Putting out another plug for Alex's book in case anyone missed it. I think it's the best book by a journalist about Istanbul and Turkey in years. Profiles of extraordinary ordinary Istanbulites blended with Byzantine history that jumps right off the page.

Keep an eye out for the forthcoming book by my dear colleague and brilliant friend, Zozan Pehlivan! 💫

“The Political Ecology of Violence: Peasants and Pastoralists in the Last Ottoman Century” (Cambridge University Press, 2024)

cambridge.org/core/books/pol…

I missed this until now, but lovely to see 'To the City' in LRB Bookshop's new & recommended travel-writing alongside stunning-looking works by Ian Marchant, Noo Saro-Wiwa, Beatrice Searle, Alistair Moffat, Cynthia Zarin, and others. londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/booklists/new-…

Indisputable. It's astonishing that Netanyahu remains safely in power for the foreseeable future.

Please read Melanie Ward ‘s heart wrenching statement to get a sense of the horrors in Gaza. Sickening. 👇🏼

Books for Spring ⁦Tim Shipman⁩ ⁦Saul David⁩ ⁦Suzanne Heywood⁩ ⁦Patrick Grant⁩ ⁦Charles Spencer⁩ ⁦Kat Hill⁩ ⁦Alexander Christie-Miller⁩ ⁦Erik Larson⁩ ⁦Daniel Finkelstein⁩ ⁦Jonny Steinberg⁩ Peter Marshall Max Hastings Anne Somerset

I spoke with Hannah Lucinda Smith about 'To the City', Istanbul, and Erdogan for Intelligence Squared: megaphone.link/NSR7073933897

Frost disappeared for a bit…

Then popped up again to kindly remind us how much of a massive bellend he is.

Yabancıların gözünden Türkiye gözlemlerini okumayı seviyorum, genelde daha objektif oluyorlar. Alexander Christie-Miller kitabında mükemmel bir iş çıkarmış.. Tarihi surların etrafında geçirdiği sürede çok iyi gözlemler yapıp İstanbulun fethinden itibaren günümüze mahalle kültürü, değişen…

İstanbul surları çevresinde yaşayanların öyküleri üzerinden, surların yanısıra Gezi’den pandemiye, kentsel dönüşümden 2023 depremine TR’yi ele alan çok katmanlı bir eser: “To the City: Life and Death Along the Ancient Walls of Istanbul/ Alexander Christie-Miller/ William Collins Books/2024” +

Coming up next, on 24 April, newly confirmed Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem İmamoğlu faces a court case with a possible sentence of up to 7 years and a permanent ban from politics: ntv.com.tr/turkiye/imamog…

Did this 👇play a role in the election defeat of Erdogan's AKP? Erdogan thinks so. In the post-election meeting he held with his party where he identified the reasons for the defeat, he said they failed to explain their stance on Gaza clearly enough to voters. ++

All protests and demonstrations banned, no-one allowed in or out of Van, the city whose elected mayor has just been replaced by the government candidate

In Turkey, mayors in the southeast elected by the main Kurdish party are already being kicked out and replaced with AKP alternatives.

In light of Erdogan's defeat in Istanbul & Ankara, if there is hope in Turkey, there is too in India! In time..

Privilege to talk world elections & #TheIncarcerations w Alexander Christie-Miller simon wilson Leslie Vinjamuri Pranvera Shema Smith Conduit Club
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youtube.com/live/itekekNM8… via YouTube

Breaking: The nationalities of the UN employees intentionally killed by Israel moments ago are Polish, Australian, Irish, and British.

Many HDP voters in large cities moved to the CHP, while there was an almost total switch from DBP to DEM in the Southeast. Partially because many Kurds weren't HDP voters in the cities and many HDP voters weren't Kurds

I suspect Erdoğan's people knew that it might be bad, but I doubt even they saw this coming.

Sorry for the shameless self-promotion, but my book, TO THE CITY, charts the growing ambivalence and disillusionment of AKP voters in Istanbul, as well as the myriad social, economic, and environmental ills that lay behind yesterday’s vote: amzn.eu/d/dXCw9ul