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
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 […]
23rd February 2016 Istanbul, Turkey
At the start of last month, 16 Chevening Alumni from Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey convened in the British Consulate in Istanbul for the Chevening Alumni Regional Conference 2016. The subject of this year’s conference was “Syria and its impact on the region: 5 years into the conflict”, covering important themes such as humanitarian access, […]
Read more on Supporting Syria – with the help of Chevening Alumni | Reply (1)
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
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
9th February 2016
How many reasons are there to like Istanbul? Since I arrived in Istanbul in August 2012 I have featured over 500 #reasonstolikeistanbul on my @leighturnerFCO twitter account. The response has been mostly enthusiastic. That’s not surprising. Istanbul is a spectacular city, with an epic past, a potential-packed present and, I hope, a brilliant future. But all […]
4th February 2016 London, UK
As we approach the fifth anniversary of the civil war in Syria, the most urgent humanitarian catastrophe of the day continues with a quarter of a million lives lost to date. The international community must significantly step up its efforts and act now to support the 18 million people in Syria and neighbouring countries who […]
19th January 2016
Let’s be frank: my Turkish isn’t much good. I’ve been learning regularly for over three years; I wish I spoke it better. Thanks to my excellent teachers, however, I’ve made some progress: you can compare, for example, my first video blog in Turkish in August 2013; my video about Lundy Island, in November 2013; and […]
Read more on 77 million reasons to like Turkish | Reply (12)
8th January 2016
I was proud to be one of a number of Consuls General, who visited the offices of Cumhuriyet on 6 January. We made the following statement, and handed over a signed text: “As representatives of EU consulates based in Istanbul, we wish for Turkish journalists across the whole political spectrum to be able to exercise […]