MER Article "Should I Shoot You?" The stark black letters on white stone in the cemetery are all that remain of rioting that left 17 dead last year in Istanbul’s Gazi neighborhood. The shattered glass has been replaced, the burned cars swept off the streets, the angry leftist slogans on walls painted over. What remains of those two Aliza Marcus • 8 min read
MER Article City in the War Zone Saki Işikçi sits in a coffeeshop below a picture of the founder of the Turkish republic -- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk -- and ticks off the problems he faces as the deputy mayor of Cizre: bad roads, poor schools, not enough water, no jobs. The city’s monthly budget barely covers municipal salaries, and em Aliza Marcus • 10 min read
MER Article Hearts and Minds in Kurdistan For the people of Şirnak, a Kurdish town of 15,000 located at the foot of the Cudi Mountains in southeastern Turkey, the grave of 16-year old Zayide is something of a shrine. A guerrilla fighter with the separatist Workers’ Party of Kurdistan (PKK), Zayide was killed five years ago in a skirmish in Aliza Marcus • 6 min read
MER Article Occupational Health and Safety in Turkey Kandir Baysu has been hospitalized twice over the past eight years, both times for more than two months and requiring dozens of blood transfusions. Baysu, a worker at a battery manufacturing plant on the outskirts of Istanbul, thinks he is about due for another hospital stay. As in the past, he expe Aliza Marcus • 8 min read
