Alexander Thatcher
@alexthat.bsky.social
American working on the Caucasus and Turkey, focusing on Armenian and Circassian issues. Yaratılışta bilgim olmadan var olan ne varsa rızam olmaksızın var.
Pinned
Alexander Thatcher is I do longform articles on Turkey and the Caucasus.
I'm a writer working on the Caucasus and Turkey. Trying to find more ways to fund my travels and work. At the moment, you can find my work in EVN Report or OC Media, including
buymeacoffee.com
buymeacoffee.com/michaelpseq
Hi everyone! If you enjoy my writing or my coverage of the protests here in Georgia, please consider donating to me on Buy Me A Coffee! I'm trying to experiment with other ways of making money (incl substack) and every little bit helps!
Hi everyone! If you enjoy my writing or my coverage of the protests here in Georgia, please consider donating to me on Buy Me A Coffee! I'm trying to experiment with other ways of making money (incl substack) and every little bit helps!
First of my articles from my time in Turkey is out!
In Istanbul's Kurtuluş neighborhood, Meyhane-i Ara stands as perhaps the last Armenian tavern, where owner Ara Haceroğlu preserves centuries-old culinary traditions—a living testament to the city's fading multicultural past. By @alexthat.bsky.social
All the Lost Istanbuls
Listen to the article. Your browser does not support the audio element. The winter wind is inescapable in seaside Kadıköy.
evnreport.com
May 16, 2025 at 2:12 PM
First of my articles from my time in Turkey is out!
Yuvamız İstanbul is the name of the overall project and not distinct from İstanbul Kreşleri right?
April 7, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Yuvamız İstanbul is the name of the overall project and not distinct from İstanbul Kreşleri right?
There comes a time in every man's life when his sister's obsessive lesbian fanbase discovers you're in Turkey and write about Turkish politics and make a long post about her advocating for the boycott of regime-aligned businesses.
March 26, 2025 at 7:34 AM
There comes a time in every man's life when his sister's obsessive lesbian fanbase discovers you're in Turkey and write about Turkish politics and make a long post about her advocating for the boycott of regime-aligned businesses.
If a Turkish follower could help me find mean things İnce said about Kılıçdaroğlu I will literally love you forever and do literally anything for you.
March 24, 2025 at 6:19 PM
If a Turkish follower could help me find mean things İnce said about Kılıçdaroğlu I will literally love you forever and do literally anything for you.
Reposted by Alexander Thatcher
The left accelerationist case for Trump paints him as a vile vessel who will, nevertheless, achieve important goals: (1) make the US less militaristic & (2) empower the Global South.
It makes intuitive sense bc Trump is weakening USG & Western alliances.
But it’s deeply naive. Here's why: 🧵
It makes intuitive sense bc Trump is weakening USG & Western alliances.
But it’s deeply naive. Here's why: 🧵
March 5, 2025 at 12:16 PM
The left accelerationist case for Trump paints him as a vile vessel who will, nevertheless, achieve important goals: (1) make the US less militaristic & (2) empower the Global South.
It makes intuitive sense bc Trump is weakening USG & Western alliances.
But it’s deeply naive. Here's why: 🧵
It makes intuitive sense bc Trump is weakening USG & Western alliances.
But it’s deeply naive. Here's why: 🧵
I kind of predicted this would be the case, but writing for an Armenian magazine seems to open some doors in Turkey. I don't think I'd be able to talk to the level of people I'm able to talk to if my background was writing for sites that focused on the Balkans.
March 5, 2025 at 12:06 PM
I kind of predicted this would be the case, but writing for an Armenian magazine seems to open some doors in Turkey. I don't think I'd be able to talk to the level of people I'm able to talk to if my background was writing for sites that focused on the Balkans.
This was an absolutely astonishing episode, I'm so excited to read the book.
New episode 🚨🚨
Selim Koru (@selimkoru.bsky.social) on Turkey’s role in the emerging anti-liberal world order.
His book, "New Turkey and the Far Right", dives deep into the stark worldview driving Turkey’s regime change under President Erdogan.
👇👇
turkeybooktalk.com/2025/03/04/s...
Selim Koru (@selimkoru.bsky.social) on Turkey’s role in the emerging anti-liberal world order.
His book, "New Turkey and the Far Right", dives deep into the stark worldview driving Turkey’s regime change under President Erdogan.
👇👇
turkeybooktalk.com/2025/03/04/s...
Selim Koru on Turkey’s role in the emerging anti-liberal world order
Turkey Book Talk #239 – Selim Koru, analyst at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey and fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in US, on “New Turkey and the Far Right: H…
turkeybooktalk.com
March 4, 2025 at 2:35 PM
This was an absolutely astonishing episode, I'm so excited to read the book.
Anyone know where I could get 54mg Concerta in İstanbul? I have a prescription, but no one has it.
March 3, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Anyone know where I could get 54mg Concerta in İstanbul? I have a prescription, but no one has it.
Reposted by Alexander Thatcher
This is accurate af 😂
February 17, 2025 at 4:12 PM
This is accurate af 😂
Reposted by Alexander Thatcher
reddit continues to unintentionally produce the funniest people and situations imaginable
December 31, 2024 at 9:07 PM
reddit continues to unintentionally produce the funniest people and situations imaginable
Reposted by Alexander Thatcher
we are getting a national version of red state governance, where the people in charge do everything they can to impoverish the state under the view that the more wretched things get, the easier it is for them to stay in power
February 15, 2025 at 2:05 PM
we are getting a national version of red state governance, where the people in charge do everything they can to impoverish the state under the view that the more wretched things get, the easier it is for them to stay in power
A lot of Western Anatolian Köfte (meatball) dishes derive from Balkan migrants, but can anyone think of *why* these taste and look so Albanian to me? I asked the owner of the restaurant and he said his family was "from Kosovo, in Skopje."
February 15, 2025 at 1:27 PM
A lot of Western Anatolian Köfte (meatball) dishes derive from Balkan migrants, but can anyone think of *why* these taste and look so Albanian to me? I asked the owner of the restaurant and he said his family was "from Kosovo, in Skopje."
Düzce saw huge numbers of Circassian, Ubykh, Abkhaz, Laz and Georgian migrants arrive in the 19th Century, and it's not difficult to see why. Germans, Poles and Scandinavians came to the Midwest because it reminded them of home. This place looks and feels like the Caucasus.
February 15, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Düzce saw huge numbers of Circassian, Ubykh, Abkhaz, Laz and Georgian migrants arrive in the 19th Century, and it's not difficult to see why. Germans, Poles and Scandinavians came to the Midwest because it reminded them of home. This place looks and feels like the Caucasus.
CHP'nin İstanbul'daki son seçim zaferleriyle ilgili ABD merkezli son derece saygın bir solcu yayın için bir makale yazmaya başladım da, kendisiyle bir söyleşi için Sinem Dedetaş'a nasıl ulaşabileceğimi bilen bir takipçi var mıdır?
February 14, 2025 at 1:12 PM
CHP'nin İstanbul'daki son seçim zaferleriyle ilgili ABD merkezli son derece saygın bir solcu yayın için bir makale yazmaya başladım da, kendisiyle bir söyleşi için Sinem Dedetaş'a nasıl ulaşabileceğimi bilen bir takipçi var mıdır?
1999: Make my mom take me to a Greek restaurant for my birthday because it makes me incredibly happy.
2025: Get paid to go to an Armenian tavern with a live Greek language music performance.
2025: Get paid to go to an Armenian tavern with a live Greek language music performance.
February 12, 2025 at 6:28 PM
1999: Make my mom take me to a Greek restaurant for my birthday because it makes me incredibly happy.
2025: Get paid to go to an Armenian tavern with a live Greek language music performance.
2025: Get paid to go to an Armenian tavern with a live Greek language music performance.
Reposted by Alexander Thatcher
in the runup to the Ukraine war, US conservatives were jacking themselves off to footage of Russian VDV guys doing hand to hand combat. Then 90% of those guys were wiped out in the first day of the war because it turns out hand to hand combat isn't very important if they shoot your helicopter down
this attitude — paperwork is for sissies, real wars are won by Big Strong Men — is traditionally a harbinger of ruinous for defeat for everyone who holds it
Bureaucracy, famously not important in war
February 11, 2025 at 6:08 PM
in the runup to the Ukraine war, US conservatives were jacking themselves off to footage of Russian VDV guys doing hand to hand combat. Then 90% of those guys were wiped out in the first day of the war because it turns out hand to hand combat isn't very important if they shoot your helicopter down
Reposted by Alexander Thatcher
With Hegseth in charge, at least Canadians and Mexicans can begin to feel confident after a while that the US military won't even have the logistics to invade and occupy Michigan, never mind neighbouring states
Bureaucracy, famously not important in war
February 11, 2025 at 4:36 PM
With Hegseth in charge, at least Canadians and Mexicans can begin to feel confident after a while that the US military won't even have the logistics to invade and occupy Michigan, never mind neighbouring states
Reposted by Alexander Thatcher
Well this was a well timed
piece - foreignpolicy.com/2025/02/10/p...
piece - foreignpolicy.com/2025/02/10/p...
February 11, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Well this was a well timed
piece - foreignpolicy.com/2025/02/10/p...
piece - foreignpolicy.com/2025/02/10/p...
I helped write a piece for the latest Central Asia and South Caucasus Bulletin about the trial of the leaders of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
February 11, 2025 at 2:51 PM
I helped write a piece for the latest Central Asia and South Caucasus Bulletin about the trial of the leaders of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
Reposted by Alexander Thatcher
When you get your Catholic teaching so wrong the pope himself has to issue a correction ☠️
MAJOR BREAKING: Pope Francis has written a letter to US Bishops saying he’s following “major crisis” of “mass deportations;” takes on Vance saying “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the “Good Samaritan”
February 11, 2025 at 11:57 AM
When you get your Catholic teaching so wrong the pope himself has to issue a correction ☠️
Reposted by Alexander Thatcher
the constitutional crisis is here
BREAKING
The Trump administration is maintaining a funding freeze at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in defiance of two federal court orders.
The ongoing freeze was confirmed by an NIH official and internal correspondence reviewed by Popular Information.
The Trump administration is maintaining a funding freeze at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in defiance of two federal court orders.
The ongoing freeze was confirmed by an NIH official and internal correspondence reviewed by Popular Information.
Trump maintains funding freeze at NIH, defying court order
The Trump administration is still prohibiting National Institutes of Health (NIH) staff from issuing virtually all grant funding, an NIH official tells Popular Information.
popular.info
February 11, 2025 at 1:04 PM
the constitutional crisis is here
It's just so funny to me that he could have had a really nice life - writing for Commonweal, The Lamp, AmCon, maybe becoming the successor of Deneen and Vermule- but instead he's going down in history as Englecuck Dollfuß.
February 11, 2025 at 12:53 PM
It's just so funny to me that he could have had a really nice life - writing for Commonweal, The Lamp, AmCon, maybe becoming the successor of Deneen and Vermule- but instead he's going down in history as Englecuck Dollfuß.
Reposted by Alexander Thatcher
It's called autocratic legalism, lawlessness for the friends of the populist leader, and prosecution of his adversaries.
Lord knows I’m not a constitutional scholar not even a lawyer (and I’ve yet to check in with @kateshaw.bsky.social) but a legal regime in which “you can do crimes if you’re buddies with the president or praise him publicly” is *on its face* a violation the equal protection of the laws.
February 11, 2025 at 12:47 PM
It's called autocratic legalism, lawlessness for the friends of the populist leader, and prosecution of his adversaries.
Reposted by Alexander Thatcher
Wanton destruction
Rubio claims that @USAID lifesaving assistance for health and humanitarian needs will continue. But his team just communicated that the entire agency will be imminently reduced from 14,000 to 294 people. Just 12 in Africa.
February 6, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Wanton destruction
Who are some interesting scholars working on the CHP?
February 6, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Who are some interesting scholars working on the CHP?