Special Episode: Cenk Uygur at Oxford Speaks

**Cenk Uygur** (0:00)
You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome, thank you.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:12)
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**SPEAKER_3** (0:37)
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**SPEAKER_4** (1:07)
.me today in conversation with Cenk Uygur. Cenk was originally scheduled to speak with us last Friday. His electronic travel authorization was revoked at the airports by the Home Secretary. We were very much looking forward to hosting Cenk and having a civilized and critically engaging conversation.
Oxford Speaks has invited Zionist right-wing and other conservative individuals. The point has never been endorsement. Nonetheless, I am excited to be speaking to someone who is truly immersed within American politics. Cenk is a Turkish-American left-wing political activist and the host of The Young Turks.
He is also not new to controversy. Cenk has run for president of the United States despite not meeting the requirements of being a natural-born citizen. And he has been accused by mainstream media of anti-Semitism, sexism and Islamophobia. However, part of the purpose of the events today is not to avoid controversy, but to confront it directly. Universities should be places where difficult conversations can happen without collapsing into caricature or moral panic.
That does not mean giving anyone a free pass. It means asking serious questions and listening carefully to the answers, while also allowing an audience to judge for itself. Political debate is often reduced to clips and outrage, and I think there is real value in sitting down for a sustained conversation. Tonight, Cenk will discuss free speech, Israel, war and freedom, among other things. Whether you agree with Cenk or strongly disagree with him, I hope tonight's conversation reflects the fundamental need for argument. We will have audience questions at the end, and if you have any questions you want to ask Cenk, please send it to me through the chat and I will ask it on your behalf. Without wasting any more time, Cenk, thank you so much for coming.

**Cenk Uygur** (2:53)
Thanks for having me. So I'll start with that, actually. I appreciate Oxford Speaks having me speak, despite the fact that I can't join you on free British soil. I wish I could, but obviously, not only have they taken my freedom away, but they've taken your freedom away, and that soil is less free today than it was before we were banned. So, and I want to be clear, I don't come as the accused, I come as the accuser. So all of these so-called controversies are manufactured by the people in the establishment that don't want the powerless to have a voice. They want the powerful to be able to crush our voice, crush dissent, and do nothing but absurd propaganda on behalf of the wealthy and the powerful. And we need all of us to fight back together. And if we don't fight back together, then they'll just divide us and they'll claim another controversy and another controversy, but always for the powerless, always for the outsiders, and never for the insiders. They never ever, ever investigate the insiders. Instead, they only create so-called controversies around people who are trying to help you. And their greatest wish is to get the people to attack the people trying to help them. So I want to talk to you about why I come as the accuser. So the hypocrisies of the powerful, and in this case, Israel, are plentiful. And not only is it Israel's hypocrisies, but it is now the American hypocrisies and British hypocrisies as well. They have joined Israel in perpetrating these crimes, these crimes both against the Middle East, the Palestinians, the Lebanese, the Iranians, but also crimes against the British citizens and American citizens, taking our freedom away, freedom of movement, freedom of speech. So I ask all of you, why? Why must we bear these indignities? Well, they say, well, that's because Israel is a special ally, a special ally that takes away our rights, that takes away our freedom, that starts endless wars.