Selim Koru
@selimkoru.bsky.social
Scholar of political ideas, Nietzsche, Turkey. @TEPAV Tweets in English & Turkish. Words: @nytimes, @WarOnTheRocks, etc. Substack: https://kulturkampftr.substack.com/
📰 Sunday extras: "Can You Explain Istanbul?" with Suzy Hansen, @achristiemiller.bsky.social, @selimkoru.bsky.social and @nicholasdanfort.bsky.social. [1/5] kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/can-you-ex...
Can You Explain Istanbul?
Suzy Hansen and Alexander Christie-Miller on the decisions behind their books
kulturkampftr.substack.com
Loooooooove this!
Selim Koru@selimkoru.bsky.social · 6d agoThis 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...
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...
Can You Explain Istanbul?
Suzy Hansen and Alexander Christie-Miller on the decisions behind their books
kulturkampftr.substack.com
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...
Can You Explain Istanbul?
Suzy Hansen and Alexander Christie-Miller on the decisions behind their books
kulturkampftr.substack.com
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-...
Where Are the Ex-Muslims?
Why mainstream culture celebrates everyone who leaves a high-control religion — except Muslims.
kulturkampftr.substack.com
I haven’t taken communion in 20 years and even I feel insulted by this whole charade.
Jonathon Booth@jboothhistory.bsky.social · last mo.He can’t be denied because he doesn’t go to mass!
"Turkey’s World Cup meltdown is a milestone in unraveling of Erdogan’s reign, says @selimkoru.bsky.social" hosted by @amberinzaman.bsky.social. [2/5]
Turkey’s World Cup meltdown is a milestone in unraveling of Erdogan’s reign, says Selim Koru
Selim Koru, founder of the Kulturkampf Substack, argues that Turkey’s World Cup loss is emblematic of the failure of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s civilizational project and may prove to be a miles...
al-monitor.com
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-...
Turkey vs. Türkiye
My thoughts on the name change
kulturkampftr.substack.com
mtsw@mtsw.bsky.social · last mo.Turkiye spelling issue just reminding me how weird it is that in the 21st century there's still a handful of countries we refer to in English with totally different names than the actual people of that country use.
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/...
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.
pewresearch.org
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.
Nick Ashdown@nickashdown.bsky.social · 7mo agoHad an interesting conversation with a group of Turkish friends living in Europe about white collar Turks who move here, then move back to Turkey because they don’t like it. The reason we came up with is that they’re used to being part of a ruling class in Turkey, served hand and foot by the working
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.
social media commentary is pretty bad in general, but it's even worse for ongoing wars
Alexander Clarkson@aphclarkson.bsky.social · 2mo agoEven when the Israelis start attacking Dahiyeh with mortars you'd still have too many people on this and the other site claiming that it just proves the IRGC's master strategy wins again.
I wrote about Ayn Rand in Turkey for Reason Magazine:
Ayn Rand is alive in Ankara
Objectivism in Turkey has risen and fallen in recent decades, but is newly rejuvenated.
reason.com
Sirkeci Marmaray must be a rolling 🎪🤡 on the Marmaray sea then. I'm very good at the languages
Selim Koru@selimkoru.bsky.social · 3mo agoNew "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. 🎪
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. 🎪
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/...
LIVE SOON: Turkish politics with Nick & Selim
Starting May 22 at 10:00 AM EDT
open.substack.com
The uncomfortable, immutable facts that a thousand articles about Turkey-EU relations never seem to mention.
Selim Koru@selimkoru.bsky.social · 3mo agoErdoğan 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-...
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.
Christian Odendahl@codendahl.bsky.social · 3mo ago
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...
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.
tcf.org
great work
Aron Lund@aronlund.bsky.social · 3mo agoSyria’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...
@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.
Selim Koru@selimkoru.bsky.social · 3mo agoErdoğan 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-...
Great pieces that is as much of interest to EU nerds as Turkey watchers
Selim Koru@selimkoru.bsky.social · 3mo agoErdoğan 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-...
