I mention these not to take away from the joy, radical hope, or tears of happiness today, but as a humble reminder to treat this amazing day as a beginning of ever-growing, collective and determined struggle.

And Ekrem İmamoğlu, the elected mayor of Istanbul and the opposition’s presidential candidate, has been unlawfully in prison for eight months. He won the (re-run) Istanbul elections in 2019 with a landslide victory, ending the AKP’s long rule over Turkey’s largest city.

Selahattin Demirtaş, Kurdish political leader and then co-chair of HDP, has been unlawfully imprisoned for 9 years. He was leading figure in 2015 election campaign, when HDP crossed the national threshold for 1st time, preventing single-party govt&Erdoğan’s push for greater presidential powers.

The struggle indeed needs to continue, as political experience from Turkey has long taught us. We’ve learned that despots become fiercely revengeful, when they are terrified, as Zohran Mamdani powerfully expresses, "by the dismantling of the very conditions that allowed them to accumulate power.”

Ordered a copy few days ago. Can't wait to read and teach with it!

Harika! Çok çok tebrikler, Onur! Büyük ilgiyle okuyacağım.

For details: www.devstudies.cam.ac.uk/events/cds-s...

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