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How Turkey Removed Its Intellectuals https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/magazine/the-era-of-people-like-you-is-over-how-turkey-purged-its-intellectuals.html

This is a FASCINATING and FRIGHTENING in-depth look at the purge of intellectuals within Turkish society after the attempted coup of Erdogan's government and as he becomes more authorative.

“The first thing these kinds of ideological movements target are people and institutions that produce knowledge,” Uzgel said. “They have to clear those areas in order to establish their own power. Because they represent the only dissenting forces in a society. The business class does not speak up against the government. Civil society is already weak in Turkey. Universities with strong traditions are critical because they recruit younger generations. You have to break institutions. Authoritarian regimes don’t necessarily send everyone to jail.”

But if the authoritarian regime lasts long enough, it can succeed in suppressing even relatively uncritical voices"

‘The Era of People Like You Is Over’: How Turkey Purged Its Intellectuals

For more than a century, one school of political science dominated the education of Turkey’s governing class — until the Erdogan regime set about destroying it.

By Suzy Hansen | Published July 24, 2019 | New York Times | Posted July 28, 2019 |

Above: Former members of the Ankara University faculty of political science, also known as Mulkiye, including Canberk Gurer, Ilhan Uzgel, Elcin Aktoprak and Kerem Altiparmak. Photographs by Emin Ozmen/Magnum, for The New York Times.

Ilhan Uzgel learned he had been fired while driving his Honda Civic from the village of Ayas to Ankara, after a visit to his ailing, elderly father. A little after midnight, one of his former research assistants called his cellphone. “Ilhan hocam,” the student said, using a Turkish honorific (“my teacher”) bestowed on educators. “Your name was on the list.”

When Uzgel returned to his Ankara apartment, his 4-year-old son was sleeping, but his wife, Elcin Aktoprak, was up waiting. She hadn’t wanted to call him herself with the news while he was driving. Now she comforted her husband — and then Uzgel comforted her, because Aktoprak, also a professor, told him that she had lost her job, too. They had been professors at Ankara University, on the faculty of its storied school of political science, widely known as Mulkiye.

Uzgel attended a provincial university in his home city, Bursa, before enrolling in Mulkiye to get a master’s degree and eventually his doctorate — an accomplishment for someone of his modest origins. In Turkey, to be a part of Mulkiye was to have a special status: to be both of the country and, in a way, superior to it. The joke went that for Mulkiyeliler, or Mulkiye alumni, it was “First Mulkiye, then Turkiye.” Uzgel, one of Turkey’s leading specialists in American-Turkish relations and the author or editor of books with grand titles like “National Interest and Foreign Policy,” proudly remained at Mulkiye for 30 years until Feb. 7, 2017, when he was fired. Some 6,000 of Turkey’s 150,000 academics would ultimately share his fate.

Many Turkish academics grew up hoping that they would one day see their country become a democracy. They studied sociology or philosophy; they specialized in conflict resolution, peace building, minority rights, things like the creation of civil society. They received their Ph.D.s in political science or history, expressly to participate in liberal-minded universities that would bring forth generations even more democratic than themselves. They had faith in things like good governance practices, a fair judicial system, a free press, human rights and women’s rights. There was a goal, and an understanding that you were either part of democratization or you weren’t. In Turkey, those who engaged in the creation of a democracy as a painful, step-by-step process constituted a small, passionate group, but they shared this experience with people all across the world, from Poland to Taiwan, with those who also lived in democratizing countries, who felt that their countries were on the upswing, getting better, whatever that meant.

An authoritarian state can do many things to get rid of these democratic types — put them in jail, put them on trial — but ultimately the government must attack the institutions that produce and sustain them. Newspapers can be easy to buy. NGOs are easy to shut down. Universities are much harder to dismantle.

But this is what, through the great purge, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his allies sought to do. Thousands of academics lost their jobs, and many lost their right to travel, their passports canceled. They would not be able to work at public or private universities again. Legal proceedings would be opened against them — and drag on to this day, leaving the fired in limbo. Many who were abroad would not return. They feared being quoted in the press or even speaking to journalists. Some were sentenced to prison. At least one committed suicide. Around 90 of the purged academics came from Ankara University, and 36 came from Mulkiye alone, raising suspicions that the 160-year-old faculty of political science had become a particular target.

In October 2017, months after the firings began, Mulkiye held a conference called “The One Hundredth Anniversary of the Russian Revolution: The Soviet Union, the Cold War and the International System.” Uzgel was the keynote speaker. In order to attend the conference, he had to be brought discreetly onto campus in a friend’s car.

In his speech, Uzgel, a small, soft-spoken man in his mid-50s with wispy, longish gray hair, spoke about recent events, particularly the failed military coup against Erdogan only 15 months earlier, as well as the previous successful military coups in Turkey’s history. “In 1980, when there was a military coup, the threat was the Soviet Union, and it was academics who paid the price,” he said. “In 2016, when there was a military coup, the threat was the United States, and still it was we who paid the price. The threat changes, but those who are fired stay the same. Academics pay the price.”

Uzgel’s voice began to crack. Almost every day since his 20s, he had taken the bus or driven his car to the university’s stately campus in Ankara’s busy, wide-laned central Cebeci neighborhood; entered through the imposing concrete gates surrounded by lush foliage, then passed through the doors to the early modernist structure that served as Mulkiye’s home; walked across the inner courtyard where young men and women smoked many cigarettes and fought about politics; and climbed the floating staircase, flanked by paintings and photographs of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, to arrive at his office. His life’s work, his status in the country, had now been stolen from him.

As Uzgel pointed out in his speech, Turkey’s governments have often purged the country’s intellectuals, only for the nation to stumble slowly back toward some semblance of democracy. As the Turks proved again this past June, when they resoundingly elected an opposition candidate as mayor of Istanbul — after two decades of control by Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, known as the A.K.P. — free elections in Turkey have always defied its authoritarian state system. Yet something about this era under Erdogan has still felt different, more lasting, as if the continuing existence of the A.K.P.’s repressive policies will permanently impair otherwise resilient, historic institutions. Mulkiye, after all, was more than just an academic faculty; it was the academic faculty that provided the Turkish state with its administrators and statesman, its legal experts and political historians. Those associated with Mulkiye not only understood how the Turkish state worked; they were, to some degree, the Turkish state.

Mulkiye was established in what was then called Constantinople during the Ottoman Empire to train civil servants and diplomats. Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic, moved the school to the new capital city, Ankara, in the 1930s. This measure was both practical and symbolic: The decaying Ottoman Empire had given way to a rebellious new nation that required statesmen (like himself) who were dedicated to secularism, modernity and nationalism. Over time, Mulkiye would become not only a primary intellectual and political engine of the Turkish republic but also a center of dissent for Turks who wished to both uphold and transform it.

Many of the scholars engaged in creating Turkey’s early constitutions came from Mulkiye. The legislators tasked with building the young republic were able to do so in part because, even if their political backgrounds differed, they shared some of the same republican values. Foreign ministers, governors and ambassadors often came from Mulkiye, much as French politicians commonly come out of Sciences Po. Uzgel told me that it was generally known that you were less likely to attain a position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs unless you had a degree from Mulkiye.

It was at Mulkiye, in part, that the foundations of Turkey’s foreign policy were established. In reaction to devastating wartime experiences during the 19th and early 20th centuries, the new Turkish republic’s foreign policy would be one of caution, independence and self-defense, characterized by a reluctance to meddle in foreign wars and a general orientation toward the West but without deep allegiance to a single power. As Timur Kuran, a Turkish-American professor of economics and political science at Duke University, put it to me recently, “The members of Mulkiye helped to restrain the state and helped to prevent politicians in power from using foreign policy for momentary gain.”

This entwining of the government and Mulkiye intellectuals explains why they have so often been persecuted. In 1960, students so vociferously protested the changes being made to the country by Adnan Menderes, Turkey’s leader at the time, that the university was temporarily shut down. Even as Mulkiye continued to serve its function as a feeder department to the Turkish state, university campuses like Mulkiye’s came to be seen as inspiration for greater, nationwide political opposition. Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, after two military coups, many leftist Mulkiye professors were purged and even thrown in jail. But even following these dramatic events, the very Mulkiye people who suffered would eventually go back to work for the government or return to teaching jobs. In 1971, for example, a Mulkiye dean named Mumtaz Soysal was accused of making Communist propaganda and sent to jail. “I heard he cleaned toilets in prison,” one former Mulkiye professor told me. Yet 20 years later, Soysal was Turkey’s foreign minister. Over time, several aspects of Mulkiye’s influence in the state bureaucracy were diminished, especially in the realm of local administration and finance. But even after so much trauma, Mulkiye — and particularly its prominence in foreign policy and the Turkish Foreign Ministry — survived.

In the 1980s, students like Ilhan Uzgel entered Mulkiye to work toward advanced degrees and stayed on as professors. By that time, a government-controlled institution called YOK, created to exert more centralized control over the universities, had been given purview over a suite of traditionally independent functions ranging from admissions testing to tenure decisions. The Mulkiye faculty split into right and left. The secularist-nationalists opposed some liberal reforms to the economy; they were critical of the Kurdish struggle and political Islam, and some were against joining the European Union. The leftists and liberals favored human rights (including for Kurds and Islamists), entry into the E.U. and broader democratization. In 1998, the Turkish military shut down the ruling Islamist political party and imposed further restrictions on political Islamists and other religious figures. Erdogan, then mayor of Istanbul, was sent to prison. By the 2000s, a more liberal-seeming, post-Islamist party led by Erdogan was ascendant. Many Mulkiye academics were so inclusive in their thinking as to have been sympathetic to Erdogan when he became prime minister in 2003.

Soon after, though, something began happening behind the scenes. “Mulkiye’s ties with Turkish bureaucracy began to be cut off around 2004,” Uzgel told me. “The A.K. Party just cut it off. Their own people began to dominate the bureaucracy system.”

“I grew up at Mulkiye,” Elcin Aktoprak was saying. “Inside the campus, there was a kind of freedom that didn’t exist in the rest of the country.” I met Aktoprak, Canberk Gurer and Kerem Altiparmak, all former Mulkiye academics, at their office at a European Union-funded human rights organization, which sits in a lovely central neighborhood in Ankara. They are in their 30s and 40s. Aktoprak has short, unfussy hair and the easy confidence of many female Turkish intellectuals. (She and Uzgel have divorced in the time since the purge.) She felt more comfortable at Mulkiye as a woman than in other parts of Turkey, as did many self-described feminists, gay students, Kurds and leftists.

But when those at Mulkiye talk about its freedom, they are primarily referring to the liberty to criticize — not only peers but also professors and deans, the people with authority. During Aktoprak’s tenure at Mulkiye, a certain radical spirit had been reignited there, mainly in response to the so-called Kurdish issue. During Turkey’s founding, Kurds had been victims of pogroms and categorized as “mountain Turks,” rather than ethnic Kurds, and were forced to speak Turkish; the Kurdish regions in the southeastern part of the country were neglected economically. In the 1970s, a new separatist-terrorist group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (P.K.K.), was founded by Abdullah Ocalan — himself a former student at Mulkiye — to lobby for the right to embrace Kurdishness and also to fight for separation from the Turkish state. A vicious war erupted. Turkish military forces burned down villages and tortured and killed Kurds, and the P.K.K. attacked security forces and terrorized town squares.

There was — and still is — no issue in Turkey that galvanizes Turks and Kurds more than the war with the P.K.K. For many Turks, the idea of Kurdishness invalidates the central idea of the Turkish nation, which is that Turkey is a country for the Turks. In the political rhetoric of the Turkish state, to be pro-Kurdish is almost to be a terrorist yourself.

By the 2000s, the early years of Erdogan’s rule, the government began engaging in a “peace process” with the P.K.K. At the same time, Kurdish students continued to flood the universities, and many were attracted to Ankara University’s legacy as a place of protest. In particular, they entered into certain faculties — communication, education, law and political science (Mulkiye) — located on the same campus. Leftist and Kurdish and pro-Kurdish-rights students enjoyed a kind of freedom there almost singular in Turkish life, which is predominantly conservative, among both the religious and the secular. For conservative students, the Cebeci campus might have seemed like one in which pro-Kurdish students somehow had more power than themselves.

“More than half of the students might be nationalist or conservative,” Aktoprak said, “but the atmosphere was more leftist, giving leftist students the ability to express their views more than at any other universities, without banning other voices.” In this regard, there’s some resemblance to American universities like Berkeley and Columbia in the 1960s, but it’s important to remember that university campuses are some of the only places in Turkey where a young Kurdish leftist would be able to openly declare his politics.

The rector of Ankara University and the dean of Mulkiye also saw Mulkiye’s openness as crucial to the education of its students. An episode in 2009 shows how this commitment could play out. Mulkiye’s Human Rights Center held a conference, what it called “a public civil-society dialogue,” with representatives from the European Union. Cemil Cicek, deputy prime minister of Turkey — that is, deputy to Erdogan — asked to attend.

“We didn’t invite him, but we had to accept his participation,” said Kerem Altiparmak, who was head of the Human Rights Center at the time and is one of Turkey’s leading human rights lawyers. “But the night before the event, one of my students said, ‘Professor, I guess we will be protesting your event tomorrow.’ I said, O.K. I cannot decide on behalf of them. Peaceful protest is the right of students.”

The next day, those students arranged themselves in plush blue seats throughout a large, auditorium-style Mulkiye lecture hall, all of them facing a dais flanked by Mulkiye insignia and photos of Ataturk. Among the attendees were the rector of Ankara University and a Mulkiye dean. Cicek rose to speak behind a wooden lectern.

And then the students, one by one, stood up to interrupt him.

“Can I please ask something?” one young man said, his hand raised. “In this country, people like Engin Ceber” — a human rights activist — “are taken into custody and killed by torture.” He went on: “In this kind of country, as the deputy prime minister, I don’t believe you have much to tell us.”

Everyone clapped.

“With these speeches and this applause, you have used your rights in the name of democracy,” Cicek said over the cries. “If it’s O.K. with you, I will now exercise my right —”

“Dear minister,” another young man broke in, standing up. “This democracy and human rights forum is happening with a police blockade around it. Can you explain why?”

Cicek kept talking. The young man kept talking, too. The applause grew louder.

“It’s true that I came here knowing this may happen —” Cicek said.

“Then how dare you come here!” one man yelled. “If you knew that, why did you come?”

“There is no place for Cemil Cicek in this school!” another young man yelled, and the crowd cheered. “There is no place for people like you in a university! You have no right to speak here! You’re not here to talk about human rights!”

At that point, the minister’s security guards tried to stop this man from speaking.

“Is this democracy? You have 50 men trying to take me out of here!”

Cicek decided to leave. The rector of the university and the Mulkiye dean politely escorted him as he exited the lecture hall.

But that was it. No student was punished. No investigations followed. Academic life in Turkey has long included places like Mulkiye, where teenagers and 20-somethings learned to stand up in a crowded lecture hall and directly challenge one of the most powerful politicians in the country.

Around the early 2000s, Mulkiye professors began noticing unfamiliar and suspicious developments. Government apparatchiks at state agencies started rejecting applications for research projects that would have normally been accepted. For instance, in 2009, Uzgel applied for a grant to do research in Washington on the relationship between Turkey, the United States and northern Iraq. He applied to George Washington University and to Tubitak, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. His application was accepted by George Washington but not by Tubitak, something that rarely happens in Turkish academic life. The attitude at these agencies, the professors said, was that because religious or conservative A.K.P. supporters had felt for decades that they had been shut out of elite academia, now it was their turn to have advantages in academia. They sometimes even said that directly to people, Uzgel heard from other academics. “It’s our turn.”

In 2012, Erkan Ibis became rector of Ankara University. Ibis projected a secular lifestyle, and the professors observed that his wife didn’t wear a head scarf. He didn’t seem like a sycophantic A.K.P. type. But by this point, Turks were beginning to grasp that to remain in powerful state positions, they would have to toe the line. Those who once drank alcohol, for example, might now make a point of drinking water. University rectors who once allowed protests on campus might make a point of banning them.

That fall, Ibis invited an unexpected luminary to speak at the school’s opening-day ceremony: Prime Minister Erdogan. While Erdogan often attended the opening-day ceremonies at universities close to his government, to do so at Ankara University was unusual. A group of professors within Mulkiye decided to conduct a separate opening-day ceremony for their faculty, at exactly the same time as Erdogan’s speech. They called their gathering “Freedom of Expression and the Universities” and invited speakers like Ismail Besikci, a writer and sociologist who had been imprisoned for 17 years on charges of advocating separatism. When the rector learned of the parallel ceremony, he asked a Mulkiye dean at the time, Yalcin Karatepe, to cancel it. Don’t do it on the same day, Ibis suggested; then: Don’t do it at the same hour. (Ibis disputes this claim.)

“But I refused to cancel,” Karatepe told me later. “This faculty has survived six sultans, 11 presidents, countless prime ministers. Erdogan was just another one, and this time will pass. This institution has a tradition of speaking out, and we who are here now must continue the tradition.” Mulkiye’s ceremony was held in the end.

The faculty’s relationship with Ankara University’s rector deteriorated, especially after the events of the following summer, in 2013. That’s when the Gezi Park protests, which began in Istanbul in reaction to the planned destruction of a park, quickly spread to Ankara and across the country, as a rejection of the A.K.P. government. It would be hard to overstate how terrifying the Gezi protests must have seemed for Erdogan. Gezi brought even the most apolitical students out into the streets. Middle-aged people joined them, too. “Normally those families would stop their kids, but they went out together; that was something quite new in Turkey,” Uzgel told me.

Eventually police officers cleared Gezi Park of the protesters. Erdogan was elected president for the first time a year later in 2014. “Erdogan began his ‘one-man-ification’ of the country after Gezi,” Gurer said. “And our rector began his ‘one-man-ification’ of the university as well.”

At the same time, the Gezi Park protests led to the popularity of a new political party, H.D.P., headed by the Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas, who was magnetic, funny and handsome. Demirtas strove to make his party open to all Turks and more independent than its predecessor parties, which had ties to the P.K.K. He urged peace with the Turkish state. His popularity soared. Erdogan seemed to feel threatened by the emergence of a politician more charismatic than he was. Soon after, he did what countless Turkish politicians before him did to win votes: He helped reignite a war in the southeast against the P.K.K., which for its part engaged enthusiastically. Antiwar protests erupted on Mulkiye’s campus throughout 2014 and 2015.

Such demonstrations were to be expected of Mulkiye students — but now Ibis, the new rector, took a very different attitude toward them. According to a report produced by Baris Unlu and Ozlem Albayrak, former Mulkiye professors, 626 Ankara University students in 2015, 758 in 2016 and 815 in 2017 “were given disciplinary action.” The rector opened two investigations into Yalcin Karatepe — the same dean who allowed the alternate opening-day ceremony — including one for leaving his post without permission. (According to Turkish law, a civil servant must notify an employer of travel plans, but this is rarely enforced.)

In an email, Ibis said: “If a crime is committed, you have to follow the essential legal process. Otherwise you would be taking part in a crime or working with the criminal.” He also said that during this period he believed that a “group of students had not been letting those who didn’t share the same background as themselves, or hold the same political views, enter campus and thus go to classes and tests, and that some of the academic staff had supported these activities.”

Pro-government media began signaling to state authorities which political actors in Turkish life should be investigated or condemned for various infractions — a sinister trend that extended to journalists, politicians, academics and students. The newspapers Yeni Akit, Habervaktim and Vahdet hounded Mulkiye, calling the people there “enemies of Islam,” “gay lovers” and “bastards.” When Mulkiye’s Human Rights Center screened Lars von Trier’s film “Nymphomaniac” in the name of freedom of expression — the film had been banned in Turkey — critics referred to both the department and the film as sapkin, or “perverted.” This kind of invective reached a fever pitch when it came time for Mulkiye’s Inek Bayrami, or Cow Festival, a longstanding Mulkiye spring tradition in which for two days students are encouraged to criticize their professors in a public forum. (It’s essentially a roast.) One of the Cow Festival rites is the selection of an “imam” to initiate the proceedings, which include a mock opening prayer. The festival was repeatedly attacked by pro-government trolls online, and the 2017 festival was canceled by the administration. The student who played the imam in 2016 was charged with insulting religion.

“Yeni Akit always said we protected L.G.B.T. students, pro-Kurdish or so-called terrorist students,” Aktoprak said. “But we only defended their rights. We were trying to protect our students from the attacks from security forces. We experienced early what everyone in Turkey is experiencing now — that even if you just support something, they label you a terrorist.”

And once you are labeled a terrorist in Turkey — where the antiterror laws are elastic — your life is more or less over. Mulkiye professors defined this entire period, the Erkan Ibis era, as “mobbing,” or an attempt to force people out of their workplace through intimidation.

In early 2016, some academics circulated a petition supporting a peaceful resolution to the government’s war with the P.K.K. They called themselves Academics for Peace and titled their petition “We Will Not Be Party to This Crime!” In Turkish academia, such petitions were normal, even banal, and when the academics urged their colleagues to sign it, many did so reflexively, more than 2,000 in Turkey.

Professors from Mulkiye signed the petition not only out of solidarity but also because many of them were engaged in exposing the undemocratic lie at the heart of the Turkish republic — the fact that Turkey was founded as a nation of Turks only, when millions of its people were not Turks at all but Kurds.

The language of the petition would someday haunt its signers:

“As academics and researchers of this country, we will not be party to this crime! ... This deliberate and planned massacre is in serious violation of Turkey’s own laws and international treaties to which Turkey is a party. ... We demand the state to abandon its deliberate massacre and deportation of Kurdish and other peoples in the region. ... For this purpose we demand that independent national and international observers be given access to the region and that they be allowed to monitor and report on the incidents.”

Soon after it was released, Erdogan, himself a rhetorical master of sorts, homed in on the petition’s language, in part because it seemed to suggest that he was guilty of an international crime. He responded by declaring in a speech that the academics were guilty of a national one:

“The old Turkey, run by a handful of lumpen, who call themselves intellectuals and academics, doesn’t exist anymore. These lumpen circles have shown once again their true faces. With this declaration, they have shown the terror propaganda directly, which they have been conducting for years indirectly. ... Do you favor the unity and solidarity of Turkey or not? If you favor the unity of the country, why do you speak in the jargon of the terror organization, which makes our citizens’ lives miserable and attacks our security forces? This is called terror propaganda.”

Across the country, academics were vilified, threatened and even arrested. According to Unlu and Albayrak’s report, Ankara University immediately opened an investigation into the academics who signed the petition. (Ibis said this was done at the request of YOK.) Around the same time, two professors, Unlu and Gokcen Alpkaya, came under attack for questions they included in their exams. Unlu had asked about Abdullah Ocalan; Alpkaya had asked about the Academics for Peace petition. A legal case brought against Unlu accused him of inciting terror. The mobbing had intensified.

Ilhan Uzgel found the atmosphere so stressful and worrisome that he took a sabbatical at SOAS, in London. Before he left, the rector was discussing with professors the option of withdrawing their signature from the petition. “I said, No, I cannot do it,” Uzgel said. Among other reasons: “My assistant signed that petition. I couldn’t do that to him.”

While Uzgel was away in London, there was another attempted military coup in Turkey.

In response to the failed coup in 2016, Erdogan purged the state’s ministries, its police force, the military, the secondary schools, hospitals, unions, newspapers and nonprofit organizations — some 150,000 people in total. Many of the denounced were accused members of the Gulen movement, whom the government associated with the coup plot. But soon Erdogan turned on Kurds and leftists, including, of course, academics.

In September 2016, along with thousands of other Turks, 21 members of the teaching staff were fired from Ankara University, including some half dozen assistants from Mulkiye. The academics at Mulkiye, Aktoprak noted, were very agitated. “Everyone, including the lawyers, started telling us what we should do,” she said. “Like, who will be the contact person for your family if you are taken into custody? What’s in your messages? What’s at your house? We all started wondering what it could be.”

She looked at Gurer, sitting across from her. “Did you throw anything out?”

“Magazines,” he said. “I got rid of my computer, my phone. I erased all of my WhatsApp.”

The next month, in October, some of their colleagues were refused the right to leave the country.

“We realized some of these people who couldn’t go abroad didn’t have a case opened against them,” Aktoprak said. “For example, one of our university colleagues was going to go to Japan, and at the gate at the airport she learned she couldn’t go. We think that the rector had sent a list to the state security forces that said, These people could be connected to terror.” (Ibis denies giving this type of information to state security forces.)

Three months later, on Jan. 6, 2017, the purge struck Mulkiye again. The professors Faruk Alpkaya and Ozlem Albayrak were fired, along with professors from other faculties at the school.

The remaining professors checked Resmi Gazete, the government’s official online bulletin, every day. Will I be fired today? they wondered, or will I be fired tomorrow? For a month, it was all the petition signers talked about. They knew that those already purged had lost access to certain online university systems. They checked obsessively to see if they, too, had lost access, as if this would be the tell of their impending doom. “OSYM, the national testing center that organizes university entrance exams, blocked me on Twitter,” Gurer said. “This was one month before I was fired.”

“It was terrible,” Aktoprak said, laughing a little. “You would say to yourself, If a bird takes off, does it mean I’m being fired?”

For this reason, Aktoprak and Gurer were almost relieved when finally, on Feb. 7, 2017, they, along with 27 other academics, lost their jobs. It was one of the last big spates of firings, and again the campus erupted in protests. The police responded with tear gas. Soon after, fired professors who tried to enter Mulkiye were turned away. “I’m sorry, hocam,” the security guards would say. “You are one of the fired.”

Aktoprak found that experience so painful — to suddenly find yourself barred from a place you had found refuge every day for your entire adult life — that she never returned.

The Mulkiye that remained was no longer recognizable to those who once worked there. The walls, which had always been covered with leftist posters, are now sparsely adorned with Turkish flags. The Human Rights Center was closed. (The rector has since reopened it under his control.) Certain subjects are now rarely taught — Foucault, say, or queer theory. Master’s and doctoral courses have been canceled, leaving graduate students suddenly without an adviser. The film society, where students and professors used to drink wine and watch movies together, has been shut down, and the showing of films, according to academics who have been purged, has been banned entirely.

“Mulkiye always used to mean criticism,” Aktoprak said. “And it can’t mean that anymore.”

The academics left at Mulkiye were shouldering an unimaginable course load, slinging enormous sacks of papers and tests over their backs to grade at night. One of the people who remained was Kerem Altiparmak. He is currently part of a group of lawyers representing about 100 Turks at the European Court of Human Rights and Turkish criminal courts who were targeted by the post-coup purge. He was not fired from Mulkiye, but he resigned last year. He no longer felt that the conditions for conducting an academic life existed there. Altiparmak found himself investigated for holding academic discussions on Turkey’s post-coup state of emergency laws. “The university sent a letter to all academics and forced them to sign it, in which the rector warned not to cross lines in the curriculum,” Altiparmak said. “It said, We receive complaints from our students that teachers are discussing subjects irrelevant to the curriculum, and I am warning you not to do this.”

The universities had also empowered the more conservative students to submit complaints about their professors through something called the Communications Center of the Presidency, or Cimer. “They say things like, ‘You are now telling your Marxist opinions to us,’ ” Altiparmak said. “Some don’t want to hear other perspectives. This will affect all culture of Turkey because these are the people going into the state bureaucracy.”

Similar disruptions have occurred in the Foreign Ministry as well. Selim Sazak, a Turkish Ph.D. candidate at Brown University and writer on foreign affairs, has said that an A.K.P. apparatchik discouraged him from aspiring to a big career in the foreign service, saying, “The era of people like you” — non-A.K.P.-affiliated, prep-school-educated — “is over.” In fact, it’s not a stretch to suggest that the enormous transformations in Turkey’s foreign policy right now — its engagement in the wars in Syria and Iraq, its steep increases in military spending and its distancing from the West — can be connected to the sidelining of some traditional voices, including ones from Mulkiye.

“There was still an expectance of Mulkiye as a fundamental institution of the republic,” Timur Kuran of Duke University says. “Before, no one sought to eliminate it or remove the checks and balances in the political system that came from Mulkiye. In the present case, there is an effort to remove not only Mulkiye’s supervisory role but all checks and balances.”

“Mulkiye-trained people tended to be much more cautious in foreign policy,” Kuran says. “Keeping the country at peace was their fundamental goal. Right now, Erdogan is taking huge risks. All checks and balances in foreign policy are disappearing, and even to raise questions about the adventures that Turkey is now getting into is to risk persecution as a traitor.”

Not surprisingly, this atmosphere has prompted a brain drain — thousands of Turkish academics, in the social sciences as well as the sciences, have left the country. Even the government has acknowledged that the departures represent a full-blown crisis. Recently, the minister of industry and technology, Mustafa Varank, promised academics abroad a monthly salary of 24,000 lira (about $4,200) if they came to Turkey.

Many students told newspapers they would not return to a country where they felt academics were rewarded on ideological grounds or for connections rather than merit, or where they wouldn’t be able to work on any subjects that countered the official state line. As a former professor who has remained put it to me: “There is no point in carrying on as if nothing changed. If there’s no more university life, why should I be in the university anymore?”

Elcin Aktoprak and others did receive a grant from the European Union to do research and build pilot programs for online “human rights ateliers.” Many fired professors established alternative education centers in the wake of the purge, which were called “solidarity academies,” and where you could go to learn about politics in peace.

“The one silver lining to all this,” Aktoprak said, “was that maybe we can sustain an intellectual community on our own this way and return to public life in better days.”

For everyone, though, there is still the prospect of prison. According to Academics for Peace, more than 2,000 hearings have been held for the peace petitioners, and none have resulted in acquittals. In most cases decided so far, academics receive a 15-month suspended jail sentence, but some 30 of them have not been given suspension of judgment, and one professor, Fusun Ustel, is currently in jail. Another signatory, Tuna Altinel, is in prison on charges from a different case.

Ilhan Uzgel spends most of his days working on his laptop at a Starbucks in an Ankara mall. After he was fired, he looked into jobs at private universities — which are not barred from hiring fired professors, technically — but they are all too scared to hire the purged. This was a common claim among purged professors. In at least one way, Uzgel was one of the lucky ones: He was old enough to retire and receive his pension.

The loss of people like Uzgel, and as a result the loss of their analytical expertise, is an enormous loss for Turkish society. The people best able to analyze for me what was happening in Turkey in 2019 — its political scientists — were the ones being erased by what was happening in 2019. With them goes not only history itself but also nuance and complexity and fairness.

As someone who has studied Turkey’s political history, Uzgel acknowledged that his fate was not entirely unusual. The tradition of purging preceded the founding of Turkey, and it continued throughout modern Turkish history. Purging was not an anomaly but rather integral to that history.

But if the authoritarian regime lasts long enough, it can succeed in suppressing even relatively uncritical voices. Most of the Mulkiye professors did not believe that Erdogan wanted an Islamic state or a fascist one. What the A.K.P. seems to propose for Turkey’s future is a country without character — a country that can believe itself to be free as long as it does not adopt an identity that threatens the A.K.P. Institutions like Mulkiye had been one thing above all: independent in spirit and principle. Such institutions cannot exist in Erdogan’s Turkey for many, many reasons, one of which is simply that they are too distinct.

Individuals, too, can become less distinct. They become fuzzy. Their voices fade. They lose their place in society, so much so that when they discover themselves again, the sweetness of it takes them by surprise. One of the many professors I interviewed was Faruk Alpkaya. Alpkaya talked about Turkish history. He was an academic — that was his job. But after 20 years of being a professor, he, like Uzgel and thousands of others, has spent the last two and a half years as a nonentity in official Turkish life. Alpkaya spoke in bursts for 10 minutes at a time, then apologized as if he had surprised himself, using a verb tense in Turkish that can imply the discovery of something previously unknown.

“I’m sorry,” he would say. “I must miss speaking.”

Suzy Hansen is a contributing writer for the magazine and the author of “Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World,” which was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction. She has been living in Istanbul for over 10 years and previously wrote about the Turkish government’s crackdown on journalists, Kurds, leftists, dissidents, activists and academics.

#u.s. news #politics #politics and government #us: news #international news #must reads #world news #democracy #civil-rights #corruption #elections #activism #impeachthemf #political science #humanrights #turkey #education

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firebugartist · 6 years ago

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Got my first scooter! 1980 c70 Honda passport!

#scooter #honda #1980

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jesusvasser · 6 years ago

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The 2019 Chevrolet Blazer Is the Optimist’s Camaro

SAN DIEGO, California—Who needs a two-row midsize SUV? No one, really, because a one-segment-down, compact two-row like the Toyota RAV4, Ford Escape, or Chevrolet Equinox will carry nearly as much, very likely be priced lower, and probably get better fuel mileage. It’s that category that is rapidly replacing midsize sedans as the vehicular appliance of choice. If you something larger, it’s likely because you need that third row for kids and their friends, or even the extra cargo space with some or all of the seats dropped flat—things that two-row midsizers don’t offer.

But the people that buy such SUVs definitely want them; they’re a lifestyle choice. They’re generally sold in higher trim levels, with more optional equipment, compared with three-row family SUVs. They mostly offer V-6s or at least powerful turbocharged four-cylinders, and sometimes even V-8s. And they tend to be more expressive and more stylish than other SUVs, although that often isn’t saying much given the struggle companies face in distinguishing their tall, slab-sided, two-box models from everyone else’s.

In short, even if they have four doors, those without cynicism could call them the SUV age’s answer to the Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger. Indeed, GM wants you to see the 2019 Chevrolet Blazer, a late-ish entry into this hot segment, as a Camaro analog. Aesthetically, it has enough style to make Bill Mitchell proud, with a bit of Coke bottle to its shape and a pointy grille, and it is possessed of the same general look that made the reborn Camaro the bestseller in its segment for a while a few years ago. The parallel continues inside, with Camaro-style round HVAC vents punctuating the Blazer’s dashboard.

Lest I take this Camaro story too far, note that there is no hotted-up SS version, as Chevy’s latest crossover is available in L, Blazer, RS, and Premier spec. Both of the latter versions’ interiors are nicely finished with quality materials, punching above the Blazer’s price class inversely to the impression one gets from Cadillac’s SUVs. Outside, the RS has black trim instead of chrome, with a black grille and bowtie.

Both the RS and Premier come standard with a naturally aspirated 3.6-liter V-6 making 308 horsepower, just 27 shy of the Ford Edge ST’s 2.7-liter EcoBoost turbo V-6, though the Blazer’s 270 lb-ft can’t compete with the Edge’s EcoBoosted 380.

Even with this deficit, though, the new Blazer feels plenty powerful and offers a smooth, steady launch from a stop—though without the Edge ST’s kick in the backside. Our friends at Motor Trend recorded a zero-to-60-mph time of 6.1 seconds in the all-wheel-drive Ford, and Chevy estimates the Blazer V-6 can hit the same speed in about 6.5 seconds with front-wheel drive. Paradoxically, the all-wheel-drive version is estimated to be a couple of tenths slower; this won’t matter much to its consumers, but most vehicles are quicker with four driven wheels owing to more off-the-line grip.

The standard Blazer engine is a naturally aspirated 2.5-liter inline four-cylinder, which I did not get to sample. With this four available only on the lowest L trim level, the basic L ($31,190) and 2.5L ($34,690) seem likely to be relegated to rental lots. The four is rated for 193 horsepower and 188 lb-ft of torque and is available with front- or all-wheel drive. Since our spec chart refers only to the two versions I drove, the RS and the Premier, I’ll add that the mid-level Blazer V-6 with cloth seats starts at $35,690 and the Blazer V-6 Leather at $39,890.

That leaves the Premier and RS to start in the $40Ks and compete, both in price and in content, with the Cadillac XT5. This competition according to Chevy includes the Nissan Murano, the new Honda Passport, the aforementioned Edge, and—although it’s a bit of an outlier—the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

The Chevy Blazer’s 3.6-liter V-6 is more spirited than, say, the version of the engine found in the Traverse partly because of its elevated 11.5:1 compression ratio, says Larry Mihalko, the vehicle’s performance manager. Despite the higher ratio, which it shares with the GMC Acadia, it runs on regular unleaded gasoline. A non-defeatable stop-start system adds about 1 mpg in city driving, Chevrolet estimates.

Mihalko attributes the Blazer’s ride-handling acumen to its wide front and rear tracks, high-rate springs, and large-diameter anti-roll bars. The Blazer RS has its own damper tuning that is 40 percent stiffer up front and 15 percent beefier at the rear, and it can be fitted with optional 21-inch wheels. The RS also has direct-acting anti-roll bars that are said to increase roll stiffness in order to deliver a sportier, flatter cornering attitude. The multilink rear suspension is fully isolated from the body, and the rear dampers “are larger than necessary,” for whatever that’s worth. The cross-axis ball joints used here are four times stiffer than rubber bushings, Mihalko says, and “turn easily, but are stiff laterally.”

Mihalko is a gregarious, enthusiastic boffin who tends to geek out about engineering solutions he helps discover. It occurs to me during his outline of the Blazer’s chassis and drivetrain particulars that we have come full-circle since the 1980s, when interlopers like Honda and Toyota proved to GM and its domestic rivals that family sedans don’t have to handle like land yachts. Now automakers both foreign and domestic are trying to figure out how to overcome the laws of physics by making heavy, tall vehicles with 20- or 21-inch wheels handle and ride like cars.

I started in a loaded 2019 Chevrolet Blazer Premier AWD, and while San Diego traffic prevented me from pushing too hard, the suspension is tuned to allow for some body roll and a compliant ride without any wallowing. With 270 lb-ft of torque, the front wheels want to steer themselves a bit under throttle at mid-range rpm, though most aren’t likely to induce the behavior very often. If you’re wondering about torque steer in an all-wheel-drive vehicle, it happened while we were in FWD-only “Normal” mode—the AWD system never engages automatically. Instead, there’s a center-console dial in all-wheel-drive Blazers that is used to call up 4×4 or Sport modes and their attendant full-time AWD. The latter delivers less yaw control via the dual-clutch torque-vectoring rear-differential fitted to RS models (non-RS AWD Blazers have a single-clutch rear differential). There’s also an optional tow/haul feature that engages AWD.

I stuck with the Normal mode, thinking I’d wait to try the AWD system on the RS during the second day of the drive program. Darn the luck, I ended up with a FWD RS instead.

The RS comes with a quicker, 15.1:1 steering ratio versus other Blazers’ 16.1:1 setup. The electrically assisted power steering is a belt-driven rack-mounted system, and while it’s precise with surprisingly good feedback, it never felt particularly quick even in RS-spec. The RS feels more neutral and slightly stiffer while cornering, although its dynamic improvements are incremental and not monumental, mostly because the base suspension is very good. Neither suspension is the least bit harsh—with the caveat that we were on tabletop-smooth roads—and no Blazer is reluctant to turn-in. I did particularly like how the RS fervently holds a lower gear all the way through a corner when in Sport mode.

Is Blazer the new Camaro? Not for enthusiasts who drive cars like the Camaro the way they’re meant to be driven. But mainstream consumers who purchase such crossovers to break out of midsize-sedan or compact-SUV monotony will discover enough Camaro in the Blazer’s design—if not its handling—to find some equivalency. And I’ll admit it is more fun to drive than most utilities. There are a couple of issues surrounding Chevy’s new baby that can’t go unmentioned: Its name first and foremost, because it once belonged to a truck-based Bronco competitor, and that it is being assembled in Mexico, as GM plans to close up to five U.S. factories. These concerns aren’t likely to affect the 2019 Chevrolet Blazer’s success on the sales charts.

2019 Chevrolet Blazer RS/Premier Specifications

ON SALE Now PRICE RS, $41,795; Premier, $46,795 ENGINE 3.6L DOHC 24-valve V-6; 308 hp @ 6,700 rpm, 270 lb-ft @ 5,000 rpm TRANSMISSION 9-speed automatic LAYOUT 2-door, 4-passenger, front-engine, FWD or AWD SUV EPA MILEAGE 18–20/25–26 mpg (city/hwy) L x W x H 191.4 x 76.7 x 67.0 in WHEELBASE 112.7 in WEIGHT 4,017–4,246 lb 0–60 MPH 6.5–6.8 sec. (mfr) TOP SPEED N/A

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eddiejpoplar · 6 years ago

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The 2019 Chevrolet Blazer Is the Optimist’s Camaro

I stuck with the Normal mode, thinking I’d wait to try the AWD system on the RS during the second day of the drive program. Darn the luck, I ended up with a FWD RS instead.

2019 Chevrolet Blazer RS/Premier Specifications

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jonathanbelloblog · 6 years ago

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The 2019 Chevrolet Blazer Is the Optimist’s Camaro

I stuck with the Normal mode, thinking I’d wait to try the AWD system on the RS during the second day of the drive program. Darn the luck, I ended up with a FWD RS instead.

2019 Chevrolet Blazer RS/Premier Specifications

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lovenerdywinnerbouquetfan-blog · 7 years ago

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garage keepers insurance quote reviews

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my friend was in a car accident although she is insured her driving licence had expired

Buying first car and auto insurance question.?

I just got pre-approval for an auto loan. I do not even have a car in mind yet. My question is when do I contact insurance companies? Should I look at cars, pick on I like, and then contact car insurance companies about quotes or should I call them before I even go browsing? Im just a little lost. Also, I hear car insurance is flipping crazy for young men. Im a 22/Male in New Mexico so if anyone has insight or suggestions I would appreciate it :)""

Will my car be fixed even though car insurance runs out?

Hi there. A car came into me the other day and bumped my car, I have fully comp insurance which runs out january 11th in my mums name, but i am the named driver. The car will have to have quite a bit of work done so im guessing it wont be fixed before this date. The other drivers insurance will be paying for the cost, the insurance and car is in my mums name, and I want to change myself to the owner (official through DVLA) and take out my own insurance before 11th instead of renewing with the smae company. Will they carrying on fixing the car if the insursance who have delt with the claim has run out, also will if be wrong if the car was in my name before the car was returned to my mum. I hope this makes sense, and i hope someone can help thanks.""

Will my drivers insurance rate go up after this accident?

Im 17, live in California and am insured under Geico. I was driving in a parking lot going the speed limit and this girl back out super fast (presumably without looking) and slams into me. Her car was fine but she left a small dent and paint chip near the door and rear tire opposite the drivers side. Will my rates go up even if I wasn't at fault? Should i even go to insurance on this? Please help!""

How Much Will My Car Insurance Be?

I am a 21 year old male with a very clean driving record, no DUI or tickets etc. Buying a 2004 Honda Civic DX 4D Sedan used for $11,000. What's the cheapest full cover car insurance out there for a guy like me? Any suggestions?""

""If i buy a car, how long have i got to insure it?""

If i buy a car, how long have i got to insure it?""

Best non-owner liability coverage insurance?

What is the best non-owner liability coverage insurance in New York ?

""Adding my car to another's car insurance, how does this work?

I want to add my car and me as driver to another's car insurance (who has established rates) how can I do this?

How much you pay for car insurance if your in early 20's?

I'm a 21 year old college student. Im going on to my junior year and have just gotten a car. I have always gotten a ride with my friends. I got a quote from Farmers Insurance for $2600 for 6 months full coverage is that normal?

Showing proof of insurance after citation (in Texas)?

Hello, i received a citation for driving uninsured a couple days ago (my court date is the 15th). I got a letter in the mail today saying i would have to pay a fine of $300.... ...show more""

Could I buy an auto insurance without a car?

Could I buy an auto insurance without a car? I have no car yet and I plan to buy a used car from owner. So I would like to rent a car for a week to find a used car. Before I buy my used car, could I buy the auto insurance first? Thanks!""

How much would insurance cost for a 1995 Honda civic ex?

For a 35 year old with a good driving record? I know its different from company to company but what's a good estimate

garage keepers insurance quote reviews

Isn't the real problem causing a health care crisis in USA that cost of healthcare/insurance is too high?

Health care costs are out of control and so is the cost to insure. Because of the high cost of insurance many employers no longer offer what used to be a very common employee benefit. So now we millions of americans who are uninsured because they cant afford to go out and pay 600, 700,800, 900 dollars a month for private health insurance coverage. The rich and the fortunate ones with group insurance are taken care of. The ones who dont work and are on medicaid are taken care of, but the ones who are above the poverty line and work but are struggling as it is to make ends meet cannot afford the high insurance premiums and are left uninsured. We need to find a way to make health insurance and health care more affordable ..this is how people will get insurance on their own and the government will not have to tax us more to provide more free health care.""

Does a new auto insurance policy cost more if there is a lean on the title?

If a car is in group 4 for insurance what does that mean? How much will it cost?

Does searching for Car Insurance drive you crazy?

Should fat people and smokers get a discount on their health insurance?

Fat People Cheaper to Treat, Study Says Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn't save money, researchers reported Monday. It costs more to care for healthy people who live years longer, according to a Dutch study that counters the common perception that preventing obesity would save governments millions of dollars... -- AP/wired.com, Feb 6, 2008 http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/O/OBESITY_COST?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-02-05-02-58-08""

About how much is car insurance in British Columbia?

About how much is car insurance in British Columbia, particularly Vancouver or nearby? Perhaps if you could share how much it costs you or someone in your family with a good driving record. Perhaps give a hint of what car you have, liability limits, etc. In the U.S., you can get online quotes. For Canada, I've never seen anything like it.""

Does becoming pregnant qualify as a life changing event for most insurance companies/employers?

Commonly, life changing events are listed as marriage, divorce, and birth of a child, ect. If a person doesn't have insurance and learns that they are pregnant, will most companies allow enrollment at that time even if enrollment is scheduled at a specific time of the year?""

Are YOU required to have auto insurance or is the CAR required?

Simple question, is the person driving suppose to by law(i live in oklahoma) have insurance or can the car just be insured by someone else say, parent, aunt, uncle, grandparent? i know legally if the car is in a collision then the insurance policy my by null and void. but i want to know the technicalities if i just have one of my relatives insure my car without me being listed can i get in trouble if i dont get into any accidents or the person whos name its under? ive spoken with many insurance agents saying that technically you can do what i stated above but most insurance companies will drop coverage if they find out that someone is driving the vehicle other than the rated driver. im just tired of paying 150+ for liability due to unfortunate events in the past...thank you.""

Car insurance for 17 year olds?

Hey people, i am 17 in april and i have been looking into buying a 1983 mini mayfair with 13 alloys and arches....and thats it... onlly a 998cc, not the fastest of cars but guess what quoted over 1,300 Whats the F%$*& point, any body know ov any good car insurers that i may get a quote from? cheers.... Kyle""

California health insurance?

I am looking to get health insurance for a year, more to take care of neglected issues than to cover my butt if I get sick/hurt (I'm 27, betting on youth and good health!). Kaiser seems to be the most appealing because they cover a broader range of services. I am namely interested in physical therapy (winged scapula), dermatology (oily skin/acne), perhaps mental illness services as I have suffered from depression (although I somewhat consider it a problem of my past). I'm aware insurance plans won't cover preexisting conditions, but how can they really prove these issues didn't start yesterday, right? I'm overwhelmed with my choices. Is it worth paying $330/mo for $0 deductible, 0% coinsurance, $40 co pays and a max out of pocket @ $3000? Or is it smarter to pay $166/mo, $2700 deductible, 0% coinsurance, $0 co pays after deductible, and max out of pocket @ $5000 (including deductible)? Etc. I have put off getting insurance because I'm scared I will pick a completely inappropriate plan. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?""

Should i carry collision insurance on my 2006 silverado?

Looking for car insurance?

what do u use? Wat advice can u give me about it? All a Wat insurance do u use? Wat advice can u give me about it?

Im 19 years and i need a car but im woried about the insurance?

Hi im 19 years old. I have a good job but no credit. i recently saw this 2000 dollars car. how much could i be paying for the insurance.

Negative impacts on making all drivers have insurance?

also what are some positive impacts of making all drivers have insurance how would it help stop boy racers?

If I drive a car that has insurance but not in your name in Florida?

If there is a car accident can I get in trouble? Meaning can I get a ticket if someone rear ends me? A friend of mine was in an accident and they were rearended the car owner had insurance would that cover said friend?

""Have SR-22 insurance, can I switch insurance companies?""

Hi, I've had sr-22 insurance through geico for a little over a year now, however due to recently moving to florida my monthly payments have gone through the roof. Do I have the option of switching to a cheaper insurance company without having to restart the 3 year mandatory holding of the sr-22?""

Car insurance? Who is covered? Who is responsible?

Okay I had a question about car insurance... I am on my grandfather's car insurance plan- I live with my boyfriend. I believe I am the only one insured to drive the car....My boyfriend's mother and step-father don't have a car right now and often times ask to borrow my car- I've been letting them until it was brought to my attention that they may not be covered in that car? Does this mean I would be responsible for anything that happened? Or would they? If another car was at fault for the accident what would happen? Anyone know how this works?

What is the cheapest car to insure for a 17-19 year old guy from the UK in 2013?

I'm 16 and will be taking my test next year and I want to know what to get for my first car?

How Much Will My Car Insurance Payment Increase After An Accident?

I got into my first car accident today that was my fault I am 17 years old and I have full coverage on Geico insurance I was wondering on around how much will my payment increase after the accident? There was no damage on my car but the other persons car had a large dent on the right side of his front bumper.

Riding a friends motorcycle without insurance?

My friend says he has insurance on his bike(ninja 250) that covers him, any other riders and any damages to the bike. He wants me to ride his bike but i have no insurance only my motorcycle permit, my question is, is he just miss understanding his insurance or is he correct about it? Thank you for any help! Also i plan on getting insurance in the next month.""

How much is teen car insurance?

how much would it be for teen car insurance? im a 17 y/o female in Long Island, NY good grades and will be taking the defensive course first. thanks""

Can i have both medi-cal and private insurance at the same time?

My father has me under his insurance plan and I also have medical in the state of California. My son's medical worker signed me up for medical when I became pregnant with my second child. Also, can I use medical as secondary insurance to pay the remaining balance of my hospital bill?""

""If women get low car insurance rates, because they are rated as a group, shouldn't men have low medical rates?""

Women get low car rates b/c they, as a group, are less likely to have accidents. Feminists quote this fact all the time. Yet women live 8+ yrs. longer than men, and spend the last years of their lives using numerous and costly medical resources. Women use ~50% more medical resources than men. Why, then, aren't women required to pay higher medical premiums? Why aren't feminists marching on Washington demanding that women pay more? Oh, sorry ... I forgot. Feminists say they want equality, but their actions show different.""

Car Rental Insurance?

I will be going to the US soon. I am a US citizen but do not live in the US. I will be going to visit family for a month and will be renting a car. My question is this, do I need to get the insurance from the vendor or is there a 3rd party insurance I can puchase? Most of the car rental places have LDW / CDW insurance for purchase but this almost doubles the cost of rental. My credit cards and car insurance here in my country of residence do not cover car rentals so I will have to get something. Does anybody know of a different route to take other than purchasing at the vendor?""

Where can I find affordable family health insurance?

Looking to find several health company quotes.

garage keepers insurance quote reviews

What is the average cost of insurance for box truck owners?

looking to start a company and i am wondering how much it would cost so i can get the ball rolling.

What to do when not involving car insurance in car accident?

Ok so I hit someones bumper, my fault. I don't have insurance but they do. Her car insurance called me the next day asking for basic info. A couple days later the car owner called me and said she didn't want to go through the insurance company because it would take her too long to receive her deductible back. She said she was going to pay the deductible to allstate and get the car fixed but not go after me I guess, I don't really get it, as long as I pay her back for the deductible. Would I still owe something to allstate afterwards or would I actually be able to walk away from something like this?""

How can insurance companies find out if you have a pre-existing condition??

I have heard people mention the MIB as a source, but where do they get their info? I thought medical records were strictly private, how do they find out your past medical info? Ty!""

Blood test and insurance?

IS THE BLOOD TEST FOR AFP COVERED BY MY INSURANCE?

What is the cheapest Car insurance in NH?

I have a 98 ford taurus, nothing special first car, NH has stupidly high insurance im discovering so maybe someone can suggest a good one, good as in cheap. Thank you!!""

Does anyone know of cheap insurance?

I just recently found out I have a nodule on my thyroid but I have no medical insurance. Its causing me relationship problems. I need help quick. I had a lung removed three years ago due to a cancer scare the doctors all thought it was cancer. The first place thyroid cancer matastisies to is the lung now Im afraid.

Is there an option for auto insurance for if you only drive your vehicle two to three days a month?

I have a truck that I only use like the 2 to 3 times my fiancee isn't around with her gas friendly vehicle. I drive a 15 MPG gas guzzlin' chevy 2500 HD. BUT, I do not want to pay for full insurance because I literally don't drive it but 2 to 3 times a month.""

Cheap car insurance with a claim?

I've had an unlucky year, my first car got written off, and just recently i've had my second car stolen and not recovered. This has happened in the space of a year, and i have nearly had my licence one year. What are my options to get insured as cheap as possible? are there any insurance companies out there that specifically insure young drivers or drivers with claims?""

Can I take a life insurance policy on my 80 year old father who is excellant help without him knowong?

Why is car insurance so expensive??? Help!!!?

Can anyone help me find cheap car insurance? I'm 17, I live in texas, I own my car.""

Where to get medical help for 53 year old severe diabetic friend without insurance? Nashville TN area?

My friend makes too much money for government assistance (she makes a dollar above minimum wage) The income based clinics in our area are not excepting any new patients for a least 3 ...show more

How much money can i get from a car accident?? it was not my fault?

i was in a car accident. the other driver crashed into me & did a hit and run. i was in the car with my g.f . my g.f ended up with back pains & neck pains. i ended up with two broken fingers & a cast in my left hand. in addition i had back pains too. it appears that the driver that hit me was d.u.i and did a hit and run and got caught. after that, the insurance from the driver salvaged my car. just paid me what is was worth 3k. ive been going to therapy for 2 months now with my g.f. i spend about 500-600 in medical bills. i was off work 3 months. im 21 years old and i live in the state of california. i have an attorney working on my case. so how much can i get from the insurance company and my g.f ????""

""New to real estate, question about auto insurance?""

I drive my parents car but i am not insured, now that i've joined a real estate firm, they want me to have them as an additional insured. So what can I do now? Do I have to get insurance under my name? And how much would it cost to get the firm as an additional insured?""

""Renting house to teen driver (18), Does my car insurance go up?""

I'm 42 and considering renting out a room to an 18 year old in the house I own. Will having a teen driver putting this as their address, will MY car insurance cost go up?""

Are you still suppose to pay car insurance when...?

Are u still supposed to pay car insurance after you have had an accident?? The car was a total loss..so I don't have it anymore and there is no other cars on my policy..am I still responsible for anything especially when my car paid for itself, the deductable, and then some....???""

What car has the cheapest insurance for a 17 year old new driver?

looking at cars, i would like something that looks alright like a clio etc""

Medical insurance coordination of benefits help?

Husband & wife both have group medical insurance with their employers. His insurance is a bucket plan through Cigna called an HSA. It pays for the first $750 & then he has to meet another $750 before anything else is pd. Her insurance is Healthlink PPO with $250 deductible. If husband's insurance pays for his chiropractor bills in full (as not over $750 total) can these bills be submitted to her insurance to help meet the family deductible of $500? We live in IL. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

My car insurance is ridiculous!?

I am entering my 4th year of driving (22 yr old) with absolutely no claims and even with comparing market my car insurance goes up every year. New comparison has come out at over 2500 quid! I drive a 2.2 diesel but even on a little 1.0 aygo or similar car it is over a grand. Has this happened to anyone else? I'm going to quit driving. I have paid out over 8000 in insurance premiums with no claims and it is getting increasingly difficult to save for a house as you need around 30000 for a deposit.

Car insurance payments?

I'm slightly confused over my car insurance. I took out a 12 month policy in December 2008 (paid a deposit at the time) and then paid by monthly installments. I then continued this policy in December 2009. However I have now cancelled this policy as another company could provide it cheaper. But I've been told by relatives that I won't be charged my monthly fee this month (i.e my pay day tomorrow!) because I have already paid the full amount for the 2 years. Is this correct?

Insurance componies that cover transgender?

Does anyone know of any insurances that cover transgender medical needs (specifically ones to do with being transgender)

Do beneficiaries have to pay taxes on life insurance policies?

Can someone help me with a Corporate Insurance estimate?

I'm creating a business proposal and business plan for some investors, and I need a estimate on how much insurance does the business I'm creating would need. Some of the stats: - Its a new business so 0 years in experience, but the administrators and owners will have over 10 years exp. - Its a game that can be played all around the country, via portals much like slot machines. Each one is estimated in costing 6,700 dollars. We want to implement 1000 units. - It can generate over 100 million dollars in a single year. - The main office is going to be purchased, and it's value is of 1.3 Million. 3 floors 6000sq feet. - We are estimating around 30 full time employees. We want health and workers comp with all of the benefits. - We are going to have 5 corporate cars 2 Pickups 09 Tacoma valued at $28,625 and 3 Yaris valued at $15,980. - We want Liability, Fire, Burglary, Theft, the works. In terms of Liability estimated around $2,000,000 - $10,000,000. Hope you guys can help me out. And thank you in advance for your response!""

Can my car insurance company do this?

I have recently been involved in an accident which i was at fault. My car is written off so they said they will pay out 3,000 for my car minus 250 excess on the policy. so i am left with 2,750 but they said because my insurance was renewed two weeks ago they will deduct my remaining 11 month insurance premium. So I am only left with 900. can my insurance company to that?""

""What's the most affordable auto insurance in Norfolk, Virginia?""

please, serious answers only.""

Car insurance address different on license?

My drivers license and car registration address is at my mothers house which is my permanent address and my car insurance address is where Im living now which is a rental house. Do I need to change the address on my license and car registration? I'm always at my mothers house if it makes any difference. Is this illegal? How would i go about making changes if they need to be done and does it cost money? Thank You!!!!!!

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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-am-looking-federal-court-cases-related-insurance-claims-byers/"

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sbknews · 7 years ago

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New Post has been published on Superbike News

New Post has been published on http://superbike-news.co.uk/wordpress/randy-mamola-becomes-a-motogp-legend/

Randy Mamola becomes a MotoGP Legend

Premier class frontrunner Randy Mamola has been inducted into the World Championship Hall of Fame at the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Mamola is a multiple Grand Prix winner and podium finisher, making him one of the most successful American riders in the history of the Championship. He has also been an important figure in the paddock off track as well as during his career as a rider.

Mamola burst onto the world stage in 1979, taking podiums in both the 250 and 500 World Championships. In 1980, the American gained even more traction and took his first victories – two 500 Grand Prix wins for Suzuki – and added a further pair of rostrum finishes to end the year runner up in the Championship. The following year Mamola took to the top step twice more with even more visits to the podium, and he finished up 1981 second in the standings once again before a slightly more difficult season the year after.

Mamola was third overall in 1983 as Freddie Spencer and Kenny Roberts fought it out at the top, before then moving to Honda the following season and taking runner up in the Championship once again. After 1985 brought another victory and one of the most spectacular saves in history, the American switched to Yamaha for 1986 and took yet more wins and podiums.

Another impressive campaign saw the American crowned runner up for the fourth time in 1987, and Mamola finally retired from Grand Prix racing at the end of 1992 after another two podiums. That makes a total of 13 wins and 57 rostrum finishes taken throughout his illustrious career, with 2018 marking the 39th year the American has been part of the paddock, having remained a key figure in the sport beyond competing on track.

“It’s a big pleasure to have Randy here with me today,” said Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna Sports, as the induction ceremoy began. “When we created MotoGP Legends, it was to create a Hall of Fame for the MotoGP World Championship. We have been nominating many World Champions and this is the first time we’ve nominated someone who has not been World Champion. This is because all his career and all his time with us has made him a legend. It’s for that reason we’ve nominated Randy Mamola.

“For his years in the World Championship and collaborating with us later on in many programmes, he’s a real legend of MotoGP. His collaboration with Riders for Health and now, Two Wheel for Life, have made him that. We’re very honoured to nominate him here in America, in front of a great number of American riders and Champions, many of them MotoGP Legends.”

“It’s a great honour to be appreciated by the sport,” begins newly-inducted MotoGP™ Legend Mamola. “When I got the call, it was a huge shock and even since then trying to come up with a speech or something I want to talk about…there’s too much to write. It’s a great honour. I know I impacted a lot of people and raced for a lot of teams.”

The American then explained how his career began as a dirt tracker and how the road led to Grand Prix racing, naming Kenny Roberts as his mentor and as someone who played a big role in his career.

“The unique thing about my career was that I stood on the podium in three decades, the 70s, 80s and 90s, in the 500 class,” he continued. “That was unheard of when you think about the American riders that came over to Europe. Today’s Moto3 or Red Bull Rookies have more experience on these tracks than we did when we showed up to race against the Europeans!

“My mother and father, who are 92 and 88, said it’s about time you’re becoming a Legend. They’ve been married 68 years. They’re strong and that’s what’s made me strong. My father also told me he’d kick my butt if I ever thought I was above anybody, and that’s why my feet are firmly on the ground. I’m one of the best riders who ever raced, I’m one of the best who put my leg over a screaming 500. My father also always said, be grateful for what you have.”

On that subject, Mamola then spoke of his work with Two Wheels for Life, the official charity of MotoGP™ that works to save lives in Africa – using motorcycles.

“And I’ll mention Two Wheels for Life, which was Riders for Health. My trip, my donations, the help of the riders and everyone that did things to get it to that point…Princess Anne told me I had to go and see how it was being spent and me and Barry went to Somalia before the civil war…we now reach more than 15 million people using motorcycle. Besides my friends and family, the motorcycle is the hero in my life. It has given me and these Champions the passport to travel the world, to represent their country and/or brands and sponsors, in a sport that’s one of the greatest things people can watch or be a part of.”

Mamola has now joined a long list of greats that have been made MotoGP™ Legends that includes Giacomo Agostini, Mick Doohan, Geoff Duke, Wayne Gardner, Mike Hailwood, Daijiro Kato, Eddie Lawson, Anton Mang, Angel Nieto, Wayne Rainey, Phil Read, Jim Redman, Kenny Roberts, Jarno Saarinen, Kevin Schwantz, Barry Sheene, Marco Simoncelli, Freddie Spencer, Casey Stoner, John Surtees, Carlo Ubbiali, Alex Crivillé, Franco Uncini, Marco Lucchinelli and the late Nicky Hayden. South African Kork Ballington will join the ranks later this season.

#MotoGP #Randy Mamola

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noidge-feugno · 8 years ago

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vintage mini bike,honda C 70 ,1980 passport .vintage honda motorcycle no reserve http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=2&toolid=10044&campid=5337506718&customid=&lgeo=1&vectorid=229466&item=322621758497

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beiygu-joijpi · 8 years ago

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via Bikes

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maifso-peavfo · 8 years ago

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saombu-bioyca · 8 years ago

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jesusvasser · 6 years ago

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The 2019 Chevrolet Blazer Is the Optimist’s Camaro

I stuck with the Normal mode, thinking I’d wait to try the AWD system on the RS during the second day of the drive program. Darn the luck, I ended up with a FWD RS instead.

2019 Chevrolet Blazer RS/Premier Specifications

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#IFTTT #Performance Junk WP Feed 4

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eddiejpoplar · 6 years ago

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The 2019 Chevrolet Blazer Is the Optimist’s Camaro

I stuck with the Normal mode, thinking I’d wait to try the AWD system on the RS during the second day of the drive program. Darn the luck, I ended up with a FWD RS instead.

2019 Chevrolet Blazer RS/Premier Specifications

IFTTT

#IFTTT #Performance Junk Blogger 6

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