Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna
Part of1st June 2016
A sometimes overlooked #reasonstolikeistanbul is the profusion of quirky museums. Some famous Istanbul museums reflect the city’s ancient history, such as the Archaeology Museum (housing exhibits from both within and outside what is today Turkey) or the unparalleled Aya Sofya. These should be on the itinerary of any visitor. But some of my favourite museums […]
3rd May 2016
Ok. The Lycian Way is not in Istanbul. But having written a blog recently about longer walks outside Istanbul; and another about my favourite shorter walk, I thought I should record the fact that, amongst the many wonders of Turkey we should include the splendid Lycian Way. I walked the first 40 km of the Lycian Way in April. […]
13th April 2016
How to be happy? Someone wrote that it’s all about (i) nature; (ii) other people; and (iii) exercise. That sounds about right to me. So what could make you happier than nature walking in a group? My recent blog #AdiosIstanbul 2 mentioned independent hiking group “Hiking Istanbul”. The aim of the slightly British-flavoured project is […]
Read more on #AdiosIstanbul 3: favourite longer walks – and happiness | Reply
11th April 2016
The new “Vodafone Arena” is magnificent. The location is world class. How did it happen? Since 2013 I have often walked past the site of magnificent new Beşiktaş stadium. I watched with fascination as the old stadium was demolished; a huge hole in the ground appeared; and the new stadium arose. Every month or two, […]
2nd March 2016
A group of colourfully-dressed people gathers in an Istanbul public square to form a Gay Pride march down a busy public street. Year after year, the procession grows, from 5,000, to 10,000, and eventually as many as 100,000. The international community commends Turkey’s approach to LGBT issues. In 2015, however, the Istanbul Gay Pride march is […]
1st March 2016
1 March is St David’s Day, named after the patron saint of Wales who died in 589. The Consulate in Istanbul and the Embassy in Ankara are flying the terrific Welsh flag: I’m part-Welsh: my great-grandfather John Derfel (photo below) came from the the town of Llanderfel in north Wales and was the son of the […]
23rd February 2016
I wrote recently that as my departure from the fabulous city of Istanbul loomed, I would be writing blogs about my favourite places and activities under the heading #AdiosIstanbul. One of my favourite activities in Istanbul is walking. I have wandered all over the European side, taking in places from Zeytinburnu and Kumkapı to Okmeydanı […]
Read more on #AdiosIstanbul 2: my favourite walk (and pictures) | Reply
16th February 2016
I was pleased on 16 February to visit the editorial offices of Yeni Şafak with a number of EU Consuls-General. We went to Yeni Şafak on a “geçmiş olsun” visit after last week’s attacks on Yeni Şafak and Yeni Akit. This followed similar visits to Hurriyet and Sabah after attacks in 2015. The UK […]
Read more on Yeni Şafak and Yeni Akit: freedom of expression matters | Reply
15th February 2016
A young Turkish entrepreneur enters a hotel meeting room. She comes face-to-face with some of Turkey’s top business gurus. ‘OK,’ says the chair, ‘you have five minutes to convince us.’ Five minutes later, after the young whizz-kid has set out her plans for growing her business by establishing a foothold in the UK, the assembled […]
Read more on How Turkish whizz-kids can scale-up fast | Reply
12th February 2016
A guest blog by HM Consul Timothy Fisher, British Consulate-General Istanbul 100 years ago my great grandmother was protesting on the streets of London with other Suffragettes campaigning for the right for women to vote in Britain. It was a time when the right to vote was a hot political topic. A century later, voting remains as […]