Blog

From Scandalous Turkish Torture Arises Beautiful Art

By KANI XULAM 2/3/2014 The year was 1985. In America, President Ronald Reagan began a peaceful second term. In Turkey, seething tensions continued to grip a country torn apart by years of violence and death, both before and after a...

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A Humbled Davutoglu and the Kurds

By KANI XULAM 16/2/2014 It’s as if Charles Martin had the Turkish foreign minister in mind when he wrote in his novel, Chasing Fireflies: “He thinks the sun comes up just to hear him crow.” But neither the cocksure bluster of his...

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A President Grapples For His Favorite Books

By KANI XULAM 20/1/2014 “A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.” ---Mark Twain, What Is Man? Turkish President Abdullah Gul grappled mightily with Mark Twain’s tricky dilemma when a military cadet dropped him a hot-potato...

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Turkish Iron Kettles and Kurdish Clay Pots

By KANI XULAM 6/1/2014 “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself,” said Albert Einstein once famously. It is what crosses my mind after Janet Biehl asks me to review a German book she has translated into...

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