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Jun 9 • 13 tweets • 17 min read
1/. In 2019, students at #METU university in #Turkey gathered for their annual #Pride  march

They were met with batons, tear gas, plastic bullets, pepper spray & arrest

Tmw, they will gather for Pride again

The university says they will call the police
2/. The university’s attempt to ban on this Pride march has no legal grounds

METU university authorities must reverse this decision & allow the student community to celebrate #Pride tmw

@amnesty will be on campus
#PrideMonth #Pride2022 #pridemonth2022
amnesty.org/en/latest/news…
3/. Join @amnesty in calling on the @METU_ODTU administration to reverse its decision to 'categorically ban' the planned campus-based #Pride march due to take place tmw

Please sign and share the urgent action appeal #Pride2022 #PrideMonth #pridemonth2022
amnesty.ie/metu-pride-tur…
4/. Last year, 18 #METU students & an academic were acquitted of charges of organising a #Pride march in Turkey

They still face a legal challenge following a legal challenge by the prosecutor & they could face up to 3 years in jail
#Pride2022 #PrideMonth
5/. The violence meted out by police against #METU students celebrating #Pride in Turkey in 2019, came 50 years after the Stonewall riots in the US

#COVID19 meant that Pride has been cancelled for the last 2 years but it must be allowed to take place tmw.
6/. Despite the ban by university, the #Pride march on #METU university campus will go ahead today at 1800 local time (1600 BST / 1700 CEST)

We call on @METU_ODTU to allow #Pride2022 & we stand with @odtulgbti students

@amnesty Turkey observers are on campus - Follow @aforgutu Image
7/. Riot police gathering on the #METU university in Ankara according to people on the ground ahead of the planned #Pride march this afternoon

Students must be allowed to celebrate #Pride2022
8/. This tweet says that the large police presence at #METU university in Ankara, is designed to stop #Pride taking place as planned this afternoon
9/. #BREAKING
“METU Pride participants have faced with intervention by the riot police using tear gas in front of Çatı Restaurant” @aforgutu / @amnesty Turkey
#METU #Pride #Pride2022 #PrideMonth #METUpride
#OnuncuODTÜOnurYürüyüşü
10/. “Police intervention to #OnuncuODTÜOnurYürüyüşü continues. At least one person was detained”

“No one should be detained for celebrating #Pride2022 . All students detained must be immediately released” @aforgutu / @amnesty #Turkey
#METU #METUpride #Pride #PrideMonth @odtug
11/. “We repeat: No one should be detained for exercising the right to peaceful assembly.”

“The police intervention into the 10th #METU #Pride  must end, and students who are detained must be released.” @amnesty #Pride2022 #METUpride
12/. "Scenes of peaceful #Pride marchers on being confronted with excessive force, including pepper balls, are deeply disturbing

All those detained by police for exercising their right to peaceful assembly must be immediately & unconditionally released"
amnesty.org/en/latest/news…
13/. Yesterday, 70 students taking part in the #METU #pride  march were briefly detained

Turkey is ranked the 2nd worst country in the EU for LGBT people, scoring only above Azerbaijan, according the 2022 “Rainbow Europe” ranking compiled by @ILGAEurope
ahvalnews.com/detentions/tur…

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More from @StefSimanowitz

Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
Jun 7
Too often govt ministers & MP are allowed to get away with the absurd claim that - on #COVID19 & #Brexit - the govt/#BorisJohnson “got all the big calls right”

Here @skysarahjane gives a masterclass in challenging this narrative (with MP @PeterBoneUK)
And this by @vicderbyshire

Another masterclass showing journalists how to hold the powerful to account

MPs are trained on ways not to answer uncomfortable questions

One method loved by many is to keep talking

A mute button is very useful here
“This will also do great damage to organisations like the BBC!”

In response to journalistic scrutiny, the govt often accuse the journalist, programme or even channel of bias

As we’ve seen with the sell off of @Channel4, these are not just hollow threats
Read 5 tweets
Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
Jun 7
1/. For too long, homelessness has been explained as the failure of the individual to cope with the stresses & strains of life

We see it for what it is: a failure of the state to guarantee equality of opportunity, equal access to essential services to all amnesty.org.uk/resources/amne…
2/. "England’s housing and homelessness system is effectively a gruelling obstacle course

Many fail to get past the first barrier because they are not considered eligible for homelessness support

Others fall through trap doors along the way"
@AmnestyUK
amnesty.org.uk/files/2022-06/…
3/. Three in 10 fear homelessness within five years due to housing costs, according to an @AmnestyUK survey.

Unless housing is rightfully recognised as a basic legal human right, there is no way to hold the Government to account for its woeful failings.
standard.co.uk/news/uk/englan…
Read 4 tweets
Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
Jun 6
Journalist Dom Phillips, a regular contributor to @guardian, has been missing in the Javari Valley in the #Brazilian Amazon for more than 30 hours after death threats to his indigenista companion, Bruno Pereira, who is also missing #IndigenousHistoryMonth theguardian.com/media/2022/jun…
'We knew it was a dangerous place but Dom really believed it’s possible to safeguard the nature & the livelihood of the Indigenous people. We urge Brazilian authorities to do all they can to help”

Appeal by the sister of missing journalist Dom Phillips
theguardian.com/world/video/20…
A record number of activists working to protect the environment & land rights were murdered in 2020 & 2019 according to @Global_Witness

Almost a third of the murders were reportedly linked to resource exploitation

Indigenous populations bear the brunt of the deadly violence ImageImageImageImage
Read 4 tweets
Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
Jun 2
1/. #DidITellYouAboutTheTime I became Al Jazeera's Royal correspondent?

It was 2011 & I was scraping by as a freelance journalist

As preparations were underway for William & Kate's Royal Wedding, I got a call from @AJEnglish's interview producer

Would I be free on 29 April?
2/. "Absolutely! But why me?"

The producer explained how she'd spotted an article I'd done for @NewStatesman where I argued that the fawning media coverage & the "Cinderella story" framing was rife with negative gender stereotyping & ugly class prejudice. newstatesman.com/politics/2010/…
3/. I'd been drafted in to help decode some of the more curious aspects of our royal family to @AJEnglish's l audience

But surely, with the wedding coinciding with the Arab Spring & being on a Friday – the peak day for protests - I wouldn't be on for long
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Read 6 tweets
Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
May 26
“Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” said Javier Cazares, whose daughter was killed in the 40-minute #RobbElementary school massacre in #Uvalde

This footage shows armed police pinning one man to the ground
The @nytimes reports that the gunman who killed 19 children & 2 teachers at #RobbElementary was rptdly inside the school for “ROUGHLY AN HOUR” hour before police shot him

The real outrage though, is the failure of successive US govts to introduce #GunReform.
#GunControlNow #guns
N.B. - I chose to post this video only after careful deliberation

Posting videos of families in such horrific circumstances should be avoided wherever possible

However, since no faces are clearly visible & since what the footage reveals is important, I took the decision to post
Read 5 tweets
Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
May 19
Children from Goede Hoop primary school in Boksburg, South Africa play a bit of Vivaldi on the marimba (via @AlisonKriel)
In nearby Soweto, the @BuskaidSA String Academy teaches children classical music

Here is their orchestra playing a piece by Joseph Bologne (1745-1799), a black composer & violinist from Guadeloupe who conducted the leading symphony orchestra in Paris.
Diepkloof, Soweto isn't the most likely of places to find a classical music school, but at the end of a dusty road in the grounds of a church in the shadow of a huge slag heap, the haunting strains Dvořák hang above the corrugated iron roof-tops

My piece👇theartsdesk.com/node/30167/view ImageImageImageImage
Read 4 tweets

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