I wrote a guest post for @selimkoru.bsky.social's great Kültürkampf Substack, inspired by the lively discussion around my viral thread on X from a few months ago. I'm most interested not in the anecdote in the thread, but the huge response to it. It's a slippery subject, but I hope I did it justice.

I wrote a guest post for @selimkoru.bsky.social's great Kültürkampf Substack, inspired by the lively discussion around my viral thread on X from a few months ago. I'm most interested not in the anecdote in the thread, but the huge response to it. It's a slippery subject, but I hope I did it justice.

Another heartfelt, deeply personal piece from my brilliant wife Özgecan about anxiety, burnout, motherhood, and looking back over a life of activism. I didn't know this story of the famous burnout that introduced many Turks to the concept:

I would say this is comparable to bombing St. Basil's in Red Square, except the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is far more religiously and historically important (if less recognizable).

Arson targeting Keir Starmer properties originated in Russia ft.trib.al/6LJCBeD

Nineteen russian ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and Shahed drones are raining down on Kyiv right now. This is horrific. The UNESCO-listed Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra has been targeted. A thousand years of Ukrainian history, faith, and culture are once again under attempted destruction.

"President Erdoğan has no need to become president again, but Turkey does need President Erdoğan to become a candidate one more time." The biggest indication yet from major aide Mehmet Uçum that Erdoğan's team is preparing the ground for a fourth term www.aa.com.tr/tr/analiz/bi...

Every time I talk to someone about their jobs, it sounds like Game of Thrones with an HR department. Factions, back-stabbing, never-ending petty conflicts taken directly to HR. Massive generational clashes. Is it like that everywhere now? Surely it wasn't always like this?

Commentators are pointing out that there's no real "internal division" with CHP, and I think that's largely true of *supporters* (who almost universally oppose KK), but more than a few CHP *politicians* have already sided with KK (or switched to AKP). Never underestimate politicians' opportunism!

"When Genç Yeşiller heard [the Kemalist chants], they responded “Ölmeyeceğiz, öldürmeyeceğiz, kimsenin askeri olmayacağız!” (“We won’t die, we won’t kill, we’re not anyone’s soldiers”), and I thought, these are my people."

This is a masterclass in how to interview an incredibly slippery politician, a real Isaac Chotiner style interview, from @cansucamlibel.bsky.social t24.com.tr/yazarlar/can...?

My brilliant wife @ozgevon.bsky.social wrote a great essay about feeling disillusioned with the Brussels Bubble NGO world, ending up on burnout, & missing the excitement of when she first became an activist with the Young Greens during the Gezi protests burnedoutbrussels.substack.com/p/the-first-...

My brilliant wife @ozgevon.bsky.social wrote a great essay about feeling disillusioned with the Brussels Bubble NGO world, ending up on burnout, & missing the excitement of when she first became an activist with the Young Greens during the Gezi protests burnedoutbrussels.substack.com/p/the-first-...

I wrote about Ayn Rand in Turkey for Reason Magazine:

Excellent piece that translates easily to English. I think the outlined internal dynamics with DEM Parti & KK are at least as important as international dynamics (Trump's zero fucks for democracy and EU's greater need for Turkish defense cooperation) at explaining Turkey's further democratic decline

Just as Turkey watchers were obliged to learn the anodyne term "competitive authoritarianism" a decade ago, they now have to learn another one: "hegemonic authoritarianism," the next painful step on the long path to dictatorship.

I wrote about democratic backsliding's endless tail "Erdoğan’s increasingly vicious suppression of the opposition comes not from strength & confidence, but weakness and fear. He’s out of touch, out of energy, and has no fresh ideas beyond further repression" nickashdown.substack.com/p/turkeys-ne...

Konda survey indicates only 5% of population wants Kılıçdaroğlu to take over CHP, and most of that 5% is from AKP and MHP voters. The man has almost zero organic support. www.birgun.net/haber/konda-...

The Guardian's editorial on recent developments in Turkey. "Mr Erdoğan has presented himself as the solution to problems he created...Democracy does not disappear overnight; it is chipped away over months, years and decades." theguardian.com/commentisfre...?

Yeah it's hard to contest that the EU, for all its ambivalence and muddling through on Hungary, managed to set a floor on consolidation

V-Dem's Democracy Report this year describes Turkey as a stable autocracy. In other words, democratic erosion is now complete as an episode. Significant dose of silence or inaction in the face of the ongoing repression against the CHP show the effectiveness of Ankara's domination.

My basic take on the court case on the CHP: This has been brewing for years. Turkey's Western allies have no stomach for addressing it. It is less a demonstration of Erdogan's strength than his increasing weakness. It won't necessarily save his legacy, and it's going to be disastrous for Turkey.

After having learned such Turkish jargon as kayyım(um) and mazbata, Turkey watchers can now add butlan to our vocabularies...

So, what happens now? The latest in a long string of court rulings against Turkey's main opposition party is an order to remove the party's leader, Özgür Özel. Is he still in office – and is the country heading for early elections?

Turkey is a dictatorship now

Bilgi University, one of Turkey's first private universities, which opened in the late 1990s, was shut down today by a presidential decree with no explanation. It was always a pleasure to visit there, fantastic students and faculty. This really hits hard for many.

I've always found solace in the fact that MAGA is Trump and Trump is old, but looking at the polls (meaningless at this point to be fair), no Democrat has a real lead over (even) JD Vance, and Harris is the top contender (and has expressed interest in running again).

That's a crazy stat. Additionally, 83.5% of the respondents are lower or lower-middle income groups, 30.5% don't own their homes, 66.3% are in debt.

Some random thoughts about how I think Turkey perceives a world in dis/unorder: In a changing international order characterised by increasing unpredictability, Turkey sees an opportunity to further expand its regional influence.

Anti-westernism has been a key facilitator of regime change in Turkey. As the new regime is consolidated - albeit fragile, Ankara turns to its Western allies. A full reset is not likely though. Rapprochment reflects instead a search for a new path to guide the relations in a rapidly changing world.

I am not excited about A.I. and I fear it more than I embrace it. But the number of scholars who say, basically, "I haven't really learned how to use it or what it's limitations are, but I think it is really bad" is quite astounding.

Marseille view with slightly Istanbul vibes. It’s also as hilly as Istanbul, with sidewalks almost as bad, and instead of the Poyraz you have the (much fiercer) Mistral.

It's not just many Americans on both sides of the political spectrum who believe this canard that Europe is somehow in a state of deep decay & immiseration, but most Europeans themselves seem to be afflicted with a paralyzing despondency, so these rejoinders are necessary. From @pkrugman.bsky.social

Iran has been under an internet blackout since the war began. We collected voice memos from inside the country about what people are living through — from a pizza shop owner, an ER nurse, a bodybuilder, and a doctor who treated victims of the regime's crackdown in January.

Now you understand why Hungary is the wrong analogy. Can you imagine Turkish Parliament singing this? :)

The uncomfortable, immutable facts that a thousand articles about Turkey-EU relations never seem to mention.

A family member back in Turkey needs a test for wet macular degeneration. They went to a hospital, and were told the hospital doesn't have the dye needed for the test, so they'd have to order it themselves, like from an industrial medical supplier or whatever. Just a snippet of life in Turkey.

My broad healthcare in Belgium costs 14.75 euros/month. Our cleaner is subsidized and costs 9 euros/hr. We don't need a car because everything is within walking/cycling/metro distance. You can be a cashier and live a middle-class life. 🇪🇺 is *incredibly* wealthy, it's just more equitably distributed.

"[T]he people I met in Karagümrük struck me as the opposite of American liberals who publicly professed high-minded values about immigrants but rarely did much to help them survive. These Turks offered aid to their neighbours — and then complained viciously about them."

Major new developments in the case of Gülistan Doku, who went missing in Dersim/Tunceli in 2020. The local governor at the time has been arrested, accused of orchestrating a cover up of a rape and murder that his son allegedly committed.

"The top 1% took a larger piece of the pie than at any point in modern Turkish economic history — during the same years that most Turks watched their real wages collapse, their savings evaporate, and their cost of living spiral to 85% annual inflation."

Referenced in this piece is Kissinger's dubious views on the viability of democracy the Middle East, where he almost refers to Turkey as an Arab country before quickly correcting himself.

Definitely worth reading 👇

I wrote a rejoinder to Tom Barrack’s recent comments about the Middle East.

I think Barrack's comments about "this part of the world" only understanding power and autocracies being the most successful form of governance were worse than condescending; I think they reflected admiration and approval. These people clearly want the same for the US & rest of the democratic world.

"Ukraine’s frontline position is “the strongest” it has been in a year due to superiority in drones and enhanced air defence...Russian troops made almost no territorial gains across the frontline in March – the first time this had occurred in two and a half years."

Rewatched The Birdcage over the weekend. I'm sure I loved it when I first saw it, but it's way better than I remember, just a perfect 10/10 comedy. Lane, Williams, and Azaria reach a higher plane of comedic genius. The son though, comes across as a complete prick, probably not the case originally.

Great piece about the formerly imprisoned Kurdish poet İlhan Sami Çomak. “Adoring a tree or a flower or a river. That was god to me as an Alevi child.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/w...

Absurd charges. The piece in question was excellent, a fascinating interview well worth revisiting: bianet.org/haber/armeni...

Poll indicates that while most Americans oppose the strikes on Iran, Republicans overwhelmingly (84%) support them.