#Istanbul Convention

[coochiequeens]

“Performing sterilization without the informed consent of the person concerned is considered to be a violation of their rights,” the ministry said.

By Sarah Hurtes Sarah Hurtes reported from across Europe, including spending more than a month in Iceland.

Nov. 25, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

Anita cannot speak or comprehend complex information. At 28, she communicates mostly with facial expressions and baby-like sounds. When excited, she washes her hands. When her periods cause cramping and pain, she moans and agitates, unable to understand.

To eliminate this monthly discomfort and ease the burden of caring for her, caregivers at an assisted-living home in Reykjavik, Iceland, proposed an unusually aggressive step. The home’s manager recommended that Anita undergo a hysterectomy, a major surgical procedure to remove her uterus and end her periods.

Eirikur Smith, an official in Iceland’s disabilities office, discovered this plan last year during a routine visit to the home.

“Does she even know if she wants children later?” he recalls asking.

The manager, he said, was stunned. “She just laughed in my face.”

“‘Of course not,’” he said she replied. “‘Why would she ever want children?’”

Forced sterilization, with its history of racism and eugenics, is banned under multiple international treaties. Thirty-seven European nations and the European Union have ratified the Istanbul Convention, which declares, without exception, that nonconsensual sterilization is a human rights violation.

But a New York Times investigation found over a third of those countries have made exceptions, often for people that the government deems too disabled to consent. Some countries have banned the practice but not actually criminalized it. And records show that the Istanbul treaty’s official watchdog has repeatedly criticized governments for not doing enough to protect disabled people. (The United States has signed but not ratified a separate treaty on the issue and sterilization laws vary by state).

The result is that people with intellectual disabilities — mostly women — are still being sterilized, even when it is not medically necessary.

Doctors and experts believe that the practice is rare, but record-keeping is inconsistent and data is often unreliable. Iceland’s government, for one, does not keep a tally.

“So many times, you hear it’s in the best interest of the woman,” said Catalina Devandas Aguilar, a former United Nations special rapporteur for disability rights. “But often, it’s because it’s more convenient for the family or the institution that takes care of them.”

That pattern has complicated things for lawmakers and doctors. While in generations past, governments around the world sterilized disabled people as a matter of policy, today it is parents and caretakers who seek out the surgery — saying they have the women’s best interests at heart.

In Iceland this March, for example, Hermina Hreidarsdottir authorized a hysterectomy for her severely cognitively impaired 20-year-old daughter, whose periods sometimes lasted six weeks.

“I know it’s taboo, but we didn’t do it to make her infertile,” Ms. Hreidarsdottir said. “We wanted to make her feel better.”

Since 2019, Iceland has banned nonconsensual sterilization except in cases of medical necessity. But the law covers only tubal ligation, the surgical blocking of the fallopian tubes. Hysterectomies are considered medical treatment and excluded from the ban.

Neither the treaties nor most national laws address how seriously disabled women like Anita or Ms. Hreidarsdottir’s daughter could ever consent to such a surgery. United Nations standards say that caregivers should try alternative ways to communicate with severely disabled people, but experts agree that happens sporadically at best.

In France, the law allows the sterilization of people with severe mental disabilities under certain circumstances.

“When we say ‘sterilization of the disabled,’ we might sound like Nazis, but this completely ignores the diversity of disabilities, the gravity of certain disabilities, and the distress of parents,” said Ghada Hatem-Gantzer, a Paris gynecologist who sits on a regional committee that approves roughly three sterilizations annually.

Even when the law is strict, sterilization sometimes continues.

In Belgium, it is generally illegal to sterilize someone without their express consent. But one therapist, Anne Dasnoy-Sumell, said she was counseling two women with moderate intellectual disabilities who had been sterilized at their parents’ insistence recently without understanding what was happening. And Yannick Manigart, the chief obstetrician at Saint-Pierre University Hospital, said that he and his colleagues would still perform the surgery if parents request it and doctors, after consulting with hospital psychologists, deem it in a woman’s best interest.

In Iceland, Mr. Smith, whose sister has Down syndrome, was particularly frustrated with Anita’s case. Notes by his colleagues show that caregivers had not tried a hormonal intrauterine device, or IUD, which can shorten periods.

“They proposed hysterectomy without consent or conversation,” one of Mr. Smith’s colleagues wrote. A Times reporter visited Anita’s home several times, observed her and reviewed records related to her case, which refer only to her first name.

After Mr. Smith intervened, the home’s manager stopped pursuing the surgery.

Iceland, like its Nordic neighbors, has a dark history in this area. In 1938, the country began a policy of sterilization and abortion for people its law called “feebleminded.” Such policies have long since been abandoned and Iceland is now a leading voice on human rights issues. The country’s Ministry of Health said it had tightened its sterilization laws over the years with the treaties in mind, and would continue to do so.

“Performing sterilization without the informed consent of the person concerned is considered to be a violation of their rights,” the ministry said.

Still, Mr. Smith said he had seen other cases like Anita’s recently. The hardest to spot, he said, involved parents and doctors who pressured disabled women to consent. “Not necessarily for eugenic purposes,” he said, “but still definitely to control and affect their sexual and reproductive health.”

For him, this issue is simple. A woman does not lose her human rights because she is disabled or has long periods.

But he acknowledges that he is hardly unbiased. His sister, Kristin, was sterilized at their mother’s insistence.

“She gave her written consent,” Mr. Smith said. “But she was misled.”

‘What If I Want to Have Children?’

Kristin Smith always knew she was into boys.

As a teenager in the 1990s, she sang along with the Spice Girls and fangirled over the Irish boy band Westlife. She watched “The Bold and the Beautiful” and dreamed of marrying.

She was part of a new generation. Women just a few years older recall comparing abdominal scars with classmates in special schools. Ms. Smith was among Iceland’s first students with Down syndrome to graduate from a mainstream high school — the same one as her older brother.

But she remembers feeling under near-constant surveillance by her mother. Ms. Smith’s mother declined to be interviewed.

At age 20, Ms. Smith said, her mother arranged for her to receive a tubal ligation. “I told my mom, ‘What if I want to have children later?’” Ms. Smith recalled. “But she said no. It would be too difficult.”

It is rare for people with Down syndrome to become parents, and their children have an increased chance of having the condition themselves.

Any talk of children, though, was theoretical. Ms. Smith had never even had a boyfriend. She consented to the surgery.

Ms. Smith remembers her mother taking her to the hospital. The doctor explained that she would be unable to have children. Then came medicine to make her sleepy.

Her mother assured her that this was for the best. And sometimes, even now, Ms. Smith agrees. “It’s a good thing,” she said. “I feel fine about it.”

‘This Is What Is So Horrible’

Mr. Smith joined Iceland’s Disability Rights Protection Office in 2016. Though Iceland had signed a pair of treaties that banned nonconsensual sterilization, neither had been ratified and the law still allowed it for the mentally ill.

Iceland’s health ministry even ran a committee that approved requests from parents, which has not previously been reported. The ministry says it kept no records on how many sterilizations occurred this way. But a spokesman for Landspitali, Iceland’s largest hospital, said that between 2013 and 2017, the committee approved the sterilization of six teenage girls.

“This is what is so horrible: I never met any of the children who would be sterilized. Never,” said Anna Sigrun, a former hospital social worker who said she was ashamed to have recommended cases to the committee.

The committee disbanded in 2019 after Iceland banned nonconsensual tubal ligations. But sterilization cases continued to pop up in Mr. Smith’s office.

Less than a year after the ban was passed, his unit intervened on behalf of an 18-year-old girl with severe cognitive impairment. Her foster mother, with the support of government social workers, sought a hysterectomy to manage her periods. Mr. Smith said the surgery was simply a way to ease the burden of care.

“They reasoned that she would be easier to handle afterward,” he said. The surgery did not go forward.

‘The Best Medical Treatment’

Hermina Hreidarsdottir’s fourth child, a girl, was born with six fingers on her right hand and a pointy, almost elfish left ear. One eye was a lighter shade of blue than the other, but she otherwise seemed healthy.

After a few months, though, Ms. Hreidarsdottir (pronounced RAY-thars-DOH-tair) realized that her daughter had trouble seeing. Doctors said she might be blind in one eye.

“I knew something was not normal,” she said. She welcomed a reporter into her home to meet her daughter, but asked that she not be named.

Finally, at about 8 months old, the girl was diagnosed with two rare genetic disorders. For the rest of her life, doctors said, she would see in only two dimensions and would probably struggle to speak and understand.

With no special-education programs nearby, Ms. Hreidarsdottir placed her daughter in a mainstream school. She dreaded her daughter’s first period. “I knew she wouldn't handle it well,” Ms. Hreidarsdottir said.

At 11, her daughter started menstruating, sometimes for weeks. Confused, she would sometimes remove her pad, then bleed in class, her mother said. Her doctor says she has the mental capacity of a 4-year-old.

Ms. Hreidarsdottir said she tried hormonal injections, but struggled to give her daughter a shot every three months. An IUD failed to shorten the periods.

Dr. Alexander Smarason, the young woman’s longtime doctor, concluded that because she could neither understand nor manage her periods, a hysterectomy would be in her best interest.

“That’s just giving her the best medical treatment possible for her quality of life,” he said. “We cannot deny her that right.”

Ms. Hreidarsdottir said she also knew that disabled women face increased risks of sexual assault, and she feared an unwanted pregnancy. At 56, she could not care for another child and knew her daughter would never be able to.

Decisions like these, involving people who almost certainly cannot give express consent, hang over the sterilization debate. Katrin Langensiepen, a German politician and one of the few visibly disabled members of the European Parliament, is pushing for a strict Europewide ban on nonconsensual sterilization. Many of history’s notorious eugenics practices, she said, were justified as being in a disabled person’s best interest.

But she acknowledged that some parents saw things differently. “They have the deep, strong belief: I need to protect my children,” she said.

At 20, Ms. Hreidarsdottir’s daughter has soft eyes and a knack for puzzles. She loves audiobooks. In March, her mother explained that she would go to sleep and have an operation to feel better.

“I don’t think she understood,” Ms. Hreidarsdottir said. “But we always try to explain things.”

True Love

Even after her surgery, Ms. Smith kept dreaming of romance. She considered trying dating apps, but in every potential profile picture of herself, all she saw was someone with Down syndrome.

Every summer, she attended a camp for adults with disabilities. During those Icelandic nights, under vast skies that never went dark, she hiked, sang karaoke and mingled outside her mother’s gaze. “I felt free,” she said.

There, during the summer of 2020, she met Sigurdur Haukur Vilhjalmsson, who also has Down syndrome. They both liked pop songs and soccer. He was charming and had a silly streak, a contrast to her more serious personality. He made her laugh.

At age 38, she had found love.

The following Christmas, on the beach in Tenerife, Spain, Mr. Vilhjalmsson knelt in the sand and proposed.

They now live together in Husavik, a town on Iceland’s northern coast. They share a cozy one-bedroom apartment in a building for people with disabilities. Their baby pictures hang in the living room.

Some residents need lots of help. Ms. Smith and Mr. Vilhjalmsson are the building’s most independent tenants and its only couple. She washes dishes in a restaurant. He works in a hospital kitchen.

They enjoy road trips, cooking and music. Mr. Vilhjalmsson plays the drums. Ms. Smith serenades him with “Husavik (My Hometown),” a song from the Will Ferrell movie “Eurovision Song Contest.”

They’re picking a wedding date. On Sundays, they walk hand in hand around the port. They talk about their future.

Mr. Vilhjalmsson wants children. Ms. Smith has spent years saying that she never did, that her mother’s decision was for the best. Now the conversation is less abstract.

Does she want to be a mother?

“I wanted to,” she said.

Her eyes welled. She paused, composing herself.

“I still want to.”

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Hain: +1-513-479-3335

Email: info@endtodv.org

Istanbul Convention’s Neglect of Female-Perpetrated Abuse is a Historic Betrayal of Women in Same-Sex Relationships

WASHINGTON / January 30, 2023 – Numerous studies show that women in same-sex relationships experience higher rates of domestic violence than women in heterosexual relationships. Inexplicably, the EU Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women, also known as the Istanbul Convention, excludes consideration of female-perpetrated violence.

Surveys reveal that lesbian-perpetrated violence is more frequent than heterosexual partner violence (1). A study conducted in Italy found the following (2):

52.9% of women revealed the presence of quarrels with their female partner was “substantial”

11.8% of women admitted to “always” fearing their partner’s reaction

19.5% of women said their female partner had requested sex against their will

A United Kingdom survey revealed (3):

40.1% of females reported they had ever experienced domestic abuse by a female partner.

Women were more likely to have their sexuality used against them, be blamed for their partner’s self-harm or have their children threatened or used against them in some way, compared to male homosexuals.

Commentators have deplored the long-standing “silence around the violence” arising from domestic violence policies that focus only on heterosexual abuse. As a result, female perpetrators are viewed as less violent, police are unresponsive to pleas for help, shelters are unprepared, and counseling programs fail to recognize the unique challenges faced by women in abusive same-sex relationships (4).

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union states unequivocally, “Human dignity is inviolable” (Article 1), “Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person” (Article 6), and “Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex….shall be prohibited” (Article 21). (5)

The Istanbul Convention’s open discrimination against women in same-sex relationships is a flagrant violation of the European Charter. The Domestic Abuse and Violence International Alliance urges country-level lawmakers to contact Members of the European Parliament to express their concerns.

The Domestic Abuse and Violence International Alliance – DAVIA — consists of 70 member organizations from 25 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, and North America. DAVIA seeks to ensure that domestic violence and abuse polices are science-based, family-affirming, and gender-inclusive. https://endtodv.org/coalitions/davia/

Citations:

https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs_sofindings.pdf Tables 6, 7, 8, and 9

https://old.gaycenter.it/NEWS.asp?id_dettaglio=2123

https://equation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Comparing-Domestic-Abuse-in-Same-Sex-and-Heterosexual-relationships.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327143194_When_Intimate_Partner_Violence_Meets_Same_Sex_Couples_A_Review_of_Same_Sex_Intimate_Partner_Violence

https://commission.europa.eu/aid-development-cooperation-fundamental-rights/your-rights-eu/eu-charter-fundamental-rights_en

==

https://www.preventconnect.org/2013/01/first-federal-study-of-violence-among-lesbian-gay-and-bisexual-communities

[ceyhanmedya]

Istanbul Convention

New Post has been published on https://hazirbilgi.com/what-is-the-istanbul-convention-what-are-its-features/

Istanbul Convention

What is the Istanbul Convention? What are its features?

The Istanbul Convention is a human rights convention prepared by the Council of Europe, which includes articles on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. 

The Istanbul Convention, which consists of 12 chapters and 80 articles  , includes various rights not only for women who are victims, but also for children who are exposed to sexual abuse and psychological and physical violence.

Istanbul Convention for Turkey

The convention, of which Turkey was the first signatory with a parliamentary decision , was signed in Istanbul on 11 May 2011 and entered into force in 2014 and started to be implemented internationally in 45 countries, including European Union countries and other countries. 

The international convention, which includes articles on gender discrimination and the prevention of violence, has been implemented for ten years to protect victims of domestic violence. Despite the objection campaign of  many women’s rights defender associations and non-governmental organizations with the slogan ‘ Istanbul Contract Keeps Alive ‘, Turkey withdrew from the contract with the official statement made by the Presidency of Communications on March 21, 2021.

The justification for the cancellation of the Istanbul Convention was explained as “Turkey’s manipulation by a segment trying to normalize homosexuality, which is incompatible with social and familial values”.

What are the basic principles of the Istanbul Convention?

The articles and application methods in the Istanbul Convention are shaped within the framework of some basic principles. The principles defended and taken as basis in the contract and the purposes of the contract;

Preventing domestic violence

Protecting women from violence

Promoting equality between women and men

Driving a trial, prosecution and support policy with a holistic approach

It is valid in peacetime and in situations of armed conflict.

What is the definition of domestic violence according to the Istanbul Convention?

With the regulation made regarding the implementation of the provisions in the articles of the Convention, the concept of domestic violence is defined comprehensively. According to this; All acts of physical, sexual, psychological and economic violence in the family or between former spouses and individuals living together, whether or not the perpetrator shares the same residence with the victim.

What is the definition of violence against women according to the Istanbul Convention?

According to the Istanbul Convention, the definition of violence against women is; It is defined as all kinds of threats, coercion, restriction of freedom, physical, psychological, sexual and economic violence that constitute human rights and violation in public or private life.

What measures and supports are provided for victims of violence in the Istanbul Convention?

According to the convention, various trainings and awareness should be conveyed primarily for the reduction of violence throughout society. Various provisions and measures have been taken to eliminate the victimization of women, children and homosexuals who have been subjected to violence and to prevent this situation from recurring. Some of these measures and supports are as follows:

Raising public awareness about domestic violence and sexual abuse through the information sector and media institutions,

Providing legal and psychological support for women and children who are victims or witnesses to violence,

Establishment of shelters for the shelter of victims of violence,

Employment to provide health services and economic independence,

Having a free support hotline that can be called at any time of the day,

Perpetrators of victims of violence have the right to compensation,

Annulment of forced and underage marriages,

Accepting various verbal and non-verbal behaviors as sexual harassment in addition to physical behaviors of a sexual nature,

Prohibition of female genital mutilation,

Preventing forced abortion and sterilization,

Victims of domestic violence, perpetrators or other persons at risk are ordered to leave the residence for a certain period of time and not to come into contact with each other,

Physical and psychological stalking for the purpose of harassment or violence is considered a crime.

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[hotelbooking]

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[stackslip]

Transgender people are now banned from legally changing their gender in Bulgaria, according to the country’s Supreme Court, which issued a ruling that is automatically binding on all other courts. “The current law does not provide for the possibility for the court to allow the change of the data regarding the gender, name and uniform civil number in the acts of civil status of an applicant who claims to be transgender,” the decision states. Until now, some Bulgarian judges assumed that the legislation in the country allows legal gender change, but only explicitly after a court decision. In the Supreme Court, however, other judges ruled in the opposite direction, and the country was condemned several times in cases before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for the lack of a clear regulation. (...) The decision was dedicated to the sharp political and public debate on the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, which was finally repelled after a campaign filled with misinformation spread by nationalist parties on social networks.

this isn't just a uk or north-america problem. it's worldwide, and that's not a coincidence. right-wingers everywhere are coordinating in suppressing trans people, sometimes as part of an open effort to also suppress all queer people and gender non-conformity, as well as abortion and equal rights for women; sometimes it's more covert (like in the uk). but here it's overt. the same tactics and use of social media, the same arguments, the same end goals--it isn't simply a usamerican conservative or uk terf thing. it's everywhere and in some countries the situation is becoming that much more dire with little pushback or acknowledgement.

[gemsofgreece]

You really should know about Storm "Daniel"

Unlike how much all of us Greek blogs notify our tumblr communities about the regular (at this point) arsons wildfires afflicting Greece, we did not say much about the floods the country has been suffering from right now. There was a mention here and there and I even made a joke post as the storm was starting but not a lot of stuff in general. So, I think there's a couple of things you should know and I feel like I could address about it and actually it's not just about Greece. So I believe this could interest a lot of people and it should be something known worldwide.

In the beginning of September there was an alarm about an extreme weather phenomenon forming above the Ionian Sea at the west of mainland Greece. In truth, the phenomenon was not caused by the climate change. It was just a very rare occurence where a high pressure atmosheric system was sandwiched between two currents of low pressure. Low pressure systems are the ones resposible for stormy weather while high pressure systems generally create stable weather. As the low currents encircled the high pressure system, the storm that had started forming became unusually stable for a storm. As a result, the storm moved northeast above Thessaly and other regions of the central part of Greece and... just decided to stay there for an indefinite amount of time. Furthermore, because it's September and the Ionian Sea had warmed up throughout the summer, the medicane (Mediterranean cyclone) gained tropical features as it was forming, pushing its intensity to extremes unknown to this area.

The storm remained above all of central Greece for about 4-5 days but at the meantime it was causing side-storms in neighbouring countries, such as Bulgaria and Turkey. Both countries suffered from floods causing damages and deaths.

Istanbul, Turkey (CNN).

Tsarevo, Bulgaria (CNN).

Four people died in Bulgaria and seven in Turkey.

But like I told you the core of this was exactly on top of Greece's central mainland and islands. So what happened there? I happened to experience this shit first hand. My recollection of it is that it was unlike any other storm I had experienced before. My knowledge on meteorology is not very advanced, however I believe due to the high pressure part, there were actually no winds at all - or they were insignificant, so it wasn't like what you might have in mind as a conventional cyclone. It was a rainstorm but it was like a rainstorm from hell. The crucial part is that in Greece summer violent rainstorms may last for about five minutes but certainly not for five days nonstop. There was no pause, not even for a second. It kept pouring and pouring in indescribable volumes, without decreasing or slowing down, not for a moment. The fourth day it started taking short breaks.

As a person with a phobia of lightnings since childhood, I kept wearing earplugs throughout all these days. For four days, ten seconds did not pass without at least one lightning shrieking exactly on top of our heads. In the end, I am dead serious, I think my lifelong phobia has been cured somewhat due to this extreme exposure that eventually had a numbing effect. I think only the first day there was a record of 7,000 lightnings. I believe there must have been dozens of thousands overall. The lightnings also caused fires but the downpour was so overwhelming no fire could ever stand a chance.

Whether during or after the rains, what I was seeing outside was post-apocalyptic. The only thing missing was the zombies. It really looked like a background from a videogame, including a constantly lit up sky. I was not in danger though people dear to me were. The worst for me was a huge fall in the quality of living but that doesn't matter. The rains caused severe destructions across cities and villages. They caused floods, they broke bridges, they broke a massive number of roads, they made walls collapse, they destroyed springs, they damaged water and electricity outlets entirely, they drowned flocks and flocks of animals, they destroyed mountainous and coastal villages alike, they made cars float and fly over each other and they uprooted houses.

Village in Mount Pelion, Greece.

But that's not the end of it. Four days later, the storm moved southwest towards the Ionian sea, basically to the place of its original formation. It side-swept over Athens in the meantime, flooding the city, but that doesn't mean much since I could cry and Athens would still flood with my tears. Anyway. AFTER the storm left, the floods caused by it started multiplying and expanding. Picture that: a crystal clear sky, a bright sun and your phone screaming state alerts about evacuating your village or town because a lake has launched at you! Here's the thing: Thessaly is a massive plain surrounded by a ring of mountains. Half of those downpours fell right on the lowlands causing floods and destructions the first days. The other half however fell on the mountains, filled the streams heading down and they all met up and filled the lakes and the large river of Thessaly, Pineios and they all basically exploded the next days. Pineios especially exploded both in its western and eastern part, sinking the entirety of Thessaly's plains under water. As a result, floods were actively taking place days after the storm had ended and the weather was good. The phenomena have only started subduing since yesterday.

The overflowing of the river, trapped by the mountains.

Farmers won't be able to work this year and next year is questionable as well. There are huge concerns about various epidemics breaking out as more and more dead animals are found in the waters. Entire villages are under the water. There are estimations that some villages in west Thessaly might have been lost forever and their residents will have to move elsewhere. Sixteen people have died from the rainstorm and the floods.

Actual villages in Karditsa, Greece.

A more longterm danger is that the ground received such an unnatural amount of water that it might have been severely eroded and destablised, making it vulnerable to natural disasters I don't want to utter. Many roads are either broken or bloated and Thessaly has been cut out from communication and transportation with the rest of the country. To this day, there are maps guiding people how to drive from North to South Greece and vice versa by entirely skipping Central Greece! (Hint: they will have to drive through Epirus, aka western Greece.) The first days there was also complete isolation from what was happening in the country and the world and also the very regions we were in as we had no electricity and our only chance was getting a call from somebody being elsewhere and telling us what is going on.

Volos, Greece (CNN)

Many regions have received within 2-4 days 55 times their monthly amount of rain or more than twice the yearly amount. Greek meteorologist Christos Zerefos estimated that such a phenomenon occurs every 300-400 years. Meteorologists were alarmed internationally - with Germans and Americans reportedly saying they hadn't studied such a phenomenon again in their career. Its intensity was record high in the history of Greece and right in the top of Europe's as well. They also agreed that such a phenomenon would be devastating even if it had hit the most advanced and prepared country.

BUT THIS IS NOT THE END. The weakened Daniel seemed to slowly move towards South Italy but it decided to take a turn and headed south towards Libya and Egypt. Quite possibly, as the storm was once again travelling across the warm Mediterranean Sea, it was rejuvenated and gained even more tropical traits. Eventually, the medicane hit Libya with unprecedented force.

The cyclone travelling from Greece to Libya.

The toll it took on Libya is unspeakable. As I am writing this,

More than 5,226 people are killed and more than 10,000 are currently missing.

Like, can you wrap your head around what I am talking about? I don't see this shit being acknowledged enough across the world. I am checking this again and again, to ensure I am reading this correctly.

Daniel has officially become the deadliest medicane on record.

Eastern Libya, from Al Jazeera.

In the meantime, Greeks found opportunities to practice their favourite sport: political infighting. People who weren't even here when hell broke loose say that if this or that was properly done, we would not have problems at all. I even saw an idiotic Greek expat comment how "we got drowned in a little bit of rain". The truth is we should bloody thank our lucky stars and I say this with the entire awareness of half of Thessaly being currently underwater. It is true that Greek governments and people have done so many things badly, like building on top of streams and rivers, changing rivers' natural route, drying up natural lakes and all that shit that guarantees you are going to have massive problems once a serious storm breaks out. Also, the disaster revealed that there was once more a very questionable management of all the money given by the EU for anti-flooding measures after a previous flood (Ianos). Of course, I would be happy if at last we viewed this disaster as an opportunity to improve ourselves and the management of our land, however whatever happened these days wasn't the fault of anyone in particular. On the contrary, A LOT worse could have happened. A lot. Maybe Libya is not an indication because if Greece is not used to such extreme rain phenomena, then Libya is probably ten times less used to them, however we should not forget that this monster was STUCK at least five days over the heartland of Greece. For this alone we should damn be thankful we did not get it any worse and that the land endured in any way and of course now we have to correct old mistakes as well but let's do it united and determined and without wasting time once more in pointless infighting, which in this case might even be unfair. (In fact I think the thing we should blame the state the most about was not making it clear beforehand that this was going to be unprecedented, not just "very severe". They probably didn't want to cause panic and mayhem but still. We should know.) Of course I am not talking about how the state will treat the afflicted regions from now on, which is entirely its responsibility. And we should stand next to Libya. Greece has its wounds to mend but it should absolutely provide support to Libya. We know what this freak phenomenon was like.

I know this text is long but please consider reblogging this. We should know what happens on our planet. Thousands of people are dead from a freak phenomenon devastating regions across lands and seas. Also forgive any mistakes I might have made although I believe the information is correct for the most part. I didn't speak more about Libya because I don't know enough to analyze the situation as much. Perhaps there are ways of supporting the country too. As a last note, this phenomenon was not freakish because of the climate change - it was just a very unusual occurence. However, the - otherwise normal - warmth of the sea did feed and intensify the storm and the climate change might in the future cause these super rare, accidental phenomena to become more frequent.

[she-is-ovarit]

Over 338 women were killed in Turkey since March 2023, an activist group says. ISTANBUL -- Thousands of women took to the streets of Istanbul, Turkey, to mark International Women's Day Friday despite a ban by the government, demanding equality and change of laws to protect women and help them gain their rights in the country and around the world. Waving purple flags as a sign of International Women's Day, they filled the air with slogans and rallying cries despite a ban on rallies by authorities. "The world would shake if women were free," "Resist for rebellion, resist for freedom," and "Woman, Life, Freedom," they chanted. While the police had blocked access to the streets leading to the protest location several hours ahead, some women said they figured out their own ways to get there and participate in the protest. "I have been here in this coffeeshop today at 1 pm to make it here at 7:30 pm," Irem, 35, told ABC News. "Women's rights are basically nonexistent in Turkey right now," she added. Turkey was the first country to join the Istanbul Convention in March 2012 which aims at preventing gender-based violence by setting legally binding standards to protect victims and punish perpetrators. However, 9 years later, in 2021, Turkey became the first and only country that left the convention in a decision made by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Islamic leaning government who believed the treaty eroded their conservative values.

Irem said the Turkish government has been backsliding in terms of women's rights and mentioned the rising number of femicide cases across Turkey over the past 10 to15 years. According to We Will Stop Femicide, a prominent activist group in Turkey, 338 women have been murdered since March 2023, and 248 died under suspicious circumstances. The campaign added that 212 of these women were killed at home, 134 of them by their husbands, 47 by their boyfriends, and 36 by their ex-husbands. Two of the victims did not know their murderers at all, according to the group. Protestors called for more unity among women and for finding ways to get out of the situation and make things better for women and members of minority groups such as the LGBTOAI community. Yagmour, a young protestor wearing an all-purple outfit and makeup, said she has attended the 8th of March protests in different cities of Turkey over the years. Despite her disappointment with the government's policies, she said she keeps up her hopes in women's power from around the world to pay attention to each other and also to the situation in Turkey. "As women, it is important that we all stay together, no matter what nationality," she told ABC News.

This article is written by Somayeh Malekian, Maggie Rulli, and Engin Bas, March 9, 2024, 5:06 AM

[raina-at]

Hobby

This is another sequel of sorts to this ficlet from last year, but this too stands on its own.

--------------

Sherlock hates it, hates it, when someone calls his violin a hobby.

It’s always the same. People see his violin. Ask him if he plays professionally. When he replies in the negative, they make a comment about how music is such a ‘rewarding hobby’.

Music isn’t a hobby. At least not to Sherlock. Sherlock, to use Mycroft’s words, doesn’t have hobbies. He has obsessions. 

Music isn’t an obsession. It's more than that. Music is a lifesaver. It’s a necessity. It’s language, and emotion, and freedom. It’s release valve, expression, relief.

Music is the only thing he’s found that can consume him the way the drugs did, the way a good case does. It engages him, wholly, mind and body and heart. It’s the only time he feels at peace with himself, whole in himself, and yet totally in control. The only limit to what he can express with his violin is his own skill and imagination. 

John doesn’t have a musical bone in his body. He’s not only tone-deaf to the point where the tune of Happy Birthday is a challenge to him, but his taste in music is both underdeveloped and conventional. He likes Mozart, and Brahms, and Tchakowski, but he has little appreciation for Locatelli, for example. (John thinks his favourite composer is Mendlesson, but it’s actually not true. The pieces John especially likes are actually Sherlock’s. But Sherlock has never told John this. Every time John asks, Sherlock tells him it’s Mendlesson. Sherlock is the only person who knows John’s favourite composer is actually Sherlock himself. Sherlock doesn’t know why he lies, but it feels like a secret too precious to share. He hoards this knowledge like a glowing ember in the hearth of his mind palace, a source of warmth and light on bad days.)

One of the reasons John is so amazing is that he isn’t musical at all, doesn’t play an instrument, barely ever listens to music, but somehow, he’s the only person who understands. Who seems to know, instinctively, how much Sherlock needs the music. It’s miraculous, and quite inexplicable to Sherlock, how John somehow knows so many of Sherlock’s secrets without having to be told.

John never bothered Sherlock when he used to play, back home in Baker Street. He never told Sherlock to stop playing, even when all he did was screech on the instrument. He never complained, never asked questions. The only times he offered any comment at all, it was when Sherlock played a piece he especially liked.

Sherlock thinks now that he never truly appreciated these moments enough, these quiet times in Baker Street when Sherlock was playing his heart out through his violin, and John was listening.

*-*

It’s hot in Istanbul. It’s August, and the days feel endless. Sherlock’s shirt is sticking to his back and his hair to his forehead as he comes back from trailing the mark the whole afternoon. He’s sunburned and his entire body feels like one exposed, over sensitised nerve ending. He’s uncomfortable and overstimulated, his head hurts from the sun and he wants nothing more than a cold shower and five hours of complete silence.

It’s never silent here. The boiler clanks and the floorboards creak and the neighbours’ telly blares through paper-thin walls. The upstairs neighbours have three children who scream at each other all day, and the right hand neighbours veer between having vigorous fights and even more vigorous sex. The windows overlook a busy intersection and traffic seems to rattle right through Sherlock’s head at every hour of the day or night.

Sherlock lies down on the bed and closes his eyes. He wants silence. Just for a minute. Just for a breath. He needs to find that quiet space inside his mind where he can go when everything outside gets too much. 

He puts a pillow over his head to drown out the noise. It helps a little, but not much.

He doesn’t know how much time has passed when he feels cool fingers in his wrist, trying to be unobtrusive. “I’m not dead,” he mutters from underneath his pillow.

“You have a pillow over your face and you haven’t moved in ten minutes. Sorry for not jumping to conclusions.”

Sherlock removes the pillow from his head and glares at John. “And where have you been? You were supposed to be back by six.”

John shrugs. “Got a bit sidetracked. Did a bit of shopping.”

“John, we can’t afford to get sidetracked. We’re not tourists, this is not a pleasure cruise. We need to be alert at all times if we’re going to break up Moriarty’s—”

Sherlock breaks off mid-sentence, stunned into silence, because John  is holding a violin case. It’s obviously old and well-used, and Sherlock suspects that the violin inside will not be in much better shape.

Sherlock takes the case form John, who’s smirking at him in a way Sherlock finds both annoying and sexy, and opens it with shaky fingers.

The instrument is lovely. It’s clearly well-used and well-loved, but it’s in good shape. He gazes at it for a long time, runs his fingers over the strings, enjoys the wood-rosin smell. 

Then he looks up at John, who’s watching him with an indecipherable expression on his face and a small smile on his lips. 

“Play something?” 

There’s a whole universe of meaning in John’s words and in his blue eyes watching Sherlock with an intensity that would be scary if Sherlock were the type to be scared by extremes. 

I’d jump off a building for you.

You did. I’d kill for you.

You did.

Sherlock lifts the instrument out of its case and lets his fingers run over the body, gently, carefully, curiously, the way he wishes he had the courage to touch John. 

He rosins the bow and checks the tuning, trying to get his wildly beating heart under control. He’s ridiculously nervous as he lifts the instrument to his shoulder and puts bow to string.

The first notes of music unwind most of the tension in him, the relief feels like breathing out after holding your breath for too long. He plays a few scales, and it feels like water cascading down his overheated senses, leaving cool tranquillity in its wake.

“Play something by my favourite composer,” John says, with a smile in his voice and a sort of greedy hunger in his eyes that makes Sherlock shiver.

“Who’s that?” Sherlock asks, feeling something bold and new emerge between them, in this place where nothing is familiar except the two of them, where nothing is reliable but whatever this is between them, where nothing is certain but that they’re going home together, or not at all. And he wonders if this shivery wanting feeling in Sherlock’s belly is one of the things John knows about without having to be told, a secret they share without ever having spoken a word about it. 

John just looks at him for a moment, then he smiles. “You.”

And just like that Sherlock knows what that shivery intensity is. He lifts the violin to his shoulder again and he plays. He says all the things he can’t say with words. Thank you. Your eyes are lovely. I want to touch you.

I love you. So much. With everything I have. 

Listen, can you hear it, how much I love you?

And John, as always, listens, and understands.

--------

Tags behind the cut as usual, please let me know if you want to be tagged or untagged.

@calaisreno @totallysilvergirl @weeesi @peanitbear @keirgreeneyes @meetinginsamarra @lisbeth-kk @salmonsown @jolieblack @jrow @friday411 @givemesherbet-blog-blog

[mariacallous]

Bulgaria’s parliament on Wednesday adopted a law which prohibits “propaganda” for “non-traditional sexual orientations” in schools, sparking outrage and calls for protests. 

The legislation was drafted by the pro-Russian Revival party, but on its first and second readings it also gained support also from pro-Western factions as well.

The amendment to the Law for Pre-School and School Education outlaws “propaganda, popularisation and encouragement, directly or indirectly, of ideas and views connected to nontraditional sexual orientation or to gender-identifying different from the biological”.

In total, 135 out of 240 MPs voted in favour. Support from the pro-Moscow Bulgarian Socialist Party was expected, but the bill passed largely because of the surprising backing of the pro-EU centre-right GERB party.

More than half of the MP’s from the reformist opposition duo We Continue the Change/Democratic Bulgaria missed voting on the first reading for unclear reasons, but the alliance participated more fully on the second, voting against. Altogether, 57 MPs voted against and eight from GERB abstained.

The increased presence of topics related to sexual and gender identity in Bulgaria’s educational system is mentioned as a fact in the legislation’s wording, without offering specific examples. Some MPs cited the existence of brochures on sexual education for children and teenagers, or translated books that are in circulation, as problematic. 

The text does not mention sanctions and does not specify what “ideas and views” would be considered unlawful, leaving room for various interpretations. 

“The restriction on even talking about the topic in school limits chances to oppose the violence and harassment that LGBTI+ students experience,” the feminist organisation LevFem said after the passage of the amendment. 

LGBTQ+ organisation Deystvie drew direct comparisons between the draft amendment and the steady limitation of human rights and the rights of sexual minorities in Russia. “For the 30 years of democratic transition, Bulgaria’s political elite never understood that human rights are at the core of democracy,” Deystvie stated. 

“We need to be heard and understood, not rejected and attacked,” the human rights collective Feminist Mobilisations said before the vote. 

On Wednesday afternoon, a protest was announced in Sofia. 

Echoes of hate speech in debates

During the parliamentary debate, some politicians made statements bordering on hate speech. 

Socialist Party leader Kornelia Ninova said that Bulgarian families abroad had contacted her to alert about the dangers of “gender ideology” in the West and criticised those who are “one thing in the morning, a second in the afternoon, a third in the evening”.

Ninova defined “gender ideology” as something promoted “by very influential and rich people” and said it was “creeping into and taking over Bulgarian schools”.

She noted the recent Eurovision Song Contest, won by a non-binary contestant, and the aesthetics of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris as worrying examples. Olympic controversies have been fanned by local conservative politicians, as a recent BIRN analysis explained. 

Ninova’s statements are in line with pro-Kremlin leanings of the Socialist Party, which in 2023 tried to initiate a referendum against “gender ideology” and which since 2017 has vehemently opposed the women’s rights treaty, the so-called Istanbul Convention, interpreting it as promoting LGBTQ+ rights.

“I’ll repeat what I’ve been saying for seven years now: hands off Bulgarian children,” Ninova said on Wednesday.

Zvezdelina Karavelova of Revival said that “pederasty” should be challenged and she hoped that her one-year-old son would never bring home a husband.

Atanas Tchorbanov of the There’s Such a People party compared the outcry from human rights organisations to the orchestra that famously played on during the sinking of the Titanic. 

Daniel Mitov of GERB said the measure was an opportunity to fight “leftist ideologies”.

In contrast, Eleonora Belobradova of We Continue the Change criticised the amendment as regressive and claimed that some paragraphs had been copy-pasted from Wikipedia. 

The turn of events underscores the successful politics of Revival.  Between 2020 and 2022, support for the party increased after it adopted anti-vaxx positions during the COVID-19 pandemic and stayed close to the Kremlin playbook over Ukraine. 

In 2022, Revival unsuccessfully tried to bring in a Russian-style “foreign agents” law.

[luminalunii97]

An Iranian LGBTIQ activist is facing deportation to his home country. The Human Rights Association (IHD) announced on Friday that Elyas Torabiba-Eskandari was detained last Sunday at a Pride parade in Istanbul and taken into deportation custody. After a stay of several hours at the police station in the Beyoğlu district, Torabiba-Eskandari was initially taken to the deportation centre of the Turkish migration authority in Tuzla. In the meantime, he is being held in an identical facility in the border province of Urfa. Elyas Torabiba-Eskandari fled Iran ten years ago together with his mother. According to the IHD, both were victims of state violence, arbitrary detention and torture in their home country. Since their flight in 2013, they have been living in Turkey - however, they do not enjoy full refugee protection there in the sense of the Geneva Convention, but only have so-called conditional refugee status. Nevertheless, a deportation would violate the prohibition of refoulement, i.e. that refugees may not be deported to countries where their lives are in danger. However, the IHD regularly documents deportations of refugees from Turkey to Iran, but also to Syria and Iraq, where their lives are in danger.

LGBTQ+ activists face lethal punishments in Iran. This shouldn't be allowed.

[trans-lykanthropie]

Playing Card Master Infodump

Ok gang, let's talk about playing cards again.

I’m going to try and get through this as systematically as possible but I will inevitably end up repeating myself due to the interconnected nature of the whole thing. Also I’ll try putting in subheadings to make it more readable. Let’s crack on!

Mameluk Playing Cards

I mentioned in my first post that European playing cards are based on ones from Mameluk Egypt, so let’s see if we can find some historical examples.

From the Topkapu Sarayi Museum in Istanbul, an amazingly preserved set of Mameluk playing cards depicting the four suits

These cards are a perfect starting point. Dating from the 15th or 16th century, we’ll be seeing their influence percolate throughout playing card design throughout Europe. Here we see the suits that will directly influence Spanish and Italian playing cards: coins, cups, swords, and polo batons (a common sport of the ruling class). The court cards are King-Lieutenant-Second Lieutenant, the deck would’ve contained 52 cards (1-10 plus three court cards), and the illustrations are rich in detail and heavy with Islamic calligraphy. We will be tracing the evolution of European cards back to these ones as we go along, so it’s important to have an example of where it all started.

Spanish Patterns

The Islamic influence in southern Spain makes it the perfect entry point for playing cards to arrive in European material culture around the late 14th century. Spanish patterns follow the same suits as Mameluk ones (coins, cups, swords, and staffs), but a deck would contain only 48 cards, numbers 1-9 and three court cards. The court cards follow the Mameluk rankings but with a European twist, making it King-Knight-Page. Swords in Spanish cards are depicted straight, as opposed to Italian swords which are curved.

Old Catalan / Spanish National Pattern, modern day

Piacentine Pattern, found in Italy in Bourbon ruled Piacenza, shows remarked Spanish influence yet is the only Spanish pattern regularly sold today to feature reversible court cards

Some syncretism would occur with the intermediary Franco-Spanish pattern, as Spanish cards would arrive in France prior to the establishment of the French standard patterns. The use of Spanish suited cards continues in areas such as Brittany and the Vendee through the game of Aluette, however the original Franco-Spanish pattern is now extinct. These decks would also consist of 48 cards: 1-9 and three court cards, King-Knight-Page (Roi-Cavalier-Valet). The use of these patterns would directly influence French patterns to come

The court cards in the Franco-Spanish pattern showing Spanish suits

French Patterns

French patterns would begin with Spanish ones around the 14th Century, and would mesh with Germanic ones to produce something we would start to recognise as the Anglo-American pattern. The French suits (Hearts, Clovers (Clubs), Tiles (Diamonds), and Pikes (Spades)) are based on the Germanic suits (Hearts, Acorns, Bells, and Leaves respectively), however for a brief period a suit of Crescents was used instead of Tiles.

Cards celebrating the union of the kingdoms of Britanny and France, 1500, show the Spanish suits

An example of the short-lived Crescents suit, Lyon, late 15th century

The majority of Italian, Spanish, and Germanic patterns follow the Mameluk tradition of all male court cards, which causes French patterns to stand out with the inclusion of Queens in place of the Knights. Queens had appeared in decks in both Italy and Germany in the 15th century, but had mostly been dropped in non-tarot decks. The inclusion of Queens, however, continued in France where their inclusion replaced the Cavalier (Knight) with the Dame (Queen). The naming convention of Dame for Queen will also be seen in Germanic patterns.

The Paris pattern, as distinct from Anglo-American or Hamburg patterns (about which more anon), is unique in that each of the court cards reference a historical or biblical figure, and are so named even to this day in the portrait officiel pattern (a deck of 32 cards, however sometimes printed in 52-card deck variants). As an example, the Kings of the Paris pattern refer to Charlemagne (Hearts), Alexander the Great (Clovers), Julius Caesar (Tiles), and King David (Pikes). The use of Julius Caesar as the historical figure associated with the King of Tiles, and most known in the past by his depiction on Roman coins in profile, might explain why in the later Anglo-American pattern the King of Diamonds is the only King to be depicted standing in profile.

Belgian pattern cards are similar to Paris (portrait officiel) decks and likewise come in 32-card and 52 card variants.

Germanic patterns

The closest pattern to connect Germanic decks to French ones is the Hamburg pattern, which would directly influence the North German or Berlin pattern. Taking the suits that we know today (hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades) and beginning production in the early 19th century, a clear link to the Paris (portraits officiel) pattern is shown in the depiction of the King of Spades holding the Harp of King David, a reference to the association of King David with the suit of Pikes (Spades) in the Paris pattern, and the laurel wreath under the crown of the King of Diamonds (Julius Caesar, King of Tiles). Germanic patterns closely associated with the French patterns name the court cards as King-Lady-Farmer (König-Dame-Bauer)

The Kings from the North German pattern showing links to the Paris (portrait officiel) pattern conventions

Germanic pattern playing cards, however also predate the suits used in French patterns and had a direct influence on them. The Germanic suits of Hearts, Acorns, Bells, and Leaves became standard around 1450, where upon it would directly influence the French suits and finally the modern Anglo-American system of Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, and Spades. Many packs using this system contain only 32 or 36 cards, as is appropriate for the kinds of games played in the areas where they are common, and the court cards are typical established as King-Over-Under (König-Ober Knabe-Unter Knabe) in the Mameluk style of a leader and two ranks of soldier. The Ace in Germanic suits is really, and was referred to in the past as, a Deuce (Daus in German), which is why the Ace in these decks, the highest card in many regional games, actually exhibits two suit symbols rather than one. In the William Tell pattern deck, the four Deuces represent the four seasons of the year, however this is not typical across Germanic decks, which typically depicted a boar or sow in older decks, a tradition that continues today only on the Deuce of Bells.

The Deuces (Daus) of Germanic decks

Saxon pattern

Polish-Silesian pattern for the game of Skat

Altenburg Doppelkopf pattern, exhibiting the North German pattern court cards of König-Dame-Bauer with the Germanic suits

Salzburg pattern showing non-reversible court cards typical of earlier patterns, and Franconian pattern showing reversible ones, typical of later patterns

A hybrid deck showing both Germanic and French suits, in this instance the Germanic pattern is listed as William Tell and the French as Viennese

Italian patterns

Italian patterns closely resemble Mameluk and Spanish patterns, and it is in Italy where the polo baton of the Mameluk deck was replaced with a staff, or baton or club, for an area where polo was not well known or played.

Trentine pattern, showing the Mameluk influence in both suits and court cards (King-Knight-Page)

In South Tyrol, a region acquired by Italy at the First World War, the Germanic Salzburg pattern is still used with Italian translations known as the Salisburghesi pattern.

It was in Italy that the first tarot decks were produced, where additional ‚trumps‘, known in Italian as trinofi, were added for more advanced card games. Typical to Northern Italy in the Italian suits, tarot cards for games such as Tarrochi, Tarock, and Scarto spread to France and Germanic areas whereupon there was further alterations made.

Tarot patterns

Tarot cards were never originally intended for Cartomancy, such associations came later in the 18th and 19th centuries, however there is a distinct split between Franco-Italian patterns and Germanic ones. A rare Italian deck serving as a progenitor of sorts to later 78-card tarot decks that now lost, was described in a letter from Milan in 1449 and supposedly consisted of a deck of 60 cards with only the four Kings as court cards, sixteen trump cards, and the suits as birds rather than any surviving system. Early 78-card decks replaced the court cards with classical figures and made the trump cards those of classical deities. Many of these early decks survive only as incomplete examples, damaged printing sheets, or in descriptions alone.

The Tarot of Marseilles is likely the first 78-card tarot deck to resemble the one we know today. The suits follow the Italian and Spanish patterns, synthesises the French and Spanish-Italian-Mameluk courts cards to give four in each suit: King-Queen-Knight-Page. The Major Arcana, or the trumps when ranked by value, are similar to modern tarot decks, albeit with some notable differences: the Magician is replaced by Le Bateleur (The Juggler), the High Priestess by Le Pances (The Popess, likely a reference to the myth of Pope Joan), and the Hierophant with Le Pape (The Pope). In Swiss tarot decks, the High Priestess is replaced by the classical deity Juno, and the Hierophant with Jupiter, in the style of the older historical Tarot de Besançon pattern.

Germanic tarot cards, however, are entirely different in nature. Trump cards in the Bourgeois Tarot pattern, with its sub-pattern the Tarot Nouveau, depict scenes rather than figures, and are split into groups of four (such as the times of day and the four elements), with the final three depicting Games (trump 20), the Collective (trump 21), and the Individual (trump 1)

Example Tarot Nouveau trumps, reversible but each scene depicting the card’s meaning

The trumps of the Industrie und Glück pattern, a standard tarot deck for games in the Germanic regions that uses the French suit system for value and court cards

One variation of tarot decks, known as Animal Tarot patterns, uses both real and fictional animals for the trump cards, and continues today only in the south German Adler Cego pattern

The End?

Honestly, this is all I have energy for at the moment, but I wanted to show just a hint of the huge variety of different playing card designs throughout the centuries and their effect on the modern decks of today. There is so much more I’d like to get into, so if you have some questions please please please ask!

[zvaigzdelasas]

NATO is seeking to expand its cooperation structures globally and also intensify its cooperation with Jordan, Indonesia and India. A “NATO-Indonesia meeting” was held yesterday (Wednesday) on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels – a follow-up to talks between Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in mid-June 2022. Last week, a senior NATO official visited Jordan’s capital Amman to promote the establishment of a NATO liaison office. Already back in June, a US Congressional Committee focused on China, had advocated linking India more closely to NATO. India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, however, quickly rejected the suggestion. NATO diplomats are quoted saying that the Western military alliance could conceive of cooperating with South Africa or Brazil, for example. These plans would escalate the West’s power struggle against Russia and China, while non-Western alliances such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are expanding their membership.

Already since some time, NATO has been seeking to expand its cooperation structures into the Asia-Pacific region, for example to include Japan. Early this year, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was in Tokyo, among other things, to sign a joint declaration with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.[1] In addition, it is strengthening its cooperation with South Korea, whose armed forces are participating in NATO cyber defense and are to be involved more intensively in future conventional NATO maneuvers.[2] Japan’s prime minster and South Korea’s president have already regularly attended NATO summits. The Western military alliance is also extending its cooperation with Australia and New Zealand. This development is not without its contradictions. France, for example, opposes the plan to establish a NATO liaison office in Japan, because it considers itself an important Pacific power and does not want NATO’s influence to excessively expand in the Pacific. Nevertheless, the Western military alliance is strengthening its presence in the Asia-Pacific region – with maneuvers conducted by its member states, including Germany (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[3]).[...]

NATO has been cooperating with several Mediterranean countries since 1994 within the framework of its Mediterranean Dialogue and also since 1994, with several Arab Gulf countries as part of its Istanbul Cooperation Initiative.[4] However, the cooperation is not considered very intensive. At the beginning of this week, NATO diplomats have been quoted saying “we remain acutely aware of developments on our southern flank,” and are planning appropriate measures. The possibility of establishing a Liaison Office in Jordan is being explored “as a move to get closer to the ground and develop the relationship in the Middle East.[5] Last week, a senior NATO official visited Jordan’s capital Amman to promote such a liaison office.[6][...]

NATO diplomats informed the online platform “Euractiv” that “many members of the Western military alliance believe that political dialogue does not have to be limited to the southern neighborhood. One can also seek cooperation with states further away. Brazil, South Africa, India, and Indonesia are mentioned as examples.[7][...]

In a paper containing strategic proposals for the U.S. power struggle against China, the Committee also advocated strengthening NATO’s cooperation with India.[8] The proposal caused a stir in the run-up to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington on June 22. He was able to draw on the fact that India is cooperating militarily in the Quad format with the USA as well as NATO partners Japan and Australia in order to gain leverage against China. Close NATO ties could also facilitate intelligence sharing, allowing New Delhi to access advanced military technology.[9] India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, however, rejected Washington’s proposal, stating that the “NATO template does not apply to India”.[10] Indian media explained that New Delhi was still not prepared to be pitted against Russia and to limit its independence.[11] Both would be entailed in close ties to NATO.

The efforts to link third countries around the world more closely to NATO are being undertaken at a time when not only western countries are escalating their power struggles against Russia and above all against China and are therefore tightening their alliance structures. They are also taking place when non-Western alliances are gaining ground. This is true not only for the BRICS, which decided, in August, to admit six new members on January 1, 2024 (german-foreign-policy.com reported [12]). This is also true for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a security alliance centered around Moscow and Beijing that has grown from its original six to currently nine members, including India, Pakistan and Iran, and continues to attract new interested countries. In addition to several countries in Southern Asia and the South Caucasus, SCO “dialogue partners” now include Turkey, Egypt and five Arabian Peninsula states, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Iin light of the BRICS expansion, the admission of additional countries as full SCO members is considered quite conceivable. Western dominance will thus be progressively weakened.[13]

12 Oct 23

[koyunsoncizeri]

WTF is going on in Turkey, and why this is the MOST screwed up time in 10 or so years? Especially for LGBT young and Women.

-Long post-

TW: mentions of r*pe/ s**ual harassment/women being force-married, losing rights.

This will be a heavy post so please scroll down if you are affected, i know I was, i cried myself to sleep yesterday but I need to get this out.

As you may or may not know, yesterday we held a second election (as in the first one none of the candidates reached over %50) and we, women, lgbti people, all of Turkey lost.

What do I mean by this?

There were 2 main people. One whose name i will not even utter here, as you know him since he is the prime minister for more than 20 years, and the leader of the opposition party. They each had parties under them, supporting different ideas. The oppositon party we all hoped would win (CHP) lost, the votes were nearly divided into two.

The winners..have .. Some.. things they want to implement. But before I get into that, what does their mere win mean for us?

What has been going around that has been powered and will increase by their win? Let us take a look:

But there is, unfortunately, more:

And the final straw that made me SICK to my stomach so much so that I near threw up:

So.

This is what we have been dealing with for the last couple 4 5 years, but these only increased in the last 2 -3 years to an alarming rate.

For the first time in my life I am scared shitless. I am SCARED shitless. I am SCARED for my life. No. Im TERRIFIED. Wish i was exaggerating. Wish I was just being extra.

MOVING ON to what they are thinking of implementing in the upcoming 5 yearz:

The law preventing "violence against women" will be done away with. (Mind you we re no longer in istanbul convention so we have had already near 0 protection)

Girls and boys will be separeted in schools.

The word "Turk" will be done away with in all const. and places. (..We are Turks)

Quran should be taught early, starting at age 7 and in all schools.

Women should only work among women

Single women should be "homed" (which is ..they should be married off to someond)

(mentions of) women not being equal to men when it comes to inheritance

And many more, more disturbing things i cannot even write. Just know that ..im scared to write everything :)

This is where I am rn.

Today i woke up and felt ..nothing. didnt wanna eat anything, do anything. Cant even watch Gargoyles my latest obsession.

All i am thinking about, how will I go to hospital to get my weekly shots, walking among people im scared of.

I dont know dudes. I really dont know. You know we opened a group to share info about how to seek asylum? :)

Sigh, my dudes. I love my country, i dont want it to be turned into Pakistna or whatever (please dont come at me for saying this, just search the news and u will see)

I was trynna get away from my abusive fam and now i cant even go to another city feelin good about it.

LASTLY

Ataturk fought so hard to get women from under the feet of sharia and men, we were one of the first women to have the right to vote.

Our pilot, Sabiha Gokcen is the first female fighter pilot. (Not to be confused with First combat pilot, Marie Marvingt)

She was selected as the only female pilot for the poster of "The 20 Greatest Aviators in History" published by the United States Airforce  in 1996.

We attended beauty contests, after years of being forced to wear hijab and whatnot, and now. We are going back to square 1.

I'm .. trying to be hopeful. But it's getting harder my dudes.

[heretic-child]

“While this is not the first time this information has been revealed, Prof. Akcam uncovered additional Turkish documents that confirm the details of this horrible massacre ordered by Ataturk and Inonu. The two Turkish leaders issued a secret decree in 1937 for the purchase of 20 tons of poisonous mustard gas and 24 twin-engine airplanes from Germany to exterminate through aerial spraying and bombing of Kurdish Alevis and Armenians who were living in hiding in the mountainous caves of Dersim. The thousands of Armenian inhabitants of Dersim were survivors of the Armenian Genocide who had fled and converted to Alevism to save their lives.

Many articles and books have been published in recent years, documenting Hitler’s admiration of Ataturk. The cooperation between the Turkish government and Nazi Germany is another indication of the criminal partnership of these two states. Even today, the Turkish military continues to use poisonous gas purchased from Germany in recent years, in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, to exterminate Kurds in Turkey and allegedly in Northern Iraq and Syria.

One of the ironic twists of the Dersim massacre is the participation of Sabiha Gokcen, an Armenian girl orphaned during the Genocide of 1915 and subsequently adopted by Ataturk as his daughter. She became the first female pilot in Turkey and participated in the bombing of Dersim, renamed Tunceli. It is not known if she was aware that she was taking part in killing her fellow Armenians who were survivors of the Genocide, just like her. One of the two Istanbul airports is named after her, as a ‘War Hero.’

Akcam referenced a document of the German Parliament where several members asked the German government in 2019 for the details of the Turkish purchase of poisonous gas and airplanes from Nazi Germany. German chemical weapons experts were also brought to Turkey in 1938 to train the military in the use of the poisonous gas. In its reply, the German government acknowledged “the suffering of the [Dersim] victims and their descendants” and added: “the federal [German] government is ready if the events of that time are processed by Turkey to examine German participation.”

Regrettably, Turkey is still in denial about its past mass crimes. The Dersim massacre is just one example of the exterminations of various minorities beginning in the Ottoman Empire and continuing in the Republic of Turkey era.”

Turkey Bought Poison Gas from Nazi Germany To Kill Alevis & Armenians in 1938

[fatehbaz]

The Unsettled Plain defies the conventional framings of the region’s [”Middle East”] history. The protagonists of this book are the people often left out or relegated to a minor role: pastoralists, peasants, workers, and migrants who lived in Ottoman countryside. Many books adopt national or imperial geographies, but I have used a space that destabilizes such geographies. Call it Cilicia, Çukurova, or the Adana region -- the book is about a coherent, interconnected place that is hidden on the map today.

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During the nineteenth century, this corner of the Mediterranean at the border of Syria and Turkey contained diversity that would surprise Anglophone readers accustomed to images of the Middle East painted with a broad brush. [...] Speakers of Turkish, Arabic, Armenian, Kurdish, and Greek lived side by side there for centuries, not just in cosmopolitan cities but also in the vast hinterland. With large-scale migration during the latter half of the nineteenth century, Tatar, Circassian, and Chechen refugees from the Russian Empire, as well as Cretan Muslims and various people from the Balkans built new settlements in the region [...]. An extraordinary array of communities that made up the population of the late Ottoman Empire shared this one small place. 

Among rural inhabitants, there were many ways of life, ranging from long-distance, nomadic patterns of grazing sheep and goats to intensive, plantation-style cultivation of cotton for global export. And in a space only a little bigger than modern-day Lebanon, there was also intense environmental contrast. Foreigners used to remark that one could set out on foot from a lowland city like Adana, which might have felt just as hot as Egypt on a summer day, and in two or three days be in mountain spaces reminiscent of the Swiss Alps. That is in fact precisely how the local people lived, migrating between the highland and lowland micro-climates on a seasonal basis and spending the summer in those precious mountain spaces. So in all these ways, the world of The Unsettled Plain is more complex than what we get in Ottoman histories written from the vantage point of Istanbul or Cairo, or for that matter the histories of the modern Middle East written inside of nation-state containers. [...]

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The central issue that runs throughout the book is malaria [...]. Malaria is associated with the tropics today, but it used to be very widespread not only in the former Ottoman Empire but also Europe and North America. I use malaria to show how the transformation of the Ottoman Empire from the Tanzimat reforms of the mid-nineteenth century onward impacted rural people. Settlement policies and the commercialization of agriculture disrupted malaria avoidance strategies that were rooted in an intimate understanding of the local environment, resulting in catastrophic malaria epidemics for resettled or displaced people and the gradual intertwining of malaria with agricultural labor and increasingly uneven relations between landowners and workers. Far from being unique to the Ottoman experience, this story harkens to the experiences of many spaces throughout nineteenth-century empires.

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Each chapter of the book circles back to the question of malaria through different interlocking themes, and those themes are [...] ecology, the state, capitalism, war, and science. Chapter 1 is focused on aspects of Cilicia’s local ecology and politics before the Tanzimat period, and Chapter 2 studies the impacts of state reform and settlement policy during the high Tanzimat period of the mid-nineteenth century. Chapter 3 studies how a new form of capitalism centered on cotton export shaped this region during the last decades of the Ottoman period, and Chapter 4 studies how much of that new world was destroyed during the World War I period and the subsequent Franco-Turkish war. Chapter 5 traces continuities between the late Ottoman period and early Republican period in Turkey, focusing on the themes of science and technology and examining the role of medicine and public health in the remaking of the countryside. [...]

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Between modern-day residents of Çukurova, those who have settled in Istanbul, Ankara, or other cities in Turkey, and those who have emigrated abroad to Germany or elsewhere, a sizeable percentage of people from modern Turkey either claim this region as home or have some personal connection to it. There is also a substantial portion of the Armenian diaspora in the United States, France, Lebanon, Armenia, and elsewhere who think of Cilicia as their ancestral homeland. 

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Words of Chris Gratien. As interviewed by Jadaliyya. Regarding Gratien’s book The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier (2022). This text and the interview were published at Jadaliyya online on 25 April 2022. [Bolded emphasis added by me.]