Emek
@emekakman.bsky.social
A Gen X cynic brewing sarcasm as dark as Turkish coffee. Served from London with dry, surreal wit and a splash of existential dread.
Ranting about UK and Turkish politics since before Wi-Fi.
Ranting about UK and Turkish politics since before Wi-Fi.
As a Gen X, for the first time in my life I want to hug a politician.💚
"Look back at the archives of history... the people who gave the real sick speeches... they would have been absolute lunatics if they weren't part of this bigger movement"
Chlöe Swarbrick 👏
Chlöe Swarbrick 👏
October 15, 2025 at 6:20 AM
As a Gen X, for the first time in my life I want to hug a politician.💚
I didn’t think politics could surprise me anymore. Then the Greens did. I went from existential crisis to actually paying attention — and cracking a smile.
I'm 45.
This might be the first time I feel like a party leader actually listens.
This might be the first time I feel like a party leader actually listens.
October 6, 2025 at 1:53 AM
I didn’t think politics could surprise me anymore. Then the Greens did. I went from existential crisis to actually paying attention — and cracking a smile.
Once again, Zack reminds us why we believe in him.
Never again for anyone!
💚
Never again for anyone!
💚
We must all keep speaking out.
Thanks for all the kind words for this pretty combatative interview.
The truth is simple. Let's just all keep telling the truth.
youtu.be/goTgeKyJNaQ?...
Thanks for all the kind words for this pretty combatative interview.
The truth is simple. Let's just all keep telling the truth.
youtu.be/goTgeKyJNaQ?...
'A classroom of kids is massacred everyday': Zack Polanski on Gaza
YouTube video by LBC
youtu.be
October 5, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Once again, Zack reminds us why we believe in him.
Never again for anyone!
💚
Never again for anyone!
💚
The Manchester synagogue attacks show us something brutal: antisemitism is alive, violent, and must be fought. But if we only confront hate when Jews are the target — and ignore Islamophobia or the genocide in Gaza — we’re not fighting hate. We’re managing it.
#Manchester
#Antisemitism
#UKPolitics
#Manchester
#Antisemitism
#UKPolitics
October 3, 2025 at 8:08 PM
The Manchester synagogue attacks show us something brutal: antisemitism is alive, violent, and must be fought. But if we only confront hate when Jews are the target — and ignore Islamophobia or the genocide in Gaza — we’re not fighting hate. We’re managing it.
#Manchester
#Antisemitism
#UKPolitics
#Manchester
#Antisemitism
#UKPolitics
The mood around #AI has shifted. Once sold as innovation’s shiny toy, it’s now a lightning rod for anger. Why? Let’s unpack the backlash—and why most of it says more about people than the technology itself.
#Future #Tech #Innovation
#Future #Tech #Innovation
October 3, 2025 at 5:42 PM
The mood around #AI has shifted. Once sold as innovation’s shiny toy, it’s now a lightning rod for anger. Why? Let’s unpack the backlash—and why most of it says more about people than the technology itself.
#Future #Tech #Innovation
#Future #Tech #Innovation
A year ago, “Green” meant a smoothie. Now it’s a ballot box.
💚
💚
"Real pride comes when you no longer hide who you are"
October 3, 2025 at 5:01 PM
A year ago, “Green” meant a smoothie. Now it’s a ballot box.
💚
💚
1/8 Nigel Farage — the man who gave us Brexit chaos — now wants to retroactively cancel settled status. Spoiler: it’s a legal disaster waiting to happen. Here’s why his latest stunt will implode under the law.
👇
#ReformUK
#UKPolitics
#NigelFarage
👇
#ReformUK
#UKPolitics
#NigelFarage
September 22, 2025 at 5:37 PM
1/8 Nigel Farage — the man who gave us Brexit chaos — now wants to retroactively cancel settled status. Spoiler: it’s a legal disaster waiting to happen. Here’s why his latest stunt will implode under the law.
👇
#ReformUK
#UKPolitics
#NigelFarage
👇
#ReformUK
#UKPolitics
#NigelFarage
1/8 The man who unleashed the hell of Brexit now wants to scrap Indefinite Leave to Remain.
Let’s break down why Farage’s latest idea isn’t just cruel – it’s economically brain-dead.
#ReformUK
#UKPolitics
#NigelFarage
Let’s break down why Farage’s latest idea isn’t just cruel – it’s economically brain-dead.
#ReformUK
#UKPolitics
#NigelFarage
September 22, 2025 at 5:29 PM
1/8 The man who unleashed the hell of Brexit now wants to scrap Indefinite Leave to Remain.
Let’s break down why Farage’s latest idea isn’t just cruel – it’s economically brain-dead.
#ReformUK
#UKPolitics
#NigelFarage
Let’s break down why Farage’s latest idea isn’t just cruel – it’s economically brain-dead.
#ReformUK
#UKPolitics
#NigelFarage
Become a Green Party member—along with nearly 1,400 others t yesterday. The first time in my life I’m a sheep following the flock and I like it 😋
Podcasts’re the background noise of a world drunk on its own stupidity. Zack's passion is music to my ears.
My Marxist friends will probably disown me. 💚
Podcasts’re the background noise of a world drunk on its own stupidity. Zack's passion is music to my ears.
My Marxist friends will probably disown me. 💚
Search for 'Bold Politics' on Apple, Spotify and YouTube to get the full episode between Zack Polanski and Jimmy The Giant
September 19, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Become a Green Party member—along with nearly 1,400 others t yesterday. The first time in my life I’m a sheep following the flock and I like it 😋
Podcasts’re the background noise of a world drunk on its own stupidity. Zack's passion is music to my ears.
My Marxist friends will probably disown me. 💚
Podcasts’re the background noise of a world drunk on its own stupidity. Zack's passion is music to my ears.
My Marxist friends will probably disown me. 💚
The Corbyn–Sultana bust-up isn’t just gossip; it’s proof their “new politics” replicates the old failures: weak structures, no process, personalised power. When movements can’t run admin, they lose credibility long before they win power. #UKPolitics
September 18, 2025 at 9:16 PM
The Corbyn–Sultana bust-up isn’t just gossip; it’s proof their “new politics” replicates the old failures: weak structures, no process, personalised power. When movements can’t run admin, they lose credibility long before they win power. #UKPolitics
Trump’s back for a 2nd state visit. Labour’s serving him the red carpet, the silverware and probably the NHS if he asks nicely. Zack’s right — this isn’t diplomacy, it’s masochism!
It's a shame on our country that Trump was given a second state visit.
Yet another in a line of dodgy decisions by the Labour Government.
youtu.be/VxqAakh6D1A?...
Yet another in a line of dodgy decisions by the Labour Government.
youtu.be/VxqAakh6D1A?...
Should We Show Trump More Respect? Penny Mourdaunt and Zack Polanski Debate
YouTube video by Good Morning Britain
youtu.be
September 18, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Trump’s back for a 2nd state visit. Labour’s serving him the red carpet, the silverware and probably the NHS if he asks nicely. Zack’s right — this isn’t diplomacy, it’s masochism!
Trump is democracy’s chaos agent; Starmer is its hospice manager. One breaks things for sport, the other tidies the ruins. Both depend on our lowered expectations of what politics can do. We should be demanding transformation, not trauma management. That’s why #GreenPartyUK matters
#UKPolitics
#UKPolitics
September 18, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Trump is democracy’s chaos agent; Starmer is its hospice manager. One breaks things for sport, the other tidies the ruins. Both depend on our lowered expectations of what politics can do. We should be demanding transformation, not trauma management. That’s why #GreenPartyUK matters
#UKPolitics
#UKPolitics
Signed up for the Greens.
Finally my dialectics have a recycling bin.
The revolution will be carbon neutral ✌️
Finally my dialectics have a recycling bin.
The revolution will be carbon neutral ✌️
💚 Delighted to announce we just reached 73,000 new members!
✊🏽 @greenparty.org.uk is the party of environmental, social, racial and economic justice.
👉🏼 Join.greenparty.org.uk
✊🏽 @greenparty.org.uk is the party of environmental, social, racial and economic justice.
👉🏼 Join.greenparty.org.uk
Join the Green Party
Join the Green Party from just £6 a year. Become a member today - join the only party with the policies needed to tackle the climate crisis.
Join.greenparty.org.uk
September 18, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Signed up for the Greens.
Finally my dialectics have a recycling bin.
The revolution will be carbon neutral ✌️
Finally my dialectics have a recycling bin.
The revolution will be carbon neutral ✌️
Trump’s back in the UK. Charles looks like a boiled ham in ermine, Camilla like she’s lost a bet at Ascot, Melania doing full funeral cosplay, Trump glowing like an irradiated Wotsit. Welcome to the End Times, funded by the taxpayer.
#UKPolitics
#TrumpNotWelcome
#UKPolitics
#TrumpNotWelcome
September 17, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Trump’s back in the UK. Charles looks like a boiled ham in ermine, Camilla like she’s lost a bet at Ascot, Melania doing full funeral cosplay, Trump glowing like an irradiated Wotsit. Welcome to the End Times, funded by the taxpayer.
#UKPolitics
#TrumpNotWelcome
#UKPolitics
#TrumpNotWelcome
Every time someone misses irony this badly, an Oyster card loses signal. I make a joke, you take it like a policy white paper, and suddenly we’re in a thread about Palantir and China. Congratulations, you’ve managed to turn humour into homework. 😂
i swear gen x.
Big Brother fears? Mate, he’s already got your Oyster card, your Tesco Clubcard and your Amazon Alexa recordings.
September 6, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Every time someone misses irony this badly, an Oyster card loses signal. I make a joke, you take it like a policy white paper, and suddenly we’re in a thread about Palantir and China. Congratulations, you’ve managed to turn humour into homework. 😂
Structural racism—deeply rooted in the state, media, education, and daily life—has long outlived ceasefires and negotiations. Without truth-telling, institutional reform, and a genuine reckoning with anti-Kurdish discrimination, ordinary Kurdish citizens will remain second-class—even in peace.
Per Amberin's sources, the offer from the government is 50,000 political prisoners released, including Demirtaş, improved living conditions for Öcalan, and de facto acceptance for the autonomy of Syria's Kurdish regions. Potentially huge win for PKK and DEM, but what about ordinary Turkish Kurds?
As always, @amberinzaman.bsky.social has the best reporting in English on the forthcoming PKK deal and what it may or may not include: www.al-monitor.com/originals/20...
May 10, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Structural racism—deeply rooted in the state, media, education, and daily life—has long outlived ceasefires and negotiations. Without truth-telling, institutional reform, and a genuine reckoning with anti-Kurdish discrimination, ordinary Kurdish citizens will remain second-class—even in peace.
Genocide Remembrance Day, brought to you by: selective amnesia and performative condolences.
"We mourn the past," says the country that criminalises naming it.
Denial is political. Truth is historical.
#armeniangenocide
#ermenikatliamı
"We mourn the past," says the country that criminalises naming it.
Denial is political. Truth is historical.
#armeniangenocide
#ermenikatliamı
April 24, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Genocide Remembrance Day, brought to you by: selective amnesia and performative condolences.
"We mourn the past," says the country that criminalises naming it.
Denial is political. Truth is historical.
#armeniangenocide
#ermenikatliamı
"We mourn the past," says the country that criminalises naming it.
Denial is political. Truth is historical.
#armeniangenocide
#ermenikatliamı
1/2
Maybe the saddest part isn't that Musk has this much power—it's that we keep rewarding people who burn things down with more gasoline and applause. We mistake domination for genius, and call it innovation. Humanity doesn’t need a villain. It wants one.
Maybe the saddest part isn't that Musk has this much power—it's that we keep rewarding people who burn things down with more gasoline and applause. We mistake domination for genius, and call it innovation. Humanity doesn’t need a villain. It wants one.
Hate to point out that X's valuation is now higher than when Musk bought it. It also still has 650 million active users, vs. 35 million on Bluesky. I'd bet money that Tesla will also be fine in the long run. Being that rich and politically omnipotent carries too many benefits. Sad truth.
April 17, 2025 at 5:19 PM
1/2
Maybe the saddest part isn't that Musk has this much power—it's that we keep rewarding people who burn things down with more gasoline and applause. We mistake domination for genius, and call it innovation. Humanity doesn’t need a villain. It wants one.
Maybe the saddest part isn't that Musk has this much power—it's that we keep rewarding people who burn things down with more gasoline and applause. We mistake domination for genius, and call it innovation. Humanity doesn’t need a villain. It wants one.
1/4
The UK Supreme Court ruled that legal sex = biological sex.
It’s a devastating rollback—not just for trans rights, but for the principle that justice expands. That we evolve.
This isn’t just about law. It’s about who gets to belong.
The UK Supreme Court ruled that legal sex = biological sex.
It’s a devastating rollback—not just for trans rights, but for the principle that justice expands. That we evolve.
This isn’t just about law. It’s about who gets to belong.
April 17, 2025 at 4:44 PM
1/4
The UK Supreme Court ruled that legal sex = biological sex.
It’s a devastating rollback—not just for trans rights, but for the principle that justice expands. That we evolve.
This isn’t just about law. It’s about who gets to belong.
The UK Supreme Court ruled that legal sex = biological sex.
It’s a devastating rollback—not just for trans rights, but for the principle that justice expands. That we evolve.
This isn’t just about law. It’s about who gets to belong.
Erdoğan is once again flirting with “peace” — not from principle, but political survival. As Öcalan calls for disarmament, the state bans Kurdish music at a wedding in Antalya. What kind of peace treats a language like a crime? You can’t negotiate peace while criminalising existence.
Antalya’da Kürtçe müzik eşliğinde yapılan düğüne izin verilmedi:
Düğün sahibi: İki saat mutlu olmamıza bile izin vermiyorsunuz…
Düğün sahibi: İki saat mutlu olmamıza bile izin vermiyorsunuz…
April 15, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Erdoğan is once again flirting with “peace” — not from principle, but political survival. As Öcalan calls for disarmament, the state bans Kurdish music at a wedding in Antalya. What kind of peace treats a language like a crime? You can’t negotiate peace while criminalising existence.
One of the clearest accounts I’ve read of what İmamoğlu’s arrest really means. Not a legal move—a political purge. It shows how Erdoğan’s strategy is never just about silencing individuals, but about exhausting the very idea of democratic resistance. The writing doesn’t sensationalise. It observes.
Erdoğan’s revenge: The president’s arrest of his rival, Ekrem İmamoğlu, follows a familiar trajectory. It could also backfire spectacularly.
🌎 Kaya Genç on the protests in Istanbul
🌎 Kaya Genç on the protests in Istanbul
Erdoğan’s revenge
The president’s arrest of his rival, Ekrem İmamoğlu, follows a familiar trajectory. It could also backfire spectacularly.
www.newstatesman.com
April 15, 2025 at 7:31 PM
One of the clearest accounts I’ve read of what İmamoğlu’s arrest really means. Not a legal move—a political purge. It shows how Erdoğan’s strategy is never just about silencing individuals, but about exhausting the very idea of democratic resistance. The writing doesn’t sensationalise. It observes.
Autocratic regimes don’t always silence dissent directly—they create conditions where even academic participation feels risky. From Harvard to international conferences, this is how fear becomes policy—quietly, systematically, and without needing a single law.
I've condemned Israel's campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza, and I've written extensively about autocratisation, inc. in the US. Safe to say, I have ZERO intention of travelling to the US in the foreseeable future, despite the numerous academic events I had lined up. Just doesn't feel safe at all.
April 15, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Autocratic regimes don’t always silence dissent directly—they create conditions where even academic participation feels risky. From Harvard to international conferences, this is how fear becomes policy—quietly, systematically, and without needing a single law.
Joakim Medin is in Erdoğan’s prison for reporting.
And still he believes.
“The pen is mightier than the sword.”
Meanwhile, the sword censors, jails, silences.
Who’s afraid of a journalist with a pen?
Erdoğan.
#JournalismIsNotACrime
#FreeJoakimMedin
And still he believes.
“The pen is mightier than the sword.”
Meanwhile, the sword censors, jails, silences.
Who’s afraid of a journalist with a pen?
Erdoğan.
#JournalismIsNotACrime
#FreeJoakimMedin
Ett nytt brev från Joakim.
Message from Swedish journalist Joakim Medin currently imprisoned in Turkey.
Message from Swedish journalist Joakim Medin currently imprisoned in Turkey.
April 14, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Joakim Medin is in Erdoğan’s prison for reporting.
And still he believes.
“The pen is mightier than the sword.”
Meanwhile, the sword censors, jails, silences.
Who’s afraid of a journalist with a pen?
Erdoğan.
#JournalismIsNotACrime
#FreeJoakimMedin
And still he believes.
“The pen is mightier than the sword.”
Meanwhile, the sword censors, jails, silences.
Who’s afraid of a journalist with a pen?
Erdoğan.
#JournalismIsNotACrime
#FreeJoakimMedin
1/3 The polling visuals reveal striking political pragmatism among Kurdish voters in Turkey. Despite exclusion, demonisation, and broken peace efforts, they continue to engage in democracy—not from naïveté, but with sharp political awareness and lived experience.
According to this poll, despite the peace process negotiations between Dem Party and the government, Kurds in Turkey support İmamoğlu at significantly higher proportions than ethnic Turks.
April 14, 2025 at 7:28 PM
1/3 The polling visuals reveal striking political pragmatism among Kurdish voters in Turkey. Despite exclusion, demonisation, and broken peace efforts, they continue to engage in democracy—not from naïveté, but with sharp political awareness and lived experience.
Erdoğan plays the field like a tactician, and Gingeras maps it sharply. But the most honest line? That the PKK’s disbanding might be real. The most dangerous? That this could mean peace without justice. Kurds as leverage. Protestors as obstacles. Some of us don’t call that peace.
"Erdoğan’s simultaneous crackdown on domestic dissent and assertive expansion into post-war Syria represent gambles intended to secure his regime’s longevity and regional power. However, these moves risk destabilizing Turkey both internally and externally"
warontherocks.com/2025/04/erdo...
warontherocks.com/2025/04/erdo...
Erdoğan’s Last Great Gamble - War on the Rocks
Over the course of the last 22 years, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey has fought and endured a great deal in order to remain in power. Court
warontherocks.com
April 14, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Erdoğan plays the field like a tactician, and Gingeras maps it sharply. But the most honest line? That the PKK’s disbanding might be real. The most dangerous? That this could mean peace without justice. Kurds as leverage. Protestors as obstacles. Some of us don’t call that peace.