Turkish Airlines recently started flying between Istanbul and the Azeri enclave of Naxcivan, but now something else is linking the two places: both are cracking down on street food vendors.
As RFE/RL reports, authorities in the enclave have started giving a hard time to people selling food on the street, most of them poor farmers who can't afford to rent government certified stalls. More disturbingly, some of the vendors who have protested the crackdown have been sent to psychiatric hospitals in punishment. You can read the full report here.
Meanwhile, in Istanbul, it looks like municipal authorities in some parts of town are also going after some of the city's unlicensed -- but, let's face it, very appealing -- food carts. According to one official in the city's heavily-visited Beyoglu district, the only kinds of carts that will be licensed are those selling chestnuts, corn and simit (a sesame-encrusted bread ring). So much for showing off the diversity of Istanbul's street food. You can read an article about this travesty here.