Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 7d

Second: how can we believe that Netanyahu will not resume his genocidal campaign after a few weeks? How can anyone trust a war criminal who only recently tried to kill Hamas’s chief negotiator in Qatar? Are these the actions of a man who seeks peace or intends to respect any plan?

Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 7d

Even if this wasn't the case, ask yourself: Is there not a single Palestinian who could lead this so-called technocratic body? One Palestinian capable of carrying Gaza through a transitional period? Does that sound plausible to you, or merely another “side effect” of this hamster-wheel system?

a woman in a red shirt is making a funny face and saying `` sure , jan '' .

Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 7d

The parallels are suffocating: Iraq in 2003, Palestine under the mandate, Oslo’s hollow promises. Blair’s record — Iraq, the Quartet, the failures of statehood — offers no grounds for hope.

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Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 7d

Trump’s new “day after” plan for Gaza proposes a technocratic Palestinian committee overseen by a Trump-chaired “Board of Peace,” with Tony Blair as steward.

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Reposted by Ezgi Basaran

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 7d

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment by deporting noncitizen student activists. nyti.ms/4mG1pck

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Reposted by Ezgi Basaran

Cas Ⓜ️udde @casmudde.bsky.social · 11d

“The U.S. has a complex political system with checks and balances and many veto points.”

ALT: a woman in a red shirt is making a funny face and saying `` sure , jan '' .

media.tenor.com

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Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 12d

This week’s Angle, Anchor, and Voice post on Erdoğan and Trump was featured in the Italian daily @ilfoglio.bsky.social A nice surprise and many thanks to Stefano Mazzola.

With love, from Erdoğan's Turkey to Trump's America

Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 12d

Course Three: Weaponisation of the judiciary. Turkey’s courts became a racket against opponents and critics. In the US, Trump is openly directing the Justice Department against his adversaries. This is just a modest beginning. open.substack.com/pub/ezgibasa...

While Erdoğan and Trump sit together, let this sister of yours offer a pocket atlas of the troubles we endured in Turkey — and that you are bound to face in Trump’s America.

Italy sends warship to accompany Gaza flotilla following Israeli attack

Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 13d

Course two: The backbone of the business elite.
In Turkey, conglomerates folded under Erdoğan’s pressure. In the US, @johncassidysays.bsky.social shows CEOs already praising Trump, Disney suspending Jimmy Kimmel, networks bending to lawsuits. I will tell you what happens next!

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Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 13d

Course one: From CEO of Islamism to CEO of Evangelism.
Erdoğan branded Islamism as a product. Trump does the same with Evangelism. Both treat religion as populist cement in a managerial project of rule.

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Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 13d

Trump and Erdoğan meet in New York. Two CEOs posing as statesmen.
I wrote this week’s Substack as a three-course meal of troubles: hard to digest, but lessons from Turkey for Trump’s America.

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Reposted by Ezgi Basaran

The Palestine Project @palestineproject.bsky.social · 13d

Italy sends assistance to aid Italian citizens on board Gaza flotilla:

"I have authorised the immediate intervention of the Navy's frigate Fasan, which was sailing north of Crete and is heading towards the area," Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said in a statement.

No casualties reported on Global Sumud Flotilla after multiple explosions in early hours

www.middleeasteye.net

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Reposted by Ezgi Basaran

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 14d

Millions spent on Trump visit. Red carpets, Royals in coronets and golden dining services too. And all he offers in return are petulant racist insults about our capital city and our mayor.

What a singular lack of decorum, grace, and courtesy. Fuck him and his damp hands and his nicotine yellow wig

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Reposted by Ezgi Basaran

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 14d

The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, experienced a frustration that many New Yorkers know all too well. He got stuck on a Manhattan street corner. It had been closed off for President Trump’s motorcade during the UN General Assembly. nyti.ms/46F5esx

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Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 14d

It’s disheartening to see comedians comedy-wash a brutal regime that crushes free speech in unimaginable ways. I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago here:
open.substack.com/pub/ezgibasa...

Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 14d

How can this be not from the pages of @theonion.com

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 15d

Rubio previews Trump's UN speech: "POTUS will point to his own history with the UN going back to his time as a developer. He actually offered to fix the UN building & instead they decided to go in a different direction, wasted a bunch of money ... it's emblematic of how feckless the UN has become"

'Everything goes back to the Ottoman Empire, doesn't it? Sometimes I wonder: is it even dead?'

Reposted by Ezgi Basaran

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 15d

Trump: "We've got a lot of stupid people in this country running things."

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Ms AB @justagalandadog.bsky.social · 19d

Excellent essay, well worth reading:

Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 20d

This piece is tad bit personal. It has angles, different voices, and serious exits. I hope you enjoy it and share your grandmothers’ stories, Ottoman or not. open.substack.com/pub/ezgibasa...

In her remarkable new book, Lea Ypi follows the concept of (in)dignity across empire’s collapse, nation-building, and the ties of family.

'Everything goes back to the Ottoman Empire, doesn't it? Sometimes I wonder: is it even dead?'

Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 20d

This piece is tad bit personal. It has angles, different voices, and serious exits. I hope you enjoy it and share your grandmothers’ stories, Ottoman or not. open.substack.com/pub/ezgibasa...

In her remarkable new book, Lea Ypi follows the concept of (in)dignity across empire’s collapse, nation-building, and the ties of family.

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Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 20d

And as the world wakes to the genocide of Palestinians, Kant’s version of dignity confronts us again: that we are born with it, by being human.

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Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 20d

Today, as anti-immigrant sentiment spreads in a spate across the globe, it is worth remembering:we are all migrants if you trace just a generation or two back.

Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 20d

The indignity of forced displacement. The indignity of surveillance under authoritarianism. The indignity of being treated as a potted plant to be moved. We live with these echoes still.

Ezgi Basaran @ezgibasaran.bsky.social · 20d

Our grandmothers lived through the mübadele — the population exchange of 1923–24. For some, like mine, the path went to Istanbul. For others, like Ypi’s, the path ended in Tirana. Neither choice brought ‘home’ back in a gift box.