#Turkmen Dictators

[luminalunii97]

Racism of the Islamic Republic regime

Something that has been neglected in topics of protests in Iran is racism. It is often left out of discussions by those of us in or outside of Iran who weren't the direct victims of these antihuman crimes. There's a huge difference between human rights violations in central Persian cities and border non-Persian ones. Persians and other ethnic groups who live in central areas are the targets of enough antihuman acts by this regime that shows the terrorist face of them, just imagine how everything is ×100 worse in non-central areas. Here are some examples:

Arabs in the south: it is estimated that more than 2 million Arabs live in iran. This ethnic minority is severely oppressed and violated. The regime has been capturing and executing Arabs and Arab activists with no clear reason other than being criminal dictators themselves, like how they've been violating and killing Kurds and Balochs in the past 4 decades. Many Arab families have been forcefully moved and pushed to corners, literally in a geographic sense. Racism exist in the Iranian populations like any other country and nation in the world. But it is promoted and supported by the regime. Jina revolution has brought this issue to attention and social activists are doing anti racist activism now, something that wasn't addressed enough before.

Kurds in the west: people of Kurd never accepted the authority of this regime and fought their forces with all their might. Many Kurds citizens and Kurd activists have been the victims of government murder or long imprisonments simply for being freedom fighters. Also, kurds are denied many legal and social rights in Iran, for example not getting hired by governmental organizations, unless they sell their souls to the regime. Because of this many highly educated Kurds can't find a job and they're forced into doing unrelated or illegal labor that often gets them killed. To understand the severity of this issue I recommend you read this article "koolbars new slaves" thoroughly.

Balochs in the east: people of Baloch are victims of the IR regime's racism towards our neighbors, Afghans and Pakistanis. The regime refuses to provide ID papers for Balochs with the excuse that they might be Afghan and not Iranian. The Balochistan province is kept extremely underdeveloped by the regime to the point that many people don't have drinking water there. Kurd and Arab cities are also kept underdeveloped even though most of those areas are rich with natural resources that could easily be used for development. Since many Baloch people are denied id papers they have no legal rights and the regime often gets away with whatever human rights violations, like executions, r*pe, and torture, they do there. Other than the issue of legal rights, the islamic republic had been very successful in isolating Balochistan and keeping the rest of the world including the rest of Iran of knowing who Balochs are and what is really going on in that region. Jina revolution has also brought the issues in Balochistan to attention.

Aside from these intentional neglects, the language and culture of these ethnicities are under attack by the regime.

Other ethnic groups in Iran face discrimination to different degrees by IR. One thing that plays a great role in the level of racism by the regime is religion. Sunni Muslims are very hated and suppressed by the Islamic Republic here. Therefore kurd cities with a majority of Sunni Muslim population face a worse fate than the majority of shia cities. The regime also spreads a lot of hate towards sunni Muslims by accusing them of fanaticism and animosity which used to work on the old shia religious population. Kurds, Balochs, Arab and Turkmens in Iran have the majority sunni Muslim population. They are also the most repressed. Apart from sunni Muslims, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Baha'i and christian believers face discrimination in different ways by the regime.

The only way a war against big criminal bullies like the Islamic Republic can be won is by coming together and unite as people regardless of race, religion, sexuality and gender. Something that seemed not possible 2 years ago but Jîna revolution showed us that it is very much a possibility. We still have a lot of work to do but people took the first step in unity and solidarity. I recommend you read the article below twice to see the dept of what's going on in Iran and why the Islamic Republic overthrow and this revolution is vital to many marginalized people:

[devletbayhan]

🇹🇲🇹🇷 DIKTATORLARYŇ HYZMATDAŞLYGY

ERDOGAN WE BERDIMUHAMEDOWLARA SYN

#StopTurkmenDictatura #StopBerdimuhammedov

#TurkmenDemocracy #StopTurkmenDictator

Risk bilen bilelikde gurnalan göni ýaýlym: Diktatorlaryň söwda we syýasy araçylary, galp pul aklamak, ýalan propagandalary ýaýradýanlar, #Türkmen watandaşlarynyň gündelik durmuşy, hossarlary diktaturanyň resimleri bolup işleýän ýasama oppozisiýa we aktiwistleriň ýalanlary:

#TurkmenProtest #TurkmenOpposition #Turkmen

#FreeTurkmenistan #TurkmenistanFreedom

🇬🇧 COOPERATION OF THE DICTTORS OF #Turkmenistan: #Erdogan and #Berdimuhamedov Commercial and political intermediaries of dictators, money laundering, false propaganda servants, developments in the daily life of Turkmen citizens. The lies of the fake dissidents and activists whose family members are the bureaucrats of the dictator. #Turkmenim YouTube channel presents:

#TurkmenActivist #TurkmenJournalist #Turkmens

#TurkmenDissident #TurkmenHereket #Hereket

🇹🇷 #Türkmenistan DİKTATORLERİN İŞBİRLİĞİ: Erdoğan ve Berdimuhamedov. Diktatörlerin ticari ve siyasi aracıları, kara para aklama, yalan propaganda hizmetçileri, Türkmen vatandaşlarının günlük hayatına dair gelişmeler. Aile bireyleri diktatörün bürokratı olan sahte muhalifler ve aktivistlerin yalanları. #Turkmenim YouTube kanalı sunar:

#DowletBayhan #ДовлетБайханов #Turkmenler

#туркменистан СОТРУДНИЧЕСТВО ДИКТОРОВ: #Эрдоган и #Бердымухамедов : Коммерческие и политические посредники диктаторов, отмывание денег, ложные агитаторы, события в повседневной жизни туркменистанцев. Ложь фальшивых диссидентов и активистов, члены семьи которых являются чиновниками диктатора. YouTube-канал #Turkmenim представляет: #диктатура #диктатор #туркмен

#туркменскаядиктатура #диктатортуркмен

همکاری دیکتاتورهای #ترکمنستان: اردوغان و بردی محمداف. واسطه های تجاری و سیاسی دیکتاتورها، پولشویی، نوکران تبلیغات دروغین، تحولات زندگی روزمره شهروندان ترکمن. دروغ های دگراندیشان و فعالان قلابی که اعضای خانواده آنها بوروکرات های دیکتاتور هستند. کانال یوتیوب #ترکمنیم ارائه می دهد:

https://www.youtube.com/live/0sumoTNI2j8?feature=share

[beardedmrbean]

Did you reblog the thing about the crazy dictator of Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan or something like that? Or do you know what I am talking about?

Nothing nuts on Uzbekistan that I know of, but the land of the Turkmen there's a few that you could be referring to with their "president" "thing about the crazy dictator" is way to nonspecific, lots of things.

Here he is rapping with his grandson

Got this going on too

Here's spinning donuts at the aptly named "Gates of Hell"

Here's another song

Haven't watched the whole thing, but this looks like a OK roundup

There's more but these are the one's I've covered in the past.

Point of clarity though Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is no longer "president" he's charmian of the "Peoples Council"

His son is "president" now.

Lot of lunacy in the Asian section of the former soviet union, friendlier with china and russia than I'd like too but neighbors so probably smart on their part.

[somebodynotsogood]

Turkmenbashi, the mad dictator of Turkmenistan (the previous one, they've got two in a row and are currently heading for a third one), has written a huge books supposed to become 'the new Bible for the Turkmen nation'. It's boring, pointless and daunting. And it reads as a lore dump for someone's hopeless attempt at worldbuilding -- endless genealogical trees for supposedly great rulers, that never appear again, useless maps, banal ideology and hopeless attempts to find any plot clue..

i'm trying to read project 2025, all of it, for the sake of being informed right? i'm only 41 pages in and "the Great Awokening" just about did me in

[a-dragons-journal]

Turkmen-American here weighing in on the 'how far back does alterhumanity go' discussion: we have at least a thousand year history of people identifying as horses and having visions/memories of being horses. But, indigenous practices being suppressed in Turkmenistan, the current dictator's desire to make the country 100% Muslim, and pressure to modernize has stopped expression or discussion of this. My guess is alterhuman Turkmen people still exist, but they have no support within Turkmenistan.

Oh, that's really interesting! I'd never heard of that, thank you for sharing!

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Perhaps the most important geographical distinction in Safavid times, dictated by climate, cultural particularism, economic orientation, and military concern, was the “inner frontier” that separated the north and the south, especially the Persian Gulf littoral, the “hot lands,” Garmsir(at). Ethnic, linguistic, and economic ties bound the north and the northwest to Anatolia and the Caucasus, and northeastern Khurasan to inner Asia. Of Kurdish and Turkmen origin, the Safavids hailed from the Turkish-speaking highlands of Anatolia; Tabriz and Qazvin had been their early capitals. Their military supporters, the Qizilbash tribes, had their origins and grazing grounds mostly in the same region. Georgians and Armenians, two groups that came to play a crucial military, administrative, and commercial role in Safavid society, had northern roots as well. Military challenges, too, tended to come from the northeast, the frontier with the Uzbeks, and the northwest, where the Safavids faced unruly mountaineers such as Kurds and Lezghis as well as the formidable Ottoman armies. Much of the country’s agricultural resource base was located in fertile Azerbaijan and the silk-producing Caspian provinces. All these factors made northern Iran a natural focus of Safavid attention and concern. The southern littoral, by contrast, was alien territory for the Safavids. Its weather, swelteringly hot and humid for most of the year, must have been repellent to warriors used to the bracing climate of the high plateau. Most of its land was barren and unproductive. Ethnically and linguistically, too, the Garmsir was cut off from Iran’s interior; many of its inhabitants were Arabs, with a sprinkling of Hindus from Gujarat and Sind; the region interacted with semi-autonomous Basra and the Arab shaykhdoms across the water as much as with Iran’s heartland; its economy was oriented toward Oman—which received most of its food from Iran—and, most importantly, toward the Indian subcontinent. Emblematic of this orientation is the distinct currency, the larin, a coin that was current throughout the Persian Gulf basin and in the Indian Ocean as far as Ceylon and the Maldive islands.  Aside from Fars, no part of the south ever elicited any special interest from the royal court other than for the revenue it produced. For all his concerns about trade, and despite the fact that he incorporated Bahrain and parts of the Gulf coast into his realm, even Shah `Abbas I himself is hardly an exception to this rule. He traveled a good deal during his long years in office, yet none of his campaigns ever took him beyond Shiraz. Instead, he spent much time in Mazandaran, the region from which his mother hailed, which he loved, and where he built the two resort towns Ashraf and Farahabad. His successors were no different, except that they paid even less attention to the south. They, too, often spent their winters in the lush Caspian region, hunting and relaxing. Otherwise they might go on pilgrimage to Mashhad or Qum. Armed expeditions to the south were rare, and the Safavids never really developed a solid military connection with the Gulf. Even the growing seaborne threat by the Omani Arabs at the turn of the eighteenth century did not inspire them to build a navy. The minor role the Garmsir played in the Safavid imagination is well illustrated in the way the region is represented in the seventeenth-century geographical compendium Mukhtasar-i mufid, which has the Persian Gulf littoral in last place.”

- Rudi Matthee, Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan. London: I. B. Tauris, 2012. pp. 5-6.

[cincinnatusvirtue]

Commanders in Profile: Timur (1336-1405).  The Turco-Mongol Apogee.

To history he’s known as Timur or in the west as Tamerlane.  He’s one of the great conquerors of history and one who probably best epitomized the Turco-Mongol-Persianate tradition.  Taking ancestral links from the Mongols of the Mongol Empire and cultural links from the fellow nomadic Turks as well as the Persians, Timur synthesized all of these influences.  He would rise from relative obscurity to command one of the most powerful empires of the Middle Ages.

-Timur is born on April 9, 1336 in the city of Kesh, in modern day Uzbekistan.  He is a member of the Barlas, a Mongolian tribe which has been culturally Turkified over the years.  He is not a direct descendant of Genghis Khan but is evidently a distant relative through his father due to a shared common ancestor back in Mongolia.  His mother’s origins are unknown and variously described as Mongolian or even Persian.  His name means “iron” in the Chagatai Turkic language.

-By the time of Timur’s birth, the once powerful Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan has fragmented among competing junior dynasties that form separate states.  In Timur’s case, he is born into the Chagatai Khanate, which descends from Genghis Khan but has since converted to Islam and is now culturally Turkified with the majority of its populace being nomadic Turks from Central Asia.

-Timur’s father, Taraghai is a minor noble of a certain social standing and wealth in the Chagatai Khanate.

-Timur turns to the life of nomadic raiding, with a band of followers he conducts raids on travelling caravans, part of the Silk Road that pass through these lands from Europe to China.  The raids usually take good, such as animals or other measures of wealth.  During one raid against a shepherd, Timur is wounded by two arrows one to his right leg and one to his right hand, both wounds will cripple him the rest of life.  Causing Timur to lose two fingers and suffer a limp on his leg.  This will give rise to his later name in the west, Tamerlane which is a corruption of the moniker Timur the Lame.

-Timur will become a military leader of Turkic horsemen, the horse archer tradition of the Turks and Mongols would be the central element to his military thereafter.  Timur joins the Chagatai Khan on several campaigns by the 1360′s.  He invades parts of modern Iran and elsewhere in Central Asia.  Becoming leader of the Barlas after his father’s death and becoming a powerful regional governor in the area of his birth, known as Transoxiana, north of the Oxus River which flows in Central Asia.

-In time, the Chagatai Khans begin to lose their central authority and brothers of the dynasty lead to rival claims which weaken the khanate’s power.  Timur, ever the shrewd politician sides with whoever is the most advantageous for himself.  In time, Timur will reduce the khan’s to mere ceremonial figureheads.  He cannot take the title for himself because Mongol tradition dictates only direct descendants of Genghis Khan can do so and this, Timur wasn’t.  He instead take the title, Amir which is Arabic for leader, and connotes a military or noble designation which suited Timur, a king in all but name.

-Timur was known to have been multilingual speaking Mongolian, Chagatai Turkic and Persian.  This multilingualism would have an appeal in addition to his personal appeal through his intelligence and military prowess.  His Mongol linguistics appealed to his tribesmen, giving him a premiere position in their society.  His Chagatai Turkic language was the language of his military, it appealed to the core of his army, namely his rank and file horse archers of Turkic extraction.  His Persian skills which became the language of culture and governance in the Islamic world from Anatolia to India, appealed to the artisans, politicians, religious clergy and engineers.

-Timur would typically destroy whole cities and their populaces, save for artisans and engineers, people who he could put to work in his own capital, Samarkand, Uzbekistan.  

-Timur over the coming decades invaded Persia (modern Iran) as well as Afghanistan as well as consolidated control of Transoxiana.  His empire, known in history as the Timurid Empire would control much of Central and West Asia.  in 1380 he invaded Persia which has been party of the Mongol successor state, the Ilkhanate.  However, due to the Black Death plague of the 1330′s-1340′s, the khanate dynasty was devastated and collapsed.  Causing a number of fragmented successor states to rise up in its wake.  Due to their decentralized nature, Timur with his consolidated strength was able to overcome enemy after enemy.  Gradually ruling over the whole of Persia.

-Timur also was popular with his people due to his supposedly charitable nature, increasing schools and patronizing the arts, namely religious in nature.

-He called himself the “Sword of Islam” and setup a cult of personality to appeal to both his Mongol lineage and his Islamic religion.  He could neither be the Great Khan by restriction of birth in the traditional confines of Mongol culture nor could he be the Caliph of Islam by din of descent.  Instead through his military victories and charity would he appeal as a spiritual successor to both these claims, a sort of personal ordination by the hand of God.

-The title, Sword of Islam was questionable given that most of his enemies were fellow Muslims, nevertheless the moniker persisted.

-Timur’s varied campaigns took his expanse further west into Mesopotamia and Syria, conquering Baghdad from the Turkic khanates that survived.  Additionally, in the 1380′s he came into conflict with the Golden Horde or Tatars.  The Golden Horde was the Mongol successor state that ruled over the Caucasus and Eurasian steppe of southern Russia and Ukraine.  In time, his long off and on campaigns with the Golden Horde would permanently weaken them.  In a ripple effect of Timur’s conflict with the Golden Horde, the Slavic Rus’ principalities which had been vassals of the Mongols since the 13th century now were able to gradually rebel and become independent giving rise to medieval Russia under the power of the princely city-state of Muscovy or Moscow.

-In 1398, Timur turned his attention to the Dehli Sultanate of Northern India which was ruled by the Turco-Indian Tughlaq dynasty.  In the battle of Dehli, Timur showed his characteristic tactical prowess.  Facing a large Indian army that included armored elephants draped in chain mail and with tusks dipped in poison. Knowing his men were afraid of the elephants and the damage they could do, Timur planned to likewise panic the elephants and reverse their charge on the battlefield.  Prior to the battle, he had a trench dug by his men to slow the elephants advance.  Then he loaded up pack camels and tied hay and wood to their backs.  He set these bundles of hay and wood on fire and prodded the camels with hit iron pokers which sent them charging forward toward the elephants.  This bit of psychological warfare worked, scaring the elephants at the sight of camels, howling in pain with flames emitting from their backs.  The elephants turned and stampeded towards their own lines from which the Timurid army launched a follow up attack overwhelming the Indian army.  

-Timur had 100,000 people executed in Delhi, sacked and burnt the city and looted its many riches to be swept back to Samarkand.  This would be emulated when the Persian Shah, Nader Shah in the early 18th century would likewise attack and sack Delhi, ironically then under the leadership of Timur’s descendants.

-1399 saw Timur declare war on the Ottoman Empire then rising in Anatolia as well as the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.

-1400 saw an invasion of Armenia and Georgia in one of his few campaigns against Christians, as many as 60,000 were enslaved and untold numbers killed with entire districts being depopulated.

-The war with the Ottomans, actually started as a series of insulting letters exchanged with the then Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I.  The Ottomans has in the last century risen from semi-obscure beylik in western Anatolia to the most powerful Anatolian Turkic state and one with a presence in Europe with conquest of the Balkans and laying siege to the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople.  However, Timur invaded Anatolia, claiming over lordship of all Turkmen rulers.  Bayezid was forced to lift his siege of Constantinople and instead contend with Timur.

-Things came to a head in 1402 at the Battle of Ankara in central Anatolia when the Timurid and Ottoman armies, the two rising Islamic powers of the age would meet.  Both armies were large and fought very hard that day, especially of note were the Serbian knights who were vassals of the Ottomans.  Their heavy armor repelled the Timurid cavalry’s arrows and the ferocity of the Serbian troops caused Timur to remark that Serbs “fought like lions”.  Nevertheless, Ottoman troops on a forced march in summer heat were tired and thirsty from the outset and exhaustion set in and allowed the Timurids with their superior numbers to gradually overwhelm them, though the Serb and Romanian vassals fled the battlefield realizing it a lost cause, Bayezid stayed on to fight.  The Ottomans tired, thirsty, partially abandoned by their European troops and then betrayed by their own Tatars who joined the Timurid ranks were eventually surrounded and Bayezid himself was captured and taken prisoner.  Never before or ever again would an Ottoman Sultan be taken prisoner on the field of battle, he died in captivity a few months later.

-With Bayezid’s death a civil war in the Ottoman Empire would take place among his sons which provided some relief to the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire as Constantinople would be spared for another few decades.  Timur had unintentionally bought them more time.  This victory over the Ottomans earned Timur fame in Europe and actually earned him some praise, unique for a Muslim ruler in the eyes of Christian Europe.

-In fact Timur engaged in diplomatic exchanges with France and the Spanish Kingdom of Castile during this time, each sending embassies back and forth.  Timur referred to the Castilian king Henry III as like a son.  Overall, mixed views of Timur pervaded, his barbaric mass beheadings were condemned but his running interference against a common enemy in the Ottoman Empire was appreciated.  

-His westward expansion took him to western Anatolia and city of Smyrna which had an Ottoman contingent hiding and protected by Christian Knights of Rhodes and supported by Genoese Italian sailors.  The Timurids put up a two week siege which finally succeeded in capturing the city despite fierce resistance from the Knights of Rhodes.  Much of the city as was Timur’s custom was executed by mass beheading, burning or burying alive. Some Knights escaped on Genoese ships as did the Ottomans, ferried back to the Balkans where they were safe.  This marked the extent of Timur’s westward expanse, he returned east to his empire having wrought the necessary damage upon the Ottomans and setting them up for a 12 year long civil war which kept them distracted.

-Timur, next planned an eastward campaign against the Ming dynasty of China which had overthrown the Mongol over lordship of China which had existed since the days of Genghis Khan.  Timur’s goal was to conquer China and restore Mongol rule there now with an Islamic flavor.  In 1405 he set out after months of preparation and died en route to China in Kazakhstan on February 17th of that year.  His cause of death is believed to have been the common cold, though is not known definitively.  He was by then nearing his 70′s and was liable to have been prone to death by disease.

-Timur was buried in simplistic fashion though in an ornate mausoleum in Samarkand.  His tomb was said to had a curse placed on it.  That anyone who disturbed it would face a great calamity.  Nader Shah, his Turco-Persian emulator in the 18th century is rumored to have taken some jade from Timur’s tomb only to have his son fall ill until the jade was returned.  Most famously in 1941 with Uzbekistan part of the USSR, Soviet scientists exhumed Timur’s body and conducted research confirming his disability and able to get a description of his body size, frame and reconstruct his facial features.  The exhumation took place days before the Nazi invasion of the USSR.  Some have tried to link the events.  Indeed Timur’s body was re entombed in 1942 prior to the victory of Stalingrad which shifted the tide of war on the Eastern Front of World War II.  Whether one believes in a link between these events and disturbances to the tomb of Timur, the idea of a curse persists into the modern era.

-Timur’s legacy was a one of great ambition and a demonstration of the power of the individual to through their own deeds appeal to others and in doing so come to wield great power and influence.  He attempted to straddle legacies that influenced him, a Mongol tradition and an Islamic religious duty, both of which motivated him to attempt a Mongol renaissance but combine with Islam’s religious unity.  Timur might not have been able to succeed in all his ambition due to time and his death but his achievements were certainly vast and plentiful.

-His legacy isn’t just military victory and conquest but it is one of patronizing art and in his attempt to put forth that Turco-Mongol tradition with Islamic influences that influenced architecture in Central Asia and the greater Islamic world in general.  He also had a legacy that lived outside him and beyond him.  His campaigns indirectly gave rise to the later Russian Empire and preserved the Byzantine Empire.  His own love of Persian culture and government administration became a hallmark of Islamic empires for ages to come in terms of language and high culture.

-Timur’s legacy is also one that existed within his family, his empire never really maintained the stability it did under him, his successors ruled but another century or so but the state began to crumble and decentralize much like predecessor states in the region had before him.  Eventually the Uzbek tribes and the Kurdish Safavid dynasty which came to rule Persia in the 1500′s replaced the remnants of the Timurid Empire and the various Turkic tribes in its power vacuum.  One of his descendants by the name of Babur escaped to the east and established power over Delhi forming the Mughal Empire which spread Islam throughout India and came to rule much of the subcontinent for the next several centuries.

-Finally, Timur’s atrocities need to be accounted for as well, millions dead due to war, mass executions or through famine and disease are attested too.  Some estimates say upward of 17 million died as a result of Timur’s campaigns through various causes, roughly this was 5% of the world’s estimated total population at the time.  Already ravaged by the Black Death decades before, it would take some places decades if not centuries to recover its population...

[hoseingh]

Historical Identity: The role of History on identity Layers

“It’s not just that I’m a woman of color running for office. It’s the way that I ran. It’s the way that my identity formed my methods.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

 What I realize from the notion of identity, especially when I

start thinking about myself; it is like onion made by various layers. as I

mentioned before in another post about constructing historical identity? I believe a Human has

labeling various tags to his character for identifying himself from others.

however, it’s wondering the mind for defining his unique identity, using total

similarities. he is constantly labeling himself whole tags like Gender, Race,

Family, Language, Geography, caste, culture, nation, religion, etc. he

continues this way until he makes sure, he will the only and unique person who

maintained in all of these whole layers. 

we can define these whole tags in 2 main subjects: 1- private

self-2- public self. some layers of our identity coming from the deep question

of who am I? we constantly listening to our inner voices.so our mind trying to

construct a unique individual character for ourselves. moreover, we are social

sapiens.so other fundamental question arises of what I mean? we are affected by

the outside world. the society forcing us to build a clear definition of our

existence in society and accept our specific roles in it.

whatever right or wrong, the mind is building constantly a maze

with multilayers for his identity in every moment of life. these identity

layers defining our point of view to life. and lightening the path to future

destiny. These identity layers are shaping our values and belief system. as

they are dictating types of action to our consciousness, facing the outside

world. 

despite how history has made an active role in identifying our

character? history help us to organize and choose priority in these whole

layers. essentially we need principal and basic identity. in other word, we

have to choose the top priority layer for our self. private or public self,

patriot or religious, rock music, or pop music? normally we use history to

resolve in every dilemma in our mind. 

if we do not suppose to choose an item for our character,

probably the spirit of history will force us to fall in an unwanted role in our

life. history is playing an active role ever in our DNA. hence we are highly

dependent on our memory to make a decision. and every decision is an active

move to construct our identity structure. and playing our role in the story of

life.

history of life is teaching us that we have no choice except to

define our point of view about some circles. such as what is my role in a

family? how can I improve my place in my neighborhood? which worldview fits

best with my future destiny? is nationality would help me to achieve my goals?

or how becoming a fan of a certain sports club can express better my identity

and helping me to make a better relationship with others? etc. some hashtags

are essential and we cannot neglect them. On the other hand, some whole layers

are optional and it’s up to you, whether joining in or not. 

here are essential layers of human identity: 

1

2

3

 how history forcing you to get your basic layer of identity?

the palace of Self needs a solid and very stable foundation. and you have to choose the best fitting layer as a basic layer of your identity. which one you would choose? for an answer to this fundamental question, you have to study well your inner world and compare it to your outside reality. now just zoom out from your own identity to the bigger scale of public society, nation, state, or even universal. now think again about the basic layer of identity. what is your best reference for research or study? and in the next step, how you can expose your point of view? My answer is culture, literature, or history in the light of philosophy. 

 Iran as a great example

let me dive into the ocean of history and continue this argument in a real example: we have a controversial issue about what is our main layer of identity in Iran, for the last 2 centuries. either we believe individualism or communitarianism. there is still a bigger question: what is a true definition of Iran as part of Iranian identity? in the late 19th century the sense of nationalism arose in the Iranian community and by the beginning of Reza Shah’s kingdom in the first of 20th (1925). Iranian nationality had been established as the official government in Iran. but there was some great issue still maintained. what does Iran mean? which language, culture, or tradition represents the notion of Iran? 

this issue has Absolut roots in the history of this land. Iran is one of the oldest civilizations in human history in the heart of middle east. the history of Iran has divided into 2 major eras: before and after Islam. I would not be discussing the long ancient history of Iran. although you can read it on the internet if you want. anyway, there is still a hot controversial discussion about the role of Islam in Iranian identity in our contemporary era. Islam was Iranian official religion for more than 1000 years. Besides that, Islam has its own official language, culture, and traditions. for a long time, Persian and Arabic languages have used in Iranian culture. but in the age of enlightenment and by rising the essence of nationalism in Iran some Iranian intellectuals were tried to remove Islamic identity and refer back to Iranian ancient history had known as Arian-Persian History as a basic layer of Iranian national identity. 

Despite Iranian intellectual movement has a major problem by any religions, following western modernization. besides that, they were seeking a way to bold Iranian differences against Arabic culture. then Reza shah has begun the modernization process he based the foundation of Iran national identity on Persian-Aryan history. this occurred serious paradoxical issues in Iranian society. Because some great parts of Iranian were not descendants from the Aryan-Persian race. For example, Turks people in the northwest, Gilanian, and Turkmens in the north, Arab, and other tribes in the southwest had maintained outside of this main layer of identity. although the Islamic religion is more rooted in Iranian culture to remove it overnight. 

the idea of a new identity for Iran as a Nation-state has occurred more clashes instead of the unity in the country. until the Islamic revolution of Iran in 1979, revolutionaries had calmed Islam as the principal layer of Iran identity. On the other

hand, modernists intellectual movement had stressed the ancient history of Iran and define the Aryan race as a fundamental layer of Iranian identity. although this paradox still remaining in Iranian politics, culture, and society. this caused more identity crisis in Iranian history. 

the exciting part is the role of historians and writers. because they were trying to rewrite new history from scratch and bolding their point of view as Aryan domination history over Islam. in the 20th century a new version of Iran history had been coming up that there is no record in Iranian written memory. 

some Iranian writers supporting by western imperialism had founded a new vision about Iranian history. a lot of thinkers including myself believe that all of this new history is part of western Imperialism plan to rip off Iranian oil sources. although this approach to history is setting to make more identity crisis in nations than creating a solid national identity. 

anyway, the issue of Iran is one of the best examples for discussing the importance of historic identity. and I’ll be writing more about the issue of Iran in my next papers. 

 History vs most essential identity layers

let’s presume we consider nationality as a basic layer of public identity. hereon all of the other layers most expose somehow to fit this principal layer. economy, culture, ethnicity, and religion should represent the best of nationality. but there is one question that will twinkle: which one of these essential layers we would choose for the basic identity layer?

this is one of the greatest subjects that free thinkers especially philosophers have thought and wrote about it. this question is out of our discussion. but the point is whatever is the right answer, we need history in the process of think production. 

in fact, the question of which layer of Self, should place as principal, is not in our intention. In fact, our main question is: how we can design a fundamental layer of identity? the short answer could be referring to self-referential encoding. including private or public memories. this is the active role of History, literature, art, or philosophy. 

the game of Self building will be becoming more exciting when we consider our point of view to history is highly dependent on the order of sortation of our identity layers. these layers in the loop circulation are forcing us to review and rewrite human history. individualism, socialism, racism, nationalism or religion, etc. all of these isms, need to interpret history as their point of view. although the best interpretation of history is what laminate all of the human layers. the main issue in the 21st century is not which worldview is true. the problem is most of them are true layers of human identity.

 historical obstacles for constructing identity

history is an ebullient source of legitimation. the repetition of procedures in time laps is making traditions. and traditions have caused legitimacy. hence constructing new ideas isn’t always congruous by the stream of history. history could become a strong barrier against any changes as much as it could become the main tool to build a new self. Historic studies would be reminding us that every new idea did face serious resistance from historic traditions. therefor if we are neglecting to examine these historic obstacles we will fail as many great ideas did fail because of that. 

people are highly dependent on their current situations. Thus we need precise situation awareness, for every fundamental change or evolution. On the other hand, we need relevant force to change in the current stream of history. we can point out to enormous examples in human history. 

 Axis layers, Savior layers, link layers

sometimes titles are more important than paragraphs. maybe it’s better to get rid of these paragraphs and spend our time thinking about headings. any way by observing history or historiography we can find out that it’s not just Axis identity layers that matter. the portrait of self (such as private or public self) is like Photoshop picture including background and various layers, effects and patterns, etc. although the result is just one frame of the picture. every main category has its own functions and attributes in the structure of self-identity. 

the main Axis of self, most support by relevant pillars. for example, if we presume nationality as the kingbolt of public identity. then there is no way to build the roof of nationality except on the columns of language, race, culture, religion (any worldview) geography, etc. thus we would define the exact position of every of these supporter layers under the whole public self. 

[fangirlshameblog]

Me: North Korea isn't funny and the Haha whacky totalitarianism Western take "serves to buffer and obscure the sheer evil of a regime that enslaves children and sentences entire families to death for crimes of thought" Turkmenistan is equally NOT FUNNY!

Also me: *can't stop watching the Turkmen dictator DJing his New Year's party*

[deadinsidedressage]

Happy Horse Day as decreed by Turkmen dictator Turkmenbashi!

[devletbayhan]

🇹🇲 TÜRKMENISTAN ÖZGERÝÄR - DAŞARDAKY PROWAKATORLAR GOLDAÝAR -ARKADAGBURG,  ARKADAGISTAN, SANKT ARKADAG, ARKADAGIA

#StopTurkmenDictator #StopBerdimuhammedov

#TurkmenDemocracy #StopTurkmenDictatura

Aşgabatda oturan Türkmen diktatorunyň we diktatura hökümetiniň ahyrynyň gelendigini görkezýän iň esasy alamat ýurtda hemme zada Arkadag adynyň dakylmaga başlanmagydyr. Meselem: Arkadag şäheri, Arkadag telekanaly, Arkadag gazeti, Arkadag futbol topary we ş.m.

Bu absurd propagandalar "Mejlis diplomatiýasy", "Halk maslahatynyň iň ýokarky organ", "Milli lider Türkmen Aýatolla", "Serdarly Arkadag zamanasy" propagandalary bilen başlap, häzir boljagy boldy. Elbetde munda daşary ýurtlarda işleýän, okaýan we ýaşaýan watandaşlarymyzy hakykatdan daşlaşdyran, olaryň ünsüni hakyky gün tertibinden sowan "aktiwist, oppozisiýa, adam hukuklary goraýjysy maskalaryny dakan" prowakatorlaryň iň uly goşandy boldy. Bu prowakatorlar şol bir wagtda halkara guramalara ýalan maglumatlar berlip, dünýä jemgyýetçiligine hem Türkmen halkyna bolşy ýaly ýalan sözlediler. #Hereket atly Türkmen demokratik oppozisiýa güýçleriniň bileleşiginiň informasiýa göreşindäki #Türkmenim YouTube kanaly taryhy hakykatlary halk köpçüligine hödürleýär:

https://www.youtube.com/live/I6pp2M1baDg?feature=share

🇹🇷 #Turkmenistan: KENDİ ADINI HER ŞEYE VERDİREN DİKTATÖR! Aşkabattaki Türkmen diktatörün sonunun geldiğini gösteren en bariz belirtilerin başını her şeyin adını kendi adıyla değiştirme hastalığıyla başlıyor. Ve bu bitiş evresi şu anda ülkede zirve yapmış durumda. Örneğin: #Arkadag şehiri, Arkadag Televizyon kanalı, Arkadag gazetesi, Arkadag futbol takımı v.b. Bu trajikomik durum karşısında "kendi canını kurtarmak isteyen Berdimuhammedov bunun karşılığında Türkmenistan'ı Putin'e peşkeş çekecek diye iddiada bulunanlar da var. Diktatör Berdimuhammedov'un absürt propagandaları neden böyle çığırından çıktı? Çünkü, "aktivist, muhalif, insan hakları savunucusu maskesi takmış" provokatörler yurtdışında çalışan, okuyan ve yaşayan Türkmenistan vatandaşlarını ülke gündeminden uzaklaştırmayı başardı. Onlar uluslararası kuruluşlara sürekli yalan bilgiler verdi ve böylece "Arkadag propagandasına" uygun zemin hazırlamaya büyük katkıyı sağladı. #Turkmenim YouTube kanalı konuyla ilgili özel program hazırladı. Programı mutlaka izleyin ve görüşlerinizi yorumlarda paylaşın! En önemlisi hakikati ve özgürlük isteyen kendi halkını destekleyen kanalımızı beğenin ve destekleyin lütfen!

https://www.youtube.com/live/I6pp2M1baDg?feature=share

🇷🇺 #Туркменистан: ДИКТАТОР, КОТОРЫЙ ВСЕМ ДАЕТ СВОЕ ИМЯ!  Самые явные признаки конца туркменского диктатора в Ашхабаде начинаются с болезни переименования всего на свое имя.  И этот заключительный этап сейчас находится в самом разгаре в стране.  Например: город Аркадаг, телеканал Аркадаг, газета Аркадаг, футбольная команда Аркадаг и т.д.  Перед лицом этой трагикомической ситуации есть и те, кто утверждает, что «Бердымухаммедов, который хочет спасти свою жизнь, взамен отдаст Туркменистан Путину. Почему абсурдная пропаганда диктатора Бердымухамедова вышла из-под контроля? "в маске активиста, диссидента, правозащитника" Провокаторам удалось отстранить граждан Туркменистана, работающих, обучающихся и проживающих за границей, от повестки дня страны, они постоянно давали ложную информацию международным организациям и тем самым в значительной степени способствовали созданию основы для "Аркадагская пропаганда". YouTube-канал #Turkmenim подготовил специальную программу на эту тему. Обязательно посмотрите программу и поделитесь своим мнением в комментариях. Самое главное, пожалуйста, поставьте лайк и поддержите наш канал, который поддерживает правду и своих людей, которые хочет свободы!

https://www.youtube.com/live/I6pp2M1baDg?feature=share

#Turkmenistan: THE DICTATOR WHO GIVES HIS NAME TO EVERYTHING! 

The most obvious signs of the end of the Turkmen dictator in Ashgabat begin with the disease of changing the name of everything to his own name. And this final phase is now at its peak in the country.  For example: Arkadag city, Arkadag Television channel, Arkadag newspaper, Arkadag football team etc. In the face of this tragicomic situation, there are also those who claim that "Berdimuhammedov, who wants to save his own life, will give Turkmenistan to Putin in return. Why did dictator Berdimuhammedov's absurd propaganda get out of hand like this? Because he is "wearing an activist, dissident, human rights defender mask" The provocateurs managed to keep the citizens of Turkmenistan working, studying and living abroad off the country's agenda. They constantly gave false information to international organizations and thus contributed greatly to laying the groundwork for "Arkadag propaganda". #Turkmenim YouTube channel prepared a special program on the subject. Be sure to watch the program and share your views in the comments. Most importantly, please like and support our channel, which supports the truth and its own people who want freedom!

#ترکمنستان: دیکتاتوری که اسمش را بر همه چیز گذاشته است!  بارزترین نشانه های پایان دیکتاتور ترکمن در عشق آباد با بیماری تغییر نام همه چیز به نام خود آغاز می شود.  و این مرحله نهایی هم اکنون در کشور در اوج خود قرار دارد.  به عنوان مثال: شهر آرکاد��غ، کانال تلویزیونی آرکاداغ، روزنامه آرکاداغ، تیم فوتبال آرکاداغ و غیره.  در مواجهه با این وضعیت غم انگیز، کسانی هم هستند که ادعا می کنند "بردی محمداف که می خواهد جان خود را نجات دهد در ازای آن ترکمنستان را به پوتین می دهد. چرا تبلیغات پوچ دیکتاتور بردی محمداف اینگونه از کنترل خارج شد؟ "پوشیدن نقاب فعال، دگراندیش، مدافع حقوق بشر" تحریک کنندگان توانستند شهروندان ترکمنستانی کار، تحصیل و زندگی در خارج از کشور را از دستور کار کشور دور نگه دارند. آنها دائماً اطلاعات نادرست را به سازمان های بین المللی می دادند و در نتیجه کمک زیادی به زمینه سازی برای " پروپاگاندای آرکاداگ". کانال #ترکمنیم یوتیوب برنامه ویژه ای در این زمینه تهیه کرد. حتما برنامه را ببینید و نظرات خود را در نظرات به اشتراک بگذارید. مهمتر از همه لطفا کانال ما را لایک کنید و حمایت کنید که از حقیقت حمایت می کند و مردم خود را که می خواهند آزادی!

https://www.youtube.com/live/I6pp2M1baDg?feature=share

[hapalopus]

I feel like I have to add this, for the sake of my own sanity if nothing else: Gurbanguly does a lot of very weird publicity stunts, like the aforementioned horse poetry and car donuts. Don't fall for those stunts. He is not a funny little Blorpo, he's literally a dictator.

During his presidency he has evicted ethnic minorities from their homes and forced them to leave Turkmenistan, forced people with Turkmen citizenship to remain in Turkmenistan, and essentially banned all non-Turkmen culture (including Russian surnames, the Uzbek language, and Balochi traditions). Under his rule, religious minorities have been imprisoned and tortured, libraries have been closed and the internet is restricted to control information, and physical expression (beards and makeup) has been limited to ensure conformity of appearance. Turkmenistan also has zero press freedom - journalists are imprisoned and/or killed for saying anything negative about the country or the 'president'.

feels like a good call, Turkmenistan!

[travelistme]

How to Get a Turkmenistan Tourist Visa in London for British Citizens

How to Get a Turkmenistan Tourist Visa in London for British Citizens

Turkmenistan is probably one on the list of the least explored countries in all of Asia. This country, which is home to the traditional nomadic shepherds called Turkmen, once became a land covered with grand statues of its former dictator, Sparamurat Niyazov, until his death in 2006 led the people to eventually dismantle these figures. Now Turkmenistan might not always make it to the headlines,…

[uncommon-etc]

All good points but in order to understand the context in which the film is set you have to have a reasonable understanding of the context in which the novel was written. The first Dune book came out in 1965, only a few years after the Cuban Missile Crisis when the world was essentially in the grip of the Cold War. Despite its hard-sci-fi elements which may at times bear no resemblance to specific civilisations past and present, it is essentially a cold-war novel. It was as though Frank Herbert had predicted the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which would occur a mere fourteen years later or even the religious fanaticism which would sweep the country after that. 

It’s not accident that the visuals of Caladan and House Atriedes’ legacy draws strongly on a variety of Western European cultures. They live on a rainy planet teeming with life, their military traditions are based on slightly outdated notions of honour and duty, they have Western-style names and their musical and sporting traditions draw on those still practiced in Western Europe and America. Despite arranged marriages being the norm, just as they were among the European nobility for centuries, and children being seen as standard-bearers of the family title, they seem to have values centred on the idea of the family unit that are much more in tune with ours than many of the other characters. 

No prizes for guessing who Baron Vladimir Harkonen and his lot are meant to be as the baddies of this narrative. The Harkonens are natural enemies of the Atriedes partly due to being new-money while their rivals name and wealth go back centuries and they share blood with the emperor himself. Between 1945 and 1965, respect and admiration for the Soviet Union as a newly developed and industrialised power turned to fear when it became clear that much of the new wealth of what had previously been a lose collection of agrarian peasant or nomad cultures under the old Tsarist empire was gained at the expense of its subjects. Nowhere was this felt more severely than in the central Asian socialist republics where over four million Kazakhs starved to death when they chose to slaughter their own animals rather than be forced to join collective farms and abandon their nomadic way of life. 

The Fremen were largely influenced by Bedouin tribes but there are also elements of Kazakh, Uzbek and Turkmen culture in their appearance. All of these desert cultures were forced by the USSR to industrialise and modernise (which wasn’t always a bad thing given that adult illiteracy in Turkmenistan was 75% in the 1920s and the USSR turned that on its head in a couple of decades). The cultural impact of being what were essentially colonies of a major global power however has made some of these countries far more vulnerable to religious extremists and dictators.  

When we see glimpses of the Harkonens home-world it’s hugely depleted of any natural resources due to rapid industrialisation and resembles a cold, grey prison planet. These visuals are very much in tune with the way Americans in particular pictured the European states of the Soviet Union, missing the irony that their own cities were just as grey, polluted and industrialised a few decades before. 

So, I wouldn’t say Dune is necessarily pro-imperialist or anti-imperialist, it is simply a product of its time with the irony of the West’s actions (critiquing the USSR for invading Czecheslovakia and Poland while they went about happily invading South America among others) is lost on both its author and most of its then readers. 

It was also written in a time when there was a massive surge in demand for oil as more people bought cars or took foreign holidays (something virtually unheard of among the masses both before and immediately after WW2) so while the spice could represent any number of precious natural or mineral resources found in the Middle East, the fact its used to power intergalactic space-crafts is quite telling. No one was then fully aware that oil was a limited resource and one that would do irreparable damage to the planet which is why spice-consumption has no real consequence in the eyes of those who aren’t too bothered about the oppression of the Fremen. 

As for the blatant ‘white saviour’ trope, show me a sci-fi novel pre-1970 which didn’t feature a white male hero as a messianic figure? Dune was actually quite controversial in that Paul chose to form an inter-racial relationship with Chani (and they go on to have a son of their own) and has no interest in his eventual wife, the emperor’s daughter. And far from endearing him to the Fremen, the scene in which he kills Jamis actually stirs up quite a lot of animosity between them in the book as Paul has been trained to fight with shields which the Fremen don’t use so his deliberate delays in attacks make the onlookers think he’s toying with him. 

I agree, there are several areas in which the film could have used more nuance in its imperialist theme, but anything from nearly seventy years ago was always going to be difficult to adapt for a modern audience and the book, despite being a pioneering work in its day, is still a product of its time.     

Why Dune (2021) reads as pro-imperialist (from someone who has never reads the books)

(this is obviously full of spoilers for the 2021 film)

At the start of the film, we get a Fremen voiceover telling us about the evils of the current imperialists, who are cruel and doing violent extractive mining and generally suck. Then we're told that they're leaving and the voice wonders who the next oppressors will be.

So far, so anti-imperialist.

And then we're introduced to Paul and his mother and his father and find out that they are the new imperialists being given the planet, as though a planet can be given by an outsider to other outsiders, and they are shown to be Different TM. The previous imperialists were described as animal-like (and later threaten to sexually assault his pregnant mother, and also have I think the only disabled character we seen, which is its own choice), but these new imperialists are civilized and love their families and also don't want to kill the Fremen but instead work with them. Collaborate.

Now we have a contrast: the good imperialists versus the bad ones. We are meant to like Paul and his parents and his friend/instructor Duncan Idaho and the others in his House. They are shown to do daring and cool and kind things, and we are meant to empathize with their pain and sympathize with their hard choices, stuck between the rock of the attack they know is coming and the hard place of their honor and the emperor's orders.

And from the voiceover on to nearly the end of the film, we see the Fremen almost exclusively through the lens of Paul's prophetic dreams, exoticized and romanticized in soft dreamy tones with Zendaya with blue eyes, and through marveling over their innovations, and through cheering masses for the potential outworlder messiah. We don't see them, their culture or their community or for the most part their thoughts about these new imperialists.

We're asked in the beginning what their new oppressors will be like, but we only really get to see that from the imperialists' standpoint. And what we do see from the Fremen standpoint is all tainted by the messiah narrative, where they are literally waiting for an outworlder savior.

And yes, yes, it's a prophecy planted by the magic deep state ladies, but we get an indigenous tribe with its own white savior prophecy, and then we have our very own white savior, here to lead them in glorious warfare to, you know, overthrow the emperor and take his place or something.

There are many ways to critically engage with this, but the film itself does basically none of them, just leaving us with the white boy who magically knows how to do things the Fremen way and manages to easily kill a Fremen (described earlier in the film by his weapons trainer as some of the best fighters he's ever seen) to win a place in Fremen society. But only after first showing mercy and trying to not kill the guy.

There's also the real world context of the Lawrence of Arabia-esque narrative and making an Arab/Bedouin set of tribes with blue eyes, and the general orientalism of the Fremen that sits uncomfortably with the West's imperialist history in the context. We have the fact that the Fremen are all POC and also slightly not-human, which sits uncomfortably with the West's (and specifically the white European/American Christian West's) history of attributing traits such as thicker thin and less ability to feel pain to Black people.

All in all, it is a study of contrasts and one-sided narratives: we get the bad imperialists so we can appreciate the good ones, and we get a brief mention of how spice is sacred to the Fremen without ever really following up on the impact to their people of the wholesale violent extraction of that sacred substance. But mostly we just get the imperialists, and the Fremen almost exclusively through their eyes.

[weopenviews]

ISTANBUL, Turkey—On Sunday afternoon, a video depicting a large convoy of Islamist Syrian rebel fighters yelling enthusiastically as they drove off to war circulated widely on Arabic social media. Fighters in the packed trucks, driving quickly past the group of children filming with their phones, could be heard yelling “Allahu Akbar!” and, “Our leader, 'til the end of time, is our master, Muhammad!”However, what shocked those watching the video weren’t the shouts of the Syrian fighters but rather those of the children filming, who yelled back at the soldiers in a language unfamiliar to most Syrians following their country’s nine-year war. “That’s not Kurdish, right?” said one user in an online group where the video emerged. “If they were Kurds, you think they’d be cheering them on?” responded another with a laugh out loud emoji.Over the next several hours, rumors swirled that the video was shot in Azerbaijan, a small Turkic-speaking nation lodged between Iran and Russia, and that the Syrian rebel fighters had been sent there to prop up the Azeri government in its war against neighboring Armenia that had begun that day. According to high-ranking Syrian rebel sources that spoke to The Daily Beast, these rumors are true. The fighters that appeared in the circulated video were part of a group of 1,000 Syrian rebel soldiers sent in two batches from Turkey on September 22 and 24.“500 Hamza Brigade fighters were flown last Tuesday from southern Turkey to the Azeri airbase at Sumqayit [30 kilometers north of the Azeri capital of Baku]”, according to a source within the Syrian National Army (SNA) rebel outfit who requested anonymity. “Two days later, on Thursday, another 500 fighters from the Sultan Murad brigades rebel faction were similarly flown out to Azerbaijan.”These claims were echoed by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Syrian opposition body that monitors human rights violations in the country. SOHR sources suggest more batches of Syrian rebel fighters are preparing to be deployed to Azerbaijan.The Hamza and Sultan Murad brigades are known within Syrian rebel circles as factions that enjoy especially close relations with Turkey, the last remaining patron of the Syrian opposition. Sayf Balud, commander of the Hamza brigades, however, is also known for his checkered past, in particular, as a former commander within the radical jihadist group ISIS.An ethnic Syrian Turkman from the town of Biza’a in Aleppo city’s northern countryside, Balud originally joined the Abu Bakr Sadiq brigades, a moderate rebel faction near his hometown that received widespread support from Gulf states in the early years of the conflict. However, coming from a small, relatively unknown family, Balud failed to climb the ranks of Syria’s rebel movement as quickly as he would have liked, and as others from more prominent backgrounds regularly did. By early 2013, Balud had joined ISIS, whose ranks were staffed mostly by foreigners who couldn't have cared less about the social status of their Syrian recruits.In July 2013, Balud appeared in an ISIS propaganda video shot in the border town of Tal Abyad after the group successfully captured the city from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). In the video, Sayf appears next to an Egyptian foreign fighter addressing a room full of two dozen captured YPG soldiers, who were assembled before an ISIS camera crew to officially repent for having joined an armed faction that ISIS’ leadership described as being “at war with God.”Over the next several years, Balud’s star continued to rise, as the commander attained a level of status within ISIS that would have been unattainable in other rebel groups. Despite the large-scale defeat of ISIS across northern Syria at the hands of the YPG in 2016 and 2017, the cunning commander was able to leverage his history of fighting against Kurds to re-invent himself as a valuable client for another foreign patron: Turkey.By January 2018, when Turkish backed rebel forces launched “Operation Olive Branch” to take over the Kurdish canton of Afrin located in Syria’s uppermost northwest corner, Balud regularly appeared in the group’s propaganda videos as the official commander of the newly formed Hamza brigades. His status as an ethnic Turkman, a small minority within Syria whose likeness to their Turkish kinsmen across the border has pushed Ankara to grant many coveted privileges such as Turkish citizenship and sensitive leadership positions, further endeared Balud to his new patrons.According to SNA sources, Syrian rebel units now being sent to Azerbaijan by Turkey are almost exclusively led by ethnic Syrian Turkmen. “Sayf Balud is a Turkman. The Sultan Murad brigade’s commander, Fahim Aissa, is a Syrian Turkman, like Balud. Turkey only trusts factions led by Syrian Turkman to carry out these missions. These are sensitive for Turkey politically, and they don’t trust Syrian Arabs to lead them.”Turkey’s intervention in Azerbaijan is indeed sensitive. After a four-year lull in fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, fighting between the two countries erupted anew on Sunday in fighting that killed two-dozen fighters.Historically the Nagorno-Karabakh region has been internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. But in 1991 Armenian factions within the region declared themselves independent. Three years of war over the disputed territory ended in 1994 with a Russian brokered ceasefire. The newly declared Nagorno-Karabakh republic was soon occupied by Armenia, which has since maintained de facto control of the area. With the exception of four days of fighting in April 2016, Sunday’s clashes were the first major instance of renewed combat between both countries over the status of the area. Both sides accuse the other of having initiated the fighting on Sunday.Clashes continue, with dozens more casualties reported. Fighting alongside the Azeri regular forces were 1,000 Syrian rebel fighters, among them former jihadists led by ex-ISIS commander Sayf Balud. All About the OilTurkey's move to send Syrian rebels to face-off against Armenia, a longtime rival of Turkey, is just the latest in a long string of neo-Ottoman foreign adventures undertaken by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over the last 6 months. Ankara has deployed both its armed forces and Syrian proxies to crack down on Kurdish PKK and YPG forces in northern Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan throughout 2020.Turkey has also intervened in western Libya and waters throughout the eastern Mediterranean where its navy has threatened NATO allies France and Greece in an attempt to strongarm both countries and lay claim to gas reserves located within Greece's maritime borders.In Azerbaijan, Turkey is looking to demonstrate loyalty and prop up an oil-rich regime with which it has maintained close military ties since the 1994 ceasefire. Since 2005, they have launched numerous lucrative oil and gas initiatives including a pipeline that exports 1.2 million barrels of Azeri oil per day to the European Union (EU), earning Turkey upwards of $200 million in annual transit fees. In 2006, this cooperation expanded following the launch of the South Caucasus natural gas pipeline that annually exports 8.8 billion cubic meters of much needed Azeri gas to the Turkish market, a net importer of energy.In 2011, Turkey began work on an expansive natural gas production network called the Trans Anatolian Pipeline, which is projected to export 31 billion cubic meters of Azeri gas to the EU by 2026. Turkish shareholders, who own a 30 percent stake in the project, stand to make huge profits.Turkey’s push to transform Azerbaijan into a lucrative oil and gas export hub is also motivated by Ankara’s desire to come out from under Russia’s shadow. Turkey depends on Russia for 40 percent of its fossil fuels, a reliance that has forced Ankara to treat Russia as a friendly nation despite the fact that the two countries share almost no common interests.The “Southern Gas Corridor,” a term referring to the various pipelines emerging out of Azerbaijan, has been heavily cheered on by the EU, which also wants to break its dependence on Russian gas. No surprise then that Russia is on the other side in the ongoing dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.Nagorno-Karabakh is now the third theater where Russia and Turkey find themselves supporting opposite sides in an active Middle East conflict zone. In Syria, Russian support for dictator Bashar al-Assad and Turkey’s support for the country’s rebels such as Sayf Bulad and others led to direct conflict between both countries’ armies earlier this year, resulting in the death of dozens of Turkish soldiers. In Libya, the situation is reversed, with Turkey supporting Libya’s government and Russia supporting Khalifa Haftar, a renegade general and rebel leader who has sought to seize control of Libya’s lucrative oil sector and capture the capital of Tripoli.In both conflicts, Sayf Bulad and the Hamza brigades have proven extremely useful to Turkey. Thousands of the group’s fighters, including Sayf Bulad, were deployed to Libya last summer to help repel a major assault launched by Russian-backed Khalifa Haftar and in the bargain reclaim territory previously captured by the general. The Turkish backed authority in Tripoli is now safely guarded against external threats, while Turkish companies are set to gain lucrative contracts in Libya’s oil and gas and reconstruction sectors.Within this context of great power struggles, Syria's rebels, once idealistic and seeking to liberate their country from dictator Bashar al-Assad, have found themselves reduced to pawns compelled to serve as mercenaries and shock troops used by Turkey to advance its foreign policy in a world where Ankara finds itself increasingly isolated. In doing so, they find themselves led by and mixed with fighters from the most vicious jihadist group the world has ever seen.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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[paladin-of-nerd-fandom65]

My Personal DC Cinematic Universe (Part 2)

Phase 1 Finale:

The Titans: Plot and structure here will be similar to Marvel’s Avengers (2012); the villains of the previous movie, Blackfire, has discovered Planet Earth as a potential base of operation for her plans of claiming the ruler of Tamaran. Starfire, upon landing on this planet with her friend Rachel Roth, runs into CIA Agent Amanda Waller in whom experiencing both the Battle for Gotham (Dark Knight Rises) and Metropolis invasion (Man of Steel) instantly takes belief for Starfire’s warnings of an upcoming attack by Blackfire and the dark demonic force she had found on this planet courtesy of Tamaranean legend. Thus, Waller assembles the metahumans currently in active duty from the three escapees from STAR Labs (Cyborg, Beast Boy and Terra) and this one vigilante from Bludhaven (Robin) to unite with Starfire in a counter strike against her treacherous sister. 

--This movie will see direction under the guise of film makers Mathew Vaughn (Director of Kick-Ass and the Kingsman series) and Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman) with a screenplay written by veteran Titan writer Amy Wolfram accompanied with screenwriter Robert Rovner (CW’s Supergirl) and Jessica Queller (CW’s Supergirl).

--Production design will be handled majorly by Alex McDowell (Man of Steel, Krypton and Zack Snyder’s Watchmen) while costume desgin will be a dual collaboration of DC animated veteran Glen Murakami and CW’s Colleen Atwood. NO COLOR FILTERS ALLOWED

--Soundtrack will be composed courtesy of Natalie Holt (Paddington, The Honourable Woman, and The Impossible) with some musical cues adapted from both Shirely Walker’s DCAU soundtracks and Han Zimmer’s Man of Steel soundtrack 

--Final Note: While the character of Clark Kent/Superman will not be discussed amongst the characters or even feature a single appearance throughout the duration of the film...at the ending of the credits, as the newly christened Titans Towers begins construction, we can see Starfire gazing into the city their Tower looks over on top of the structure....a red cape appears from behind her, mildly startling Starfire but she relaxes almost immediately once she sees the figure in front of her, holding his hand in a gesture of goodwill 

“You’ve done good Princess. Maybe more than I ever did.” a smiling Superman says before we cut to black, officially ending the first phase of the DC Capes and Masks Universe. 

Phase 2:

Wonder Woman: Pretty much the exact same team and plot as done with the one released by director Patty Jenkins this year. Only changes I would do include letting the character of Steve Trevor live and setting the conflict in the Modern Day Middle East (either Israel or ISIS occupied territory). Otherwise, leave this movie as it was. 

Man of Tomorrow: Clark Kent, now moving into the city of Metropolis as it reconstructs itself from the invasion of Dru-Zod and taking a position as a writer for the Daily Planet, must look upon the consequences of his great power for not only the citizens of this city but also to the world at large and come to terms with the fact not every bad thing can be resolved by his hand all at once. This inner struggle of wanting to do good all the time comes to a head with local Genius Billionaire Alexander Luthor, whom takes an interest on this Superman character as a potential ally and even friend for his vision to run the city of Metropolis as he sees fit. However,Clark’s newfound purpose in life as human sized beacon of hope dictates a counter to Luthor ever growing sense of cynical domination over his fellow man. But since Luthor rests at the top of the social totem pole without one crime that can take him down, can Superman turly deal with a practical living Ubermensch like Luthor? 

--Directing duties will now shift over to Allison Adler (Supergirl) accompanied by comic writers Geoff Johns and James Robinson 

--Screenplay duties are now given to Stephen McFreely (Captain America 3: Civil War) with advice from comic writers James Robinson, Kurt Busiek and Peter Tomasi.

--While Production design will carry over from Man of Steel, minor changes including an allusion to a more classic coloring scheme for Superman’s costume will be applied and Color filters will be removed

(Final movie for now because i need to save my battery, sorry fellas) 

Young Justice: In the United Kingdom, inspired by success of Gotham’s honored Batman, Metropolis’ current champion in the Superman and most importantly the bravery and valiance of the Titans during their climatic battle against the demon forces of Blackfire, Parliament has decided to form a superhuman team of their own. Parliament member Janet Drake offers the collection of youthful meta humans recently discovered on the borders of English territory to the MI6, all eager to try being ‘superheroes’ themselves. Members of this ‘Young Justice’ Program include Jamie Reyes (possessor of an alien device in the shape of an insect that straps unto his back), Megan Morse (a young girl actually being the first recorded life-sign from the Planet Mars, though that’s up for debate..), Artemis Crock (Vietnamese born teen woman with amazing archery skills), Bartholomew Allen (distant nephew to American scientist Barry Allen, possesing super speed, though rumors fly of his cousin Wally West having same said speed), and finally the son of Janet Drake, Timonthy whom had grown a love for the heroes of America, in particular the vigilantes Batman and Robin and trained to peak minor condition as a dedication to his mother’s new found team. Their first mission: Apprehend the heads of the Turkmen (as in the authoritarian government of Turkmenistan) backed HIVE (Hierarchy of Vengeance and Eliminations) before their own metahuman teams cause destrcution on a possible global scale. The HIVE’s secret weapon however might be a daunting challenge though...since they have acquired DNA from a certain alien protector from the AMerican city of Metropolis to create a ‘Superman’ of their own...enter PROJECT KON... 

--Director will be Mathew Vangh and screewriting will be under the control of Greg  Weisman with advice from comic writers Geoff Johns and Peter David. 

--once again Alex McDowell and Colleen Atwood will handle production and costume design respectively 

--Soundtrack provdided this time by composer Lolita Ritmanis (Young Justice the animated series) 

Please like and for the love of God REBLOG if you have ideas to share about this proposal of mine, I highly appreciate it 

@fireflyxrebel @nightglider124 @lightdusk @robxstar