You Can’t Tell the Players without a Program
Some readers might find Turkey Shoot’s multinational cast, native languages utterances, and exotic settings confusing. As for foreign words, while most snippets of German, Greek, Turkish and Arabic should be contextually clear, sometimes one must guess what they mean, and that’s okay.
Beyond that, there are eight main characters hailing from five countries, and one might not always readily keep in mind who is who. So here they all are, followed by minor characters who don’t all have speaking parts. Then there’s a list of organizations mentioned, followed by locations the characters visit. Most are real, but some have been fictionalized.
Don’t worry about keeping all this in your head. All will be revealed. The map is not the territory.
Main characters
(all conspirators, except Ivan, in order of appearance. The principals have code names, and several have more than one)
Mahmoud Al Ramadi (Iraqi, age 23, aka Peter, later Akhmed Hassan)
George (Turkish, age ~40, aka Gurcan Bac, aka Yilmaz Turgut)
Andreas (Austrian, age ~30, aka Jürgen, no LN)
Ottovio (Greek, age ~25, no LN or RN, aka The Greek Geek)
Katrina (Swiss, age 26, RN aka Anna Burmeister)
Kaan Sultanoğlu (Turkish, age 22, aka Michael)
Ivan (Austrian, age ~30, no LN), Andreas’ former lover, reunited with him
Safiye Lipman Dursun (Turkish, 52), Kaan’s maternal aunt
Minor characters
Kosta (Greek, no LN; Andreas’s business and domestic partner, imprisoned)
TigerEye (Turkish, no real name, comrade abroad)
Mikos (Greek anarchist activist, ex-prisoner)
Evangeline Vyros (age 55, Piraeus real estate agent, mother of Spyros)
Spyros Vyros (20’s Greek, activist friend of Andreas and apprentice pharmacist)
Penelope Alexiou (40s, Katrina’s upstairs neighbor & fellow activist)
Demitrios Karras (Greek, immigration lawyer)
Two Greek nationalists, Iannis Misallodoxía & Manolis Petinos
Mihraplı Mosque official (by honorific title memur)
Irmak (George’s sister, no LN, in Balıkesir, Turkey)
Orhan Demirci (~60, CEO of Olympos InterConnect, a Turkish ISP)
Other People and Organizations mentioned
Mahmoud’s mother (no name, Iraqi))
Mahmoud’s father (no name, Iraqi)
Mahmoud’s brother Akhmed (16, Iraqi)
Ayhan Sultanoğlu, (50s, Kaan’s father, imprisoned in a Turkish jail)
Nadia Lipman Sultanoğlu, (deceased, Kaan’s mother)
The Greek Girl (20s, Kaan’s secret lover)
Dolores Cardozo (Spanish radical, George’s presumed lover)* ISIS (The Islamic State)
Kurt (Austrian, no LN, Ivan’s deceased lover in Austria)
* MLKP (Turkish Marxist-Leninist Communist Party)
* YPG (Kurdish People’s Protection Units militia)
* PKK (Kurdistan Worker’s Party, regarded as terrorists)
* G-20 (Economic summit organization)
** Eleni Yannatou (Greek anarchist activist, ex-prisoner)
** Stavros Gianopulos (Eleni’s husband, also in Korydallos)
* Vassilis Palaiokostas (notorious Greek thief who twice escaped from Korydallos)
** Mehmed Davacı (self-exiled Turkish leader, Imam)
** Hareket, Davacı’s cultural and political movement
* Golden Dawn Party (Greek Nationalist party)
* Anonymous (international tribe of hackers)
* Hellenic League for Human Rights
Sóimple Funeral Services
Tsouris Towing Company
Olympos InterConnect (Turkish ISP, Orhan Demirci’s company)
* Denotes actual persons, organizations, and groups
** Not actual name
Actual Locations Mentioned
* Cities in Greece: Piraeus, Athens, and island of Chios
* Cities in Turkey: Antalya, Cesme, Izmir, Bursa, Balikesir
* Aspendos arena (Roman amphitheater near Antalya)
** Taverna Omphalos, Restaurant, Piraeus, Greece
* Korydallos Prison, Piraeus, Greece
** Café Santorini, Piraeus, Greece
** East Asia Restaurant, Athens, Greece
* Mihraplı Mosque, Bursa, Turkey
* Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, Turkey