The almost constant noise and colour of political campaign vehicles has finished and, in a few hours time, Turkey will go to the polls to elect a new parliament.
If I could vote, who would I vote for? Definitely not the ultra nationalist MHP or isolationist Genc Party. I would probably vote for an independent candidate.
Who will win the largest number of seats? Probably the currently ruling AK Party. Will they retain a majority? Who knows…
The Turkish Daily News provides a run-down of the Mersin election candidates, parties and issues.
For the overall election issues and latest news, visit Wikipedia’s Turkish General Election, 2007 page
Hamdullah, my flatmate, as he is a public school teacher, will man the election booth at his school today.
My 2004 local government election special is here
PS: Like on previous election days, the sale of alcohol is banned today.
ELECTION RESULTS (2007-07-24): As expected, AKP recorded the highest vote percentage with almost 47% of the total. AKP’s percentage actually increased from the 2002 vote but their number of seats gained was reduced although they will still have a majority in parliament. CHP and MHP were the other 2 parties reaching the 10% vote threshold required to enter parliament with 21% and 14% respectively. More than 20, mainly Kurdish, independent candidates also gained enough votes to enter parliament.
Mersin Province was one of only two provinces (along with Osmaniye) to give the most votes to the fascist MHP. However, in Mersin there was only 6% difference between 3 parties with MHP gaining 31%, AKP 27% and CHP 25%.
Election result maps are displayed by the BBC and Wikipedia.
For the most comprehensive Turkish election news and coverage in English see Erkan’s field diary.
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In the first game of bowling today I almost knocked every pin down. If my last ball was a strike I would have a) not left a single pin standing and b) cracked the 200 barrier. All but the final frame ending up as either strikes or spares. My cumulative tally was 196, 30 more than my previous personal best. Both scoreboards are below:
An interesting statistic is my previous personal best included 4 more strikes yet was still 30 points lower than today’s game. The difference is today I made 7/8 spares as opposed to 0/5 last time.
I still have a long way to improve as I’m currently bowling in a straight line and have not mastered the more effective hooking style used by the professionals and serious amateurs.
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Sometimes I take photos for Orhan’s web design customers. In March Orhan asked me to photograph a local food manufacturer, Atiseri’s products for their upcoming shopping website.
Atiseri produce carob nectar (keciboynuzu/harnup nektari), carob molasses (keciboynuzu/harnup nektari), carob powder, carob beans, tahini paste (tahin), halva (helva), candied Seville orange (turunc tatlisi), andiz extract and various other food and health products.
In return for shooting the photographs, Atiseri were kind enough to give me a selection of their products. The item I am most thankful for is the carob nectar. Almost every day for a few months I took a tablespoon of this syrup. In that time I never became sick, despite facing some stressful times. In 2005, whilst in Mersin Dad also took carob molasses daily after hearing about its nutritious value on his trip to Antalya.
Carob nectar is purer than the more common molasses because nectar is produced at a lower temperature.
Carob, also known as St. John’s Bread (after John the Baptist who was believed to have sustained himself in the desert on a diet of carob beans) contains many of the vitamins and minerals the human body requires.
The carob tree is native to the Mediterranean. In Mersin, random carob trees are found in many places including near the city-train station road and on the military base next to the Muftu River bridge. With its similar climate, it’s not surprising that carob trees are also being grown in my homeland, South Australia. Unfortunately, carob in Australia does not have a good reputation as it is largely remembered in the form of carob chocolate, an awful tasting chocolate-substitute semi-popular in the 1980’s. Indeed, before coming to Turkey, this was my only knowledge of carob.
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As long as I can recall, the partially-constructed apartment complex pictured above has remained idle. According to its sign, “Pozcu Plaza” was going to be the ‘residence of the year 2000’.
“Pozcu Plaza” was highly likely one of the countless victims of Turkey’s dual economic collapses in 1999 and 2001. In these years many construction projects came to a standstill or stopped completely as their owners became bankrupt, ran out of money or both. Not visible in the photo above is a crane stuck on the roof, evidence that the development came to a halt suddenly.
Located on prime real estate overlooking the Mersin coastline, the development is crying out to be completed or demolished. However, both of these options are very expensive and only government intervention or a huge rise in land prices will lead to “Pozcu Plaza” regaining face.
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At this moment the qualification stage of the third round in the Turkey Offshore Racing Championships should be happening off the Mersin suburb of Pozcu.
Earlier today I walked there and saw a few of the boats on dry land.
Unsurprisingly, the Adana boat was sponsored by a kebab restaurant:
The main race will be held tomorrow afternoon.
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Tonight the presence of dozens of internationally-flagged single and dual-hulled yachts transformed the yacht harbour near home. The catamarans were particularly impressive. The boats are here for the 2007 Eastern Mediterranean Yacht Rally (EMYR). It seems like only yesterday that the 2006 EMYR yachts were in Mersin. Tomorrow morning I hope to get up early with my camera, go out and snap a few photos.
EDIT: here are photos from this morning (2007-05-23):
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