Sameh Makki’s soup kitchen is only 100 metres from the market, but it can take two hours to walk Sudan’s war-torn streets, under a hail of bullets.
The 43-year-old, his circle of family and local volunteers risked everything to obtain materials to feed some 150 families caught in the crossfire between the army and paramilitaries.
“The only thing that matters is that other people eat. If I had died doing this, so be it,” Makki said.
Since the start of the war last April between the army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of his former second-in-command Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions more have been forced to flee their homes.
Initiatives like Makki’s are among the only tactics others can use while this impoverished country is on the brink of famine.
Makki fled to Egypt to seek care for her daughter and left the soup kitchen in the care of her mother and young volunteers from the neighborhood.
Like many of his compatriots, he now coordinates donations from the Sudanese diaspora to those watching the fighting.
Shortly after the first shots were fired in the conflict, other young people began volunteering to cook at home, volunteer coordinator Abdel Ghaffar Omar told AFP in Cairo.
The concept was temporarily extended, and a slew of self-funded “community kitchens” sprang up across the country.
They were able to tap into teams of community youth called “resistance committees” that in the past had organized pro-democracy protests and helped coordinate the reaction to Covid-19.
When war broke out, the committees established Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs) to provide civilians on the line of fire with physical care, evacuation assistance, and food assistance.
Most RRAs have their own kitchens, others have coordination and funding.
International aid teams see them as the frontline of the humanitarian response in Sudan and the United Nations has said the ERRs have helped more than 4 million civilians across Sudan.
Several volunteers told AFP that the kitchens serve between dozens and two hundred families a day.
In the capital alone, tens of thousands of people rely on ARRs for their meals, which consist mainly of rice, beans, lentils and the occasional animal protein.
Volunteers like Makki were able to deliver food from the local mosque in Omdurman, the dual city of Khartoum.
The scene is another on the other side of the Nile, in the north of Khartoum, also known as Bahri, which has been under siege for almost a year.
“The army considers Bahri a stronghold of the RSF and treats everything that arrives as RSF material,” an activist told AFP who spoke on condition of anonymity to jeopardize his work.
“Basically, we want to smuggle our stuff in. “
Volunteers go door-to-door to deliver rations, but the streets of Bahri are lined with paramilitary fighters known for looting life-saving aid.
“Carrying large amounts of food is attention-grabbing,” Mahmoud Mokhtar, a volunteer with ERR Bahri in Cairo, told AFP.
“If you get caught by the army, they tell you it’s smuggling on behalf of the RSF; if you get caught by the RSF, they call you an army spy. “
When asked if he had lost any comrades in the line of duty, Mokhtar’s eyes temporarily filled with tears.
“People have been killed, raped, assaulted, detained and taken away for months, we are used to it,” he said.
There is no official count of the number of activists and volunteers attacked by both sides, yet ERR and the doctors’ union publish obituaries of civilians killed while offering life-saving aid.
“The kitchens themselves have been bombed from both sides,” according to Mokhtar.
According to several volunteers, the kitchens only have two weeks’ worth of supplies, at best.
“They’re afraid they’re going to run out of stock,” says Omar, the volunteer coordinator.
In February, a communications outage paralyzed the Sudanese’s banking app, forcing the closure of all network kitchens in Bahri.
Although about a portion of them have come back to life, according to Omar, communications have still been fully restored in the Khartoum metropolitan area.
Instead, you volunteer for hours to get a web connection so you can access your money.
“One man had the phones of his neighbors, who trusted him with their mobile banking apps to give them their own money back,” Makki said.
Despite all the difficulties, the volunteers are determined to continue.
“We don’t have any options yet to continue,” Mokhtar said.
“If we stop, we will starve. “
Last week, the Iraqi judiciary acquitted and released the killer of researcher and security expert Hisham al-Hashimi.
Judiciary spokeswoman Sinan Ghanem told Asharq Al-Awsat that she had acquitted Ahmed Hamdawi al-Kinani for “lack of evidence. “
The court’s ruling came after the case was reopened last Wednesday and al-Kinani was released on Sunday, an official in one of the country’s Iranian-backed militias said.
Al-Kinani, accused of the murder of al-Hashimi, convicted of terrorism and sentenced to death by a criminal court last May, Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council reported. The case was then taken to an appeals court for further consideration.
Al-Hashimi, 47, was shot dead from his home in Baghdad by assailants on a motorcycle in July 2020, following threats from Iranian-backed militias. He was on his way home after a television interview in which he criticized attacks by armed groups. in diplomatic missions.
Renowned for his expertise in the ISIS organization, al-Hashimi had pleaded with the U. S. -led coalition and had become a vocal critic of Iranian-backed militias after the defeat of the ISIS organization in December 2017. He had reported threats from those teams prior to his mandate. Death.
A judicial source told Asharq Al-Awsat that al-Kinani denied before the appeals handed down a verdict on having committed the crime.
The Iraqi security government made al-Kinani’s confession public on July 16, 2020, ten days after the crime.
He confessed to planning and committing the crime with other people who had monitored al-Hashimi’s movements.
Al-Hashimi parked his car after returning from a television interview when a motorist got off his motorcycle, walked up to him and shot him.
In a video confession, al-Kinani said he pulled out the gun provided to him by police and killed al-Hashimi in his home.
The security government released photographs of the weapon and its registration number, as well as the bullet that killed al-Hashimi.
Activists questioned how the government could have released al-Kinani when they had the murder weapon and his confession verified.
An Iraqi lawyer told Asharq Al-Awsat that the appeals courts do not consider the videos as sufficient evidence to justify a conviction. They want something tangible like confessions and witnesses to verify a decision.
The judicial government made statements to the media about its resolution a week after its passage, but did not do so in the case of al-Kinani’s acquittal.
Judgment of acquittal
Al-Hashimi was known for his experience in extremist groups and helped the government dismantle the ISIS organization in liberation battles.
Many of his friends said his exposure of pro-Iranian armed factions in the months leading up to his assassination sealed his fate.
Extremist supporters of ISIS and supporters of Shiite factions celebrated his assassination.
Al-Kinani’s case began with his arrest, his death sentence in absentia, an appeal against the decision, followed by a retrial that ended with his acquittal.
Legal experts say a court’s ruling in the summer of 2023 to overturn a committee formed by former Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to prosecute “extraordinary crimes” was a turning point in the al-Kinani case.
The committee, headed by Ahmed Abu Ragheef, is tasked with making arrests against suspects involved in corruption and “big” cases, including that of al-Hashimi.
The committee carried out a wave of arrests of opponents accused of corruption, prompting a wave of denunciations in political circles.
The committee referred al-Kinani’s case to the al-Rasafa Central Court, which then convicted him in absentia in May 2023.
On 31 July, the Federal Court of Cassation, presided over by Faiq Zeidan, overturned the death penalty and returned the case to the Rasafa Court so that it could continue the investigation proceedings “in accordance with the law and regulations”.
Subsequently, al-Kinani did not appear in any of the trials that followed, reliable sources revealed. Whether or not he had criminal charges is a mystery. There were rumours that he had escaped or been smuggled. None of the accusations can be substantiated.
Several politicians and journalists said al-Kinani had “completely disappeared” since October 2022, when the pro-Iran Coordination Framework shaped the existing government led by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
The Court of Cassation’s ruling brought al-Kinani’s case back to one, leading to his acquittal for lack of evidence.
An Iraqi judicial source said the acquittal necessarily means the case will be absolutely closed. The ruling against al-Kinani or others can be appealed within two years if new evidence emerges in the case.
Return to Work
Facebook users revealed that the al-Kinana tribe celebrated al-Kinani’s release. The news later revealed that he had resumed his government post “as usual. “
A security official told Asharq Al-Awsat that al-Kinani had resumed his work at the Ministry of Interior. Another indicated that he had returned to the engineering department.
Ministry officials did not respond to Asharq Al-Awsat’s request for comment on whether al-Kinani had returned to his post. However, an Iraqi official said it was general for a worker to return after being acquitted.
Born in 1985, al-Kinani joined the police force in 2007. I graduated from Amman, Jordan, where Iraq used to send conscripts to the security forces as a security measure, as Iraqi schools were attacked.
Al-Hashimi’s family
Asharq Al-Awsat attempted to contact al-Hashimi’s circle of relatives after al-Kinani’s release. A close collaborator in the family circle told Asharq Al-Awsat that they liked to stay out of the limelight.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said judicial and security authorities informed the relatives of the acquittal and asked them if they wanted to take legal action in the case, but they refused for fear of reprisals.
He denied that the relatives had reached a monetary settlement in the case and said they objected to the way the case had been handled.
Now he needs to devote himself to educating al-Hashimi’s youth and avoiding a conflict with the party that conspired and assassinated him, the source said.
A member of the Coalition for State Administration told Asharq Al-Awsat that the applicable Shiite political forces do expect the public to react angrily to al-Kinani’s release.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said the ruling forces had controlled in months to “neutralize all resources of fear on the Iraqi streets. “
Independent MP Sajjad Salem told Asharq Al-Awsat that this is the fourth case in which a murderer has been acquitted of a crime whose victims are protesters, activists and researchers.
The ruling forces have managed to defuse these cases, he stressed.
He revealed that he had brought a bill to investigate the killers and bring justice to the families of the victims. He had contacted the government about the matter, but had ruled out any options for progress.
He said the Coordination Framework had succeeded in firmly consolidating its strength within state institutions, leaving little room for any progress in the future.
Near the Syrian-Turkish border in northwestern Syria, a soldier approached a boy playing near a wall topped with barbed wire.
For no reason, he forcibly pulled the boy, beat him, and then dragged him to the Turk, where the abuse continued, leaving him with lasting bruises and mental trauma.
Asharq Al-Awsat was able to document the recurrent attacks on youth and farmers, who posed no worthy risk of violence by border guards.
Recent video footage shared on social media in February highlighted ongoing attacks on youth and farmers along the border between the “Tal Al-Karama” camps in northern Syria’s Idlib countryside and Turkey’s Hatay province.
Since Turkey closed its southern borders to war refugees in 2016, as part of a deal with the EU, there have been reports of Syrians facing gunfire and torture as they tried to smuggle border routes.
Now, even those living in northwest Syria are facing attacks.
Other displaced people living near the border wall, built in Turkey in 2019, are targeted by Turkish border guards for no obvious reason, unless perhaps it is to intimidate them, show racism or even for fun.
Attacks on young and old
“The soldier asked me for a lighter,” Abdulrahman, the boy, noted in the widely shared video.
“Then he grabbed me and started beating me. Another soldier joined us. They continued to beat me as they took me to the Turkish army post. I was detained all night,” he added.
The violence ended when a Turkish officer intervened and arranged Abdulrahman’s return to northwest Syria the next morning.
Weeks later, Abdulrahman still has bruises on his eyesight. He hasn’t gotten any apology or compensation, but he’s grateful that every Turk he’s interacted with has mistreated him.
Abdulrahman said he would no longer build the border wall with his friends.
“I’m too scared,” he said, adding that he hoped the Turkish officials who beat him would be punished.
International Documentation
In April 2023, Human Rights Watch released a report documenting violations committed by anti-Syrian Turkish border guards. He noted that these violations had serious legal consequences on the part of Turkey.
According to the report, between May 2016 and early 2023, observers recorded 11 incidents in which Turkish border guards fired on civilians on the Syrian side, killing at least six others and injuring six others.
Human Rights Watch urged Turkey to end impunity and end widespread violations along the Syrian border.
Last year, on March 13, a Turkish soldier shot dead a 59-year-old Syrian farmer as he ran through his land in the village of Khirbet al-Joz in rural southern Idlib.
Witnesses said the soldier shot him and then left the scene to render aid.
In another incident, seven-year-old Jasmine was playing near the border with her cousin on Jan. 7 when a Turkish soldier shot her twice in the leg and left foot.
“She can’t play anymore,” Jasmine’s uncle Khalil said, explaining that her left foot was affected, making it difficult for her to walk properly.
Now, Jasmine avoids leaving the space after being teased by other young men due to her injury.
Khalil, who lives with his sister’s family in the northern Idlib town of Atmeh, says overcrowded refugee camps near the safe border area force children to play in open spaces near the border wall.
“Every year there are incidents,” Khalil said, referring to attacks on the Turkish border ranging from stone-throwing to gunfire and outright negligence.
“Last year there was an incident in the southern countryside (Idlib province), and on the same day that Jasmine fired, there was another incident in Al-Karama camp,” Khalil recalled.
Introducing Atmeh
Of the 5. 1 million people living in northwest Syria, 3. 4 million are displaced from areas controlled by Syrian government forces. Two million of them live in camps, according to U. N. data.
Atmeh, located in the northern countryside of Idlib, is home to many overcrowded camps created since 2012 due to ongoing security tensions. Residents are safe haven near the Turkish border for security reasons, as Turkey has intervened politically and militarily in the Syrian conflict.
Turkey has also taken in some 3. 5 million Syrian refugees, who for years have faced hate speech and political exploitation, leading to emerging tensions and racism against Syrians among the Turkish population.
Although Idlib is not administered directly through Turkey like the northern Aleppo countryside, Turkey controls economic access and humanitarian aid for the other 4. 2 million people in need, making it a primary influence on the fate of the region.
Sixty-three years ago, 30,000 Algerians who came to demonstrate peacefully in Paris suffered a violent crackdown, leaving many injured.
Historians say “at least dozens” of people died as a result of police violence. The French parliament will debate a draft solution on Thursday subsidized by President Emmanuel Macron’s party, it is not easy for the government to dedicate a day to commemorate the massacre.
On October 17, 1967, six months before the Evian Accords established Algeria’s independence from France, “Franco-Algerian Muslims,” as they were at the time, poured in from the working-class neighborhoods of the suburbs and working-class neighborhoods of Paris. , where they lived.
At the invitation of the French branch of the National Liberation Front, an Algerian political party, they defied a ban imposed by police leader Maurice Papon, who was later convicted in 1998 of complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in the deportation of Jews between 1942 and 1944.
The protesters suffered the deadliest repression in Western Europe since 1945, according to historian Emmanuel Blanchard. On that day, police arrested about 12,000 protesters. In the days that followed, corpses with multiple gunshot wounds or symptoms of beatings were discovered in the Seine. In 1988, an adviser to the Prime Minister’s Office for the Algerian War estimated that police “attacks” killed about 100 people, while a 1998 government report claimed 48 were killed.
In a declassified file, published through the French Mediapart in 2022, a note by a senior official, former adviser to Charles de Gaulle, dated October 28, 1961, reports 54 deaths. The death toll presented by historians over the years ranged from 30 to more than 200.
As soon as the first protesters arrived at the Pont de Neuilly, west of Paris, security forces gunned down a quiet crowd, including families, with gunfire to Blanchard. Police violence escalated when they heard radio messages posted by police falsely pronouncing that police officers had been shot. Shots were also fired at several locations in the capital.
These violations were not confirmed until 2012, when François Hollande, then French president, commemorated for the first time the “memory of those who suffered the bloody repression” they suffered while demonstrating for the “right to independence”. In 2021, Emmanuel Macron spoke of “unforgivable crimes” committed “under the authority of Maurice Papon. “
According to a new United Nations report, the world wasted about 19% of the food produced in the world in 2022, or about 1. 05 billion tons.
The United Nations Environment Programme’s Food Waste Index report, released on Wednesday, tracks countries’ progress in halving food waste through 2030.
The UN said the number of countries reporting for the index has nearly doubled compared to the first report in 2021. The 2021 report estimates that 17% of food produced globally in 2019, or 931 million metric tons (1. 03 billion tons), However, the authors cautioned against direct comparisons due to a lack of sufficient knowledge in many countries.
The report is co-authored by UNEP and the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a charity.
The researchers analyzed national data on households, food and stores. They found that each user wastes about 79 kilograms (about 174 pounds) of food per year, which equates to at least one billion pieces of food wasted daily worldwide.
Most of the waste (60%) came from households. About 28% came from orArray and about 12% from retailers.
“It’s a farce,” said co-author Clementine O’Connor, UNEP’s head of food waste. “It doesn’t make sense and it’s a complex challenge, but through collaboration and systemic action, it’s a challenge that can be solved. “
The report comes at a time when 783 million people worldwide face chronic hunger and many regions face severe food crises. The war between Israel and Hamas and the violence in Haiti have worsened the crisis, and experts say famine is imminent in the north. Gaza and soon Haiti.
Food waste is also a global fear due to the environmental consequences of production, adding land and water to raise crops and animals, as well as the greenhouse fuel emissions it produces, adding methane, a potent fuel that is responsible for around 30% of global warming since pre-industrial times.
Food loss and waste account for 8-10 percent of global greenhouse fuel emissions. If it were a country, it would rank third after China and the United States.
Fadila Jumare, a contributor at the Nigeria-based Busara Centre for Behavioural Economics who has studied food waste prevention in Kenya and Nigeria, said the problem further harms many other people who are already food insecure and unable to eat healthily.
“For humanity, food means that the poorest people will have less food,” Jumare said, not referring to the report.
Brian Roe, a food researcher at Ohio State University who is not involved in the report, said the index is vital to addressing the issue of food.
“The bottom line is that reducing the amount of food distributed is a path that can lead to many desirable outcomes: resource conservation, less environmental damage, greater food security, and more land for purposes other than landfills and food production. “who is not interested in the report, he said.
According to the authors, the report shows a remarkable expansion of food waste policy in low- and middle-income countries. But it would arguably be up to richer countries to take the lead in foreign cooperation and policymaking to reduce food waste, they said. .
The report indicates that many governments, regional and industry teams are public-private partnerships to reduce food waste and its contribution to climate and water stress. Governments and municipalities collaborate with corporations in the food source chain, where corporations are dedicated to measuring food waste.
The report states that food redistribution (in addition to donating surplus food to food banks and charities) is in the fight against food waste at retailers.
One of the teams doing this is Food Banking Kenya, a non-profit organization that collects surplus food from farms, markets, supermarkets and packing plants and redistributes it to schoolchildren and vulnerable populations. Food waste is a growing fear in Kenya, where an estimated 4. 45 million tonnes (about 4. 9 million tonnes) of food are wasted each year.
“We are making a positive impact on society by offering nutritious food and we are also making a positive impact on the environment by reducing destructive gas emissions,” said John Mukuhi, the group’s co-founder and chief executive. .
The report’s authors said they found that the differences in terms of capita food waste between high- and low-income countries were strangely small.
Richard Swannel, co-author and director of Impact Growth at WRAP, said this shows that food waste “is not a global problem. It’s a global problem. “
“The information is very transparent about it — this is a worldwide challenge and one we can all take on to save money and reduce environmental impact,” he said.
An army plane has tilted over the ruins of war-torn Gaza City, dropping dozens of black parachutes carrying food aid.
At the site, where at least there were no buildings in sight, starving men and boys rushed to the beach, where most of the aid appeared to have landed.
Dozens of them were fighting intensely for food, forming tumults in the rubble-strewn dunes.
“People are dying to get a can of tuna,” said Mohamad al-Sabaawi, holding a nearly empty bag on his shoulder and a child by his side.
“It’s tragic, like we’re in a famine. What can we do? They laugh at us as they give us a small can of tuna. “
Aid teams say a fraction of the materials needed to meet critical humanitarian wishes have arrived in Gaza since October, while the UN has warned of famine in the north of the territory until May without urgent intervention.
Aid entering the Gaza Strip by land is well below pre-war levels, around 150 cars per day, down from at least 500 before the war, according to UNRWA, the U. N. firm for Palestinian refugees.
Faced with the desperation of Gazans, foreign governments have resorted to airdrops, especially in hard-to-reach areas in the north of the territory, including Gaza City.
The United States, France and Jordan are among the countries conducting airdrops on others living in the ruins of the largest city in the besieged territory.
But the teams themselves told AFP that the launches were insufficient.
U. S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Lt. Col. U. S. Jeremy Anderson came under pressure earlier this month that they could only supply a “drop in the ocean” of what they needed.
The air operation was also marred by deaths. Five other people on the ground were killed by a fall and 10 others were injured as a result of a parachute malfunction, according to a doctor in Gaza.
Calls have grown for Israel to allow more aid by land, while Israel has criticized the UN and UNRWA for failing to distribute aid to Gaza.
“Palestinians in Gaza desperately want what they promised: an avalanche of aid. No drops. No drops,” U. N. leader Antonio Guterres said Sunday after visiting Gaza’s southern border crossing with Egypt in Rafah.
“If we look at Gaza, it almost seems as if the four horsemen of war, famine, conquest and death are galloping there,” he added.
The war erupted with Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which killed an additional 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel retaliated for a bombing and invasion of Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas, which has killed at least 32,333 people, to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
Returning home to Gaza City with little for his family, another Palestinian said his situation was miserable.
“We are the rest of Gazans, waiting for help, dying to get a can of beans, which we will then distribute to 18 other people,” he said.
On Sunday, millions of voters in Turkey will go to the polls to elect mayors and directors in local elections that will measure President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s popularity as his government tries to retake key cities it lost five years ago.
A victory for Erdogan’s party could prompt the Turkish leader to implement constitutional adjustments that would allow him to govern beyond the limits of his current term.
At the same time, keeping municipalities in key cities would reinvigorate Turkey’s opposition, fractured and demoralized after its defeat in last year’s presidential election.
Here’s a closer look at what’s at stake and the imaginable consequences for Turkey’s future.
THE BATTLE FOR ISTANBUL In the last elections held in 2019, a united opposition won the municipalities of the capital Ankara and the publicity hub of Istanbul, ending the ruling party’s 25-year control over the cities.
The loss of Istanbul was a major blow to Erdogan, who began his political career as mayor of the city of about 16 million people in 1994.
Erdogan has nominated Murat Kurum, a 47-year-old former minister of urbanization and environment, to run against incumbent Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a popular politician from the center-left Republican People’s Party, or CHP. Imamoglu has been touted as a conceivable presidential candidate to challenge Erdogan.
But this time, Imamoglu, 52, is running in local elections without the support of Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party and the nationalist IYI party, which are running their own candidates.
Meanwhile, a new conservative and devout party, the New Social Welfare Party (YRP), has also thrown its hat into the ring. Appealing to the conservative and devout electorate disillusioned with Erdogan’s handling of the economy, he is expected to borrow some votes from Erdogan’s candidates.
Opinion polls point to a close race between Imamoglu and Kurum, both of whom have promised infrastructure projects to make buildings resilient to earthquakes and the city’s chronic traffic congestion.
The opposition is widely expected to control Ankara, where incumbent Mayor Mansur Yavas, who has also been nominated as a long-term presidential candidate, remains popular.
Leaving nothing to chance, Erdogan, who has been in office as minister and then president for more than two decades, has held election rallies across the country, campaigning on behalf of mayoral candidates.
Analysts believe that taking back Istanbul and Ankara and doing well in the elections would strengthen Erdogan to introduce a new charter that would allow him to govern beyond 2028, when his current term ends. The current charter sets a limit of two presidential terms. , 70, ran for a third term last year, which raises a technicality, as the country switched to a presidential ticket in 2018 and his first term was conducted under the previous formula.
Erdogan and his allies have recently failed to have enough seats in parliament to pass a new constitution, but an election victory could simply prompt some conservative opposition lawmakers to switch sides, analysts say.
Earlier this month, Erdogan said Sunday’s elections would be the last on the constitution. Critics see his comments as a ploy to win sympathetic votes from supporters rocked by a cost-of-living crisis, as well as a strategy to push through constitutional amendments.
An alliance of six opposition parties, led by the CHP, has disintegrated after a devastating election defeat last year. Supporters of the alliance were demoralized after it failed to topple Erdogan despite the economic crisis and the aftermath of a catastrophic earthquake.
The CHP’s ability to hold on to the major cities it captured five years ago would reinvigorate the party and allow it to present itself as an option against Erdogan’s ruling party. Losing Ankara and Istanbul to Erdogan’s party, on the other hand, could simply put an end to the presidential aspirations of Yavas and Imamoglu.
The CHP opted for a change of direction shortly after the election defeat, but it remains to be seen whether the party’s new chairman, pharmacist Özgur Ozel, 49, will be able to excite his supporters.
As in past elections, Erdogan reaped the benefits of being in power, using state resources during his campaign. According to media watchdog groups, about 90% of Turkey’s media is in the hands of the government or its supporters, selling the campaigns of the ruling party and its allies, denying the opposition the same opportunity.
State broadcaster TRT gave the ruling party 32 hours of broadcasting time in the first 40 days of campaigning, with 25 minutes for rivals, according to the opposition.
During his campaign, Erdogan issued thinly veiled warnings to the electorate to applicants subsidized by the ruling party if they wished to take advantage of government services. He raised the minimum wage by 49% to provide some relief to households, despite his government’s efforts to tame top inflation.
The Turkish leader also went on to highlight his country’s successes in the defense industry sector at his election rallies. A prototype of Turkey’s KAAN fighter jet made its maiden flight last month, which critics say was scheduled before the election.
The Kurdish electorate represents about 10% of the electorate in Istanbul and how they vote may be decisive in the mayoral race.
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party, now known as the Party for Peoples’ Equality and Democracy, or DEM, elected Imamoglu in the 2019 municipal elections, helping him win. This time, however, the party is fielding its own candidates, who may simply siphon votes away from Imamoglu.
However, according to some observers, the party intentionally nominated two discreet and unspoken candidates for the current mayor. Historically, the Kurdish party has male and female personalities who share leadership positions.
Meanwhile, the DEM party is expected to win many municipalities in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeastern regions. The question remains whether the party will be allowed to remain in them. In recent years, Erdogan’s government has gotten rid of elected mayors from their workplaces due to alleged ties. Kurdish militants and replaced them with state-appointed administrators.
At a rally in the predominantly Kurdish city of Hakkari on March 15, Erdogan suggested to the electorate not to vote for Americans, as he said it would shift the municipal budget to the “terrorist organization,” a reference to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The pro-Iranian Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq have partners in a very important agreement between Baghdad and Ankara – with Iran’s blessing – to eliminate the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Iraqi and Turkish resources said the recent agreement went beyond the military. operations opposed to the PKK and covered comprehensive agreements similar to the configuration of the Middle East after the end of the war in Gaza.
A Turkish official told Asharq Al-Awsat that component of Ankara’s “plan” to prepare for the adjustments that would occur after the war and its determination not to have “any security disorder in the region, especially in Iraq. “” between the PKK and Shiite factions in the city of Sinjar, however, may become an impediment to Türkiye’s new plan.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan last week referred to an agreement reached between his country and “an official financed through the Iraqi state” over Sinjar.
Turkey appears to wield its greatest political and military influence in Iraq and will expand its relations to end chronic tensions along its southern border. The internal balance in Baghdad and the rise of the PKK in Sinjar may jeopardize this plan.
Iraqi resources agree that “comprehensive Turkish activity” is part of the post-war arrangements for the region, and this requires “the elimination of resources of tension. “
What happened?
On 13 March, Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan met with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein in Baghdad. The meeting was attended by security officials, including PMF leader Faleh al-Fayyad and national security adviser Qasim al-Araji.
One government said Iraq considers the PKK’s presence on its territory a “violation of the constitution. “Turkey hailed the Array, referring to the creation of a 40-kilometer-deep buffer zone to eliminate the PKK, which it considers terrorist. Advance from the Sulaymaniyah region, pass through Sinjar and reach the Syrian border.
That night, Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler did not return to Ankara with Fidan. He stayed and spent the night on the Iraqi border, at the headquarters of the Turkish forces deployed in Hakkari.
Turkey’s Zero Hour
According to two sources in Baghdad and Erbil, Ankara has been prosecuted for years from Iraq accusing it of having been “too patient” in its fight against the PKK, which ultimately failed. He is continually asked what is preventing him from launching a “final military operation to solve this riddle for everyone. “It turns out that, despite everything, he was convinced to take decisive action.
Iraqi resources told Asharq Al-Awsat that prior to Fidan’s arrival in Baghdad, Iraq had been informed of the Turkish plan, adding Iran’s blessing on the new PKK-related scenario.
“Everything, adding 0 hours, is done” at the start of official consultations, another Iraqi source revealed. He described the plan as “unprecedented” among countries, adding that PMFs will be busy in some regions providing support.
It is unclear why Iran accepted the PKK in Iraq, especially since the party’s activities have been connected to pro-Iranian factions along Tehran’s strategic direction extending to Damascus and Beirut since 2016.
Iraqi resources said the deal included Turkish mediation with the Americans to ease tensions with Tehran in Iraq and secure a greater role for Iran in the regional industry with Turkish guarantees. It also means securing Iran’s assistance to Baghdad to triumph over crises, such as oil exports and the “flawed” scenario in the Kurdistan Region and Kirkuk.
Comprehensive changes
An Iraqi diplomat said the political aspects of the deal are prepared for the “comprehensive adjustments that are expected to occur after the end of the war in Gaza. “A Turkish aide showed Asharq Al-Awsat that Ankara had prepared a dossier on the post-war scenario covering the countries of the region.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the Turkish official said the Turkish Foreign Ministry and security agencies had drafted a plan about five months ago covering Ankara’s characteristics in the post-war phase and how to deal with the expected changes. “Iraq and Syria are components of that picture,” he revealed.
Former Nineveh governor and Sunni Atheel al-Nujayfi told Asharq Al-Awsat: “All countries in the region are aware that the war in Gaza is going through a post-war phase. Changes will be made in the methods of the primary powers in the region. “
These adjustments require life-saving measures that prepare it for a greater role in the future or save any projects that may affect the national security of those countries. He said Turkey is very active in strategic calculations to expand its interests.
However, a Turkish diplomatic source denied that the Turkish army’s operations in Iraq were similar to the scenario in Gaza. He predicted that operations could begin as early as June.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to travel to Baghdad in April. It is preparing to sign an agreement for the creation of a joint operations command center and a buffer zone, “which will well mean that we have reached 0 hours,” Turkish sources said. .
An Iraqi official with the pro-Iran Coordination Framework said Ankara was seeking to turn the PKK’s zones of influence into a “safe zone of partnership” with Iraq and Iran. The Turks have shown “a transparent will on the part of the regional actors involved in this factor to succeed in the post-war phase without tensions”.
Possibly this is why Turkey wields such influence in Iraq. “Turkey will have to prevent the fireball from advancing towards it in a context of such instability in the region,” al-Nujayfi said. That is why he urges Iraq and Syria to “take direct and strong action with them to prevent the PKK from becoming an even more serious crisis. “
Meanwhile, Iraqi resources said Tehran had given its blessing to the Turks to act in Iraq. An Iraqi politician said this was reflected in the PMF’s notable presence at the official consultations that took place between the two countries. The option of an armed confrontation with the PKK in Sinjar remains unresolved, the appeals revealed.
The Turkish army’s plan calls for a large-scale military operation in the mountainous regions of the Kurdistan Region, while Baghdad provides intelligence, maps and data and monitors the border.
However, Sulaymaniyah and Sinjar are located on the outer edge of Turkey’s buffer zone and intersect with Iranian interests, making it not easy for Ankara to reach other political and security agreements related to them.
A Kurdish source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Turks sought to neutralize the PKK in Sulaymaniyah by forging new relations with Bafel Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), exploring partnership opportunities with him, and resolving differences with him. Kurdistan Democratic Party in Erbil.
Al-Nujayfi said it would be difficult for PUK leaders, Talabani added, to confront the agreements reached between the main countries in the region. There is no doubt that the agreements were approved through Iran and approved through Iraq, Turkey, and the official government of Kurdistan.
Sinjar Obstacle
However, the conflict in Sinjar remains an obstacle to regional planning. It will be dealt with through the MFFs, in accordance with the Turkish agreement.
Al-Nujayfi told Asharq Al-Awsat that the influence of Shiite factions is limited to Sinjar and extends to the rest of the Kurdish regions.
The scenario in Sinjar, however, is different. Located on the Turkish-Syrian border, its population is predominantly Yazidi and includes several armed groups. Even the Iraqi army acts as one of the factions present, a local city official said.
He compared Sinjar to Beirut during the Lebanese civil war, where the front lines are very close to each other and armed teams that constitute regional and local interests are on alert.
Over the years, an alliance has developed between the PMF and the PKK and they have formed a “blood brotherhood” in the fight against the extremist organization ISIS, a member of a Shiite faction claimed.
It is unclear how the PMF will neutralize PKK fighters after the last few years of partnership on the ground.
Information about the nature of this alliance varies. Two Shiite faction leaders told Asharq Al-Awsat that the PMF was offering places to PKK leaders in Sinjar, Nineveh and other spaces in exchange for logistical and military services.
According to three sources on the ground, adding the head of a hardline faction in Baghdad, the situation goes “far beyond Iran’s decision to form an alliance between the PMF and the PKK. “
“The PKK is very forceful. Not all Iraqi security agencies have a transparent concept of the party’s strength and weapons,” they revealed, adding that the Iraqi army, under former Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, clashed twice with the PKK in Sinjar. And he was defeated each and every time.
In addition, they claimed that the PKK had established a network of tunnels in Sinjar, especially in the mountainous regions. Local journalists told Asharq Al-Awsat that they already had trucks transporting bulldozers from Sinjar to the spaces where the tunnels are located.
Citizens of Sinjar and members of Shiite factions responded to Asharq Al-Awsat’s questions about the tunnels.
Expert Strength
A prominent politician in Nineveh described the PKK as a “force adept at deploying, mobilizing and consolidating control, so it would be difficult to know how the PMF could neutralize it. “
Al-Nujayfi said that the PKK will be a challenge to Iraq that will weigh on local affairs and that it will therefore want Turkey’s help in dealing with this “internal crisis. “The PKK will eventually realize that it is “nothing more than a pawn. “and a negotiation letter. When it is no longer useful, we will all cooperate to remove it,” he added.
What’s left: How will the PMF neutralize PKK fighters?
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in a recent television interview that it is mandatory to “confront the PKK gunmen as they attack the population of Sinjar. “However, he added that he did not know how to cooperate with Turkey against how the party would play out, or whether the fighters would be expelled or contained.
A Shiite politician said, “Iran’s green kindness is decisive. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he added that Tehran is hoping for a “good deal with Turkey, but it would be a blank check and jeopardize its armed influence in Iraq. “
“Iran is watching and everything can be repositioned depending on how it develops. All we know now is that there is limited regulation in Sinjar,” he said.
Other resources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the PMF would deploy local PKK members among Shiite factions, ending the party’s visual presence. Such a move would ensure the complete domination of Sinjar at the expense of the unbreakable Kurdish forces in the face of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
What does this mean? The PMF will see the Turkish deal as a way to exert influence in a strategic area towards Iraq, Iran and Turkey. In theory, the army’s operation would lead to the expulsion of PKK fighters to the mountainous regions of Kurdistan. It will also merge the Turkish buffer zone with the Iranian zone where Iranian factions are deployed near Syria. Political and diplomatic advisers in Baghdad said everything should go according to plan “unless Tehran presents an unforeseen letter at a decisive moment. “
Ahmed al-Hakim’s 27-year-old brother was tortured to death in militant-ruled northwest Syria, prompting rare protests amid accusations by citizens and activists of rights abuses in the opposition stronghold.
“We protest and rise up against the Assad regime to avoid injustice,” said Hakim, 30, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Now, “we ourselves govern with the same methods,” he told AFP, crouching next to his brother Abdel-Kader’s grave, with flowers and plants deposited in the freshly turned earth.
The 13-year conflict in Syria, triggered by Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protests, has drawn foreign armies and militants and killed more than 500,000 people.
Roughly part of Idlib province and parts of the neighboring provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia are controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an alliance of extremist factions led by the former Syrian group al-Qaeda.
Allegations of torture and rights violations have increased since last year, when HTS introduced a crackdown on alleged “agents” of Damascus or foreign governments.
The War Observatory reported that protests are taking place in cities and towns, especially on Sunday night, when demonstrators chanted slogans against HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.
Jolani said the protesters’ demands were “largely justified” and announced changes, restructuring the security forces that run the prisons.
HTS’s media office told AFP that the organisation was “seriously considering” the protesters’ demands and would “strengthen the work of the security organs (and) the criminal infrastructure. . . to deal with any malfunctions. “
Abdel-Kader surrendered on March 16 last year, “with the promise that he would be released. . . in a week at most,” Hakim said.
After detaining him for several months and claiming he was “in good health,” HTS obstructed the family’s requests for information, according to Hakim.
A few months later, a faction member and a former combatant told his relatives that Abdel-Kader had died as a result of torture.
Family members discovered that his grave “is new, but the date of his death is written about 20 days after his arrest,” Hakim said.
Former detainees told Hakim that his brother “beat him with whistles until he lost consciousness and tied his hands for days without food or water. “
A former detainee said Abdel-Kader was tortured so brutally that he “couldn’t walk because his feet were swollen and full of pus. “
On the day of his death, guards “tortured him for six hours” and, after returning to the cell, “he continued to vomit,” Hakim said.
This grim remedy echoes the torture reported by human rights teams in Syrian government-run prisons since 2011, with tens of thousands of people forcibly disappeared and arbitrarily detained.
Amnesty International accused the government in 2017 of carrying out secret mass hangings at the infamous Saydnaya facility.
The Observatory said HTS released 420 prisoners this month as a result of an amnesty aimed at quelling unrest in the northwest.
But that makes no difference to Noha al-Atrash, 30, whose husband, Ahmed Majluba, has been detained since December 2022 on charges of robbery and bludgeoning an extremist group.
Majluba, a worker, was shot in the leg “during a previous period” while in HTS custody, Atrash said.
“I go to protests, make posters with pictures of my husband and take the children with me,” said Atrash, who covers herself from head to toe with a niqab.
She and her children were detained for about 20 days after harassing the government for information.
During a prison stopover, she discovered that her husband’s hand was damaged and “his face was swollen from the beatings,” she said.
“They asked us to pay $3,000 to release him,” Atrash said, adding that he didn’t have that money.
Bassam Alahmad of the Paris-based Syrians for Truth and Justice said others were “fed up with HTS violations” such as “arbitrary arrests and torture. “
He suggested that families and human rights teams gather independent and credible evidence for possible long-term investigations.
In a camp near the Turkish border, Amina al-Hamam, 70, said her son Ghazwan Hassun was arrested via HTS in 2019 on suspicion of “informing the regime. “
On Hamam’s only stopover (eight months after his arrest), Hassun told his guards that they were employing a method of torture well known in Syria, in which the victim’s hands were tied behind his back and hung for hours.
Family members have not heard from the 39-year-old and so far he has vowed to keep fighting.
“I cry for him and for the day,” Hamam said.
“We’re running away from injustice, we’ve noticed worse things here. “
With the UN Security Council finding it difficult to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza soon and fears of famine are developing, starving civilians in the territory are looking for a wild green plant called Khobiza, for lack of anything else to eat.
It is a reminder of the suffering in the Palestinian enclave in the five months of war since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, when Hamas fighters killed another 1,200 people and took 253 hostages, according to the Israeli count.
The attack provoked a fierce reaction from Israel, which introduced airstrikes and bombardments in Gaza that killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, to the suitability of the enclave’s government — the worst confrontation between Israel and Hamas, the armed organization that controls the territory.
“In all our lives, even in the (previous) wars, we have eaten Khobiza,” said Palestinian Maryam Al-Attar.
“My daughters tell me, ‘Let’s eat bread, Mom. ‘My center is broken by them. “
“I can’t get a piece of bread for them. We’ve discovered Khobiza so far, but in the future, where are we going to get it from?We will miss Khobiza. Where are we going?”
Palestinians are suffering at a time when they observe the holy month of Ramadan, like millions of other Muslims around the world who enjoy giant dinners with relatives and watch TV specials.
“We have fed on hunger. We have nothing to eat. We crave vegetables, fish and meat. We fasted on an empty stomach. We can no longer fast. We are dizzy with hunger. There’s nothing to do. Marco resists,” Oum Mohamed said.
Famine is imminent and is expected to occur during May in northern Gaza and could spread throughout the enclave until July, the global hunger watchdog, known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), said on March 18.
Fears that Kobiza will provide only temporary aid are emerging at a time when uncertainty is growing over the delivery of aid and mediators must narrow differences between Israel and Hamas over the terms of a ceasefire and the release of hostages.
On Monday, an Israeli government spokesman said Israel would prevent collaboration with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip, through Gaza’s largest aid company, accusing the humanitarian company of perpetuating the conflict.
Israel claimed in January that 12 of UNRWA’s 13,000 members in Gaza had participated in the October 7 attack. The Israeli accusations have prompted several donor countries to suspend their funding.
UNRWA fired some of its staff, saying it acted to protect the agency’s ability to provide humanitarian assistance, and an independent internal UN investigation was launched.