ISTANBUL: Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia on Friday hosted its first Islamic prayers in 85 years, despite fierce criticism of the Turkish government’s campaign to revert the building to a mosque after being a museum for decades.
For President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the much-publicized congregational worship represented the “conquest” of the 1,500 year-old domed monument.
Curtains hide Christian mosaics and symbols at prayer times. The head of the Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs, Ali Erbas, gave the Friday sermon with an Ottoman sword in hand. He read verses about conquest from the Qur’an and gave a stirring, almost provocative speech about “the ones” who turned the Hagia Sophia into a museum being “damned,” an indirect reference perhaps to the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Supporters of the conversion campaign saw its successful outcome as a source of national and religious pride, while opponents were concerned about keeping modern Turkey’s secular legacy intact.
The monument is on the UNESCO World Heritage list and last year attracted 3.7 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations in the country.
UNESCO as well as authorities in Washington, Moscow, Brussels and Athens expressed their concerns about Turkey’s unilateral actions.
Berk Esen, a political analyst from Ankara’s Bilkent University, said that although there had been strong objections in some quarters to the conversion, the international response had mostly been mute.
“Obviously, the decision is generally unpopular abroad but few governments took strong notice amid the continuing pandemic,” he told Arab News. “Nonetheless, converting the Hagia Sophia’s status to a mosque will be seen by many international observers as yet another move by the Erdogan government to destroy Turkey’s secular regime and its links to the West.”
There were protests in Greece on Friday against Turkey’s decision and, according to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, what happened at the Hagia Sophia was “not an indication of power” but a “sign of weakness.” Athens said that the latest move would burn bridges between Turkey and the West.
Esen added that Erdogan appeared to have failed to generate sympathy and support in the Muslim world.
“On Erdogan’s part, this decision was taken straight out of the populist playbook of changing the public debate and energizing one’s voter base by exploiting a cultural significant issue.”
He regarded it as a “desperate attempt” to reassert control over the public debate and cater to the Islamist base.
“When coupled with the opposition’s decision to not challenge the Hagia Sophia move, Erdogan is left with few opportunities to exploit this issue to mobilize his base and polarize public opinion,” he added. “The government’s decision does not resolve any of the major problems facing Turkey in the coming months and may turn into a Pyrrhic victory for Erdogan, who finds himself more removed from the swing and undecided voters.”
According to Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, the Ankara office director of German Marshall Fund of the United States, Erdogan’s push to turn the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque and start hosting prayers had two main goals.
“Erdogan’s first goal was leaving a strong legacy as the leader who re-Islamized Hagia Sophia which he would be remembered by right-wing conservatives for generations to come,” he told Arab News. “I believe that he has reached this goal.”
His second goal was to trigger a culture war which he could not lose and the opposition could not win.
“However, the opposition rejected being lured into such a controversy, denying Erdogan his culture war. The international impact of the decision will be limited as Turkey’s image in the West is already very negative and there is not much room for worsening,” he added.
EU-Turkey relations are already strained by Ankara’s energy exploration in disputed East Mediterranean waters. The issue of the Hagia Sophia has added to the caseload, showing Turkey’s defiance on contentious issues preoccupying the international community.
During the past few weeks, the EU’s top diplomats urged Ankara to hold off on the conversion project, but Turkey insisted it was a national sovereignty issue.
Turkey ‘re-conquers’ Hagia Sophia amid international disapproval
https://arab.news/nhhxt
Turkey ‘re-conquers’ Hagia Sophia amid international disapproval
- The monument is on the UNESCO World Heritage list and last year attracted 3.7 million visitors
- Curtains hide Christian mosaics and symbols at prayer times
West Bank livestock theft symbol of tensions and settler ‘impunity’
- Throughout the Gaza war, violence in the West Bank — a separate Palestinian territory — has soared, as have calls to annex it, most notably from Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich
JERICHO, Palestinian Territories: A community of Palestinian Bedouins has decried a major theft of their livestock in the occupied West Bank, where the UN says violence from Israeli settlers is taking place in a climate of impunity.
On March 7, dozens of Israeli settlers, some of them armed, attacked Palestinian residents in Ras Ein al Auja while under the protection of Israeli forces, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Resident Haitham Suleiman Zayed described how around 40 vehicles arrived in the pastoral area in the Jordan Valley, accompanied by “army forces and armored Israeli vehicles.” More than 1,500 livestock were stolen, he said.
“We tried to confront them by throwing stones at them to make them move away from this enclosure, but we could not do that,” Zayed, 25, told AFP, adding that Israeli forces had intervened to protect the thieves, whom he referred to as settlers.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military referred to a police statement issued the day after the incident.
The statement said police had intervened after receiving a report regarding the theft of 50 sheep from Zohar’s farm — a settler outpost run by Zohar Sabah, an Israeli targeted in November by United States sanctions against settlers involved in acts of violence.
The sanctions introduced by the administration of former president Joe Biden were canceled by President Donald Trump on his return to power.
“Police and (Israeli) forces began searching for the flock and arrived at a Bedouin encampment near the Palestinian village of Auja, where they located the (settler’s) stolen flock,” the Israeli police statement said.
“The Palestinian suspect was arrested and taken for interrogation, where he admitted to the act,” it added.
OCHA said that according to eyewitnesses, “settlers physically assaulted and injured a Palestinian man, stole approximately 1,400 livestock, killed 12 goats, and damaged at least three houses and several solar panels.”
The Palestinian man injured during the confrontation was “restrained by Israeli police while settlers beat him,” the UN office added.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is home to nearly three million Palestinians and around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.
“The transfer by Israel of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies amounts to a war crime,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Israel must immediately and completely cease all settlement activities and evacuate all settlers, stop the forcible transfer of the Palestinian population, and prevent and punish attacks by its security forces and settlers,” he added.
His comments came as his office released a new report on the situation in the West Bank between October 2023 and last November.
“The line between settler and state violence (has) blurred to a vanishing point, further enabling an increase in violence and impunity,” the report said.
OCHA said that Israeli settlers in February bulldozed an area of Ras Ein al Auja to build a road connecting two settlement outposts.
“From Masafer Yatta in the south to the northern Jordan Valley in the north, there is not a single square meter safe from settler attacks,” said Zayed.
“The main goal is to displace people,” he added.
Throughout the Gaza war, violence in the West Bank — a separate Palestinian territory — has soared, as have calls to annex it, most notably from Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Since early last year, the territory has seen a string of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets, as well as violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities.
Since the start of the war in October 2023, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 911 Palestinians, including many militants, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Palestinian attacks and clashes during military raids have killed at least 32 Israelis over the same period, according to official figures.
Will the deal between Damascus and Syria’s Kurds help achieve national reconciliation?
- In a step toward national unity, the Syrian interim government and Kurdish-led SDF signed a landmark integration deal on March 10
- Outbreak of violence against Alawites has raised concerns among Kurds about Syrian militias’ commitment to minority rights
LONDON: In a bid to unify the Syrian Arab Republic, the interim government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces signed a landmark deal on March 10. The enactment remains uncertain, though, particularly after the recent constitutional declaration.
Aimed at integrating all military and civilian institutions into the Syrian state, the deal comes at a critical time as President Ahmad Al-Sharaa seeks legitimacy amid growing international scrutiny over the killings of minority Alawites by allied militias.
If enacted, the agreement “could significantly reshape Syria’s post-war landscape,” Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Arab News.
“The timing is key,” he said. “The deal comes as Syria faces major security challenges, including recent massacres on the coast and Israeli interventions in the south. These pressures likely pushed Damascus to sign the agreement.”
Mutlu Civiroglu, a Washington-based Kurdish affairs analyst, says signing the deal with SDF commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi allows Al-Sharaa “to present himself as a leader committed to ensuring all identities are represented in Syria’s future.”
According to Civiroglu, Abdi is “a highly respected figure not only among Kurds but also across other communities, such as the Alawites, Druze, and Christians.”
Kurdish groups, united under the umbrella of the SDF and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), have condemned the recent attacks on Alawites — the ethno-religious group from which the Assad family traces its roots.
Abdi described the attacks as part of a “systematic campaign against Syria’s minorities.” He told Reuters news agency that Al-Sharaa must “intervene to halt the massacres.”
On March 6, the deadliest bloodshed since Bashar Assad’s fall in December began when Assad loyalists ambushed security forces in Jableh, Latakia province, killing 13. The attack set off a wave of reprisals, with revenge killings targeting Alawite civilians.
Violence escalated further on March 9 as clashes reignited in Banias, also in Latakia, when security forces came under attack at a power plant. Within days, at least 1,300 people, including 973 civilians, were killed, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Against this backdrop, Rami Abdulrahman, head of the SOHR, told a Kurdish news channel that tens of thousands of Alawites who had fled the violence on the coast for the safety of the mountains believe an SDF presence in their areas could provide a “safe haven.”
The Damascus-SDF deal, set for implementation by the end of the year, recognizes that “the Kurdish community is indigenous to the Syrian state,” guaranteeing “its right to citizenship and all of its constitutional rights,” according to a presidential statement.
It also mandates a complete cessation of hostilities in SDF-controlled areas, which have been under attack by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army since Dec. 8, when a Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham-led coalition ousted the Assad regime.
“For Syrian Kurds in Rojava — Kurdish Syria — the agreement guarantees recognition of their rights, something they lacked under Assad before the war,” said Hawach of the International Crisis Group.
The deal also includes economic benefits for both sides.
Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, says oil is a key part of the agreement and “will be key to raising revenue for the new Syria.”
The interim government “will gain full control over the oil fields, which is a triumph, but the Kurds will get half the proceeds, which was a win for them,” he told Arab News.
“This will allow the government to hire foreign oil companies to repair Syria’s dilapidated industry and energy infrastructure. Syria needs major foreign investment in its energy sector, which was impossible so long as control over the oil region was contested.”
Syria’s oil industry is in a dire state, with production plummeting from pre-war levels of up to 400,000 barrels per day to as little as 80,000, according to S&P Global, a financial intelligence and analytics firm.
Years of conflict, sanctions, and damaged infrastructure have crippled the sector, leaving Syria heavily reliant on imports. Reviving oil production is seen as critical to funding the country’s reconstruction, which could cost up to $400 billion.
Reinforcing Landis’ argument, Hawach said the deal’s implementation could “provide economic benefits — as the northeast is Syria’s most resource-rich region — and open the door for joint efforts with Damascus against (Daesh).”
He added: “For Syrians under the HTS-led administration, the deal marks a major step toward national reintegration. The return of 30 percent of Syria under Damascus’ control, after over a decade of fragmentation, could improve governance, service delivery, and economic stability.”
The move, seen as a step toward national reconciliation after 14 years of conflict, has been welcomed by the UN and regional and Western countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, France, Germany, and Canada.
However, Hawach stressed that the agreement’s success hinges on how the parties resolve the still undecided practical aspects of reintegration.
Landis agrees that while the deal “gives a degree of autonomy to northeastern Syria” and sets out key principles, it is “not a fully worked-out plan,” he said.
“Many of the thorny details will have to be worked out in the future,” he added.
Landis pointed out that “a key element is the military,” explaining that “the Kurds insisted on having their own force, resident in the northeast.”
Under the accord, the SDF must integrate into the Syrian Defense Ministry and cede control of all border crossings with Iraq and Turkiye, as well as airports and oil fields in the northeastern semi-autonomous region it has controlled since 2015.
“There has been a compromise in that the SDF will be placed under the Ministry of Defense, but only regional forces will be placed in the northeast,” said Landis. “How this will all work out is not clear.
“The Kurds are clearly hoping for something similar to the arrangement in Iraq, where in essence they have their own mini ministry of defense,” he added.
In Iraq, the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs oversees the Kurdistan Region’s own armed forces, which are responsible for protecting the semi-autonomous territory’s borders, land and sovereignty.
Landis said Syria’s interim president “does not want to accord the minorities autonomy,” adding that “he has stated that Syria will have a centralized state.”
Furthermore, “the new constitution makes no mention of a special arrangement for the Kurds,” he added.
On March 13, Al-Sharaa signed a temporary constitution establishing Islamist rule in Syria for a five-year transitional period. The following day, the SDF’s political wing, the Syrian Democratic Council, rejected the constitutional declaration and called for it to be redrafted.
The council argued that the temporary constitution “reintroduces authoritarianism” by centralizing power and granting unchecked authority to the executive.
“The SDC strongly rejects any attempt to recreate dictatorship under the guise of a ‘transitional phase.’ Any constitutional declaration must be the result of genuine national consensus, not a project imposed by one party.”
The council called for “a complete reformulation of the declaration” to “ensure a fair distribution of power, guarantee freedom of political activity, and recognize the rights of all Syrian components.”
Israel’s surprise bombardment plunged Palestinians back into ‘hell’
- Israel not only blocked all supplies from entering Gaza two weeks ago but also cut off electricity to the territory’s main desalination plant last week
- The Muslim holy month of Ramadan had even provided moments of joy as families held communal sunset meals ending each day’s fast without the fear of bombardment
DEIR EL BALAH, Gaza Strip: The Israeli bombs began falling before dawn, lighting the sky with orange flares and shattering the stillness.
The surprise wave of airstrikes plunged Palestinians back into a nightmare they had hoped might be behind them.
The bombs crashed across Gaza early Tuesday, setting fire to a sprawling tent camp in the southern city of Khan Younis and flattening a Hamas-run prison. They hit the Al-Tabaeen shelter in Gaza City, where Majid Nasser was sleeping with his family.
“I went out to see where the bombing was. Suddenly the second strike happened in the room next to us,” he said. “I heard screaming, my mother and sister screaming, calling for help. I came and entered the room and found the children under the rubble.” Everyone was injured, but alive.
Palestinians tried to claw bodies from the wreckage with their bare hands. Parents arrived at hospitals, barefoot, carrying children who were limp and covered in ash. Streets and hospitals filled with bodies.
By midday, over 400 people had been killed. It was one of the deadliest days of the 17-month war, following two months of ceasefire.
During the truce that began on Jan. 19, hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza had returned to their homes, many of them destroyed. A surge of aid brought food and medicines — until Israel cut off aid two weeks ago to pressure the Hamas militant group into accepting a new proposal instead of continuing with the truce.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan had even provided moments of joy as families held communal sunset meals ending each day’s fast without the fear of bombardment.
Instead, the war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused widespread destruction was back with full force.
“What is happening to us is hell. Hell in every sense of the word,” said Zeyad Abed, as he stood among the blackened remains of tents in Khan Younis.
Fedaa Heriz, a displaced woman in Gaza City, said victims were killed in their sleep just before the predawn meal ahead of the daily Ramadan fast.
“They set the alarm to wake up for suhoor, and they wake up to death? They don’t wake up?” she screamed.
Fedaa Hamdan lost her husband and their two children in the strikes in Khan Younis.
“My children died while they were hungry,” she said, as funeral prayers were held over their bodies.
Hospitals ‘felt like Armageddon’
Scenes at hospitals recalled the early days of the war, when Israel launched a massive bombardment of Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
Survivors on Tuesday held rushed funeral rites over dozens of body bags lining the yard of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Mothers sobbed over the bloodied bodies of children, as warplanes hummed overhead. Doctors struggled to treat the flow of wounded.
“A level of horror and evil that is really hard to articulate. It felt like Armageddon,” said Dr. Tanya-Hajj Hassan, a volunteer with the Medical Aid for Palestinians aid group.
She described the Nasser Hospital emergency room in Khan Younis as chaos, with patients, including children, spread across the floor. Some were still wrapped in the blankets they had slept in.
Dr. Ismail Awad with the Doctors Without Borders aid group said the clinic received about 26 wounded people, including a woman seven months pregnant with shrapnel in her neck. She later died.
“It was overwhelming, the number of patients,” Awad said.
At the Al-Attar clinic in Muwasi in southern Gaza, medical staff said they were forced to operate without light bulbs and emergency ventilation devices.
Israel not only blocked all supplies from entering Gaza two weeks ago but also cut off electricity to the territory’s main desalination plant last week. That has again created scarcities in medicine, food, fuel and fresh water for Gaza’s over 2 million people.
Palestinians flee once more
New Israeli evacuation orders covering Gaza’s eastern flank next to Israel and stretching into a key corridor dividing Gaza’s north and south sent Palestinians fleeing again.
Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, published a map on X telling Palestinians in those areas, including highly populated neighborhoods, to leave immediately and head for shelters.
“Continuing to remain in the designated areas puts your life and the lives of your family members at risk,” he said.
The evacuation zone appeared to include parts of Gaza’s main north-south road, raising questions about how people might travel. Palestinians nevertheless gathered their belongings and set out, hardly knowing where to go.
UNICEF spokesperson Rosalia Bollen recalled that the days before the bombardment felt uneasy. She could sense fear. Children would ask if she believed the war would start again.
“This nightmare scenario has been on everyone’s mind,” she said. “It’s just heartbreaking that it is materializing right now and that it is shattering the last piece of hope that people had.”
Jordanian food exporters set sights on UK and beyond at exhibition in London
- Companies hope 3-day International Food and Drink Event will be a key platform for promoting wide range of products to international buyers and distributors
- ‘UK’s autonomy in trade policy, coupled with its substantial Arab and Muslim consumer base, presents a unique opportunity,’ says Jordan Exporters Association boss
LONDON: Food manufacturers from Jordan are showcasing their products at the International Food and Drink Event in London this week, as they make a concerted push to enter the potentially lucrative UK market.
The Jordanian delegation views the three-day exhibition, which began on Monday and concludes on Wednesday, as a key platform on which to promote a diverse range of products, including confectionery, baked goods, spices, nuts and specialty items, to a global audience of buyers and distributors, the Jordan News Agency reported.
Ahmad Khudari, president of the Jordan Exporters Association, which is spearheading the country’s participation at the exhibition, said the event has an important role to play in fostering new trade relationships.
“Our objective is to establish direct channels with international buyers and distributors, highlighting the competitive edge and superior quality of Jordanian food products,” he said.
The aim is to expand Jordan’s presence in the growing halal food sector and broader international markets, he said, adding: “Expanding our market reach is essential for stimulating domestic production, fostering industrial expansion, attracting foreign investment, and strengthening our trade balance.”
Halim Abu Rahma, the association’s general manager, said there has been strong interest from international buyers during the event in London.
“The exhibition has drawn significant attention from key buyers, offering Jordanian companies a valuable opportunity to highlight their product innovation and quality,” he said.
“The UK’s autonomy in trade policy, coupled with its substantial Arab and Muslim consumer base, presents a unique opportunity for Jordanian food manufacturers to establish a strong foothold,” he added as he stressed the strategic significance of the British market, particularly in the post-Brexit trade landscape, and urged businesses to leverage the terms of the free trade deal between Jordan and the UK.
The agreement, which came into effect in 2021, aims to bolster bilateral trade by granting Jordanian products tariff-free entry into the UK, mirroring a similar trade deal between Jordan and the EU.
In 2023, trade between Jordan and the UK was worth about 303 million dinars ($427 million), with Jordanian exports accounting for 62 million dinars of the total.
The International Food and Drink Event 2025 features 1,500 exhibitors from around the world, and was expected to attract about 30,000 buyers and distributors from more than 105 countries.
Nearly 13,000 Syrians fled to Lebanon: report
- Violence erupted on Syria’s coast — the heartland of former president Bashar Assad’s Alawite minority — with attacks on security forces that were blamed on gunmen loyal to the toppled president
BEIRUT: Nearly 13,000 Syrians fled across the borders to Lebanon since sectarian massacres on the Syrian coast earlier this month, Lebanese authorities said on Tuesday.
A report from Lebanon’s Disaster Risk Management Unit said 12,798 Syrians had arrived and settled in 23 different villages and towns in Lebanon’s northern Akkar region, adding that most were living in family homes or makeshift accommodation centers.
Violence erupted on Syria’s coast — the heartland of former president Bashar Assad’s Alawite minority — with attacks on security forces that were blamed on gunmen loyal to the toppled president.
According to the latest toll from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, Syrian security forces and allied groups subsequently killed at least 1,557 civilians, the vast majority Alawites.
Thousands of coastal residents took refuge in Russia’s Hmeimim air base, calling for protection, while others fled south to neighboring Lebanon.
