Turkiye’s Erdogan wins another term as president

Update Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters following early exit poll results for the second round of the presidential election in Istanbul. (Reuters)
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters following early exit poll results for the second round of the presidential election in Istanbul. (Reuters)
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Updated 28 May 2023
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Turkiye’s Erdogan wins another term as president

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters following early exit poll results.
  • “We will be ruling the country for the coming five years,” Erdogan told his cheering supporters
  • Turkiye’s main cities erupted in jubilation as Erdogan spoke

ISTANBUL: Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won reelection Sunday, extending his increasingly authoritarian rule into a third decade as the country reels from high inflation and the aftermath of an earthquake that leveled entire cities.
A third term gives Erdogan an even stronger hand domestically and internationally, and the election results will have implications far beyond Ankara. Turkiye stands at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, and it plays a key role in NATO.
With more than 99 percent of ballot boxes opened, unofficial results from competing news agencies showed Erdogan with 52 percent of the vote, compared with 48 percent for his challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. The head of Turkiye’s electoral board confirmed the victory, saying that even after accounting for outstanding votes, the result was another term for Erdogan.
In his first comments since the polls closed, Erdogan thanked the nation for entrusting him with the presidency for five more years.
“We hope to be worthy of your trust, as we have been for 21 years,” he told supporters on a campaign bus outside his home in Istanbul.
He ridiculed his challenger for his loss, saying “bye bye bye, Kemal,” as supporters booed.
“The only winner today is Turkiye,” Erdogan said, promising to work hard for Turkiye’s second century. The country marks its centennial this year. “No one can look down on our nation.”
Kilicdaroglu campaigned on promises to reverse Erdogan’s democratic backsliding, to restore the economy by reverting to more conventional policies, and to improve ties with the West. He said the election was “the most unjust ever,” with all state resources mobilized for Erdogan.
“We will continue to be at the forefront of this struggle until real democracy comes to our country,” he said in Ankara. He thanked the more than 25 million people who voted for him and asked them to “remain upright.”
The people have shown their will “to change an authoritarian government despite all the pressures,” he said.
Supporters of Erdogan, a divisive populist, were celebrating even before the final results arrived, waving Turkish or ruling party flags, and honking car horns and chanting his name. Celebratory gunfire was heard in several Istanbul neighborhoods.
Erdogan’s government vetoed Sweden’s bid to join NATO and purchased Russian missile-defense systems, which prompted the United States to oust Turkiye from a US-led fighter-jet project. But Turkiye also helped broker a crucial deal that allowed Ukrainian grain shipments and averted a global food crisis.
Steven A. Cook, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations, said Turkiye was likely to “move the goal post” on Sweden’s membership in NATO as it seeks demands from the United States.
He also said Erdogan, who has spoken about introducing a new constitution, was likely to make an even greater push for it.
“It would be a constitution that would be less democratic” and would seek to lock in the changes overseen by Erdogan’s conservative and religious Justice and Development Party, or AKP, Cook said.
Erdogan, who has been at Turkiye’s helm for 20 years, came just short of victory in the first round of elections on May 14. It was the first time he failed to win an election outright, but he made up for it Sunday.
His performance came despite crippling inflation and the effects of a devastating earthquake three months ago.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Erdogan, along with leaders in Qatar, Venezuela, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Libya, Algeria, Serbia and Uzbekistan.
The two candidates offered sharply different visions of the country’s future, and its recent past.
Critics blame Erdogan’s unconventional economic policies for skyrocketing inflation that has fueled a cost-of-living crisis. Many also faulted his government for a slow response to the earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people in Turkiye.
Erdogan has retained the backing of conservative voters who remain devoted to him for lifting Islam’s profile in the Turkiye, which was founded on secular principles, and for raising the country’s influence in world politics.
In Ankara, Erdogan voter Hacer Yalcin said Turkiye’s future was great. “Of course Erdogan is the winner ... Who else? He has made everything for us,” Yalcin said. “God blesses us!”
Erdogan, a 69-year-old Muslim, is set to remain in power until 2028.
He transformed the presidency from a largely ceremonial role to a powerful office through a narrowly won 2017 referendum that scrapped Turkiye’s parliamentary system of governance. He was the first directly elected president in 2014, and won the 2018 election that ushered in the executive presidency.
The first half of Erdogan’s tenure included reforms that allowed the country to begin talks to join the European Union, and economic growth that lifted many out of poverty. But he later moved to suppress freedoms and the media and concentrated more power in his own hands, especially after a failed coup attempt that Turkiye says was orchestrated by the US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. The cleric denies involvement.
Erdogan’s rival was a soft-mannered former civil servant who has led the pro-secular Republican People’s Party, or CHP, since 2010.
In a frantic effort to reach out to nationalist voters in the runoff, Kilicdaroglu vowed to send back refugees and ruled out peace negotiations with Kurdish militants if he is elected.
In Kurdish-majority Diyarbakir, 37-year-old metalworker Ahmet Koyun said everyone would have to accept the results.
“It is sad on behalf of our people that a government with such corruption, such stains, has come into power again. Mr. Kemal would have been great for our country, at least for a change of scene,” he said.
Erdogan’s AKP party and its allies retained a majority of seats in parliament following a legislative election that was also held on May 14.
Sunday also marked the 10th anniversary of the start of mass anti-government protests that broke out over plans to uproot trees in Istanbul’s Gezi Park, and became one of the most serious challenges to Erdogan’s government.
Erdogan’s response to the protests, in which eight people were convicted, was a harbinger of a crackdown on civil society and freedom of expression.
Following the May 14 vote, international observers pointed to the criminalization of dissemination of false information and online censorship as evidence that Erdogan had an “unjustified advantage.” They also said that strong turnout showed the resilience of Turkish democracy.
Erdogan and pro-government media portrayed Kilicdaroglu, who received the backing of the country’s pro-Kurdish party, as colluding with “terrorists” and of supporting what they described as “deviant” LGBTQ rights.


US exhibit of sphinx with African features angers Egyptian experts

US exhibit of sphinx with African features angers Egyptian experts
Updated 9 sec ago
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US exhibit of sphinx with African features angers Egyptian experts

US exhibit of sphinx with African features angers Egyptian experts
  • An exhibition at the Leiden Museum in the Netherlands recently caused a stir by linking hip-hop music with pharaonic coffins and statues, aiming to show the influence of ancient Egypt on artists of African descent

CAIRO: A statue of a sphinx featuring a head with African characteristics has sparked anger in Egypt after it was placed on display at a leading US museum.

The installation, crafted by American artist and activist Lauren Halsey, is on show at the Metropolitan Museum in New York as part of an exhibit that opened in April 2023 and is due to close in October.

Leading Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass described the sculpture as “a distortion of history and a complete falsification.”

“It is a shame that the museum, which is well-versed in the history of Egypt, allowed its trustees to carry out this farce,” he told Arab News.

Mahmoud Darwish, professor of archaeology at Minya University, said: “Unfortunately, there has been no move to address the controversy.”

The 36-year-old Halsey plans to display the artwork at various locations in the US, Darwish added.

Hussein Dakil, an archaeology expert, said the controversy raises questions about the “cloning” of ancient artifacts.

He said the practice violates Egyptian law, but cannot be enforced internationally.

However, Dakil said that international agreements such as the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention could offer a framework for resolving such issues.

“Countries, including Egypt, can demand compliance with the UNESCO convention, offering a potential solution for removing and preventing such replicas,” he said.

This is not the first time that the intersection of contemporary culture and ancient Egyptian artifacts has raised eyebrows.

An exhibition at the Leiden Museum in the Netherlands recently caused a stir by linking hip-hop music with pharaonic coffins and statues, aiming to show the influence of ancient Egypt on artists of African descent.

Photos of Beyonce as Queen Nefertiti and a video of Rihanna dancing in front of the pyramids have also sparked a backlash.

The latest controversy comes on the heels of a Netflix documentary about Cleopatra featuring a dark-skinned actress in the title role.

The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities condemned the casting, saying that Cleopatra was “light-skinned with Greek features,” and criticized the film as an attempt to endorse an “Afrocentric” perspective.

 

 


Lawsuit filed to halt Mubarak sons from contesting elections

Lawsuit filed to halt Mubarak sons from contesting elections
Updated 1 min 31 sec ago
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Lawsuit filed to halt Mubarak sons from contesting elections

Lawsuit filed to halt Mubarak sons from contesting elections
  • The lawsuit accuses them of illicit gains, and seeks the recovery of smuggled funds from across the world
  • Apart from preventing their candidacy, Ismail’s legal action calls for the recovery of funds that have allegedly been smuggled abroad

CAIRO: Abdel Salam Ibrahim Ismail, director of the National Center for Citizenship and Human Rights Support, has filed a lawsuit aimed at preventing Alaa and Gamal Mubarak, the sons of Egypt’s late President Hosni Mubarak, from running for any high-ranking office in the country.
The lawsuit accuses them of illicit gains, and seeks the recovery of smuggled funds from across the world.
Ismail said that he filed an urgent lawsuit in which he demanded the cancelation of the justice minister’s decision to refuse to open a probe against Mubarak’s sons, in accordance with Article 44 of Law 20 of 1977.
Apart from preventing their candidacy, Ismail’s legal action calls for the recovery of funds that have allegedly been smuggled abroad.
He said that these funds belong to the Egyptian people and should be reclaimed, whether they are in the form of real estate, liquid assets or deposits in Egyptian or foreign banks.
Ismail added that these funds should be handed over to the Ministry of Finance to contribute to the state’s general treasury.
He said his lawsuit is driven by a sense of responsibility toward safeguarding the Egyptian people’s money.
“This request of mine has nothing to do with the approaching presidential elections in 2024, but rather a citizen’s care for the Egyptian people’s money that was plundered by symbols of Mubarak’s state,” Ismail said.
However, Ammar Ali Hassan, a researcher in political sociology, raised doubts in a post on X, pointing out that neither Alaa nor Gamal Mubarak had applied for any political positions.
“What would happen if the court permitted them to run for office, potentially opening the door to their political participation,” he said.
The legal saga traces its roots back to May 2015 when an Egyptian court sentenced Mubarak and his sons to three years in prison.
They were also fined about 126 million Egyptian pounds ($4 million) and ordered to return about 21 million Egyptian pounds.
This ruling followed their conviction for embezzling public funds in the widely known “presidential palaces” case.
The court of cassation upheld the ruling, making it final in January 2016.
A legal expert, who chose anonymity, highlighted the complexities in the case.
He said Law 22 of 2014, enacted during the era of interim President Adly Mansour, stipulates that anyone running for the presidency must not have been convicted of a felony or a crime against honor or trust, even if their reputation has been restored. The interpretation of this law remains a point of contention among legal experts.


Turkish authorities warn unregistered Syrians to leave Istanbul

Turkish authorities warn unregistered Syrians to leave Istanbul
Updated 5 min 3 sec ago
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Turkish authorities warn unregistered Syrians to leave Istanbul

Turkish authorities warn unregistered Syrians to leave Istanbul
  • The government needs ‘new strategy because current harmonization plan not paying off,’ analyst says

ANKARA: Against a backdrop of increasing anti-migrant sentiment in Turkiye, the Ministry of Interior has instructed unregistered Syrian residents of Istanbul that, unless they leave the city by Sunday Sept. 24, they will face “severe sanctions.” Syrians who had previously registered in other Turkish provinces are required to return to their original places of registration.

In recent months, Turkish authorities have intensified their efforts to crack down on illegal migrants in Istanbul, which currently hosts more than 500,000 Syrian refugees, the most of any city in Turkiye. Many of the refugees were registered in locations outside of Istanbul, but came to the city in search of employment.

Syrians who fled the provinces in which they were registered after the devastating earthquake in February and were subsequently granted travel permits to Istanbul are exempt from the ministry’s orders.

Sinem Adar, an associate at the Center for Applied Turkey Studies in the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, noted that similar restrictive measures have been imposed in the past.

“In 2019, the Ministry of Interior told Syrian refugees who were not registered in Istanbul to return to the districts where they were initially registered,” she told Arab News. “The fact that a similar measure is now being implemented — four years later — is a sign that the earlier efforts were not successful.”

As of Sept. 14, Turkiye is home to approximately 3.2 million Syrians with temporary protection permits, down 19,100 from the previous month’s figures.

According to Adar, public pressure and its own policies mean Turkiye’s ruling government is keen to repatriate at least some of the Syrian refugees as soon as possible.

“Ankara has been trying to create a safe zone in Northern Syria,” Adar says, “while also attempting to foster a reconciliation with Bashar Assad.”

Turkish President Recep Erdogan promised ahead of elections back in May that he would repatriate a million Syrian refugees. He has also unveiled plans for the development of new residential, agricultural and industrial projects — financed by Qatar — in northwest Syria, where Turkish troops are stationed, to accommodate the resettlement of Syrian refugees from Turkiye over the next three years.

This initiative — dubbed “The Aleppo Model” — will also encourage businesses in Turkish provinces bordering Syria to engage in commercial activities within Syrian safe zones, thereby generating employment opportunities for local residents. However, progress remains sluggish due to the protracted reconciliation process between Ankara and Damascus.

“Unfortunately, a Syrian’s fate relies on procedural arbitrariness,” Omar Kadkoy, a migration policy analyst at Ankara-based think tank TEPAV, told Arab News. “The mere fact that a documented Syrian is present in a province other than that (in which they were initially registered) does not constitute sufficient grounds for deportation (in either) domestic or international law. The authorities, however, could arbitrarily link one’s presence outside the province of registration to other activities, like being a threat to the public, for which deportation could qualify as a legal procedure. So, an apprehended Syrian relies on luck instead of rule of law to appeal the decision.”

Official statistics show that around 554,000 Syrian refugees have returned to their homeland voluntarily, but Adar said it is difficult to discern whether they all truly chose to return, as there have been allegations of refugees being pressured to sign up for “voluntary” return, as well as reports of increased deportations. “Forced return cannot be excluded,” she said.

As many in Turkiye grow increasingly resentful of the large number of refugees in the country amid its ongoing economic crisis, Syrian refugees are once again being made scapegoats by nationalist campaigns ahead of local elections in March 2024. “Gitmeliler” (They Should Go) has been trending on social media site X.

According to analyst Kadkoy, this is a recurring theme. Similar events occurred before the local elections in 2019, he noted.

“The public are living through the effects of unorthodox monetary policy, the pandemic and the recent earthquake on the economy, and blame Syrians for the economic woes,” he said.

The government, in response, “tightens measures against Syrians as a quick relief. This is insufficient and unsustainable,” he continued.

“The local elections are six months away. We are likely to see similar measures in other provinces as well. These measures are short-term fixes.”

He said the government “must seriously discuss and work on a new strategy because the current harmonization plan is not paying off.”

The analyst added: “This is particularly important since the prospects of large-scale voluntary repatriation are rather low without political transition in Syria.”

Adar underscored the delicate balancing act the ruling Justice and Development Party faces as it attempts to address societal discontent by returning some refugees to Syria while maintaining harmonious relations with Turkiye’s Arab population.

Several Turkish journalists and a number of other citizens have been detained recently for their anti-refugee social media posts, accused of inciting hatred and hate speech. Three journalists were arrested on Saturday morning.

“Ramping up measures against Syrian refugees while simultaneously punishing anti-refugee views is a strategy aimed at appealing to various interests,” Adar said.

The recent serious assault of Kuwaiti tourist Mohammed Al-Ajmi in the northeastern city of Trabzon, which left him comatose with four broken teeth, was a reminder of rising anti-Arab sentiment in the country, stoked by the influx of Syrian refugees.

 

 


Somalia liberated over 45 percent of Al-Shabab-controlled areas in under a year: PM

Somalia liberated over 45 percent of Al-Shabab-controlled areas in under a year: PM
Updated 11 min 56 sec ago
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Somalia liberated over 45 percent of Al-Shabab-controlled areas in under a year: PM

Somalia liberated over 45 percent of Al-Shabab-controlled areas in under a year: PM
  • Hamza Abdi Barre calls for lifting of arms embargo ‘to combat terrorism more effectively’
  • Palestinians’ plight ‘continues to be a source of shame to us all,’ he tells UN General Assembly

NEW YORK: Somalia has managed in under a year to liberate more than 45 percent of the areas formerly held by the terrorist Al-Shabab group, Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said on Saturday.
Addressing the 78th UN General Assembly, he called for “the complete and unconditional removal of the arms embargo” that has been imposed by the Security Council since 1992.
“Lifting this embargo would allow us to combat terrorism more effectively and build a peaceful and prosperous future for our people,” he said.
The arms embargo on Somalia has been the world’s “longest-lasting … widest and most comprehensive,” he added.
Barre said his country has “dealt with an iron fist with extremism,” employing a “successful campaign” encompassing military, financial and ideological measures.
He emphasized that Somalia today has “necessary administrative systems that are strict in controlling possession, use and storage of firearms.”
Somalia launched the first phase of its military offensive against the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab in August last year.
The second phase was announced last month, with the military collaborating with clan-based militias in central Somalia.
Barre stressed the need to establish a similar approach in dealing with terrorism worldwide. “We must guarantee the effective integration of local communities in a manner that protects their rights by offering justice and upholding the rule of law,” he said.
Citing recent extreme climate events and rising temperatures, Barre stressed the need for collective action to address climate change.
He said “it’s a great injustice for Somalia,” a nation that “had the least to do with carbon emissions globally,” to bear the brunt of the negative impact of climate change.
“In the past years, Somalia has been the victim of a vicious cycle of prolonged droughts and destructive floods that have killed thousands and displaced millions,” he added, urging the international community to support the country in tackling climate change.
“There’s no poorer country — compared to where it was in the 1960s — than Somalia,” he said. “Despite this, Somalia in the last decade has made tangible progress toward peace and stability. We’ve started to witness qualitative and tangible socioeconomic growth.”
Barre said his country looks forward to achieving social and economic progress free from security threats, calling for “an immediate and comprehensive cessation of violence and destruction.”
He said the plight of the Palestinians “continues to be a source of shame to us all.” Barre pledged continued solidarity with them, and called for the adoption of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict along the pre-June 1967 borders.
Describing the world as “fragmented on one end and unequal on the other,” he called for reform of multilateral institutions such as the UN and development banks “because these establishments and their current structures are no longer fit for purpose.”


Lebanese army says it exchanged tear gas, smoke bomb fire with Israel

Lebanese army says it exchanged tear gas, smoke bomb fire with Israel
Updated 23 September 2023
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Lebanese army says it exchanged tear gas, smoke bomb fire with Israel

Lebanese army says it exchanged tear gas, smoke bomb fire with Israel
  • “Elements of the Israeli enemy violated the withdrawal line and fired smoke bombs at a Lebanese army patrol,” the Lebanese army said
  • The Israeli military said it was Lebanon that started the violence

CAIRO: Lebanon’s army said it fired tear gas at Israeli forces over the border on Saturday in response to smoke bombs fired at its troops, though Israel said Lebanon started the confrontation.
Tensions have flared along the frontier this summer, with rockets fired at Israel during flare-ups of Israeli-Palestinian violence, and members of the heavily armed Lebanese group Hezbollah or its supporters facing off with Israeli forces.
“Elements of the Israeli enemy violated the withdrawal line and fired smoke bombs at a Lebanese army patrol that was accompanying a bulldozer removing an earthen berm erected by the Israeli enemy north of the withdrawal line, the blue line, in the Bastra area,” the Lebanese army said in a statement.
The current demarcation line between the two countries is known as the Blue Line, a frontier mapped by the United Nations that marks the line to which Israeli forces withdrew when they left south Lebanon in 2000.
“The Lebanese patrol responded to the attack by firing tear bombs ... forcing them to withdraw to the occupied Palestinian territories,” Lebanon’s army added.
The Israeli military said it was Lebanon that started the violence.
“A short while ago, IDF soldiers spotted an engineering vehicle’s shovel crossing the Blue Line from Lebanon into Israeli territory in the area of Mount Dov,” a statement from the military said. “In response, IDF soldiers used riot dispersal means.”
“The vehicle returned to Lebanese territory,” the military said.
UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in the area, said there had been tension on Saturday.
“UNIFIL is in touch with the parties to decrease tensions and prevent a misunderstanding. At the moment we are on the ground, monitoring the situation and trying to bring calm back to the area,” spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said.