Turkey’s Internet Policy After the Coup Attempt: The Emergence of a Distributed Network of Online Suppression and Surveillance

In July 2016, Turkey was shaken by a bloody coup attempt. Although the would-be putschists failed, their insurgency led to an unprecedented reshuffling of Turkey’s political economic and socio-cultural landscapes. Notwithstanding the critical reverberations on the army, judiciary, law enforcement and civil society, the abortive coup set in motion a massive purge of civil servants, closure of media outlets, arrests of journalists, and blocking of websites and social media accounts. This report offers an examination of the evolution of internet policy in Turkey from the early 2000s to the post-coup conjuncture. It begins with an overview of internet legislation in Turkey during the 2000s under the AKP government (Justice and Development Party), and proceeds to discuss the deployment of different forms of control between 2013-2016 to contain the fallout from political and security crises and the potentially disruptive affordances of social media platforms. The report then focuses on the emerging policy developments and online restrictions in the aftermath of the coup attempt, which include 1) the closure of the TIB—Turkey’s telecommunications authority, 2) direct government control of ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and interception of digital communications by way of decree laws, 3) facilitation of social media censorship by means of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube content removals and 4) coordinated online harassment campaigns by pro-government users against alleged coup planners, Kurdish activists and government critics in general

Post-truth in Turkey: Political Economy of Media and Articulations of Gender, Ethnicity and Nationalism

This chapter examines three case studies from Turkey (the Roboski massacre, the Kabataş incident, and the failed coup) to unsettle the simplistic connections established between post-truth, dis/misinformation and digital communication technologies. Instead, we adopt a political economic lens to examine the connections between post-truth and hegemonic narratives and specifically the contexts in which these narratives are produced and maintained. We discuss how the AKP government’s political economic capture of the news media since the 2010s served as an agent of post-truth in each of the aforementioned cases. To highlight the socio-cultural contexts in which post-truth transpires, we also discuss the AKP’s mobilization of its preferred narratives to exploit existing gender, ethnic and national cleavages. We further direct attention to some of the recent strategies deployed by the government to contend with changes in the networked media environment (e.g., establishing troll armies, mobilizing bot accounts). Overall, our focus on the state and media capture enable us to go beyond the typical technology-oriented debates, emphasize the role of hegemonic-contexts in which post-truth regimes thrive, and ultimately extend the predominantly Western emphasis on post-truth scholarship

Prognostic Factors and Adjuvant Treatments for Surgically Treated Cancers of the Biliary Tract: A Multicentre Study of the Anatolian Society of Medical Oncology (ASMO)

Background: Biliary tract cancers are rare, and surgical resection is the standard treatment at early stages. However, reports on the benefits of adjuvant treatment following surgical resection are conflicting. This study aimed to evaluate the factors affecting survival and adjuvant treatments in patients with surgically treated biliary tract cancers. Materials and Methods: Patient clinical features, adjuvant treatments, and efficacy and prognostic factor data were evaluated. Survival analyses were performed using SPSS 15.0. Results: The median overall survival was 30.7 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 18.4-42.9 months). Median survival was 19 months (95% CI, 6-33) for patients treated with fluorouracil based chemotherapy and 53 months (95% CI, 33.2-78.8) with gemcitabine based chemotherapy (p=0.033). On univariate analysis, poor prognostic factors for survival were galbladder localization, perineural invasion, hepatic invasion, a lack of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy treatment, and a lack of lymph node dissection. On multivariate analysis, perineural invasion was a poor prognostic factor (p=0.008). Conclusions: Biliary tract cancers generally have poor prognoses. The main factors affecting survival are tumour localization, perineural invasion, hepatic invasion, adjuvant chemoradiotherapy, and lymph node dissection. Gemcitabine-based adjuvant chemotherapy is more effective than 5-fluorouracil-based chemotherapy

Prognostic Factors and Adjuvant Treatments for Surgically Treated Cancers of the Biliary Tract: A Multicentre Study of the Anatolian Society of Medical Oncology (ASMO)

Background: Biliary tract cancers are rare, and surgical resection is the standard treatment at early stages. However, reports on the benefits of adjuvant treatment following surgical resection are conflicting. This study aimed to evaluate the factors affecting survival and adjuvant treatments in patients with surgically treated biliary tract cancers. Materials and Methods: Patient clinical features, adjuvant treatments, and efficacy and prognostic factor data were evaluated. Survival analyses were performed using SPSS 15.0. Results: The median overall survival was 30.7 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 18.4-42.9 months). Median survival was 19 months (95% CI, 6-33) for patients treated with fluorouracil based chemotherapy and 53 months (95% CI, 33.2-78.8) with gemcitabine based chemotherapy (p=0.033). On univariate analysis, poor prognostic factors for survival were galbladder localization, perineural invasion, hepatic invasion, a lack of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy treatment, and a lack of lymph node dissection. On multivariate analysis, perineural invasion was a poor prognostic factor (p=0.008). Conclusions: Biliary tract cancers generally have poor prognoses. The main factors affecting survival are tumour localization, perineural invasion, hepatic invasion, adjuvant chemoradiotherapy, and lymph node dissection. Gemcitabine-based adjuvant chemotherapy is more effective than 5-fluorouracil-based chemotherapy

Genes That Affect Brain Structure And Function Identified By Rare Variant Analyses Of Mendelian Neurologic Disease

Development of the human nervous system involves complex interactions among fundamental cellular processes and requires a multitude of genes, many of which remain to be associated with human disease. We applied whole exome sequencing to 128 mostly consanguineous families with neurogenetic disorders that often included brain malformations. Rare variant analyses for both single nucleotide variant (SNV) and copy number variant (CNV) alleles allowed for identification of 45 novel variants in 43 known disease genes, 41 candidate genes, and CNVs in 10 families, with an overall potential molecular cause identified in >85% of families studied. Among the candidate genes identified, we found PRUNE, VARS, and DHX37 in multiple families and homozygous loss-of-function variants in AGBL2, SLC18A2, SMARCA1, UBQLN1, and CPLX1. Neuroimaging and in silico analysis of functional and expression proximity between candidate and known disease genes allowed for further understanding of genetic networks underlying specific types of brain malformations.WoSScopu