.0. Why Turks hate to work from home Even the technically-savvy and work-life balance-conscious Generation Z are unhappy about working at home. “81 percent of the people would like to return to the office after the pandemic,” according to a poll carried out in October by Turkish Energy, Water, Electricity Workers’ Labour Union (TES-İŞ). Is the loanword mightier than the sword? At a culture award ceremony last week, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan lamented on the loanwords in the Turkish language. His lingual peeves, however, are more targeted toward the European words than those from the east, in somewhat of a caricature of his foreign policy. Taking Sex out of the City Sex and The City is loved by Turkey’s Generation X because it is reminiscent of the times you could have political sex scandals covered in front pages without some media watchdog stepping in. As if Covid19 restrictions were not enough of a killjoy, Turkey’s “official voices” have increased their moralistic tone on sexuality throughout the year to spoil the fun. The announcement that the series will have a sequel without polygamy queen Samantha seems to be the final straw in a sexually-dull year. Humour versus handcuffs at Boğaziçi University Despite a lot of clumsy efforts to appear as Mr. Nice Guy, Melih Bulu, who was appointed as the new rector of Boğaziçi University, is verging between the most unpopular person of the month and the most ridiculed. Perhaps someone should have advised this ambitious industrial engineer and self-declared innovator that outlining his affiliations to widely divergent parties is not the best way to prove that he is simply a gentle academic worthy of leading Turkey’s top public university.  Spare me the moralistic backlash on #metoo Turkey’s erratic #metoo movement has suffered many setbacks since 2017, when revelations about sexual harassment in Hollywood sparked a global movement. Can the literary #metoo change that? From Batman to Istanbul, women break the silence on sexual abuse A 15-year-old from Batman and several well-known writers from Istanbul broke the silence on sexual abuse and received support from women all around Turkey. Politicians should take a stance against fake news, not fiction The British government’s asking “The Crown” to come with a warning that it is fiction is just as silly as Turkish politicians wanting to “set Turkish series right.” The governments’ efforts would be put to better use by taking a stance on fake news or inaccurate statements, including their own, rather than fight against artistic license. Cyberbullies go berserk under COVID-19 lockdowns At a time when Turkey’s Interior Minister says that killing women is a “shame” (whatever happened to the perfectly good words “a crime that must be severely punished”?), what choice do I have but to pin my hopes on the First Lady’s words on the International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women? Dear Mrs. Erdoğan, now that you have taken a stance against mafia bosses, could you please include cyberbullies and trolls to your list? Sons-in-law and politics, a Turkish tradition Unlike Ottoman sons-in-law who would leave their posts by death or exile, Mr Albayrak’s departure from office was greeted with a flurry of jokes - like most of his policies whilst in office. How heroes, humor and Hermes keep you going With shootings in Kabul, Nice and Vienna, the lockdowns and an increase in the number of COVID-19 fatalities as well as the earthquake that has killed hundreds in Turkey and Greece, it has been a grim fortnight. Here is a list of small pleasures that readers may need. Charlie Hebdo did not spark the fire Given the broader debate on France and its clumsy policies towards Islam and its Muslim population and recent attacks, Charlie Hebdo’s cartoon on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan should have been but a footnote. But the president and its cronies are determined to bring this to headlines and use it as ammunition in I-am-the-voice-of-discriminated-Muslims game. Why do the Turks love concrete so much? From President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s passion for large roads to the sprightly octogenarians’ desire to “enlarge the balcony just a bit,” the Turks just love construction – even at the risk of bending local laws. The death of a three year old, child abuse and death penalty in Turkey Some of Turkey’s fierce secularists like to portray child abuse - and its cover-up - as the practice of sects and conservative families, but this is not the case. Some cases make it to the press but more cases go unknown or hushed up within families. Berlin-based artist calls for resilience in corona times Turkey’s creative sector has been stifled by limitations on free speech and faltering finances. COVID-19 made it significantly worse, particularly with a harsh winter on the way.