A Reality Show Star, A Cosmetic Surgeon, and A Happy Home: Jennifer & Bill Aydın

By Cemil Ozyurt - When the reality show Real Housewives of New Jersey started on Bravo TV on May 12th, 2009, Jennifer Aydın, a housewife then living in River Edge, New Jersey, was one of the devoted followers of the show. She sent an e-mail to the production company a couple of times to be on the show. The production team reviewed her application. They visited her house but found it too small for the show. But Jennifer didn’t give up. She had a new house, with 9 bedrooms and 16 bathrooms, built on a vacant land in Paramus, one of the neighborhoods near River Edge. The house she had built also had basketball court in the basement, a pool and a huge yard around it. When the production team saw this new house, they changed their mind and invited Jennifer to The Real Housewives of New Jersey show. Jennifer started being on the show in 2017, during its 9th season. Jennifer has been watched closely for four seasons on the The Real Housewives of New Jersey TV Show, which has been broadcasted on Bravo TV for 12 seasons and viewed by an audience of 1,1 million. She is a savvy, witty, and sincere person who thinks and responds quickly, reflecting on her real thoughts and, at times, appearing somewhat arrogant. She gives much effort to make her family and everybody else around her happy. She is sometimes a bridge between her mother and father when they’re in conflict; an angel watching after her siblings; and mother who has taken over the role of discipling her children. By February of 2023, with the start of the new episode on Bravo TV, Jennifer will begin her fifth episode on the show. Every single detail about her life is reflected on tv screen.

Raquy Danziger: Powerful Female Percussionists

Raquy Danziger is a celebrated performer, teacher and composer known for her expertise on the darbuka, the Middle-Eastern goblet drum. Raquy has performed and taught around the globe from the great concert halls of Egypt to remote towns in Siberia, spreading love and excitement for darbuka drumming.  Her unique and systematic approach has helped elevate this ancient drum to be a shining solo instrument fit for a concert hall. Raquy specializes in the split hand technique, which is a fast and elaborate drumming style. She also plays the mystical twelve- string King Kemenche Tarhu, a rare and exotic bowed instrument.

Aspire: Five-Week Music Performance Intensive at Berklee College of Music

Launched in 2007 in memory of Arif Mardin (1932-2006), world-renowned producer/arranger and Vice Chairman of the American Turkish Society, the Arif Mardin Music Fellowship aims to further the education of promising musicians from Turkey by providing an opportunity to study in the United States. The program is conducted in partnership with Berklee College of Music in Boston, where Mardin’s successful music career began as the first recipient of the Quincy Jones Scholarship.

Can Netflix Take Turkey’s TV Dramas to the World?

By Alex Marshall - LONDON — On a recent evening, Nahid Akhtar, 47, sat on a sofa in London shouting at a TV. She was watching “The Protector,” Netflix’s first original series in Turkish. The show, released that day, is about a young antiques dealer, Hakan Demir (Cagatay Ulusoy), who discovers he belongs to an ancient line of superheroes who have to save Istanbul from evil — and find love at the same time. “Oh, please, don’t kill his baba!” Akhtar, a Turkish drama superfan, called out at one point before Demir’s father was, indeed, murdered. “Turkish dramas have so many orphans,” she said. “Every single series I’ve watched the hero never has both parents.”

American Siblings Find Estranged Turkish Father After Series of Family Feuds

The late mother of Chicago-born Candice Jackson and Henry Kevin Jackson has been telling them her estranged husband was a Greek shipowner, but the brother and sister have found out he was actually a Turkish businessman, thanks to the man’s ongoing feud with his own brother. According to the report published by Demirören News Agency on Nov. 11, Turkish citizen Kasım Pırlant moved to the United States in 1973 and started to work as a waiter at a restaurant in Chicago. Rising quickly in the business, Pırlant bought his own restaurant and also entered the real estate sector in the 1970s. His rise continued in the 1980s, during which he bought nine shopping malls in Illinois.

Atlantic Beach Man Guilty of Grand Theft Involving Three Women, Losses top $100,000

A jury found Friend Rizkkhalil, 51, of Atlantic Beach, guilty on three counts of grand theft involving three woman and more than $100,000. Rizkkhalil now faces up to 35 years in a Florida state prison. A sentencing hearing is scheduled before Judge Mark Borello the week of Nov. 13. Each count represents a different victim of Rizkkhalil’s crimes. From October 2016 to Jun 2017, Rizkkhalil posed as a Turkish businessman named Murat Karanan as he conned a female victim out of approximately $8,400. He did so by convincing her to invest in an import-export business that did not actually exist.

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Ottoman Symphony ‘Sultan Composers’ Held in US Capital

WASHINGTON,DC - By Safvan Allahverdi - AA - Turkey’s cultural diplomacy organization Yunus Emre Institute (YEE) on Friday organized a concert in Washington, introducing Ottoman classical music to the Americans.
The audience showed great interest in “Sultan Composers”, which had performances by renowned Turkish conductor Musa Gocmen and an Armenian-American musician Ara Dinkjian, who is considered as one of the top oud players in the world. During the concert, Gocmen and Dinkjian accompanied by nine other American musicians performed pieces that were composed during various eras of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkish FM Signals Citizenship to be Granted to All Ottoman Dynasty Members

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu signaled on Feb. 11 that Turkish citizenship will be provided to all overseas members of the Ottoman dynasty at a meeting in Istanbul, one day after events held to mark the centenary of the death of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II. “We want to provide citizenship to all those who do not have Turkish citizenship. I will personally deal with this issue in accordance with decisions from the cabinet,” he said. Çavuşoğlu and Istanbul Mayor Mevlüt Uysal met members of the Ottoman royal family who were in Istanbul to attend Abdulhamid II memorial events.

Descendants Gather in Istanbul to Remember Sultan Abdulhamid

Some 52 descendants of Sultan Abdülhamid II, credited with a brief revival of a dying Ottoman Empire, gathered at an event in Istanbul to mark the centenary of his death. Grandchildren of the sultan traveled from France, the U.K., Germany, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Austria and Mexico for the event organized by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality at the Ottoman Archives Directorate building. After a recitation of the Quran and the screening of a documentary on Istanbul during Abdülhamid's reign, historians, academics and members of the Ottoman dynasty delivered speeches.

US-based Turkish Yogurt Tycoon Married in New York

United States based Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya was married with Food Dreams Foundation president Louise Vongerichten, at the Turkish Consulate General in New York with a simple ceremony on Jan. 25. Ulukaya, 45, is of Turkish origin and the founder of the Chobani yogurt firm. His wife, 30, is of French origin and the co-founder of Food Dreams Foundation. The couple will reportedly hold a wedding ceremony in Turkey in summer months.

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