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CNN
21-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
The greatest hot-weather drink you've probably never heard of
Delicious spicy food and hot summer weather are two of Turkey's greatest assets. But when these two ingredients combine, you're going to need something to keep temperatures from getting out of hand. Thankfully, Turkey has you covered on this front too, with a drink so refreshing, it's a mystery to some why everyone hasn't heard of it. This is ayran, a deceptively simple mix of fresh yogurt, water and salt. After a sweltering or strenuous afternoon in the sun, slurping down a chilled glass of this tasty combination will leave your body gasping with appreciation. It may not match everyone's taste, and will be off-limits to some dietary requirements, but the appeal of ayran — pronounced eye-ran — is undeniable. It's been drunk in the region where Europe meets Asia for centuries and today is sold in various forms across Turkey and several other countries. And its refreshing properties get a big thumbs up from science. 'Consuming ayran is an important means of restoring mineral balance lost through perspiration in the summer, due to its natural mineral content and the presence of added salt,' Professor Barbaros Özer from Ankara University's Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Dairy Technology told CNN. He explained that the beverage contains valuable minerals and protein. That's not all. Another surprising benefit is the drink's effects on digestive and intestinal health. 'Ayran plays a crucial role in maintaining the balance of gastrointestinal health and the intestinal microbiota,' added Özer. Turkic peoples are believed to have been producing ayran for at least a millennium — making it about 900 years older than Coca-Cola. Thanks to Besim Atalay, a Turkish linguist who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ayran's roots have been traced back to the 11th century, gaining a mention in Mahmud al-Kashgari's Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, the first-known dictionary of Turkic languages, written at the time. It's safe to say that ayran is a product of necessity. Fermented food and drink like cheese, yogurt and ayran are perfect for long journeys. Turkic nomads prepared fermented dairy products to extend their usability, helping overcome the formidable climate of the steppes, the vast, treeless grasslands they called home. While Turks migrated from Central Asia to Anatolia (the land that makes up most of modern day Turkey), ayran moved with them. Editor and gastronomy researcher Merin Sever told CNN that we know through historical travelogues that people in Anatolia prepared ayran. Their daily meals also included 'bread chopped into yogurt or bread added as a supplement to ayran.' During their migration, Turks probably left traces of the drink, influencing other cultures. Iran's doogh is similar to a type of ayran, called yayık ayran, in Turkey, a byproduct of buttermilk production. Central Asian Turkic people have chal and kumis. However, these two are made of fermented milk — camel milk and mare's milk, respectively. While most ayran is made of yogurt, the commercial mass production of the drink includes a milk fermentation process. 'Industrial ayran is produced in two different ways: either by diluting yogurt to the targeted protein content, or by fermenting milk after it has been diluted to the target protein level,' explains Özer. Today, ayran is not only a part of a thousand-year-old Turkish culinary tradition but also among the most commercialized drinks in modern Turkey. From shelves in large supermarkets to street food vendor barrels, it quenches thirst and accompanies meals across the country. Even global fast-food brands like McDonald's and Burger King include ayran as an option in their meals in Turkey At a kebab restaurant or a büfe — small food vendors that serve Turkish fast food such as döner sandwiches — when you order ayran, you may be asked: 'Do you want open ayran (açık ayran) or closed ayran (kapalı ayran)?' To make sense of this, you need to be familiar with ayran culture. Closed ayran is packaged and mass-manufactured, while open ayran is freshly mixed to order in restaurants and vendors. Most Turkish people prefer open ayran because… Well, it's somehow more delicious. Anyone looking for a genuine traditional experience should look for places where ayran is served in copper cups, such as kebab shops called 'ocakbaşı,' where you can sit in front of the grills and watch your meal order prepared on metal skewers. To watch meat cook slowly over sizzling embers — liquid fat dripping down, spreading an appetizing smell — and sipping ice-cold ayran from its copper cup is a true Turkish experience. Or, following a night out in Istanbul's buzzing Taksim district, stopping at a food carts selling pilaf (rice dish) with several toppings — mostly chicken or chickpeas — in Taksim Square or on İstiklal Street and checking to see if they have a plastic barrel with a tap. Inside are liters of delicious homemade ayran. In fact, pilaf and ayran are among the methods Turks use to combat hangovers. While it's simple and straightforward to prepare ayran, there are many variations. Susurluk ayran, local to the Susurluk district of Balıkesir, a city in northwestern Turkey, is usually prepared from a yogurt with a higher content of fat, which creates a foam on the drink's surface. Yayık ayran is another widespread type that is a byproduct of butter making. Buttermilk replaces yogurt, which creates a highly frothy texture and a less tangy taste. Turkey's eastern Malatya region is known for its spicy ayran, prepared with green or red hot chili peppers. It has a distinct taste that appeals to fans of sweet and sour, or sweet and salty foods. There are likely hundreds of other recipes. For example, you can add a pinch of mint for extra refreshment, or even skip adding salt. Sometimes, sparkling mineral water is used instead of still for a crisper taste. Many factors affect the taste of ayran besides extra ingredients like pepper, salt, or mint. Mostly, however, it comes down to the yogurt. 'Which milk was used to make the yogurt, how fatty was the yogurt, the yeast that was used to make it, and how it was used — industrial or traditional methods were used — all impact the taste of ayran,' Sever, the gastronomy researcher, explained. Associate Professor Özge Samancı, head of the Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Department at Turkey's Özyeğin University, agrees: 'A good, fatty yogurt gives ayran its flavor.' So, despite its widespread consumption in and around Turkey, why is ayran not popular worldwide? Samancı says it's largely down to unfamiliarity. 'Turkish cuisine is generally not well-known abroad, and related products are unavailable in the market,' she told CNN. 'Turkish restaurants are few in number and limited. Secondly, the taste of classic ayran, without additions like mint etc., is strange to foreigners, who often do not like this sour taste.' But which version of ayran should visitors to Turkey try to get the best experience? It's all a matter of personal taste — for instance Özer, the gastronomy professor, prefers industrial ayran because of its hygienic properties, while Samancı and Sever choose open ayran. 'If I pass through a region famous for its dairy products, I definitely try to taste the local, freshly made open ayran,' Sever said. Samancı specifically enjoys Susurluk ayran, which she says pairs perfectly with a traditional Susurluk melted cheese sandwich. Whichever you choose, once you've enjoyed that refreshing ayran taste, you'll almost certainly be back for more.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
After a week on the streets, Turkey protesters remain defiant
Student protesters were back on the streets on Wednesday as they marked a week since the start of Turkey's biggest demonstrations against the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since 2013. The protests erupted after the March 19 arrest of Istanbul opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as part of a graft and "terror" probe, which the main opposition CHP party slammed as a "coup". Vast crowds have hit the streets daily, defying a protest ban in Istanbul and other big cities, with the biggest crowds gathering after dark, sparking running battles with riot police. Ahead of a major rally on Saturday, the CHP appeared to change strategy on Wednesday, urging people to applaud, honk their horns or wave flags from their windows at 1730 GMT. In Istanbul, crowds of students -- many of them masked -- marched through the Levent business district after a day in which many thousands had flooded the streets chanting: "Government, resign!" And in the capital, students rallied at Ankara University campus alongside medical students from Haceteppe University and a handful of lecturers from the prestigious Middle East Technical University. "The pressures exerted on members of the opposition have reached an alarming level," said one robed lecturer who did not give his name. "In the same way, government pressure on universities, which has been going on for years, has become even worse with recent developments." - 'Absolutely scandalous' - By Tuesday afternoon, police had arrested 1,418 people, the interior ministry said. Among them was AFP photographer Yasin Akgul, who was arrested in a pre-dawn raid on Monday and remanded in custody a day later alongside six other journalists. The move was sharply denounced by the Paris-based news agency, which said that Akgul had been covering the protests, denouncing his jailing as "unacceptable" and demanding his immediate release. Reporters Without Borders chief Thibaut Bruttin described the arrests as "absolutely scandalous", urging Turkey to free the journalists, including Akgul. "These journalists were only doing their job. They have no business being brought before a court. They absolutely must be released," he told AFP. And a French foreign ministry source said Paris was "deeply concerned by reports of repression against protesters and journalists" in Turkey, noting that Akgul "was covering the protests professionally". The UN also voiced concern on Wednesday over the court's U-turn on the journalists' fate. "It is a matter of concern that reportedly the initial decisions of a court in Istanbul to free the journalists were immediately reversed on the prosecutor's intervention," UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Liz Throssell told AFP. - 'No room left in the prisons' - Erdogan, who has repeatedly denounced the protests as "street terror", stepped up his attacks on the opposition with a bitter tirade against the CHP and its leader Ozgur Ozel. Most nights, the protests have turned into running battles with riot police, whose crackdown has alarmed rights groups. But there were no such clashes on Tuesday, AFP correspondents said. Addressing the vast crowds at Istanbul City Hall on Tuesday, Ozel warned Erdogan that the crackdown would only strengthen the protest movement. "Our numbers won't decrease with the detentions and arrests, we will grow and grow and grow!" he vowed, saying the extent of the crackdown meant there was "no room left in Istanbul's prisons". Although the crackdown has not reduced the numbers, most students who joined a huge street rally on Tuesday had their faces covered, an AFP correspondent said. "We want the government to resign, we want our democratic rights, we are fighting for a freer Turkey right now," a 20-year-old student who gave his name as Mali told AFP. "We are not terrorists, we are students and the reason we are here is to exercise our democratic rights and to defend democracy," he said. Ozel has called the next major rally for Saturday in the Istanbul district of Maltepe on the Asian side of the city. bur-hmw/bc
Express Tribune
18-03-2025
- General
- Express Tribune
Literary scholar AB Ashraf laid to rest
Dr Ahmed Bakhtiar, popularly known as AB Ashraf, a former head of the Urdu Department at Bahauddin Zakariya University, who had died in Turkey four days ago after a brief illness, was laid to rest at his ancestral graveyard on Tuesday. He was 90. His body arrived in Lahore from Ankara, from where it was shifted to Multan. The funeral prayers were offered at a park in Gulghast, which were led by Khalid Sohail and attended by a large number of people from different walks of life. Dr AB Ashraf, born on February 15, 1935, was a former Urdu Chair at Ankara University and author of dozens of books. A large number of his students are serving worldwide. When he went to Ankara University, he was offered a permanent position there due to his qualifications and services. He left three sons and four daughters. Professor Naeem Ashraf is his eldest son.
National Geographic
18-03-2025
- Politics
- National Geographic
Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya believes refugees make companies stronger
The son of nomadic sheep farmers and a member of Turkey's ethnic Kurdish minority, Hamdi Ulukaya was the first in his family to go to college, enrolling at Ankara University. It was the early nineties, a time of heightened tensions between government forces and Kurdish separatists, and Ulukaya founded a newspaper in which he called out the human rights abuses faced by his fellow Kurds. One day, he recalls, he was taken into police custody. He was only detained for a night, but the experience convinced him that he needed to leave the country. 'I was forced to leave,' he says. 'I did not leave because I dreamed about going to America.' He went to an agency that helped him transfer to Adelphi University, on Long Island, New York, where he learned English. Eventually, he started a business importing his family's feta cheese, and in 2005 he read about a yogurt plant for sale near the city of Utica. Suddenly, he had a vision: He would start his own company making Turkish-style yogurt, thick and tangy. He had no real money, no business education. But he cobbled together a loan and started Chobani (Turkish for 'shepherd'). Seven years later, they were doing a billion dollars in sales. Ulukaya often thinks about others who arrive in this country fleeing persecution. That's what brought him to the refugee resettlement center in Utica, where he encountered people of some 16 different nationalities. 'The only reason they don't work is they don't have driver's licenses or cars,' he says. 'And they don't speak the language. I said, 'Okay. Similar to me.'' He hired five refugees, then 10, then 300, including Somalis, Nepalis, and Afghans. Over 20 languages were spoken at the yogurt plant, yet he felt that somehow his workforce was more cohesive than ever.
