The Legend of Turkish cinema -- Mr. Erol Tas

The Legend of Turkish cinema -- Mr. Erol Tas

Mr. Erol Tas was born in the city of Erzurum, which is located in eastern Turkey, on the date of February 28, 1928.  He is an actor that was much liked in Turkey, plus received many recognitions for his 'bad guy' roles.  He acted in over 200 movies, and most of his roles were from the years 1960 to 1975; the panicle years of Yesilcam Sinema (Turkish Cinema).

He was the 'go to' actor when a strong, ruthless, and mean character needed to be played against the protagonist.  The important truth that movie watching public witnessed was that, he always out-played and out-worked all others in the movie; this earned him great respect by everyone.

The one movie that would stand out and show his acting skills was 'Susuz Yaz' (Dry Summer), a link of the movie is hyperlinked below, please take time to watch it. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvvRoneF4zE&t=4056s

This movie was filmed in 1964 and won the Golden Bear award in the 14th Berlin International Film Festival.

Mr. Erol Tas died on November 8, 1998 in Istanbul, may he rest in peace.  At a later date, I will add further to this brief essay of his life.

One important date that struck me, while reading about him was that, his date of birth of February 28, coincides with my daughter of Gonul Ezo.  I'm happy to have learned this.

Thank you,

Ben

Bombing of Syria

Bombing of Syria

 

Here we go again, another USA administration bombing a country.  How many countries has the USA bombed in the past quarter century?  A dozen? 

 

I am saddened to see people in Syria suffer, however, bombing is not the answer, and we should know this by now.

 

The Obama administration rightly stayed out of Syria. 

 

The fighting in Syria has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions in Syria since the beginning of the war, which I believe is at the sixth year mark.

 

The direct American involvement that began on April 7, 2017 with over 50 cruise missiles attacking has caused even further destruction in this country.  I believe this military action is a complete error by USA.  The USA constitution does not require that American forces fight in every war around the world; this one should have been sat out.  

 

The immense resources of the United States should be dedicated rather, to one single goal:

Reduce human suffering with humanitarian aid.

 

President Trump should immediately cease all direct attacks on the Syrian regime and instead help the people of this country.

 

Thank you for reading,

Ben

 

 

Turkey's Economy

Turkey’s Economy

Turkey’s economy grew at a faster pace than anticipated during the last quarter of 2016, since households boosted spending.

Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 3.5% in the October-to-December period, faster than all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists, which saw an expansion of 1.9%. 

Turkish households and the government boosted spending after July’s attempted military takeover.   Private demand picked up in the final quarter of 2016, fueled by household spending on everything from services to consumption goods.  Based on strengthening consumer sentiment, it will probably increase at similar levels this year, while public spending emerges as an even bigger driver of growth, according to William Jackson, a London-based economist at Capital Economic, "Government consumption could strengthen if fiscal policy is loosened further,” Jackson said, revising up his 2017 growth forecast to 2.5 percent from 1.8 percent previously.  He continued, “The drivers of growth are likely to shift and investment should continue to pick up from last year’s slump.”

The Turkish government adopted a series of expansionary fiscal policies to counter the slowdown, which may add as much as one percentage point to the budget deficit by year-end, according to Finance Minister Mr. Naci Agbal.  Incentives to boost employment and agricultural production, and tax breaks for the tourism industry, were among stimulus measures rolled out.  He said government measures to ease restrictions on household demand usually have an effect with some delay, meaning faster consumption growth in 2017.

It was important for Turkey not to enter a “technical recession,” Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Mehmet Simsek said in a televised interview after the GDP report. The minister said “There’s a moderate recovery in growth in the first quarter of 2017.  The recovery will accelerate from the middle of the second quarter.”

We will wait and see..

Thank you for visiting,

Ben

           

Europe Against Turkey

Europe Against Turkey

NATO's Secretary-General Mr. Jens Stoltenberg urged the countries of Austria and Turkey on Friday, March 10, 2017 to resolve a diplomatic dispute.

Turkey, a NATO ally, has withdrawn from some alliance participation - mostly military training - saying the move is aimed only at Austria.

"It is a very unfortunate situation and it means some cooperation programs can't be launched," Stoltenberg told reporters during a visit to the Danish capital city of Copenhagen.

Austria, which is not a NATO member but cooperates with the alliance, led calls last year to halt Turkey's European Union accession talks.  The capital of Austria, Vienna has also spoken out against Turkish politicians holding rallies in European countries.

"It's a bilateral situation between Turkey and Austria and we strongly urge them to solve it, so that it won't have negative consequences for the cooperation," Mr. Stoltenberg said.

The diplomatic tensions predate a current escalation with other European countries like Germany and Netherlands but as fellow NATO members Turkey cannot block cooperation with them.

Turkish President Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has compared Germany and the Netherlands to fascists and Nazis for stopping Turkish politicians from rallying to promote a referendum granting him sweeping new powers.  Mr. Erdogan on Thursday said Dutch Prime Minister Mr. Mark Rutte had lost the friendship of Ankara (capital city of Turkey) after the diplomatic row.   

NATO officials told Reuters that the blocking also affected other countries that cooperate with the alliance but are not members.  Separately, Austrian tabloid newspaper Oesterreich said its website was brought down on Friday morning by a cyber attack "from Turkey", the latest in a series of similar incidents that appear to be connected to Vienna's spat with Ankara.

Let us monitor this situation between Europe and Turkey. 

Thank you for reading,

Ben here.

Teknik Directoru Mustafa R Akcay

Teknik Directoru Mustafa R Akcay

Teknik director Mustafa Resit Akcay, kariyeri boyunca Avrupa arenasına sadece iki sezonda cıkabildi, ama bu iki sezonda cok basarili oldu, nedenmi?  Iki sezonda Avrupa UEFA liginde gruplardan cikmaya basardi, bu bence iyi bir basari.  Ilk defa Trabzonspor basindeyken bunu yapti, ve yil 2013-14 idi, ama malesef Juventus (Italyan takimi) takimina son 32 turda elendi (canlari sag olsun).

Mustafa R Akcay

2016-2017 sezonunda yine gruplardan cikmayi basardi, bu sefer Osmanlispor teknik direktoru olarak, ve bu sefer Olympiakos (Yunan takimi) takimina elendi (yine canlari sag olsun).

Toplam olarak 26 Avrupa macina cikan Mr. Akcay, bunlardan sadece 4 macini kaybetti, ve karnesi soyle:
Galibiyet: 18
Beraberlik: 4
Yenilgi: 4

Trabzonspor ve Osmanlispor olarak Turkiye’ye kazandırdıkları puanlarla onemli bir basarıya imza attılar, hem Mr Akcay, hem topcular ve hemde bu iki onemli kuluplerimiz tesekur borcluyuz. 

Saygilar,

Ben

Ben Oak

Hello everyone,
Ben Oak is going to be contributing to this website.  Come often please.

Thank you,

14 in a Row for Trabzonspor

14 in a Row for Trabzonspor

Trabzonspor is a soccer club from Turkey and is currently on a '14 game unbeaten' streak in European competition.  

 

The club finished on top of the 'J Group' in this seasons UEFA Europa Cup League, to make it to the last 32 teams in the competition.  

The last 'loss' in European competition for Trabzonspor was on February 23, 2012, 675 days ago, when they lost to PSV Eindhoven of Holland, 4 - 1. 

 

In the 14 game streak, the club has 9 wins and 5 ties; which is a definite success for a club from Turkey.  

 

The club is trying to surpass the record held by Galatasaray of Istanbul, Turkey, who hold the record of '15 games unbeaten streak' in Europe.  

The next game is on February 20, 2014, against a very difficult team of Juventus, from Turin, Italy. 

Below, are the last 14 games for Tranzonspor:

Trabzonspor - Videoton, 0-0

Videoton - Trabzonspor, 0-0 (On penalty kicks won 4 - 2)

Trabzonspor - Derry City, 4-2

Derry City - Trabzonspor, 0-3

Dinamo Minsk - Trabzonspor, 0-1

Trabzonspor - Dinamo Minsk, 0-0

Kukesi - Trabzonspor, 0-2

Trabzonspor - Kukesi, 3-1

Apollon Limassol - Trabzonspor, 1-2

Lazio - Trabzonspor, 3-3

Trabzonspor - Legia Varsova, 2-0

Legia Varsova - Trabzonspor, 0-2

Trabzonspor - Apollon Limassol, 4-2

Lazio - Trabzonspor, 0-0

I wish Trabzonspor continued success in Europe, and do wish they succeed in eliminating Juventus from the competition to make it to the 'last 16' of the 'UEFA Europa Cup League', and break the record, mentioned above.  

Thank you for visiting, 

Ben here