Selim Koru

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/

1.6K followers145 following382 posts

Selim Koru
@selimkoru.bsky.social

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

Alexander Clarkson@aphclarkson.bsky.social

A potential paradox of Saudi society is that a renewed nationalist identity based on a social contract between the state and people that its citizens are willing to die for could become the greatest threat to hegemony of a Saudi monarchy that can only view its people as subjects

Selim Koru reposted

Turkey recap
@turkeyrecap.bsky.social

Replying to @turkeyrecap.bsky.social

"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]

al-monitor.comTurkey’s World Cup meltdown is a milestone in unraveling of Erdogan’s reign, says Selim KoruSelim 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...

Selim Koru reposted

Nick Ashdown
@nickashdown.bsky.social

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

Had 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

Selim Koru
@selimkoru.bsky.social

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

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.

Selim Koru
@selimkoru.bsky.social

In 2009, 1.6% of graduates of İstanbul Erkek Lisesi — one of Turkey's most selective high schools — went abroad for university. Today it's 90%. The schools the republic built to produce its elite now produce emigrants.

Selim Koru
@selimkoru.bsky.social

It's not just students. Doctors requesting "good standing" certificates to work abroad have grown roughly tenfold in a decade. And of Turkish-trained engineers who moved to the US or Germany since 2010, only about a quarter ever came back. (From Saudi Arabia: over 80%.)

Selim Koru
@selimkoru.bsky.social

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

Alexander Clarkson@aphclarkson.bsky.social

Even 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.

Selim Koru reposted

Ben R
@reben.bsky.social

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

Selim Koru@selimkoru.bsky.social

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. 🎪

Selim Koru
@selimkoru.bsky.social

It's a term of contempt nationalists have invented for their own country — nationalism running in reverse, toward something nihilistic. 4chan-grade, social-Darwinist, and aimed at one thing above all: the shamelessness.

Selim Koru reposted

Nick Ashdown
@nickashdown.bsky.social

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

Selim Koru@selimkoru.bsky.social

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.comWhat Kind of Sovereignty?Turkey, Europe, and the politics of defense industrial integration

Selim Koru reposted

Nick Ashdown
@nickashdown.bsky.social

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

Hmm. www.wsj.com/opinion/what...

wsj.comWhat Happens When Europeans Find Out How Poor They Are?The Continent trails far behind U.S. economic output. Politics is bound to catch up sooner or later.