iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Selim Koru @selimkoru.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I've spent a bit of time in that country, and was deeply disturbed. I expect major a political eathquake in my lifetime.

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Howard Eissenstat @heissenstat.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Great stuff "But if you’re a scholar at one of these shops, they don’t pay you to say that it can’t be done."

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Great detailed analysis here of recently exposed digital transnational repression targeting the Tibetan diaspora, and how it both builds on growing capacity in China and feeds that capacity for other forms of surveillance, domestic and transnational turquoiseroof.org/spyware-as-a...

turquoiseroof.org

Spyware-as-a-Service

Spyware-as-a-Service: What the i-Soon files reveal about China’s targeting of the Tibetan diaspora

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Selim Koru @selimkoru.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

@nicholasdanfort.bsky.social and I will be live to discuss: - AI's impact on life in Turkey (and other developing countries) - the Kurdish "peace process" in Turkey & Syria Turkey: 5:00 PM (UTC+3) London (UK): 3:00 PM (UTC+1) NYC (USA): 10:00 AM (UTC-4) open.substack.com/live-stream/...

open.substack.com

LIVE SOON: Live with Selim & Nick: AI in Turkey; Syria and the Kurds

Starting Sep 18 at 10:00 AM EDT

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Omar Kadkoy @omarkadkoy.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

My latest in @selimkoru.bsky.social’s Kültürkampf is about renaming schools in Syria as part of the country’s political transformation. Warning: I cited an excerpt from Nizar Qabbani in the essay! substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com

Who Liberates, Decides

Syria is renaming its schools. The question is who gets to be Syrian

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Dilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Loooooooove this!

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Selim Koru @selimkoru.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

This was a wonderful episode to record! @nicholasdanfort.bsky.social and I sat down with @achristiemiller.bsky.social and Suzy Hansen to talk about their books on Istanbul, and Turkish politics more broadly. kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/can-you-ex...

kulturkampftr.substack.com

Can You Explain Istanbul?

Suzy Hansen and Alexander Christie-Miller on the decisions behind their books

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Nicholas Danforth @nicholasdanfort.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

In the latest Kulturkampf, Selim and I sat down with Alex Christie-Miller and Suzy Hansen to discuss their Istanbul books. kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/can-you-ex...

kulturkampftr.substack.com

Can You Explain Istanbul?

Suzy Hansen and Alexander Christie-Miller on the decisions behind their books

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Borners @borners.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I see @selimkoru.bsky.social is another Simon Cottee reader. It was a very sad book. UK society has utterly failed to give these people having decided to lump everything into "British Muslim" kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/where-are-...

kulturkampftr.substack.com

Where Are the Ex-Muslims?

Why mainstream culture celebrates everyone who leaves a high-control religion — except Muslims.

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James Ryan @jdryan08.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I haven’t taken communion in 20 years and even I feel insulted by this whole charade.

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

The problem with the Turkey/Türkiye issue is that it was an anti-cosmopolitan act by a dictatorial, nationalist regime; @selimkoru.bsky.social wrote very well about it at the time: kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/turkey-vs-...

kulturkampftr.substack.com

Turkey vs. Türkiye

My thoughts on the name change

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Revolution @revolutionofwaves.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Konuyla ilgili şu ana kadar okuduğum en iyi yazı...

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Çağdaş Üngör @cagdasungor.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Only 3 out of 10 people in Turkey has a favorable opinion of NATO. It's one of the smallest ratings among NATO member countries. Ankara Summit, with all its excessive measures, is likely to reduce it further... www.pewresearch.org/global/2025/...

pewresearch.org

1. Views of NATO

Majorities in 10 of 13 member nations surveyed have a positive view of NATO, though ratings have dipped in a few countries since last year.

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Nick Ashdown @nickashdown.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

I wrote a guest post for @selimkoru.bsky.social's great Kültürkampf Substack, inspired by the lively discussion around my viral thread on X from a few months ago. I'm most interested not in the anecdote in the thread, but the huge response to it. It's a slippery subject, but I hope I did it justice.

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Selim Koru @selimkoru.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Everyone in Turkey talks about emigration. But the official numbers are strangely calm: in a country of 86 million, a couple hundred thousand leave per year. No great exodus. So why does it feel like everyone is leaving? Because the question isn't how many. It's who.

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Selim Koru @selimkoru.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

social media commentary is pretty bad in general, but it's even worse for ongoing wars

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Ben R @reben.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Sirkeci Marmaray must be a rolling 🎪🤡 on the Marmaray sea then. I'm very good at the languages

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Selim Koru @selimkoru.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

New "Language of New Turkey," co-written this time with @ataarmagan.bsky.social. We dig into the slang the very-online, very-young, very-disillusioned opposition uses for their own country. First up: "Sirkiye." Sirk (circus) + Türkiye. 🎪

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Selim Koru @selimkoru.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

We're going live with @nicholasdanfort.bsky.social TODAY to discuss the latest events in Turkish politics. 17:00 GMT +3 (Turkey) 15:00 BST (UK) 10:00 GMT-4 (USA, East Coast) open.substack.com/live-stream/...

open.substack.com

LIVE SOON: Turkish politics with Nick & Selim

Starting May 22 at 10:00 AM EDT

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Shashank Joshi @shashj.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Passing an Amtrak ride by catching up with @kschake.bsky.social's latest. Cheery reading.

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Selim Koru @selimkoru.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

why do I keep saying "please" to LLMs?

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Nick Ashdown @nickashdown.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

The uncomfortable, immutable facts that a thousand articles about Turkey-EU relations never seem to mention.

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Nick Ashdown @nickashdown.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

My broad healthcare in Belgium costs 14.75 euros/month. Our cleaner is subsidized and costs 9 euros/hr. We don't need a car because everything is within walking/cycling/metro distance. You can be a cashier and live a middle-class life. 🇪🇺 is *incredibly* wealthy, it's just more equitably distributed.

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Aron Lund @aronlund.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Syria’s emerging economic power structure as seen through a labor dispute—brilliant, deeply researched Sam Heller report, in which tiny details form the greater picture. Classic Century International stuff! @abujamajem.com @centuryintl.bsky.social @tcfdotorg.bsky.social tcf.org/content/repo...

tcf.org

Road Warriors: How a Fight Over Trucking Explains the New Syria

On February 6, Syrian freight truck owners and drivers mounted a national strike and organized demonstrations on key road arteries across the country.

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pmamtraveller.bsky.social @pmamtraveller.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Somewhere in Paris by Frédéric Forest

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Borners @borners.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

@selimkoru.bsky.social work is good, but I think suffers from not doing the comparison with the other SAFE rejectee; the UK (where he lives) Turkey like the UK fundamentally sees itself as a Peer polity to EU as a GREAT POWER, to hide from its dysfunctional multi-national reality.

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Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Great pieces that is as much of interest to EU nerds as Turkey watchers

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Selim Koru @selimkoru.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Erdoğan says Europe needs Turkey more than Turkey needs Europe. The real story is stranger: the two sides are building defense industries on opposite principles, and nobody in Ankara wants to admit it: kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/what-kind-...

kulturkampftr.substack.com

What Kind of Sovereignty?

Turkey, Europe, and the politics of defense industrial integration

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Selim Koru @selimkoru.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

@nicholasdanfort.bsky.social and I are going live in 5 minutes. This week, we'll be talking about Turkey in Europe, Greece in the Middle East. open.substack.com/live-stream/...

open.substack.com

LIVE SOON: Live with Selim & Nick

Starting May 1 at 10:00 AM EDT

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Selim Koru @selimkoru.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

This makes sense, given his international appeal

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Selim Koru @selimkoru.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

My latest in Kültürkampf: I respond to an essay on knowledge production in the Muslim world, by Ahmed Askary kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/against-ci...

kulturkampftr.substack.com

Against Civilizational Hygiene

On Ahmed Askary, Ibn Khaldun, and the trouble with authentic Muslim modernity

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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

teaching watchmen & discussed how they eliminated all the comic book-y things: SFX, motion lines, emanata, thought balloons, narrative captions. Noticed on this read: this phone sequence, it's ringing - we can't tell (except red light). Does character's failure to hear commentary on the lack of SFX?

a page from watchmen, 9 panel grid. Characters are talking about a case, one character keeps telling the other one the phone is ringing. There is no sound effects to tell this - only a blinking red light on the phone visible in one panel. By fifth panel it finally registers and he answers, then that conversation- someone calling to tell him Rorschach will be at a certain place. They head out to arrest him, and one says "let's go ignore some red lights"

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Howard Eissenstat @heissenstat.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Comments from myself and others, including @selimkoru.bsky.social, in this article on Turkey's continued slide into authoritarianism. It isn't on the world's radar anymore, but it's still getting worse. as.ft.com/r/392d9017-b...

as.ft.com

Erdoğan tightens grip on Turkey in latest moves against rivals

Government’s relentless crackdown on dissent is among the worst in modern times, say analysts

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Selim Koru @selimkoru.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

@nicholasdanfort.bsky.social and I are going LIVE to talk about Hungary's elections, (and whether there are lessons in there), as well as the devastating school shootings in Turkey this week. open.substack.com/live-stream/...

open.substack.com

LIVE SOON: Hungary's lessons for Turkey; latest in Iran War; listener questions

Starting Apr 17 at 10:00 AM EDT

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Selim Koru @selimkoru.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

New Kültürkampf fragments. Three weeks in Mardin with a 17-month-old — cats, thunderstorms, broken playgrounds, a monastery tour with German-Turks. Some of it is free.

kulturkampftr.substack.com

Mardin Fragments II

Three weeks in lower Mardin, with the devil and his minions

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Selim Koru @selimkoru.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

45% now. This is looking good!

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Jan Vömel @janvoemel.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Great piece, clever and thoughtful as usual on Selim's substack. "if you have the misfortune of following Turkish politics closely..." Tabii, residual Türk milliyetçi duyguları yaşamadan da herkesi "Ciddi"ye almak zorunda değiliz.

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