Mark LowenVerified account

@marklowen

BBC Turkey Correspondent. Previously based in Athens and Belgrade. All views my own.

Istanbul and beyond
Joined December 2010
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  1. 11 minutes ago

    After 14 journalists are sentenced to prison, headlines "the shame of justice", but pro-government front pages make no mention, preferring instead to focus on opposition in-fighting. Around 90% of 's media now in pro-AKP hands.

    1 reply 10 retweets 4 likes
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  2. 13 hours ago

    It's a sad and dark time when a country's sharpest intellects, finest characters and most open minds are jailed, silenced or feel forced to leave.

    7 replies 33 retweets 48 likes
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  3. 14 hours ago

    Consider this for a moment: convictions include , who was persecuted by network for his book exposing Gulen network when it was hand-in-glove with government. Now he's convicted for aiding that same network. Just one in a string of absurdities.

    2 replies 50 retweets 58 likes
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  4. 15 hours ago

    3 of the staff were acquitted. Chairman will be released after having spent over 500 days in prison, his full sentence. The rest given huge sentences. A massive blow to a proud media institution in and yet another indictment of press freedom here

    2 replies 47 retweets 41 likes
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  5. 15 hours ago

    Heartbreaking news as staff at , 's oldest newspaper, jailed for "aiding terror organisations". Incl chief ed 7yrs 6months; cartoonist 3yrs 9months; 2yrs 5months; & 7yrs 6months.

    13 replies 365 retweets 161 likes
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  6. 17 hours ago

    Welcome to Kafka-esque : where an opposition leader stands for president from his prison cell.

    Selahattin Demirtaş is running for president - from prison.
    4 replies 63 retweets 63 likes
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  7. Retweeted
    18 hours ago

    This was an extraordinary speech by - not just in its barely hidden criticism of , but the French leader is pitching himself as the leader of the alternative world vision to

    56 replies 551 retweets 1,463 likes
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  8. 21 hours ago

    Too good

    4 retweets 5 likes
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  9. 24 hours ago

    falls another 2 places in press freedom index for 2018, to 157 out of 180. Just behind Rwanda and Belarus but happily beating Kazakhstan. "Turkey is again the world's biggest jailer of journalists. Rule of law is a fading memory":

    6 replies 113 retweets 70 likes
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  10. Apr 25

    Could the ploy of a snap election finally achieve that rare thing in : uniting a splintered opposition? accused them of "working in the dark by winking at each other" and being united "only in their enmity for Recep Tayyip Erdogan"

    Erdogan lashes out at opposition deals ahead of election
    1 reply 6 retweets 5 likes
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  11. Apr 25

    . and tell the story of the longest-running language paper in the world

    2:19
    VIDEO: Jamanak - The newspaper preserving Armenia's cultural heritage.
    1 reply 3 retweets 7 likes
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  12. Apr 24

    . on the "Orwellian world" created in the place of 's democracy; collective self-lobotomy and a country where critics are jailed, media parrots the government, TV is awash with Ottoman grandeur dramas and the economy is sinking

    4 replies 17 retweets 23 likes
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  13. Retweeted
    Apr 24

    A reporter asked Trump if he would pardon Michael Cohen and he snapped back, "Stupid question." LOOK AT MACRON'S FACE.

    143 replies 830 retweets 1,722 likes
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  14. Retweeted
    Apr 22

    Shrewd move + a necessary one to avoid potential obstacles.Turkey's oldest party makes deal w/ its newest.CHP agrees to send 15 MPs to IYI, ensuring IYI will be on the ballot on June 24. Both party leaders have said their singular goal is to end the Erdogan era.

    , and
    16 retweets 26 likes
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  15. Retweeted
    Apr 19

    Din kültürü öğretmeni Merve: Tanrı var mı yok mu bilmiyorum İlahiyat öğrencisi Bekir: Eskiden IŞİD’i sempatiyle izlerdim. Bugün ateistim 11 yaşında kapanan Leyla: Dünya deizme kayıyor Muhafazakar gençlik dinden uzaklaşıyor mu? BBC Türkçe’ye yazdım

    77 replies 216 retweets 478 likes
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  16. Retweeted
    Apr 20

    On today will speak with about the latest news from Turkey

    2 retweets
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  17. Retweeted
    Apr 19

    It took 7 years of war in Syria for the French to remember they'd once given president Assad this award. When he heard they were thinking of rescinding the honor, he beat them to it. There's symbolism here too: the West is slow and overthinks and Assad&co are always 1 step ahead.

    Syria hands back Assad's 2001 Legion d'Honneur decoration before Macron could withdraw it, says no honour coming from a US 'slave' country
    2 replies 41 retweets 47 likes
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  18. Apr 19

    Very moving 'Thought for the Day' by Rabbi Lord Sacks on : "I've been doing 'Thought for the Day' for 30 years. Never did I think that in 2018 I'd be talking about anti-semitism...a society that doesn't respect difference is a society that doesn't respect humanity".

    1 reply 17 retweets 33 likes
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  19. Apr 18

    I'm going to make an early bet: that will be to this election what the was to the referendum. Fasten your seatbelts in Athens. It could be a stormy ride.

    20 replies 104 retweets 193 likes
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  20. Apr 18

    And, as if by magic, the stars are aligned

    State of emergency in Turkey extended for seventh time …
    9 retweets 17 likes
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