# Fenerbahçe Fever: Why the Yellow Canaries Are Taking Over the World If you’ve been online recently, you might have noticed a peculiar trend: the hashtag #Fenerbahçe is everywhere. From Twitter to TikTok, from Instagram to Reddit, the name of this Turkish football club is popping up like a digital jack-in-the-box. But why? What’s got…
# Turkey vs. Bulgaria: The Clash of Titans That’s Got the Internet Buzzing Alright, folks, buckle up because we’re diving into the latest global showdown that’s got the internet more divided than a pizza party with dietary restrictions. No, it’s not another round of “Team Edward vs. Team Jacob” or “iOS vs. Android.” This time,…
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has spent so long in power that his earliest political opponents were still using dial-up internet. Twenty-one years after first becoming Turkey’s prime minister, the man now sits in a palace so vast it has its own weather system, and the rest of the world has learned to treat Ankara like a…
Istanbul, Wednesday night, and the Bosphorus is doing its usual two-continent tango while 50 000 people in yellow-and-navy are screaming themselves hoarse. Fenerbahçe—never just a football club, more a geopolitical mood ring—has once again reminded the planet that sport is politics with shin guards. From the outside, it looks like a simple Champions League qualifier:…
Trabzonspor: How a Provincial Turkish Football Club Became the World’s Most Honest Barometer of Chaos By the time the final whistle blew last May and Trabzonspor’s burgundy-and-blue confetti drifted into the Black Sea like the ashes of a forgotten empire, the global audience had already moved on. The algorithmic eye had pivoted to the next…
The Man Who Forgot to Leave the Table A Global Postcard on Gürsel Tekin and the Art of Permanent Opposition ISTANBUL—Somewhere between the baklava and the bitter coffee, Gürsel Tekin has been sitting at Turkey’s political banquet for so long that the waiters have started calling him “furniture.” Forty-odd years in the opposition CHP, and…
Turkey vs Serbia: When Two Middle Powers Decide to Throw Elbows in the Balkan Playground By the time you read this, the latest diplomatic “flare-up” between Ankara and Belgrade may have already been memory-holed by the next algorithmic outrage. Still, for those keeping score on how small, proud nations weaponize history, the Turkey–Serbia spat is…
