Umit Ozturk
LightNews LightNews
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Umit Ozturk
@umitozturk1.bsky.social
81 followers 270 following 44 posts
Editor, broadcaster, poet, playwright, linguist. Creative writing and media trainer. Coordinator @euromernet. Loves philosophy, cinema, and.. cats! ❤️🕊✊🐈🐾
Posts Replies Media Videos
umitozturk1.bsky.social
We're in London to hear from a panel of speakers on the 80th anniversary of the UN Security Council. Hosted by @biicl.bsky.social, panellists will discuss the current challenges and future opportunities. I think the challenges may outweigh the opportunities.
#UN #UNSecurityCouncil
November 4, 2025 at 5:25 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
En route to Rome for a conference, my bag was put aside for inspection at Gatwick Airport tonight. Cat calendars were taken out for a brush & scan. I said to the inspecting officer that it would figuratively be a "CAT Scan". We both laughed. His colleagues saw cute cats and cheered: awww! 😻🥰🐈🐾
October 22, 2025 at 12:14 AM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
To mark the end of UK HateCrime Awareness Week, #EuroMernet Film Club hosts a 2006 drama.
The film shows how history repeats itself: in times of hardship and social injustice, hate preachers of far-right groups incite the masses to wave flags and blame the migrants.
Love, peace, and solidarity ❤️🕊✊️
October 21, 2025 at 1:43 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Poland generously gave me my first covid (2022). Now, I got my third covid upon my return from two conferences in Warsaw. So, whenever I crave covid, I'll just visit Poland! 😆
With the power of the divine spirit of cats, I should be on my feet in a couple of days. 😻
Love, peace, and solidarity. ❤️🕊✊️
October 12, 2025 at 8:27 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Today is #WorldMentalHealthDay.
We're at the final session of the Mental Health in Journalism Summit.
My feeling: "It's OK to be a journalist without being an invincible super(wo)man with nerves of steel. It's OK to seek help."

Love, peace, and solidarity. ❤️🕊✊️

#MHJS25
#mentalhealth #journalism
October 10, 2025 at 7:12 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
We're in Warsaw (again) for the annual #NewsImpactSummit by #EuropeanJournalismCentre
The first panel of the day, "The ethics of AI: How newsrooms are adjusting," looks at the impact of Artificial Intelligence I on journalistic standards.
Love, peace, and solidarity ❤️🕊✊️
#NISWAW #AI #EJC
October 9, 2025 at 9:54 AM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Publication launch this morning at the #OSCE #HumanDimensionConference:
"Think Again: Freedom of Thought in the Age of Artificial Intelligence."
Another good guide in learning how to swim well in the unpredictable depth of AI.
Love, peace, and solidarity ❤️🕊✊️#WHDC2025 #AI
October 9, 2025 at 7:49 AM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
We are in #Warsaw for the #OSCE Human Dimension Conference. Today's plenary speeches and discussions have a larger focus on press and media freedom.
It's good to see the continued diverse inclusion of civil society organisations.
Love, peace, and solidarity ❤️🕊✊️
#JournalismIsNotACrime
#OSCE #WHDC2025
October 8, 2025 at 12:24 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Dear friends, we have the pleasure of inviting you to the online exhibition, "Unchain Our Books," which I curated for #BannedBooksWeek. It features examples of the banned books through history.
It's on display at @EuroMernet FB page:
www.fb.me/euromernet

Love, peace, and solidarity. ❤️🕊✊
October 7, 2025 at 3:37 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
I didn't have the chance to write a new poem for the #PoetryDay. In consolation, here's a photo showing me reading my poem "Exile as a toxic marmalade" on #WorldRefugeeDay last year. Time flies. But poetry stays forever: beautifully incurable, eternally inseparable.
Love, peace, and solidarity ❤️🕊✊️
October 3, 2025 at 2:22 AM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Dear friends, we have the pleasure of inviting you to the exhibition I curated for Black History Month, featuring inspirational 11 female and 7 male Black philosophers. It's on display at Brighton Jubilee Library until 31st October. Love, peace, and solidarity. ❤️🕊✊
#BlackHistoryMonth #BHM #BHM2025
October 1, 2025 at 1:42 AM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Dear friends, today is the International Day of Older Persons. The 2025 theme is: “Older Persons Driving Local and Global Action: Our Aspirations, Our Well-Being and Our Rights.” We'll host more films on ageing well.
Today, we have a French romantic & poetic comedy.
Love, peace, and solidarity ❤️🕊✊️
October 1, 2025 at 1:40 AM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Dear friends; today is the #EuropeanDayOfLanguages, celebrated in 46 member states of the Council of Europe. 2025 theme is: "Languages open hearts and minds." To mark this day, at #EuroMernet Film Club, we have an Irish language comedy-drama.

Love, peace, and solidarity ❤️🕊✊️
September 26, 2025 at 10:39 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Dear friends; today (21 September) is #WorldPeaceDay. At EuroMernet Film Club, we have a documentary about the history of the peace process in Northern Ireland: “The Secret Peacemaker”.

Love, peace, and solidarity ❤️🕊✊️

EuroMernet team
September 21, 2025 at 10:56 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Dear friends, at EuroMernet Film Club, this week we have a thriller to pay tribute to Robert Redford, who died this week: “The Company You Keep”.
Julie Christie, a member of EuroMernet’s International Board of Patrons, is the leading actress in this film.

Love, peace, and solidarity ❤️🕊✊️
September 19, 2025 at 8:05 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
We're attending the opening of
@peninternational.bsky.social 91st congress in #Krakow.
Excellent hosting by tireless friends at Polish PEN Club.
Inspiring words by Margaret Atwood, and with PEN International President Burhan Sönmez and Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk.
Love, peace, and solidarity. ❤️🕊✊️
September 2, 2025 at 4:45 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Dear friends, at EuroMernet Film Club, today we have a documentary: “The Last of the Sea Women”.

The film profiles the haenyeo, a declining community of women in Jeju, South Korea, all over 60, who support themselves by free-diving in the ocean to collect seafood. ♀️

Love, peace, and solidarity ❤️🕊✊️
August 31, 2025 at 10:21 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Dear friends, at EuroMernet Film Club, today we have a romantic drama-comedy.

Centred on the story of a struggling American writer and his quest for finding love. With picturesque scenes from Montenegro and good combinations of poetic and philosophical lines.

Love, peace, and solidarity ❤️🕊✊️
August 26, 2025 at 9:44 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
This week marked the 80th anniversary of two catastrophic dates in 1945: atomic bombing of #Hiroshima (6 August) and #Nagasaki (9 August). At #EuroMernet Film Club, this week we have two films on the catastrophic effects of a nuclear war. ☮️
Love, peace, and solidarity ❤️🕊✊️
August 10, 2025 at 3:52 AM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Dear friends, it was 24 years ago on this day, 10th July 2001, when we founded @EuroMernet! We are eternally grateful to our past & present committee members, board of patrons, over 900 tireless interns and volunteers & all partners, funders & supporters.
Love, peace, and solidarity ❤️🕊✊️
July 10, 2025 at 8:49 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Dear friends, at EuroMernet Film Club, this week we have a drama-comedy from Germany.
The film looks at the stereotypes about refugees.

Love, peace, and solidarity,

EuroMernet team ❤️🕊✊️
July 9, 2025 at 3:21 AM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Today would've been the 90th birthday of Musa Moris Farhi, a former Vice-President of PEN International and a former Chairman of its Writers in Prison Committee. He was a patron of my charity, EuroMernet & my mentor, guru, neighbour & my "Abi" (Elder brother) for 3 decades. Love and peace. ❤️🕊🙏
July 5, 2025 at 11:57 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Dear friends,
Following many requests, our two June exhibitions are back on display at the Jubilee Library until 6th July: "We got the power" (for #RefugeeWeek) and "You are my inspiration" (for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month).
Love, peace, and solidarity. ❤️🕊✊️
June 30, 2025 at 5:44 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
In north Germany for meetings with community groups in 5 cities. Magnetic power of my inner "Cat wifi" signal: a 4-eyed kitty face greets me on arrival; then a sticker at a friend's front door: "Eat the rich", and a ginger cat sticker: "Scratch the Nazis." Love, peace & solidarity.❤️🕊✊️ #cats #catlove
June 27, 2025 at 11:44 PM
umitozturk1.bsky.social
Today is the end of #RefugeeWeek2025
At #EuroMernet
Film Club, this evening we have a historical drama that reflects the #RefugeeWeek 2025 theme: "community as a superpower."
Love, peace, and solidarity. ❤️🕊✊️
June 23, 2025 at 6:50 PM