Turkey's Erdogan hosts NATO summit as political rival Imamoglu defends himself in court apnews.com/article/turk...

Fans streaming towards Kalamış Park in İstanbul for Turkey's 7am World Cup kick off 😴

BBC Sport's click bait following the Daily Express route. No attempt to even address the question in the headline, let alone answer it

Turkey wary of Israeli threat following airstrike on Hamas in Qatar apnews.com/article/hama...

Free speech is only for bigots attacking women and minorities

Her name was Diana Koshyk and she was 23. She liked to write poetry and paint, and was seven months pregnant with a son she named Damir. She was killed in a Russian missile strike last week. My first story for @observeruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/interna...

British doctor comes back from Gaza and confirms two things we knew: 1- the Israelis *specifically* confiscate formula feed to starve children 2- there is a clear pattern in gun shot wounds pointing to the fact that IDF soldiers are playing games hunting humans. www.instagram.com/reel/DMm03Kp...

Emine Ocak never gave up on fighting for what’s right. We should all try to be a bit like her www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/3529...

Just in case you need to charge your phone while having a piss #burasıtürkiye

Norman Tebbit, one of the most divisive figures of 80s Britain, is dead

Presidential adviser Yiğit Bulut is battling terminal cancer, according to journalist Cem Küçük. He is remembered for saying “foreign powers” targeted Erdoğan with telekinesis and that he had “plenty of bullets” for the president’s enemies

Musk, who think he’s humanity’s savior, will likely be remembered as the man who caused the deaths of 15 million people www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

The lucky scarf did it’s job #COYS

Massive congratulations to Palace fans. Seems like a win for proper football #cpfc #facup

BREAKING: Russia and Ukraine agree to swap 1,000 prisoners of war each, according to the head of Moscow's peace talks delegation.

Istanbul, City of Barriers

Lawyers’ group says more than 200 arrested in Istanbul’s May 1 demos before midday

No surprises here. Rumeysa’s ordeal is a travesty, and makes every American in Turkey more vulnerable to persecution for their views. Just as Rumeysa was a Turkish Fulbright Scholar in the US, I was a Fulbrighter in the other direction. Her treatment sickens me deeply.

Watched Lavrov being hailed a “diplomatic rock star” in Antalya this weekend as he bemoaned “nazist” efforts to destroy Russian culture. Unfortunately, that culture is overshadowed by this barbarism, which is all most people think of when they think of Russia. That’s down to Lavrov and his boss

2 leading Turkish journalists are detained on charges their newspapers say are based on their work apnews.com/article/jour...

Well-known investigative journalists Timur Soykan & Murat Ağırel were detained this morning in Turkey after a complaint by suspects in a money laundering case. Their homes were searched & their digital devices confiscated. FMA calls for their release because #JournalismIsNotACrime

Today is International Romani Day, to celebrate the culture and recognise the difficulties facing Romani people. Here's a story I wrote last year about the discrimination faced by Roma earthquake survivors in southern Turkey. With great pics from @hemra.bsky.social www.aljazeera.com/features/202...

Barrister says “there’s credible evidence that Brits have been directly involved in committing some of those atrocities.” Individuals should be “appearing at the Old Bailey to answer for atrocity crimes”.

Turkish interior minister said recently that, on average, 510 people died every month in traffic accidents last year - 6,120 a year. In Germany, which has a slightly smaller population, 2,759 died in 2024 (Statistische Bundesamt)

Not many customers at Espresso Lab in Maltepe today (mostly cops)

apnews.com/article/turk... prosecutors want up to 3 years in prison for detainees in anti-government protests

TİP Students utilising Pikachu for the revolution. “Who’s left that didn’t resist”

Images of police “interventions”at Istanbul protests halktv.com.tr/gundem/sarac...

Home page of Anadolu Agency, Turkey's state-run news agency, has one story relating to the jailing of Istanbul mayor and nationwide protests against the govt - the justice minister lecturing foreign journalists on the independence of the Turkish judiciary

Run Pikachu, run x.com/i/status/190...

I was thinking that the Turkey protests were going to slowly fizzle out. Then I bumped into this in Kadıköy tonight ✊

As a boy, Berkay coined the phrase “Her şey çok güzel olacak” (everything will be beautiful) when he met İmamoğlu on the campaign trail in 2019. It’s still the slogan most closely associated with the mayor. Today Berkay, now a 22yo student, was sent to jail for protesting

With thanks to @monicamarks.bsky.social, @selimkoru.bsky.social and Berk Esen

People of Istanbul out early and in large numbers to cast a “solidarity ballot” in support of their imprisoned mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu

Saat 07.00 itibarıyla bant genişliği daraltılan / yavaşlatılan sosyal medya platformları ve mesajlaşma uygulamaları: • X • YouTube • Instagram • Facebook • TikTok • Telegram • Signal ifade.org.tr/engelliweb/b...

Duvar newspaper is shutting down, citing changes to Google's algorithm and the rocketing costs of running an independent news organisation in Turkey. Its end is a great loss for journalism and democracy www.gazeteduvar.com.tr/gazete-duvar...

Trump is choking Ukraine’s ability to defend its people, which will lead to more men, women and children being killed by Russian missiles and drones

#Azerbaijan: the government has forced BBC News to close its Baku office. After imprisoning local independent journalists, President Ilham Aliyev is now targeting the international media. RSF condemns this alarming closure of the media landscape. rsf.org/en/azerbaija...

Well played Adana Demirspor and Plymouth Argyle

Remember the 12 million murdered by the Nazis. Many of the 1 million killed at Auschwitz were gassed in this room #InternationalHolocaustRemembranceDay

Next up for Musty: Hitler has been victim of woke cancel culture

Child poverty is a heartbreaking aspect of life for many in the world’s 17th largest economy but mostly unreported. AP’s piece is an important glimpse into the hardships faced: www.voanews.com/a/turkey-s-s...

Alleged money launderer sells private jet to Cristiano Ronaldo for $17m. Korkmaz is also centre of claims including high-level political corruption and being a CIA asset

Manchester City's ongoing links to authoritarian regimes: ex-striker Mikheil Kavelashvili set to become Georgia president for the anti-democratic Georgian Dream party apnews.com/article/geor...

The latest edition of The Blizzard includes my story on how Greek/Rum footballers from Beyoğluspor helped establish the sport in Greece after the population exchange (and the exodus of Greeks from Istanbul over the following years)

The incoming FBI chief’s qualifications (BBC): he has published a children’s book, The Plot Against the King featuring a villain, Hillary Queenton, trying to depose King Donald… Another villain is called Keeper Komey - a thinly-veiled reference to ex-FBI Director James Comey - and his “spying slugs”