Reading the Middle East

Regional developments are pacing faster than in a long time, at least, even though we have yet to see anything like substantial progress. Read some commentary here (Bitte Hammargren in Svenska Dagbladet), here, here and here (all from BBC World).

Re:Orient

This year's Stockholm Re:Orient-festival takes place 7-10 June and reportedly in several downtown locations. I am sooooo looking forward! The schedule is not clear quite yet, though.

The walls of Diyarbakir

The black basalt stone walls of old Diyarbakir - dating from Ottoman times??? - surrounding the old sity can here be seen from the distance.

Overlooking the Bosphorus

The last sight from our Istanbul weekend...

Photos from Afghanistan

The Museum for the Near East and Antiquity (? well, Medelhavsmuseet in Swedish) has a photo exhibition from Afghanistan this week. I will not have the opportunity to see it myself, but encourage all others interested to go!

Turkey and Europe

Ingmar Karlsson is speaking in Stockholm tonight (scroll down) on his new book, which is as yet not translated, as far as I know: "Europe and the Turk".

Dagens Nyheter reviews it enthusiastically, but also problematizes issues not fully explored in the book (at least according to the reviewer). The Svenska Dagbladet reviewer doesn't fully agree with his views though, even if he appreciates the factual content.

Previously Karlsson has published this article on the same theme.

Other reading on Turkey here (on Swedish business).

All the links are in Swedish, by the way.

Angles on the Suleimaniyye

Two slightly more unusual shots of the Suleimaniyye, one taken from the row of restaurants next to it and the other from the upper floor of the IMC Carsisi down towards the Atatürk bridge.

On the Bosphorus

Life on the Bosphorus on a Friday afternoon in early February - very beautiful and peaceful-looking. Birds, fishing, very few (extraordinarily so) passing boats.

All the pictures are taken from Emirgan, from a bench on the quay outside the Sabanci Museum (Atli Kösk).

Istiklal caddesi

Something funny happened to a previous post - the photo disappeared. So I republish it...

The far (or near?) end of Istiklal Caddesi, the one near the Tünel and at the other end from Taksim. It's pretty much my Istanbul haunt, I guess. And you can see the tram approaching here too.

Bosphorus piloting system

The white tower you see among the buildings behind the line of shoreside villas is a part of the electronic piloting system of the Turkish straits - installed a few years back only. I may have had pictures of similar installments near Canakkale to show you last summer - they span the full length of both straits.

Bridging the Bosphorus

I showed a lot of bridges not so long ago. Now, this time it is the second (upper) Bosphorus bridge, the Fatih bridge, between Rumeli Hisari and Anadolu Hisari, about halfway up the Bosphorus. See the steady stream of passing cars... and glimpse the fortress behind on the European side.

Congratulations, EU 50 years!

The EU celebrates 50 years this weekend! You may not all appreciate it to the full, but it is the best we have and an great achievement for peace and stability in Europe. The transforming power it extends to Europe's vicinity is also very compelling and not yet utilized to the full - so we have more work to do in coming years. The formal celebration takes place tomorrow in Berlin, but already today a range of activities take place all over Europe. One important initiative is a youth meeting in Rome.

Read more media comments here (Swedish Dagens Nyheter) and here (BBC World). The Swedish primeminister & EU-commissioner write this joint declaration for a deepening cooperation in Europe. The commissioner develops her vision further here.

Sunday addition: these views from EU commission president (also in Swedish).

Tram!

We spent a very sunny February weekend relaxing in Istanbul. This is the newly reopened tram on Istiklal caddesi.

Aleppo Gate

It was almost dark when we reached Harrans Aleppo Gate (Halep Kapisi). As I think I have previously indicated, the historical economic and social ties to Aleppo and regions across the border is strong.

A prize for Cordelia

Previous Svenska Dagbladet Israel-correspondent Cordelia Edvardsson (one of Sweden's best renowned and most humane Middle East correspondents) has today been awarded a culture-prize by Natur & Kultur publishing house. Congratulations, Cordelia!

Moulid

BBC today has a photo gallery from a Tanta moulid - a sufi saint's festival (sort of) - that I would encourage you to take a look at.

Castle nooks

More interior details from my ramblings around Harran castle.

More from Harran castle

The Harran fort was a real paradise for adventurers and curious visitors, with towers, caravansarays, stairs, vaults and courtyards all over the ramshackle construction. Standing on the plain with no ticket-booth, no signs, no real entrance, just some goats and some kids' graffiti, it was an amazing tribute to forgotten history - and very exciting!

Harran castle

I spent half an hour or more climbing around in the castle ruin at dusk - quite an experience!

From Harran in the sunset

Standing on Harran castle (a mainly Mamluk structure, I believe) in the last minutes of daylight.

I will show more of the castle itself also later. But that is then the last of this trip (which has filled these pages for some time now - later over to other cities and experiences).

Some more reading

Swedish Dagens Nyheter has a long article on the daily life of a psychiatrist in Gaza.

Not that it's really new, but Newsweek's feature on Islam in Europe may interest some.

Astonishingly, there are reports of a budding interest in renewable energy in the Gulf.

A BBC World series on modern child slavery.

Iraq reporting trip

Swedish journalist and author Johanne Hildebrandt (known as a war-correspondent not least from the Balkans in the 90's) is currently blogging at Aftonbladet from a reporting trip to Iraq - read here (in Swedish) on her experiences.

Dagens Nyheter has collected their reporting on Iraq here and has an interesting article on Iran here. Svenska Dagbladet also has some Iraq-reporting here and here.

Mud-brick dome

The brick beehive dome as seen from the inside.

Mosque silhouette

Some more views of the mosque, to take in the magnificence of the remaining structure.

Harran houses

Traditonal Harran dwellings were these so-called beehive houses, made I suppose of mudbrick (but what the mud is made of I daren't vouch for) - the domes were at least brick from the inside. The village has a historically Arabic-speaking population and lives off agriculture and tourism.

Enough!

International Crisis Group is one of the backers of a new campaign intended to support change and highlight and prevent atrocities, Enough-project to abolish genocide and mass atrocities. Initial focus is on complex African conflicts with humanitarian emergencies looming or underway and empowering change.

Middle East water situation

The World Bank recently released a Regional Report on Water, highlighting key challenges in the world's most water-scarce region. The theme may fit some of my recent postings, also.

Other World Bank work and news on the Middle East are to be found here.

And a Swedish-language op-ed on the global water situation and what can be done to alleviate it.

Harran mosque again

Better luck now! And so you can see some more angles of the mosque.

Mosque details

A little bit unlucky for the visitor but probably necessary for the preservation of the site (and maybe for safety for the visitor also) was the surrounding fence. Walking around in the ruins, which are enormous, would have been fantastic, but was impossible.

More pictures to come when the upload is performing better!

What's in a photo?

One thing I notice caring more about it photography as such. My own choice is to show you my world through a camera lens, even if I interspace more and more with links and announcements. This way I can mirror other interests I have, apart from photography and travelling. But photo and what a picture tells you is a central feature of this blog.

The debate on this photo is another spotlight on this. Read more about what's behind it here.

The Great Mosque of Harran

Some overview shots of the Great Mosque (Ulu Camii) in Harran - more detailed ones to come.
Harran is historically a city looking southward to the Arab world and was early a center of Islamic knowledge and science. The mosque is an Ummayad structure from the mid-8th century and the sheer size of it is amazing. The minaret is slightly over 33 meters high.

Harran was also a center of pre-Islamic knowledge and religion, peopled by a sort of moon-worshippers called Sabaeans (as I understand it), which lived on into later ages by being acknowledged as a people of the Book.

Some other photo galleries on the web with Harran pictures: here and here (at least the second one has a much larger range of Turkey images also).

Environment in the Mediterranean

Here you can read the executive summary of a large-scale report, prepared under UN auspices last year, on the environment situation in the Mediterranean region and the outlook for the future.

Harran plain

On these pictures taken from a hill in Harran out toward the plain, you can also see clearly how the irrigation is affecting and transforming the soil. Traditionally this has been farming land, but dry and now new wet-growing crops are also being used, completely changing the usage of land and water and their interplay in the future.

Freedom of expression

Some links and comments on a theme which I quite frequently touch on or link to (blogging makes you feel stronger affinity to other bloggers, I guess):

Here you can find the recent reports from the Committe to Protect Journalists on the number of journalists who were killed while performing their professional duties in 2006, as well as those who have disappeared. Swedish Martin Adler and Russian Anna Politkovskaja, whom I have previously mentioned (here and here), are among those thus recounted and commemorated.

Another related topic to explore is the life and works of bloggers in Iran.

Picture of the year

Sweden's Picture of the year -award was presented today. The picture of the year was taken by freelancer Casper Hedberg, i a for Aftonbladet - whose photographers received a range of mentions. Press-photographer of the year was Dagens Nyheters Paul Hansen, whose pictures you can also see a selection of in the linked article from his paper.

Irrigation!

On the plain south of Sanliurfa, heading towards Harran and the Syrian border, the heavy irrigation implemented along with the dams, and it's effects can clearly be seen.