Many of the stories I read were literally about the authors describing their dream of a utopian future society. There are so many such Turkish sci-fi stories in the first half of the twentieth century that “Utopian Dream” can be classified as an entire subgenre.
Read MoreIstanbul discourse is a dangerous quagmire of clichés, of which "bRidGe BeTweEn eASt aNd wEsT" is but one. But those of us who have lived here long enough are hyper-sensitive to the political intentions behind every statement concerning Istanbul.
Read MoreThis type of reckoning with the past is a familiar experience for millennials from peripheral countries. We grew up watching the same cartoons, nagging our parents to buy the same toys and observing the world around us shrink at the same pace. Most importantly, we all had a moment when we thought this new and exciting shared global culture would make us all equal. When it didn't, we ended up experiencing the same sense of disappointment. All the cultural capital we acquired to fit in just made us look more suspicious. Whitey gawped at our ability to speak his language as if we were an entirely different species that miraculously learned to communicate through speech.
Read MoreIf I had felt my own confusion about identity as a knot in my stomach, somebody else could have felt it as a compression in their chest, another as an ache on their shoulder.
Read MoreTo many like Alaa who have witnessed the brutality of the Assad regime first hand, what is happening in Syria is not just a war, but a revolution. He chuckles, visibly proud of the fact that the uninitiated eyes of Turkish art dealers can not locate the 'war' in his pictures. "How could it not be there, yani?" he muses. "It is a part of me."
Read MoreWe can thank enterprising Dutchman Peter Minuit who ‘bought’ the isle of Manhattan from its inhabitants in 1626, for setting the going rate for white folks’ truth: a few bales of cloth and a handful of beads.
Read MoreIt has become impossible to express our most basic desire to protect our elected representatives from arrest without appealing for the mercy of glassy eyed Brussels bureaucrats, or stroking their tender egos and whispering words of love to their uncompassionate ears.
Read MoreThe Deliveroo strike is of critical importance in the global struggle against the injustices of the corporate economy.
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