Nicholas Danforth

The Antisemitic/Tankie Left is real and noxious and dangerous. Its influence has been compounded by more reasonable progressives who refuse to call it out and those on the right who want to exaggerate its presence to avoid talking about Israeli crimes.

Trump promised not to let Israel break Gaza ceasefire to get deal Israel broke one ceasefire. Trump told the mediators he wouldn't let it happen this time.

The ceasefire in Gaza, now in effect, depends on the promise given by an inveterate liar and conman (Trump) to a ruthless terrorist organization (Hamas) that he will prevent another serial liar, conman, and war criminal (Netanyahu) from resuming the war:

But thats the point, its not an anglo-turkish condominium, he signed off on straight up anglo-american imperialism.

Bitterly ironic that after years of anti-imperial posturing, Erdogan is now boasting about securing Hamas's signoff on an international mandate for Palestine.

To be clear, I hope to God this deal holds, as its far better than the realistic alternative. And I don't think Erdogan should have been championing Hamas in the first place. It's just incredible to see him trying to spin this as a heroic success after all of his rhetoric.

Plenty of scandals about the US and the SDF, but I dont remember anyone bringing up the obviously irredentism map so vocally before

Bitterly ironic that after years of anti-imperial posturing, Erdogan is now boasting about securing Hamas's signoff on an international mandate for Palestine.

Im genuinely curious why its taken this long for the SDF flag to feature in a scandal like this.

(from the nyt obvi) With Mideast Deal, Trump Is on the Brink of a Major Diplomatic Accomplishment For President Trump, success in brokering a cease-fire is the ultimate test of his self-described goal as a deal maker and a peacemaker.

there was a ceasefire when trump came in. he let israel blow that up, let famine spread, let his goons murder starving people, before using the power he'd had since he took office. grotesque to call this peacemaking. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/us/politics/trump-mideast-visit-israel-gaza.html

Trump Is Supporting Transnational Repression Instead of sheltering pro-democracy dissidents, America is now returning them for arrest.

New from me in @foreignpolicy.com: how the US has gone from leading a global push against transnational repression, to proactively supporting it:

foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/08/t...

Turkish Cypriots Go to the Polls. Will It Matter? What a potentially unfair election in a definitely unrecognized country means for the Middle East and Europe.

Useful article on elections in Northern Cyprus and the question of Cyprus' future.

"[The island appears destined to remain divided, while the north is pulled deeper into Ankara’s geopolitical agenda."

foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/08/e...

Turkish Cypriots Go to the Polls. Will It Matter? What a potentially unfair election in a definitely unrecognized country means for the Middle East and Europe.

Turkish Cypriots Go to the Polls. Will It Matter?

"Whoever wins, it is becoming harder to imagine a future where the Cyprus problem is settled peacefully in keeping with the interests of all stakeholders.

foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/08/e...

Call it Moynism

This is the most elegant summary ive heard of a certain ideological trend in Lefty academia

Also a truly fantastic line: "Hinduism is the elephant romping through the postcolonial Ivory Tower that everyone pretends not to see.

Decolonising Ourselves into a Hindu Rashtra The Postcolonial Left has enabled the fire to spread by disabling a principled critique of Hinduism and Hindu nationalism that could have acted as a fire retardant.

The parallels with the post-Kemalism debate here are striking

thewire.in/books/decolo...

so curious to know who...

Where the postcolonial Left meets the Hindu Right Postcolonial theory, along with its younger cousin, decolonial theory, is providing fresh ammunition and pathways for the Hindu Right to seize on scholarly respectability for its views.

This touches on a dynamic I have thought about for a long time.

I've always wanted someone to write this piece about Islamist nationalism in Turkey

Trump’s Speech to Generals Was Incitement to Violence Against Americans Military leaders’ quiet professionalism offers hope amid a maelstrom.

My thoughts on the Quantico meeting

Can Turkey Deliver on Its Armament Ambitions? Despite the hype, much of Ankara’s new military technology remains in development and untested.

And more recently, also here by Ryan Gingeras:

foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/14/t...

U.S.-Turkish Relations Have Gotten Duller, Not Better Erdogan’s visit to Washington showed that the United States and Turkey just don’t need each other as much as they used to.

My latest piece for @foreignpolicy.com

Erdogan’s visit to Washington showed that the United States and Turkey just don’t need each other as much as they used to.

foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/30/t...

Perin Gurel on the history of comparing Turkey and Iran in the West Turkey Book Talk #254 – Perin Gurel of the University of Notre Dame on “Türkiye, Iran, and the Politics of Comparison: America’s Wife, America’s Concubine” (Cambridge University P…

New episode 💯💯

Perin Gurel on “Türkiye, Iran, and the Politics of Comparison: America’s Wife, America’s Concubine” (@universitypress.cambridge.org)

The book explores the political and cultural history of Turkey–Iran comparisons from the Cold War era to today

👇👇

turkeybooktalk.com/2025/09/30/p...

Very much agree with Sinem on the broad goal and with Howard on the lack of a more coherent plan for realzing it

say more!

I was elected mayor of Istanbul, but I write this from jail: Turkish democracy is under grave threat | Ekrem Imamoğlu If our nation slides deeper into autocracy, the consequences will reverberate far beyond Turkey’s borders, says Istanbul’s suspended mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu

Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu has written a letter from Turkish jail to @theguardian.com readers: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Also, the visit could still blow up, but if it does it will probably be over Gaza, where the US has taken an even worse position than Turkey.

It's not that we necessarily would have seen vigorous pushback under a different president, but you wouldn't have had a White House visit at the very moment Erdogan was dismantling the main opposition party

Intentionally or not, Trump is prepared to put the US imprimatur on the final dismantling of Turkish democracy.

"Opposition to the recognition of Palestinian statehood stands at the heart of that [Israeli public] consensus."