If Google sees http://www.googleturkiye.com/ I believe a few lawyers will be busy.

EDIT: In case the website is pulled, I have added homepage and top & bottom screenshots for “Mersin” search results below. Click on the pictures for larger screenshots.

Homepage:

Results page for “Mersin”

Top:

Bottom

Do you think Google has a good case?

UPDATE [2004/12/22]: GoogleTurkiye.com is still in existence.

If you are not squirmish or at work, for a laugh, check out the archived best matching results for ‘joe’.

WARNING: the file is 345 kb and contains adult content!

Saturday night I suited up for friend Hakan’s wedding to Merve. I met Hakan through my first flatmate in Mersin, Ali. Hakan’s family run a flour sales business.

The wedding was held in the south-facing (shown in the above photo) ballroom on the 46th level of the Taksim International Hotel. The views of Mersin’s city centre at night along with the harbour, Republic Square (Cumhuriyet Meydani) and the ship lights in the bay provided a great backdrop.

The night was fun with good food (several courses), friends (Hakan’s and Ali’s classmates), Turkish dancing, a five piece band playing Turkish folk songs and a wonderful newly wed husband and wife.

Towards the end of the night, people lined up to congratulate the newly wedded husband and wife, with gifts of gold and money. I placed a 20,000,000-lira note in Hakan’s shirt pocket.

After the wedding, 3 or 4 cars followed the married couple back to their new flat. As is the tradition, each car’s hazard lights were flashing but Hakan discouraged horn beeping as the time was past midnight. Outside the flat we waited for Hakan and Merve to finish changing their clothes and whatever else they were doing. We then went to Cici Kunefe for kunefe!

All the best to Hakan and Merve in their wedded life!

The weekend before last I visited Gaziantep for the first time in 3 years. Like my two visits in 2001, this trip’s purpose was also to see Ali and his family. I also came to see Rifeh, the Tunisian AIESEC trainee I previously met in Adana.

Some notable events from the time in Gaziantep:

*Seeing a light snowfall, my first snow this winter. Gaziantep is colder than Mersin.

*Visiting some ancient tombs outside of the town with Ali and Rifeh

*Entertaining Ali’s nieces and nephews aged 6 to 10 with different hand movements, clapping and juggling. They are so delightful.

*Meeting the rest of Ali’s generous and kind family

*Eating kebabs, baklava and more kebabs

*Eating breakfast, including homemade sucuk (spicy sausage), homemade jams, home-pickled olives, almost homemade everything…

*Eating more kebabs…

*Visiting and observing Ali’s family’s butcher shop, “Kasap Ali”. I will write a special feature on this shop sometime soon.

Overall, the trip was very successful despite my suffering from a cold. I hope to visit Ali’s family again, particularly during a warmer time of the year.

It is less than two weeks until the New Turkish Lira, Turkey’s new currency, will be introduced. I have added a new article on NewLira.com and made a few modifications, including the addition of commenting. See it for yourself at NewLira.com and get ready for a new era in Turkish financial history.

I was kindly requested to post about the following:

New cookbook brings Palestinians, Jews to the table

In spite of discouraging acts in the Middle East, we thought your readers might like to take a moment for some inspiration — a glimmer of cooperation and shared creativity.

PALESTINIAN AND JEWISH RECIPES FOR PEACE is a new, very-grassroots, very-nonprofit, beautiful cookbook publishing-first we just helped write.

There are stories about the people, photos, and recipes for the table and for relationship-building at home, in school, and between nations.

This useful cookbook is newly-produced by our 12-year-old Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue Group here on the San Francisco Peninsula, preparing for its 151st meeting.

Especially at this special season of light and hope, please take a moment to read about this publishing breakthrough at:

http://traubman.igc.org/recipes.htm

Read the book’s reviews in the San Francisco Chronicle and San Mateo County Times. Needless to say, the book is a very good gift idea going to a worthy cause. Helping promote good food is a bonus!

Mmmm….food…time to eat…if only I had the book to make some great recipes with…

Tomorrow, 17 December 2005, is the ‘D-Day’ for Turkey’s 40 year journey towards formally joining Europe. Will Turkey receive the go ahead to begin accession talks or not?

There is no shortage of places to get up to date won this issue.

Personally, I hope Turkey is given the go ahead as I think accession will benefit both sides:

a) Turkey: Accession will continue the positive political and economic progress that has occurred over the past few years.

b) EU: Turkey’s accession, as Muslim country, should help open minds in the EU.

What will actually happen? Who knows?

Even if accession talks do start and Turkey satisfies every condition of entry, they are not likely to join the EU until at least 2015. For the average Mehmet and Elif on the Mersin street, the decision tomorrow will probably not change their lives in a material way for a long time.

Hundreds of people have escaped from a packed cinema in Istanbul where a blaze broke out at the premiere of a Turkish horror film, causing panic.

“A candle used as part of a “fright tunnel” in the cinema’s foyer is said to have started the blaze.”

As no one was badly injured and the event is in the past, I think it is safe to laugh now. A fire at the premiere of a horror movie caused by a candle as part of a “fright tunnel”!

Whilst checking one of my past Yahoo! email accounts I wondered why the website www.meanstreak.com.au opened in a new window. I thought this was a pop-up ad so I closed it and returned to Yahoo!. Then, when I moved the cursor over the Mitsubishi Lancer banner advert, the meanstreak website again opened in a new window. I didn’t click anything, just moved the mouse over the advert.

With the high ignore rates of web ads these days, I wouldn’t be surprised if the “ad-opening by moving the cursor over” becomes a trend.