The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Turkey

  • Nigeria and Turkey’s forthcoming elections

    Nigeria and Turkey’s forthcoming elections

    It is election season in Turkey; in about eighteen days or so the Turks will go to the polls to elect a new prime minister – or retain the old one, Ahmet Davutoglu – for the next four years. They will also vote on an amendment to the country’s constitution which will transform it from a parliamentary democracy into a powerful presidential system. However, this transformation requires approval by 2/3rd of the country’s 550-member legislature, i.e. 367 members, to pass without a referendum or 330 with.

    Leading the battle by the ruling party to retain power and change the constitution is Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country’s ceremonial but powerful president and leader of the party, the so-called “mildly Islamist” Justice and Development Party (AKP). Erdogan has been in power since 2002 when AKP first came to power on a wave of popular disaffection with militant secularism championed by the military which had dominated the country’s politics since it first changed in 1924 from a Sultanate into a Republic under the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Erdogan has been campaigning for his AKP to win 400 of the legislative seats and, thus, to become its most powerful elected president in recent times.

    The election in that country should interest Nigerians for a number of reasons. First, along with Iran, Turkey has, by some estimates, about the same Muslim population as Nigeria – around 75 million. The ratios of this number for the three countries differ – about 50% for Nigeria, 99.7 for Iran and 98.6 for Turkey – but the numbers are big making the three almost jointly sixth in the Muslim world, after Indonesia (about 205 million and a ratio of 88.1%), Pakistan (178.1m: 96.4%), India (177.29m:14.6%) Bangladesh (148.61m:90.4%) and Egypt (80.02m:94.7%).

    Second, as a country that straddles Eastern Europe and western Asia in space, it is of strategic importance to the world both geographically and religious wise.

    Third, for at least the last decade after AKP came to power in Turkey, the country has provided one more proof that Islam and democracy are not necessarily incompatible as some Westerners and secularists and even some radical Islamists would have the world believe. Under AKP the country has transformed into a thriving plural democracy and prospered economically into one of the most advanced in the world.

    Last but by no means least of all, since at least 1998 Turkey has established its presence in Nigeria as one of the biggest outside forces for development in our education and health sectors. Today its 16 non-denominational Nigeria-Turkish international primary and secondary schools spread across Nigeria in Abuja, Kaduna, Lagos, Kano, Ogun and Yobe states – and with plans for more – are among the very best in the country. So also are its Nile University, which is part of a global network of 26 universities in America, Europe, Asia and Turkey, and its state of the art Nizamiye Hospital, both based in Abuja.

    The inspiration behind these institutions is the Gulen Movement, after its founder, Fethullah Gulen, the world renowned 74-year old Turkish Islamic scholar, author and poet, who has lived in self-exile in Philadelphia, America, for decades to escape persecution from the secular civilian and military regimes that had dominated Turkish politics and society up until 2002.

    The Gulen Movement, which has since renamed itself the Hismet Movement, after its founder’s pronouncement that it was rather presumptuous to have had it named after himself, has meant different things to different people. It sees itself as a social and spiritual movement which completely eschews politics but which lays emphasis on religious dialogue and even more so on education, inspired, it says, by Prophet Muhammad’s (Peace be upon him) saying that “The ink of a scholar is more sacred than the blood of a martyr” and the fact that the Arabic word “ilm” (education) is, according to experts, the second most used word in the Holy Qur’an, after Allah.

    Others see the movement differently. Even though it has no formal leadership or sheikhs or structure and even though it has no ceremonies or procedures for initiation into its membership, many, including militant secularists in Turkey, see its members as closet radical Islamists who secretly want to establish an Islamic State of Turkey.

    On the other hand, radical Islamists accuse it of being too open to Western ideas and creeds. It therefore, in their eyes, poses a grave danger to the Islamic renaissance in Turkey which has since trumped Ataturk’s century of secularism.

    Whatever the movement is, its alliance with AKP in 2002 in their opposition to military dominance of the country’s politics and society was universally acknowledged as probably the single greatest factor in AKP’s triumph.

    Sadly, that alliance has gone sour, at least since 2013, so sour that today Erdogan sees the Hismet Movement, whose members believe he has reneged on his commitment to consolidating plural democracy and transparency in Turkey and has, instead, become too self-serving, as the single biggest obstacle to his dream of becoming an imperial president.

    Such is the bitterness with which he views the movement that he now calls its members terrorists and has embarked on a campaign of seeking the shutting down of their institutions wherever they exist, by labelling them as fronts for terrorism. The most recent was his call last week on the authorities on the neighbouring Muslim Albania during a visit there last week to close down the movement’s schools in the country, a call that was promptly rebuffed. Before then his country’s diplomats in our neighbouring Benin Republic had tried the same gambit with predictably the same result.

    Hismet Movement is not the only one at the receiving end of Erdogan’s anger against any opposition to his dream. The media and opposition parties in the country also are. Yet, he and his party remain favourites to win the forthcoming election by a wide margin, if not by the margin he desires to turn his country into an imperial presidency under his leadership.

    In the likely event that he does win, the Nigerian authorities should expect his diplomats to come calling sooner or later with pleas to shut down the Turkish-Nigerian institutions in our country because, of course, they are “fronts” for terrorism.

    Good thing is, Nigerians and their leaders are simply too smart to fall for such a harebrained gambit.

     

  • Emenike escapes death in Turkey

    Emenike escapes death in Turkey

    Emmanuel Emenike and the  rest of his Fenerbahçe teammates were lucky men after a gunman fired shots at the team’s bus on their way back from a 5-1 win over Caykur Rizespor.

    Fenerbahce’s team bus was shot at by attackers armed with shotguns, leaving the vehicle’s driver wounded but the players and staff unharmed.

    Emenike, who has been battling poor form and almost walked off the pitch two weeks ago following boos from his team fans,  was punished for his actions as he was left on the bench until the 55th minute when they were already five goals up but he will still have a reason to cheer after escaping unhurt from the gun shot incident, which almost ran the car off a cliff as bullets hit the team driver.

    The driver was hospitalised with wounds he suffered from the attack and doctors have since confirmed that a metal object was found in the driver’s head, which was bleeding profusely upon his arrival.

    Location of the shooting at Trabzon lead to suggestions by Fenerbahce’s vice president Mahmut Uslu that Trabzonspor supporters were behind the attack, though there is no evidence to support such assertions.

    There has been no love lost between Fenerbahce and Trabzonspor since the aftermath of the 2010-2011 season, when the former won the title ahead of the latter despite being embroiled in a match-fixing scandal.

    Trabzon’s Governor Abdulcelil Oz initially claimed the damage was done with stones but released a subsequent statement suggesting the bus was definitely shot at.

  • Turkey’s Human Rights Abuse: Matters Arising

    The high incidence of human rights violation in Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is such that calls for concern. This is basically because there are a lot of controversial and deplorable actions and policies taken so far by Erdogan-led government, which are clearly antithetical to the fundamentals of human survival.

    Such fundamentals include right to freedom of speech, right to freedom of association, right to freedom of assembly, right to freedom of movement, freedom of press, among others.

    Since President Erdogan took over the mantle of leadership as Turkish President till date, there has been series of seemingly unimaginable assaults on the rights and liberties of the people of Turkey. These aberrations have manifested in different forms ranging from assault on the media and Journalists, arbitrary arrest and detention of critics of AKP-led government, forceful disruption of public protests, incessant harassment of political opponents, and so on.

    For one, the recent arrest and detention of Journalist Mehmet Baransu over the documents he reportedly submitted to the Istanbul Chief prosecutors in the sledgehammer (Balyoz) coup plot is not just uncalled for, but also shows a clear case of deliberate affront on the freedom of the media as whole.  Unmistakably, it is the principal duty of the Media to publish and expose anything that endangers or has the propensity to jeopardize a nation’s national security and, by extension, democratic governance –with a view to forestalling its occurrence.

    So the January 10, 2010 publication in Taraf Daily made by Mehmet Baransu exposing the alleged plot by some Turkish military personnel to overthrow a democratically elected government of the day could not have fallen short of reasonable expectation of him as a Journalist. But what rather is far below expectation is the Turkish government’s current deplorable attitude of treating a journalist doing his work as a coup plotter. This is why it is quite preposterous that the Istanbul police could invade the house of Mr. Baransu under the guise of conducting search for up to 12 hours – which in itself is a complete negation of Baransu’s right to private life.

    Ordinarily, there is meant to be nothing wrong for the police to do their work in the way or manner it would serves the larger security and national interest of Turkey. But then, a situation whereby a Journalist known for being a critic of the government is being punished for merely publishing documents at his disposal meant to serve the interest of his country, does not speak well about the current leadership in Turkey.

    Also it does not make sense that the same Erdogan-led government that often wants its citizens to believe that it cares for them would descend to the level of subjecting a Journalist to arbitrary arrest and detention for allegedly insulting the son of the President. Here comes the issue of the reported arrest and detention of Soner Yalcin on the allegation of defaming Bilal Erdogan in his book. Though Yalcin did reportedly acknowledge the idea of having mentioned the name Bilal in his book, he objected to the impression that he was by that reference talking about Bilal Necmettin the son of President Erdogan. In any case, this points to the level of descent to expanded Presidential immunity which Erdogan’s family members now enjoy at the expense of the rights of the people of Turkey.

    More so, the novel issue of disrupting public protest in Turkey by the police through maximum application of naked force on the protesters is another nasty aspect of flagrant abuse of the rights of Turkish folks. Absurd as this attitude of the police is, the sordid killing of Berkin Elvan will remain fresh in the memories of many Turkish people. Though Berkin Elvan was repotedly shot in the head by the police with teargas canister during June 16, 2013 Gezi park protest prior to Mr. Erdogan’s ascendancy as President (which remains a gross violation of the young lad’s right to life), the fact that the perpetrator of this killing is yet to be brought to justice underlines the appalling state of human rights in Turkey.

    Akin to this ugly development is the issue of President Erdogan’s draft security law, the contents of which remain a source of threat to the basic rights of the Turkish people. Obviously, nothing can be so provocatively frightening to the people of any nation and threatening to their lives than re-designing and reinvigorating the security apparatus and institutions of the state in such a way that makes the people to live at the mercy of those who man them. Since, therefore, President Erdogan has so decided to empower the Turkish police with more powers that allow its personnel to arrest and detain any person(s) involved in any protest for as long as 48 hours and on the grounds of any reasonable suspicion, without recourse to prior approval of the court, then it is crystal clear that Turkey is now a police state. This of course is certainly not in tandem with circumstances that allow for citizens’ exercise of their basic rights.

    But as rightly observed by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its September 29, 2014 report that “Turkey is undergoing a worrying roll back of human rights”, there is an urgent need for restraint and retreat on the part of President Erdogan’s government. Clearly, nothing speaks volumes about this imperative than the report’s submission that “For the sake of Turkey’s future and the rights of its citizens, the government needs to change course and protect rights instead of attacking them”.

    • Abeeb wrote in from Abuja     

  • Turkey’s media raids

    Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is obviously dangling at the bottom end of the political chain. He is fighting the battle of his life to survive a forthcoming election in June 2015, which he apparently fear will nail his political coffin. Desperate time, he has heard, calls for desperate measures. These measures, he thinks, should involve suffocating the press. So last weekend, Erdogan renewed attacks on a section of the media outside his pockets, arresting over 20 journalists and other media workers.

    The outpouring of condemnation that greeted the media attack was expected. The criticism came from countries, organisations and prominent individuals, including the European Union, EU, a body Turkey has been craving to join. But the Turkish dictator would not have any of that. Erdogan, instead, gave his critics a bashing, particularly the EU.

    Arguing that the assaults did not constitute an attempt to gaggle the press, he retorts: “The EU should mind its own business and keep its own opinions to itself. What do you [Europe] know about these operations to feel yourself competent to make such comments? We have no concern about what the EU might say, whether the EU accepts us as members or not.” He would further claim that the operations were meant to stop “dirty operations” aimed at toppling his regime.

    The EU had rightly said the raids and arrests “are incompatible with the freedom of media, which is a core principle of democracy.”  Unfortunately, the attempt by the Turkish authorities to silence the media didn’t begin last Sunday, only that it reached its crescendo then. The recent raids is obviously an offshoot of his renewed campaign against Futhullah Gulen, his friend-turned-foe.

    For example, Emre Uslu, a columnist critical of the government and eastwhile lecturer, said after the assault, “Unlike previous threats, I now face much more intense and organized threats for criticizing the government. First I received death threats from organized groups. I faced threats from the PKK, which is very likely to have been coordinated with the intelligence agency to scare me off of criticism. Even a PKK militant, who was sent to Istanbul to kill me, was arrested by the police.

    “The government pressured my university to either silence my tweets and writings or fire me. The university I was teaching at was only able to resist the government pressure for one year, after which they told me they couldn’t resist the pressure anymore and fired me in September 2013, even after classes had already been scheduled.

    “Even after I lost my job, the government has not stopped harassing me. Then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan directly pointed a finger at me during his March 2014 election victory speech. He filed lawsuits against me, and ordered the intelligence agency and government agencies to find any possible reason to harass me, but they found nothing illegal.”

    The allegation by the Turkish President that the media houses were being used to carry out dirty operations targeted at removing him from power is both vague and laughable. And his government’s reaction to the EU’s condemnation reflects the position of a regime going southward. Is it not the same Erdogan that frantically laboured to convince everyone that he was passionate to have his country join the EU? How did his age-long associate suddenly become his greatest foe and a terrorist? And why?

    Fate has been gracious to Erdogan in an unprecedented manner. Second chance in politics, or in life general, is rare. But for him, it has been different. Even though he was disgraced out of office as a mayor and hauled into prison, he later bounced back as a legislator…then a prime minister… and now a president. It appears, however, that he is now determined to squander what is left of his political capital. I don’t know of any despot in recent age that successfully crippled the press. The kind of war he has started can’t even succeed in Nigeria, a country of shorter political and democratic history. Turkish new “emperor” is surely embarking on a journey leading to political oblivion.

    The recent operations against the Zaman media group are once again the result of the group’s efforts to expose the wrongdoings in the government. Pro-government dailies claim that the Teshiyeciler group of the Nurcu network – the first time I have heard of this organization — was one of the reasons for the operation. When I looked into who this Teshiyeciler group was, I found the dirty business of the intelligence agency.

    Teshiyeciler group appears to be one of the small Nurcu groups with a few hundred followers. Their leader, Molla Mehmet Dogan, is nothing but ignorant. It seems that intelligence officers wanted to penetrate the Nurcu network through the Teshiyeciler group and use them as a shield to find al-Qaeda supporters among them in order to label the non-violent Nurcu groups as a violent organization. When al-Qaeda affiliated people – encouraged by intelligence agencies – contacted the Teshiyeciler group, police raided the operation and destroyed the intelligence agency’s plan to criminalize the peaceful Nurcu network, this of course infuriated the intelligence agency. That is why many of these people are arrested.

    You decide, which one is a crime? Plotting against peaceful networks in order to criminalize them and turn the peaceful Nurcu networks into recruitment centres for al-Qaeda or requesting that government authorities not engage in these activities?

  • Turkey secures release of hostages held by Islamic State

    Turkey secures release of hostages held by Islamic State

    •60,000 Syrian Kurds flee to Turkey

    Turkish intelligence agents brought 46 hostages seized by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq back to Turkey yesterday after more than three months in captivity, in what President Tayyip Erdogan described as a covert rescue operation.

    Security sources told Reuters the hostages had been released overnight in the town of Tel Abyad on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey after being transferred from the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa, Islamic State’s stronghold.

    Officials declined to give details of the rescue operation.

    The hostages, who included Turkey’s consul-general, diplomats’ children and special forces soldiers, were seized from the Turkish consulate in Mosul on June 11 during a lightning advance by the Sunni insurgents.

    Family members rushed to the steps of the plane which brought the freed captives to the Turkish capital Ankara from the southern city of Sanliurfa, where they had earlier been welcomed by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

    Groups of supporters waved Turkish flags as Davutoglu hugged the consul-general and members of the diplomats’ families before addressing the crowd from the roof of a bus, saying the authorities had worked tirelessly for the hostages’ release.

    “I thank the prime minister and his colleagues for the pre-planned, carefully calculated and secretly-conducted operation throughout the night,” Erdogan said in a statement.

    “MIT (the Turkish intelligence agency) has followed the situation very sensitively and patiently since the beginning and, as a result, conducted a successful rescue operation.”

    Speaking to reporters earlier in Azerbaijan before cutting short an official visit, Davutoglu declined to give details on the circumstances of the hostages’ release, saying only that it was carried out “through MIT’s own methods”.

    Turkish officials had repeatedly said efforts were underway to secure their freedom and that the hostages were in good health but had declined to comment further.

    Three non-Turkish civilians who were taken in the same attack were also released in the operation yesterday, a foreign ministry official said.

    Independent broadcaster NTV said Turkey did not pay a ransom and that no other country was involved. There were no clashes with Islamic State militants during the operation, it said.

    Without naming its sources, it said MIT had tracked the hostages as they were moved to eight different locations during their 101 days in captivity.

    Also, about 60,000 Syrian Kurds have crossed into Turkey in the past 24 hours, a deputy prime minister said yesterday, fleeing an advance by Islamic State militants who have seized dozens of villages close to the border and are advancing on a Syrian town.

    Turkey opened a stretch of the frontier on Friday after Kurdish civilians fled their homes, fearing an imminent attack on the border town of Ayn al-Arab, which is also known as Kobani. Islamic State is now within 15 km (9 miles) of the town, a Kurdish commander on the ground said.

    Islamic State’s advances in northern Syria have prompted calls for help by the region’s Kurds who fear a massacre in Kobani. The town sits in a strategic position on the border and has prevented the radical Sunni Muslim militants from consolidating their gains across northern Syria.

    Lokman Isa, a 34-year-old farmer, said he had fled with his family and about 30 other families after heavily-armed Islamic State militants entered his village of Celebi. He said the Kurdish forces battling them had only light weapons.

    “They (Islamic State) have destroyed every place they have gone to. We saw what they did in Iraq in Sinjar and we fled in fear,” he told Reuters in the Turkish town of Suruc, where Turkish authorities were setting up a camp.

    Sitting in a field after just crossing the border, Abdullah Shiran, a 24-year-old engineer, recounted scenes of horror in his village of Shiran, about 10 km (six miles) from Kobani.

    “IS came and attacked and we left with the women but the rest of the men stayed behind … They killed many people in the villages, cutting their throats. We were terrified that they would cut our throats too,” he said.

    Turkish soldiers looked on as the refugees, many of them women carrying bundles on their heads, streamed across. Hundreds of people huddled in the dusty fields with their few belongings.

  • Turkey mulls ‘buffer zone’ against Islamic State

    Turkey shares a border with Iraq and Syria, where Islamic State militants are fighting government forces.

    Turkey is developing plans for a buffer zone on its border with Iraq and Syria, to counter the threat from Islamic State militants, its president says.

    Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Turkish media the military were working on the plans, which he would then decide on.

    He gave no further details about where the buffer zone could be established or how it would work.

    IS has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria. Estimates say the group could have up to 30,000 fighters.

    “The armed forces are working on plans and will present them to us. We will decide if it is necessary,” Mr Erdogan told Turkish media, after being asked about a possible buffer zone.

    Thirty countries have pledged to help combat IS militants “by all means necessary”, with several Arab countries offering to take part in air strikes on IS fighters in Iraq.

    Turkey, however, says it will only allow humanitarian and logistical operations from the Nato air base on its soil.

    It is reluctant to take a prominent role for fear of endangering 49 of its citizens being held hostage by IS.

    There are also at least 840,000 Syrian refugees registered in Turkey.

    Separately, Mr Erdogan said Turkey would allow exiled members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood group into Turkey.

  • Emenike: I will be champion of Turkey again

    Emenike: I will be champion of Turkey again

    Nigeria forward Emmanuel Emenike has told AfricanFootball.com he will lead Fenerbache to another Turkish league championship in the new season.

    And another league conquest will see ‘The Yellow Canaries’ feature in the UEFA Champions League at the end of a ban imposed on them from the competition.

    “We are focused on the new season and the biggest target is for us to retain the Turkish league and get back to Champions League football,” Emenike told AfricanFootball.com.

    “We are good for the Champions League and we will fight to be there again.

    “I am sure everybody is missing Fenerbahce in the Champions League, a team with character like us are needed in such a competition.

    “I am not happy to be missing in action at that level but I believe we will be back there.”

    Fenerbache have already shown they mean business by clinching the Turkish Super Cup on Monday at the expense of fierce local rivals Galatasaray.

    Emenike said the team’s fighting spirit won the prestige final for them.

    “Fenerbahce is a team of fightersand we always triumph in games because of our determination.That was secret of our victory against Galatasaray,” he further told AfricanFootball.com.

    “It was a tough game, a football war, but I am happy we came out victorious.I am so proud of this team and the fighting spirit.

    “Winning the Super Cup fulfilled a dream for me and I believe it will go a long way for everybody who fought hard to defeat Galatasaray.”

    Fenerbache will begin their title defence on Sunday at home against Emenike’s former club Karabukspor.

  • Chrisantus will shine in Turkey, says Eneramo

    Nigeria striker Michael Eneramo has backed his compatriot Chrisantus Macauley to shine at his new Turkish club Sivasspor.

    Eneramo, who once played for Sivasspor, told AfricanFootball.com Macauley has the quality to do well in Turkey.

    “It is a good move for him. He is a good striker and I believe he will do well at Sivasspor. I wish him well,” Eneramo told AfricanFootball.com.

    23-year-old Chrisantus signed a three-year deal for Sivasspor from Spanish Segunda Liga club Las Palmas. He was the top scorer at U-17 FIFA World Cup in 2007 with seven goals, he was also the silver ball winner.

    He played for Hamburg, Karlsruhe and FSV Frankfurt all in Germany.

  • Turkey, Nigeria trade to hit $1.5b

    The bilateral trade volume between Nigeria and Turkey, worth about $1.5billion can be further raised if both countries invest in construction, the Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mustafa Pulat, has said.

    Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, Pulat urged the Federal Government to consider the construction sector, among strategic ones, adding this would enhance the bilateral economic and investment relations between Nigeria and Turkey.

    The Ambassador said there is a growing need for the two countries to work harder to increase the trade volume.

    He said Nigeria would sustain its fast development through the enhancement of infrastructure by building new roads, railways, subways and energy plants.

    He also said Nigeria needs new and modern houses and apartments to increase life standards of the people in view of the growing economy.

    The Nigerian Ambassador has, therefore, called for a framework of cooperation between Nigeria and Turkey in construction, adding that the county has potential for foreign investments

    He informed that the bilateral trade volume of the two countries have increased more than five-fold in the last decade.

    He said though several Turkish construction companies have already been operating in Nigeria, however, the potential of cooperation in this field needed to grow bigger

    He said: “The further development of cooperation in this field will constitute a “win-win situation” for both countries. Construction of “win-win situations” is among the basic codes of ethics both for the Turkish government and the business world.”

  • Turkey: Sick man of Europe? Think again

    Turkey: Sick man of Europe? Think again

    Turkey is trying to rebrand itself as a modern, liberal Arab country with aspirations for European Union membership. Much of the country’s reform programmes are concentrated in Istanbul, a city of 17 million people situated both in Asia and Europe. Seun Akioye joined a group of journalists to explore the city and reports

    It doesn’t take much to assemble thousands of protesters at Istanbul’s’ Taksim Square and when they gather, trouble brews. That was the situation at 2pm on Tuesday, March 11 when 15-year-old Berkin Elvan died. In 2013 during the Taksim Geri park sit-in protests which started on May 27 and engulfed the whole of Turkey, the boy who has become a symbol for Turkish police brutality was hit by a teargas canister fired by an overzealous policeman. For nine months, he was in a coma at ACIL hospital while the nation prayed for his recovery. It never came. On that fateful Tuesday, he took his last breath.

    Within two hours of his death, more than 50,000 angry, weeping and frustrated protesters had gathered at the Taksim Square. The shops hurriedly closed and tourists abandoned their sightseeing and disappeared, back to their hotels. Bonfires appeared and then the coffin of Elvan arrived followed by the angry, stone-throwing crowd.

    The police followed hard on the heels of the protesters and when tear gas could not disperse them, hot water cannon and brute force were employed. The protesters responded in kind, throwing stones, sticks and other dangerous instruments. In Taksim Square, chaos reigned, far into the night.

    Where the old meets the new

    But this is not the Taksim Square Turkey wants the world to see, rather the government wanted visitors to Istanbul to see a tranquil and peaceful square which connects the old civilisation to the new modern city Turkish leaders are trying to build. The square itself is in the northern fringes of Taksim Street which houses thousands of shops and cinemas, food courts and a major tourist attraction in Istanbul.

    Istanbul is not the capital of Turkey but it is its most important city with 17 million people compared to the capital Ankara’s four million inhabitants. It is the commercial hub and the capital of three empires namely; Roman, Byzantine and the Ottoman Empires. It was during the Ottoman Empire that Turkey got its not-so-flattering nickname, the sick man of Europe.

    But the city regaled itself in its old history which according to findings during the Marmaray excavations suggests it dates back to 8,500 years. Today, the city has successfully preserved its historical legacies in the old city such as the Blue Mosque, historic commercial cities like the Grand Bazaar, the Hagia Sophia, the spice market and the Dikilitas Obelisk of Theodosius created in 390 AD.

    The foundation for New Turkey was laid in 1923 following the revolution and the city thereafter was divided into two: The old city and the new city with the amazing golden horn- a natural lake which was formed in a horn shape- running through the new city.

    Walking in Istanbul is like walking on thousands of years of history and to fully comprehend the historical legacies, our multi linguist guard, Senem Uygur, carefully took us back into 6000 years of history. There is a marked difference between the old and the new cities. While the new city boasts some modern architecture, it, however, was built on different hills and the houses were built forming a terraced row down the hills. Looking at the new city, it gives an idea of the Brazilian favellas. South of the golden horn is the old city and its many historical sites. On entering the city which is remarked by the ruins of its ancient walls, history beckons for the curious mind.

    The walls have been preserved the way the Ottomans left them and in some places the way the Romans left them, thousands of years ago. There has been careful preservation of the historical sites but it also existed side by side with modern infrastructure like the university. But as one walks in the old city, every street smells of history. From the old to the new, Istanbul is a city of endless circle of hills and valley, narrow allies paved with interlocking stones.

     

    Exploring Istanbul’s past

    One of the first places to visit is the place of the horses where three historical treasures are situated; the three serpent’s column which was erected in 390 AD, the Hippodrome and the Dikilitas Obelisk. But the most eye-catching monument is the Sultanahmet or the Blue Mosque, erected in the 17th century and reputed to sit 3,000 worshippers.

    The Blue Mosque which was named by European tourists because of its blue roof plays host to about 2,000 tourists daily. Usually, there is a long line of people waiting to enter through its narrow and ancient doorways. At the first gallery, visitors are asked to remove their shoes and put them inside a plastic bag. Eagle-eyed security guards ensure the women are totally covered and anyone found exposing a pound of flesh will be given a blue scarf to cover up. Inside the mosque itself, several lights hang down from its multi-coloured roof. There is the gallery where the women worship as they are not allowed to mingle with the men.

    Directly opposite the Sultanahmet is the Hagia Sophia which means divine wisdom. Built in the 6th century as a church, it became a mosque when the Turks came to power in the 15th century and in 1930 converted it into a museum. Inside the massive building, there are elements that remind one of those who had previously occupied the edifice. The Virgin Mary occupied the upper corner of the entrance of the entrance with Jesus and Angel Gabriel by her side. Four archangels flew around them whose faces were covered by the Turks.

    Eight big medallions bearing the most important names in Islam also hung a little distance from the angels. Then there was the royal lodge for the Byzantine kings and the place of coronation taking a prominent place in the middle of the Sophia. Here, civilisation meets religion as one moved through the steps to the upper levels. Built in the distinct Eastern fashion, there are no staircases just solid stones laid on the floor forming a labyrinth with its twists and turns until you get to the upper level. It feels like walking inside a cave filled with the treasures of the East. Currently, there are massive renovation works going on in the Sophia, this according to the guards is to preserve the edifice.

    But one thing that is sure to elicit curiosity is the number of mosques in Turkey. About 95 percent of the country is Muslim and there are 60,000 mosques in Turkey with Istanbul accounting for about 20,000.

     

    “Tell Okocha we miss him”

    In Istanbul, it is not often you find people who speak English and the sight of black people still elicits curious excitements from passersby. The people cater to you, ask to take pictures with you and when words fail them they just pump your hands, laugh and elicit a warm feeling.

    But things are a little different inside the Egyptian Bazaar, christened spice bazaar by European tourists. This is where all the spices in the world can be found and bought, it is also the home of Turkish Delight, a homemade sweet cake which the merchants claim had special nutritional and healing powers. Built in the same Eastern fashion, it has been attracting food tourists for 500 years. Its covered roof made it look like a street market in Israel or Pakistan and it has a permanent aroma of a mix of spices, herbs and tea.

    “Where are you from?” Gunter Sadi, a big fellow who was born in Germany, asked in perfect English as he extended his hand. When told Nigeria, he jumped up and screamed in delight. “Oh Okocha, Emenike, Amokachi, good players, I used to go and see Okocha play, he dribbles everybody. Is that how all of you play in Nigeria?” Sadi asked still jumping around and holding his visitor by the hand at the same time.

    Indeed, there have been about 15 Nigerian players in Turkey since Uche Okechukwu joined Fenerbache in 1993, Jay Jay Okocha was to follow suit in 1996 while Daniel Amokachi played for Beskistas the same year.

    Other people in the market heard the name of Okocha and enquired if we were his brothers and if we see him often. Everybody here seemed to know the names of all the Nigerian players who had played in Turkey. They had kind and favourable words about them too. “We don’t see them often, but we love and miss them. We want them to come back, they are always smiling, tell Okocha we miss him,” Sadi said.

    Another person remarked Emenike scored the day before in a match and went into great details describing the goal, of course in Turkish. So excited were the merchants that they brought out their expensive Turkish delights and handed it to the Nigerians.

     

    One country, two continents

    How do you feel living in one country and two continents at the same time? This is the delightful dilemma the Turkish have found themselves in. The country has the singular opportunity of being located both in Europe and Asia at the same time and Istanbul has that honour of hosting this natural wonder. The river that divides the two continents is called the Bosphorus and the bridge that links the two continents is called the First Bridge.

    Standing on the Golden Horn one could see the Bosphorus dimly in the chilly weather, when one follows the bridge for 30 kilometres it will lead to the black sea and an entirely new continent, a welcome to Europe. The people in Asia feel as Turkish as their counterparts in Europe, but as this phenomenon would excite a tourist; it elicited little sentiment from the average Turkish.

    “Yes we live on two continents, Europe and Asia, it’s nice, isn’t it? You are from Nigeria, do you play football?” one man asked and moved on to the subject of football and Okocha.

    But Turkey is rebranding itself and Istanbul is playing a big part in it. The city is coming into prominence across the world as a commercial hub where the top world companies are opening for business. It is also a key location for international arts and culture events as it is stands at the juncture of three continents. To bolster its application for membership of the European Union, Turkey is making reforms in its key sectors. It is also developing its infrastructure in a modern way in the new city with its high rise buildings and expanded transportation networks which now include the trams which runs across the roads.

    Perhaps playing key role in this new thinking is Turkish Airlines which has its hub at the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. The airline says it flies more than 20 million passengers yearly and has the highest network destination in the world. For many tourists, Turkey will be defined by the philosophy of its flagship carrier, Turkish Airlines. According to Temel Kotil, the Chief Operating Officer (CEO) of the airline, it’s also expanding its activities in Nigeria.

    “We are bringing Turkish business to Nigeria and we want to bring more Nigerians to Turkey. We fly two times daily in Lagos and Kano and hopefully we will expand to Abuja. Our network in Africa is growing and Nigeria is in the heart of our African operations,” he said.

    Back to Taksim Square on Wednesday when Elvan was buried, more than 100,000 mourners, among them key opposition figures, followed the coffin to its final resting place. Chants of “Elvan is immortal” rent the air. His father, Sami Elvan, said at the melancholy ceremony: “We bid farewell to him. My son is gone but I have millions of sons now.”

    After the burial, the crowd made for Taksim Square but met hundreds of riot police who drove them back with teargas. They responded by throwing fireworks and stones but were unable to gain entrance. But Istanbul is a city like no other, despite the chaos going on at Taksim, ten minutes away, there was calm and peace and if one wasn’t listening to the news one may just miss the biggest news of the day.