Olive Trees

When you leave behind the sparkling blue of Lake Bafa, stuck in Milas plain north of Bodrum, the pungent smell of the sunbaked earth will sting your nostrils. The asphalt road climbs continuously into the foothills of the Beşparmak Mountains, where the Çomakdağ villages nestle amidst endless groves of giant olive trees.

Experts say that Vincent Willem van Gogh had a tendency to leave mysteries in his paintings. One such mystery has recently been unfolded by paintings conservator Mary Schafer. Perhaps, the Dutch post-Impressionist painter, himself, failed to find it while creating the masterpiece - Olive Trees - in 1889 and the mystery has been 'stuck' in the painting for 128 years.

Turkey’s Council of State has ordered a stay of execution for the government’s decision to “urgently expropriate” an olive grove in western Turkey in order to build a wind farm power plant, marking a legal victory for the plot’s 80-year-old owner, “Auntie” Remziye Saatli.