An explosion in Ankara and at least 3 people die from bomb blast in Istanbul. BBC article.
From Reuters, here is a chronology of the bomb explosions in Turkey since May 2002:
LONDON, June 24 (Reuters) – A parcel bomb exploded in Turkey’s capital on Thursday near the hotel where U.S. President George W. Bush is due to stay shortly, injuring three people.
Following is a chronology of explosions in Turkey over the last two years:
May 13, 2002 – A bomb rips through a park near the luxury Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the centre of Istanbul, with no reported injuries or fatalities. No group claimed responsibility.
Aug 27, 2002 – Two unidentified people throw a pipe bomb at an Istanbul office of the far-right Nationalist Action Party (MHP), damaging property but causing no injuries or deaths.
April 3, 2003 – A small explosion is heard outside the British consulate in Istanbul in the early hours but there are no reports of damage or injuries.
May 20, 2003 – A woman belonging to the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) detonates a bomb at a cafe in the centre of Ankara, killing herself and injuring another person.
June 11, 2003 – A Turkish man throws two grenades at U.S. consulate in Istanbul, shattering windows but causing no injuries. Authorities suggested he was mentally disturbed.
June 11, 2003 – A percussion, or “pop” bomb, is set off outside the U.S. consulate in Turkey’s southern city of Adana.
Aug 1, 2003 – Two explosions shake a Turkish Justice Ministry training centre in Ankara, injuring 17 police officers, two of them seriously. No one claims responsibility.
Nov 15, 2003 – 30 people are killed and 146 wounded when car bombs shatter two synagogues in Istanbul as worshippers celebrate the Sabbath. Authorities name two men from southeast Turkey as the suicide bombers, saying the attack bore the hallmarks of the al Qaeda network.
Nov 20, 2003 – 32 people are killed and many wounded in two explosions in Istanbul. One blast destroys part of the HSBC Bank headquarters and the other damages the British consulate.
March 17, 2004 – A Molotov cocktail is thrown at the British Council’s office in the Turkish capital, causing no injuries but some damage to property.
May 17, 2004 – Four small bombs explode outside branches of British bank HSBC in Ankara and Istanbul, hours before British Prime Minister Tony Blair is set to visit Turkey.
June 18, 2004 – Two small explosions apparently caused by percussion devices go off in Turkey’s western coastal city of Izmir. There was minor damage and one person was slightly injured.
June 24, 2004 – A percussion bomb goes off near the hotel in Ankara, two days before U.S. President George W. Bush is due to stay. Two policemen and a third person were hurt.
For a large country of 65-70 million with a colourful political past and bordering many countries, including Iraq, this is not that surprising. As you can read, most of the explosions were minor causing no or slight injuries.
I hope people do not cancel their trips to Turkey because of what they see on the news. I feel perfectly safe here and would not move unless the situation became infinitely worse.
Odds of winning the lottery are still far, far better than the chances of being injured or killed by a bomb in Turkey. The greatest danger here is still the traffic. That hasn’t changed…
Today at work I viewed a poorly translated document. It was an A4 table of different projects supposedly translated from Turkish to English. One of the columns detailed the type of project. Instead of “type” the column was headed “sexual“!!!!
In Turkish, ‘type’ means ‘cins’. However, ‘cins’ also means genus, sex, breed, gender, etcetera and somehow the translator chose “sexual” instead of “type”. Tomorrow I will try to scan and post a copy of the table if I can.
UPDATE [22 June 2004]: As promised here is the scan of the relevant section. More accurate construction project heading translations are:
COMPLETION, TYPE, AREA m2, m2 COST PRICE, TOTAL COST
Yesterday I purchased the ‘Hurriyet’ (‘Freedom’), one of Turkey’s leading newspapers. I bought the paper to:
a) practice and improve my Turkish
b) keep up to date with what’s happening in Turkey; and,
c) have a preliminary look at the job ads in case I need to find another job in the future
The top story concerned a whirlwind in Ankara province tossing cars in the air and killing 3 people. If my understanding of the headline is correct, this was Turkey’s first fatality-causing whirlwind.
Other stories concerned yesterday’s OSS exam and the upcoming NATO summit in Istanbul. One of the NATO stories profiled two people who will be protesting at the event. They were holding “BUSH GELME” (‘Bush don’t come’) signs. For those fluent in Turkish, a quick Google search of this phrase brings up almost 500 results.
Although tabloid in content, the Hurriyet is of better quality than most other Turkish newspapers. It is broadsheet in size and probably would be regarded as broadsheet quality in this country of low media standards. Perhaps the only non-tabloid content newspaper is the “Cumhuriyet” (‘Republic’).
The Turkish job ads are different to the Australian ads in many ways:
*Age and gender preferences are often explicitly requested. ‘Must be between 28 and 35’. Most ads requesting ages, requested young people. I guess they could then pay a lower salary.
*Many requested for male applicants to have completed their military service obligation. For males with an outstanding military obligation, it is almost impossible to be even considered for a professional position. Employers do not want someone who may be called up and taken away at any moment by the military.
*‘Be able to move freely’ is a requirement for some ads. In some conservative Turkish families, certain female members (for example: those divorced) are restricted in their movements by their families. These restrictions may encompass living in another town or staying overnight somewhere else.
*More jobs require fluency in another language (generally English) besides Turkish. Several of these ads were written in Turkish and 1 was in German.
*Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan were listed as job vacancy destinations. The last two were in the classified section of the ‘Cukurova’ regional supplement. This supplement covers the Mersin, Adana, Gaziantep, Antakya and Sanliurfa areas and contains region-specific news.
*No salary ranges were mentioned.
*There were no government job ads.
If I ever look for another job in Turkey, my Turkish CV will be very different to my Australian resume. Besides the work experience and references tailored to each country or job position, the following will change:
Happy Anniversaries to me
This week in 2001 I first arrived in Turkey. This week i 2003 I came to Turkey for the second time. Much has changed in this time, particularly the prices.
The University Entrance Exam
Tomorrow, almost 2 million Turkish students will be taking the University Entrance Exam (OSS). A fellow employee and my boss’s daughter will be amongst them. The exam is very cutthroat. Some students have studied full-time for the past year just for this exam. Their whole future will be determined by this 3-hour exam. Some details on the exam are here.
The Answer to my Previous Printer Conspiracy
Tom, on his excellent blog, has pointed out this brilliant speech on Digital Rights Management (DRM) given by Cory Doctorow to Microsoft executives. Amongst many other things, Cory helps explain the conspiracy I experienced earlier in the month:
We have companies like Lexmark claiming that their printer cartridges contain copyrighted works — software that trips an “I am empty” flag when the toner runs out, and have sued a competitor who made a remanufactured cartridge that reset the flag.
Suprise, suprise, Australian citizens are still recommended to defer all non-essential travel to Turkey.
In news just in:
The Turkish government is reviving plans to build a controversial nuclear power plant at Akkuyu, close to Mersin. This power plant has been in the planning for a long time and was last dropped following in early 2001 following the economic crisis. This is actually the first time I recall hearing about the plant.
See:
Turkey Revives Plans for Nuclear Power Plant
Akkuyu plant details (not up to date)
A previous international campaign against the plant
Last night, whilst watching the Russia-Portugal Euro2004 game, I made a new personal record for the mobile phone game Snake II: 1736. This beats my previous best of 1597 detailed in this post.
