This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Adam Bychawski.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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The UK government is secretly funding Turkey’s border forces to keep migrants out. A freedom of information (FOI) request revealed that it has handed £3m to the Turkish government to stop refugees from entering Europe.
The FOI request by the Guardian detailed that the Home Office has diverted money to Turkish security forces to stem the flow of desperate refugees and migrants. This included practical training and material support. The money was taken from a fund meant for overseas development.
The £3m figure is for the last year. But, the report suggests that the payments have been steadily increasing since 2019. The Guardian reported:
The funding was diverted from the official development assistance (ODA) budget and delivered through Home Office International Operations, part of the department’s Intelligence Directorate.
The UK also gifted security equipment, including nine vehicles to Turkey. This is despite, as the Guardian pointed out, Turkey’s track record of using violent force including live rounds against migrants.
Refugee plight ignored
Human rights lawyer Mahmut Kaçan told the paper that the UN overlooked Turkish brutality against refugees. And he said donor countries were responsible too:
The UNHCR never criticises or mentions what Turkey is doing at the border. They are complicit in the deaths of these people, as are the EU and other countries that are giving money to Turkey for border security.
And an anonymous Home Office source explained how the process of funding worked:
We offer our expertise and provide officials [locally] with evidence, showing the routes we think illegal migrants or gangs are operating along… It’ll probably be along the lines of: ‘This is a route smugglers and illegal migrants use to get to the UK, we need to do more to stop it.’
The source added:
The Turkish government will then respond by saying: ‘This is what we need to be able to do that’, and then we fund it, basically.
Accountability?
The same source said that accountability wasn’t high on the agenda for the UK government:
We don’t tend to hold local forces to account with any targets but certainly if we say: ‘We need to bolster X area of border security’, Turkey might respond by saying they need Y in order to boost border officer numbers and we’ll help them to do that.
A spokesperson for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said the revelation exposed the British government’s real attitudes:
This government has shown that it will break international law to prevent people from exercising the fundamental human right to seek safety.
The UK government has been caught out again. Whether on the English Channel or at the Turkish border, it is absolutely committed to putting the boot into some of the most desperate people on earth. And, as ever, the unwitting taxpayer is funding it.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Amada44, cropped to 1910 x 1000, licenced under CC BY-SA 4.0.
By Joe Glenton
This post was originally published on Canary.
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On Sunday 28 May, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won Turkey’s presidential run-offs. His victory came amid allegations of violent intimidation of Kurdish voters and electoral fraud.
Erdoğan has been in power for over 20 years. He took office as prime minister in 2003, and president in 2014. Since then, hungry for autocratic control, he has pushed for dictatorial powers for the presidency, built himself a $350m palace in Ankara, and replaced over 100 elected mayors in Bakur with state approved appointees. Bakur is the part of Kurdistan within the borders of Turkey. On top of this, Erdoğan has waged a constant war against Turkey’s Kurdish Freedom Movement, with at least 10,000 people currently imprisoned.
Erdoğan: a presidency built on militarism
Internationally, Erdoğan has been an expansionist militarist; bombing Iraq and invading and occupying North and East Syria. He has used poison gas against Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) guerillas in Iraq, as well as both chemical and white phosphorous weapons against the people of Rojava. Erdoğan has allied with Daesh (ISIS), and created proxies in Syria such as the Turkish Free Syrian Army. Since the 2018 occupation, Turkey’s allies have plundered Afrin’s economy, and replaced Kurdish residents with pro-Turkish Arabic colonists.
It should come as no surprise then that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra), the right-wing Islamist group currently in control of the Syrian city of Idlib, extended congratulations to Erdoğan on the election result.
During the 2019 invasion of North and East Syria, Turkey and its proxies carried out assassinations, massacres, torture, and rapes. Sadly, now that Erdoğan has won another term a new invasion of North and East Syria is much more likely.
Erdoğan has also presided over militarist interventions in Libya, and provided military support to Azerbaijan for its conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh too. He has consistently ramped up militarist rhetoric against Greece, as well as using the ongoing refugee crisis and war in Ukraine to his benefit internationally.
Within Turkey, Erdoğan has played the conservative populist card. He has blamed LGBTQ+ people for the Covid-19 virus. Several of his election campaign statements were deeply homophobic. He is an outspoken misogynist too – in 2021 famously pulling out of the 2011 Istanbul Convention. The convention requires governments to adopt measures to prevent violence against women.
Unfair presidential election
Before the 14 May 2023 election, members of the Green Left Party (YSP) in Colemêrg (Hakkari) told the Canary that they expected arrests and repression if Erdoğan won. One YSP member in Hakkari told us:
If AKP (Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party) wins, we will not be waking up in our beds, we will be waking up in prison.
YSP ran in the parliamentary election, gaining 63 seats. The party wants to completely change the face of Turkey. Their ambitions go beyond states and parliamentary democracy. They want to rewrite the Turkish constitution, and create radical peoples’ democracy at a grassroots-level across Turkey. YSP chose not to stand a presidential candidate. Instead they advised their supporters to make a tactical vote for the Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, in the hope of finally unseating Erdoğan.
Kurdish voters faced violence and intimidation at polling booths for the second time in a month on May 28. Medya News wrote:
The Kurdish-majority regions witnessed significant support for opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in the presidential run-off vote, just as in the first round of elections. However, reports have emerged of supporters and representatives of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and their extremist Islamist partner HÜDA-PAR interfering with voters and observers, particularly in areas where Kılıçdaroğlu had garnered significant support in the first round. The presence of an increased military mobilisation in the region further heightened tensions and uncertainty surrounding the elections.
Observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) criticised the election process. They said that there was an “unfair playing field” for both rounds of elections in May. They reported:
biased media coverage and the lack of a level playing field gave an unjustified advantage to the incumbent [Erdoğan].
Arrests and torture
Since 28 May’s run-off election, a wave of arrests of Kurdish Freedom Movement figures is already underway. On Monday 29 May, Special Operation Police carried out raids, kicking in doors, breaking windows, and assaulting people in Colemêrg in the far southeast. They kicked and punched detainees, and struck them with the butts of rifles.
Lawyers for Freedom reported that one detainee was tortured for two hours by the Special Operation Police. Police detained Mustafa Bor in Gever (Yüksekova in Turkish). The local hospital treated Mustafa for fractures, severe bruising, and bleeding later that day.
Meanwhile, in the city of Batman, police arrested 20 people for making a hand gesture associated with the Kurdish Freedom Movement during a victory parade for Erdoğan. They even arrested a journalist for reporting the incident.
The repression follows a wave of pre-election arrests across Bakur and Turkey. At least 180 people were arrested prior to 28 May’s run-off election, including many YSP members.
The ‘spirit is still alive’
Vala Francis is an internationalist who has observed both elections as part of an international delegation called for by the People’s Democratic Party (HDP). After 28 May’s run-off election, she warned of more arrests to come:
Everyone expects masses of arrests to begin in the next months, especially for all the election work. But also a more general crackdown; literally thousands of people already have ongoing political cases. It’s really a critical time to think of ways to help people practically, on the ground.
But Vala still sees great hope in the spirit of the people. She wrote:
The war is deeply psychological. Maybe it doesn’t seem obvious from the outside, but people resist on every front. Some people seem to have a spring inside of them, like water that emerges from the ground. It doesn’t stop. It makes everything in its path clear and luscious for new possibilities. This spirit is still alive, even if by necessity it mostly exists in the shadows. All parts of Kurdistan are connected, and the strengths, and the struggles, and the weaknesses in one part feeds into and is substantiated by every other.
‘I don’t feel defeated’
Vala’s faith in the spirit of the movement is borne out by her recent interview with Ceylan Akça of the YSP. Ceylan was elected to the Turkish parliament on 14 May. Responding to Erdoğan‘s victory, Ceylan said:
I don’t feel defeated. Of course people are digesting the results now, that maybe there’s another five years with Erdogan. It’s okay to feel sad, to feel discouraged. But just after we get through that feeling, that’s when its time to get back to work. We will work to strengthen our local offices. Everyone here has a court case – they have at least six years of prison sentence dangling over their heads, and yet they still come and work. And we will make sure that we will protect and defend everything that we have accomplished in the last two decades, and in the time before – we will hold onto this, defend this, and we will build on it.
She quipped:
This authoritarian system wasn’t built over night, so it wont take a single night to get rid of it. But we’re almost halfway done, if we keep on working on this and fighting for this.
One thing is clear, and that is the struggle for people’s democracy, and against Erdoğan‘s militaristic, dictatorial rule, is far from over. People will re-organise and renew the struggle on fresh fronts. The revolutionary movement that is challenging Turkish fascism is an internationalist one. Those of us who support the fight for radical democracy in Turkey need to be ready to stand with our comrades in whatever way we can, because the next months and years are going to be a hard fought struggle.
Featured image via Screenshot/YouTube
By Tom Anderson
This post was originally published on Canary.
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This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on May 29, 2023. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
As supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at home and abroad celebrated his win of Sunday’s runoff election, human rights defenders and marginalized people including Kurds and LGBTQ+ activists voiced deep fears about how their lives will be adversely affected during the increasingly authoritarian leader’s third term.
Turkey’s Supreme Election Council confirmed Erdoğan’s victory over Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on Sunday evening. Erdoğan, the 69-year-old leader of the right-wing Justice and Development Party who has ruled the nation of 85 million people since 2014 and dominated its politics for two decades, won 52.18% of the vote. Kılıçdaroğlu, a 74-year-old social democrat who leads the left-of-center Republican People’s Party, received 47.82%.
Erdoğan—who was seen handing out cash to supporters at a polling station in an apparent violation of Turkish election law—mocked his opponent’s loss outside the president’s home in Istanbul, saying, “Bye, bye, bye, Kemal” as the winner’s supporters booed, according to Al Jazeera.
“The only winner today is Turkey,” Erdoğan declared as he prepared for a third term in which his country faces severe economic woes—inflation has soared and the lira is at a record low against the U.S. dollar—and is struggling to recover from multiple devastating earthquakes earlier this year.
However, in Turkish Kurdistan—whose voters, along with a majority of people in most of Turkey’s largest cities favored Kılıçdaroğlu—people expressed fears that the government will intensify a crackdown it has been waging for several years.
Ardelan Mese, a 26-year-old cafe owner in Diyarbakir, the country’s largest Kurdish-majority city, called Sunday’s election “a matter of life and death now.”
“I can’t imagine what he will be capable of after declaring victory,” Mese said of Erdoğan in an interview with Reuters.
After initially courting the Kurds by expanding their political and cultural rights, Erdoğan returned to the repression that has long characterized Turkey’s treatment of a people who make up one-fifth of the nation’s population, while intensifying a war against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a far-left separatist group that Turkey, the United States, and other nations consider a terrorist organization.
“Erdogan’s victory will consolidate one-man rule and pave the way for horrible practices, bringing completely dark days for all parts of society,” Tayip Temel, the deputy co-chair of Turkey’s second-largest opposition party, the center-left and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)—which backed Kılıçdaroğlu—told Reuters.
Human rights defenders—many of whom have chosen or been forced into exile—also sounded the alarm over the prospect of a third Erdoğan term.
“If the opposition wins there will be space, even possibly limited, for discussions for a common future. With Erdoğan, there is no civic or political space for democracy and human rights,” Murat Çelikkan, a journalist who founded human rights groups including Amnesty International Turkey, said in an interview with Civil Rights Defenders just before Sunday’s runoff.
Çelikkan called Erdoğan a “very authoritarian, religious, pro-expansionist conservative.”
“Turkey, according to judicial statistics, has the largest number of terrorists in the world, because the prosecutors and judges have an inclination to use anti-terror laws arbitrarily and lavishly,” he continued. “There are tens of thousands of people who are being trialed or convicted by anti-terror laws. Thousands of people insulting the president.”
“Nowhere in Turkey you can make a peaceful demonstration and protest,” Çelikkan added. “The security forces directly attack and detain you. The minister of interior targets and criminalizes LGBTI+ people on a daily basis.”
LGBTQ+ Turks voiced fears for their future following a campaign in which Erdoğan centered homophobia in his appeals to an overwhelmingly Muslim electorate and repeatedly accused Kılıçdaroğlu and other opposition figures of being gay. During his victory speech Sunday evening, Erdoğan again lashed out at the LGBTQ+ community while excoriating Kılıçdaroğlu for his campaign pledge to “respect everyone’s beliefs, lifestyles, and identities.”
Erdoğan vowed in his speech that gays would not “infiltrate” Turkey and that “we will not let the LGBT forces win.” At one point during his address, an Al Jazeera interpreter stopped translating a 45-second portion when the president called members of the opposition gay.
Ilker Erdoğan, a 20-year-old university student and LGBTQ+ activist, told Agence France-Presse that “I feel deeply afraid.”
“Feeling so afraid is affecting my psychology terribly. I couldn’t breathe before, and now they will try to strangle my throat,” he added. “From the moment I was born, I felt that discrimination, homophobia, and hatred in my bones.”
Ameda Murat Karaguzu, a project assistant at an unnamed pro-LGBTQ+ group, told AFP that she has been “subjected to more hate speech and acts of hate than I have experienced in a long time.”
Karaguzu blamed Erdoğan’s government for the increasing hostility toward LGBTQ+ Turks, adding that bigots are keenly “aware that there will be no consequences for killing or harming us.”
Ilker Erdoğan struck a defiant tone, telling AFP that “I am also part of this nation, my identity card says Turkish citizen.”
“You cannot erase my existence,” he added, “no matter how hard you try.”
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
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We look at the impact of the reelection of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Sunday in a tight runoff vote, extending his 20-year rule for a further five years. Erdoğan received just over 52% of the vote, beating challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, an economist and former civil servant who unified a broad coalition but failed to unseat Erdoğan despite growing dissatisfaction with his governance and deep economic pain within the country. We speak with Cihan Tuğal, UC Berkeley sociologist and author of The Fall of the Turkish Model: How the Arab Uprisings Brought Down Islamic Liberalism.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s win in the May 28 second round of the Turkish presidential elections has sent a wave of concern and dread through democratic circles and the large Kurdish minority, reports Peter Boyle.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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Istanbul, May 30, 2023–Turkish authorities should investigate multiple incidents of journalists being attacked or obstructed from reporting during the country’s recent election, and the media watchdog RTÜK should treat all outlets equally regardless of political stance, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.
During the second round of presidential elections on Sunday, May 28, at least two journalists were physically attacked, others were obstructed from their work, and one was briefly detained, according to news reports and tweets from the journalists and their outlets.
On Tuesday, RTÜK announced that it was investigating seven critical outlets in relation to their broadcasts during the run-off, according to news reports. Turkey’s sitting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won with 52% of the vote.
“Turkish authorities should investigate the harassment, obstruction, and detention of journalists covering the recent run-off election, and ensure that members of the press can cover such newsworthy events freely,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “It is also past time for the media regulator RTÜK to treat every media outlet equally and ensure that news organizations are not investigated over their political leanings.”
In the Haliliye district of the eastern city of Şanlıurfa on Sunday, two unidentified men attacked Ömer Akın, a reporter with the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency, while he covered a dispute between opposition politicians and lawyers and members of a pro-government group, according to news reports and Akın, who communicated with CPJ via messaging app.
The men repeatedly punched Akın on the back, shoulders, and neck, and broke his microphone and camera. The journalist told CPJ he was not seriously injured. He filed a criminal complaint to the gendarmerie later that day and was told that a prosecutor tasked with investigating crimes regarding the election would hear his testimony. Akın told CPJ that he had not received any update on his case as of Tuesday, May 30.
Separately, officials from the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, harassed or obstructed at least three journalists on Sunday, May 28, including:
- Fatoş Erdoğan, a reporter for the critical citizen journalist network Dokuz8 Haber, was obstructed from covering the elections at a school in Istanbul, when an AKP official blocked her from working and injured her hand, according to news reports and tweets by her outlet.
- Sultan Eylem Keleş, a reporter for the critical outlet KRT TV, was also reporting on voting at an Istanbul school when she was asked to leave by an AKP official, according to those sources and Keleş, who communicated with CPJ via Twitter. She filed a criminal complaint with police.
- Öznur Değer, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish news website JİNNEWS, was covering the voting process at a school in the southeastern city of Mardin, when an AKP official’s bodyguards said that she was not allowed to work there and forced her to leave, according to those sources and a report by her outlet. Mardin police confiscated her phone when Değer filed a criminal complaint about the incident.
Also on Sunday, police briefly detained Vedat Aker, a journalist and publisher of the news website Batman Burada, as he reported on government supporters celebrating in the streets of the southeastern city of Batman, according to reports and a tweet from his outlet.
CPJ messaged Fatoş Erdoğan, Değer, and Aker for more details on their cases but did not immediately receive any replies.
On Tuesday, RTÜK tweeted a statement saying that authorities were investigating broadcasts during the Sunday runoff by seven critical outlets–FOX TV Turkey, HALK TV, TELE 1, KRT, TV 5, FLASH HABER, and Sözcü TV–following citizen complaints.
RTÜK’s board is based on political party seats in parliament and is currently controlled by the AKP and its allies. In the past, RTÜK has favored pro-government outlets and has focused penalties on critical outlets.
CPJ emailed the chief prosecutor’s offices of Istanbul, Mardin, Batman, and Şanlıurfa; the AKP; and RTÜK but received no replies.
Turkey is one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, with 40 behind bars as of CPJ’s December 1, 2022, prison census.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Istanbul, May 30, 2023–Turkish authorities should investigate multiple incidents of journalists being attacked or obstructed from reporting during the country’s recent election, and the media watchdog RTÜK should treat all outlets equally regardless of political stance, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.
During the second round of presidential elections on Sunday, May 28, at least two journalists were physically attacked, others were obstructed from their work, and one was briefly detained, according to news reports and tweets from the journalists and their outlets.
On Tuesday, RTÜK announced that it was investigating seven critical outlets in relation to their broadcasts during the run-off, according to news reports. Turkey’s sitting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won with 52% of the vote.
“Turkish authorities should investigate the harassment, obstruction, and detention of journalists covering the recent run-off election, and ensure that members of the press can cover such newsworthy events freely,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “It is also past time for the media regulator RTÜK to treat every media outlet equally and ensure that news organizations are not investigated over their political leanings.”
In the Haliliye district of the eastern city of Şanlıurfa on Sunday, two unidentified men attacked Ömer Akın, a reporter with the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency, while he covered a dispute between opposition politicians and lawyers and members of a pro-government group, according to news reports and Akın, who communicated with CPJ via messaging app.
The men repeatedly punched Akın on the back, shoulders, and neck, and broke his microphone and camera. The journalist told CPJ he was not seriously injured. He filed a criminal complaint to the gendarmerie later that day and was told that a prosecutor tasked with investigating crimes regarding the election would hear his testimony. Akın told CPJ that he had not received any update on his case as of Tuesday, May 30.
Separately, officials from the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, harassed or obstructed at least three journalists on Sunday, May 28, including:
- Fatoş Erdoğan, a reporter for the critical citizen journalist network Dokuz8 Haber, was obstructed from covering the elections at a school in Istanbul, when an AKP official blocked her from working and injured her hand, according to news reports and tweets by her outlet.
- Sultan Eylem Keleş, a reporter for the critical outlet KRT TV, was also reporting on voting at an Istanbul school when she was asked to leave by an AKP official, according to those sources and Keleş, who communicated with CPJ via Twitter. She filed a criminal complaint with police.
- Öznur Değer, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish news website JİNNEWS, was covering the voting process at a school in the southeastern city of Mardin, when an AKP official’s bodyguards said that she was not allowed to work there and forced her to leave, according to those sources and a report by her outlet. Mardin police confiscated her phone when Değer filed a criminal complaint about the incident.
Also on Sunday, police briefly detained Vedat Aker, a journalist and publisher of the news website Batman Burada, as he reported on government supporters celebrating in the streets of the southeastern city of Batman, according to reports and a tweet from his outlet.
CPJ messaged Fatoş Erdoğan, Değer, and Aker for more details on their cases but did not immediately receive any replies.
On Tuesday, RTÜK tweeted a statement saying that authorities were investigating broadcasts during the Sunday runoff by seven critical outlets–FOX TV Turkey, HALK TV, TELE 1, KRT, TV 5, FLASH HABER, and Sözcü TV–following citizen complaints.
RTÜK’s board is based on political party seats in parliament and is currently controlled by the AKP and its allies. In the past, RTÜK has favored pro-government outlets and has focused penalties on critical outlets.
CPJ emailed the chief prosecutor’s offices of Istanbul, Mardin, Batman, and Şanlıurfa; the AKP; and RTÜK but received no replies.
Turkey is one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, with 40 behind bars as of CPJ’s December 1, 2022, prison census.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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On May 28, Turkish citizens went to the polls for a second round of voting in the presidential election. On the ballot, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) were challenged by a six-party opposition alliance purporting to stand for an alternative politics embracing all Turks regardless of political views, religious affiliation, ethnic background…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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For civil society and rights defenders, five more years of the Turkish president and his radical backers are a daunting prospect
On Sunday, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was declared the winner of Turkey’s presidential runoff elections. According to numbers reported by the state-owned Anadolu news agency, more than 27 million voters cast their ballots in favour of Erdoğan, who has been at the country’s helm for more than two decades. He entered the second round in the lead in the polls, and was expected by most to emerge victorious. Although Erdoğan captured slightly more than half of the vote, more than 25 million people also mobilised to vote against him.
The elections were being held under deeply unfair conditions, with an opposition set up to fail. Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was recently sentenced to more than two years in prison and banned from holding public office for insulting members of the supreme election council. This left the opposition unable to nominate its maybe most promising candidate. This was all amid biased media coverage, relentless smear campaigns against the eventual opposition candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, threats, manipulation and a crackdown on civil society, such as the arrest of 126 Kurdish lawyers, activists and politicians at the end of April in Diyarbakır.
Constanze Letsch is a former Turkey correspondent for the Guardian and has recently finished a PhD on urban renewal in Istanbul
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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In Langkawi, Malaysia, between the 23rd – 27th of May – HAVELSAN, a global leader in high-technology products and innovative solutions, successfully captivated the attention of attendees at LIMA 2023, the prestigious defense and maritime exhibition. The event showcased HAVELSAN’s cutting-edge C4ISR solutions, simulators and training systems, and homeland security solutions, solidifying its position as […]
The post HAVELSAN Showcases High-Tech Solutions at LIMA 2023, Establishes Strategic Partnerships appeared first on Asian Military Review.
This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.
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Our team has noticed over the past year or so that when we cover global politics, particularly in relation to Turkey, Ukraine, and Russia, our coverage often elicits comments from self-proclaimed anti-imperialists. Recently, some of this criticism has intensified in relation to articles we’ve put out about Imran Khan and Kurdistan. We’re no strangers to criticism, but we’ve noticed a pattern to comments that crop up repeatedly. We’d like to respond as a team to this pattern of criticism, and make our position clear.
People, not states
These claims centre around the apparent belief from a group of people that all our coverage of international politics should be doggedly anti-US with no exceptions. They believe such a position to be inherently anti-imperialist. The problem with this is that these anti-imperialists believe state actors like Putin and Erdoğan – vocal critics of US domination – should be supported in their efforts to dismantle US hegemony. This is in spite of the documented atrocities both have visited on ethnic minorities in their respective countries.
For example. one author has dedicated an entire article to claiming that the Canary is intentionally pushing “Anglo-American empire” propaganda with our coverage of both Khan and Turkey. On social media, we’ve been accused of taking “Qatari blood money” over this. The Canary has also been said to be “deliberately omitting” US imperialism from our Pakistan and Turkey coverage, and trying to shape a “US/West-friendly perspective”. We’ve also come in for repeated attacks, historically, for criticising Russia and its invasion of Ukraine.
At the Canary, we believe this to be a deeply dangerous set of beliefs that harms the people caught up in geopolitical battles. We are not oblivious to the fact that other emerging powers wish to exert their influence in Pakistan, Ukraine, Turkey, and other areas. However, criticism of populist figures is not an open invitation to Western war hawks to charge into countries that have already been ruined – and also formed, in the case of Pakistan – by genocidal powers. Our politics has always been, and will always be, guided by a commitment to reporting on the people caught up in these battles, not the states that wage them.
We’ll now respond more specifically to two instances where recent reporting has been criticised by so-called ‘anti-imperialists’.
Kurdish revolution
We’re proud to support Kurdish people in their struggle for freedom, and we have a long history of doing so. Critics have claimed that supporting the revolution is tantamount to supporting the US. They say this is because the Kurds’ tactical coordination with the US in the struggle to defeat Daesh amounts to a “US-backed illegal occupation.” To call the autonomous administration an ‘occupation’ is a mind-bendingly warped take on the reality of revolutionary struggles in North and East Syria.
What would critics have done if they had been living in Kobanî during the Daesh siege? Would they have watched their community die, rather than accept the limited US support on offer? Military coordination with the US has been a survival tactic for the revolutionary forces of North and East Syria. The movement knows that US imperialism is opposed to their revolution, and only supports them militarily when it aligns with US interests. The coordination with the US remains a contradiction for Rojava’s radicals, but one they are all too aware of. One of the impressive things about the Kurdish Freedom Movement is its ability to remain true to its revolutionary spirit while sitting with the contradictions that arise from the practical reality of the struggle.
It is a grim reality that our critics – who claim they are steadfastly against US imperialism – ignore the bloody authoritarianism, colonialism, imperialism, and racism of Putin, Assad, Erdoğan, and the rest. It cannot be acceptable to align one’s politics with blood-soaked dictators at any cost – particularly when that cost is ignoring the struggles of oppressed communities fighting for their survival.
As radicals, we need to be allies to people struggling for freedom globally, not to states. We need to remember the spirit of revolutionary internationalism, and to do what we can to materially support our comrades who are fighting against imperialism around the world.
Racial literacy
We have also received criticism of our coverage of Khan’s arrest in Pakistan. This criticism is from the same purported ‘anti-imperialist’ crowd mentioned above, who argue that by criticising Khan (who has nominally opposed US influence) we’re implicitly advocating for US influence and control in the region. Criticism in itself is not our issue, but such bad-faith analysis rankles.
If commenters cannot understand why articles written by Pakistani people living in Pakistan, and edited by Pakistani editors, are critical of Imran Khan beyond ‘you want to prop up Western neo-imperialism’, then we cannot help you.
Some criticism has also claimed that, in spite of writers and editors working from what they know and experience, our education in the West invalidates our reporting on Pakistan. We would argue that colonisers devalued or outright eradicated native centres of learning and processes of knowledge production. Colonisers created a hegemony of Western languages and epistemology, forcing Black and Brown people to speak their language and study in their systems in order to be heard. As a result, Black and Brown people had to become proficient with the colonisers’ tools in order to advocate for our humanity. So we jumped through all the hoops, only to be told by ‘anti-imperialists’ that their education makes us too privileged to speak for our own people.
Accusing us of lacking anti-imperialism is laughable, but more than that, it is dripping in colonial racism. The Canary is one of few politics-focused media outlets in the UK where people of colour make up the majority of its editorial team. The people of colour who work and write at the Canary routinely risk their safety and wellbeing in confronting and demonstrating the violence of settler colonial states like the UK and the US. It is not by being ‘pro-intervention’ that they ended up on no-fly lists and Prevent’s radar.
Internationalist solidarity
We will not allow such criticism to go unchecked, because it is exactly the kind of bad-faith reading which seeks to dismiss valid critique with misinformed and baseless accusations. At best, such analysis of our coverage is purposely obtuse. At worst, it’s blatantly racist, diminishing the right of people from the Global South to tell their own stories and be an authority on their own struggles. It disregards the working class and multiply-marginalised people caught up in these struggles across the world. Instead, it originates only from the contrarian interests of people untouched by colonialism and racism.
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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Human rights groups have said law enforcement in Turkey tortured alleged looters in the wake of the devastating February earthquake. A joint report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused police and armed forces of using the state of emergency as a “license to torture”.
‘We will kill you and bury you under the rubble’
The groups interviewed 34 people in total, including 12 victims of torture. They also reviewed video of 13 cases of violence perpetrated by police against 34 individuals. Four of those cases involved Syrian refugees, and the report said the “attacks bore signs of additional xenophobic motivation”.
The report found that in the majority of cases, police didn’t take the victims into formal custody. Instead, law enforcement officers immediately beat them or made them lie or kneel down while kicking, slapping and swearing at them for prolonged periods. Only two cases led to investigations.
In one case, police arrested Turkish man Ahmet Guresci in the Altınözü district of Hatay, along with his brother Sabri. The officers tortured Ahmet, including attempting rape with police batons, before he died in hospital while in custody. Sabri claimed the officers had said:
There is a state of emergency, we will kill you… We will kill you and bury you under the rubble… We’re going to say the public lynched you.
The report said police released Sabri pending investigation. At the same time, three officers were suspended pending their investigation.
Tortured and left to die
In another particularly harrowing case study explored by the report, police tortured a group of five Kurdish men before leaving them to die.
The Kurdish group had travelled to help with search and rescue efforts on 11 February. They said police took them from the site of a collapsed building to a nearby tent, where the police then accused them of looting.
Officers beat and assaulted them numerous times, both in the tent and after taking them to a police station, before stripping them to their underwear. They then forced the group onto a minibus before dropping them off around midnight about 10km outside of the city. The temperatures were below zero at the time. Police then doused them in water before forcing them to crawl on the ground and abandoning them.
All five survived, although one was hospitalised with a serious eye injury.
Tip of the iceberg
In a response before the report was published, the Turkish justice ministry said it had “zero tolerance” for torture. However, the justice ministry also told the Amnesty and HRW that their findings were “vague claims devoid of a factual basis”. In response, the groups pointed out that the department was dismissive without responding specifically to any findings.
Amnesty and HRW said all the incidents occurred in the 10 provinces covered by the state of emergency. However, most were concentrated in Antakya city, in Hatay province. This was one of the areas worst hit by the earthquake.
Emma Sinclair-Webb, HRW associate director and Turkey director, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) the 13 cases documented by the groups represented just the “tip of the iceberg”. Meanwhile, Hugh Williamson – Europe and Central Asia director at HRW – said they were a “shocking indictment of law enforcement practices”.
Esther Major, senior research advisor for Amnesty International’s Europe office, told AFP:
We recognise the size of the catastrophe that has happened, but within that context, a state of emergency must not lead to lawlessness and impunity, to torture and other ill-treatment.
Amnesty had earlier released an annual report containing broad condemnations of Turkey’s human rights record throughout 2022. It included a case of prison guards allegedly torturing an inmate, who later died.
Featured image via Global News/YouTube
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
By Glen Black
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Last week the third largest party in the Turkish parliament, the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), announced that it would run in the elections on 14 May under the umbrella of a new party, the Green Left Party (YSP).
𝗛𝗗𝗣 𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗟𝗲𝗳𝘁 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘆
“𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳.”
https://t.co/hgUJjHSqVH— HDP Europe (@HDP_Europe) April 2, 2023
The HDP is the largest party in an alliance of left-wing political parties called the Labour and Freedom Alliance. The HDP is facing a legal case demanding its closure, so it will use the Green Left Party’s ticket. The parties in the Alliance will be working together in the upcoming elections. And they’re are not putting forward a presidential candidate.
Who are they up against?
They are up against the fascistic People’s Alliance – led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which is allied with the extreme right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), amongst others. Erdoğan – in office since 2002, and president since 2014 – is the People’s Alliance’s presidential candidate. He called a referendum in 2017, in a successful move to massively increase his presidential powers, and has been widely criticised as a dictatorial, authoritarian ruler.
Erdoğan’s biggest rival is the Nation Alliance. This is a six-party bloc which includes the Republican People’s Party (CHP). The CHP is Turkey’s second-largest electoral party. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the CHP will be the Nation Alliance’s presidential candidate.
There is every likelihood that Erdoğan could lose substantially in the elections. Turkey is in the midst of a massive recession. Additionally, many people in Turkey blame Erdoğan for not taking more steps to help those affected by this year’s earthquake. In fact, the media has linked Erdoğan and his cronies to corruption in the construction industry that compromised building safety.
What makes the Green Left Party different?
The YSP isn’t your average parliamentary party. It’s part of a movement that wants to overcome the nation-state itself. The party seeks to lay the groundwork to decentralise state power in Turkey. Further to this, they want to enable local communities to build structures of radical democracy.
The new party is just the latest electoral manifestation of the radical ideology of the Kurdish Freedom Movement. The HDP is by no means the first political party the Turkish state has criminalised, and the practice of refounding institutions under a new name to avoid repression has a long history.
The HDP is running under the YSP’s ticket out of necessity. The Turkish state has imprisoned at least 6000 HDP members since 2015. The state is trying to close down the party, in order to prevent them from being able to take part in the elections.
The HDP has been successful in local elections in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast. In response, the Turkish state has forcibly replaced the HDP’s elected mayors with state appointees, known as ‘kayyums’.
The party insists on the principle of co-leadership, and co-mayorship. This anti-patriarchal practice means that no man can hold a position of power on his own. The HDP has faced legal challenges from the Turkish state as a result of demanding co-leadership. In fact, the state has criminalised the practice of co-mayorship.
Part of a movement demanding radical democracy
Since its foundation in 2012, the HDP has played an essential part in a movement for radical democracy. The democracy they demand is much broader than the sham offered by modern-day nation-states. In Bakur (the part of Kurdistan that lies within southeast Turkey), the HDP played a key role in the Democratic Society Congress (DTK). The DTK, now criminalised by the Turkish state, linked neighbourhood and village assemblies together with women’s organisations, trade unions, and ecological alliances in a region-wide confederation.
In the west of Turkey, the movement established the People’s Democratic Congress (HDK). The HDK is currently still legal, and is part of the Labour and Freedom Alliance.
These assemblies are attempts at bringing together Turkey’s left-wing and people’s movements. They want to create a base of power that is independent of the institutions of the state. For example, the DTK established a network of co-ops in an attempt to establish a non-capitalist cooperative economy in Bakur. These co-ops, however, were soon expropriated by the state.
‘The contrasting paradigm of the oppressed’
The ideological inspiration for both the HDK and DTK is democratic confederalism. This is a paradigm of the Kurdish Freedom Movement, stemming from the prison writings of Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) co-founder Abdullah Öcalan. The Turkish state has held Öcalan in solitary confinement for over 24 years
Here’s what Öcalan had to say about nation-states:
the foundation of a state does not increase the freedom of a people.
He continued:
nation states have become serious obstacles for any social development. Democratic confederalism is the contrasting paradigm of the oppressed people. Democratic confederalism is a nonstate social paradigm. It is not controlled by a state.
And added:
democratic confederalism is the cultural organizational blueprint of a democratic nation.
Öcalan puts forward the concept of the ‘democratic nation‘ as a viable alternative to the all-encompassing power of the nation-state. In a democratic nation all the groups that make up society are guaranteed their own autonomy. They are represented within a directly democratic system.
Decentralising Turkey
The Green Left Party echoes Öcalan’s concept of establishing a democratic nation. In its inaugural declaration, YSP spokeswoman Çiğdem Kılıçgün Uçar said:
We will remove this government [and] establish the Democratic Republic
She continued:
A Democratic Republic is possible with a Democratic Nation. The Democratic Nation is the democratic expression of a society in which all ethnic, cultural and religious identities coexist equally and freely and their existence is constitutionally guaranteed.
The Green Left Party wants to decentralise Turkey, in order to enable people to make decisions at a local level.
Additionally, Uçar said that the party wants to rewrite the Turkish constitution:
We are ready to write a new democratic constitution in accordance with Turkey’s multi-identity, multi-cultural, multi-faith, multi-lingual structure, to write a constitution for all society with democratic participation and social negotiation!
Co-leader İbrahim Akın said that the YSP wants to transfer authority, so that the people can be involved in managing themselves through local assemblies. He said:
We are coming to build a strong local democracy in which the separation of powers is extended to the local level, the transfer of authority and resources to local governments is secured, and local participation mechanisms function.
We will strengthen local governments based on democracy and equal representation with the will of the people participating in management and decision-making processes through assemblies, city councils, platforms, professional organisations and democratic mass organisations.
The YSP’s statement says that the party stands in opposition to the state’s militaristic foreign policy, against male domination, and with LGBTI+ people, workers, and disabled people. It will continue the practice of co-leadership, and will act to defend nature and combat poverty. According to Uçar:
We will build a new life where ecological assets are protected against the domination of nature and gender by the male-dominated capitalist system
A brave stand against fascism
There is much that those of us who are outside Turkey can learn from the movement that the YSP is part of. It is a movement that has chosen to engage in electoral politics, but one that has never let go of its revolutionary vision, or its critique of the state.
One thing is for sure – Erdoğan and Turkey’s fascist right will fight tooth and nail against these ideas. That fight has already seen thousands of people imprisoned, and many have lost their lives too. Against this backdrop, the stand taken by the YSP is a brave one.
Please note that the quotes from İbrahim Akın and Çiğdem Kılıçgün Uçar are taken from an unofficial translation.
Featured image – HDP campaigning in London in 2018, via Philafrenzy/Wikimedia Commons (cropped to 770x403px)
By Tom Anderson
This post was originally published on Canary.
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The Military Radar and Border Security Türkiye Summit took place in Ankara between 21-22 March 2023. Several military institutions and defense companies attended the summit where HAVELSAN was the platinum sponsor. The main subject of the Summit was Border Security and how current technologies help to provide that. At the summit, HAVELSAN’s President & CEO […]
The post HAVELSAN Presented Its Holistic Solutions for Border Security at MRBS Türkiye Summit appeared first on Asian Military Review.
This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.
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Turkey will go to election on May 14, after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called a snap poll, reports Susan Price, and the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) will likely be forced to participate in the election under a different party name, due to a politically-motivated trial against it.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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Kurdish football team Amedspor will make a complaint to the Türkiye Football Federation and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) over a series of racist attacks by Turkish football supporters this week. Amedspor comes from the city of Diyarbakır (known as Amed in Kurdish), in Southeast Turkey.
On 4 March, fans of rival team Bursaspor – from the city of Bursa in Southwest Turkey – gathered outside the Kurdish team’s hotel and shouted racially motivated insults. Throughout the match between the two teams on 5 March, Busaspor fans hurled missiles, firecrackers – and even a knife – at the Amedspor players, and displayed racist banners.
Despite all this, the referees chose not to postpone the game.
Letter from Left-wing fan clubs
13 clubs representing left-wing football fans across Turkey wrote an open letter about the incident. They said:
As fans who are searched for before the match, we know very well that it is not possible to bring even a plastic bottle into the stadium, let alone explosives and injurious and dangerous substances.
They continued:
To view what happened as the incompetence of a few officials and making a statement that ‘we have punished those who did not fulfill their duties’ is to cover up the incident.
The fans pointed out that the banners were explicitly anti-Kurdish:
Similarly, the banners opened in the stands are checked by the police every week and if found ‘appropriate’, they are allowed inside. It is a fascist threat to show the banners of a white Taurus and a hitman, symbolizing the unsolved murders committed in the ’90s, and to turn a blind eye to that.
The ‘white Taurus’ (or Toros) was the Renault car that became associated with JİTEM (Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism). JİTEM used the vehicles in the 1990s to abduct and murder people.
‘Amedspor is not alone’
The Amed Bar Association made a statement in support of Amedspor. Association president Nahit Eren told a press conference:
We are aware of the message that is meant to be conveyed by the display of these symbols, which with all their darkness are embedded in the memory of Kurdish society, during a football match. These threats are meant to create an atmosphere of fear.
Nahit pointed out that, in the wake of the earthquake, Amedspor is a source of pride and inspiration in the city:
Amedspor inspires people in our city and in many parts of the country with its success and sportsmanship.
However, he said that this pride isn’t shared by the Turkish authorities:
Unfortunately, this feeling created by Amedspor is not resonating and supported by the authorities, especially in our city, and Amedspor’s already limited opportunities are being restricted, with penalties and exclusion being imposed. We cannot say that the events of the last two days are independent of this attitude of the public authorities towards Amedspor. However, everyone should know that Amedspor is not alone and that the entire institutional dynamics of our city and its supporters across the country will continue to support the team.
Not the first time
This is by no means the first time that Amedspor has borne the brunt of racist attacks. In fact, the Boycott Turkey campaign wrote in January:
Amedspor members and fans are not only targeted at home, but also by assassination attempts and attacks from far-right fans across the country. The team’s treatment by the state and the nationalist right-wing reflects the attitude towards Kurdish people and liberatory politics as a whole.
The Canary reported in January 2023 that:
One local player has received a lifetime ban from competing for expressing his political beliefs. While the Turkish military’s brutal repression against cities in Bakur was still ongoing in 2016, former Amedspor midfielder Deniz Naki received a 12-match ban for dedicating the team’s win against Bursaspor to the people who had been killed by Turkish state forces. He also had to pay a fine, and received a suspended prison sentence. He later received a lifetime ban for views he expressed on social media.
An atmosphere of intimidation
It’s clear that Amedspor is being targeted by both the Turkish state and the far-right, and that the displaying of banners alluding to the massacres of the 1990s was intended to create an atmosphere of intimidation and fear.
This attack is doubly shocking in the wake of Turkey’s devastating earthquake, which has caused disaster in Turkey’s Southeast. But what’s also clear is that Amedspor and their supporters refuse to be intimidated.
You can read more about the attacks on Amedspor here.
Campaigners are calling for a boycott of Turkey, including Turkish football. You can find out more here.
Featured image via Screenshot/247-Sports-HD4K
By Tom Anderson
This post was originally published on Canary.
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New York: New York City Mayor Eric Adams has praised New York Police Department’s (NYPD) Muslim Officers for their humanitarian efforts to help the flood-hit Pakistanis and earthquake victims in Turkey.
The Mayor said that he has witnessed the Muslim Officers Society always helping people in trouble without discrimination.
The New York Police Department’s Muslim Officers Society and the Middle East Turkish Society are continuing their relief activities to help the victims of the earthquake in Turkey.
Eric Adams inspected the packing and departure of relief supplies at the NYPD’s central warehouse.
Addressing a joint press conference on this occasion, Mayor Eric Adams said that Turkey continues to host Tunisian and Syrian refugees, and today, more or less 20 million Turkish citizens are affected by the earthquake
In these circumstances, the role of MOS is commendable.
On this occasion, the Consul General of Turkey in NYC, Reyhan Özgür, said that the spirit of Muslim officers to help their Turkish brothers and sisters has boosted our courage.
In the next few days, these relief materials will be delivered to the earthquake victims.
The second vice president of the Muslim Officers Society and the representative of the Middle East Turkish Society said that some relief materials have been sent to the earthquake victims in Turkey.
100 pallets containing various essential items are ready and will be dispatched soon.
A large number of MOS volunteers are actively participating in the packing of relief supplies.
The representatives of the Muslim Officers Society gave a briefing to the mayor about the relief activities which were appreciated by the Mayor NYC.
The post MOS is all set to dispatch tons of relief goods to earthquake victims in Turkey first appeared on VOSA.
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Court rules that her suit was wrongly thrown out and domestic courts should have shown greater rigour
The European Court of Human Rights has condemned Turkey for failing to protect the private life of a prominent Turkish actor who had been secretly filmed kissing another celebrity at her home in footage broadcast on television.
Birsen Berrak Tüzünataç, a film and soap opera star, won the marathon case at the ECHR, which ruled that Turkey had violated the European convention on human rights by dismissing her legal complaints.
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Amid the devastating earthquakes our nation has encountered, as HAVELSAN, we have been acting with the responsibility of mobilizing all of our sources strengthening search and rescue activities with our smart technologies, and standing with our people in this terrible natural disaster. Since the first day of the earthquake, HAVELSAN became part of the search […]
The post HAVELSAN’s UAVs, BAHA and POYRAZ, Become Search and Rescue Teams’ Assistants in Türkiye Quake appeared first on Asian Military Review.
This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is weaponising the triple earthquake disaster in south-eastern Turkey (north Kurdistan/Bakur) and north-eastern Syria (east Kurdistan/Rojava) against the Kurdish population by blocking and delaying emergency responses, reports Peter Boyle.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
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Canary guest writers Koçer Nurhak and Vala Francis bring us an exclusive report on the situation in Kurdish areas of Turkey after the recent earthquake.
On Monday 6 February, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the city of Pazarcık in the Maraş region of north Kurdistan, south-east Turkey. It was followed by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Elbistan, in the same region, several hours later. Hundreds of aftershocks have continued to hit the area. At the time of writing (Monday 20 February), another two earthquakes registering 6.4 and 5.8 magnitudes struck Hatay, a badly damaged southern city on the border with Syria. They brought down many of the buildings still standing after the first two earthquakes, and trapped more people underneath collapsed buildings. Together, the earthquakes have killed over 46,000 people. Tens of thousands of people are still unaccounted for. Collapsed and severely damaged buildings have displaced millions more.
People have expressed widespread condemnation of the state amid the aftermath. This is directed at its misuse of billion of dollars in earthquake relief funds, as well as not ensuring buildings meet essential regulation requirements. There is also far-reaching anger at the delayed response by state aid agency AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency). On top of this, the Justice and Development Party (AKP)-led Turkish government has arrested construction contractors as it seeks to recover a damaged reputation before elections in May.
However, the situation in Kurdish areas of Turkey is particularly dire. The Canary spoke to people on the ground in Kurdish villages in the area. One contact in the region told us that the government’s approach was not just “mismanagement” but “intentional murder on a mass scale”.
Elbistan: a history of Turkish colonial violence
When discussing the recent earthquakes, there is important historical context. Elbistan, the epicentre of the second earthquake in south-eastern Anatolia, is geographically and culturally split. On one side are Turkish Sunni Muslims, and on the other are Kurdish Alevis, who follow a Zoroastrian faith. Both the town and surrounding villages are divided between east and west. Kurdish villages are spread through flat plains and the steep Nurhak mountain across the eastern side of the district. In higher altitude areas, snow remains all year round. The hard-to-reach mountain range is a strategic ally to decades of revolutionary groups.
Decades of religious and ethnic persecution by the Turkish state have led to massive displacement of the Kurdish Alevi population. Huge numbers have fled to Europe after violent massacres. In England and Scotland, up to 70% of the Kurdish diaspora is Alevi, with many families originating from Elbistan. The systematic underdevelopment of the Alevi areas in Elbistan is stark: the tarmac disappears when driving from one Turkish village off the central highway to a Kurdish Alevi village. Unsurfaced roads connect most such villages.
The Maraş massacre
The trauma of the earthquake sits atop layers of painful history in Alevi areas. The Maraş massacre took place in 1978, and it stands in living memory as testament to the Turkish state’s genocidal policies. Far-right Islamic nationalists, including those connected to the paramilitary Grey Wolves of the MHP Party (Nationalist Movement Party), killed between 100 and 500 people. Neighbours killed their neighbours, with many victims knowing their attackers. Groups went house to house, raping and murdering Kurdish Alevi women and men with particular brutality. People cut unborn children out of their mothers and tortured the elderly.
The MHP party still rule as part of today’s coalition government, and the forced migration of Kurdish Alevi people in Elbistan and Pazarcık goes on.
Now, the state is using the earthquake as an opportunity to complete this policy. Every Kurdish Alevi person whose family is from Elbistan feels that their home is in Elbistan, even if they live on the other side of the continent. They feel like strangers elsewhere. Now, however, it’s unclear what they would return to.
A slow response from Turkey
The Canary spoke to a volunteer from another city in occupied North Kurdistan, situated within south-eastern Turkey. As voices critical of the government are met with serious retribution by the state, we have kept his details anonymous. After contacting AFAD and receiving no response, he contacted one of the Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) crisis coordination centres four days after the earthquake. They sent him to Elbistan. He told us:
Kurdish people from all over Bakûr (north Kurdistan) have come to help, as well as a group from the diaspora in Europe.
The first day we arrived, we were really affected psychologically. We thought maybe a few houses had fallen, but actually in some streets, no buildings are still standing. At least 30,000 dead bodies haven’t been recovered from beneath the rubble in Elbistan. The families who haven’t found their loved ones bodies don’t want to leave the city without them.
State organisations across the region have responded slowly. Often, they aren’t even present.
Authorities seizing earthquake aid
The Turkish military has maintained its position of war against the Kurdish people throughout the relief efforts. Military and other state forces seized trucks filled with aid, or otherwise blocked them from reaching their destinations. They didn’t deploy for search-and-rescue operations during the first 72 hours, for example, which is the most critical period for finding living victims of an earthquake.
Nonetheless, unionised workers, students, activists, and people from across society are connected to civil structures in the Kurdish regions and across Turkey. And they have worked with the HDP to advance independent relief efforts. The volunteer told the Canary:
Clothes, food, women’s hygiene products, blankets, tents – all the aid that came to Elbistan is from the HDP crisis coordination centres, which exist in every city where HDP has a strong presence. They’re collecting the donations and resources from society, here and around the world.
Even Turkish Red Moon only has a few tents in the town centre, giving soup to the people. Some of the villages are very far, there’s no tarmac roads, and there is snow – we could reach them once or twice but not return because we don’t have suitable vehicles.
However, survivors of the earthquake and volunteers face harrowing conditions.
A perilous situation in Turkey
The volunteer told the Canary of a video from Elbistan that showed a woman’s body on the side of the street, frozen and covered in snow. While many people survived the initial earthquakes, they died before rescue because of a lack of machinery and resources. However, the state is now using heavy machinery to clear away the rubble – including bodies that rescuers could not reach. “No-one knows where they are taken,” the volunteer said.
He added:
There are very strong aftershocks in the night. A couple hours ago there was a 5.5 magnitude tremor. 90% of people here are staying in tents now, but they are returning to the damaged buildings to stay warm. At night the temperature goes down to -20C. We know that if we sleep in the damaged buildings, if it collapses, then we wont be rescued for days. So when we sleep, we wear several jackets, layers of socks, and blankets to keep ourselves warm.
Cholera and scabies transmission has already started. So we are not using tap water due to the cholera. The survivors need food and medicine.
The government announced a three-month state of emergency in the ten affected regions. This was allegedly to better respond to the disaster, and also to quell unrest and ‘looting’. People from Bakûr told the Canary that the government really made this decision to enable military control of society there, as it allows the government to make decisions without proper democratic procedure. It has made similar decrees close to previous elections, from the 1980 military coup to the 2018 election.
Continuous crackdowns
Previous local and general elections saw the HDP receiving numerous positions in local and national governance. In response, the state replaced its elected officials with so-called ‘trustees’ – kayyim – and stripped many HDP MPs of parliamentary immunity. People do not elect Kayyims as officials. Therefore, normal regulations do not hold them accountable. As a result, in south-east Turkey they have expropriated millions in funding. They are also used as a tool to eradicate the democratic process in regions they oversee.
Meanwhile, policies of arbitrary detention and military intimidation constrict life in north Kurdistan and across Turkey. Even in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the state arrested left-wing and Kurdish journalists as part of its continuous crackdown on critical voices.
The volunteer told the Canary:
A big problem is that Pazarcık has had a kayyim installed on the 16 February.
Pazarcık is the central coordination point for the surrounding areas – including Elbistan. The volunteer said that the supply of food has now run dry, with:
only enough to feed volunteers remaining – there isn’t enough for all of the survivors.
They [the government] are seizing the aid that has already been accumulated by the crisis coordination and civil society structures to redistribute under their own [AKP’s] name. We don’t know who they will give it to, and we don’t trust that it will be given at the needed time, especially to Alevis. So we are hiding some vital resources, like food, in our own tents to redistribute.
The aid coming from different countries is getting AKP stickers and Erdogan’s face printed on them to give an impression that the state is organised and is helping the people. It’s a form of psychological warfare and manipulation.
HDP'nin Pazarcık'ta bulunan Koordinasyon Merkezi'ne kayyum atanmasına ilişkin HDK önünde yapılmak istenen açıklamaya polis saldırdı.
— Amed Dicle (@ameddicleT) February 16, 2023
The above tweet reads: The police attacked the statement that was intended to be made in front of the HDK (People’s Democratic Congress) office regarding the appointment of the kayyim to the HDP crisis coordination centre in Pazarcık. In the video, people are saying: (Women) “This murderous state will be held accountable. You killed our people”. (Police) “We know who killed the people. You cannot say the state is murderous. Shame on you”. (Crowd) “We resist and we win!”
Earthquake relief is bound up by political suppression
The long-term consequences of the earthquake are bound up with the political suppression of society. Survivors have barely begun reconciling their unbearable grief. Yet they already have to face the state’s occupation within Turkey, and across the fragmented borders and political terrain of northern Syria, preventing resources from reaching those that need it. This is part of the government’s bare-faced and unaccountable corruption.
Nonetheless, volunteers are persistent in their efforts. The Canary‘s contact in Elbistan told us that, soon, he would go home to rest for three days. Then he will leave again, to wherever the HDP tell him help is needed. In his place, another group from another region of Kurdistan will come to help.
Organisation is the cornerstone of society in northern Kurdistan. It has persisted throughout devastating crises, mobilising networks of aid prior to and immediately after the earthquake. But the road to rebuilding homes and infrastructure, as well as autonomy in a social and political sense, is arduous. This is just the beginning.
The volunteer told the Canary:
In the town, when the Turkish people saw that we are calling each other “heval” [‘friend/comrade’ in Kurmanci], that we came from Botan [a south-eastern region], they started calling us ‘terrorists’. But we already agreed before hand that we would continue to support people regardless of the reactions against us for being Kurdish.
Kurdish people need our solidarity
From Europe, send donations to Heyva Sor a Kurdistanê (Kurdish Red Crescent) via PayPal here. This money will reach people on the ground in the most effective way possible. Financial support to on-the-ground groups are the most immediate need. However, after that, solidarity will be necessary. Kurdistan and the peoples of Turkey and Syria will require grassroots and institutional solidarity against the Turkish state’s militarism and fascism.
Featured image via T24 – YouTube
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
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Two weeks have passed since a 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria. Latest figures estimate that 41,020 citizens have died in south-east Turkey alone. Meanwhile, according to the United Nations, 8.8 million people have been affected in Syria and more than 5,800 have been killed.
Many people remain under the rubble. This is because in president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s fascistic Turkey, this earthquake is highly political. A vast number of areas affected in the south-east of Turkey are Kurdish. And many regions have seen very little state help with rescue operations.
Turkey’s Kurdish population has been repressed since the establishment of the Turkish state in 1923. Authorities have murdered or disappeared thousands of Kurdish people over the decades. They’ve also burned down or decimated their villages and imprisoned many more thousands.
The Canary has previously reported on how critics of the Turkish government have placed responsibility for the number of earthquake deaths on Erdoğan. They have also criticised his government for both its handling of the rescue operation itself and the way it has allowed the construction of buildings that, because of their location, were susceptible to earthquakes. Since 1999, Turkey has imposed an earthquake tax on homeowners. It has pocketed billions of dollars which, seemingly, it hasn’t put to use at all.
The province of Hatay, with its majority-Arab population in a majority-Turkish country, was close to the epicentre of the earthquake. The state has neglected Hatay’s residents, too. In particular, those who live in the majority-Alevi Armutlu district said that they had been left to their own fate. On top of this, Erdoğan’s AKP government had previously revoked its decision to list six neighbourhoods of Hatay’s İskenderun district as ‘disaster risk areas‘. It had listed them in 2013, but removed them again in early 2022.
Turkey: government ends rescue operations
On Sunday 19 February, Turkey announced that rescue efforts had ended in all but two provinces: Kahramanmaras and Hatay. Agence France Presse (AFP) reported that in Antakya, authorities had banned people from entering their homes since the earthquake struck. They’re now telling residents to empty their houses before the buildings are demolished. But people are calling for their loved ones’ bodies to be recovered first.
In the city of Adıyaman alone, more than 200 buildings have collapsed and 11,000 people have lost their lives. JINHA women’s news agency reported that due to late search and rescue efforts, dead people – who could potentially have been found alive – are being brought out from the rubble. JINHA said:
Some buildings have been largely destroyed by the earthquakes; however, no measures have been taken for these buildings and they may collapse at any moment. These buildings pose a threat to the people living in the city. In order to prevent more people from dying, urgent measures must be taken for these buildings.
Meanwhile, in the city of Elbistan, citizens said that the state has largely forgotten them. It left survivors homeless, in freezing conditions, with no electricity or drinking water. A JINHA journalist interviewed a woman in the town:
The woman told us that no rescue team came to their district and many people froze to death under debris. “Our building also collapsed but no one was in it… Aids arrived here very late. No rescue team has come here. I lost 30 relatives. If rescue teams came earlier, many people would be alive now. What we experienced was a cataclysm.”
Residents said what gave them hope was the solidarity they experienced from people outside the area, who travelled from other regions to help them with rescue operations.
Blocking Twitter and arresting social media users
Immediately after the earthquake, Turkey blocked Twitter, which was essential to both survivors trapped under the rubble and those involved in the rescue operation. A government official said at the time:
This had to be done because in some accounts there were untrue claims, slander, insults and posts with fraudulent purposes.
But in Erdoğan’s Turkey, those who criticise the president, his AKP government, or its policies, can – and usually will – be investigated and arrested. This is particularly true if you happen to be Kurdish. The Canary has previously reported that:
Everyone is charged with “membership of a terrorist organisation”. But these are not terrorists. These are lawyers, journalists, MPs, co-op members, and human rights activists. Their crime is being Kurdish and supporting radical democracy in the face of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s fascistic regime.
Turkey is also known as the world’s largest prison for journalists. So it’s unsurprising that while people are still under the rubble, the Turkish state is busy arresting even more people – this time for spreading supposed disinformation on social media. On 20 February, Turkey’s General Directorate of Security announced that it was investigating hundreds of people and had made a number of arrests. JINHA reported:
The General Directorate of Security said in the statement that it had identified 775 people accused of making provocative posts, and legal proceedings had been initiated against 441, “The chief prosecutor had ordered the arrest of 24 of the 129 detained people.”
Controversial earthquake aid
It’s also unsurprising that the US has used the opportunity to announce that it is giving a new $100m aid package to Turkey, its NATO ally. US secretary of state Antony Blinken is currently on a visit to Turkey. He is expected to talk about military deals – namely, the fact that fascistic Turkey wants to buy F16 fighter jets off the US.
But to those directly affected on the ground in Turkey and in Syria, it’s blatantly clear that money being donated for earthquake relief isn’t reaching them. The Canary recently reported on how areas of Syria aren’t getting aid. In Afrin, which is occupied by Turkey, the situation is especially dire. The Canary‘s Tom Anderson wrote:
The catastrophic impacts of the earthquake for people in Afrin will certainly be made worse by the effects of the five year long occupation of the region by the Turkish state backed Syrian National Army (SNA).
Meanwhile, Fikret Ebdelo, an official in Shahba canton in Aleppo, has stated that:
In Afrin, many people have been in rubble for more than a week and no humanitarian aid is allowed to be sent to the city. The Turkish state did not allow people to send humanitarian aid to the earthquake victims. It rejected the humanitarian aid sent by the Autonomous Administration [of Rojava] and did not allow the people to receive this humanitarian aid on time.
Ebdelo went on to say that the Syrian government has also blocked aid to the Shahba region. The area hosts thousands of people who have been displaced from Afrin due to the Turkish occupation. She said:
Shahba is also badly affected by the earthquake; many people have lost their lives and many houses have collapsed. Sovereign states always develop their policies according to their own interests. Since the first day of the earthquake, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria [Rojava] has been sending humanitarian aid and relief supplies to the Shahba canton affected by the earthquake; however, the Syrian government has been blocking the transfer of this aid.
Make your donations to Turkey and Syria count
Erdoğan will, no doubt, be using the earthquake to convince his country that he’s capable of uniting his nation. He will also use the disaster to improve his strained relations with his NATO allies. But for citizens who have been displaced, or whose loved ones have perished under buildings, this event is yet another example of just how dangerous Erdoğan and his government really are.
Of course, money is still desperately needed to help with the rescue operations in the region. Comrades are asking that you think carefully before donating to those mainstream organisations that are appealing for your cash. Instead, they ask you to donate to Heyva Sor – the Kurdish Red Crescent – which has spent years on the frontline of the Syrian civil war. You can donate here.
Featured image via JINHA women’s news agency
By Eliza Egret
This post was originally published on Canary.
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On Monday, February 6, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Türkiye and northwest Syria in the early hours of the morning. It was followed by another 7.5 magnitude earthquake hours later, as well as over a hundred aftershocks in the days that followed. It is the deadliest and most powerful earthquake to hit Türkiye since 1939, and to hit Syria in more than 800 years, and the death toll is…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
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The victims of the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Turkey and Syria need your help now. The surviving families and children and those rescued alive from the rubble are in serious danger in affected wintertime impoverished regions. Refugees in other places fleeing their war-torn homelands are also suffering. International aid agencies are grossly insufficient for these immediate humanitarian necessities.
What are you Big Business Titans doing sitting on massive pay, profits, and tax escapes? Awakening your consciousness for your fellow human beings may be a modest form of redemption. Further, you have access to logistics specialists, delivery systems, communication facilities, and many other contacts and resources. You get your calls returned! Fast!
Tim Cook, you have been making $833 a MINUTE (plus lavish benefits). Remarkably, your compensation is not even in the top ten of operating company CEOs. Moreover, your own cultivated sense of envy knows that there are Hedge Fund Goliaths, who in some recent years, made off with over $2,500 per MINUTE on a forty-hour week.
Tim, you and the Apple corporation are known to pay few taxes given what tax attorneys and tax accountants do for you (especially with Apple taking advantage of foreign tax havens while receiving the fruits of Washington’s free government R&D over the years). Your company has so much leftover money, flowing from the deprivation of a million serf laborers in China, and so few productive outlets for this mass of capital that you have set records for stock buybacks—over $400 billion in the last decade.
You and Apple and the Hedge Fund Titans are not known for your charitable giving as a percent of your adjusted gross income. Yet, if asked “Do you believe in the Golden Rule?” you would probably say “Yes”—at least in public.
Use your wealth and newfound empathy to organize direct relief for these earthquake victims and other major refugee areas such as the starving children of Somalia. Deliver food, medicine, clothing, shelter, mobile clinics, and many other available airlifted essentials. Hire skilled people to make it happen. Give your new organization a prominent logo for permanence and for setting an example for other super-rich to emulate.
Your isolation from the public expectation that you enter the above engagements in a significant way is quite remarkable. That should trouble you and your public relations advisors.
Just this week National Public Radio (NPR) featured a startling compilation of what producers of movies and TV shows believe appeals to their viewers. It is no longer awe or envy of the ‘rich and famous.’ It is no longer the Horatio Alger myth. It is encapsulated in NPR‘s headline: Why “eat the rich” storylines are taking over TV and movies.
As Bob Dylan sang, “the times, they are a-changin’.”
NPR reporter Kristin Schwab related:
Hollywood’s depictions of the wealthy—and perhaps societal attitudes toward them—have changed.… The moment isn’t random. Think about the extreme economic events we’ve been through. There’s the pandemic, when essential workers kept the country running while the richest 1% amassed a huge sum of wealth—twice as much as the rest of the world put together (her emphasis), according to the non-profit Oxfam. And before that was The Great Recession, which is how we got the term “the 1%.”
Mr. Cook, Apple is reportedly making a contribution to the Turkey/Syria relief effort. Are you personally making a contribution? Your Big Business Titan comrades may think they can get away with gated, cold-blooded mentalities. They may be right about that if the mass media doesn’t turn its steely gaze toward their hoards of gold and question their “don’t give a damn” attitude.
Maybe they just can’t help themselves—so busy are they counting their lucre. Here is an idea: ask them to ask their grandchildren, 12 and under, what they want them to do. Absorb their moral authority and MOVE FAST TO HELP THOSE IN NEED!
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
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Around a dozen Kurdish people launched a protest on Wednesday inside the European Parliament. 15 February is the anniversary of Turkey’s capture of Kurdistan Worker’s Party co-founder Abdullah .
Protesters halted the debate session for three hours. Members of the European Parliaments (MEPs) left the chamber as banners were unfurled bearing ‘s image, and demonstrators shouted slogans critical of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
One MEP told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the protesters were on an upper deck above the Strasbourg chamber, some sitting on a balustrade and dangling their legs above the parliament’s floor.
International solidarity
Demonstrations for the Freedom of were in held in Rojava in northeast Syria and in Kirkuk in Iraqi Kurdistan. Protests were also held all over Europe, including in Rome, Geneva, Lausanne, Paris and Greece.
A freedom for conference was held in London, at the House of Lords. Over 120 people also took part in an annual long march for his freedom. This year marchers walked from Switzerland to France.
Six Basque trade unions released a manifesto demanding release. They underlined his vital role in peace negotiations:
The current Turkish government run by Erdoğan held negotiations with Öcalan for two and a half years, during which the Kurdish leader proposed a gradual plan to achieve peace, from confidence-building measures, through a disarmament process under international surveillance, to a permanent political solution to the Kurdish question. Although the negotiations broke down in 2011, Öcalan’s proposals, included in his “Road Map”, continue to be of the utmost importance to address and seek a negotiated solution to the so-called ‘Kurdish question’
The statement continued:
The demand for Öcalan’s freedom is vital to break the military logic of the conflict and thus divert attention towards peaceful negotiations and towards a democratic resolution of the Kurdish conflict
24 years of imprisonment
Ocalan was arrested in Kenya by Turkish agents on February 15, 1999 and sentenced to death in June of the same year. Now 73, his sentence was reduced to life in prison in 2002 and supporters continue to demand his release. His capture involved collaboration between the Turkish state and several other states. The Kurdistan Freedom Movement calls it the international ‘conspiracy’.
According to the International Initiative “Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan—Peace in Kurdistan!”:
On 15 February 1999, a new phase in the war against the Kurds and other communities raised its head with the NATO-led abduction of Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan from Nairobi, Kenya. A series of actors in Europe and in the Middle East as well as the US were behind this operation.
The statement continued:
The US and Europe, who led this operation against the Kurdish people’s leader, continue to legitimize the colonization and occupation of Kurdistan and condemn any resistance to it as terrorism, and are the ones that brewed this genocidal fascist regime. This is because the Turkish state paves the path for them to further ecocide, genocide, capitalism and colonialism in the region. The indigenous peoples’ existence is a resistance to these.
Ideas that ‘inspired millions of people to fight’
is currently imprisoned on the island of has written at least 12 books in prison. His ideas inspired the Rojava revolution, ongoing in northeast Syria since 2012
Internationalists released a video statement to commemorate the anniversary. The international volunteers had joined the revolutionary struggle in Rojava.
The life and philosophy of Abdullah Öcalan inspired millions of people to fight for democracy, ecology and women’s liberation. As Internationalists, we came to join the Rojava Revolution because we found inspiration within the revolution that is based on Öcalans philosophy. As internationalist members of YPG/YPJ [peoples’ protection units], we condemn the conspiracy. But however they try to attack our longing for freedom, they will never be able to take what we found here: hope.
Abdullah Öcalan’s ideas continue to ignite hopes for revolution and freedom, despite nearly two and a half decades in prison. His supporters see his liberation as essential for bringing an end to Turkish fascism, and achieving peace in Kurdistan.
You can find out more about the UK Freedom for Öcalan campaign by clicking here.
Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse
Featured image via Screenshot/ANF Firat
By Tom Anderson
This post was originally published on Canary.
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Rescue teams have begun winding down the search for survivors as the focus switched to tackling a dire humanitarian disaster caused by the earthquake that has left more than 40,000 people dead in Turkey and Syria.
Syria, already wracked by 12 years of civil war, is of particular concern. The United Nations (UN) held an emergency meeting on Monday 13 February on how to boost aid to rebel-held areas. Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, isolated and subject to Western sanctions, called for international assistance to help rebuild infrastructure in the country. The UN estimates that more than five million people have been made homeless.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Assad has agreed to open two more border crossings for aid. One is in Bab Al-Salam and another in Al Raee, both between Türkey to northwest Syria. More than four million people live in these rebel-controlled areas of northwestern Syria. But before the earthquake struck, almost all of the crucial humanitarian aid for the region was delivered through a single conduit – the Bab al-Hawa crossing. Guterres said:
Opening these crossing points – along with facilitating humanitarian access, accelerating visa approvals and easing travel between hubs – will allow more aid to go in, faster.
Are sanctions to blame?
However, the situation is very complex. The United States and the UK have led the way in sanctioning Syria after concerns that the state was a “sponsor of terrorism”. But sanctions aren’t the only barrier to aid being delivered to survivors.
In the face of a steadily rising death toll, both the US and UK have announced a temporary easing of sanctions. While these exemptions may ease the pressure, as the Guardian reported:
analysts say the demands of the Assad government and the effects of the war are the main factors complicating aid deliveries into the already tense north-west, and the US move is more about reassuring banks and other institutions that they will not be punished for rendering assistance.
Assad’s government has demanded that it be able to control aid coming into the country. When asked if Syria would let the UN deliver aid from crossing points not accessed via Turkey, Syrian ambassador to the UN Bassam Sabbagh avoided answering directly. Instead, he said that the government would aid deliveries:
to all Syrians in all territory of Syria.
The director of the Middle East Institute’s Syria programme pointed a finger at Assad’s government. Charles Lister said Assad’s insistence on controlling deliveries across Syria hampered aid efforts, and this insistence:
appears to have virtually crippled the United Nations’ willingness, not ability, but willingness to essentially act forthright and in a bold way, and just provide earthquake recovery anyway, across the border.
Lister contended that whilst sanctions may impact aid entering the borders of Syria, the distribution of aid within Syria is a broader issue:
Sanctions is a complete side point, virtually irrelevant in terms of the flow of humanitarian assistance.
Desperation for aid grows
Of course, anger has grown over the sluggish international response to aid. Sanctions are still likely to be an ongoing problem for aid routes, as Declassified explained:
Last November the UN called on states to lift "catastrophic" sanctions on #Syria which are "perpetuating and exacerbating the destruction and trauma suffered by the Syrian people since 2011".Yesterday, the UK government confirmed its sanctions will remain in place. pic.twitter.com/i44fNmScH4
— Declassified UK (@declassifiedUK) February 16, 2023
Al-Jazeera showed how “anger and desperation” is growing, particularly in northern Syria:
“People are dying without any aid.”
Anger and desperation grows in rebel-held areas of Syria with the slow arrival of aid after earthquakes devastated the region
pic.twitter.com/nzZwi88kt7— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) February 15, 2023
Abdelmajid Al Shawi, an earthquake survivor, said:
We want our voice to reach the whole world but where is the aid?…Find us a solution. Where is this aid coming from? Let’s see. Aid is never going to come here.
Raed Saleh, head of the White Helmets Rescue Force, said:
It has never happened before that there was an earthquake and the international community and the UN don’t help – this has never happened before anywhere in the world. The United Nations failed drastically, this shouldn’t have happened this way. There must be an investigation into these shortcomings.
And Clare Daly, member of the European Parliament, warned that many thousands more may die in the aftermath of the earthquake:
The people of Syria were abandoned before the earthquake ever hit,its economy and reconstruction battered by Western sanctions. The UN Syria humanitarian programme last year was only 47% funded. Aid agencies are screaming for sanctions to be lifted, or thousands more may die. https://t.co/IEwYXHjb0y pic.twitter.com/Wpe6DwNNQK
— Clare Daly (@ClareDalyMEP) February 15, 2023
Meanwhile, Byline Times journalist Richard Medhurst pointed out that of the few countries sending aid to Syria, many of them were themselves under sanctions:
Iran— itself under sanctions— one of the first to send aid to Syria.
Iraq, Tunisia, Algeria, Russia, all developing countries or under sanctions, yet still sending help. That really says it all.— Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) February 7, 2023
International obligations
UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths was to give a presentation to the UN Security Council on the situation in Syria after visiting the region over the weekend. He said on Twitter:
We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria.
They rightly feel abandoned.
He added that it was the international community’s obligation “to correct this failure as fast as we can.”
The people of Syria have been forced to contend with the effects of civil war for many years. Aid’s entanglement with diplomacy has compounded the earthquake’s devastation, leading to international reticence. As Noor Noman, a journalist for MSNBC, said:
There is no doubt that Assad has committed egregious human rights’ violations, but the story is never that simple. We are being myopic and simplistic if we convince ourselves that we can reduce what’s happening in Syria to a hero-villain or righteous-immoral narrative (and there is the question of the extent to which America has moral high ground to stand on).
We must avoid the urge to cast heroes and villains. Such binary narratives forget the people of Syria, who must not be abandoned. Noman continued:
Sanctions are not resulting in the atomization of the Assad regime, they are only hurting and killing ordinary civilians. The only humane response the West can offer right now is to do everything in its power to allow, support and enable the flow of resources to the Syrian people.
Time is of the essence, and we must all do what we can to urge efficient and swift aid directly to people in Syria. Otherwise, this tragedy could yet become another example of the lack of international support and solidarity for communities in the Global South.
Featured image via YouTube screenshot/BBC News
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
