#Istanbul 2015

[trexalicious]

Reblog! @grits-galraisedinthesouth keeps posting about H and Rachel meeting in 2015 in Istanbul on Twitter but they keep deleting her posts...🤔

The Best 48 Hours of Meghan Markle's LIE, I meant Life:

[muratmesutfan]

İstanbul’a kar düşer, İstanbul’a yokluğun düşer. İstanbul üşür, ben üşürüm…

Murat Mesut

[cemrelovestaylor]

if Taylor really comes to Turkey after all these years this girl would be the happiest:)

[probablyasocialecologist]

In Istanbul, a flotilla of ships is preparing to depart with 5,500 tonnes of aid and around 1,000 medics, lawyers, senior politicians and human rights observers. Its destination: the Gaza Strip. On Sunday, the Gaza Freedom Flotilla will begin making its way to the besieged strip, its fifth voyage in 14 years. While the journey would normally take three to four days, it is expected that the flotilla – initially comprising three vessels, one cargo and two passenger ships, with further vessels expected to join later – could be waylaid by Israeli forces. 

[...]

The flotilla is organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which brings together 12 national groups from Canada, Malaysia, Italy, Norway, the US, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, South Africa, New Zealand, the UK and France. Altogether, delegates from over 30 countries will be represented on board. The flotilla’s crew and passengers – among them Che Guevara’s daughter Aleida and Nelson Mandela’s grandson Zwelivelile – will be unarmed. Their peacefulness will not guarantee their safety, however, as the Israeli state has a long and bloody history of targeting humanitarian groups. The flotilla’s first voyage to Gaza in May 2010 was a bloodbath: Israel sent a naval ship to meet it, killing 10 crew members (all of them Turkish, including one Turkish American dual national) and injuring 30. A UN report later found that Israel appeared to have executed at least six people in an “extra-legal, arbitrary and summary” manner; a Turkish state autopsy found that five had been shot in the head at close range.  Israel subsequently apologised to Turkey for the raid and agreed to compensate the bereaved families $20m. Further voyages in 2015, 2016 and 2018 saw Israel seize the FFC’s ships and detain and deport those on board. Israel has also targeted humanitarian workers on land. Earlier this month, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) food aid workers, among them three British citizens, in a drone attack on a marked convoy whose movements had been coordinated with the IDF. An Israeli investigation blamed “grave errors”, a finding WCK rejected.

[operafantomet]

Just saw phantom live at west end and wow! The sets were big! Now I wonder if other replicas had bigger sets.

For a second I read that as "West End Live", AKA the annual concert thingie with led screens... And I was like HUH?

Then I understood what you meant. Heh.

First and foremost, I am so happy you had a good time at POTO. It is a beautiful show. I am a huge fan of Maria Bjørnson's set and costume design, and still today - some 30 years after I became a fan - I can be utterly floored by certain scenes.

As far as set size goes West End is actually one of the smaller. Not SMALL, but smaller. Some of the biggest to date include (in no particular order):

The Las Vegas production 2006-2012, with its especially-built theatre with gigantic stage, dome, and "chandelier in pieces". Huge production, larger-than-life details.

The original Hamburg production 1990-2001. Another theatre built to house Phantom (and today one of the top musical theatre buildings in Germany). Extremely wide stage, to the point where Maria Bjørnson was not entirely happy with the proscenium layout. It didn't blend as well as elsewhere. In some scenes it also felt like the cast literally had to run across stage to get into position in time. Oh Hamburg. Needless to say, they narrowed the stage for the revival 2013-2015.

The Stuttgart production 2002-2004 also featured a big stage. I can't tell if it was bigger than Neue Flora in Hamburg or not, but it was in the same vein.

Oh! But also the original Los Angeles production (1989-1993). Massive proscenium and stage. And yet I don't have a single good photo showing the proscenium or its scale. Hmpf.

I would also mention the World Tour, which has toured in at times huge arenas. It didn't necessarily make the proscenium bigger, but they sometimes did the extended side sculpture look, where there is a drape structure under the sculptures. This was the case when I saw the show in the fairly brand new Zorlu Theatre in Istanbul 2015:

This could even be considered one of the smaller World Tour stages. In other cases they've been in huge operas or also arenas. Again, it doesn't necessarily mean the set-up on stage is bigger, but it does something with the overall scale. Here's Hong Kong 2014:

Compared to these Her Majesty's Theatre is way more intimate, both in Maria Bjørnson's original proscenium design and chandelier:

And the new wider and angel-less design for the revival:

Just to continue showing the range of set-ups... I suspect one of the smallest stages they've performed the show has been in Copenhagen. The stage is tall, but narrow, and quite cramped backstage. They were originally told no when they wanted to do the show, due to the backstage and understage space. But they came up with lots of methods to make sets foldable, collapable or deconstructable, and hoisting furniture and set pieces up in the air. And they made it work. Very well! But this production didn't feature any side sculptures, just like the riginal Stockholm production where they got the sets from, to not obstruct side view of the already narrow stage.

Now compare those proportions (and especially the Golden Angel, which I don't think differ a lot in size between productions) to the Las Vegas stage... quite the difference, both with and without the side boxes in the auditorium.

...and that has been today's proscenium and stage nerding... Hah!

[ilcontephotography]

Marmara University Faculty of Theology Mosque, by Muharrem Hilmi Şenalp (2015).

Istanbul, Turkey.

© Roberto Conte (2023)

[nullnvoid911]

Turkish riot police stand guard near the Istanbul Congress Center (ICC) where the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meet in Istanbul.

Murad Sezer, February 10, 2015

[justforbooks]

Regarded as one of Agatha Christie’s greatest achievements, Murder on the Orient Express was first published as a novel in 1934.

The very first publication of the story was in a six-instalment serialisation in the Saturday Evening Post in 1933 in the US, under the title, Murder on the Calais Coach.

The book is dedicated "To M.E.L.M. Arpachiyah, 1933" – Agatha Christie’s second husband, Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan.

It’s likely that the story was drafted when Christie was on an archaeological dig with Max in Arpachiyah, Iraq, although The Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul has an Agatha Christie Room where, it claims, she wrote Murder on the Orient Express.

The story was partly inspired by the Lindbergh case; a shocking real-life case following the kidnapping of international hero, Charles Lindbergh’s, 20-month old son who was held for a $50,000 ransom. The ransom was paid, but unfortunately Lindbergh’s son was never returned.

The story was also inspired partly by an incident in 1929 when the Orient Express was trapped in a blizzard in Çerkezköy, Turkey, where it was marooned for six days! Two years later Christie was involved in a similar scenario when she was travelling on the Orient Express and the train got stuck for a period of time due to heavy rainfall and flooding, which washed part of the track away!

Christie first travelled on the Orient Express in 1928 which also happened to be her first solo trip abroad. This was to become the first of many trips on the train.

Agatha Christie’s notable attention to detail is evident throughout the novel. While writing it, she checked cabin layouts, door handles and light switches, noting down their positions. These crucial details would lead Poirot to solve the case.

The dust jacket blurb on the first edition reads: ‘Murder on the Orient Express must rank as one of the most ingenious stories ever devised.’

In 1974 the book was adapted for the big screen. Directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, the film was the 11th highest grossing film of the year.

At the age of 84, Agatha Christie made her last public appearance at the royal premiere of the film in London.

In 2015 Murder on the Orient Express was ranked as the second World’s Favourite Christie, which ranked And Then There Were None in the top spot and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd in third place.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[bigbangsanvers]

vegas to nowhere

written by @zennie-fic

Rating: Teen and up audiences

Warnings: None

Summary:

Alex finds Maggie in the most unlikely of places: Area 51.

Part of a series Inspired by this quote from Buffy:

Willow: “I was waiting. I feel like some part of me will always be waiting for you. Like if I'm old and blue-haired, and I turn the corner in Istanbul and there you are, I won't be surprised. Because... you're with me, you know?”

This is all the ways that Alex and Maggie collide, post-breakup.

Additional tags: Fix-It of Sorts, lots of tropes, one bed, lots of pining, Sanvers Big Bang 2020

With art by ViviWrites

Check out the work on ao3 for more art!

These works were part of Sanvers Big Bang 2020 and were revealed on November 11.

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Meghan is Afraid of her April 2015 visit to Soho House in Istanbul, Turkey

No surprise Meghan has been reading Tumblr since 2015-2016. She also interacted with us via Twatter under her many aliases in an effort to grow her squad.

Netflix allows comments on the Teaser and Trailer. Keep in mind that this is a woman whose mission is to criminalize any criticism of her. She views criticism as harassment and believes she is a champion for "digital justice" to shut down our freedom of speech.

Netflix deleted only 1 of my many comments on the Teaser:

"Meghan and Harry were both in Istanbul, Turkey in April of 2015."

I replied to a reply w/details which were immediately deleted

Another reply asked "is this true?"

I provided the details, and they were erased

Finally in dawned on me that Meghan & her people were monitoring the Netflix comments section and that I hit a nerve.

Meghan does not want their April 2015 Istanbul, Turkey trip to get mainstream media coverage.

[victusinveritas]

Aylin Zaptçıoğlu (German, b. 1985, Hamburg, Germany, based İstanbul, Turkey) - Untitled, 2015, Paintings: Oil on Canvas

[machineryangel]

any turkish movie recs?

HI YES i've been waiting for this ask my entire life

Kurak Günler (2022) dir. Emin Alper*

Emre, a young and dedicated prosecutor, is newly appointed to a small town hit by a water crisis and political scandals. After an initial welcome, he experiences an increasing number of tense interactions and is reluctantly dragged into local politics. When Emre forms a bond with the owner of the local newspaper pressure escalates under heated rumours.

trigger warnings: animal cruelty & abuse, graphic animal death, sexual abuse & rape (potentially of a minor, the victim's age is not clear), hunting, drought, sinkholes, drugging, hallucinations, homophobia, physical assault, harassment, guns & rifles and other weapons, riots

Bizim İçin Şampiyon (2018) dir. Ahmet Katıksız*

The mid 90’s. Turkey’s political instability, inflation and hopelesness on people were increased. In those years when all hope was lost, people deeply bond with Bold Pilot and Halis Karataş who win every race coming from the last place. People see themselves at the point where this horse and jockey are: at the back. This duo make people to believe that everybody can win. The race ends at the finish line and the first to cross this line are Bold Pilot and Halis riding it.

trigger warnings: terminal illness, misogyny (+ possibly more, it's been a while since i've seen this movie)

Mucize (2015) dir. Mahsun Kırmızıgül

1960s Turkey countryside. A newly assigned teacher finds out that the solitary village is missing a school. He gets fond of the village people and especially a disabled man. The teacher helps the village to build a new school and educate the children and the disabled man.

trigger warnings: ableism (very graphic; e.g children & teenagers are seen throwing rocks at a physically and mentally disabled person), use of ableist slurs, misogyny & sexism, guns & rifles, celebratory gunfire, animal cruelty & killing, brief non-sexual nudity, suicide attempt, harassment

Dedemin İnsanları (2011) dir. Çağan Irmak*

A feature film that tells the story of the director’s grandfather who was forced to leave Crete in the 1920s during the Greek-Turkish population exchange.

trigger warnings: forced displacement, death of an infant by illness, xenophobia, homophobia, suicide

Kedi (2016) dir. Ceyda Torun*

A profile of Istanbul and its unique people, seen through the eyes of the most mysterious and beloved animal humans have ever known, the Cat.

Also I haven't seen Yedinci Koğuştaki Mucize (2019) dir. Mehmet Ada Öztekin & Babam ve Oğlum (2005) dir. Çağan Irmak but i've heard rly good things about them & they're on my watchlist <3

Additionally, pls note that except for Bizim İçin Şampiyon & Kedi, all of these movies are very political. They include population exchange, military coups, the hypocrisy of rural people, anarchist people getting arrested unjustly and disappearing in custody, etc. If you're not familiar w Turkish political climate in the last century, they could be hard to follow at times, but all of them are rly worth watching.

the ones w asterisk are my faves <3

[guerillas-of-history]

Revolutionary Kurdish youth in Istanbul, May Day, 2015

Behind them is the flag of the left-wing People's Democratic Party (HDP) a pro-minority political party.

In the aftermath of the 2016 coup attempt, many of the parties leaders and members have been imprisoned. The ruling AKP party also accuses the HDP of being linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) subsequently the party was nearly banned, but won its prohibition case.

[beardedmrbean]

Shamima Begum has lost her latest bid to overturn the government’s decision to strip her of British citizenship, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

Ms Begum left the UK aged 15 with two other east London schoolgirls to travel to Syria in February 2015.

Last year, she lost a challenge against the decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).

Here are the key developments to date:

August 1999: Shamima Begum is born in England to parents of Bangladeshi heritage.

February 2015: British counter-terrorism police launched an international hunt to find three London schoolgirls who were making their way to the so-called Islamic State’s (Isis) territory in Syria.

Ms Begum, 15, had slipped out of her house in east London, with friends, Kadiza Sultant, 16 and Amira Abase. They caught a flight to Istanbul, Turkey and travelled to the Syrian border from there.

In late February, the Metropolitan police confirm that Begum and her friends had reached Syria. Ten days after arriving in the country, Shamima Begum marries Yago Riedijk, a Dutch-born convert to Islam and a convicted terrorist.

October 2017: A US-backed alliance of Syrian fighters takes full control of Raqqa, ending three years of Isis rule in the city.

13 February 2019: The Times’ war correspondent Anthony Loyd finds Ms Begum, then 19-years-old, at the al-Hawl refugee camp in Northern Syria. A pregnant Ms Begum tells him that she wants to return to the UK to raise her child but that she did not regret her decision to join Isis. She says that she had had two other children who died of malnutrition.

She says she had been unfazed by seeing the head of a beheaded man as he was an “enemy of Islam” but believes that Isis did not deserve victory.

Three days later, Ms Begum gives birth to a baby boy.

19 February 2019: The UK government serves notice that it intends to strip Ms Begum of her British citizenship.

The then-Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, writes to Ms Begum’s parents to inform them of his order to strip her citizenship. He believes that, because her parents are of Bangladeshi heritage, she can apply for citizenship of that country.

The law allows the government to remove citizenship if they can show the person behaved “in a manner which is seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the UK” and when there is “reasonable grounds for believing that the person is able, under the law of a country or territory outside the UK, to become a national of such a country or territory.”

24 February 2019: Ms Begum’s father, Ahmed Ali, speaks to The Mail on Sunday and says that he “doesn’t have a problem” with his daughter’s British citizenship being removed.

Speaking from his home in Bangladesh, he said: “If she at least admitted she made a mistake then I would feel sorry for her and other people would feel sorry for her, but she does not accept her wrong.”

16 July 2020: The Court of Appeal rules that Ms Begum should be permitted to return to the UK in order to fairly contest the British government’s decision to revoke her citizenship. This ruling was appealed and sent to the Supreme Court.

26 February 2021: On February 26, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously against bringing Ms Begum back, thus reversing the previous decision.

15 September 2021: Ms Begum asks the British people for forgiveness in an interview with ITV. The now-22-year-old says that Isis’s killing of innocent people is “unjustifiable”.

She apologised for comments she had previously made to a BBC journalist about the Manchester Arena bombing. In 2019, she had claimed - when asked about the 2017 attack - that it was wrong to kill innocent people, but that Isis considered it justified as retaliation for coalition bombing of Isis-held areas.

She told ITV: “I do not believe that one evil justifies another evil. I don’t think that women and children should be killed for other people’s motives and for other people’s agendas.”

November 2022

Before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), Ms Begum’s counsel said: “Without seeking to investigate and determine, still less consider, whether she was a child victim of trafficking and whether there were failures by public authorities in the UK to prevent her being trafficked.”

January 2023

In the BBC podcast series, she said she understood public anger towards her but insisted she was not a “bad person”.

She said she accepted she was viewed “as a danger, as a risk”, but blamed her portrayal in the media.

February 22, 2023

Ms Begum lost her appeal in a SIAC court to overturn the government’s decision to strip her of her British citizenship.

October 2023

Ms Begum’s appeal against the loss of her British citizenship began in the Court of Appeal.

Begum’s team of barristers claim she was a victim of Isis propaganda and was groomed into terrorism.

Samantha Knights KC told the court the government had failed to consider the legal duties owed to Ms Begum as a potential victim of trafficking or as a result of “state failures” in her case.

February 2024

Three judges dismissed Ms Begum‘s bid at the Court of Appeal.

Giving the ruling, Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr said: “It could be argued the decision in Ms Begum‘s case was harsh. It could also be argued that Ms Begum is the author of her own misfortune.

“But it is not for this court to agree or disagree with either point of view. Our only task is to assess whether the deprivation decision was unlawful.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

I was watching baby reindeer and it struck me how real trauma binding in such situations can be. Which got me thinking .... Did Harry marry his stalker??

We know she orchestrated the meeting with Harry. We know the lowkey stalking-manifesting on her part may have started a couple of years in advance. So many credible theories that they "accidentally" kept meeting again and again, their circles just "coincidentally" coincided over the years.

Various youtubers and Tumblr bloggers have put together very credible evidence of them meeting in -

1. May 2016 in Toronto for an Invictus lunch that Cory was a chef for.

2. In May/June 2015, Soho House Istanbul inauguration. Lots of pictures of Meghan being there, meeting various celebs. And Harry supposedly also attended since he was in Istanbul, with Charles, for a royal engagement. No pictures, but rumour is he landed a day early for the Soho gig.

3. May/June 2014, art Basel Miami, where Meghan met up with Misha, who also introduced her to Eugenie. Early articles mentioned Mm and Misha meeting there, and Misha said this in the interview she did for her store launch that happened with the smartworks thing Meghan did in london 2019. That article has since been edited. There were also mentions of this in Meghan's PR she did pre-harry (I used to follow her superficially). It was also on Tig. I remember this but those articles have also gone now.

Harry was in Miami at that same time for his friends bachelors and pre-wedding party. This is the same thing he broke-up with cressida over, not buying her ticket even though their whole friend circle was going to Miami. (William joined the gang later in another city for the wedding, so no chance of him meeting her).

Anyway, at the time this was covered by some media reports which said Harry spent the evening chatting up a "tanned brunette" in a corner and spent the whole evening with her. There were no photos. It's quite a coincidence that both HnM attended the same party at the same venue, were in the same social circle (misha-eug-harrys aristo group).

So, what I am saying is that it seems that they kept meeting every year around the same time, and that Meghan (or Harry) may have thought this was the universe trying to push them together. So when Meghan found herself in London in June 2016, having already met Harry 2 months back in May, she took her chance and "surprised" him with a blind date. She may as well have deliberately put her pictures with Violet on social media in order to bait Harry.

I know it's far fetched but this kind of orchestrated serendipity isn't unheard of. It's a very teenage, high school behaviour but it does happen. And people fall for this all the time.

This theory also aligns with how and why Meghan suddenly pivoted towards a humanitarian PR in 2014. For Harry, it may have been a forgettable encounter, but for her it was the perfect opportunity.

So, what do you think? Is there any credibility to the rumours that Meghan targetting Harry, and then enmeshed him in some sort of trauma bond?

Old ask from May 9th

To the first question, I don't think so. I think if one wants to believe that Meghan stalked/targeted Harry for two years, one needs to also believe the rumor that Harry met Meghan multiple times before he remembered who she was. And personally, I don't have any evidence of that other than the conflicting stories of when they met and who set them up. Those aren't slam dunks.

I'm not discounting that it couldn't happen, it absolutely can and the internet is chockful of stories about real relationships like this. I just don't think it's likely - primarily because given how messy Meghan is, something like this would've leaked out by now.

I do think Meghan was social climbing and strategizing for a wealthier husband - remember, she was going after athletes (hockey boys post-Trevor, cheating on Cory with Rory McIlroy, sliding into Ashley Cole's DMs) because being a WAG was the ultimate life of luxury - when the opportunity to meet Harry dropped in her lap, and she took full advantage of it. Because to someone like Meghan who's chasing WAG dreams, the only thing better than being a WAG was being a princess.

Which is, I think, the real story: Meghan and Harry hooked up in May 2016 at the Toronto Invictus Dinner behind Cory's back and met up again a few weeks later when she was in London for Wimbledon. The Violet photos could very well have been bait (to catch Harry's attention and let him know she was in town) or a plant (to create a Hallmark meet-cute story to hide how they really met).

But to the second question, absolutely. Meghan definitely set things up so that Harry trauma-bonded to her and she did that with the Toronto break-in claims, which preyed on Harry's paranoia of paparazzi and security.

I couldn't get into Baby Reindeer. I tried several to watch it several times but it wasn't for me.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Getting degrees recognized helps refugees follow their dreams in Brazil

A network of universities in Brazil is supporting the government’s welcoming approach to refugees by revalidating their qualifications, enabling refugees to rebuild their academic and professional lives.

Before he had even touched down in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, Syrian refugee Anas Abdulrjab had a taste of the warm welcome he would receive in his new home, courtesy of the official who issued his humanitarian visa at the consulate in Istanbul where he was living at the time.  

“I thanked her so much and she said, ‘You don’t have to thank me. I’m not doing you a favour. This is your right’,” Anas recalled. “I had no connection to Brazil whatsoever. But just having this positive experience made me want to try harder [to make the move a success].”  

Touching down in Rio in 2015, his positive first impressions continued despite not knowing anyone or speaking a word of Portuguese. “When I first came here, everybody was so welcoming,” he said. “A lot of people were just trying to speak Arabic with me, with the little they know, like ‘ahlan wa sahlan’ (welcome).” 

Anas was also grateful to receive documentation in his first week giving him the right to work and study in Brazil, but there was one uncertainty that continued to hang over him. The technical engineering degree he had worked so hard to complete two years previously was not recognized in Brazil, leaving him unsure if he would be able to follow his dream of becoming an engineer. 

But Anas had never given up on a career in engineering, and the setback of losing his business allowed him to focus fully on his goal. While running the catering business, he had begun researching Brazilian universities that offered the same courses he had studied. This led him to Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) in the nearby city of Niterói, and to Professor Paula Brandão, who would become a pivotal figure for him by overseeing the revalidation of his degree in Brazil.

Continue reading.