What I love is how you weave cinema, politics and labour — from Ceylan’s films to Syrian tech workers rebuilding home. You map the region’s emotional + political geography without cliché or romance.

Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan has never openly referenced politics in his films, but taken together, his body of work forms one of the most compelling accounts available of what has become of Turkey under Erdogan’s rule.

Borrowing from Erdoğan’s playbook: Assaults on academic freedoms in the US mirror those happening in Turkey for the past decade, writes @kayagenc.bsky.social via @indexoncensorship.org www.eurozine.com/borrowing-fr...

New substack! open.substack.com/pub/kayagenc...

In prosecuting Imamoglu & other elected administrators, the government is attempting to solidify the cynicism at the crux of its ideology: There’s no use in seeking moral purity, since only the powerful and the ruthless survive in today’s Turkey. @foreignpolicy.com: foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/08/t...

Erdoğan’s silence about clampdowns on pro-Palestinian speech at US universities, even when Turkish students are directly affected, is telling, writes @kayagenc.bsky.social via @indexoncensorship.org www.eurozine.com/borrowing-fr...

“I was wanted by Assad’s regime because I was an anti-government protestor. I said, ‘I’ll move for maybe one or two months.’ I stayed in Turkey for the next 13 years.” Meet Syrian tech workers who fled as refugees and are now returning to rebuild restofworld.org/2025/syrian-...

They left Syria as refugees. They’re returning to build its tech industry After the fall of the Assad regime, tech workers are coming back to help rebuild their nation. restofworld.org/2025/syrian-...

To Understand Erdogan's Turkey, Watch the Films of Nuri Bilge Ceylan says @kayagenc.bsky.social foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/08/t...

"The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey" by @kayagenc.bsky.social. [5/5]

The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey

Thank you @nicholasdanfort.bsky.social and Megan Dubois, my editors at @foreignpolicy.com, for bringing Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Dreamers and Cynics to readers: foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/08/t...

Yeni Türkiye’nin Hayalcileri ve Alaycıları. @foreignpolicy.com için Nuri Bilge Ceylan ve sinemasını yazdım: foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/08/t...

In recent months, the Turkish people have been asked to mind their own business as the Turkish government arrested Ekrem Imamoglu, whose politics of hope and social democratic ideals have run against the prevalent cynicism and opportunism of New Turkey. foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/08/t...

In @foreignpolicy.com, I have an essay on Nuri Bilge Ceylan and “The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey” foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/08/t...

Since the collapse of the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad, Syrian tech workers who fled as refugees are returning to help rebuild their home country New from @kayagenc.bsky.social: restofworld.org/2025/syrian-...

Think about how differently you think about these people when they are "tech workers" versus when they are refugees. Same people. But dignity only afforded them in one context.

They left Syria as refugees. They’re returning to build its tech industry: @restofworld.org

"Syrian tech workers who fled during civil war are returning home & launching startups.They face poor internet, cash based economy, & regulatory void. The nation is rebuilding rapidly, even as recurring sectarian clashes pose a risk" restofworld.org/2025/syrian-...

Syrian tech workers who fled during the civil war are returning home and launching startups. They face poor internet, unreliable electricity, and a regulatory void, but believe tech can help rebuild their war-battered nation, @kayagenc.bsky.social @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2025/syrian-...

Türkiye’ye mülteci olarak geldiler. Şimdi ülkenin teknoloji endüstrisini kurmak üzere Suriye’ye dönmeye hazırlanıyorlar. @restofworld.org için hazırladığım dosya: restofworld.org/2025/syrian-...

After the fall of the Assad regime, tech workers are coming back to help rebuild their nation. For @restofworld.org, I spoke to Syrian-origin tech workers —Mohammed Dayoub, Mojahed Akil, Baraah Ramadan, Rasheed Hamwi, Ragheed Obeid & Muhammed Alzubi about their plans restofworld.org/2025/syrian-...

En Syrie, rebâtir internet fait partie des grands chantiers. Cette gang a de grandes ambitions 👇 restofworld.org/2025/syrian-...

"Borrowing from Erdoğan’s playbook" by @kayagenc.bsky.social. [2/5]

Turkey’s academics, independent media and artists are feeling the threat of the USA’s rising authoritarianism and unfair treatment of immigrants – but it is not the first time they have dealt with repression. For the Summer 2025 number of @indexoncensorship.org: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

US President #Trump and Turkish President #Erdoğan are cracking down on dissent in strikingly similar ways - and journalists, artists and academics are paying the price. Our contributing editor @kayagenc.bsky.social writes in our latest issue: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... #USA

Including features from @rebeccalroot.bsky.social, @kayagenc.bsky.social, @emilycouchuk.bsky.social, @martinbright.bsky.social, @nikwilliams.bsky.social, @katiedd.bsky.social, and many others.

For a limited time only, our new magazine issue, Land of the Free? is free to access! In it, we explore how #Trump's administration is impacting free speech in the #US & beyond. Explore: journals.sagepub.com/toc/IOC/curr...

My comments included in this new essay by @kayagenc.bsky.social comparing crackdowns on academics in Turkey and the US. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Now with an updated URL for "Plebs and Chavs: On Textual Representation of Class", by @kayagenc.bsky.social: lareviewofbooks.org/article/pleb... [URL was probably right in 2012.....]

TikTok content moderators in Turkey are speaking out about traumatic working conditions, including exposure to graphic content, long hours, and a lack of mental health support, @kayagenc.bsky.social reports for @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2025/tiktok-...

Photographer Cansu Yıldıran was detained yesterday while observing @istanbulpride.bsky.social. After being held for 24 hours, Yıldıran was among 50 people released but banned from traveling abroad. If you're not familiar with Yıldıran's great work, check it out here: cansuyildiran.com #Pride2025

www.frieze.com/article/kaya... Creative resistance - nurturing creativity and political solidarity in Erdoğan’s Turkey

The fight for content moderators' rights shows just how many overlapping systems fail workers: labor, corporate regulation, AI regulation, outsourcing, etc... restofworld.org/2025/tiktok-...

Super interesting piece about TikTok content moderators in Turkey. restofworld.org/2025/tiktok-...

New substack! kayagenc.substack.com/p/100-days-l...

The people who clean up your TikTok feed are starting to fight back restofworld.org/2025/tiktok-...

"If you let workers believe that AI will soon replace them, they are going to try as much as they can to hold on to their jobs, do everything the boss says and behave so that they are not going to be fired." https://restofworld.org/2025/tiktok-moderators-turkey/ (CW for brief references to the […]

TikTok content moderators struggle to unionize... restofworld.org/2025/tiktok-...

We’ve seen this pattern with social media content moderation play out again and again, all over the world: “What started as a high-paying, enjoyable job done from home turned psychologically grueling as workers felt increasingly surveilled and pressured.”

“If you let workers believe that AI will soon replace them, they are going to try as much as they can to hold on to their jobs..." | The people who clean up your TikTok feed are starting to fight back restofworld.org/2025/tiktok-...

"The people who clean up your TikTok feed are starting to fight back" by @kayagenc.bsky.social. [2/5]

“If you let workers believe that AI will soon replace them, they are going to try as much as they can to hold on to their jobs, do everything the boss says and behave so that they are not going to be fired,” @milamiceli.bsky.social restofworld.org/2025/tiktok-...

TikTok content moderators say they’re exposed to graphic violence, brutal hours, and union-busting tactics. In Turkey, they are demanding better working conditions, reports @kayagenc.bsky.social for @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2025/tiktok-...

The people who clean up your TikTok feed are starting to fight back Reporting by @kayagenc.bsky.social from Istanbul — restofworld.org/2025/tiktok-...

The people who clean up your TikTok feed are starting to fight back restofworld.org/2025... | Content moderators say they’re exposed to graphic violence, psychological trauma, and union-busting tactics, and now a larger movement is brewing

"'The pressure to review thousands of horrific videos each day…takes a devastating toll…'…a former content moderator who is now helping workers form a union in Poland, said…'But it’s not the only source of strain. Precarious contracts and constant surveillance at work add more stress.'"