#foreigner in istanbul

[patrice-bergerons]

I'm at that age now where my high school teachers have started dying and I don't like it at all 😔

[housesforsaleturkey]

How to Buy a House in Istanbul?

Buying a House in Turkey as a Foreigner Istanbul Apartment for Sale remains a thrilling opportunity to enter the Turkey property market or make a smart purchase in Türkiye. Istanbul has cultivated itself as one of the numerous desired cities where foreigners wish to own an apartment.

[besthouseistanbul]

Best House Turkey Comprehensive Guide to Investing in Istanbul Real Estate: Everything You Need to Know in 2024

Best House Turkey Comprehensive Guide to Investing in Istanbul Real Estate: Everything You Need to Know in 2024

Istanbul, the vibrant metropolis that straddles both Europe and Asia, has become one of the most sought-after locations for real estate investment. With a rich history, stunning landscapes, and an ever-growing economy, Istanbul is the ideal place to buy property. Whether you’re looking for a luxury villa, a modern apartment, or a commercial investment, this guide will walk you through every aspect of buying property in Istanbul in 2024.

Table of Contents

Why Invest in Istanbul Real Estate?

Current Trends in the Istanbul Real Estate Market

Key Factors Driving Growth

Impact of Global Investment

Top Neighborhoods for Property Investment in Istanbul

Beyoğlu & Taksim

Sarıyer & Levent

Kadıköy & Üsküdar

Types of Properties Available for Sale in Istanbul

Modern Apartments

Historic Homes

Luxury Villas

Step-by-Step Guide to Buying Property in Istanbul

Required Documents

The Legal Process

Cost of Buying Property in Istanbul

Price Ranges by Neighborhood

Additional Costs

Financing Your Property Purchase in Istanbul

Advantages of Turkish Citizenship through Real Estate Investment

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Buying Property in Istanbul

1. Why Invest in Istanbul Real Estate?

Strategic Location

Istanbul’s unique geographical location between Europe and Asia is one of the main reasons why it has become a central hub for international investment. The city is not only a cultural melting pot but also a leading business and financial center. Its strategic location offers significant long-term potential for property investors.

Rising Property Values

Over the past decade, property values in Istanbul have consistently risen, and this trend shows no sign of slowing down. With significant infrastructure developments, including new transport links, commercial zones, and cultural projects, Istanbul’s real estate market offers substantial returns on investment.

Growing Population and Demand

Istanbul’s population is expanding rapidly, and with it, the demand for housing is steadily increasing. Both locals and foreigners are seeking to buy property in the city, whether for residential purposes or as investment assets.

Explore available investment opportunities with Best House Turkey to secure a promising property deal in Istanbul.

2. Current Trends in the Istanbul Real Estate Market

Key Factors Driving Growth

Several key factors are contributing to the continuous growth of Istanbul’s real estate market:

Urbanization: As more people move to Istanbul for work or lifestyle, demand for housing continues to increase.

Government Initiatives: The Turkish government offers tax incentives and programs, including the Turkish Citizenship by Investment program, to attract foreign investors.

International Trade and Business Hub: As Istanbul continues to solidify its position as a major business and trade center, the demand for both residential and commercial properties is surging.

Impact of Global Investment

Foreign investors, especially from the Middle East, Europe, and Russia, are increasingly buying properties in Istanbul. This international influx not only boosts property prices but also brings a cosmopolitan flair to the city. Real estate developers are catering to the growing demand for high-end, luxury properties in prime locations.

3. Top Neighborhoods for Property Investment in Istanbul

Beyoğlu & Taksim

Beyoğlu is one of the most popular areas in Istanbul, known for its lively atmosphere, proximity to major attractions, and rich cultural history. Taksim Square, one of Istanbul's most famous landmarks, lies within this district, offering excellent public transportation options and vibrant nightlife.

Best for: Young professionals, short-term rental investors.

Average Price: $3,000 - $6,000 per square meter.

Sarıyer & Levent

These neighborhoods are ideal for luxury buyers, offering high-end properties with panoramic views of the Bosphorus. Sarıyer, a coastal area, is known for its natural beauty, while Levent is a business and financial district with modern residential complexes.

Best for: Affluent buyers, investors seeking long-term capital appreciation.

Average Price: $6,000 - $12,000 per square meter.

Kadıköy & Üsküdar

Located on the Asian side of Istanbul, Kadıköy and Üsküdar offer a more relaxed lifestyle while still being well-connected to the city center. These areas are popular among families and long-term residents, with plenty of green spaces, schools, and affordable housing options.

Best for: Families, those seeking a quieter neighborhood.

Average Price: $2,500 - $5,000 per square meter.

4. Types of Properties Available for Sale in Istanbul

Modern Apartments

Modern apartments in Istanbul offer state-of-the-art facilities, including smart home technology, gymnasiums, swimming pools, and 24/7 security. These apartments are generally part of larger residential complexes, often located near business districts or transportation hubs.

Historic Homes

Istanbul is famous for its historic properties, ranging from Ottoman-era mansions to restored houses with architectural charm. These properties often have a unique cultural value, which can make them desirable to buyers interested in preserving the city's history while enjoying modern amenities.

Luxury Villas

For buyers looking for space, privacy, and luxurious features, Istanbul offers an impressive range of luxury villas. Many of these properties boast stunning Bosphorus views, private pools, large gardens, and easy access to Istanbul’s key areas.

5. Step-by-Step Guide to Buying Property in Istanbul

Required Documents

Passport: A valid passport is required for identification purposes.

Tax ID Number: Foreign buyers must obtain a Turkish tax number.

Proof of Funds: Evidence of where the funds for the property purchase are coming from.

The Legal Process

The legal process for buying property in Istanbul is relatively straightforward:

Property Selection: Identify the type of property you wish to purchase and visit potential properties.

Sale Agreement: Once you’ve selected the property, a sale agreement is drafted, and a deposit is usually paid.

Title Deed Transfer: The final step is the official transfer of the property’s title deed (TAPU) at the Land Registry Office.

6. Cost of Buying Property in Istanbul

Price Ranges by Neighborhood

Central Areas (Beyoğlu, Şişli): $3,000 - $7,000 per square meter.

Luxury Areas (Sarıyer, Levent): $6,000 - $12,000 per square meter.

Suburban Areas (Kadıköy, Üsküdar): $2,500 - $5,000 per square meter.

Additional Costs

Title Deed Fees: 4% of the property value.

Notary Fees: Typically $150 - $300.

Property Tax: 0.2% to 0.6% of the property’s declared value, annually.

7. Financing Your Property Purchase in Istanbul

Many banks in Turkey offer mortgage options to foreign buyers, generally requiring a down payment of 25-40%. Alternatively, you can explore developer financing, which may offer installment plans over the course of the construction.

8. Advantages of Turkish Citizenship through Real Estate Investment

Turkey offers a unique opportunity for foreign investors to acquire citizenship by purchasing real estate. The minimum required investment is $400,000, and the process typically takes around 3-6 months. This program grants you and your immediate family Turkish citizenship, including access to healthcare, education, and business opportunities.

For more details, visit Best House Turkey and start your citizenship journey today!

9. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Buying Property in Istanbul

1. Can I buy property in Istanbul as a foreigner?

Yes, foreigners can purchase property in Istanbul, provided the property is not located in military zones.

2. What is the minimum investment required for Turkish citizenship?

To qualify for Turkish citizenship through real estate investment, you need to invest at least $400,000.

3. Are there financing options for foreigners buying property in Istanbul?

Yes, Turkish banks and property developers offer financing options to foreigners, though the terms and conditions may vary.

4. How long does the property buying process take in Istanbul?

The property buying process typically takes 1-2 months, from initial negotiations to the transfer of the title deed.

5. What are the ongoing costs of owning property in Istanbul?

Ongoing costs include property tax, maintenance fees (for apartments), and utility bills.

6. Is it possible to rent out my property in Istanbul?

Yes, Istanbul’s real estate market is ideal for short-term and long-term rentals. Many foreign buyers choose to rent out their properties when not in use.

7. What types of properties are best for investment in Istanbul?

Modern apartments, luxury villas, and commercial properties are the most popular options for investors in Istanbul.

8. Are there any hidden fees when buying property in Istanbul?

Additional fees include title deed transfer fees, notary fees, and legal expenses.

9. Can I get a mortgage as a foreigner in Istanbul?

Yes, foreign buyers can apply for mortgages in Turkey with a down payment requirement of 25-40%.

10. What should I look for when buying property in Istanbul?

Look for properties in good locations, with solid construction, and good resale value. It’s also important to check the legal status of the property.

Contact Real Estate Turkey - Best House Turkey

Take the next step in your Property Turkey journey with the expertise of Best House Turkey.

Address: Şenlikköy Mahallesi Yeşilköy Halkalı Caddesi Aqua Florya No: 93 Kat: 3 Daire No: 2, 34153 Bakırköy/İstanbul Website: https://www.besthouseturkey.com Phone: +90 850 308 07 17 Email: info@besthouseturkey.com Map: Google Maps Location

Visit our website for more information and begin your journey with Property Turkey through Best House Turkey.

Tags: Buy Property Istanbul, Istanbul Real Estate, Invest in Istanbul, Turkish Citizenship, Property Investment Turkey, Luxury Property Istanbul, Foreign Buyers Turkey.

[besthouse]

Best House Turkey: Your Comprehensive Guide to Buying Property in Istanbul

Best House Turkey: Your Comprehensive Guide to Buying Property in Istanbul

Istanbul is more than just a city; it’s a unique blend of history, culture, and modernity. This dynamic metropolis has emerged as one of the most sought-after real estate markets globally. Whether you’re looking for a family home, an investment property, or a vacation retreat, Istanbul offers diverse opportunities. In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about buying property in Istanbul, from market insights to legal requirements and expert tips.

Table of Contents

Why Istanbul is the Perfect Destination for Real Estate Investment

Strategic Position Between Continents

Economic Growth and Development

High Rental Demand

Understanding the Istanbul Real Estate Market

Market Trends in 2024

Property Types and Their Benefits

Top Neighborhoods for Property Buyers in Istanbul

Best Districts for Luxury Homes

Affordable Areas with High ROI

Emerging Neighborhoods for Long-Term Growth

Legal Aspects of Buying Property in Istanbul

Foreign Ownership Rules

Tax Implications

Step-by-Step Property Buying Process in Istanbul

Researching the Market

Making an Offer

Finalizing the Deal

Financing Options for Foreign Buyers

Mortgage Loans in Turkey

Developer Payment Plans

Key Factors to Consider Before Buying

Location

Infrastructure and Amenities

Future Development Plans

Maximizing the Value of Your Istanbul Property Investment

Why Choose Best House Turkey for Your Real Estate Needs?

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why Istanbul is the Perfect Destination for Real Estate Investment

Strategic Position Between Continents

Istanbul's geographical location bridges Europe and Asia, making it a global hub for commerce, culture, and tourism. Its position attracts businesses, expatriates, and tourists, driving demand for real estate.

Economic Growth and Development

With significant infrastructure projects like the Istanbul Canal, new metro lines, and the world-class Istanbul Airport, the city continues to grow economically. These advancements positively impact property values.

High Rental Demand

Istanbul’s population of over 16 million ensures a steady demand for rental properties, especially in areas popular with expats and tourists.

2. Understanding the Istanbul Real Estate Market

Market Trends in 2024

The Istanbul property market remains resilient, with increasing foreign investments. Key drivers include Turkey's Citizenship by Investment program and strong rental yields.

Property Types and Their Benefits

Villas: Ideal for families and luxury living, especially in areas like Beykoz and Zekeriyaköy.

Apartments: Popular among young professionals and investors due to their affordability and rental appeal.

Commercial Properties: High ROI potential in business districts like Levent and Maslak.

3. Top Neighborhoods for Property Buyers in Istanbul

Best Districts for Luxury Homes

Bebek: Offers premium properties with stunning Bosphorus views.

Sarıyer: Known for exclusive villas and proximity to nature.

Affordable Areas with High ROI

Esenyurt: A favorite for budget-conscious buyers.

Başakşehir: Features modern infrastructure and family-friendly communities.

Emerging Neighborhoods for Long-Term Growth

Pendik: Growing in popularity due to improved transportation links.

Avcılar: Affordable properties with great rental potential.

4. Legal Aspects of Buying Property in Istanbul

Foreign Ownership Rules

Foreigners can buy most types of property in Istanbul, except those in military or security zones. Turkish law ensures fair treatment for international buyers.

Tax Implications

Title Deed Tax: 4% of the property value.

Annual Property Tax: 0.1%-0.6%, depending on the location and type.

5. Step-by-Step Property Buying Process in Istanbul

Market Research: Understand your needs and budget.

Find a Trusted Agent: Work with a reliable firm like Best House Turkey.

Property Visits: Schedule tours or virtual viewings.

Legal Checks: Verify ownership and zoning permissions.

Sign the Contract: Usually requires a 10% deposit.

Finalize the Title Deed Transfer: Complete payment and register ownership.

6. Financing Options for Foreign Buyers

Mortgage Loans in Turkey

Turkish banks offer mortgages to foreign nationals, typically covering up to 70% of the property value.

Developer Payment Plans

Many developers provide flexible installment plans for off-plan properties, making it easier to invest without immediate full payment.

7. Key Factors to Consider Before Buying

Proximity to Key Areas: Choose properties near schools, hospitals, or workplaces.

Neighborhood Growth: Research upcoming projects in the area.

Resale Potential: Focus on properties in high-demand locations.

8. Maximizing the Value of Your Istanbul Property Investment

Renovation: Upgrade older properties to boost their value.

Short-Term Rentals: Use platforms like Airbnb to maximize returns in tourist areas.

Long-Term Appreciation: Invest in emerging districts for higher future profits.

9. Why Choose Best House Turkey for Your Real Estate Needs?

Best House Turkey provides unparalleled expertise and a tailored approach to meet your needs. From property selection to legal assistance, our team ensures a seamless buying experience.

10. Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the minimum investment for Turkish citizenship?

Invest $400,000 in property to qualify for citizenship.

2. Can I finance my property purchase in Turkey?

Yes, Turkish banks and developers offer financing options for foreigners.

3. What additional costs should I expect?

Plan for a 4% title deed tax, legal fees, and annual property taxes.

4. Is buying property in Istanbul a safe investment?

Yes, Istanbul offers high returns and robust market growth.

5. How long does the property buying process take?

Typically, 4-6 weeks from start to finish.

6. Can I buy property in Istanbul remotely?

Yes, virtual tours and online documentation make remote purchases possible.

7. What is a TAPU?

A TAPU is the official property title deed in Turkey, crucial for proving ownership.

8. Are there restrictions for foreign buyers?

Foreigners cannot buy in military zones or specific security areas.

9. What is the average price per square meter in Istanbul?

Prices range from $1,500 to $6,000+, depending on the district.

10. Which areas offer the best rental yields?

Tourist-heavy areas like Taksim and Kadıköy are top choices for rental returns.

Contact Real Estate Turkey - Best House Turkey

Take the next step in your Property Turkey journey with the expertise of Best House Turkey.

Address: Şenlikköy Mahallesi Yeşilköy Halkalı Caddesi Aqua Florya No: 93 Kat: 3 Daire No: 2, 34153 Bakırköy/İstanbul Website: https://www.besthouseturkey.com/ Phone: +90 850 308 07 17 Email: info@besthouseturkey.com Map: Google Maps Location

Tags: Istanbul Real Estate, Buy House in Istanbul, Turkish Citizenship by Investment, Istanbul Property Investment, Best House Turkey, Affordable Housing in Istanbul, Property Financing in Turkey.

[kyreniacommentator]

FA Minister Ertuğruloğlu attends 16th Istanbul Security Conference

TRNC Minister of Foreign Affairs Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu attended the 16th Istanbul Security Conference, organized in Istanbul on May 31, 2024, in cooperation with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Association and Strategic Studies Implementation and Research Centre of the Başkent University. Continue reading FA Minister Ertuğruloğlu attends 16th Istanbul Security Conference

[ellcrys]

man i really loved istanbul so much what the heck

[niveditaabaidya]

Russia, Turkey Discuss Exporting Russian Grain. #russia #turkey #nato #u...

[timesofocean]

Russian foreign minister says China next target of West

New Post has been published on https://www.timesofocean.com/russian-foreign-minister-says-china-next-target-of-west/

Russian foreign minister says China next target of West

Moscow (The Times Groupe) – Russian Foreign Minister Segey Lavrov said Friday that the West is “not hiding” that China is the next target after Russia, as well as any country that “dares to act independently.” times

��They do not hide that when Russia, as they put it, is ‘defeated,’ China will be the next target as well as any country that dares to act independently and decides to be guided by its national interests, and not by what the US and the other Western countries determine,” Lavrov said, speaking at a news conference in Ankara after meeting his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Western statements that it is not the right time to declare a cease-fire and arms supplies to Kyiv indicate the West does not want to resolve Ukraine’s conflict, according to Lavrov.

Furthermore, he warned that if the Russian part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative is not implemented, then Moscow may reconsider its stance and work with Qatar and Turkey to export grain.

“We were forced to go for a slight escalation and extend the grain only for 60 days. If there is no further progress, we will rethink,” he said.

As a result of the existence of “corridors of solidarity,” through which Ukraine exports its products to Europe by land routes, Lavrov said the grain deal is even more in doubt.

Turkish, UN, Russian, and Ukrainian officials signed an agreement in Istanbul last July to resume grain exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports that had been halted since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022. In November, the deal was extended for 120 days and in March, for another 60 days.

[baigepueckers]

Nika Mühl X Reader

The Road to Recovery

The glow of your phone screen flickered to life, casting a soft light across your apartment as you worked late into the evening. It was just a routine for you to scroll through notifications, expecting nothing out of the ordinary. But then, the headline hit you like a punch to the chest.

“Nika Mühl Suffers Knee Injury During Game in Turkey: Suspected ACL Tear.”

Your heart sank.

Everything else faded as you clicked on the news story. The knot in your stomach tightened as you read through the details. Nika, your Nika, had gone down during the second half of a game while making a fast break. She was clutching her knee, writhing on the court in visible pain. The arena was silent and you could hear her gut wrenching screams. The rest was a blur, but you caught the words “immediate medical attention” and “serious injury.” Your heart began to race, a cold sweat forming on your brow.

Without thinking, your fingers moved faster than your brain, dialing her number. It rang once, twice… then straight to voicemail. Panic crept up your spine, your mind racing with images of her on the court, in pain, alone in a country far from you, from home.

“Nika… please, pick up…” you muttered under your breath, pacing around the small living room. You dial again. Still nothing.

A thousand thoughts ran through your head, each one worse than the last. She had worked so hard to get here, to earn her spot on the Turkish team during the off-season, wanting more practice and a chance to start. And now, just like that, everything she’d fought for was slipping away. Your chest tightened as you hit redial again, the ringing taunting you as it went unanswered once more.

You tried to steady yourself, focusing on your breathing, but the panic was overwhelming. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the call connected, and for a moment, there was only silence.

“Nika?” you asked, barely above a whisper.

All you could hear were her soft, broken sobs on the other end of the line. The sound of it shattered something inside of you.

“Baby… talk to me,” you pleaded gently, trying to keep your voice steady even though your heart was racing.

Her breathing was shaky, and she couldn’t seem to get the words out. Finally, she choked out, “It’s over… it’s all over. My knee… I….I can’t believe this is happening…”

Her voice was fragile, barely recognizable through her tears. The weight of it hit you like a wave, and you struggled to hold yourself together, not wanting to break down too. She was devastated, and it was killing you to hear her like this. To hear how shattered she was, especially after everything she had been working for.

“I’m so sorry, baby,” you whispered, tears stinging your eyes. “I should be there. I wish I could be there right now.”

She cried harder, her sobs raw and unrestrained. “This was supposed to be my chance,” she said, voice cracking with the pain of it all. “I was finally getting to start… and now, it’s all gone. What if I never…..” She trails off, not finishing the sentence.

You clenched your jaw, feeling helpless, thousands of miles away. You hated that you couldn’t reach through the phone and hold her. She was breaking, and you couldn’t fix it from here. The idea of her being in pain, alone in a foreign country, only made the ache in your chest worse.

“I’m coming, okay?” you said, the words coming out firmer than you expected. “I’m going to be there. I’m going to get the next flight out. You’re not going through this alone. I’ll be there soon.”

“N-no… you don’t have to,” she mumbled through her tears, but you could hear how desperately she needed you. How lost she felt.

“I need to,” you insisted, your voice shaking. “I love you, Nika. I’m coming baby.”

You booked the flight as quickly as you could, barely able to think straight as you threw clothes into a bag. The flight to Istanbul felt like it took an eternity, every hour dragging on with the weight of what you’d heard over the phone. You couldn’t stop replaying her words, her sobs, the sound of her falling apart on the other end of the line. All you wanted was to get to her, to hold her, to somehow make this better.

When you finally arrived at the hospital, exhaustion weighed down on you, but your worry for Nika fueled you to keep going. As you rushed through the hallways, your heart pounded in your chest. The weight of the hospital door felt heavier than you ever imagined as you pushed it open, stepping into Nika’s room. The sterile scent of antiseptic filled the air, but you barely noticed. Your eyes went straight to her, your heart breaking all over again at the sight.

Nika was sitting up in bed, her leg elevated, wrapped tightly in a bulky brace. Her face was pale, her usually bright, confident eyes now red and puffy from crying. The sight of her like this, so fragile, so unlike the strong, fierce woman you’d always known, nearly brought you to tears. The Nika you knew was always in motion, always pushing, fighting through anything in her way. She looked like the weight of the world had finally crushed her spirit.

She hadn’t seen you yet, her gaze distant, lost somewhere between sadness and disbelief. When she finally looked up, her lips trembled, and fresh tears welled up in her eyes.

In an instant, you were at her side, crossing the room as if time didn’t exist, your arms wrapping around her with a softness that mirrored the fragility of the moment. She collapsed into your embrace, her sobs breaking the silence, her face buried into your chest as she clung to you, shaking.

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t here sooner,” you whispered, your voice cracking, the overwhelming guilt and helplessness crashing over you. “I’m so, so sorry.” You pressed a kiss to the top of her head, tears stinging your own eyes. “But I’m here now.”

For a long time, she just cried, her body trembling against yours as she let everything out. You held her as tightly as you could, your own heart breaking into a thousand pieces as you listened to her pain. Nika was never one to cry easily she was tough, resilient. But in this moment, all of her walls had crumbled.

“They said it’s my ACL,” she whispered hoarsely after a while, her voice barely audible. “I tore it, surgery’s tomorrow.”

The words cut through you, and you swallowed hard, trying to keep your own emotions in check. ACL injuries were serious. They took months to heal, sometimes even longer to fully recover from, if you could recover fully at all. For an athlete like Nika, whose entire career depended on her body’s ability to move with speed and agility, this wasn’t just a setback. It was a nightmare.

You pulled back slightly, cupping her face with both hands, wiping away her tears with your thumbs as you looked into her eyes. “I know it feels like everything’s falling apart right now,” you said, your voice thick with emotion. “But we’re going to get through this, together. I promise.”

Her lips trembled as fresh tears formed in her eyes. “But what if I can’t come back from this?” she whispered, her voice breaking. “What if I’m never the same? I was just starting… I was finally getting to prove myself, and now…” Her voice trailed off into a sob, unable to continue, her shoulders shaking.

You rested your forehead against hers, closing your eyes, your heart aching at the rawness in her voice. “You will come back from this baby,” you whispered, your voice filled with every ounce of pure belief you had in her. “I know it seems impossible right now, but you are the strongest person I know, Nika. Stronger than anyone. This won’t break you. I know it won’t. And I’ll be with you every step of the way, no matter how long it takes.”

She sniffled, her breath shaky, but there was a slight flicker of hope, in her eyes. “You really believe that?” she asked, her voice soft, almost childlike.

You kissed her forehead gently, brushing away a tear that had slipped down her cheek. “I don’t just believe it,” you whispered, your voice steady and full of sincerity. “I know it. You’ve never let anything stop you before, and this won’t either. I know you like the back of my hand, sweet girl. You’re not alone in this. I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

The next morning, you stayed by her side as the nurses prepared her for surgery. You could see the fear in her eyes, the way her hands trembled as she fidgeted with the edge of her hospital gown. Your heart ached watching her try to be brave when you knew how terrified she really was. You reached out, taking her hand in yours, squeezing it gently.

“It’s going to be okay,” you murmured, leaning in close so only she could hear. “You’re my strong girl. You’ve got this.”

She gave you a weak smile, though you could see the fear still there behind her eyes. “I’m just scared,” she whispered, her voice wavering.

“I know,” you said softly, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “But it’s okay to be scared. You don’t have to be brave all the time baby. I’m scared too. But I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere. When you wake up, I’ll be right here. I promise.”

Just before they wheeled her away, Nika squeezed your hand tightly, her eyes locking with yours. “I love you,” she whispered, and kissed your hand. Her voice stiff with emotion.

“I love you more than anything,” you said, your voice thick as you kissed her long and hard. “So much. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

The hours dragged on as you waited in the sterile hospital waiting room, pacing back and forth, your mind racing with all the possibilities, all the unknowns. What if something went wrong in surgery? What if the recovery was harder than anyone expected? What if she couldn’t come back the way she wanted to? Every fear, every doubt weighed heavily on your mind. You kept telling yourself that Nika was strong. She always had been. She would fight through this she had to. And you would be there, every step of the way.

When the surgeon finally came out, your breath caught in your throat as you braced yourself for the news.

“The surgery went well,” he said with a reassuring smile. “Her ACL was fully repaired. It’s going to be a long recovery, but with physical therapy and the right support, she has a very good chance of making a full recovery.”

Relief washed over you so intensely that you had to sit down, the weight of the last few days finally catching up to you. You felt like you could breathe for the first time in what felt like forever.

When they finally let you see her, she was groggy from the anesthesia, her eyelids heavy as she blinked slowly, trying to focus on you. Her leg was wrapped tightly, elevated on pillows. She looked exhausted, but she managed a small, sleepy smile when she saw you.

“Hey,” you whispered, sitting beside her and taking her hand in yours. “You did it.”

She blinked up at you, her eyes heavy, but she smiled weakly. “You’re still here,” she mumbled, her voice soft, slurred from the meds.

“I told you I would be,” you said, squeezing her hand gently. “I’m not going anywhere. We’re in this together.”

Her eyes welled up with tears again, but this time, they were softer, less filled with fear and more with gratitude. “I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she whispered, her voice barely audible.

“You’ll never have to find out,” you promised, brushing your thumb across the back of her hand. “I’m going to help you through this. Every step. Every bad day, every victory. I’ll be right here, cheering you on, holding you when you need it. You’re going to come back stronger than ever, and I’ll be with you the whole time.”

Her eyes fluttered closed again, her grip on your hand tightening slightly as she drifted off into sleep. And as you sat there, watching her rest, you knew that the road ahead would be long and difficult. There would be days when she felt like giving up, days when the pain and frustration would seem unbearable. But you would be there for all of it. You’d be her strength when she felt weak, her hope when she felt lost. And no matter how hard the recovery was, you knew that together, you could get through anything.

In the months that followed, the recovery process was as grueling as you had expected. Physical therapy was long and painful, and there were days when Nika broke down in frustration, angry at her body for betraying her. She’s always been hard on herself. But you were there for all of it. You were by her side at every appointment, helping her through every exercise, every setback, every step forward.

“You’re doing amazing,” you’d tell her, even when she doubted herself, even when the progress felt too slow.

“I don’t feel amazing,” she would huff out “But I wouldn’t be able to do this without you,” she’d say on the hardest days, her voice filled with both exhaustion and gratitude.

But you never let her give up. And slowly, bit by bit, you started to see that fire in her eyes again, the determination returning, the strength you always knew she had. She was getting better. She was coming back.

[iamnmbr3]

i hate that this is a controversial take but i don't find 9/11 jokes funny. making fun of the victims of a terrorist attack isn't edgy or amusing nor is it some sort of incisive intellectual political commentary. it's just pathetic and cruel.

and no. there is no excuse. ever. it's not ok to do it with victims of 9/11 or of any other terrorist attack. just like it's not ok to act like that about victims of any other horrific violence - whether it's a school shooting or a serial killer's murder spree etc.

people try to justify their cruelty in various ways but it's all lies. you're not critiquing US foreign policy. you could do that any time. but no. it's crickets from you the whole rest of the year until it's time to mock a day set aside to remember innocent victims of a tragedy. and then suddenly you've got lot's to say. that is not a policy critique. it's just vile.

and then you try to act like anyone who calls you on your behavior is stopping you from engaging in legitimate political discourse when that isn't what's happening. you're just a bully who is trying to use faux activist catchphrases to shield yourself when you got called out.

murder isn't funny. terrorism isn't funny. the death of innocents isn't funny. just like it's not funny when it's a school shooting.

it's not funny when it happens to people in Istanbul or in Riyadh. and it's not funny when it happens in New York either.

[fugengulsen]

Photography in Turkey has a rich and storied history that spans more than a century, intertwining cultural heritage with technical innovation. The first cameras arrived in the Ottoman Empire in the mid-19th century, brought by European diplomats, traders, and travelers. One of the earliest known photographs of Istanbul dates back to 1843, taken by French photographer Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey. His daguerreotypes captured the splendor of Ottoman architecture, sparking local interest in the medium and laying the groundwork for photography in Turkey.

By the late 1800s, photography studios were established in Istanbul, often run by foreign photographers or members of Turkey's Armenian, Greek, and Jewish communities. The Abdullah Frères—an Armenian photography studio founded by the Abdullah brothers—became famous for their portraits of the Ottoman elite and the royal family. Their images documented the lives of sultans, officials, and foreign dignitaries, marking an era when photography became a respected art form in Ottoman society. The Abdullah Frères' work was prized not only for its artistic quality but also for its technical expertise, as they experimented with various methods and styles, often using hand-colored techniques to add depth and vibrancy to their portraits.

With the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, photography took on a new role as a means to capture and celebrate the nation's evolving identity. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, recognized photography’s power to promote cultural transformation and modernization. Photographs from this period show an emerging vision of Turkey, where Western-style clothing, industrial development, and women’s newfound roles in society were prominently featured. Photography served as a bridge between tradition and modernity, documenting the social reforms and aspirations of a young republic.

In the mid-20th century, Turkey saw the rise of influential Turkish photographers who brought a uniquely Turkish perspective to the medium. Ara Güler, often referred to as "The Eye of Istanbul," is perhaps the most renowned Turkish photographer of this era. Born in Istanbul in 1928, Güler’s black-and-white images of Istanbul’s streets, fishermen, and iconic landmarks captured the city’s soul during a period of rapid change. His work, rich in emotion and nuance, turned Istanbul into a universal symbol of nostalgia and resilience, earning him international acclaim. Güler's photographs went beyond mere documentation; they told stories, preserving the essence of Turkish culture at a time when modernity was transforming traditional ways of life.

Today, contemporary Turkish photographers like İlhan Maraşlı continue this legacy, blending artistry with an appreciation for Turkey’s natural and cultural landscapes. Maraşlı's work is celebrated for its simplicity and beauty, often focusing on the quiet, unadorned scenes of everyday life in Turkey. His images evoke a sense of tranquility and reverence for Turkey’s landscapes, villages, and people, embodying the philosophy that "simple is beautiful." This minimalist approach reflects a broader trend in modern photography, where moments of stillness and simplicity are valued as much as grandeur or drama.

In recent years, the digital revolution has further expanded the horizons of Turkish photography, making it accessible to new generations of artists. Social media platforms have allowed photographers to reach global audiences, showcasing Turkey’s rich heritage and diverse landscapes through vibrant imagery. As photography continues to evolve in Turkey, it remains a powerful means of expression and a testament to the country’s enduring creativity and cultural depth.

Historic Captured Eras

[etirabys]

The last chapter of John Bradshaw's Cat Sense is dedicated to the future of cats as a domesticated species. They're kind of in trouble, at least in the parts of the West that have carried out successful neutering campaigns.

(tumblr post extracting the parts of the book relevant to making your actual concrete cat happier is here)

For most of their history as a domesticated animal, cats were "independent workers" who weren't integrated into human households like dogs were. The shift to "affectionate indoor pets whose hunting drive is a liability rather than the main feature" has been recent, and fast.

Not only are they not adapted for this role (see the 15% of cats that remain skeptical about humans despite good socialization as kittens), current breeding practices are making them worse for this niche. Pet cats are neutered by default these days, and the main source of new cats for aspiring cat owners are kittens born to strays who are selected for being difficult to catch and spay, i.e. the cats that are most suspicious of people and best at surviving on their own because they are keen hunters of wildlife.

(The book doesn't offer quantifications of how fast friendliness is going down because of selection effects. Only one study is mentioned: in 1999 the author compared one area of Southampton where the vast majority of cats were neutered (and kittens were probably fathered by ferals) and one area where the kittens were fathered by unspayed pet male cats. The mothers in both areas were unspayed pets, but the kittens fathered by ferals were less likely to settle on human laps. No numbers given, however.)

The obvious solution – since humans are likely to continue wanting cats as pets, ideally cats who like humans back – is to breed cats deliberately, the same way we breed dogs. We aren't doing that yet, or at least not for temperament. We do breed for looks (or for being hypoallergenic), and those cats do sometimes differ in temperament due to founder effects. The main exception is the Ragamuffin/Ragdoll breed, which has a "tendency to be limp and comfortable when handled".

I'm not too worried about this – neutering campaigns are not universal, and a couple of years ago I watched a documentary about the huge, human-habituated feral cat population in Istanbul where, presumably, friendliness towards humans is selected for. There are plenty of cats in the world who are chill with humans and with each other that we can start breeding for be good at being pet cats rather than good at being ferals. And if Western society starts noticing our cats have started being less friendly and more stressed compared to the past and to foreign cats, surely we'll get started on deliberate breeding. But as the housemate of a cat who only kind of seems to be content with life as an indoor pet, it does seem that we should get started.

[mapsontheweb]

Streets and squares in Paris named after foreign cities

Source.

Note that these are the English versions of the current street names, hence Constantinople and not Istanbul.

There might be some left, as the source is not completely exhaustive.

by bonne-nouvelle

[mariacallous]

Eric Adams wanted to see the world, to see it in style. But he wasn’t a rich man, just a former cop and rising politician in a largely ceremonial job, Brooklyn Borough President. Luckily for him, there were a number of benefactors who federal prosecutors say were ready to help him travel in a manner benefitting the position he was angling for: mayor of New York City.

According to a sprawling, 57-page indictment unsealed on Thursday, there was the chairman of a Turkish university; a promoter “whose business includes organizing events to introduce Turkish corporations and businesspeople to politicians, celebrities, and others whose influence may benefit the corporations”; and a senior official in the Turkish government, who, prosecutors say, “later steered illegal contributions and improper gifts to Adams to gain influence with and, eventually, to obtain corrupt official action from Adams.” 

Adams in the summer of 2017 went with his son and a staffer to Nice, Istanbul, Sri Lanka, and Beijing, flying business class the whole way. In October, he went again to Istanbul and Beijing, and then on to Nepal. Those tickets were, all told, worth $51,000. But he got it all for free. 

The relationship deepened from there, as Adams began to run for mayor in earnest. The Turks allegedly funneled money to his campaign through false entities, or “straw donors.” Accepting such donations is against the law — and Adams allegedly received public matching funds based on these contributions. Adams allegedly returned the favor, in part by pressuring the fire department to allow the opening of a $300 million, 36-story glass tower to house the Turkish consulate, just off of First Avenue and 45th Street, without an inspection and “in time for a high-profile visit by Turkey‘s president” — a diplomatic coup for a man who’s functionally a dictator.

Adams has vigorously denied all of the charges. And at least one Adams ally I spoke with in the immediate aftermath breathed a quarter-sigh of relief — this person was expecting even more, and more serious, charges. “It’s obviously not great but this is weaker than I thought it would be,” the source tells me.

But that exhale assumes that the federal charges against Adams begin and end in this document. They almost certainly do not, with at least four more federal probes reportedly targeting his inner circle and FBI agents searching the mayor’s residence shortly before the indictment was announced. It also assumes that the Turks were the only government to allegedly turn Adams into an unregistered foreign agent. That, too, could prove to be a dangerous supposition — especially given the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn’s pursuit of Chinese influence in New York. 

In the last four years, that federal prosecutor’s office alone has charged a dozen separate criminal cases of covert Chinese government interference in U.S. politics, business, and civil society. An aide to New York’s governor was indicted as a foreign agent on Sept. 3. An ex-corrections officer got 20 months for harassing an artist who lampooned Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Two more men were arrested for operating a secret Chinese police station out of the Manhattan headquarters of a group for expats from Fujian province. 

The examples spiral out from there.In July, a federal jury in Manhattan convicted Robert Menendez, a Democratic U.S. senator from New Jersey, of taking bribes and acting as Egypt’s agent. In August, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged a hitman with trying to assassinate Donald Trump, allegedly on Iran’s orders. In September, prosecutors in Manhattan revealed an alleged Russian plot to funnel $10 million to MAGA influencers. This is a partial list. A snippet of a list, really. And all of these developments happened in just the last few months, just in and around this one metro area, where a wide array of foreign actors are looking to turn New York into something like Spy City.  

The 20 experts, officials, and activists I spoke to couldn’t agree on whether these cases represent a major escalation in this covert activity, an increase in Washington’s willingness to combat it, or both. But they all agreed that such efforts are widespread and being directed by countries across the globe. And while it might be tempting to speculate about what this says about the various foreign policy strategies in foreign capitals, the clear takeaway is that malicious actors around the world see America as pliable, and influence as something that can be bought on the cheap. In other words, the most disturbing part about these covert foreign pressure campaigns is what it says about our politics, our society. About us.

ONE OF THE MORE disturbing foreign influence cases to recently come to light begins 35 years ago, in Beijing. Yan Xiong was a student activist there, jailed for being part of the big Tiananmen Square protests. When he got out, he made his way to America, enlisted in the U.S. Army, and eventually served two tours as a chaplain in Iraq. By 2021, Yan was running for Congress in lower Manhattan. He could tell that something was off. He’d show up to candidate forums, and then wouldn’t be allowed to speak. He’d try to raise money, no dice. There was an old man who wouldn’t stop taking pictures of Yan’s campaign. Yan would go out to his driveway late at night and find a car there, headlights blazing. It was unnerving, but Yan was used to looking over his shoulder.

Nevertheless, Yan was shocked when, in March of 2022, federal prosecutors revealed that he was being targeted by the Chinese government. The goal: to surveil and sabotage the chaplain’s long-shot campaign. “Go deep and dig up something. Right? For example, past incidents of tax evasion… if he used prostitutes in the past… if he had a mistress,” a member of China’s Ministry of State Security allegedly told a private investigator here in the U.S. If the private investigator couldn’t come up with — or make up — any dirt, the P.I. was encouraged to use other means to take Yan out of the race: “In the end, violence would be fine too.” 

In the end, Yan’s campaign netted him only 750 votes — not great, but 50 percent more than former Mayor Bill De Blasio received. The P.I. hired by the Chinese government never found any dirt on Yan, or physically attacked him. But the attempt to ratfuck Yan’s campaign continues to leave a wound. Yan’s getting ready to move for the fifth time in two years — in part “for safety, for psychology.” In August, prosecutors unveiled another layer to the alleged plot against him. The old man who’d been taking all those pictures? He was a former Tiananmen Square veteran, too — one who was now accused of working as an unregistered agent for Beijing. To Yan, he’s another “victim” of a regime that’s all-too-willing to extend its reach here. “It’s a tragedy, that’s my opinion,” Yan tells me.

And Yan’s case isn’t the only one in which there seem to be shadowy figures just out of frame. Shujun Wang, another longtime Chinese dissident, was convicted in late August of working as Beijing’s spy. The other day, I called his lawyer to ask about a member of the defense team, a man listed in court documents as a paralegal, who was, in fact, a Florida realtor, recently acquitted of rape. What was he doing there? Who was he? “He is nobody,” the lawyer answered.  

These influence campaigns by foreign governments, prosecutors allege, reach all the way down to the lowest levels of state and local government. Take Linda Sun, who started in 2012 as one of the more junior aides out of 200 or so in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office. The former beauty pageant contestant and Barnard grad, who had come to New York from Nanjing when she was a kid, put in the work as a liaison to the borough of Queens and the state’s Asian American community. She’d help connect constituents to government services, make appearances at Lunar New Year events, write up proclamations, and liaise with foreign consulates. Over the years, she gained leverage. Cuomo’s communications shop — described by one former colleague as “95 percent Caucasian” — relied on Sun to tell them how a state proclamation or press release might resonate in Asian communities.

“She did her job. She went home. Didn’t cause any trouble, never caused any drama. But in hindsight, [there was] a lot of trust in that particular position. Because when you ask her opinion about how something plays, we were asking how it plays in, you know, [the Chinese American neighborhoods of] Sunset Park and Flushing. Not how it played in Beijing,” that source tells me.

By 2015, Sun had a willing ear in Kathy Hochul, the new Lieutenant Governor, who was iced out of Cuomo’s inner circle — and eager to build up her own political constituency. Hochul made sure to attend Chinese American community celebrations and events to promote trade with Beijing. (A Hochul aide notes that she interfaced with all kinds of foreign officials, including a half-dozen such meetings just with the Canadians in 2016.) Sun made sure there were all sorts of meetings Hochul wouldn’t take, wouldn’t even know were offered. For example, prosecutors allege, when officials from the rival government of Taiwan tried to get together with Hochul in D.C. in mid-2016, Sun scheduled talks with Beijing’s representatives instead — and then bragged to the Chinese consulate about what she had done. Hochul began to be quoted favorably and often by Beijing’s official state news agency. Sun started to receive gifts from Chinese officials, prosecutors say: tickets to Carnegie Hall, then a wire transfer for $47,895 for travel expenses. 

As Sun’s responsibilities increased, her profile grew. She worked with legislators when Korean American nail salons were revealed to be serially underpaying their workers. She helped steer money to Asian American groups as threats to them rose during the pandemic.

By 2021, Hochul was governor. Sun had a bigger title, deputy chief of staff, and was displaying sharper elbows. “She felt very emboldened with making sure that there was a focus [on] protecting mainland China’s agendas,” State Assemblyman Ron Kim, who previously held Sun’s community liaison job, recalls. “That was universally understood, because when myself and other[s] carried certain resolutions to celebrate U.S.-Taiwan relations, I got calls from the governor’s office letting me know that the Chinese consulate is very upset with you, and they would prefer if I don’t do such resolutions again.” (Sun has pleaded not guilty to charges she acted as an agent of the Chinese government, and her attorneys declined to comment for this story.) 

This might seem arcane and sort of small-ball. Who cares if some local pol doesn’t issue a Taiwan proclamation? But it’s part of a strategy, says Bethany Allen, author of Beijing Rules, echoing the sentiments of several U.S. officials. “If this is done extensively, consistently, quietly across many states, many state capitals, many state governments, local governments,” Allen tells me, “it can shape the debate. Have a strong downward pressure on the things that China wants to quiet.” 

And it’s a strategy that Beijing is willing to pursue over the long haul — to influence people at the lowest levels of local government, and let those folks rise over time. Back when she was a reporter, Allen broke the news of a suspected Chinese spy in California who cultivated relationships from the political to the romantic with city councilmen, small-town mayors, and at least one Congressman. The spy’s true motivations weren’t uncovered until that Congressman, Rep. Eric Swalwell, was on the verge of joining the House Intelligence Committee and gaining access to some of the nation’s better-protected national secrets. (Swalwell denied any romantic relationship, and a House ethics panel decided to take no action against him after a two-year investigation.)  

Linda Sun’s case never reached that kind of crisis point. But her value to Chinese officials was clear. The wire transfers were in the millions by 2021. The Chinese Consul General in New York — a sharp, genial diplomat named Huang Ping — sent Nanjing-style salted ducks to Sun’s parents, a half-dozen at a time. According to one source, she started showing up with a fresh tan and a new, high-end handbag to every community event. “People were definitely talking about how she went from rags to riches overnight,” Kim tells me. “Her parents lived in a one-bedroom apartment… She was trying to get a mortgage to buy a condo in Flushing, and she could barely get that. But all of a sudden, now she’s living in a mansion.” And in a sweet vacation home, too. Around the same time Sun and her husband bought a $3.6 million home in Manhasset, New York, they also, according to prosecutors, purchased “an ocean-view condominium on the 47th floor of a high rise building in Honolulu, Hawaii, currently valued at approximately $2.1 million.”

SUN AND ADAMS ARE the first local officials to be charged with acting as agents of a foreign power. They probably won’t be the last, or even the last in New York. (“What you saw with the governor in New York, that’s going to be scratching an itch that tickles in a lot of different places,” Bill Evanina, who spent seven years as the federal government’s top counterintelligence official, tells me.) The place has long attracted spies and clandestine power brokers, and not just because of the UN, or Wall Street, or all the corporate headquarters. America’s best city is, not coincidentally, also its most diverse; more than three million of the eight million-plus people living here are foreign-born. Those diasporas are often of intense interest to the countries from which they spring, especially if the countries in question are ruled by authoritarians. The revolutionary movements that took down the Czar, the Chinese Emperor, and the Shah were all incubated overseas. 

These diasporas also can wield outsized power in local politics, too. New York’s election laws are so labyrinthine and complex, with elections held on off-years and on strange dates, that they’re practically designed to keep people from voting. (Ron Kim has 115,000 people living in his district in Queens, for example; fewer than 3,200 of them voted in his contested primary race, which is the only race that matters in a one-party town.) So if any one group gets behind a single candidate, or gins up turnout, or dumps in a lot of money, it can swing an election. Kim faced off against a primary opponent backed by a well-known local community leader who is openly supportive of the Chinese Communist Party. They each poured more than $600,000 into that tiny-turnout primary race. “I felt this was a clear effort to get a political seat for a person who is loyal to their agenda,” Kim says. “This isn’t about lawmaking in [the state capital of] Albany, but it’s about being the power broker of Flushing that will give them credibility and access.”

This is all happening in a place where the politics are — there’s no other way to put this — corrupt as fuck. The five federal investigations reportedly swirling around Adams and his closest associates involve everyone from the police commissioner to the schools chancellor to his top fundraisers to a pair of deputy mayors. Adams’ immediate predecessor, de Blasio, dodged indictment for violating campaign finance laws, but not by much. After leaving office, former mayor Rudy Giuliani took money from a North Korean gangster and then worked with a man he admitted was likely a Russian spy. Long Island’s George Santos was expelled from Congress after less than a year; he recently pleaded guilty to identity theft and wire fraud. One of Santos’ bigger Republican critics on the Island, Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, was just exposed for giving Congressional jobs to his lover and his fiancée’s daughter. 

You get the idea: plenty of politicians with their hands out; elections practically designed to be swayed by small groups; those small groups susceptible to foreign infiltration and pressure, because they’ve all got family back home. “New York would be at the top of the list in terms of foreign governments, foreign regimes wanting to target,” says Casey Michel, author of the newly published Foreign Agents. “Especially New York City. I don’t think it’s any surprise that the major investigation into a municipal authority as a target of potential foreign influence is Adams.”

So let’s talk about the mayor. Adams has been ducking corruption allegations — and playing diaspora politics — for more than 15 years. According to the New York Times, a grand jury in July issued subpoenas related to Adams’ ties to six different countries: China, Qatar, South Korea, Israel, Uzbekistan, and, of course, Turkey. In his role as Brooklyn Borough President, Adams attended almost 80 events connected with Turkey, and at least 50 more celebrating China. Some of those events actually upset his Turkish government contacts, according to the indictment. In 2016, a Turkish official told Adams that a community center he used to visit “was affiliated with a Turkish political movement that was hostile to Turkey’s government… If Adams wished to continue receiving support from the Turkish government, Adams could no longer associate with the community center. Adams acquiesced.”

Adams also met multiple times with Huang Ping, the Chinese Consul General who prosecutors later identified as Linda Sun’s handler. And the politicking seemingly continued overseas. Adams took 13 separate trips to Turkey and China, which is a lot of travel to those two specific nations, considering borough presidents don’t really have foreign policy roles. “It’s totally appropriate,” he said after the first of the trips to China, in 2014. “I’m not going to be a MetroCard borough president — I’m going to be a passport borough president.”

City Hall won’t say what all of the trips were for. (They didn’t respond to requests to comment for this story.) The alleged purpose of the Turkey trips, at least, is now less murky after the indictment’s release.When it comes to the others, here’s what we can say for sure: We know that one of Adams’ China travel partners, his longtime Asian community liaison Winnie Greco, had her former campaign office and several of her homes raided by the FBI. We know that Greco and another Adams crony met separately in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province, with the man later indicted for operating that secret Chinese police station out of a Fujianese expat society in Manhattan. We know that Adams and Greco appeared onstage at a gala for that charity — the American Changle Association, named for a famed neighborhood in Fuzhou — shortly before it was exposed as a secret police front bythe New York Post. We know Adams was with Association bigwig Lu Jianwang days before Lu was arrested in the secret police affair. We know, thanks to local news outlet The City, that 121 workers at the New World Mall in Queens, the site of Greco’s 2021 campaign office, made donations to Adams of precisely $249 each, one buck below the limit for eight-times public matching funds. Several donors said they were reimbursed in cash, or had no idea they had been listed as contributors at all. This has all the hallmarks of illegal straw donations, as Adams’ team surely knows.One Chinese billionaire who gave money to Adams (and hosted his 60th birthday party) recently pleaded guilty to such charges. 

MAYBE ALL OF THESE connections were on the up-and-up. Maybe Adams’ trips to China and extremely odd donations from his campaign office in Flushing were no more nefarious than the 70-plus flag-raising ceremonies for various countries he’s attended in his two-and-a-half years as mayor. Maybe it’s an accident of scheduling that Huang Ping, the Chinese Consul General, asked him to blow off a banquet with the Taiwanese president and Adams wound up doing just that. Adams may have rubbed elbows with people who were later indicted as foreign agents in groups like the American Changle Association, where voters gather for an old-country meal or speak in their parents’ dialect. There’s hardly an elected official in New York who didn’t make such a visit, or get his picture taken at some point with Huang. Of course they did. Huang was a gregarious, effective, charming diplomat. He may be accused of secretly handling alleged agents like Linda Sun, but chatting up local politicians was most definitely Huang’s job.  

You don’t have to be some kind of simp for Beijing to find this kind of criminalization of foreign influence a little hypocritical, given all the governments the U.S. helped overthrow in the past century. You’re not necessarily an abolish-the-police type if you think the feds have gone overboard in their hunt for Chinese agents. “We’re not China. We’re supposedly a free country, and the government should take more care in prosecuting and, in turn, persecuting people,” John Liu, a state senator from Queens, tells me. This is personal for him. While he was gearing up to run for mayor more than a decade ago, the FBI ran a sting on him and his donors, part of a straw-donor probe he says was oh-so-subtly named “Operation Red Money.” They did find some straw donors, and a top aide did go to jail. But Liu himself was only fined $26,000 — proof, he says, that the whole investigation was overheated. Nor is it a one-off. Liu points to cases like Baimadajie Angwang, the cop accused of spying for China, only to have the charges dropped without explanation. By that time, the NYPD had fired him. “You know what? It wouldn’t be so bad if the government pursued these cases, made them as visible as they intentionally make them, and actually had a pretty good record of success,” Liu says. “It bothers me that there’s no accountability of any kind. You know, the government does this, and it doesn’t matter how many lives are ruined [or] the impact on the wider community.” 

There’s no question there’s been overreach, including horror stories of Chinese Americans interrogated by the FBI, seemingly for no reason at all. “We should absolutely oppose any effort by any foreign government to undermine our American society, our way of life, our democracy,” says Rep. Grace Meng, who hired Linda Sun when she was in the State Assembly and now represents a large part of Queens in the U.S. Congress. But “there’s a lot of fear right now in the Asian American community,” she adds. “Every day, young, professional Asian Americans are really scared that these harmful stereotypes are being fueled… [by] questions that are asked only of us.”

As overzealous as some prosecutors may have been, though, and as ugly our recent turn toward anti-China and anti-immigrant politics, there are too many of these foreign influence cases, tied to so many different outside actors, to brush off. A former Republican Congressman is under indictment for covertly working for Venezuela’s dictator. A major Trump fundraiser pleaded guilty to doing the same on behalf of the Chinese and Malaysian government officials, in a case so weird and sprawling, a member of the Fugees wound up with a foreign agent conviction as part of it. Things are so bad, the guy that’s supposed to be leading the investigations into these cases in New York — the head of the state’s FBI counterintelligence division — was himself sentenced earlier this year to federal prison for doing the bidding of a sanctioned Russian oligarch. The MAGA crowd can whine all they want about the #resistance obsession with “Russia, Russia, Russia.” Folks on the political left can roll their eyes at what feels like a Trumpy obsession with Chinese influence, or another red scare. It takes a kind of willful blindness not to see a pattern here. Liu, for one, called on Adams to resign after prosecutors unveiled their indictment which showed just how deep the mayor’s ties to Turkey went.

“This isn’t a Republican problem or a Democratic problem — it’s completely bipartisan,“ Michel tells me. “And as we’re now seeing, it’s not just one level of government these regimes are targeting. It’s everyone.”

For half a century, the American government hardly bothered to enforce the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires influence-peddlers to disclose their overseas clients, at least. That changed after the 2016 election, when Trump recruited the O.G. of scummy foreign lobbying, Paul Manafort, to run his campaign and publicly begged for a dictator’s help to win. The Department of Justice went on to prosecute Manafort and so many others — from the Russian troll farm to the white-shoe law firm Skadden, Arps — for breaking that law. Brandon van Grack, who oversaw many of those prosecutions as head of the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act unit, says the apparent surge in cases we’re seeing, eight years later, is a result of that 2016 wake-up call. He credits “greater resources and tools to identify and disrupt those influence operations than an increase in the operations themselves,” adding, “Foreign influence is not novel.”

It’s not exactly dying down, either. A few years ago, you might have thought that prosecuting folks like Manafort would at least serve as a warning shot. The sheer range of regimes trying to influence the 2024 election paints a different picture, and I don’t just mean the fact that Manafort is a free man and doing Fox News hits from the Republican convention. “I would say that a couple things are true in this specific situation. Yes, there are more investigations, because there are allowed to be. And I think our adversaries are more brazen than they have ever been,” Evanina, the former counterintelligence chief, tells me. 

There’s a good argument that the number of prosecutions isn’t even the right metric to gauge foreign influence. Registering as an overseas lobbyist — dodging a FARA charge — that’s the easy part. More than 1,000 foreign principals have done so since 2016, spending more than $5.5 billion to whisper in lawmakers’ ears. At least 90 former members of Congress have registered since 2000 to push another government’s agenda. Scores of U.S. generals and admirals have taken jobs with foreign governments in the last decade, with Saudi Arabia alone hiring 15 retired flag officers. Biden talked in 2020 about banning former officials from lobbying for foreign powers. It was just talk.  

The Supreme Court in recent years has radically raised the bar on bribery cases, and functionally removed any restrictions on campaign spending. That’s allowed Americans closely aligned with foreign governments to make enormous investments in shaping U.S. policy. The best known of these are the lobbyists pushing the agenda of Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who gave over a million dollars to the now-convicted Sen. Menendez, even after he was indicted, and spent millions more on successful primary campaigns to knock out two of Israel’s few critics in Congress. None of this violates any laws. But maybe that’s beside the point. The real foreign influence scandal, Michel tells me, is how much of it is “perfectly legal.” 

If you’re mad at outside actors for exploiting America’s system, don’t be. The United States is still the world’s biggest power; of course every other nation is going to try to pull us in their direction. Try directing your anger a little closer to home. All of these politicians on the take, we voted for them. The bullshit China or Iran pumps out on TikTok? It’s downright factual compared to the nonsense we Americans push one another. And if you think a guy like Eric Adams is an outlier with his, shall we say, open-minded approach to campaign finance and outside influences, allow me to introduce you to the Republican nominee for president and his inner circle. The Congress we elected has bottled up nearly every attempt to close these foreign-funding loopholes. The campaigns we supported went along with the Supreme Court’s decision to make elections a feeding frenzy. This is a choice. Collectively, we made it.

IN THE HOURS AFTER Linda Sun and her husband were charged as Chinese agents on Sept. 3, Gov. Hochul urged the U.S. government to expel Sun’s alleged handler, Consul General Huang Ping, and a State Department spokesperson claimed that Huang had “rotated out of the position.” Yet on the night of Sept. 5, at Manhattan’s storied Plaza Hotel, Huang Ping appeared onstage at the China Institute’s $2,500-per-ticket Blue Cloud gala, looking rather dapper in a well-tailored tuxedo. Pictures were posted to the consulate’s website two days later. “Consul General Huang Ping is performing his duties as normal,” read a statement sent out to reporters.

A few hours after he was indicted, Huang’s longtime interlocutor Eric Adams promised to do much the same. “My attorneys will take care of the case, so I can take care of this city,” he said. “My day to day will not change.” 

[kyreniacommentator]

TRNC Representative attends OTS meeting in İstanbul

Deputy Foreign Ministers of Organization of Turkic States (OTS) member states Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan met at the OTS Secretariat in Istanbul. According to the news obtained from diplomatic sources, representatives from OTS’s observer members Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Hungary and Turkmenistan joined to the meeting as well. Continue reading Untitled

[octuscle]

I'm interested in IST, but I'd need help getting a passport. I've never been outside the US..

At least you got your suitcase back. Otherwise, this whole trip to Turkey was a complete humiliation. In the wrestling tournament, as the star of your college, you were knocked out in the first round. Against this half-monkey, which was half as large and half as heavy as you. Pissed off, you asked your parents to book you a flight home right away. You didn't feel like waiting for the team's return flight. Not to mention that going from Istanbul to Boston in economy class is unbearable. At least you consider the luxury of a business class flight as compensation for the humiliation you suffered to be appropriate.

Since the other team members are still at the tournament in Turkey, you have to train out with the juniors and the B team. Another humiliation. You take your wrestling singlet out of the suitcase. Fuck, you can still smell the sweat of your opponent. Funny, somehow the smell gives you a hard-on… Anyway, off to training. And take out all your anger on the younger, smaller and weaker ones. When you take off your singlet again, you still have a semi-stiff cock. And a pretty big wet spot from your precum. No idea when you last jerked off after a workout in the shower. But today it's necessary again. And the other lads are welcome to watch.

You are still suffering a bit from jet lag. There was no more partying last night. When you wake up in your frat house, it's still very early in the morning. And something stinks in your room. You find the reason relatively quickly. Instead of your suitcase, there is an old sports bag in the corner. In it you find, among other things, the sweaty singlet of your opponent. And an oily pair of leather pants. What the hell is this shit? Since you don't see any other pants, you pull a pair of sweatpants out of the sports bag. And an undershirt. Maybe a little small. But it fits. You go down to your communal kitchen and take a big gulp of milk straight from the canister. Two of your frat brothers come home after a night of drinking and ask you when you got a beard. Stupid question, since you've been growing one. It's not even 06:00 yet, but you grab your laptop and books and head to the library in your old clothes. If you fail at wrestling, at least you can study. But the longer you sit, the harder it is for you to follow the texts. What language is all this written in? At some point you pack up your things, annoyed. You are hungry now. And you could also use a shisha.

It's almost dark when you arrive at the dormitory for the exchange students. You have to hurry, you only have a few minutes until your shift as a janitor in the lab buildings starts. So you jump into your overalls and hurry. The floors aren't going to mop themselves. And you want to make your parents proud. Even if you're still struggling with the language, you could be the first in your family to graduate from a foreign country.

A week later you organized a small tournament with a few other Turkish and Bulgarian wrestlers. Primarily to finally be able to proudly wear your leather trousers again. But also to show that you may not speak perfect English. But you are a first class wrestler. The coach of the wrestling team thinks so too. The previous star has lost a lot of energy. He takes you into the team. And you will not disappoint your coach!