Aral Balkan<p>Erdoğan’s fascist regime in Turkey has arrested more members of the secular and progressive Istanbul municipality – including Murat Ongun and his wife. (This comes after he arrested the mayor – Ekrem İmamoğlu – Turkish presidential candidate and his main rival.)</p><p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/turkey-detains-47-members-istanbul-municipality-widening-crackdown-2025-04-26/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">reuters.com/business/media-tel</span><span class="invisible">ecom/turkey-detains-47-members-istanbul-municipality-widening-crackdown-2025-04-26/</span></a></p><p>The last time I’d spoken with Murat was when he’d invited me to speak in Istanbul about my work on Small Technology. I sadly had to refuse as they couldn’t guarantee my safety because I’d spoken out against Erdoğan in Berlin and labelled a “terrorist” by the mayor of Ankara for it:</p><p><a href="https://ar.al/notes/my-speech-at-general-assembly-in-berlin-november-2017/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">ar.al/notes/my-speech-at-gener</span><span class="invisible">al-assembly-in-berlin-november-2017/</span></a></p><p>(Needless to say, the place I can be most useful is not in a Turkish prison.)</p><p>Erdoğan is a dictator who has installed fascism in Turkey with the full blessing and billions of euros of support from the EU (because we use him as a dam to keep the Brown people away from our shores). </p><p>Shame on you, <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/@EUCommission" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>EUCommission</span></a></span>, for your silence and complicity.</p><p><a href="https://mastodon.ar.al/tags/Turkey" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Turkey</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.ar.al/tags/Erdogan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Erdogan</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.ar.al/tags/fascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>fascism</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.ar.al/tags/EU" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EU</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.ar.al/tags/EuropeanUnion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EuropeanUnion</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.ar.al/tags/complicity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>complicity</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.ar.al/tags/T%C3%BCrkiye" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Türkiye</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.ar.al/tags/Erdo%C4%9Fan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Erdoğan</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.ar.al/tags/fa%C5%9Fizm" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>faşizm</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.ar.al/tags/AB" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AB</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.ar.al/tags/AvrupaBirli%C4%9Fi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AvrupaBirliği</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.ar.al/tags/Su%C3%A7Ortakl%C4%B1%C4%9F%C4%B1" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SuçOrtaklığı</span></a></p>