Category Archives: Philosophy

A moment of consideration

Ashna Shareff

By Ashna Shareff: Often we compare our lives to those of others, and think how unfortunate is our life compared to someone who might be a complete stranger to us: artlessly, because we are deceived by the way we see them and believe them to be. We habitually forget to value and grasp the beauty of our…

Nationality, Culture, Religion: Time and Place

Shwan Dizayee

By Shwan Dizayee: As night falls on this side of the world, tomorrow begins on the other. Going into the usual deep thought before bed, I realise that the only difference between ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ is Time and Place. With time often comes different intensities of growth, wisdom, maturity, understanding and progression. With place comes…

Is there any peace talk in Turkey?

Ahmet-Abidin-Özbek

By Ahmet Abidin Ozbek: Today people need peace more than anything else. It is as essential as bread, water or milk. It is important because, if there is no peace, there will be continuous conflict in all areas of life. For stable peace, the government has the most responsibility. Peace and progress are mutually connected….

Blind, deaf and dumb faith and billions of missing links

Dr Fereydun Refiq Hilmi

By Dr F R Hilmi: The biggest argument against the existence of God is the fact that we cannot see or sense him and what we know about religion’s God is based on blind faith and ancient tales we are warned against questioning or disbelieving or even asking for evidence to support. Then a man…

Hope?

Ashna Shareff

By Ashna Shareff: Only when I believe, I can achieve. As I take myself back a year and a half, to when I was walking on the streets of this city with no hope of the world in my heart, a glimpse of sad days passes in front of my eyes like a movie. A…

The life of a Peshmerga

Peshmergas, 1970s

By Ashna Shareff: They are old in age, but young in heart. Life is a sequence of endless struggles, fights, endless pains that take over our hearts as years pass and we grow old. Each one of us experiences life in different ways.  We often tend to analyze life, doing our best to inhabit a…

About our human nature

religions

By Ahmet Abidin Ozbek: Part 2 of 2 “If we don’t know the past we don’t understand the present and we cannot try to influence the future”.Orianna Fallaci For thousands of years we have tried to answer questions about our existence. Perhaps more than ideology, science, dialectics, and even  nationality, religion has – from an…

About our human nature

By Ahmet Abidin Ozbek: Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are - Jose Ortega y Gasset Part 1 (of 2) Among the most influential subjects in human society are religion, nationalism and our ideological differences. Unfortunately, these subjects are also reasons (you can say like poison) for humans…

Secularism, religion and women’s rights: a suggestion

religion-and-politics

By Razaw Abas Salihy:  The reason we have human rights is to protect every individual in society, whether they’re part of a group or not. Individuals are very often part of two parallel groups within a society e.g. female and Muslim. Therefore, it would make no sense for rights to have a hierarchy of importance,…

Death, a curse or blessing?

Kurdish grave

By Ashna Shareff:  As I walked in, my eyes were blinded by the black blush everywhere. I could see only black walls, black stains and people dressed in black. All I could hear was the sound of women crying. I knew they were sounds of anguish, sounds of women in pain and grief. I could hear…

What a mind-blowing and fearful word death is!

Kuvan Bamarny

By Kuvan Bamarny: Just by speaking about it, our hearts shatter and our smiles fade off our lips and our joy is cut short. It brings sorrow, dullness and depression in our lives. It drives all kinds of troubled thoughts through the mind. However, if it was not for you – ‘death’ – life would…

The meaning of life

Kuvan Bamarny

By Kuvan Bamarny: There have been a large number of theories and opinions about the meaning of life, from many different cultural and ideological backgrounds. The meaning of life is deeply mixed with the scientific, philosophical and religious conceptions developed by people from all over the world. Some say there is no real answer to…