The Global Sumud Flotilla: the view from Turkey.–Moldova's Other Autonomous Region.–Bulgarian Modernism.

Newsletter 1

This is the first installment of my regular newsletter feature. The aim here is to run several short-ish pieces of commentary on newsworthy or interesting items, linking “the Balkans and everything to their east” to broader global stories, trends and ideas.

Putting this together takes time, so if you have interest and are able, consider becoming a paid subscriber today.

Some admin:

I have created a proton account for anyone who has any tips or ideas they would like to send my way that require encryption: lslynch@proton.me. Otherwise, I can be reached at lynch.lily@gmail.com. Please note, I would prefer not to receive messages on Substack.

The Global Sumud Flotilla: The view from Turkey and the aesthetics and efficacy of protest

I have been on edge watching the Global Sumud Flotilla approach Gaza. The view from Turkey has been especially tense. For one, there were more Turkish citizens participating in the flotilla than any other country: 56 Turks were on those boats. (There was also one Serb and one Croat; it doesn’t appear that anyone else participated from the Western Balkans or former Yugoslavia, though one vessel was flying a Bosnian flag). As such, Turkish media has been following the story with great dedication, and the Turkish government has issued some strongly-worded statements. For part of the journey, the flotilla was also accompanied by a Turkish drone.

However, the main reason why everyone is so on edge is because there is some very sad history here. In 2010, the Mavi Marmara flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza was raided by Israeli commandos. Eight Turkish nationals, and one Turkish-American national, were shot and killed in the raid. Another Turkish citizen incurred serious injuries that left him in a coma for four years; he succumbed to those injuries in 2014. Another 29 were wounded in the Israeli attack. Many in Turkey feared a repeat of that terrible scenario this week.

I have shamelessly stolen this image from the Daily Turkic twitter account

They had good reason to worry. The flotilla was attacked by drones on several occasions, including while it was still in port in Tunisia. Bizarrely, a Croatian national was arrested by Tunisian police for that drone attack earlier this week, though they have not been named and no other details have been offered. (Note: a Croatian correspondent friend has a request in with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for information; if I find anything out I will update you). I followed the flotilla through my friend David Adler, who was aboard one of the boats. David wrote a piece for the Guardian about the flotilla’s humanitarian mission and also wrote a personal Yom Kippur letter doing the same. The last message I received from him was a photo someone had taken of him standing on the boat.

On Wednesday night, Israel intercepted the flotilla. Presumably, everyone has been arrested and taken into custody. Those of us who know people who were part of the flotilla are not sure when we’ll hear from them again. Protesters gathered in front of the US Consulate in Istanbul immediately after reports of the interception came in. The consulate was closed yesterday and the State Department put out a warning that demonstrations “critical of U.S. foreign policy” remained possible throughout Turkey. Meanwhile, if Israel had hoped to deter others with its apprehension of the flotilla, then they failed. Turkish media reported yesterday that more than 45 civilian ships had left Hatay Arsuz and were headed for Gaza. Here in Istanbul, the prosecutor’s office has already launched an investigation into the detention of members of the flotilla; charges include torture, deprivation of liberty, hijacking, aggravated robbery and property damage.

Watching it unfold, I thought about the aesthetics and efficacy of protest. I was impressed with the flotilla’s organization, preparation, communications, and discipline. I hadn’t expected to be: I have a shriveled heart of coal, and, in my old age, have developed something of an aversion to the kind of “left-ish” aesthetics that I associate with corny half-baked radicalism in liberal enclaves of the coastal US. I’m allergic to anything that reminds me too much of the anarchist co-op I lived in at Berkeley or the sad, deflated tents of Occupy Wall Street. But the flotilla wasn’t ineffectual or ridiculous in the way a lot of leftist actions are today. The people participating in the flotilla were civilians but they undertook their mission with professionalism and sobriety. They even got a sympathetic write up in the Wall Street Journal–a great propaganda coup.

Israel’s strategy to counter the flotilla was to paint everyone who participated as an agent of Hamas. Ridiculously, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called it a “jihahi Hamas flotilla”. I think this backfired for them. Israel has simply played that card too often. Now it’s tipped its hand: in using the “terrorist” line in such an absurd context–against boats full of doctors, senators, parliamentarians, students, famous actors, Greta Thunberg, and my friend David from California–Israel has revealed to the world that it can and does apply this label to anyone and everyone. Most often, it does it to manufacture consent for murder. Most of us knew this already, but now readers of the Wall Street Journal are starting to see it. Those readers might find Greta Thunberg annoying, or too strident, or too Swedish, but they don’t think that she’s a “jihadi terrorist”. (I should clarify that I’d personally take a bullet for Greta). It’s insulting to their intelligence. Now those people are looking back at the past two years and are wondering when Israel has used specious accusations of “terrorist” against civilians before…

Moldova’s other autonomous region

This week, I covered the elections in Moldova. That piece should be coming out today. I haven’t enjoyed learning about a new country so much in a long time. I was especially taken by the autonomous region of Gagauzia. When it comes to internationally-recognized autonomous regions of Moldova, Transnistria gets all the attention. The de facto Russia-controlled rebel territory of Transnistria might be more popular with backpackers on the “dark tourism” circuit, and it may have Lenin statues, but Gagauzia is far more interesting. First of all, the Gagauz people are Turkic by ethnicity but are Orthodox Christian by confession. They are also overwhelmingly pro-Russian. They really hate the EU and the pro-EU political party that just won the parliamentary election, the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS). In fact, just over 3% of people in Gagauzia voted for PAS on Sunday. This poor showing echoed the results of last year’s constitutional referendum on EU membership in which 95% of people in Gagauzia voted against joining the EU.

What’s fascinating about these poor results for the pro-EU party and for the EU itself in Gagauzia is that you’ll never hear about them. The Moldovan elections were reported on in the West as if they had dealt a crushing blow to Moscow. Of course, the pro-EU Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) did win the election. But the fact that there were such stark regional and ethnic variations strikes me as important and newsworthy. My sense is that the pro-EU/NATO side in Europe is so eager to present an image of itself as the undisputed winner in the current contest with Russia that it often papers over cracks that detract from that picture. We all know that papering over cracks doesn’t actually make them go away. If anything, cracks tend to grow wider with neglect.

Flag of the Gagauz people with a stylized Turkish wolf

And that is exactly the way the Moldovans I spoke with this past week characterized Chisinau’s relationship to Gagauzia: as one of neglect. And indelicacy. In the few recent reports from Gagauzia that exist, the pro-Russian sentiments of the Gagauz are explained away as the result of “Russian propaganda”. There is little attempt to explore why Russian messaging would find such fertile ground in Gagauzia. Reading the handful of Western media reports that acknowledge the abysmal result for the EU referendum in the region you can tell that the journalists think that their job is to make the EU look good and popular everywhere, regardless of what the numbers say. Ironically, it is very Soviet. How big of a difference is there really between the poor sap from Deutsche Welle who encounters a 5% figure of support for the EU and who must bury it or explain it away as a product of “Russian brainwashing”, and a Soviet bureaucrat who has to fudge the numbers in a report to meet a high production quota for grain?

Soldiers standing by

Of course, there is a very real and relevant story about Gaguazia here. It is one that goes back to the late 1980s and the resurgence of nationalism in Eastern Europe. During the Soviet era, Gagauzia underwent Russification, meaning the Russian language was promoted over smaller local languages. The Gagauz language was not taught in schools, so Gagauzia was more Russified than any other region of Moldova. But with perestroika in the 1980s, the Gagauz grew interested in their national heritage and traditions. Moldovans, who were experiencing their own nationalist renaissance, hated that: they were interested in unification with Romania. In October 1990, a full-on civil war between Moldovans and the Gagauz was narrowly avoided. Gagauzia declared independence and the leadership in Chisinau mobilized thousands of people to march on the region. However, a military unit dispatched from Odessa managed to prevent any bloodshed. Gagauzia agreed to autonomy instead. Even so, the nationalist fad of the 1990s saw the Moldovan majority adopt slogans and attitudes with fascist overtones. One famous slogan used against the Russian-speaking minority was “suitcase, station, Russia”, suggesting that minorities like the Gagauz should self-deport. Chisinau still uses nationalist rhetoric to this day. In 2023, the Moldovan parliament changed the name of the country’s official language from Moldovan to Romanian. This passed almost without comment in Western media, but was viewed as hostile in Russia, where Romanian is seen as the more nationalist name and also carries pro-NATO and pro-EU associations. Naturally, it was viewed much the same in Gagauzia, where Russia is seen as a protector. In 2024, the governor of Gagauzia, Evghenia Gutul, traveled to Moscow to meet with Putin and secure his support for the region’s secession in the event that Moldova united with Romania. She also asked for Russian protection in a scenario in which Gagauzia’s separatist aims were impeded by the central government. Then, in March of this year, Gutul was arrested at Chisinau Airport, where she was to board a plane to Istanbul. She was accused of having received illegal funding from Russia for her gubernatorial campaign. In Comrat, the regional capital, thousands of people protested Gutul’s treatment by the authorities in Chisinau. Finally, less than one month before the parliamentary election, Gutul was sentenced to seven years in prison. Somehow, I think there is a bit more going on here than mere “Russian propaganda”. For its part, Turkish media has also depicted the Chisinau government’s treatment of Gutul terms unsympathetic to the pro-EU side. As Gagauz are Turkic people, goings on in Gaguazia receive far more attention here than in the West. I also find it eternally fascinating that on Europe’s Eastern flank, any nationalism that asserts an identity emphasizing separateness from Russia is to be celebrated, while any nationalism that expresses an affinity with Russia has to be suppressed.

Bulgarian Modernism

A few months ago, a friend moved to Bulgaria. She told me that the country has a lot of excellent modernist architecture. I hadn’t known: I am embarrassed to say that I’ve never been to Bulgaria, despite having lived in the same “neighborhood” for many years. I wanted to see what she meant, and was happy to find Bulgarian Modernist Architecture (all photos below are from their website). The structures below were built between 1930 and 1940. I think they’re beautiful.

Private house, Pazardjik

Detail of above house

House belonging to the priest of Sveta Petka Church, Pazardjik

Second Surgical Department Building, Sofia

Second Surgical building, as it was

Staircase detail in Second Surgical Building, Sofia