Blogs from Middle East - page 870

The second day of the conference was well attended and quite informative. I was able to learn a great deal of the way in which we operate in Iraq. As I cannot discuss it further I thought I might share a little more about the sites in Baghdad. Inside the Aw Faw palace there is a chair/throne that belonged to Saddam Hussein. The chair was given to Saddam by Yasser Arafat. If you look closely at the top of the chair you see the Quran. Inscribed on the page is a verse from the holy book, the verse reads: In the name of God the merciful and gracious, Glorifies who traveled his servant by night from Mecca to Jeuseralem. Written on the arch: Victory from God and conquest is soon. You can also see a patterned ... read more

We had a really weird storm blow through on Wednesday afternoon. One minute the sky was relatively clear, then literally in the space of two minutes, we had a complete “sand-out”. Have a look at the before and after photos to see how dramatic the effect of the sand was on visibility.... read more

Well…It has officially been over one month since I have come to İstanbul and although I have learne a lot it seems everytime I open one door a hundred more appear before me. As many of you know two evenings ago there was a bomb in a neighborhood of İstanbul where 154 people were injured and 17 were killed. It is not clear at the moment who perpetrate these attacks but the overwhelming sentiment seems to say that the PKK did it. Now this bomb (well these two bombs, one ten minutes after the first) coincided with two major events on Turkey’s political scene and now seems as good a time as any to discuss them. Particularly because in trying to find out who was behind the bombs both of these events have been mentioned as ... read more

Kurdistan-Express Notre passage en Turquie fut très bref puisque nous y sommes restés seulement deux nuits. Vous avez sans doute dut vous en rendre compte depuis que vous suivez nos aventures, notre spécialité à nous, c'est de voyager au fil des opportunités et des suggestions que l'on nous propose, sans jamais savoir où nous dormirons le soir, ni même dans qu'elle ville nous finirons... ... force est de croire que cela nous réussi pas trop mal ! (certains signes nous laisse cependant à soupconner que la providence n'est jamais bien loin ;P ) Nous avions prévu de ne pas nous arrêter en Truquie, pour des raisons de temps, le fait que la journaliste française rencontrée en Arménie nous ai donné un contact kurde là-bas nous a cependant fait craquer... et voilà, encore un changement de programme ... read more

The island is named after one of poseidons sons. Quick run across from Turkish waters back to Greeks. Beautifull village on the hills of a cove in a dry island. We went across a shortcut that put us right into the cove. Very colorfull italian almost venetian village. Touristic waterfront with nice restaurants and shops. Village of night fairies and weather premonitions. Last night and treated myself with some stone rings, organic greek cotton clothes, dark chocolte and pistaccio bars.... read more