TIRANA: Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his attacks on Israel as he arrived in Tirana Thursday, the first stop of a Balkans tour that will also take him to Serbia.
Repeating his claim that Israel’s actions in Gaza constituted “genocide,” he branded it the “shame of humanity,” at a joint press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
“The international community, we must do our best to urgently guarantee a permanent ceasefire and exert the necessary pressure on Israel,” he added.
“The genocide that has been going on in Gaza for the past year is the common shame of all humanity,” he added.
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
According to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, 42,065 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, mostly civilians. The UN has said the figures are reliable.
Erdogan has branded Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the “butcher of Gaza” and compared him to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler.
“The aggression led by the Netanyahu government now threatens the world order beyond the region,” Erdogan said.
Later Thursday Erdogan, accompanied by Prime Minister Edi Rama, inaugurated the Great Mosque of Tirana.
The largest Muslim place of worship in the Balkans, it has a capacity of up to 10,000 people. The project, funded by Turkiye, cost 30 million euros.
Turkiye is also a major employer in Albania. As Erdogan said in February, over 600 Turkish companies operate in the country, providing jobs to more than 15,000 workers.
It is also one of the five biggest foreign investors in Albania, he said, with $3.5 billion (3.2 billion euros) committed.
The two NATO member countries also have close military ties, with Turkiye supplying Tirana with its Bayraktar TB2 drones.
For the second stage of his tour Erdogan traveled from Albania to Serbia, where he was greeted at Belgrade airport by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Turkiye made a diplomatic comeback here in 2017 when Erdogan made a landmark visit to Belgrade.
The five century Ottoman presence in Serbia has traditionally weighed heavily on Belgrade-Ankara relations.
Another source of tension has been Turkiye’s historic ties with Serbia’s former breakaway province of Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a move Belgrade still refuses to recognize.
Erdogan’s 2017 visit repaired the relationship with Serbia, Belgrade analyst Vuk Vuksanovic told AFP.
But Belgrade was furious last year when Turkiye sold drones to Kosovo, something Serbia said was “unacceptable.”
The row could however still be patched up, Vuksanovic insisted.
“I would not be surprised if we see a military deal at the end of this visit,” he said.
He expected talks in Belgrade on Friday to focus on “military cooperation, the position of Turkish companies — and attempts by Belgrade to persuade Ankara to tone down support for Kosovo.”
While the rapprochement is relatively new, economic ties between the two countries are already significant.
Turkish investment in Serbia has rocketed from $1 million to $400 million over the past decade, the Turkiye-Serbia business council told Turkiye’s Anadolu news agency.
Turkish exports to Serbia hit $2.13 billion in 2022, up from $1.14 billion in 2020, according to official Serbian figures.
Turkish tourists are also important for Serbia, second only to visitor numbers from Bosnia.
Erdogan says Gaza ‘shame of humanity,’ calls for permanent ceasfire
https://arab.news/c3n36
Erdogan says Gaza ‘shame of humanity,’ calls for permanent ceasfire
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated his claim that Israel’s actions in Gaza constituted ‘genocide’ and called it the ‘shame of humanity’
- Erdogan branded Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the ‘butcher of Gaza’ and compared him to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler
Airstrikes target Yemen’s Sanaa after Houthi attack targets Israel
DUBAI: A series of intense airstrikes shook Yemen’s Houthi-held capital early Thursday, shortly after a Houthi missile targeted central Israel.
It wasn’t immediately clear who launched the strikes on Sanaa, which the Houthis have held for over a decade.
American forces have launched a series of strikes on the Houthis over nearly a year due to Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea corridor. US military officials did not acknowledge a request for comment.
The strikes happened just after the Israeli military said its air force intercepted a missile launched from Yemen before it entered the country’s territory.
“Rocket and missile sirens were sounded following the possibility of falling debris from the interception,” the Israeli military said.
Israeli army says intercepted missile fired from Yemen
JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said sirens sounded across central Israel as it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen on Thursday.
The Israeli Air Force “intercepted one missile that was launched from Yemen before it crossed into Israeli territory,” said a statement from the army, adding that there could be “falling debris from the interception.”
Blinken says Syria’s HTS should learn from Taliban isolation
- Blinken called for a “non-sectarian” Syrian government that protects minorities and addresses security concerns, including keeping the fight against the Daesh group
NEW YORK: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Wednesday on Syria’s triumphant HTS rebels to follow through on promises of inclusion, saying it can learn a lesson from the isolation of Afghanistan’s Taliban.
The Islamist movement rooted in Al-Qaeda and supported by Turkiye has promised to protect minorities since its lightning offensive toppled strongman Bashar Assad this month following years of stalemate.
“The Taliban projected a more moderate face, or at least tried to, in taking over Afghanistan, and then its true colors came out. The result is it remains terribly isolated around the world,” Blinken said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
After some initial overtures to the West, the Taliban reimposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law that includes barring women and girls from secondary school and university.
“So if you’re the emerging group in Syria,” Blinken said, “if you don’t want that isolation, then there’s certain things that you have to do in moving the country forward.”
Blinken called for a “non-sectarian” Syrian government that protects minorities and addresses security concerns, including keeping the fight against the Daesh group and removing lingering chemical weapons stockpiles.
Blinken said that HTS can also learn lessons from Assad on the need to reach a political settlement with other groups.
“Assad’s utter refusal to engage in any kind of political process is one of the things that sealed his downfall,” Blinken said.HTS
UN humanitarian chief urges massive aid boost for Syria: AFP interview
- “Across the country, the needs are huge. Seven in 10 people are needing support right now,” Fletcher told AFP in a telephone interview as he visited Syria
DAMASCUS: Visiting UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called Wednesday for a massive aid boost for Syria to respond to “this moment of hope” after the ouster of longtime strongman Bashar Assad.
“Across the country, the needs are huge. Seven in 10 people are needing support right now,” Fletcher told AFP in a telephone interview as he visited Syria.
“I want to scale up massively international support, but that now depends on donors. The Syria fund has been historically, shamefully underfunded and now there is this opportunity,” he said.
“The Syrian people are trying to come home when it’s safe to do so, to rebuild their country, to rebuild their communities and their lives.
“We have to get behind them and to respond to this moment of hope. And if we don’t do that quickly, then I fear that this window will close.”
Half of Syria’s population were forced from their homes during nearly 14 years of civil war, with millions finding refuge abroad.
UN officials have said a $4 billion appeal for Syria aid is less than a third funded.
“There are massive humanitarian needs... water, food, shelter... There are needs in terms of government services, health, education, and then there are longer term rebuilding needs, development needs,” Fletcher said.
“We’ve got to be ambitious in our ask of donors.
“The Syrian people demand that we deliver, and they’re right to demand that we deliver,” he said. “The world hasn’t delivered for the Syrian people for more than a decade.”
As part of his visit, Fletcher met representatives of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist rebel group which spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad, including its leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa and interim prime minister Mohammad Al-Bashir.
Fletcher said he received “the strongest possible reassurances” from Syria’s new administration that aid workers would have the necessary access on the ground.
“We need unhindered, unfettered access to the people that we’re here to serve. We need the crossings open so we can get massive amounts of aid through... We need to ensure that humanitarian workers can go where they need to go without restriction, with protection,” he said.
“I received the strongest possible reassurances from the top of that caretaker administration that they will give us that support that we need. Let’s test that now in the period ahead.”
Assad’s government had long imposed restrictions on humanitarian organizations and on aid distribution in areas of the country outside its control.
Fletcher said that the coming period would be “a test for the UN, which hasn’t been able to deliver what we wanted to over a decade now... Can we scale up? Can we gain people’s trust?
“But it’s also a test for the new administration,” he added. “Can they guarantee us a more permissive environment than we had under the Assad regime?
“I believe that we can work in that partnership, but it’s a huge test for all of us.”
Turkish FM rejects Trump claim of Ankara ‘takeover’ in Syria
ISTANBUL: Turkiye on Wednesday rejected US President-elect Donald Trump’s claim that the rebel ouster of Syrian strongman Bashar Assad was an “unfriendly takeover” by Ankara.
“We wouldn’t call it a takeover, because it would be a grave mistake to present what’s been happening in Syria” in those terms, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told broadcaster Al Jazeera in an interview.
“For Syrian people, it is not a takeover. I think if there is any takeover, it’s the will of the Syrian people which is taking over now.”
Assad fled to Russia after a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) wrested city after city from his control until the rebels reached the Syrian capital earlier this month.
On Monday, Trump said “the people that went in (to Syria) are controlled by Turkiye and that’s ok.”
“Turkiye did an unfriendly takeover, without a lot of lives being lost,” the billionaire businessman told reporters.
Since the early days of the anti-Assad revolt that erupted in 2011, Turkiye has been seen as a key backer of the opposition to his rule.
It has hosted political dissenters as well as millions of refugees and also backed rebel groups fighting the army.
Fidan said it would be incorrect to characterise Turkiye as the power that would rule Syria in the end.
“I think that would be the last thing that we want to see, because we are drawing huge lessons from what’s been happening in our region, because the culture of domination itself has destroyed our region,” he said.
“Therefore, it is not Turkish domination, not Iranian domination, not Arab domination, but cooperation should be essential,” he added.
“Our solidarity with Syrian people shouldn’t be characterised or defined today as if we are actually ruling Syria. I think that would be wrong.”
In the same interview Fidan warned Syria’s new rulers to address the issue of Kurdish forces in the country, whom Ankara brands “terrorists.”
“There is a new administration in Damascus now. I think, this is primarily their concern now,” minister Hakan Fidan said.
“So, I think if they are going to, if they address this issue properly, so there would be no reason for us to intervene.”
Fidan was responding to a question amid growing rumors that Turkiye could launch an offensive on the Kurdish-held border town of Kobani, also known as Ain Al-Arab.
Local witnesses told AFP there has been an increase in the number of soldiers patrolling on the Turkish side of the border but no “unusual military activity.”
Ankara has staged multiple operations against Kurdish forces since 2016, and Turkish-backed groups have captured several Kurdish-held towns in the north in recent weeks.
