Turkish Newspapers | Newspapers from Turkey | Turkish News | Turkey News | Turkish Newspaper Readers Dictionary/Encyclopedia | Afghanistan | Judaism and Christianity | Geneva

Site visitors may navigate the News Reader pages using the News Readers Index Page.
For English-speakers who wish to understand Turkish Newspapers
World regions, bodies of water, land masses, mountain ranges, countries, cities, nationalities and languages -- plus notable persons, places, and things from current events and modern history, politics, art, law, business, etc. If you don't find the names, terms, or phrases you need here... click to let us know and we'll add them.
Turkish	English	Examples, supplements, and explanations
C
Calalabad or Celalabat	Jalalabad [Afghanistan]	Formerly Jalalkot, capital of Nangarhar velayat (province), eastern Afghanistan, on the Kabul River. It lies on the route from Kabul, the Afghan capital, via the Khyber Pass to Peshawar, Pakistan, and handles much of Afghanistan's trade with Pakistan and India. The town stands at an important strategic position, commanding the entrances to the Laghman and Konar (Kunar) valleys. It is a military centre, with an airfield.₆₆
canlı kalkanı	human shield
casus	spy	casusluk; espionage casus uydusu; spy satellite casus uçağı; spy plane
Cebelitarık	Gibraltar
Cebrial	[the arch-angel] Gabrial	In Judaism and Christianity... he was the heavenly messenger sent to Daniel, Zechariah, and the Virgin Mary -- to make predictions and announcements. At one place in the Bible, the 'four great archangels' are named as Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel. In Islam...both Gabriel's name and his functions were taken over from Judaeo-Christian tradition. His name is mentioned in the Koran only three times, but various epithets in that scripture are widely recognized as referring to him.₁₁₉ On Kadir Gecesi, angels led by Gabriel descend from heaven and, with Allah's permission, they do all manner of good works for man. And until dawn there is peace on earth.₉₁
Cemmu	Jammu	Also see entry at Keşmir.
cemre	augmentations in warmth (associated with the first breath of Spring) that are supposed to emanate from the Sun. According to folklore belief, the warmth flows successively, first into the air (havaya), then the water (suya), then the land (toprağa) -- during 3 days in February/March. For example, in 2006 the first cemre was marked on 20 February, the 2nd on 28 February, and the 3rd on 5 March.	The celebration of the 3 cemre days in Turkey is loosely akin to the observance of Pauxatawny Phil on Groundhog's Day in Pauxatawny, Pa. See following illustrative cartoon.
Office Party at Cemre Time! Left click for image enlargement and legibility.
Cenevre	Geneva [a major international city of business, banking, and commerce in Switzerland]
Cenk Kalesi	Qala-e-Jhangi Fort [located in Mazar-e Sherif in Afghanistan]	In the news: November-December 2001 -- mostly-foreign Taliban prisoners rebelled at Qala-e-Jhangi Fort and were finally forcibly 'subdued' after nearly a week of intensive fighting -- backed by USA and UK armed forces. The USA suffered it's first KIA of the war in the fighting -- 31-year-old CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann, may he rest in peace.
Cenova (Ceneviz or Cenovalı)	Genoa [a port city in Italy] (a Genovese person/thing)
cephe	[war] front
Ceyhun	[the] Amu Darya [the] Jayhun (Arabic) [the] Oxus (ancient)	...is a river in central and west Asia -- from Pamir plateau to the Aral Sea; about 1,578 miles long; rises in lakes and mountains of high Pamirs in two headstreams: Vakhsh and Pandj; flows NW down Hindu Kush slope, forming the boundary between Tajikistan and NE Afghanistan. In the mid-19th Century came to be recognized as the boundary between Russia and Afghanistan. Was a site (at Bactria and Sogdiana) for campaigns of Alexander the Great in 329-327 BC.₅₀
Cezayir (Cezayirli, Arapça) (25k bytes)	Algeria (Algerian, the language of Algeria [Arabic]) also the city of Algiers, of Algiers
CHP	See Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi...
Cidde	Jiddah [also spelled Jidda, Jeddah, or Juddah]	A port city in the central Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia. It lies along the Red Sea west of Mecca. The principal importance of Jiddah in history is that it was the site where the majority of Muslim pilgrims landed who were journeying to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.₆₆ In the News: 12 October 2001, a picture (released today) shows ex-President Jimmy Carter meeting with one of Osama bin Ladin's brothers in Jiddah last year.
Ciğ Operasyonu	Operation Avalanche	...is the name given to the military operation launched by Israeli forces against Palestinian territory after 3 Hamas suicide bombers and a car bomb rocked Israeli civilian centers -- within a 12 hour period on 3-4 December 2001.
cihad or cihat	jihad [Islamic] holy struggle/war	See illustration below.
Turkish Muslim radicals devoted to democracy because... 'If it weren't for democracy, how could we freely declare holy war against it?' Left click to view image enlargement... Thanks to: Ergin Asyalı, Political Cartoonist and Gözcü Gazetesi, 16 June 2003
cinayet	murder -- murders and executions -- American Fixations? A Turkish columnist 'vents' from New York... Left click for image enlargement and legibility.	cinayet oranı; murder rate In the news: 7 February 2005... Hürriyet Newspaper's popular and well-respected New York based foreign correspondent, Doğan Uluç, slammed Hollywood (and Americans in general for their morbid fixation with murder and state execution) after Turkey was portrayed negatively in an episode of 'West Wing' on American TV. According to Uluç's editorial (seen at left), the 'West Wing' episode included the story of a young Turkish woman -- who was executed (by decapitation, no less) in Turkey for having pre-marital sex with her fiancé. (Note: We've seen quite a few episodes of the 'West Wing' series -- which had enjoyed a good run on Turkish television here, until it was axed recently... ahem... But, we haven't seen the specific episode in question, and so can't personally verify Uluç's exact account of it. Still, it's clear from the apology issued by the US Secretary of State (see further below) that Uluç's reporting was probably fairly accurate. It follows, therefore, that West Wing's writers sorely need a basic Turkish Republic history-lesson -- because, such an ignorantly fabricated plot-line is almost beyond comprehension... In the first place, pre-marital sex isn't even a misdemeanor crime in the Turkish legal code. In the second place, there hasn't been an execution in Turkey since October 1960 [when Adnan Menderes was executed for treason]. Thirdly, Turkey officially abandoned the death penalty in 2000 (to comply with the European Union's pre-condition for membership). And fourthly, even while the death-penalty remained 'on the books' [as an inactive part of the Turkish Republic's official legal-code after 1960 until 2000], the 'standard' method-of-execution was never 'decapitation', it was 'hanging'. So, any way you cut it, West Wing's misinformed plot-line was based either on shockingly-poor 'Hollywood' research or clearly-malicious intent. And it brought back painful memories of the film 'Midnight Express' -- which had such an adverse effect on Turkish national pride in 1978, because of its grossly exaggerated plot-line.) Uluç's editorial (and other articles concerning Fox Network's '24') got so much attention in Turkey that Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gül brought the subject up with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice during her 'fence mending' visit to Turkey in early February. Rice apologized for Hollywood's ugly depiction of Turkey in the aforementioned TV programs, but rather sheepishly explained that White House control over Hollywood was non-existent -- as she reminded Gül about Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 (the anti-George W. Bush docudrama and top winner at last year's Cannes Film Festival) to prove her point. Hürriyet Gazetesi, 6 February 2005 (See article at left.) In the news: March 2004... A government report out this week indicates that there were 6,620 country-wide murders in Turkey -- during the 4-year period 2000-2003. To date, 5,655 of them have been 'solved' -- including the killings (which were classified as 'murders') in two spectacular terrorist suicide-bombings in Istanbul in November 2003. In some of Turkey's provinces, such as Bayburt, there have been no reported murders at all. Other provinces reporting no murders at all include: Ardahan, Artvin, Bingöl, Çankırı, Gümüşhane, Tunceli, and Siirt. Not surprisingly, the provinces reporting the greatest number of murders are the ones that also contain Turkey's three largest metropolitan areas -- Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir. Compare to 1994 Interpol world-city crime-statistics.
Cizvit	Jesuit	cizvit tarikatı; Jesuit order
coğrafya	geography
coni The plural is coniler.	Pronounced as: 'Johnny' -- the word is used to refer to an American male or an American soldier (male or female). *Cola Wars* Left click for photo-article enlargement.	In the news: 14 August 2003, When the Turkish confectionary firm Ülker introduced 'Cola Turka' earlier this year for its domestic market, it was accompanied in Turkey by a series of popular television commercials featuring American comedian Chevy Chase. The popularity of the commercials has resulted in brisk early sales for the product -- which has, in turn, encouraged rapid market expansion into the Middle East. As the photo-article at left attests, Cola Turka has reached American soldiers in Iraq and they give it an initial 'thumbs up'.
Cumhurbaşkanı	President [of a republic]	Necdet Sezer was the Turkish Republic President during 2001-2007. His term ran out in May 2007. Over secularlist objections, Abdullah Gül (the religious-right candidate, who is on record as being an advocate of Shari'ah) became President in 2007 -- and since then he has rubber-stamped every piece to religious-right legislation that the religious-right dominated parliament has sent his way. Say good-bye, secular Turkey, say good-bye...
cumhuriyet (Cumhuriyetci)	[a] republic (a member of the [American] Republican Party)	Cumhuriyet Muhafızları; [Iraqi] Republican Guards
Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi CHP logo The CHP was founded in the 1920's and led by Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) until his death in 1938 and by İsmet İnönü until 1971. Bülent Ecevit was then elected leader, a post he retained until mid-1979, along with his role as Turkey's Prime Minister.₅₁	The 'Popular Democratic Party' [Turkish political party usually referred to by its CHP acronym] Deniz Baykal CHP Leader (2002-2005)	[Prepared 13 October 2001...] At the last national-election, the CHP was unable to achieve the required 10% vote-count and, therefore, is not currently represented in the Turkish parliament. But the party leader (see following) has been mending fences in the past couple of years -- so CHP prospects seem somewhat brighter for the 2002 national election. Deniz Baykal -- the CHP party leader in run-up to the 3 November 2002 national elections... In September 2002, Baykal persuaded the influential Finance Minister Kemal Derviş to leave his position and join the CHP -- thus breaking with Prime Minister Ecevit and the DSP. Updated 20 February 2004 The CHP placed a distant second in the national elections of November 2002, but were the only other party besides the victorious AKP to poll enough nationwide votes to qualify for representation in the National Parliament. (Click to see 2002 Final Election Results.) So, officially at least, the CHP is the (sole) national opposition party that the AKP faces. In reality, however, the CHP leadership (read Deniz Baykal) is not really up to the task -- which, of necessity, has been taken up by the Turkish President (Necdet Sezer), who holds (and frequently uses his) veto power to quash the AKP's more outrageous non-secular attempts to reshape Turkish internal and foreign affairs. But, Sezer is only one man, and he is not always able to ward off the AKP juggernaut.

Turkish Newspaper Readers Encyclopedic Dictionary 'C'

Turkish Newspaper Readers
Encyclopedic Dictionary
'C'