Erdogan’s regime has figured out how to exploit Twitter/X’s geoblocking policy and is now doing so without restraint. Anyone deemed a threat, whether a journalist, activist, or even a presidential candidate, can now wake up to find their account arbitrarily banned in their own country.

Türkiye’de artık arşivler, yani tarih, rejimin lehine değiştirilebiliyor. Hiç abartısız, distopya romanlarında okuduğumuz olaylar yaşanıyor.

Şimdi merak edip Sırrı Süreyya Önder’in 2018’de neden yine hapse atılmasına baktım ve öğrendim ki, cezayı veren mahkemenin başkanı, bugün Ekrem İmamoğlu’na ve İstanbul Belediyesi’ne kurulan kumpasın savcısı: Akın Gürlek.

Halk desteğini kaybettikçe, kontrol edemedikleri tüm mecralara karşı daha da saldırganlaşıyorlar. Ama saldırganlaştıkça daha da fazla kaybediyorlar. Artık tam anlamıyla bir kaybetme kısır döngüsünün içindeler. Öyle de kaybediyorlar, böyle de.

Hoşçakal Sırrı Süreyya Önder. Varoluşunla, mücadelenle, sanatınla çok şey öğrettin bize. Seni hiç unutmamak üzere, hep güzel hatırlayacağız.

there has to be something severely wrong with you psychologically to sit there while people bull shit you like this

🧵 on the IDF's investigation into the slaying of 14 paramedics and a UN worker, alongside unanswered questions and findings from media investigations.

FETÖ’cülerin hazırladığı belgeler, gizli tanık ifadeleri ve avukatlık faaliyetlerinin delil sayıldığı düzmece bir davayla Selçuk Kozağaçlı’nın 8 yılı çalındı.

1/4Turkey woke up this morning to the news that two prominent journalists had been detained. These two journalists are known for reporting on the most significant mafia and corruption cases in the country.

Otokrat olmaya hevesli birinin Erdoğan’ı sevmesi çok normal.

Sokağa çıkmaya utanması gereken herif hala mücadeleden falan bahsediyor ya sabır.

Damning evidence proving Israel committed another horrific war crime and lied about it. And just like countless other instances, it’ll be held responsible by absolutely no one and will keep committing more with impunity.

The words of a political prisoner shouldn’t be behind a paywall @nytopinion.nytimes.com

Day by day, Erdogan is plunging Turkey deeper into a draconian regime. Anyone or anything he sees as a threat to himself is labeled "a threat to public order," then either imprisoned, deported, purged, or punished in one way or another.

Kılıçdaroğlu’nun ‘şaibeli kurultay’ safsatasıyla ilgili yaptığı açıklamaları izliyorum. Bu adam gerçekten eşi benzeri görülmemiş derecede bir omurgasız. Herif, CHP’nin başındayken AKP’ye 13 yıl kazandırdığı yetmezmiş gibi, şu haliyle bile AKP’ye yaranmayı başarabiliyor.

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

So many still don’t seem to get it. This isn’t just Erdoğan doing his usual authoritarian stuff. This is the ultimate escalation, the endgame. If he gets his way this time, a country of 85 million becomes a full-blown autocracy, ruled by a man who can’t be voted out any longer.

Erdogan's post-cabinet address just now signalled zero compromise amid protests. He accused opposition using "street terrorists” to attack police "instead of answering corruption allegations". Said CHP cannot be trusted to "run the state, let alone municipalities". www.trthaber.com/haber/gundem...

In a sense, he does. Elon Musk made clear long ago that X always cooperates with governments to block anything any local government deems "illegal," whatever US or international laws say. That's why we moved to Bluesky.

In the history of Twitter/X, it’s never been this easy for Erdogan to censor accounts at this rate and speed. It’s as if he has direct backdoor access to do whatever he wants.

Taking on Erdoğan: protesters rise up against Turkey’s president https://www.ft.com/content/65721cf9-63dc-4414-a3c8-904abbdf6211

I’ve written about this in many places over the years, but Erdoğan’s insistence was that the state and even the nation were synonymous with himself. But in doing so he also made any challenge to his rule existential, because it would implicitly place at risk the survival of the nation.

The most iconic photo of Turkey’s protest so far. Ümit Bektaş for Reuters.

More horrifying videos of police violence on protestors are emerging. This is from #Istanbul. Police using rubber bullets on protestors and attacking them with batons.

Incredible turnout in Istanbul tonight in support of the arrested mayor. The government went above and beyond to stop and intimidate people from showing up, and yet, this is the result.

Erdogan-controlled media accidentally reported the court’s ruling to arrest Imamoglu before the court had even made the ruling.

I actually know one of the blocked accounts. It’s basically a fan page for the detained mayor, posting cool videos and memes about him. X blocking that account shows it’s blindly following Erdogan government’s censorship requests, with zero due process.

The Istanbul Stock Exchange has plummeted nearly 17% since İmamoğlu’s arrest. Two years of efforts to salvage the economy gone just like that.

An *incomplete* crowdsourced list of cities with protests in Turkey today: Adana Ankara (multiple) Antalya Artvin Bursa Çorum Denizli Elazığ Eskişehir Hatay İstanbul (multiple) İzmir (multiple) İzmit Kırıkkale Konya Manisa Muğla Rize Samsun Şanlıurfa Trabzon Yozgat Feel free to add to it below!

Bluesky is nice and all but to stay informed about the protests in Turkey I had to revert to my long-inactive Twitter/X account, where momentary info flow from the ground is much faster.

This is also happening—one of the most senior journalists in Turkey, who has broken huge story after huge story for years even as the whole media collapsed around him, in prison on some nonsense

Over the last 22 years since coming to power, this is one of Erdogan’s most brazen moves. If he succeeds, Turkey is no longer a country where he can be voted out. He decides who gets to run against him.

Looks like Erdoğan has a new tactic against political opponents: seizing their assets without due process. In other words, Turkey is now a country where, if Erdoğan’s regime deems you an enemy, you could wake up one day without the assets or degrees you acquired decades ago.

This morning's police raids targeted 106 suspects but the focus, of course, is on the man who is Turkey's most recognisable politician after Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Where now for Ekrem İmamoğlu, President Erdoğan and Turkey? A thread after a tumultuous 24 hours.

It’s hard not to see this as a serious miscalculation by Erdogan. More than anything, it seems like an act of desperation to prevent the inevitable. Imamoglu is now cemented as Erdogan’s ultimate challenger, with stronger public support and a wider political alliance behind him.

Erdogan’s regime is plunging Turkey deeper into outright dictatorship, where his formidable opponents sooner or later end up in prison on ludicrous charges.

It only took like 6 weeks to reach the stage where they feel the need to give reassurances this insane.

This sky place is not there yet but it strikes me as a promising candidate to give us back something like the bygone blue bird.

Ordering a million people in Gaza to evacuate when there’s no safe place to go, is not an effective warning. The roads are rubble, fuel is scarce and the main hospital is in the evacuation zone. This warning doesn't give license to harm the many civilians who can't or won't leave.

I highly recommend Joe Sacco’s graphic reporting from Palestine to get a sense of what life is like there. The highest level of journalism in the form of a graphic novel (or as he calls it, comics journalism).