Locked Up by Erdogan | Aryeh Neier For his work as an activist and philanthropist, Osman Kavala has been unjustly imprisoned in Turkey for seven and a half years.

A most decent human being, a pacifist, a connector and creator - osman kavala.

Swedish journalist gets 11-month suspended prison term in Turkey for insulting Erdogan | eKathimerini.com A Turkish court on Wednesday convicted a Swedish journalist of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Swedish journalist who was detained on arrival in Turkey for a protest he didn’t attend and a social media post he didn’t make gets an 11-month suspended sentence in first trial, but remains in custody because he’s facing terror charges as well www.ekathimerini.com/politics/for...

Brilliant. Asking the question that matters.

Gaza: Increasing Israeli “evacuation orders” lead to forcible transfer of Palestinians The increasing issuance by Israeli Forces of “evacuation orders” – which are, in effect, displacement orders – have resulted in the forcible transfer of Palestinians in Gaza into ever shrinking spaces...

This is as close as the UN can get calling it a genocide without using the term itself:

“ … Israel appears to be inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence as a group in Gaza.” www.ohchr.org/en/press-bri...

These are always must-reads, canonical documents for anyone on politics social media.

Letter from a Palestinian Political Prisoner in Louisiana March 18, 2025

“My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner.” www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

Requiem for the voice that carried a nation’s conscience VOA's signal for 83 years crossed borders and ideologies—now its silence will speak volumes.

My colleagues and our broadcasts, devoted to telling America’s story to the world — honestly, fairly and with an unwavering commitment to the truth​, are being silenced this weekend. open.substack.com/pub/newsguy/...

Chronicle of a murder foretold  - CIVILNET In this special edition of the CivilNet podcast, commentator Eric Hacopian raises the alarm on Azerbaijan’s hidden intentions behind the expulsion of the International Committee of the Red Cross, whic...

Stop them.

When #Baku sends #ICRC home, as it just has, it means they are planning the worst for these political leaders - #Armenian political prisoners in a sham trial. There are lots of global political knots that are hard to unravel. This one is not. They should be freed. For peace.

Not releasing political figures whose job it was to govern a disputed space, defend people’s homes & negotiate a peace means not wanting peace. #Azerbaijan defeated #Armenians of #Karabakh, and now wants to break the soul of a nation & bodies of its leaders. There is no peace.No one is safe indeed.

How should Öcalan’s call for peace be interpreted? - CIVILNET By Taner Akçam Abdullah Öcalan, jailed leader of the PKK, the Kurdish Workers’ Party, a militant political organization, has made a historic call, declaring that the PKK, a product of the Cold War era...

If #Ocalan is offering peace, what might #Ankara be ready to give after a century of violent rejection of all minorities, esp #Kurds? Historian Taner Akcam’s take on @civilnet.bsky.social

United States terminates thousands of aid programs The U.S. State Department's termination of over 10,000 foreign aid grants has crippled IRC programs, leaving 2 million vulnerable people without critical humanitarian services.

2 million people now in peril. 2 million! www.rescue.org/article/unit...

Bernie Sanders has put Democrats "on notice" that they need to fight the billionaires – and make issues like healthcare and income inequality "THE issues" – Harold Meyerson @theprospect.bsky.social comments – on 'Living in the USA' @kpfk.bsky.social bit.ly/41t2htm

In the midst of insanity, a photo of a carpet made me happy. #Oslo-based film director, grandson of Bergman and Ullman, sitting on a hand-woven carpet from #Armenia’s Syunik mountains. @financialtimes.com Weekend HTSI. Links my worlds

Medicaid is not for sale.
NASA is not for sale.
The Post Office is not for sale.
America is not for sale.

We have an obligation to resist kings. We outnumber them. And they can be overwhelmed.

“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.”
-Angela Davis

Happy 81st birthday, Angela Davis.

"If you live long enough a defeat will turn into a victory."
--Angela Davis

Cezaevinden Hrant’ın arkadaşlarına seslenen Çiğdem Mater, “Sadece acı ve üzüntüyle değil, umutla buradayız” demişti. Çekmediği “Gezi belgeseliyle” suçlanan ve 18 yıl hapis cezasına çarptırılan Mater, 1004 gündür hapiste adaletin sağlanmasını bekliyor.

#ÇiğdemMaterİçinAdalet

2 bin 641 gündür hapiste…

Osman Kavala: “Annem 97 yaşında. Onu bir daha göremeyeceğimi düşünmek, çok hüzün verici…”

#FreeOsmanKavala

Ruben Vardanyan: All protocols bearing my signature are falsifications  - CIVILNET Entrepreneur, philanthropist and former Nagorno-Karabakh state minister Ruben Vardanyan, who has been under illegal arrest in Baku for more than a year, said yesterday that Azerbaijani investigators f...

Former Nagorno-Karabakh state minister Ruben Vardanyan, currently detained in Baku, has accused Azerbaijani investigators of falsifying interrogation records and coercing him, his lawyer, and translator to sign backdated documents.

Opinion | How Los Angeles Dreams Became Kindling Awareness of doom in Los Angeles, and yet a need to push disaster away, has created a kind of collective psychosis.

If only policy - good policy - would trump politics. Now.

One great roundup trying to make sense of the pronouncements of a “trickster” president- as seen NOT by Americans only.

"One of the mysteries of Hubble’s universe is why we haven’t found other intelligent species. One explanation is that most civilizations do themselves in before they can reach out into space."

Macron rebukes Russia, Azerbaijan over Armenia issue - CIVILNET French President Emmanuel Macron rebukes Moscow for supporting Azerbaijan and Baku for interference in French overseas territories.

📍 French President Emmanuel Macron rebukes Moscow for supporting Azerbaijan and Baku for interference in French overseas territories.
📍 Former Armenian military official Tiran Khachatryan was arrested on charges of military negligence during the 2020 war.
www.civilnet.am/en/news/8113...

Azerbaijan lacks any motivation to sign a peace treaty with Armenia, says expert - CIVILNET Azerbaijan lacks any motivation to sign a peace treaty with Armenia and is instead focused on gaining influence over Armenia’s southern regions over the next three to five years, according to Benyamin...

Azerbaijan lacks any motivation to sign a peace treaty with Armenia and is instead focused on gaining influence over Armenia’s southern regions over the next three to five years, according to Benyamin Poghosyan, a senior analyst at the APRI Armenia research center.

#Azerbaijani President Ilham #Aliyev’s chief policy adviser, Hikmet Hajiyev, has stated that #Baku is demanding the withdrawal of the #EuropeanUnion monitoring mission before a peace treaty can be signed with #Armenia

🔗 eurasianet.org/azerbaijan-w...

Because a government can. #freeosmankavala #freecigdemmater

NEMRA - I'm Afraid of Stars (ft. SERJ TANKIAN) YouTube video by NEMRA

“Time is over now; but Dreams are not over yet.” 2025 - exactly how I feel. Nemra and Serj Tankian.

More than a year later - we know the answer. Prison and torture. For no reason other than a dictator’s whim.

Because he can. Aliyev continues to manipulate human life to distract from his people’s dire circumstances.