Erdogan condemns Rohingya rights abuses

2017-09-05

ISTANBUL - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday condemned escalating human rights violations targeting the Rohingya Muslim minority during a phone call with Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Turkish presidential sources said.

The United Nations said 123,600 had crossed into Bangladesh in the past 11 days following an uptick in fighting between militants and Myanmar's military in strife-torn western Rakhine state, which raised fears of a humanitarian disaster.

The latest violence, which began last October when a small Rohingya militant group ambushed border posts, is the worst Rakhine has witnessed in years, with Erdogan last week accusing Myanmar of "genocide" against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Erdogan has stepped up diplomacy and spoke on the phone with Muslim leaders during the Islamic Eid al-Adha festival, seeking ways to solve the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. He also spoke with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will visit Bangladesh on Wednesday, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

In the phone call with Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner of Myanmar's junta, Erdogan said growing human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims "deeply concerned" the entire world, sources from his office said.

Suu Kyi has come under fire over her perceived unwillingness to speak out against the treatment of the Rohingya or chastise the military.

Erdogan said Turkey "condemns terror and operations against innocent civilians", adding that the developments in Myanmar had turned into a "serious humanitarian crisis which caused worry and resentment."

The Turkish leader had previously said he would bring up the issue at the next UN General Assembly in New York later this month.

Guterres on Friday said he was "deeply concerned" by the situation in Myanmar and called for "restraint and calm to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe".

The Rohingya are reviled in Myanmar, where the roughly one million-strong community are accused of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=84689.

Erdogan boosts his powers over MIT national intelligence agency

2017-08-25

ISTANBUL - Turkey dismissed hundreds civil servants and boosted President Tayyip Erdogan's powers over the MIT national intelligence agency in two decrees published on Friday, the latest under emergency rule imposed after last year's attempted coup.

Turkey has sacked or suspended more than 150,000 officials in purges since the failed putsch, while sending to jail pending trial some 50,000 people including soldiers, police, civil servants.

The crackdown has targeted people whom authorities say they suspect of links to the network of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for the coup.

Under the latest decrees, published in the government's Official Gazette, more than 900 civil servants from ministries, public institutions and the military were dismissed. Those sacked included more than 100 academic personnel.

According to the decrees, the president's permission will be required for the head of the MIT national intelligence agency to be investigated or to act as a witness. The president will also chair the national intelligence coordination board.

The Ankara chief prosecutor's office will have the authority to investigate members of parliament for alleged crimes committed before or after an election, according to one of the measures.

One of the decrees also ordered the closure of the pro-Kurdish news agency Dihaber and two newspapers, all based in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. Since the coup, some 130 media outlets have been closed and around 150 journalists jailed.

Such measures have alarmed Turkey's Western allies and rights groups, who say Erdogan has used the attempted coup as a pretext to muzzle dissent.

Some 250 people were killed in last year's coup attempt, and the government has said the security measures are necessary because of the gravity of the threats facing Turkey. Gulen has condemned the coup attempt and denied involvement.

Under the decrees, Turkey will also recruit 32,000 staff for the police, along with 4,000 judges and prosecutors.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=84538.

On Syria's Raqa front, anti-IS fighters long for their loves

2017-09-07

RAQA - The melancholy ballad sung by anti-jihadist fighter Nimer echoes through the makeshift outpost in Syria's Raqa. But his sorrow has nothing to do with the surrounding battles: he misses his girlfriend.

His lilting rendition competes with the sound of artillery fire and US-led coalition air strikes targeting the Islamic State group in its one-time bastion.

But Nimer, 18, seems a world away from the battlefield when he speaks about his love.

"I like to play these songs on my mobile phone, and then sing them quietly to my love," the young Syrian Democratic Forces fighter confides timidly.

He has not seen his girlfriend for a month and a half as he battles alongside his Kurdish and Arab comrades against IS.

Each time he has leave, he heads to his sister's house outside the city and tries to see his beloved.

"I want to marry her, have children and build a life from scratch," he says wistfully.

Around him, fellow fighters sit on purple cushions and smoke in silence, enjoying a respite from the offensive.

Their weapons are lined up along the wall next to them in the house, commandeered as an outpost.

Nimer hails from Raqa and lost his parents and brothers to the battles that have raged inside the city since June, when the SDF entered the IS stronghold after battling for months to encircle it.

"When we advance on the front, I revisit my memories in the midst of all the destruction. On each street we have memories together," he says.

- 'I did the impossible' -

Sporting a light beard and digital camouflage, Nimer still recalls the extreme interpretation of Islam imposed by IS's "religious police", including a rigid separation between men and women.

"I couldn't have photos or songs on my phone. I was afraid they would arrest me and accuse me of adultery. That was the way they thought," Nimer says.

"I would risk my life just to see her. I did the impossible."

Many of Raqa's streets are now virtually unrecognizable, with building after building disfigured by the grinding battle to oust IS.

In the distance, a US-led coalition air strike sends up a vast bloom of grey and white dust and rubble, and fighters nearby let off volleys of gunfire.

Yasser Ahmed discreetly moves away from his fellow fighters so he can speak freely about his two-year girlfriend, whom he hasn't seen for ten days.

"Under IS, it was like a prison," says Ahmed, 20, also from Raqa city.

"I couldn't see my beloved. We only talked by landline because we were afraid that IS's people would see us. We were scared all the time," adds Ahmed.

The top buttons of Ahmed's shirt are open to reveal a small gold chain hanging around his neck, a present from his love.

"She always tries to persuade me not to return to the front, but I tell her I must liberate my city from IS so we can live in security," adds Ahmed, his skin tanned a deep brown.

"Love is the most beautiful thing we have. During the war, we lost a lot. We don't want to lose love as well."

- Broken heart -

Abu Shalash, another fighter from Raqa, is battling the jihadists to heal a broken heart.

His lover's parents forced her to break up with him and marry her cousin.

"I went crazy, and I joined the fighting to forget my pain," says the 19-year-old.

He and his ex-girlfriend dated covertly under IS in their native Raqa, but she now lives in Ain Issa, a town further north.

"I left my city, I hated my life. When I passed in front of the house, I would remember the memories we created together," he says.

From time to time, Abu Shalash looks at the ground in exasperation, pausing to take a deep breath before resuming.

"During our last Valentine's Day, we celebrated in secret," he says.

"I brought her a red teddy bear and a cake with our initials on it. We always met at night, so IS wouldn't see us."

Despite everything, Abu Shalash hasn't lost hope that he might find love again.

"Life under IS was torture. I want the battles to end, and for us to live our love freely," he says.

"I want Raqa to become a city for all the lovers who were deprived of their love by IS."

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=84723.

Refugees fleeing conflict zones opt for war-torn Syria

2017-09-06

DAMASCUS - Millions of Syrians have fled their country's war as refugees, but for tens of thousands of people escaping conflict elsewhere, Syria is also a place of refuge.

Among them is Zahraa Abdi, who fled her native Somalia in 2012 and lives in a small room with her three children in northern Damascus.

"In Syria, death is organised, you can escape it. But in Somalia, it strikes randomly, at any time or place, there's no escape," she said, her hair wrapped in a turquoise headscarf.

The UN's refugee agency UNHCR estimates some 55,000 refugees from war-torn countries in the Middle East and beyond are currently living in Syria, which has been ravaged by conflict since March 2011.

It provides them with various forms of assistance, though many also work to supplement the aid.

The largest refugee contingent, numbering around 31,000, are Iraqis who crossed the border into Syria to flee their country's many years of violence.

But the UN also counts some 1,500 Afghan refugees, and 1,500 more from Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia.

Abdi, 47, chose to come to Syria because she could enter without a visa, and she was desperate to find safety for her family.

She fled her home in a suburb of the Somali capital Mogadishu after her 10-year-old daughter was raped and murdered.

"In Syria, there is bombing, but there are also regions were you can take refuge. In Somalia, the armed men enter homes and kill the inhabitants," said Abdi, dressed in a black robe embellished with rhinestones.

"I don't want anything for myself, I just want safety for my children."

Somalia has been engulfed in violence for most of the past 25 years, and waves of Somalis have fled abroad searching for safety.

But conflict also caught up with Abdi in Syria.

In 2012, she was living in the town of Al-Tal, held then by opposition forces and subject to sporadic government blockade and regular clashes.

She spent two years there before escaping to the relative safety of nearby Damascus.

- 'Syria is part of me' -

While Abdi moved to Syria in the early part of the conflict, most refugees sought safety in the country long before it was consumed by war.

In a modest church packed to capacity in a Damascus suburb, 45-year-old Faten sings hymns in Arabic and English.

A Chaldean Christian from Iraq, she and her family fled to Syria in 2007 after receiving death threats related to her sister's job at a cafeteria serving US forces.

Graffiti was scrawled on the walls of their home accusing them of "treason," and shots were fired at the house.

"When they set fire to the house, we knew it was the end, that we had to go," she said, her curly hair pulled up in a pony tail above her lightly made-up face.

"My brother and sister and I left without anything. We were barefoot so we wouldn't make any noise when we were running away," she said.

She sought refuge at All Saints Church in the Jaramana suburb of Damascus, where she met Alex Amazia, a refugee from Sudan who would become her husband.

Amazia arrived in Syria in 1999, fleeing Sudan's civil war.

Twelve years later, South Sudan announced its independence and he found himself the citizen of a new country, but one Syria's government does not recognize.

He is unable to renew his Sudanese papers, or to obtain South Sudanese ones in Syria, and so lives without documentation.

But he said the violence that has surged in South Sudan makes life in Syria a better option regardless.

"Despite all the difficult circumstances we have lived through in Syria, the situation in South Sudan remains appalling, and doesn't compare to here," he insisted.

He has spent 18 years in Syria now, missing the funerals of his father and brother.

"Syria has become part of me, I am Syrian," he said.

Alex and Faten married in 2014 and he looks after the church, which is attended by a flock that includes dozens of refugees, mostly from South Sudan and Iraq.

Faten feels the conflict she fled in Iraq has caught up with her across the border in Syria.

"We feel that we are stuck with the curse of war," she said.

- 'Weary of war' -

Roqaya Omar, 60, also found herself caught up in the Syrian conflict, after fleeing Somalia a decade ago.

In 2012, she was living in the town of Harna near Damascus, which was a frontline in the fighting.

"We lived all the experiences of war like any Syrian," she said.

"We were besieged and we heard the sound of battle and shelling," she added.

"But I didn't feel the same fear as I did in Somalia, where anyone can be killed with knives and slaughtered."

She was able to flee Harna and move with her 26-year-old son Mohamed into Damascus.

"I'm weary of war," she said, stroking her son's face tenderly.

"I want to spend the rest of my life with my son in any country in the world... any country where there is no war."

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=84697.

Catalans begin campaigning for independence referendum

September 14, 2017

TARRAGONA, Spain (AP) — Political tension in Spain mounted Thursday as Catalonia's president opened the "yes" campaign for a regional independence referendum that has been suspended by the courts. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and other supporters of secession gathered at an arena in Tarragona, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Barcelona, to address thousands of people at the kickoff for the two-week campaign.

"Somebody thinks that we won't vote on Oct. 1? What kind of people do they think we Catalans are?" Puigdemont asked the crowd. "In Catalonia, we are democrats." "Hello Republic" was one of the slogans unveiled at the rally. There is no official "no" campaign for the Oct. 1 referendum, as most of the regional and national opposition are refusing to participate in the vote.

Spain's central government insists the referendum is illegal and the Constitutional Court has suspended it pending a formal decision by judges. Police have orders to prevent preparations for the ballot, and Spain's top prosecutor has said that anybody collaborating in its organization would also be legally liable.

The threats have so far had a limited effect beyond making regional authorities take lengths to try to sidestep the legal obstacles. To shield Barcelona's civil servants from possible prosecution, Mayor Ada Colau refused to make municipal premises available as polling places. Colau announced Thursday that voting stations would instead open in facilities owned by the regional government.

The arrangement provided a big boost for backers of the plebiscite because one-fifth of the region's voters are registered in Barcelona. A solid turnout is considered key for the referendum's legitimacy, although there is no minimum required for the results to be valid.

More than 700 mayors in the northeastern region are already under investigation for abetting the vote. The defiance by Catalan separatists — and the pressure put on them by the government in Madrid — has escalated since the regional parliament paved the way for the Oct. 1 referendum last week.

In the latest move, Regional Vice President Oriol Junqueras said Catalonia would stop providing weekly spending reports to Madrid. The central government had ordered them in July to scrutinize that public funds were not being used on the illegal vote.

Speaking at Thursday night's rally, Junqueras said Catalans "have already won" by proceeding with the referendum despite fierce opposition and legal actions against them. "We have reached this moment stronger than what many had thought and wanted, as we are proving by responding firmly to each threat," he said.

A judge shut down the referendum's official website late Wednesday — but minutes later the content had been replicated through servers overseas. Puigdemont told broadcaster TV3 on Thursday the national government in Madrid has created a "climate of hostility and paranoia" around the planned ballot.

But Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said no dialogue is possible with the Catalan authorities until they back down from their plans for a vote. Most Catalans support a vote on whether the prosperous region's future lies within or outside of Spain, but polls show that a referendum approved by the central government is preferred over a vote Madrid opposes.

Citizens also are divided over the independence issue. According to a June survey by the Catalan government's own polling agency, 41 percent supported independence while 49 percent were for staying in Spain.

Outside of Catalonia, most Spaniards reject the idea. __ AP reporters Aritz Parra in Madrid and Barry Hatton in Lisbon contributed to this report.

Greece struggles to mop up oil spill; critics demand more

September 14, 2017

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities insisted Thursday they were doing everything they could to clean up the viscous, foul-smelling oil that has coated large parts of Athens' coastline following the sinking of a small oil tanker.

The Agia Zoni II tanker sank Sunday while anchored in calm seas off the coast of Salamina island, near Greece's main port of Piraeus, carrying 2,200 tons of fuel oil and 370 tons of marine gas oil. Two crew members were rescued.

"All the means available in the country" are being deployed to tackle the spill in the Saronic Gulf, Merchant Marine Minister Panagiotis Kouroumplis said Thursday. "Things are developing very well and from day to day there is a huge improvement," he said, adding that authorities estimate the "situation will have completely changed" in 25-30 days.

Greece has requested help from the European Union and a specialized cleanup vessel has been deployed. Critics, however, have accused the government of not acting quickly enough prevent the spill from spreading from Salamina across the coastline.

The Saronic Gulf is home to dolphins, turtles, a wide variety of fish and sea birds. Environmental and wildlife organizations have been posting instructions on social media on how residents can help any stricken wildlife they come across.

It's unclear why the ship sank. The vessel's owner, Theodoros Kountouris, said on Epsilon TV that the ship, built in 1972, had been overhauled in 2014 to make it double-hulled, which would make it safer for leaks.

Breaking down in tears, Kountouris said he had done everything in his power to try and prevent the leaking when the ship sank. "I'm very sorry for what happened," he said. Deputy Environment Minister Socrates Famellos said authorities think the leak had now been sealed.

"We believe that there will be no irreversible consequences to the environment," Famellos said. "I would not call it an environmental disaster. There was a serious environmental accident that is being dealt with."

Mayors of affected coastal areas were threatening to take legal action over the pollution. Glyfada Mayor Girogos Papanikolaou said on Facebook that he planned to file a lawsuit Friday against "all responsible" — a common Greek practice when a culprit has not been identified.

"From dawn today, we have been making a superhuman effort with all means to restore the massive damage that has occurred on the Glyfada seafront," he said. Kouroumplis said the pollution spread because heavy fuel oil can sink during cooler nights, escaping the floating booms deployed to contain the slick, before rising to the sea's surface again in the heat of the day.

Asked on Skai TV who was to blame for the oil spill, Deputy Agriculture Development Minister Giannis Tsironis said "the responsibility lies with an entire society and a global economy dependent on oil."

Jitters in Europe as Russia-Belarus war games get underway

September 14, 2017

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Russia and Belarus began major war games Thursday, an operation involving thousands of troops, tanks and aircraft on NATO's eastern edge practicing how to hunt down and destroy armed spies, among other maneuvers.

The Zapad (West) 2017 maneuvers, which are mainly taking place in Belarus this year, have caused concern among members of the Western military alliance and in neighboring countries. Some NATO members, including the Baltic states and Poland, have criticized a lack of transparency about the exercises and questioned Moscow's real intentions.

Russia and Belarus say the exercises, which run until Sept. 20, involve 5,500 Russian and 7,200 Belarusian troops. Russian military officials have said up to 70 aircraft and about 250 tanks, 200 artillery systems and 10 navy ships will also be involved.

Estonian Defense Minister Juri Liuk, however, says Moscow could deploy up to 100,000 troops. "Leaving weapons in Belarus means the Russian army could prepare bases for a sudden broad attack ... right at the NATO border," Lithuanian officer Darius Antanaitis said.

While the Baltic nations fear the Zapad maneuvers may lead to a surprise Russian attack, the exercises have also been criticized by Belorussian opposition leaders. They say Russia could use the occasion to position a large, permanent contingent of troops in Belarus, leaving the country at the mercy of any armed confrontation involving Moscow.

The exercises began Thursday night with units simulating hunting down and destroying reconnaissance agents belonging to illegal armed groups, according to Oleg Belokonev, the Belorussian Deputy Defense Minister.

"Command points have been set up and fully-functioning command systems created," Belokonev told journalists at a press conference in Minsk, the capital. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, formally notified NATO of the beginning of the exercises on Thursday evening, according to Russian media. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told NATO troops in Estonia last week that the alliance will be closely monitoring Zapad exercises.

Russia-West relations nosedived to their lowest level since the Cold War in recent years after Moscow's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and its support of separatists fighting the Ukrainian government in eastern Ukraine, clashes that have left over 10,000 people dead.

Russia's Defense Ministry said Thursday that elite parachute units in several Russian cities had been placed on alert to be deployed during the exercises. Organizers have invented three "aggressor countries" — Veishnoriya, Lubeniya and Vesbasriya — to whose attacks the Russian and Belorussian militaries will simulate a response. The Baltic States and Poland fear that these monikers are just poorly disguised terms for their own countries.

Poland's National Security Bureau head, Pawel Soloch, said Thursday the exercises were a demonstration "of the Russian state's capacity to hold full-scale war action." "The degree of mobilization is really impressive," Soloch said on private Radio Zet.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, who often criticizes Russian leaders, said the war games are a sign the Kremlin is preparing for conflict with NATO. "We are anxious about this drill ... it is an open preparation for war with the West," Grybauskaite told reporters.

There is also unease in Kiev, and Ukraine is currently conducting its own military exercises. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that Zapad 2017 appears to be a "preparation for an offensive war on a continental scale."

Both Moscow and Minsk have said repeatedly that the exercises are not a danger for neighboring countries. "We are not threatening anyone," Oleg Voinov, an adviser to the Belorussian Defense Minister, told journalists Thursday. "We have chosen military bases that are significantly removed from the borders with Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia."

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Thursday that Russia had been completely open and transparent about its military's involvement in the exercises. The most recent Zapad exercises, which occur every few years, took place in 2013, just before Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. Russia had leased a naval base in Crimea from Ukraine prior to its seizure, and used troops deployed there to quickly take over the Black Sea peninsula.

Some people think fears of Russian aggression are being blown out of proportion. "Worries over Zapad are overkill. Russians will not seek confrontation, because they know that NATO will be watching this event closely and is certainly ready to react," said Kestutis Girnius, a Vilnius University political analyst.

Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Howard Amos in Moscow and Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania, contributed to this report.