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POPSFrom tahini to the street, all about sesame :) "Health Benefits : Sesame oil rubbed on the skin may soothe a minor burn or sunburn as well as help in the healing process. It's not unusual to encounter fantastic claims attributed to a single food. Sesame seed oil is said to remove wrinkles when applied to the skin in a facial massage. If this news gets out, there won't be a bottle left on the grocery shelves! Eat some sesame seeds to relieve constipation and to remove worms from the intestinal tract. They're an aid to digestion, stimulate blood circulation, and benefit the nervous system. Sesame oil makes ideal massage oil because of its excellent emollient properties. Applied topically, sesame oil is thought to aid in healing chronic diseases of the skin. With its vitamin E content, it's also a benefit to the heart and nervous system. " Interesting to know... :) and tasty!
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POPSForget Memory Laws "The historian's equivalent of a natural scientist's experiment is to test the evidence against all possible hypotheses, however extreme, and then submit his most convincing interpretation for criticism by professional colleagues and for public debate. This is how we get as near as one ever can to truth about the past. How, for example, do you refute the absurd conspiracy theory, which apparently still has some currency in parts of the Arab world, that "the Jews" were behind 9/11? By forbidding anyone from saying that, on pain of imprisonment? No. You refute it by refuting it. By mustering all the available evidence, in free and open debate. This is not just the best way to get at the facts; ultimately, it's the best way to combat racism and xenophobia too."
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POPSTurkey torn between NATO and Russia Ian Lesser, an expert on Turkey at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, wrote in a recent policy paper. "In theory, Turkey’s proximity to the crisis and desire to play a larger diplomatic role in the Black Sea could make Turkey a lynchpin of NATO strategy in Georgia, especially if rapprochement with Armenia is part of the equation. But Turkish willingness to place its territory at the service of Western policy in Georgia is highly uncertain."
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POPSRumi's Daughter
Continued from above Rumi's Daughter is both a delightful and informative novel. It comes to us from Muriel Maufroy, French-born author and ex-journalist for the BBC World Service who currently lives in London. Partly imagined and partly factual, it recounts the life of Kimya, the adopted daughter of Maulana Jalalud-Din Rumi (1207-1273) who is known today both for his mystical love poetry written to his beloved God and the Sufi Order of the Whirling Dervishes founded after his death. Nothing is really known about Kimya's origins, and we know very little about her life in Rumi's household. Yet through her enchanting depiction, Maufroy lovingly evokes the spirit of a vivacious and ingenuous young girl. She brings to life this child of seven in all her innocence and simplicity as the girl awakens to a world of wonder and embraces the life of a mystic, even before she meets Rumi and Shams. This book is especially unique, in that it offers a glimpse into Rumi's life from the women's point
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POPSGlobal Muslim Networks, The Gulen Movement Amazingly enough, the Gulen movement has built up a significant presence in northern Iraq, through schools, a hospital and (soon) a university. Although this arena of Turkish-Kurdish conflict is not the easiest environment for a Turkish-based institution, the movement has deftly built up relationships with all the region's ethnic and religious groups. The influence that the Gulen movement has quietly accumulated would be a surprise to some veteran observers of Islam. Asked to name the world's most active Islamic network, many a pundit would think first of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose reach has extended a long way from Egypt, where it began in the 1920s as a movement of resistance to the twin evils of secularism and colonialism. And it remains true that in every Western country (including the United States) where Muslims are politically active, the influence of the brotherhood—or at least of movements that grew out it—is palpable.
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POPSTurkey Goes Nuclear; US Supports Some Persians are more equal than others. The US decides, apparently, who in the world is permitted nuclear power, and who is not. Add Turkey then to Pakistan and Israel, but no one else is permitted or they face bombings.
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POPSAncient Etruscans Were Immigrants From Anatolia Scientists had previously shown this same relationship for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in order to analyse female lineages. The history of the Etruscans extends before the Iron Age to the end of the Roman Republic or from c. 1200 BC to c. 100 BC. Many archaeological sites of the major Etruscan cities were continuously occupied since the Iron Age, and the people who lived in the Etruria region did not appear suddenly, nor did they suddenly start to speak Etruscan. Herodotus’ theory, much criticised by subsequent historians, states that the Etruscans emigrated from the ancient region of Lydia, on what is now the southern coast of Turkey, because of a long-running famine. Half the population was sent by the king to look for a better life elsewhere, says his account, and sailed from Smyrna (now Izmir) until they reached Umbria in Italy.
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POPSAncient Etruscans came from Anatolia "We found that the DNA samples from individuals from Murlo and Volterra were more closely related those from near Eastern people than those of the other Italian samples", says Professor Piazza. "In Murlo particularly, one genetic variant is shared only by people from Turkey, and, of the samples we obtained, the Tuscan ones also show the closest affinity with those from Lemnos."
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POPS7,500 years old mass burial in Turkey The Domuztepe riddle is among the real-life mysteries from the world of archaeology that will be on display from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 5, when the Cotsen Institute at UCLA — the nation's largest collection of working archaeologists — throws open its doors to the public.
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POPSCan Rumi save us now? Life and words of the popular 13th-century Persian poet have special meaning for a 21st-century world torn by war, genocide and hatred
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POPSNemrut Dagi, Turkey: Unique Mountaintop Shrine From source: "During the reign of Antiochus, the naturally occurring mountain top of Nemrut Dagi was extensively contoured, capped with a soaring conical peak, and graced with two temple compounds and many beautiful stone sculptures. The conical tumulus rises 50 meters above the temples, is 150 meters in diameter and is composed of countless thousand fist-sized pieces of white limestone. Archaeologists, assuming the tumulus enshrines the burial remains of Antiochus, have tunneled into the great cone of rocks but found nothing to substantiate their assumptions. The purpose of this massive undertaking remains a mystery."
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POPSAncient Anatolian Languages Some basic information about ancient Anatolian languages. Not a detailed and in-depth analysis but not bad as a reference site.
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