The shared destiny of Istanbul and Turin

Until I went to Turin in Italy, I honestly did not know how significant this ancient city was to its country; much like Istanbul, Turin was also a former capital.

When the Italians chose Rome as their capital in 1870, Turin lost its former importance as it was no longer the capital, but the palaces, government buildings, royal-style restaurants, cafes, and theaters it housed remained exactly as they were. Despite this, the city emptied out, and real estate prices fell.

It was this void that automotive companies filled; the business world, noticing the cheaper real estate prices, flocked here, and brands like Fiat, Lancia, and Alfa Romeo established their headquarters here and grew.

Istanbul did not become the capital when the new Turkey was founded, but there was no emptying or devaluation of its buildings; furthermore, it managed to remain the heart of the business world.

Turin is located in northern Italy, at the foot of the Alps, next to the Po, the Italian river whose name we encounter in every crossword puzzle. Since the mountains are nearby, there are also many ski resorts here.

Recently, for the annual meeting of the Skiing Journalists Association, five of us journalists from Turkey—Gamze Düşmez, Barçın Yinanç, Aylin Öney Tan, Serkan Ocak, and myself—went to Italy. We met with 150 journalists from nearly 30 countries, where we both skied and discussed media, the environment, climate change, and politics in seminars.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS THE ENEMY OF THE PRESS

The ski resort we went to was Bardonecchia, a relatively cheaper winter holiday center in Italy. We stayed with 150 journalists alongside about 900 high school students filling the Olympic village there, and we skied a lot. In the meantime, we also participated in slalom races, and Serkan Ocak from our team even won a medal, finishing second in the cross-country skiing category.

When 150 journalists come together, the most discussed topics are, of course, world politics and technological developments. It was expressed that the lawlessness of the new US President Donald Trump, his setting his sights on other countries such as Canada, Panama, Greenland, and Gaza, and his imposition of censorship-like bans on the press set a bad example for other countries.

However, the most interesting speech was made by an Italian journalist, who gave an example of how Artificial Intelligence could be lethal for the media.

Employees of a left-leaning weekly magazine in Italy decided to go on strike and started the strike; their goal was to not publish the magazine for at least a week to persuade the boss to do what they wanted. However, the boss found three people who had nothing to do with journalism and managed to have the entire magazine prepared and published with the help of artificial intelligence, so no one even knew about the strike.

Isn't that terrifying?

CHEESE, WINE, CHOCOLATE

Anyway, let's return to the beauties of Italy.

Italy means Turin and the mountains, football with the Juventus team, food, pasta, pizza, cheese, and wine. Turin is also the chocolate capital of Italy.

And believe it or not, many products in Italy, including meat, are many times cheaper than in Turkey. To give just one example, let's say this:

While skiing in Italy, a one-day ski pass is only half the price of one in Uludağ. A coffee is only 50-60 liras, and we know that this is the result of deliberately implemented flawed economic policies.

THE STATUE OF RAMSES

There is another important aspect of Turin that I didn't know much about, and we shouldn't pass without mentioning it: it possesses one of the most famous Egyptian museums in the world. The museum, which holds more than 40 thousand archaeological and historical artifacts, has been open since 1824.

But the real weight of the museum consists of artifacts found by Italian archaeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli during excavations in Egypt between 1903 and 1920. A statue of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses is also here, and the answer to the question I asked the guide who was informing us, "Don't the Egyptians want these artifacts back from you?" was as follows:

"The Egyptians are pleased that the artifacts are exhibited in Turin; we cooperate with them. They only want the statue of Ramses because they don't even have one as beautiful as this."

If you happen to be in Turin, there are many museums here, and the National Museum of Cinema, as the place where cinema originated, is also very famous. And of course, there is the Automobile Museum. As we mentioned before, royal-style restaurants, cafes, theaters, and galleries are waiting for you.