Global conversations
The eyes follow you wherever you look. The gaze is bold, beautiful and serene. But the image is 1,500 years older than the Mona Lisa. Gaziantep, a city of 1.3 million people close to the Turkish border with Syria, is often called an “Anatolian Tiger” because of its rapid growth over the past few years. I visited the city recently with the British Chamber of Commerce in Turkey to meet … Read more »Astonishing Turkey: business, tourist opportunities and Anatolian tigers
What is GREAT and all over Istanbul? The answer is the GREAT campaign to deepen business and education links between Britain and Turkey. I wrote about the launch of the GREAT campaign last month. That included the goals of doubling trade between the UK and Turkey in both directions by 2015, boosting investment and encouraging the brightest and best Turkish students to come and study in British universities. Now we’re … Read more »GREAT on the streets of Istanbul… with more to come
It’s not called the ‘tunnel of doom’ for nothing. Half-way through the Anzob tunnel which links the capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, to second city Khudzand in the north, the cladding of the tunnel is replaced by bare rocks. The surface becomes a pot-holed morass of broken concrete and projecting steel reinforcing rods. Water cascades from above, flooding sections of roadway. I’m on a visit to our Embassy in Tajikistan to … Read more »Trade, tunnels, transit and training in mountainous Tajikistan
A guest blog by Timothy Fisher, HM Consul at the British Consulate General in İstanbul, Turkey. With 2.5m British visitors and 40,000 British residents in Turkey, Consular work (helping British nationals in need overseas) is a key part of our work in Turkey. Therefore I was delighted to start work as Consul and Director of Consular Services in Turkey at our Consulate General in Istanbul on 18 February this year. … Read more »Message from the new Consul
Summer is coming. The number of people wanting to travel is rising. That’s great, particularly for those of you travelling to the United Kingdom – we’re looking forward to seeing you. The fact that there are lots of people travelling means that here in Istanbul we are processing more visas. To help ensure we provide the best possible service, the Home Office has a set of customer service standards, the … Read more »How to get a British Visa
G8 Foreign Ministers came together in London last week to discuss conflict resolution and the prevention of sexual violence. With the current turmoil on its south eastern border, Turkey needs no reminding of the suffering conflict can cause. William Hague has described Syria as potentially the “worst humanitarian catastrophe” of the 21st century. Last weekend’s attacks in Mogadishu were a terrible reminder of the risks Kızılay and others take in … Read more »Helping prevent sexual violence
What do Nicole Scherzinger, Arzu Kaprol, Keira Knightley, Harvey Nichols, Katy Perry and Deniz Berdan have in common? They’re all involved in Turkish fashion. Nicole Scherzinger wears Cengiz Abazoğlu. Arzu Kaprol is an award-winning designer with a corner at Harrods. Keira Knightley wears Bora Aksu. Harvey Nichols has two stores in Turkey packed with British and Turkish fashion. Deniz and Begüm Berdan have designed for Katy Perry. So it was … Read more »High fashion in Istanbul
Part of my job is to meet current and future opinion-formers in Turkey; to learn from them; and to discuss with them the United Kingdom and our relationship with Turkey. So I always hugely enjoy meeting and talking to the brilliant students who study at Turkish universities. Today I visited Koç University, some way out to the north of Istanbul, to meet cross-cultural management CEMS students. I talked a bit … Read more »Brilliant students at Turkish universities
In late March, the sun beats down on metre-deep snow. On slopes above, skiers glide. At a hotel in the town centre, over 500 top Turkish business people and opinion formers have gathered. Welcome to the Uludağ Economic Summit in Bursa – a fantastic launch-pad for the UK-Turkey GREAT campaign. The GREAT campaign is all about deepening business and education links between the UK and Turkey. In particular we want … Read more »Turkish-British partnership hits a high
What is red, liquid and knows no nationality? The answer of course is blood – something none of us can live without. For many years the Turkish Red Crescent has been running a social responsibility project to encourage people to donate blood. It is called the “Safe Blood Supply Programme”. I was delighted this year that British and Turkish staff members of the British Consulate General in Istanbul volunteered to … Read more »British Consulate helps with safe blood for Turkey