Joakim Parslow

Assistant Professor in Modern Turkey @uni_copenhagen. Turkish law, STS, intellectual history.

[Joakim Parslow @ImparSlow]

Are your politicians fickle, judges unreliable, generals merely human? Why not replace them all with electronic brains? My latest IJMES article shows how Turkish state leaders entertained that possibility in the early 1970s. https://t.co/cGsIsoaxFP

[Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof]

In Sudan, the brutal RSF militia is besieging the city of El Obeid. It may be repeating its siege last year of El Fasher where it slaughtered 60,000 people. World leaders warn of mass atrocities but won't name the country behind this mass murder and mass rape. So I will: It's the UAE.
Neither the Biden nor Trump administration was willing to offend the UAE by holding it accountable for what Washington described as the genocide unfolding in Sudan. Trump, whose family is enriched by business dealings with the UAE, is silent. So the slaughter continues.
The UAE even has a candidate for UN Secretary General, and people are too polite to point out that a country empowering mass atrocities might not be ideal for that role.
I write: "We should have the fortitude to speak up about human rights outrages whether the responsible party is Russia, China, Israel, America or the Emirates; if you care about human rights in only some places, you don’t actually care about human rights."
A gift link to the column: https://t.co/pOVIOq0UfO Thoughts?

[Joakim Parslow @ImparSlow]

@samuelmoyn Close enough

[Milena Büyüm 🍉 @MilenaBuyum]

The person in handcuffs being taken away is the stand-up comedian @idgoktas - he was detained at the airport on his return to TR today in context of a criminal investigation into his brilliant political satire watched by almost 9m ppl since it was uploaded https://t.co/2orFOw3QIK

[Seren Selvin Korkmaz @selvinkorkmaz]

Today, police forces entered the CHP headquarters by force, effectively placing the building of the Republic’s founding party under siege. CHP Chair Özgür Özel was compelled to leave his office and subsequently marched to Parliament in the rain as an act of political resistance.

The judicial intervention targeting Turkey’s main opposition party increasingly reflects more than an ordinary legal dispute. The “absolute nullity” case functions as a political camouflage for a system in which electoral competition is being progressively hollowed out and elections risk becoming functionally meaningless.

[Gönül Tol @gonultol]

In this short video, I explain what drove yesterday’s court decision targeting the CHP leadership, why it is happening now, and what it means for Turkey’s political future.

A few key points:

• The ruling could pave the way for the return of former CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who lost every major election during his 13 years at the helm of the party — precisely what makes him a convenient opponent for Erdogan.

• Erdogan knows he can no longer win genuinely free and fair elections. And he realized that jailing Ekrem Imamoglu was not enough, because Ozgur Ozel kept pushing back relentlessly, holding more than 100 rallies across the country.

• But this is about more than consolidating power. The CHP is not just another opposition party. It was founded by Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey. By throwing the CHP into chaos, Erdogan is also trying to weaken Atatürk’s legacy and the powerful connection the party still has with millions of Turks.

• The days ahead will be extremely difficult for the CHP. But things may not unfold as smoothly for Erdogan as he hopes. Listen here 👇

[Amberin Zaman @amberinzaman]

The decimation of Turkey’s main opposition CHP is in full swing. 13 party officials have been arrested in connection with alleged vote rigging in the election of party leader Ozgur Ozel in 2023. Özel was ousted through a court ruling on Thursday based on the same claim. Further arrests are likely with mounting speculation that Ozel might be next. They would join over a dozen deposed/jailed CHP mayors including Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu.

[Seren Selvin Korkmaz @selvinkorkmaz]

📌 I contributed with my comments to @TheEconomist’s recent analysis on the court decision removing the CHP leader from office and the shrinking political space for the opposition in #Türkiye.

As I emphasized, this process goes far beyond weakening the CHP in the short term. It increasingly reflects an attempt to effectively eliminate political competition by fragmenting the opposition, trapping it in internal disputes, and structurally undermining its capacity to win elections.

Autocratization in Türkiye is now entering a new phase, where the meaning of elections, the legitimacy of the opposition, and the very possibility of becoming a credible alternative to power are being systematically redefined.

[Amberin Zaman @amberinzaman]

This is Kremlin level manipulation of the political system by a judiciary that is dictated to from above. Turkish democracy was on life support. The line just went flat. But the European Union and others will carry on as if nothing happened. An utter disgrace.

[Tolga Şirin @tolgashirin]

Kararın hukuki bir açıklaması yok.
Karar %100 politiktir.
Yanıt da politik olmalıdır.

[Tolga Şirin @tolgashirin]

Bilgi Üniversitesi'nin faaliyet izninin kaldırılması kararına binaen müstakbel hukuki tartışma, AYM'nin aşağıdaki saptaması ışığında yapılmalıdır (evet, hukuk ayaklar altında, kabul. Fakat not düşmek mesleki sorumluluğumuz):

"Faaliyet izninin kaldırılması geri alınması mümkün olmayan bir idari işlem niteliğinde olup faaliyet izni kaldırılan vakıf yükseköğretim kurumunun eğitim ve öğretime devam etmesi ya da tekrar başlaması mümkün değildir. Bu bağlamda her ne kadar adı faaliyet izninin kaldırılması olsa bile bu idari işlemin, sonrasında geri alınmasının mümkün olmadığı gözetildiğinde söz konusu idari işlem yükseköğretim kurumunun fiilen kapatılması sonucunu doğurmaktadır. Dolayısıyla vakıf yükseköğretim kurumunun kanunla kapatılması gerekirken bu konuda kapatma niteliğinde bir idari işlem tesis edilmesine imkân tanınması Anayasa’nın 130. maddesine aykırıdır."

(AYM, E.2020/55, K.2023/228, 28/12/2023, § 101.)

[Joakim Parslow @ImparSlow]

It's high time to drop euphemisms like "tests of shaky democracy." Turkey is no longer competitive authoritarian, it is authoritarian.

[Reuters @Reuters]

A Turkish court effectively ousted the main opposition leader, Ozgur Ozel, annulling the 2023 party congress that elected him chairman. The case was seen as a test of Turkey's shaky balance between democracy and autocracy https://t.co/n133BhHWi0

[Swarthy Swabian @MuKuDk2]

What I have learned from this new bit of citation discourse is that gender studies underwater basket weaving programs have more rigorous academic standards than the entirety of STEM.

[love drops @lovedropx]

Me and my friends getting left behind by AI

[Marinos Sariyannis (sariyannis.bsky.social) @sariyannis]

"Scholarship"

[B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم @btselem]

Israel is running a network of torture camps for Palestinians. Our reports, Welcome to Hell and Hell on Earth, extensively documented a reality of extreme violence, starvation, and torture.

Now, in a major @nytimes investigation, journalist @NickKristof published terrible testimonies concerning sexual violence and the use of sodomy as a tool of interrogation and humiliation by Israeli forces.

Palestinian prisoners are subjected to severe violence, deliberate humiliation, starvation, sleep deprivation, denial of medical care, and abuse in every facility where they are held.

These abusive practices are fully backed by the political leadership, which openly boasts about the harsh prison conditions. Some inmates are subjected to severe sexual assaults.

At least 88 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention facilities since October 2023 as a result of inhumane conditions, violence, starvation, and the denial of medical treatment.

Despite the extensive evidence, media investigations, and reports issued by Israeli and international organizations documenting torture in Israeli prisons, the international community continues to stand by and allow Israel to commit crimes against the Palestinian people.

Links to the full report “Welcome to Hell” >> https://t.co/zwhJHHHEUA
and “Living Hell” >> https://t.co/yL4BmOKl4y

[Huda Ammori @HudaAmmori]

The lead barrister in the first Filton24 trial is being prosecuted for contempt of court for successfully defending his client, Charlotte Head.

The unprecedented prosecution of a barrister came after the defendants were acquitted of aggravated burglary. https://t.co/c1KebgHRNI

[Seren Selvin Korkmaz @selvinkorkmaz]

The “two Turkeys” framing reads as paradox, but it is really a mechanism
Under increasing autocratisation, diplomatic indispensability is not insulation from domestic repression. It is the resource that finances it. External recognition lowers the political cost of jailing journalists and mayors at home; a contained opposition, in turn, stabilizes the foreign-policy assertiveness allies reward. The “diplomatic behemoth” and the “sustained clampdown” are co-produced outputs of a single strategy.

[Modernism/modernity @MModernity]

For another teaser from our latest print issue, check out Edward Mitchell's review of Metrics of Modernity: Art and Development in Postwar Turkey by Sarah-Neel Smith, now on Print Plus: https://t.co/TCT6qgTEH8

[Rayane Moussallem @RioMoussallem]

Thousands of Lebanese experienced a story similar to Mariam’s yesterday, when the bombing reached her son’s nursery.

Scary, unfair, unjust! No one should have to live through this.

[Itay Epshtain @EpshtainItay]

BREAKING: More details come into view. #Israel’s Security Cabinet has reportedly approved 34 new settlements, further entrenching its unlawful presence deep within the occupied State of #Palestine. The secrecy surrounding the decree appears calibrated, not for domestic necessity, but to spare discomfort among allies in the region, Europe and the United States.

The ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Occupation of Palestinian Territory (2024) was unambiguous. Israel is under an obligation to bring its unlawful presence to an end, unconditionally and without delay. Third States are under a corresponding duty not to aid or assist in maintaining that situation, and to cooperate to bring it to an end.

Yet the response has been one of studied inaction. The Court spoke with clarity; the world replied with silence. Israel, reading that silence for what it is, has chosen not restraint, but acceleration of its colonization efforts.