Turkey's new coinage

An article on the new coins to be produced when Turkey takes 6 zeroes off its currency on 1 January 2005. Some of the article is confusing but the most interesting quote for me is:

State Minister for Economy Ali Babacan will decide which pictures and designs will be on the new currency. Ataturk's picture, which is prevalent on the money in circulation today, will not be used on the new kurus coins.

Selam Ali!

Last night I went to Mado Cafe to meet a friend, Helin. Whilst at the cafe I met my boss's daughters and their Grandparents, visiting from Izmit. I also saw Hakan and Mutlu, 2 university friends of Ali, my first Turkish flatmate back in 2001. Ali went to Atlanta a few years ago on an internship and is currently still there. Unknown to me, Hakan and Mutlu were also university friends of Helin's. It turns out that Helin was also at Ali, Hakan and Mutlu's university graduation almost 3 years ago! On the spur of the moment I decide to sms Ali. We had not communicated for months. A few minutes later, Ali telephones me. Although the line was very bad (he ended up calling 3 times) I could recognise that Ali had developed a strong American accent. Was wonderful to speak with him again, even if was only intermitenttly and accompanied by interference.

Before leaving Mado, I spotted Ertan abi, my neighbour from my second Mersin residence, Denizhan 2, and a rector at the university. Ertan abi is good friends with Umut, my second flatmate, who has recently commenced his military service in Adana.

Mado: the place not recommended for anonymity

ANZAC Day

Over in my other blog I have written an article on the Turkish side of ANZAC Day and the importance of the Gallipoli battles to the Turkish, in particular, to the rise of Ataturk. On a related note, in CNN's ANZAC Day coverage they showed the poser John Howard (Australia's less than esteemed leader) making a photo opportunity with Australian troops in Iraq. There was also a news story with Stan Grant on the ANZAC Day commemorations in Thailand where the World War 2 POW's (prisoners of war) suffered terribly building the railway for the Japanese. Following the news was Stan Grant again, presenting a documentary about the troubles aboriginals have in Australia, particularly focusing on the riots in Redfern (an inner-Sydney suburb).

Cyprus: the Result

As expected and detailed below, the Turkish Cypriots voted for (65%) the reunification plan and Greek Cypriots against (76%). A big chance to move forward was missed. At least the Turkish Cypriots will now receive further international recognition and aid. With the international isolation of the past 30 years, the Northern Cyprus economy has suffered considerably and is much poorer than the South. Hopefully, this will start to change. The Economist article is here.

Happy Birthdays to Eilish and Shannon!

Niece Eilish's birthday is today and her Mother (my sister) Shannon's birthday is tomorrow. Happy birthdays!

The top Nightspot in Mersin

Last night Ali and Magda came from Adana. I met them at Guzeloglu Tantuni, our usual restaurant. The free Children's Day Haluk Levent concert organised by the recently re-elected council was cancelled due to rain. The previous few days were overcast and wet. On the way back to my flat to watch the top 80 videos of the 80s on NTV we played a trick on Huseyin abi, a local shopkeeper friend. Ali and Magda went to his shop and pretended they wanted something by speaking in Polish or Spanish
or English and Huseyin abi did not have a clue. He took his glasses off to listen better to Magda! A minute late I burst in and Huseyin abi and I laughed ourselves stupid. I had the tears going I laughed that much!

After some reminiscing in front of the television watching 1980's music videos from Blondie, Pat Benatar, Boy George and more we made a snap decision to walk to The Hilton Disco. Friday night at the Hilton Disco is probably the most popular regular night in Mersin. This was my first visit in almost 1+1/2 years! It was great to have a couple of hours on the dance floor although the music (house? trance?) was quite monotonous by the end. Sometimes, when I felt my enthusiasm wane on the dancefloor I remembered that I was in a 'dangerous' country and this laugh inspired me on. After 2 am it was time to walk home and get some sleep before work, later this morning.

The Cypriots are Voting for (or against) Reunification Today

After many, many debates and meetings, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots will vote today on a reunification plan. I really hope the locals can put the terrible past behind them and unite Cyprus again. Somehow, I don't see this happening for a while. There are too many strong feelings. Having written this, it is very good that talks have reached this far. Today it is expected the Turkish Cypriots will vote for the plan and the Greek Cypriots against.

The ferries from Turkey to Northern (Turkish) Cyprus leave all year round from Mersin and from Tasucu, near Silifke, 80 km west. In 2002 I travelled to Northern Cyprus with Umut and Beysun. Then, as now, the border between the two sides is closed to most people. I really hope the next time I go there will be no border and everyone is free to visit the entire island. I don't know when this will happen. The situation will be interesting after 1 May when the South (Greek Cyprus) joins the European Union.

A brief history of the island of Cyprus and the machinations between the Greek and Turkish sides is on the BBC website.

National Children's Day and a visit to the local Orphanage

The Orphanage

Yesterday, Sevil and I visited the local orphanage in the centre of Mersin. There, about 100 or so 5 to 12 year old children were in a hall. They were preparing to celebrate both National Children's and Sovereignty Day and birthdays for all the children born in April. Sevil went to the orphanage as part of a Rotary Club charity event to give sweets to the orphans.

The children were very rowdy, active and generally happy. They were dressed in either school uniforms or what looked like donated clothing. Some of the clothing was slightly ill-fitting and a few of the boys' tops were designed for females. Nothing too noticeable, though.

I spoke to several of them and they were intrigued to speak to a foreigner. The most common questions requested my age, name and 'Hangi takim?' or 'Which team?'. This last question, of course, was referring to which football (soccer) team I supported in Turkey. I say 'Fenerbahce' mainly because this is the team followed by my previous Turkish flatmates, Ali and Umut. I don't passionately support Fenerbahce and I actually hope the lesser clubs in Turkey win instead of the big 3 Istanbul sides, Fenerbahce, Galatasary and Besiktas. When talking about ages, one of the children said his Mother was 30 years old. I don't know how he knew this he was an orphan. Perhaps his Mother could not support him and gave him up. Some older school students were also visiting the orphanage at the same time. Two of them actually recognised me from when I visited their schools in early 2002.

A male orphan was the MC and introduced the day's program. Several adults gave speeches largely ignored by the children. 4 of the female orphans then danced to a Tarkan (Turkey's biggest popstar) song. Following this, 5 or 6 male and female orphans in traditional costume then performed Turkish folk dances accompanied by a drummer and flute player. More performances were to follow but Sevil and I had to return to work.

I have some photos of the dancing and hope to post them in the next few days.

National Sovereignty and Children’s Day

Today, the 23rd of April is 'National Sovereignty and Children’s Day'. According to NTV "...established by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to honour both the children of Turkey and the founding of the national parliament of the new Turkish nation."

Many businesses and apartments displayed Turkish flags (like they do for all holidays) and schools, government offices, banks and some businesses were closed. My work remained open as it has in previous years. This morning a student parade lead by a marching band walked past work. Amongst the school students were scouts. It reminded me of my days long ago when I took part in ANZAC Day and other marches as a cub, scout or venturer. ANZAC Day is in fact on in 2 days time and soon I will write about it from the Turkish perspective in my other blog.

Someone really wants Google's new Email Service

Subtitled: someone needs to get a life

Give Me Gmail

DFAT have Updated the Travel Advice for Turkey

It seems the only change in advice given by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is a reference to ANZAC Day in Gallipoli.

Written in bold, at the start of the Turkey travel advice page is:

Australians are advised to defer non-essential travel to Turkey until further notice. We continue to receive information suggesting that further terrorist attacks in Istanbul, Ankara and other centres in Turkey are likely.

Australians considering travel to Turkey for Anzac Day services at Gallipoli on 25 April 2004 are urged to consult the Travel Bulletin for Anzac Day (see below).

Australians in Turkey should exercise extreme caution, particularly in commercial and public areas, and keep themselves informed of developments that might affect their safety.

Australians should also exercise particular care in south-eastern Turkey, especially in the border region between Turkey and Iraq.


Oh well, pity to those who do not come to Turkey because of what DFAT has written. I feel completely safe here. The only way the above advice affects me is (probably) voiding my insurance cover. My travel insurance runs out in June and if the Australian government is still recommending against all non-essential travel to Turkey I doubt I will extend the policy. Instead, I would buy shorter policies when travelling outside Turkey to 'safer' countries without travel warnings like Iran.

Having written the above, I am not stupid enough to ignore all warnings completely. Should there be a serious risk of anything happening (besides traffic accidents or illnesses from over-generous hospitality :-) I would reassess my situation.

Networking in the 21st century

The other day Kerem very kindly invited me to join LinkedIn. LinkedIn is an internet-based invite-only professional networking tool used by people to make contacts, find investors, research industries, find jobs, recruit employees amongst other uses. I have not delved deeply into it but will do so soon when I have the time.

GuestMap Update

Thank you to Shannon and Alejandro for the latest GuestMap entries. There are now little humans located in Canada, the USA, Mexico (NAFTA!), Germany, Turkey, Israel, China and Australia. Come on people, I want this map covered!

(Click on the button to the right to see for yourself and add your own entry)

Locked outside wearing only my boxers

Magda and Ali stayed over on Friday night. We woke up early Saturday morning as Ali had to return to Adana for work. Just after 7am they exited my door to catch the lift 6 levels down. At first they had a problem with the lift so I left my doorway and showed them the sensors that stop the lift when crossed (as a safety measure). Bad move! A few seconds later, 'clang', my apartment door closes and I don't have the keys!

I am locked outside my apartment early on a Saturday morning wearing only my boxers!!!!

Luckily, with previous experience of being locked out, I went upstairs onto the rooftop to look for a lever of some sort to unlock the door. Bingo! I hope no people in the neighbouring buildings were offended by the sight of me :-) I found a length of thin metal rod. Downstairs I bent the rod and poked it through the metal door slats. After a few manipulations the catch opened and I returned to the sanctity of my flat.

As it Happens, Live From Iraq

At the moment there is an Australian civillian, timsahb, in Baghdad. For some 'as it happens' news of the unrest in Iraq, read the following Thorn Tree posts:
Post 1

Post 2

For daily, updated photos of Iraq, visit timsahb's Fotolog.


Any thoughts of myself visiting northern Iraq as a side trip from Iran later in the year have well and truly gone.

Turkish names and their meanings

When I first came to Turkey I was amazed at how many different Turkish names there are. Prior to arriving I thought that the number of names would be limited as Turkey was not as diverse as, say, Australia. People also ask me what my name means. My first name is easy to explain as it is the equivalent of 'Yusuf' (a common name here). However, my second name is more difficult for the locals to understand as 'it is probably named after an Irish river'.

The variety of names and expectation of names with meanings both come from the fact that many Turkish names are every-day words with meanings. A selection of names and their equivalent meaning in English are listed below. This post was inspired by exult's question on the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree discussion board.

Which Turkish name sounds the best?

Imagine if the English equivalents were regular names...
Alkim - rainbow
Aslan - lion
Arzu - desire
Aziz - saint (male)
Azize - saint (female)
Baris - peace
Bilgin - scholar
Bora - tempest
Buket - bouquet
Can - soul, life
Canan - beloved
Cenk - battle
Cigdem - crocus
Cagdas - contemporary
Damla - drop
Demir - iron, anchor
Deniz - sea
Derya - sea
Devrim - revolution
Dogan - falcon
Duygu - feeling
Eda - manner
Ege - Aegean
Emin - secure
Funda - heather
Gizem - mystery
Goksel - celestial
Gul - rose
Gunes - sunshine
Hakan - khan
Harika - wonderful
Hilal - crescent
Iklim - climate
Latif - pleasing
Melek - angel
Mert - brave
Metin - strong
Murat - wish
Mutlu - happy
Nil - Nile
Nilufer - water lily
Nur - light
Onur - honour
Oya - embroidery
Ozge - uncommon
Ozgur - free
Ozlem - aspiration
Pinar - spring
Saadet - happiness
Savas - war
Seda - voice
Selim - benignant
Seref - honour
Sevda - passion
Sevgi - love
Ufuk - horizon
Ugur - good luck
Umit - hope
Umut - hope
Uran - industry
Yalin - bare
Zafer - victory

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

Labels: turkish names

A Mixed Bag of Stories

GuestMap Entries
Thank you Flic, Haso, Alicia, Onur and Jeff for making the first GuestMap entries. There are now little smiling people in North America, Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. To view them and to add your own entry, please click the button on the right.


Permalink
As is quite obvious to see, there are permanent links for every post. If one wants to refer to a post all they have to do is click on the permalink and copy the address. In the case of the 03 November 2003 story of Toygun and my expedition to Anazarbus (Anavarza), the link is here


Sakip Sabanci Passes Away
The big news this week in Turkey is the passing of Sakip Sabanci, the head of the Sabanci empire. He was regarded as the leading industrialist in Turkey overseeing a vast empire of businesses in size second only to Koc Holdings in Turkey. The town where the Sabanci empire grew from is Adana. It was Adana that I visited yesterday, not because of Sakip's death, but to see Ali and Magda. After eating borek, sikma (savoury pancakes) and Kunefe (a sweet) we walked around town. In view were both the HiltonSA Hotel and Sabanci Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the Middle East. Other photos of the Sabanci Mosque: at night, with a jet in the foreground and during sunset.
In Turkey so many businesses have the famous Sabanci 'SA' symbol as seen in the DuPontSA and EXSA logos.
This article provides a good summary of Sakip Sabanci and his empire, althought the grammar is not the best.


Is it Spring or as has Summer arrived already?
Whilst still in Adana I developed a headache and the pain stayed with me when I came back to Mersin. Shortly after going to bed last night I vomited and it wasn't until midday today I felt well enough to come to work. I am not definite on the cause of the illness although I can say it was not meat or alcohol related. Magda also had a headache after the walk yesterday afternoon. My best guess is the illness was the result of the sun and heat. Yesterday the temperature was around 30C a jump of several degrees from the previous day and I don't think my body was used to the heat. Has spring already passed?


African Visitors
Tonight some visitors from Africa will come to Mersin for business. The languages will be fun: Arabic, French, Turkish, English and a bit of Swahili mixed in for good effect.


Interesting article on Australian expats
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/11/1081621832403.html
I hope everyone reading this blog has a positive view of me as an expatriate :-)


Popstar and its many Turkish variations
The first Popstar television series was a huge hit in Turkey, launching a various artists popstar album and singles for several of the contestants.
I was flicking TV channels the other evening and I noticed some new Popstar copies showing. With research I have discovered:
Akademi Türkiye (Academy Turkey) a Big Brother-style Popstar version
Turkstar
Türkiyenin Yıldızları (Turkey's Stars)
and a 2nd Popstar

Visit the programme websites and see how similar they are!

Can any other country beat this amount of Popstar copies?


Easter
Oh, yeah, happy Easter!
The biggest Easter event I took part in this year was to throw water on Magda, the Polish trainee. This Polish tradition was pointed out to me on Saturday by Alicia on msn chat.
Thanks to Alicia, Magda, Ali and I had some fun with this tradition on Sunday!

Place your post on the GuestMap!

On the right of the page, under "Where are you in the world?", there is a button to click on. Please click on this and add your post and message to the world map. I want to see little smiling humans and read messages from all over the world so get cracking!

Some Election Gossip

I recently heard some very juicy election-related gossip. It involved significant $$ and some important political figures in both Mersin and Turkey nationally. I can't disclose as I do wish to live. If this particular story gets out there I will write about it here.

The Great Text Messaging Mystery Solved

For months I have wondered why certain text messages sent with my telephone took 2 or 3 messages (sets of credit) to send whilst other messages of the same character length only required one lot of credit. I theorised about what caused this difference.

Was it:
a) the time of the day/night I sent the messages?
b) the service provider, Telsim's settings?
c) how soon after buying credits I made the messages (a special offer for new purchases perhaps)?
d) the mobile service provider of the message recipient (messages to other providers cost more)?
e) another random reason?

I soon discounted all but e. However, a few days ago even e was proven wrong.

The actual explanation:
A standard 2-credit message on my pre-paid Telsim account can be up to 160 characters in length. After 160 characters a second lot of 2 credits is required. However, for messages that use certain non-English characters, including the Turkish letters ı (un-dotted i) and ç, the message can only be 67 characters long before incurring a second lot of credits. If I don't use these non-English credits I will always obtain 160 characters in value for each message. I don't know why this is the case. I could understand if these non-English letters 'used' 2 or 3 character spaces per letter, but not why the single message size reduces by 93 characters!

Could any tech or telco person explain this?

The 891 ABC Radio Interview

After work Thursday I caught the bus to the suburb of Pozcu. There I ate dinner with Efkan, Devrim and Aslı. Devrim and Aslı are Turkish sisters who grew up with their family in West Berlin. The family moved back to Turkey over 10 years ago. Dinner was spaghetti, salad and fried chicken with pudding for desert. Accompanying this feast was home-baked German-style bread. This bread was far heavier than Turkish bread and the first thing I thought when I tasted it was how good 'kaymak' (fresh cream) would taste with it. The next day I bought some cream...mmmm...lovely.

From Pozcu I walked home along the coast. At home I prepared some notes for my approaching interview and snoozed for a short while in the lounge room before readying myself in the bedroom. I was excited but not nervous. Several years ago I would have been extremely nervous for such an occasion.

As expected, at 11:20 pm (5:50 am Adelaide time) Mick the producer called me on my mobile phone. The line was very poor so I moved back to the lounge room and Mick called me again - better this time. I spoke to a lady and was put onto the Bald Brothers. I can't remember which Brother I spoke to.

The news of the morning was Alexander Downer, Australia's Foreign Minister, recommending Australians to avoid visiting Gallipoli on ANZAC Day. This was the main subject of the interview. After the interview, I pondered saying 'I would rather believe Mr. Downer's credibility with fishnet stockings than foreign policy'. Alexander is infamous for the photo of him in fishnet stockings (read the story here). Other subjects mentioned included Turkey’s hyper-inflationary past and my job.

I won't go into much detail as everybody can listen to the interview themselves at http://www.abc.net.au/adelaide/stories/s1079648.htm. I have not listened to it myself but I plan to soon. I would have liked to speak for much longer as the interview time went so fast. I wanted to speak on more topics and plug AIESEC, Australians Abroad, this website and other stuff but didn't have time. At the end I managed to say hello to Eilish and Breandan, my niece and nephew.

Following the interview I listened to the classic ABC news introduction tune over the phone before saying bye to Mick. After hanging up I found it very difficult to go to sleep as my body was experiencing a mild high.

The Election Run-down

Over at Australians Abroad I have followed up the 2004 Turkish Local Government Special.

Radio Joe

Friday morning at 5:50 am (11:20 pm Turkish time) South Australian time I will be interviewed live by the Bald Brothers on ABC radio in Adelaide. My interview will be put up afterwards on the following page http://www.abc.net.au/adelaide/expats/.
I look forward to speaking on the radio and talking about my time in Turkey.

The Bald Brothers are looking for more expatriate Adelaideans to interview, so if you are from Adelaide and living overseas, write to them.