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It seems the only change in advice given by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is a reference to ANZAC Day in Gallipoli.

Written in bold, at the start of the Turkey travel advice page is:

Australians are advised to defer non-essential travel to Turkey until further notice. We continue to receive information suggesting that further terrorist attacks in Istanbul, Ankara and other centres in Turkey are likely.

Australians considering travel to Turkey for Anzac Day services at Gallipoli on 25 April 2004 are urged to consult the Travel Bulletin for Anzac Day (see below).

Australians in Turkey should exercise extreme caution, particularly in commercial and public areas, and keep themselves informed of developments that might affect their safety.

Australians should also exercise particular care in south-eastern Turkey, especially in the border region between Turkey and Iraq.

Oh well, pity to those who do not come to Turkey because of what DFAT has written. I feel completely safe here. The only way the above advice affects me is (probably) voiding my insurance cover. My travel insurance runs out in June and if the Australian government is still recommending against all non-essential travel to Turkey I doubt I will extend the policy. Instead, I would buy shorter policies when travelling outside Turkey to ‘safer’ countries without travel warnings like Iran.

Having written the above, I am not stupid enough to ignore all warnings completely. Should there be a serious risk of anything happening (besides traffic accidents or illnesses from over-generous hospitality 🙂 I would reassess my situation.

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The other day Kerem very kindly invited me to join LinkedIn. LinkedIn is an internet-based invite-only professional networking tool used by people to make contacts, find investors, research industries, find jobs, recruit employees amongst other uses. I have not delved deeply into it but will do so soon when I have the time.

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Thank you to Shannon and Alejandro for the latest GuestMap entries. There are now little humans located in Canada, the USA, Mexico (NAFTA!), Germany, Turkey, Israel, China and Australia. Come on people, I want this map covered!

(Click on the button to the right to see for yourself and add your own entry)

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Magda and Ali stayed over on Friday night. We woke up early Saturday morning as Ali had to return to Adana for work. Just after 7am they exited my door to catch the lift 6 levels down. At first they had a problem with the lift so I left my doorway and showed them the sensors that stop the lift when crossed (as a safety measure). Bad move! A few seconds later, ‘clang’, my apartment door closes and I don’t have the keys!

I am locked outside my apartment early on a Saturday morning wearing only my boxers!!!!

Luckily, with previous experience of being locked out, I went upstairs onto the rooftop to look for a lever of some sort to unlock the door. Bingo! I hope no people in the neighbouring buildings were offended by the sight of me 🙂 I found a length of thin metal rod. Downstairs I bent the rod and poked it through the metal door slats. After a few manipulations the catch opened and I returned to the sanctity of my flat.

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At the moment there is an Australian civillian, timsahb, in Baghdad. For some ‘as it happens‘ news of the unrest in Iraq, read the following Thorn Tree posts:

Post 1

Post 2

For daily, updated photos of Iraq, visit timsahb’s Fotolog.

Any thoughts of myself visiting northern Iraq as a side trip from Iran later in the year have well and truly gone.

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When I first came to Turkey I was amazed at how many different Turkish names there are. Prior to arriving I thought that the number of names would be limited as Turkey was not as diverse as, say, Australia. People also ask me what my name means. My first name is easy to explain as it is the equivalent of ‘Yusuf’ (a common name here). However, my second name is more difficult for the locals to understand as ‘it is probably named after an Irish river’.

The variety of names and expectation of names with meanings both come from the fact that many Turkish names are every-day words with meanings. A selection of names and their equivalent meaning in English are listed below. This post was inspired by exult’s question on the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree discussion board.

Which Turkish name sounds the best?

Imagine if the English equivalents were regular names…
Alkim – rainbow
Aslan – lion
Arzu – desire
Aziz – saint (male)
Azize – saint (female)
Baris – peace
Bilgin – scholar
Bora – tempest
Buket – bouquet
Can – soul, life
Canan – beloved
Cenk – battle
Cigdem – crocus
Cagdas – contemporary
Damla – drop
Demir – iron, anchor
Deniz – sea
Derya – sea
Devrim – revolution
Dogan – falcon
Duygu – feeling
Eda – manner
Ege – Aegean
Emin – secure
Funda – heather
Gizem – mystery
Goksel – celestial
Gul – rose
Gunes – sunshine
Hakan – khan
Harika – wonderful
Hilal – crescent
Iklim – climate
Latif – pleasing
Melek – angel
Mert – brave
Metin – strong
Murat – wish
Mutlu – happy
Nil – Nile
Nilufer – water lily
Nur – light
Onur – honour
Oya – embroidery
Ozge – uncommon
Ozgur – free
Ozlem – aspiration
Pinar – spring
Saadet – happiness
Savas – war
Seda – voice
Selim – benignant
Seref – honour
Sevda – passion
Sevgi – love
Ufuk – horizon
Ugur – good luck
Umit – hope
Umut – hope
Uran – industry
Yalin – bare
Zafer – victory

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GuestMap Entries

Thank you Flic, Haso, Alicia, Onur and Jeff for making the first GuestMap entries. There are now little smiling people in North America, Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. To view them and to add your own entry, please click the button on the right.

Permalink

As is quite obvious to see, there are permanent links for every post. If one wants to refer to a post all they have to do is click on the permalink and copy the address. In the case of the 03 November 2003 story of Toygun and my expedition to Anazarbus (Anavarza), the link is here

Sakip Sabanci Passes Away

The big news this week in Turkey is the passing of Sakip Sabanci, the head of the Sabanci empire. He was regarded as the leading industrialist in Turkey overseeing a vast empire of businesses in size second only to Koc Holdings in Turkey. The town where the Sabanci empire grew from is Adana. It was Adana that I visited yesterday, not because of Sakip’s death, but to see Ali and Magda. After eating borek, sikma (savoury pancakes) and Kunefe (a sweet) we walked around town. In view were both the HiltonSA Hotel and Sabanci Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the Middle East. Other photos of the Sabanci Mosque: at night, with a jet in the foreground and during sunset.

In Turkey so many businesses have the famous Sabanci ‘SA’ symbol as seen in the DuPontSA and EXSA logos.

This article provides a good summary of Sakip Sabanci and his empire, althought the grammar is not the best.

Is it Spring or as has Summer arrived already?

Whilst still in Adana I developed a headache and the pain stayed with me when I came back to Mersin. Shortly after going to bed last night I vomited and it wasn’t until midday today I felt well enough to come to work. I am not definite on the cause of the illness although I can say it was not meat or alcohol related. Magda also had a headache after the walk yesterday afternoon. My best guess is the illness was the result of the sun and heat. Yesterday the temperature was around 30C a jump of several degrees from the previous day and I don’t think my body was used to the heat. Has spring already passed?

African Visitors

Tonight some visitors from Africa will come to Mersin for business. The languages will be fun: Arabic, French, Turkish, English and a bit of Swahili mixed in for good effect.

Interesting article on Australian expats

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/11/1081621832403.html

I hope everyone reading this blog has a positive view of me as an expatriate 🙂

Popstar and its many Turkish variations

The first Popstar television series was a huge hit in Turkey, launching a various artists popstar album and singles for several of the contestants.

I was flicking TV channels the other evening and I noticed some new Popstar copies showing. With research I have discovered:

Akademi Türkiye (Academy Turkey) a Big Brother-style Popstar version

Turkstar

Türkiyenin Yıldızları (Turkey’s Stars)

and a 2nd Popstar

Visit the programme websites and see how similar they are!

Can any other country beat this amount of Popstar copies?

Easter

Oh, yeah, happy Easter!

The biggest Easter event I took part in this year was to throw water on Magda, the Polish trainee. This Polish tradition was pointed out to me on Saturday by Alicia on msn chat.

Thanks to Alicia, Magda, Ali and I had some fun with this tradition on Sunday!

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On the right of the page, under “Where are you in the world?”, there is a button to click on. Please click on this and add your post and message to the world map. I want to see little smiling humans and read messages from all over the world so get cracking!