The Monocle Minute

Nights of protest have left their mark on Istanbul’s city hall: the floor is littered with thousands of spent rubber bullets and there’s graffiti on the walls calling for law, justice and the resignation of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The arrest and imprisonment of the city’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, has provoked a furious response across the country. This reflects the work that Imamoglu and his team have done not only to improve life for Istanbul’s residents but also to raise hopes among Turkey’s long-demoralised opposition.

Imamoglu has become the nation’s most prominent and popular opposition figure since he first won Istanbul in 2019. A few hours after he was formally charged for corruption on Sunday, he received his party’s nomination to run for president. Some 15 million people voted in support of Imamoglu, who was then in a cell in Silivri, a prison near Istanbul that is full of Erdogan’s opponents.

“The government believes that it has good international standing and so can do whatever it wants,” says Mustafa Osman Turan, a foreign-relations advisor to the mayor of Istanbul. “That is partially true. But opposition is growing, not only from European governments but also from mayors in other countries.” Despite this, international condemnation has been mostly muted. Erdogan has chosen his moment carefully. As Donald Trump pulls the US away from the Atlantic alliance, Turkey is an increasingly valuable Nato ally and a key intermediary with the new government in Syria. In recent years, Erdogan has found that he can leverage Turkey’s strategic importance to pressure Europe – just as he did when he slowed down Sweden and Finland’s Nato accession. Now he is betting that Turkey’s crucial position will prevent his European allies from criticising his crackdown.

But the protests are unlikely to abate. On Sunday night many Istanbul residents were injured as police fired rubber bullets and released tear gas at close range. In some instances, police appeared to beat protesters who were lying on the ground. The Turkish economy is taking a hit as foreign investors, who were just beginning to return to the country, are pulling out again. Erdogan has relied on timing, pragmatism and political savvy to stay in power for 22 years. This time, however, the cards are stacked against him. Should the violence escalate, he might find himself a pariah in Europe once again.

Hannah Lucinda Smith is Monocle’s Istanbul correspondent. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

Building a home in Canada has become a little easier thanks to the Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation’s newly published Housing Design Catalogue (writes Gregory Scruggs). The catalogue, which allows builders to select from 50 standardised designs by seven architecture studios, marks a return to form for the national housing agency, whose postwar prefab designs supplied Canada with about a million homes from 1946 to 1960.

With two-thirds of Canadian residents now struggling to afford the average monthly mortgage payment amid a housing shortage, the country urgently needs to start building more homes. Thankfully, the corporation’s designs come with regional variations to suit a broad range of settings, from the damp Maritimes to snowbound prairies. The new catalogue also reflects a more contemporary style of urbanism, with a mix of duplexes, terraced houses and cottages to add “gentle density” to the nation’s growing cities.

As anyone who has visited one of Monocle’s bureaux around the world will know, we are repeat customers of Swiss modular-furniture manufacturer USM (writes Christopher Lord). In a bid to deepen its UK footprint, the business will relocate its London showroom from Clerkenwell to Marylebone this spring. “USM wants to introduce itself to a broader audience and challenge the perception that it is solely for office spaces,” says Mirko Müller, the brand’s UK CEO. “The Marylebone shop will play a key role in achieving this by offering an immersive experience, allowing visitors to view our pieces within residential settings.”

It’s a strategy that many heritage makers of functional furniture are banking on. In the US, Herman Miller is rolling out new shops that emphasise the suitability of its chairs for a variety of spaces, not just home offices. This reflects a shift from the traditional contract-based model of such businesses, in which hundreds of chairs and desks would be bought for vast offices at a time. Things might be changing in terms of where the demand is – but the need for attractive furniture that lasts isn’t going anywhere.

The news that Usha Vance, the second lady of the United States, will lead a delegation from her country to Greenland on Thursday has not been received warmly in Nuuk (writes Alexis Self). The Danish autonomous territory’s leaders are still reeling from Donald Trump’s threats to annex the island. In a dead-eyed address on social media, Vance declared her excitement at having the opportunity to attend Avannaata Qimussersua, Greenland’s national dogsled race, which is sponsored by the US consulate. Among her entourage will be White House national security advisor Mike Waltz and the US energy secretary, Chris Wright – both also avid dogsled fans, apparently.

But Greenland’s prime minister, Múte Bourup Egede, has attributed less sporting motives to the trip. On Monday he told Sermitsiaq newspaper that the Trump administration is “completely and utterly indifferent” to the nation’s sovereignty and that it is only interested in “taking over our country over our heads”. Temperatures in Sisimuit, the town hosting the dogsled race, hover at about minus 5C at this time of year – but it will almost certainly be frostier if the US delegation finds itself in the same room as Greenland’s leaders.

Late last year media company Forbes opened its first private members’ club in Madrid in collaboration with SpainMedia, the publisher of Forbes España and food title Tapas. The business has also doubled down on its commitment to print, celebrating 10 years of Tapas and launching physical-format editions of successful websites Nautik and Highxtar. Here, Andrés Rodríguez, the founder of SpainMedia and president of Forbes House Madrid, tells Monocle Radio’s Fernando Augusto Pacheco about the club and how food and drink help to define our lives.

Why launch a private members’ club?
The idea came up when I was thinking about expansion. I wanted to open one in a city that had a good energy. Madrid is the most exciting capital in Europe right now. This incredible place has 2,000 sq m exclusively for Forbes. It celebrates a better, more stylish way of doing business.

Has the club helped to connect readers?
Yes. We have accrued more than 500 members in just a couple of months. It has also become a bridge for people from Latin America, who are increasingly relocating to Madrid instead of Miami. Having a physical space is the best way to access readers and offers an opportunity to raise brand awareness. It makes readers proud too.

You’re the founder of ‘Tapas’ magazine, which is now 10 years old. How are you celebrating this milestone?
I created it to explore how food and drink define our lives. Tapas isn’t about recipes or learning how to cook. It encourages people to eat out and grab a drink together. It’s a title that still has a lot of energy. Later this year we will launch an international food festival in Madrid to celebrate the past decade.

You can listen to the full interview with Rodríguez on ‘The Stack’ this week.

We island-hop in the Caribbean with author Keshia Sakarah, who tells us about her new book, Caribe: A Caribbean Cookbook with History, and the specificity of the region’s cuisine. Also in the programme: Hannah Lucinda Smith is in Damascus to taste some of the city’s renowned shawarma. Plus: Monocle’s Mae-Li Evans meets Jenny Lau to find out about An A-Z of Chinese Food: (Recipes Not Included).