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   Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 05:10:27 JST Aral Balkan

   Turkish university annuls Erdogan rival's degree, preventing run for president

   https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/istanbul-university-annuls-istanbul-mayor-imamoglus-diploma-over-irregularities-2025-03-18/

   This is what democracy looks like when there’s no democracy.
   
   #turkey #erdogan #imamoglu #democracy #fascism

   • Mr. Bill repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     webhat (webhat@infosec.exchange)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 17:24:17 JST webhat

     in reply to

     @aral this has been happening in the Netherlands too, mostly with the degrees of the far right. They seem, after investigation, to have plajurized their bachelor's or master's thesis

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 17:24:17 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • webhat

     @webhat This is not that, though. This is dictatorship removing a potential threat.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 18:44:56 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • webhat

     @webhat Well, if it stands. If the people let it stand. As things are, he doesn’t have political rivals. Because it’s a dictatorship cosplaying democracy.

   • Embed this notice
     webhat (webhat@infosec.exchange)'s status on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2025 18:44:57 JST webhat

     in reply to

     @aral thanks, I didn't fully understand Turkish requirements before posting. This is indeed a career limiting move against his political rival

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Thursday, 20-Mar-2025 00:02:26 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     For those of you not paying attention (because Middle Eastern country, amirite?), Turkey followed the neoliberalism to fascism pipeline (in this case Islamofascism) almost a quarter of a century before the US with Christofascism.

     Lots to learn here and a glimpse into your future in the US unless you can do something about it. (Hint: appeasement and compliance do not work.)

     Here’s a talk I gave at an event in Berlin eight years ago against Erdoğan’s representative and regime. I also haven’t been back to Turkey for eight years. This is not a coincidence.

     https://ar.al/notes/my-speech-at-general-assembly-in-berlin-november-2017/

     (İmamoğlu’s people actually invited me to give a talk a few years ago and I asked them if they could guarantee my safety if I flew into Istanbul. Needless to say, the answer was no.)

     #turkey #erdogan #imamoglu #turkiye #fascism #dictatorship

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Thursday, 20-Mar-2025 00:02:27 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     And now they’ve arrested him.

     Erdoğan, the dictator, doing what dictators do.

     https://www.irishtimes.com/world/middle-east/2025/03/19/mayor-of-istanbul-arrested-as-part-of-crackdown-on-opposition-to-turkish-president/

     #turkey #erdogan #imamoglu #turkiye #fascism #dictatorship

     藤井太洋, Taiyo Fujii repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Thursday, 20-Mar-2025 00:03:06 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Bruce Heerssen

     @bruce I’m sure Trump gets a little wiggle in his mushroom whenever he thinks of Erdoğan.

   • Embed this notice
     Bruce Heerssen (bruce@darkmoon.social)'s status on Thursday, 20-Mar-2025 00:03:07 JST Bruce Heerssen

     in reply to

     @aral
     Do you think Trump will offer his congratulations?

   • Embed this notice
     a fish named dog 🎗️ (fishnameddog@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Mar-2025 00:49:05 JST a fish named dog 🎗️

     in reply to

     @aral Wait, you need a degree to run for president in Turkey? Wouldn't that favor rich people even more than politics already does?

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 21-Mar-2025 00:49:05 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • a fish named dog 🎗️

     @FishNamedDog Don’t worry, no one’s running for president in Turkey who isn’t already the president.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Sunday, 23-Mar-2025 08:18:12 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • a fish named dog 🎗️

     @FishNamedDog It was the neoliberalism to fascism pipeline. What we’re seeing repeated in the USA today but with Islamofascism instead of Christofascism.

   • Embed this notice
     a fish named dog 🎗️ (fishnameddog@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 23-Mar-2025 08:18:13 JST a fish named dog 🎗️

     in reply to

     @aral Well, yes. But presumably that system was designed before Erdogan.

     Question, since I assume from the frequency of these postings you follow Turkish politics more than I do: do you know if this autocracy came top-down -- i.e., Erdogan first, then at a more local level -- or bottom-up -- i.e., democracy was already nonexistent or quite weak at the local level and Erdogan reflects that?