There is an odd little detail at the back of a 1928 statue depicting Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, standing in Istanbul's central Taksim Square: found among the adoring crowd of figures surrounding Ataturk, a group dominated by children and peasants, are two stern-faced men with stars on their bronze lapels. They are two Red Army generals Mikhail Frunze and Kliment Voroshilov.
One night in late July, Arslankoy hosted Hamlet, dressed in a pink cloak and papier mache crown, and played by a 52-year old woman who left school when she was 12. "I identified with Hamlet from the start", says Ummuye Kocak, who abridged the play, and directs what must rate as Turkey's most unusual acting troupe, the Arslankoy Women's Theatre Group.
Turkey and the International Monetary Fund will be making a final push in the coming weeks to see whether they can conclude a loan agreement, according to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey's football authorities are at the center of a developing scandal, in which the dropping of a referee is turning into a civil rights test case. The referee at the center of the case, Halil Ibrahim Dincdag, maintains he was let go because of his homosexuality, and he is challenging the Turkish Football Federation's decision in a local court.
But the images he has filmed since 2007 from the suburban Istanbul holiday village where he works as a night watchman have helped turn UFO-spotting, once the object of scorn, into a relatively popular pastime among some educated Turks.
But the images he has filmed since 2007 from the suburban Istanbul holiday village where he works as a night watchman have helped turn UFO-spotting, once the object of scorn, into a relatively popular pastime among some educated Turks.
A European Court of Human Rights ruling in early June could turn into a landmark decision that opens the way for the expanded protection of women's rights in Turkey.
Nationwide, the CHP only managed to get 2 percent more votes than in general elections in 2007. But in Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city, it increased votes by 10 percent, losing by a neck to a popular mayor from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). "Win Istanbul and you are half way to winning Turkey", says Adil Gur, a leading pollster.
The May 4 massacre of a wedding party that left at least 44 people dead is putting pressure on the government to address two thorny issues: the persistence of blood feuds in a country that is seeking European Union membership, and the lack of oversight of government-backed militias, in which men with little training have ready access to automatic weapons.
