If you haven’t heard Dilara Fındıkoğlu’s name, where have you been? The London-based Turkish designer hit the headlines in September 2017 following her controversial Satan-themed catwalk show at St Andrew Holborn Church during London Fashion Week. Since then she’s enjoyed a meteoric rise, dress...
It is very difficult to write an obituary if the person was very dear to you and held a special place in your life. You try to put the words together, but after a while the blank paper in front of you remains just the same as you had started, completely blank. This happened to me when I tried to wri...
With two degrees under his belt, former male model Mem Ferda could have secured a steady, well-paid job. Instead the South Londoner plumped for the life of an actor and all the risks that this brings. And he’s never looked back!The first thing that strikes you when you meet Mem is his height. At 6ft...
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” said Nelson Mandela and indeed the same can be attributed to Kelami Dedezade, who passed away on the 13 July 2018. Dedezade was a huge believer that education is the only tool to make a difference in society. All his...
A community of ethnic Greek Muslims who were exiled from Greece to Syria in 1897 seek to return to their homeland in Crete. Yet despite presenting the deeds for properties seized by the Greek Orthodox Church 120 years ago, they once again find themselves victims of public resentment and institutiona...
Abdullah Nihat Yılmaz is a writer and columnist. He was born in Fatsa, Turkey, in 1941 and has been living in Britain since 1981. We met recently to discuss the subject of migration literature and the notion of ‘gurbet’, which is loosely translated as ‘a place far from home’. Abdullah Ağabey*,...
A lovely, crisp day. The first day of autumn. I walk through tranquil gardens with two friends in bright sunlight towards an imposing building. A large crowd had started to gather in front of the building. The place is the St. Marylebone Crematorium in East Finchley. A sense of déjà vu washes over m...
Mark this date: 25th June 2017. It could be a highly significant date for us, diaspora Cypriot Turks. It could prove to be the date we finally started to get organised, to get noticed. But only if we know how to grasp the significance of what happened on that day. Only if we know how to utilise the...
Selin Kiazim’s pop-ups at Ember Yard, Carousel London and a six-month residency at Trip Kitchen in Haggerston got the UK’s top food critics raving about her. She’s cooked for the British Prime Minister and his wife, Selfridges is stocking her luxury date butter, and at the end of last year...
I heard the bad news on a cold November night. 17th November 2015 to be exact. Two friends had gone to see him at Croydon Hospital. They rang to tell me in floods of tears that we had lost him. I had visited him a few days before, and was planning to go and see him again the following day. Alas, it...
