NoteBook by Birol Baskan

All I Know

Launched 10 months ago

Ronaldo is still Ronaldo

When I was growing up, Maradona shaped my taste for football.

Jun 19•Birol Baskan

Only What You Taught Us

There is a Qur’anic verse, 2:32, I often recall:

Jun 17•Birol Baskan

Turkey’s New Foreign-Policy Language Sounds Strangely Familiar

Something in the recent language around Turkey’s foreign policy sounds strangely familiar.

Jun 16•Birol Baskan

Turkey’s Democratic Ceiling

Namık Kemal, one of the leading Young Ottoman intellectuals, wrote in 1868:

Jun 14•Birol Baskan

The Age of Stupidification

AI and the Future of Human Intelligence

Jun 11•Birol Baskan

Is a War Between Turkey and Israel Likely?

There is a hadith, found in both Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Bukhari, two of the canonical collections of Sunni Islam, that speaks of a final war between…

Jun 11•Birol Baskan

Turkey’s Railway Dream Runs Through Syria and Iraq

Turkey and Saudi Arabia recently signed two memorandums of understanding in Riyadh.

Jun 11•Birol Baskan

When Orientalism Said “I Love You”

Nazım Hikmet on Pierre Loti’s Love for the Orient

Jun 10•Birol Baskan

Grand American Tour: Part III

The same names followed me across the country.

Jun 9•Birol Baskan

Grand American Tour: Part II

By the time I had crossed the interior, Trump’s victory felt less mysterious to me.

Jun 8•Birol Baskan