Turkish survey results on espionage charges against jailed Istanbul opposition mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu: - Of all respondents across party lines 70% believe he is innocent - Fewer than third of AKP voters believe he's guilty of espionage, while 56% say they're undecided medyascope.tv/2025/11/04/i...

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan visited Helsinki today, said his country wants a renewed push towards EU membership. At presser with Finnish counterpart Elina Valtonen, both underlined importance of security cooperation (as agreed in a memorandum in June) 👇🏼 www.youtube.com/live/ov8AhOP...

The next time, I am asked what people can do with a degree in African Studies, I can finally say 'they can become mayor of New York.'

Just published. A Turkish-language history of the Soviet Union, written with @onurisci.bsky.social. Somewhat in the way that Dan Diner asked in Cataclysms how 20th-century history might be told looking out from Odesa, we approach Soviet history with Turkish connections/comparisons in mind.

Two Swedish citizens (18 & 20yo) charged with terrorism for allegedly throwing grenades at Israeli embassy in Copenhagen, which exploded near the building. First trial in recent DK history for an executed terror attack, rather than just a plot or attempt. www.dr.dk/nyheder/sene...

Late to this, but UK removes HTS from the list of proscribed terrorist organisations to enable "closer engagement with the new Syrian government." www.gov.uk/government/n...

San Francisco-based Zignal Labs is aiding ICE’s crackdown on free speech. Its AI surveillance program monitors 8 billion social media posts a day. Clients include the Israeli military and the Pentagon. Surveillance as a service, authoritarianism as a business model. truthout.org/articles/ice...

»Turkey plans to supply military equipment to Syria, including armored cars, drones, and air-defense systems, to be deployed in northern Syria.« www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

»The Times verified that government security forces carried out at least one of the executions we documented. In two other executions, witnesses recounted that at least some of the fighters identified themselves as members of government security forces.« www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/w...

When Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapsed in Syria, many of the officials who enabled and enforced his brutal regime disappeared. Our reporting uncovers who they are, what they did and where they fled. nyti.ms/3J1W5Cs

A worrying observation from @slotkin.senate.gov: “We’ve never had an instance where there’s a secret list of what I understand to be dozens of new terrorist organizations that the American public and certainly the oversight committees don’t get to know.” www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...

The Syrian government and the main Kurdish-led force in the country’s northeast have agreed in principle on a plan to merge the U.S.-backed force as a cohesive group into the national army, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi told Hogir Abdo for @apnews.com apnews.com/article/syri...

»The authorities were jamming GPS signals in the city to make it harder for Israeli or American warplanes to locate potential targets. But that also made it near impossible for customers to hail his cab. Since June, his business was down 70 percent.« www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/w...

👉 Hvorfor er Trump lykkedes med en våbenhvile mellem Israel og Hamas netop nu? 👉 Hvordan har amerikanernes syn på Israel ændret sig de seneste år? 👉 Hvordan harmonerer Trumps fredsdiplomati i Mellemøsten med hans America First agenda? Det talte jeg om i Deadline. www.dr.dk/drtv/se/dead...

I spent 3 weeks on a cargo ship in the Arctic, from Canada to Greenland. Our only company was blizzards, killer whales, thick fog and icebergs. Here is my story about how the West is lagging seriously behind Russia in the Arctic, and why it's so difficult to catch up www.wsj.com/world/inside...

This is the first time in my adult life that Israeli media mention end-of-conflict scenarios. Suddenly no more pundit nonsense about 'total victory'. There is worry about disarming hamas, enforcement, etc. I don't remember this level of optimism since i was a kid.

Efter søndagens valg i Syrien er en tredjedel af parlamentets medlemmer nu på plads. Valget har undervejs været præget af uvished, så Globalnyt har bedt adjunkt og Syrien-kender @hetavrojan.eu om at forklare, hvad den historiske valghandling betyder for landet. globalnyt.dk/adjunkt-om-v...

In valedictory @financialtimes.com interview, outgoing UN envoy Pedersen very critical on state of Syrian transition and Shara's management of process: www.ft.com/content/0af9...

TL;DR Most seats went to Sunni men. Only 6 women and 10 minorities were elected nationwide. apnews.com/article/syri...

Turkey extends airspace closure to flights to and from Sulaymaniyah Airport until January 6, 2026. The ban was initially imposed in April 2023. www.basnews.com/en/babat/896...

New paper out with the CoE exploring how and how quickly terrorists adopt new technologies. It identifies factors inhibiting or encouraging new tech adoption - with two case studies on virtual assets and drones - and analyses the impact of new tech on terrorism in Europe rm.coe.int/report-on-th...

Rich in detail: this report traces how July’s violence in Sweida pushed Druze factions toward seeing autonomy as a viable political option. apnews.com/article/syri...

Rare primary-source look at Druze groups in Suwayda w/ Hijri endorsements. This interview with a National Guard constituent group offers valuable insight into local dynamics often missing from broader analyses. www.aymennaltamimi.com/p/druze-fact...

This is a well-sourced report on Turkey’s evolving Syria policy, drawing on Turkish-language material that’s often missing from English-language debates. www.ispionline.it/en/publicati...

As Syria holds its first election since Assad’s exit, Syrians must look to European courts for accountability. www.reuters.com/world/middle...

In Syria, a new generation has been shaped by competing political projects as much as by war. On the eve of the first election in 50 years, their exclusion risks reinforcing the very divides the vote is meant to bridge. www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Sunday extras: "Can Turkey and Israel Find Common Ground in Syria?" with Kenneth Pollack, @gonultol.bsky.social and @natansachs.bsky.social . [1/5]

Syria is holding parliamentary elections for the first time since the fall of the country’s longtime autocratic leader, Bashar Assad, who was unseated in a rebel offensive in December. Here’s a breakdown of how the elections will work and what to watch:

Fascinating survey of Syrian public opinion by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. Found through @abuaardvark.bsky.social's Substack newsletter (which is also fascinating). arabcenterdc.org/resource/ara...

A new DIIS report maps the patchwork of armed political actors in Syria after Assad’s exit. Get to know the competing power centres and their transnational ties to understand Syria’s transition 👉 www.diis.dk/en/node/27819 @hetavrojan.eu @monakanwalsheikh.bsky.social

Also featured in our newsletter yesterday mailchi.mp/eadi/nl2augu...

My report "Syria in Transition" is live. This is a field guide to Syria 2.0. It maps how domestic and external actors are asserting control in competing power centres. Made possible by @monakanwalsheikh.bsky.social, our team at @diis.dk & the peer reviewers. Thank you. → www.diis.dk/en/research/...

Black Hawk was attacked by cocaine-trafficking group. “This is the first drone attack we’ve heard of in Antioquia,” www.wsj.com/world/americ...

My latest argues that the ceasefire may have stopped the shooting, but it’s no return to normal. Syria has changed at its core, and without tackling the underlying causes, this calm won’t hold. en.majalla.com/node/326545/...

Quick backdrop: Iraq halted oil exports via the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline in March 2023 after an international arbitration ruling found Turkey in breach of the agreement for allowing independent KRG exports without Baghdad’s approval.

Turkey has announced it will terminate its 1973 oil pipeline agreement with Iraq, effective July 2026. While framed as a legal move, the decision is likely a strategic manoeuvre in ongoing energy negotiations with Baghdad.

#OTD From my private collection Turkish airborne propaganda leaflets dispersed at the beginning of the Turkish amphibious and airborne operation to Cyprus on 20 July 1974. Turkish Special Operations Department prepared 12 leaflets in 5 colours

There are "real fears that Syria is heading towards being broken up into statelets,” a senior Gulf Arab official told Reuters. Great dispatch from Maya Gebeili. www.reuters.com/world/middle...

@ajaltamimi.bsky.social Hi Aymenn, would you mind following back for a quick DM exchange? Thanks!

New: some observations from a meeting with media activist/spokesman for 'mainstream' Druze al-Suwayda' faction Liwa al-Jabal, focusing on the issue of relationship between al-Suwayda' factions and the Syrian central government/Ministry of Defence www.aymennaltamimi.com/p/the-druze-...

‘Shot in the head, as if executed’: four days of violence end with hundreds dead in southern Syria www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

"Turkish officials have not shared any detailed timetable for the laying down of weapons. We do not know much more about the mechanisms and protocols used to receive and disarm ex-guerrillas, to collect, list and store weapons and ammunition..." substack.com/home/post/p-...

PKK’s leader wearing a greige Lacoste polo has absolutely broken my Kurdish WhatsApp channel. www.rudaw.net/turkish/midd...

Since December we have been investigating the Assad regime's killings in Saydnaya prison. Based on interviews with 21 former detainees, we show the extent of the atrocities committed in the prison, including an incident in March 2023 in which some 600 men were executed in one week:

If a sitting president can openly muse about arresting and disappearing someone who is likely to become mayor of the country's largest city, while also getting the funding for a massive secret police, it'd be hard to find sufficient evidence to qualify that country as a democracy.

Turkey is a gift to any summer news room. Many stories coming out these days. Among them, this curveball: www.reuters.com/world/middle...

1/ What happens when you give social data science students 821.6 GB of public vessel geolocation data (AIS) and just 9 hours to identify potentially suspicious behavior near the Danish coast? papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

"Was it really this dumb in 2003" guys they renamed french fries

The poli sci distinction between state and regime is important here. Israel’s bombing (as well as Iran’s policies in past 20 years) are hollowing out & chipping away at state capacity to govern and organize society. This does not mean it necessarily makes the regime weak.The state is Israel’s target

APNewsAlert: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — International Atomic Energy Agency says Israeli strikes had 'direct impacts' on Natanz underground centrifuge halls.