ANKARA: Turkish Premier Binali Yildirim warned on Monday that Turkey could scrap its 2013 refugee deal with the EU if Syrian Kurdish militias are allowed to participate in Syria peace talks.
Speaking after a meeting with his British counterpart Theresa May in London, Yildirim’s comments came one day before the start of the sixth round of United Nations-sponsored talks in Geneva to find a political solution to the Syrian conflict.
Ankara is firmly opposed to the presence of the Syrian Kurdish groups the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG) at the negotiation table as it considers them closely linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terror group which has been waging a bloody insurgency in Turkey for more than three decades.
Turkey currently hosts about 3.5 million refugees from neighboring Syria — the most of any country worldwide — and takes strict measures to prevent refugees from heading to Europe illegally through Turkish territory.
In return, the EU promised to grant Turkish nationals visa-free travel throughout the union, and offered a 6-billion-Euro aid package for refugees staying in Turkey. As of November 2017, the EU has initiated 55 projects with a total worth of over 1.78 billion Euros, of which 908 million have been distributed.
Yildirim denounced the 2013 deal as a “big lie,” saying the EU failed to keep its promise to grant visa-free travel to Turks and posited a hypothetical situation should Turkey renege on its part of the deal to prevent the refugees’ transit to Europe.
“We neutralized thousands of Daesh fighters and we are currently welcoming 3.5 million refugees in Turkey,” he said. “What happens if we tell them: ‘Here’s Europe, off you go.’ Can you imagine what would happen? Of course ... it is not something we will do,” he added.
It is not the first time that Turkey has threatened to scrap the refugee deal. During a diplomatic crisis when tensions ran high with Germany and Netherlands, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned that Turkey might cancel the migrant deal.
Ayselin Yildiz, UNESCO Chair on International Migration at Izmir’s Yasar University, believes migration issues should not be used as political bargaining chips.
“The main problem is about issues of border management, the readmission agreement, financial assistance, the fight against terrorism, and visa liberalization, which are all intermingled and set as a single package,” Yildiz told Arab News. “This type of conditionality blocks channels of further possible cooperation.”
However, Yildiz said that the current refugee deal — which she stressed was unethical and not in line with international law — may not have been as successful as Yildirim suggested in decreasing the crossings from Turkey to Europe. Instead, she claimed, it had simply forced refugees to take bigger risks to reach the EU.
“Our latest reports on the decision-making processes of migrants show that, after this deal, routes were diverted, modes of transport changed and — more crucially — stranded migrants and refugees were left in the hands of smugglers and human traffickers,” she said.
Aylin Noi, senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University SAIS — Center for Transatlantic Relations, said Ankara has repeatedly voiced its concerns about the inclusion of the PYD in negotiations about Syria’s post-Daesh reconstruction.
“Ankara argues that the presence of Kurdish separatists at the negotiation table goes against its priority of preserving Syrian territorial integrity, and that it could trigger a domino effect in the region,” Noi told Arab News.
“Following Ankara’s diplomatic maneuvers, Russia postponed the Syrian National Dialogue Congress until February 2018 because of disagreements over the participation of Syrian Kurds. Time will tell how Europe (stands) on this issue, and that will inevitably shape the implementation of EU-Turkey refugee deal in the near future,” she added.
The European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos told Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News on Monday that “the EU is committed to fulfilling all elements of the EU-Turkey migration deal,” including visa-free European travel for Turkish citizens.
According to the European Commission, the number of refugee deaths in the Aegean Sea has declined considerably in recent years, and irregular arrivals through Turkey have decreased by 97 percent since the implementation of the deal.
“At this point in time, all parties must avoid anything that could undermine our cooperation and focus on mutual interests,” the commissioner added.
Turkey threatens to scrap refugee deal over Kurdish role in Syria peace talks
Turkey threatens to scrap refugee deal over Kurdish role in Syria peace talks
Yemen Houthis claim missile attack on Tel Aviv airport: statement
A Houthi statement said they also launched drones at Tel Aviv and a ship in the Arabian Sea, stating that Israeli “aggression will only increase the determination and resolve of the great Yemeni people to continue supporting the Palestinian people.”
UN chief condemns ‘escalation’ between Yemen’s Houthis and Israel
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls Israeli strikes on Sanaa airport ‘especially alarming’
NEW YORK: The UN chief on Thursday denounced the “escalation” in hostilities between Yemen’s Houthi militias and Israel, terming strikes on the Sanaa airport “especially alarming.”
“The Secretary-General condemns the escalation between Yemen and Israel. Israeli airstrikes today on Sana’a International Airport, the Red Sea ports and power stations in Yemen are especially alarming,” said a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement.
Israeli air strikes pummeled Sanaa’s international airport and other targets in Yemen on Thursday, with Houthi militia media reporting six deaths.
The attack came a day after the Houthis fired a missile and two drones at Israel.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media he was at the airport during the strike, with the UN saying that a member of its air crew was injured.
The United Nations put the death toll from the airport strikes at three, with “dozens more injured.”
UN chief Guterres expressed particular alarm at the threat that bombing transportation infrastructure posed to humanitarian aid operations in Yemen, where 80 percent of the population is dependent on aid.
“The Secretary-General remains deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation in the region and reiterates his call for all parties concerned to cease all military actions and exercise utmost restraint,” he said.
“He also warns that airstrikes on Red Sea ports and Sana’a airport pose grave risks to humanitarian operations at a time when millions of people are in need of life-saving assistance.”
The UN chief condemned the Houthi militias for “a year of escalatory actions... in the Red Sea and the region that threaten civilians, regional stability and freedom of maritime navigation.”
The Houthis are part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” alliance against Israel.
Bodies of about 100 Kurdish women, children found in Iraq mass grave
TAL AL-SHAIKHIA, Iraq: Iraqi authorities are working to exhume the remains of around 100 Kurdish women and children thought to have been killed in the 1980s under former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein, three officials said.
The grave was discovered in Tal Al-Shaikhia in the Muthanna province in southern Iraq, about 15-20 kilometers (10-12 miles) from the main road there, an AFP journalist said.
Specialized teams began exhuming the grave earlier this month after it was initially discovered in 2019, said Diaa Karim, the head of the Iraqi authority for mass graves, adding that it is the second such grave to be uncovered at the site.
“After removing the first layer of soil and the remains appearing clearly, it was discovered that they all belonged to women and children dressed in Kurdish springtime clothes,” Karim told AFP on Wednesday.
He added that they likely came from Kalar in the northern Sulaimaniyah province, part of what is now Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, estimating that there were “no less than 100” people buried in the grave.
Efforts to exhume all the bodies are ongoing, he said, adding that the numbers could change.
Following Iraq’s deadly war with Iran in the 1980s, Saddam’s government carried out the ruthless “Anfal Operation” between 1987 and 1988 in which it is thought to have killed around 180,000 Kurds.
Saddam was toppled in 2003 following a US-led invasion of Iraq and was hanged three years later, putting an end to Iraqi proceedings against him on charges of genocide over the Anfal campaign.
Karim said a large number of the victims found in the grave “were executed here with live shots to the head fired at short range.”
He suggested some of them may have been “buried alive” as there was no evidence of bullets in their remains.
Ahmed Qusai, the head of the excavation team for mass graves in Iraq, meanwhile pointed to “difficulties we are facing at this grave because the remains have become entangled as some of the mothers were holding their infants” when they were killed.
Durgham Kamel, part of the authority for exhuming mass graves, said another mass grave was found at the same time that they began exhuming the one at Tal Al-Shaikhia.
He said the burial site was located near the notorious Nugrat Al-Salman prison where Saddam’s authorities held dissidents.
The Iraqi government estimates that about 1.3 million people disappeared between 1980 and 1990 as a result of atrocities and other rights violations committed under Saddam.
Brother of suspected ‘terrorist’ stabs Tunisia National Guard officer
TUNIS: The brother of a suspected “terrorist” on Thursday stabbed a Tunisian National Guard officer in the eastern Monastir governorate, a judicial source told AFP.
Earlier in the day, a National Guard unit attempted to arrest the suspect — accused by authorities of being a member of a “terrorist group” — at his home, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
During the arrest operation, his brother attacked the officer, the source added.
The source said the officer was hospitalized following the stabbing in his abdomen and was recovering after undergoing surgery.
An investigation was opened by the judicial division combatting terrorism, the source added.
Neither of the brothers, both of whom were taken into police custody, have been named, and the Tunisian interior ministry did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Tunisia saw a surge in jihadist groups after the 2011 revolution that overthrew the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Attacks claimed by jihadists in recent years have killed dozens of soldiers and police officers, as well as some civilians and foreign tourists.
Jihadist attacks in Sousse and the capital Tunis in 2015 killed dozens of tourists and police, but authorities say they have since made significant progress against extremism.
Palestinian hospital director says Israeli strike kills 5 staff in Gaza
- WHO has described conditions at Kamal Adwan hospital as “appalling” and said it was operating at a “minimum” level
GAZA STRIP: Five staff at one of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospitals were killed by an Israeli strike on Thursday, the facility’s director said, more than two months into an Israeli operation in the area.
Hossam Abu Safiya, head of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia, said “an Israeli strike resulted in five martyrs among the hospital staff.” The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel has been pressing a major offensive in northern Gaza since October 6, saying it aims to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.
At the other end of the Palestinian territory, the chief paediatric doctor at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis said three babies had died from a “severe temperature drop” this week as winter cold sets in.
Doctor Ahmed Al-Farra said the most recent case was a three-week-old girl who was “brought to the emergency room with a severe temperature drop, which led to her death.”
A three-day-old baby and another “less than a month old” died on Tuesday, he said.
Meanwhile, in central Gaza, a Palestinian TV channel affiliated with a militant group said five of its journalists were killed on Thursday in an Israeli strike on their vehicle in Gaza, with Israel’s military saying it had targeted a “terrorist cell.”
Witnesses said a missile struck the van while it was parked outside Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat.
The three-week-old girl, Sila Al-Faseeh, was living in a tent in Al-Mawasi, an area designated a humanitarian safe zone by the Israeli military that is home to huge numbers of displaced Palestinians.
“The tents do not protect from the cold, and it gets very cold at night, with no way to keep warm,” said Farra.
He said many mothers were suffering from malnutrition which affected the quality of their breast milk and compounded the risks to newborns.
Sila’s father Mahmoud Al-Faseeh said it was “extremely cold, and the tent is not suitable for living. The children are always sick.”
The United Nations and other organizations have repeatedly decried the worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza, particularly in the north, since Israel began its latest military offensive in early October.
The World Health Organization has described conditions at Kamal Adwan hospital as “appalling” and said it was operating at a “minimum” level.
Earlier on Thursday, Gaza’s civil defense agency said that five other people had been killed by Israeli strikes during the day in the north of Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said a 35-year-old soldier was killed in the central Gaza Strip. It brings to 390 the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of ground operations in the Palestinian territory.
The journalists’ employer Al-Quds Today said in a statement that a missile hit their broadcast van while it was parked in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
The channel is affiliated with Islamic Jihad, whose militants have fought alongside Hamas in the Gaza Strip and took part in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war.
The station identified the five staffers as Faisal Abu Al-Qumsan, Ayman Al-Jadi, Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Khalil, Fadi Hassouna and Mohammed Al-Ladaa.
They were killed “while performing their journalistic and humanitarian duty,” the statement said.
The Israeli military said it had conducted a “precise strike” and that those killed “were Islamic Jihad operatives posing as journalists.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists’ Middle East arm said in a statement it was “devastated by the reports.”
“Journalists are civilians and must always be protected,” it added.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said last week that more than 190 journalists had been killed and at least 400 injured since the start of the war in Gaza.
The war was triggered by the Hamas-led October 7 attack last year, which resulted in 1,208 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,399 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
