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Peter Kenyon

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Middle East
3:52 pm
Thu January 3, 2013

Turkey's AK Party Still Defies Easy Categorization

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Originally published on Thu January 3, 2013 5:10 pm

It's been a decade since a coalition of Islamic and secular political parties formed the AKP, or Justice and Development Party, and swept to power in Turkey. Warnings from secular Turks about a secret agenda to impose Sharia law on the country proved groundless, and yet ten years into AKP rule, secular unease is on the rise again. European Union-style political and social reforms have ground to a halt in the past 18 months, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems bent on converting Turkey to a strong presidential system with himself at the helm, possibly for another decade.

Europe
2:23 am
Thu January 3, 2013

Prime Minister Finds Soap Opera's Turkish Delights In Bad Taste

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Credit Murad Sezer / Reuters via Landov
Eggs streak down a billboard advertising the popular Turkish soap opera The Magnificent Century. The show focuses on palace intrigue during the 16th-century rule of Suleiman the Magnificent. Some Islamists have protested the show's depiction of the sultan's harem.
Credit Murad Sezer / Reuters via Landov
Demonstrators attack a billboard advertising the TV series The Magnificent Century during a protest in Istanbul on Jan. 9, 2011.
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Originally published on Thu January 3, 2013 5:27 am

Suleiman the Magnificent was the longest-reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire, presiding for nearly a half-century at the peak of the empire's power in the 16th century.

During Suleiman's rule from 1520 to 1566, the Ottomans were a political, economic and military powerhouse. Suleiman's forces sacked Belgrade, annexed much of Hungary and advanced across large parts of the Middle East and North Africa.

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Middle East
2:54 pm
Wed December 26, 2012

Head Of Military Police Defects To Syrian Opposition

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Originally published on Wed December 26, 2012 6:24 pm

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel and we begin this hour with fighting in Syria and the terrible impact of that fighting on children. In a few minutes, we'll hear from a refugee camp in Turkey, where families have fled the violence. First, today the Syrian regime appeared to suffer another high level defection. NPR's Peter Kenyon is monitoring that news and other developments from Istanbul.

PETER KENYON, BYLINE: The day began with rebel fighters announcing a new offensive in the northern Raqqa Province.

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Middle East
5:30 am
Mon December 24, 2012

Syria Airstrike Update

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Originally published on Mon December 24, 2012 6:09 am

There were reports of explosions in Damascus Monday, where international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi was due to meet with Syrian leaders. He's there at a time of heavy bloodshed as government forces battle rebel fighters, and civilians continue to perish in large numbers.

Middle East
2:28 pm
Fri November 30, 2012

In Istanbul, A Byzantine-Era Fleet Surfaces Again

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Credit Gokce Saracoglu for NPR
Archaeologists call an excavation site on Istanbul's southern shore the world's largest shipwreck collection. The area, unearthed during construction of a railway station, was once a Byzantine-era port that harbored cargo and military vessels, and received goods from around the Mediterranean.
Credit Mustafa Ozer / AFP/Getty Images
Archaeologists in Istanbul work on the remnants of a Byzantine-era ship in June 2006.
Credit Mustafa Ozer / AFP/Getty Images
The archaeological finds include millions of shards of pottery.
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Originally published on Mon December 3, 2012 7:24 pm

In Istanbul, major public transit projects are back under way after years of paralysis. The problem wasn't a lack of financing, but the layer upon layer of ancient artifacts that turned up every time the earthmovers started their work.

The excavation began eight years ago on projects intended to ease Istanbul's notoriously clogged traffic.

The job included building a tunnel under the Bosphorus Strait and linking it to a rail and subway network. When the dig was stopped several years ago, eyes rolled and shoulders shrugged.

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Credit Gary Robbins

Peter Kenyon is NPR's international correspondent based in Istanbul, Turkey, covering the Iran crisis and the business of Persian Gulf oil.

Prior to taking this assignment in 2010, Kenyon spent five years in Cairo covering Middle Eastern and North African countries from Syria to Morocco. He was part of NPR's team recognized with two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University awards for outstanding coverage of post-war Iraq.

From 2001 to 2005, Kenyon was based in Jerusalem and covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In addition to regular stints in Iraq, he has followed stories to Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, Qatar, Algeria, Morocco and other countries in the region.

Arriving at NPR in 1995, Kenyon spent six years in Washington, D.C., working in a variety of positions including as a correspondent covering the US Senate during President Bill Clinton's second term and the beginning of the President George W. Bush's administration.

Kenyon came to NPR from the Alaska Public Radio Network. He began his public radio career in the small fishing community of Petersburg, where he met his wife Nevette, a commercial fisherwoman.