The Third Desk
22 articles
The Third Desk
THE ISLAND EVERYONE NEEDS AND NO ONE SOLVES
António Guterres will arrive in Cyprus at the end of July, carrying another possibility of peace to an island familiar with such visits. Cyprus diplomacy sometimes resembles Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. The guests assemble, the table is laid, and dinner is indefinitely postponed.
The Third Desk
A HISTORY YOU CAN HUM
Some countries remember politics through monuments, trials, flags and anniversaries. Turkey, more emotional and dramatic, rather like its world-famous TV series, also remembers it through songs.
The Third Desk
AFTER PERSEPOLIS, WHO WILL DRAW US?
Marjane Satrapi's family said she died of sadness brought on by a profound sense of loss. It is difficult to think of Satrapi without the vocabulary of loss. What she drew, again and again, was loss, the loss of childhood, country, language and return. In the end, according to those closest to her, another loss, the love of her life, silenced her.
The Third Desk
ISTANBUL SANG BEFORE ANKARA SPOKE
A few weeks before NATO leaders gather in Ankara, Istanbul hosted a more strange kind of summit. It unfolded not in conference halls, but across ferry terminals, concert queues and crowded streets.
The Third Desk
THE ECONOMY OF REASSURANCE
At Istanbul Airport, one can sometimes see the new Turkish economy walking past in surgical bands. Men arrive with thinning hair and leave with careful instructions, swollen foreheads and a cautious sense of restoration.
The Third Desk
WHAT ANKARA DOES NOT PUT ON THE BROCHURE
A city’s cultural field does not stop at its administrative boundary. If Ankara reveals itself in layers, some of its most telling ones begin once the city has thinned into road, valley and plateau.
The Third Desk
WHAT ANKARA DOES NOT PUT ON THE BROCHURE
Ankara is often described by those who do not know it well as a grey city. This is unfair, though not entirely mysterious. A city that must constantly perform seriousness is rarely forgiven for having charm. Yet Ankara’s charm is real. It is private, reveals itself slowly, and almost always just outside the official frame. It is a city of dry light, hard hills, old stones, republican geometry, Ottoman shadows, Roman fragments, Seljuk craft and streets that remember more than they are prepared to explain. This is why Ankara deserves a cultural diplomacy route, a way of showing visitors not only what the city proudly displays, but also what it half-remembers, neglects, misnames, hides or leaves to survive behind other buildings.
The Third Desk
THE PEACE NEXT DOOR
This week, Yerevan is not a distant capital at the edge of Europe’s map. Armenia has hosted the European Political Community summit at a moment when its political direction, its European ties and the regional peace process are all under scrutiny at once.
The Third Desk
FORMULA 1, ISTANBUL AND THE POLITICS OF SPEED
Formula 1 is returning to Istanbul Park. The engines will come back, the cameras will return, and Turn 8 will once again receive its share of global admiration.
The Third Desk
NEPOTISM, OR HOW TO DISMANTLE A FOREIGN MINISTRY
Each time political appointments in diplomacy are criticised in Turkey, the same defence appears with the reliability of a reflex: “Other countries do it too”. Perhaps they do. But mediocrity does not become wisdom once imported.