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No sleep ’til Suli
[Welcome to continuing coverage of my recent trip to Istanbul, southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. Link below for previous posts.]Kurdish nationalists refer to northern Iraq as South Kurdistan, merely one part of a country-in-waiting that overlaps present-day Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. In a previous post I wrote that one could practically hit the Syrian border with a stone thrown
Oil, oil everywhere, but…
One of the first things you see as you drive through northern Iraq is the vibrant black market in gasoline. There’s pink fuel (left) and clear fuel; the pink is supposed to be better. It’s my understanding that most of it is smuggled from Iran. There are “legit” gas stations as well, but few actually have gas, and the ones
The border
[Welcome to continuing coverage of my recent trip to Istanbul, southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. Link below for previous posts.] The border zone between Turkey and Zakho, in northernmost Iraq, is a bleak expanse of concrete and mud. Major renovations are underway—“they’re making it more like Europe,” our driver, Haji, says in Turkish—but First World conditions are a long way
Southeastern Turkey
[Welcome to continuing coverage of my recent trip to Istanbul, southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. Link below for previous posts.]On the evening of March 19, my colleague Yigal Schleifer and I took a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Diyarbakir, a mere 90 minutes but seemingly a world away. The largest city in southeastern Anatolia, Diyarbakir has long been a
Turkish nationalism
Those who think of the U.S. as a morass of jingoistic display could gain some perspective by visiting Turkey. At the top, a banner of Ataturk adorns a building in commemoration of the Ottoman victory in Gallipoli in World War I (1915). At bottom, at the ferry landing in Büyükada, Ataturk appears in a more Soviet style, above a plaque
“A traffic light gone haywire”
[Welcome to “Istanbul, Southeast Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan: A Political Travelogue.” Link below for the next post in the series.] The sights in Istanbul were awe-inspiring, from Muhammad’s sword and scabbard at Topkapi Palace to the meditative labyrinth of the Yerebatan Sarayi, a huge sixth-century cistern built by Emperor Justinian I. Also, these unforgettable views from the shores of Büyükada,
Won’t see this at JFK
Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport connects to just about everywhere. This is one of the first things I saw upon landing.