Review: 'The Edge of Heaven' | Newsweek David Ansen: Movies

Shalom Alaikum
7/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
Istanbul's Neve Shalom synagogue is tucked away on a winding street near the Galata Tower. The synagogue isn't as easy to spot as the landmark turret with its panorama of the city's iconic mosques, but that hasn't stopped terrorists from finding the Jewish house of prayer over the years. In 1983 gun- and grenade-wielding attackers stormed worshipers, taking 23 lives; in 2003 a car bomb outside a bar-mitzvah service killed more than a dozen and injured hundreds—mostly Turkish Muslims who lived and worked nearby. Neve Shalom has since been rebuilt, but several bullet holes remain in a seat as a reminder of the bloodshed. Visitors can come to take a look, but only if they preregister and provide passport details ahead of their arrival.
Turkey on the Edge
Barton Biggs 6/27/2009 12:00:00 AM
Turkey, in the hot grip of the summer solstice, faces a hazy future. For a change, Turkey is suffering from an economic and financial crisis not of its own making. Its fiscal discipline and good behavior of recent years are going unrewarded as its economy contracts, its currency weakens, and its stock market gets ignored amid a historic emerging-market boom.
Taking on Ticks
6/26/2009 12:00:00 AM
Symptoms of the cryptically named Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever are cringe-worthy. After a sudden onset of fever, dizziness, and sore eyes, blood can begin bubbling on the skin. Gums begin to bleed and, if you're unlucky, you die. Transmitted by bites from infected ticks, the disease, known as CCHF, was first discovered in the Crimea in 1944, and 25 years later emerged in the Congo (hence the name). Yet, in light of recent events, one more country may need to be added to the list: Turkey.
A Troubled Pipeline
Owen Matthews 6/20/2009 12:00:00 AM
Nabucco, the natural-gas pipeline running from Central Asia to Austria via the Balkans and Turkey, has run into trouble from an unexpected quarter. The European Union hopes Nabucco will help break its dependence on Russian gas. However, since the project's inception, there have been nagging doubts that Caspian Sea countries will be able to provide enough gas to fill the pipeline at its source. Azerbaijan already peddles most of its gas to Turkey, while other Central Asian countries have recently pledged to sell their reserves to Russia's Gazprom. To remedy that shortfall, a consortium of gas companies from Austria, Hungary and the United Arab Emirates recently struck an $8 billion deal with Iraq's Kurds to source gas from their region, run it into the pipeline via Turkey and thus solve Nabucco's supply problems.
Behind Turkey’s Witch Hunt
Soner Cagaptay 5/16/2009 12:00:00 AM
In which country does a liberal woman who educates poor girls worry about her safety when she goes home at night? Pakistan, Afghanistan—right—but also add Turkey now. In an early-morning raid on April 13, Turkish police arrested more than a dozen middle-aged liberal women working for the Society for Contemporary Life (CYDD), a nongovernmental organization that provides educational scholarships to poor teenage girls. The arrests were part of the Ergenekon court case, in which police have arrested hundreds of people, including Army officers, opponents of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, renowned journalists, artists and now these women, charging them with plotting to overthrow the government.
Turkish Delight

Spend a summer night strolling down Istanbul's Istiklal Caddesi, the pedestrian thoroughfare in the city's old Christian quarter of Beyoglu, and you'll hear something surprising. Amid the crowds of nocturnal revelers, a young Uzbek-looking girl plays haunting songs from Central Asia on an ancient Turkic flute called a saz. Nearby, bluesy Greek rembetiko blares from a CD store. Downhill toward the slums of Tarlabasi you hear the wild Balkan rhythms of a Gypsy wedding, while at 360, an ultratrendy rooftop restaurant, the sound is Sufi electronica--cutting-edge beats laced with dervish ritual. And then there are the clubs--Mojo, say, or Babylon--where the young and beautiful rise spontaneously from their tables to link arms and perform a complicated Black Sea line dance, the horon. The wonder is that each and every one of these styles is absolutely native to the city, which for much of its history was the capital of half the known world.