(typical dome-roofs of Topkapi) and Haghia Sophia – the “essentials” as one colleague referred to them – both extraordinary! End-of-the-day drinks at the 4 Seasons Hotel nearby – Canadian flag floating between two Turkey ones at the front! Built we are told on the site of an old prison (which is the one apparently where the action took place in the film “Midnight Express” – that story of the dreadful treatment a young foreign drug smuggler received at the hands of the local guards; those who say that the film was shot there better check the film credits: it was done in Malta!) Anyway, service has no doubt improved on that site! 
(Ceramic murale in Hagya Sophia)Dinner at 360 Istanbul (rooftop view; hip bar; food OK). Raining going down; walked along famous “piétonnière” Istiklal Cadessi (Street) – still full of “promeneurs” at this late hour on a Sunday – back to the hotel.
Monday, Feb 22.News trivia of the day: Turkish film director Semih Kaplanoĝlu won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale for his film “Honey” (“Bal”) – last Golden Bear for Turkey goes back to 1964! Turkish film production is significant, and popular throughout the Turkish diaspora in Europe, I read somewhere else... Trouble in the world of producers of raki, the local national drink: the price of aniseed would have gone up 70%...and aniseed constitutes some 50% of the cost of producing raki!
Hosted Secretariat members for dinner – a tradition now at these semi-annual meetings; this time at Borsa Restaurant, highly rated by Zagat and recommended by Intercontinental concierge. Totally appropriate.
(view across the Goldern Horn - including the Galata Tower - from the Topkapi Palace)Tuesday, Feb 23. I am reminded that Turkey is a land of earthquakes: eleven of them, of serious magnitude, in the last 75 years or so! The last major one in 1999 (Marmara, of magnitude 7.4) caused the death of 17, 480 people and injured some 44,000 others. It’s a common thing (tremors, small quakes) around here it seems, but the anti-earthquake building code that was introduced after the Marmara quake in 1999 would apparently only prevail currently in 19 provinces out of 81!
Turkey’s bid to access the EU is a constant on the political agenda here. The negotiation process is engaged, has and will continue to be for many years! France and Germany are resisting. Spain would support, the president of Spain’s Senate reiterated earlier this week. At stake is whether EU is better off with Turkey in, even though this big country is led by a party that presents itself as Islamist, albeit moderate, or denying them access, thus pushing Turkey possibly further away from Europe and closer to Islamist forces...generally put!
More film news, this time from London: “Hurt Locker” (Katheryn Bigelot, director) takes 6 prizes at BAFTA. Colin Firth takes the best actor awards for his performance as a distraught English professor in Tom Ford’s “A Single Man” – well deserved!
Lufthansa (pilots) goes on strike for 4 days; interesting: the length of the labour action is fixed in advance, whether or not anything is settled at the end – the German or European way? Got to worry though about our flight to Frankfurt on Lufthansa out of here on Saturday...
(interior dome in the Harem - the private apartments within the Topkapi Palace)
