The Bosphorus boat spotter tracking Russian military trucks

The Bosphorus boat spotter tracking Russian military trucks

Yörük Işık is a ship spotter who logs all the boats that pass through the narrow Bosphorus Strait near his home in Istanbul, Turkey.

In October 2015, he noticed something unusual - Russian military trucks on a civilian ship bound for Syria.

The photos he took were the first evidence that Russia was supplying armed forces to support President Bashar al-Assad. It followed months of denial from Moscow that they were planning to engage militarily on the ground in Syria’s civil war.

Emily Wither speaks to Yörük about how his hobby became a news source.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Ship with Russian military trucks on. Credit: Yörük Işık)

Episoder(2000)

The First Frozen Embryo Baby

The First Frozen Embryo Baby

Zoe Leyland was born in Australia on April 11th 1984. As an embryo, she'd been frozen for 8 weeks before being successfully implanted into her mother's womb. Dr Alan Trounson was part of the team who pioneered the technology to freeze embryos, he's been speaking to Ashley Byrne.Photo: In vitro fertilisation technician removing frozen embryos from storage. Credit: Science Photo Library

10 Apr 20188min

Woodfall Films

Woodfall Films

Woodfall Films changed British cinema. First established in 1958, it made films with working class actors about working class lives. The driving force behind it was the producer and director Tony Richardson. Vincent Dowd has been speaking to Rita Tushingham who starred in a classic Woodfall movie 'A Taste of Honey', and to Desmond Davis who filmed 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner'.Photo: Actress Rita Tushingham in 'A Taste of Honey'. (Credit: Woodfall Films)

9 Apr 20189min

The Emergency Rescue Committee

The Emergency Rescue Committee

The 'emergency rescue committee' was set up by a group of American and exiled German liberals during the Second World War to help save some of Europe's leading intellectuals and artists from the Nazis. Among those the group rescued from German-occupied France were artists Marc Chagall and Max Ernst, surrealist leader Andre Breton and German novelist Heinrich Mann. Louise Hidalgo has been hearing from Justus Rosenberg who worked for the committee and had his own narrow escape from the Nazis.Picture; Justus Rosenberg on the streets of Marseille in the early 1940s (credit: Justus Rosenberg)

6 Apr 20189min

Vietnam War: The Battle for Hue

Vietnam War: The Battle for Hue

Communist forces overran the key southern city of Hue triggering one of the biggest battles of the war. The attack was part of the Tet Offensive in 1968, when North Vietnam launched surprise assaults on towns and cities across South Vietnam, with the support of its southern based guerrilla force, the Viet Cong. Alex Last spoke to Nguyen Dac Xuan, a former member of the Viet Cong which fought against American and South Vietnamese forces in Hue. Photo: American troops watch as a US plane bombs Communist positions in the city of Hue, February 1968 (BBC)

6 Apr 20189min

2001 A Space Odyssey

2001 A Space Odyssey

In April 1968 Stanley Kubrick's ground-breaking sci-fi movie was released in the US. The film had mixed early reviews but went on to be considered one of the great classics of all-time. Keir Dullea played the starring role of astronaut David Bowman in the film. He tells Mike Lanchin about working with Kubrick and with the famous space computer H.A.L.Photo credit: MGM / EMI

5 Apr 20189min

Russia's Bitter Taste of Capitalism

Russia's Bitter Taste of Capitalism

Chaos and hardship hit Russia with the rapid market reforms in early 1992, weeks after the collapse of the USSR. Dina Newman has been speaking to one of the architects of this "shock therapy", the economy minister Andrei Nechaev. Photo: an old woman outside McDonald's in Moscow, circa 1992. Credit: Dina Newman archive.

4 Apr 20189min

The UNAbomber

The UNAbomber

On the 10th May 2023, the so-called UNAbomber was found dead in his prison cell.Ted Kaczynski carried out a campaign of attacks against universities and airlines in the USA, over seventeen years. In 1996, he was turned in by his brother David Kaczynski.In 2010, David spoke to Lucy Williamson.(Photo: Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski outside the Federal Courthouse in Sacramento, California. January 1998. Credit: Bob Galbraith/AFP/Getty Images)

3 Apr 20189min

The Invention of Semtex

The Invention of Semtex

The plastic explosive was malleable, odourless and stable. Created in communist Czechoslovakia in the town of Semtin in 1958, it was once the weapon of choice for those seeking to spread terror. Maria Jevstafjeva has been speaking to the brother of Stanislav Brebera, the chemist who invented it.Photo: Two workers display Semtex, a Czech-made industrial and military plastic explosive at Syntesia chemical plant in Semtin, Credit: Lubomir Kotek/AFP/Getty Images

2 Apr 20188min

Populært innen Samfunn

giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
rss-spartsklubben
konspirasjonspodden
aftenpodden-usa
popradet
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
vitnemal
wolfgang-wee-uncut
grenselos
synnve-og-vanessa
frokostshowet-pa-p5
rss-dannet-uten-piano
alt-fortalt
fladseth
fryktlos
opptur-med-annette-og-ingeborg
rss-herrepanelet
relasjonspodden-med-dora-thorhallsdottir-kjersti-idem
den-politiske-situasjonen