The authoritarian, Islamist leader of the Republic of Turkey delivered a shot in the arm to embattled Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin this week, by threatening to block the accession of Finland and Sweden to the NATO military alliance.

Some observers believe Russian influence with Ankara could be one of the factors behind Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s declaration regarding the two Nordic nations, and not just Turkish complaints against them being a kind of haven for Kurdish refugees, which it views as terrorists.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine Turkey has not sanctioned Russia, unlike most NATO members who have. It has reportedly become a safe haven for Russian oligarch money and it has already thumbed its nose up to the U.S. when it purchased Russia S-400 air missile defense system which led to U.S. sanctions in 2020.

RUSSIAN S-400 DEFENSE SYSTEMS ARRIVE IN TURKEY AFTER U.S. WARNS OF SANCTIONS

U.S. officials raised alarm bells that the S-400 deal with Russia could endanger NATO security and jeopardize American-Turkey intelligence sharing.

Marshall Billingslea, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former assistant Secretary General of NATO, told Fox News Digital, “It is important to understand that Turkey is playing the same game today that it is always has played in the region with respect to Turkey taking stances that benefits its own interests and run counter to NATO’s.”

He continued that Ankara is an “independent actor and took stances that had benefits for the Russians,” Billingslea said. He cited one telling example when Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and Turkey closed access to the Black Sea. The closure prevented U.S. naval vessels from aiding Georgia.

However, Turkey’s independence of action also means it delivered drones to Ukraine, the NATO expert noted. The Turks work “to benefit their interests,” he said.

Theodore Karasik, a fellow on Russian and Middle Eastern Affairs at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, told Fox News Digital that Turkey wants to “avoid being on Russia’s target list later.”

Erdogan recently announced the return of Syrian refugees living in Turkey back to their country, and Russia’s cooperation is necessary for this due to its strong presence in the Syrian Arab Republic, noted Karasik.

PUTIN LAYS OUT HIS DEMANDS FOR CEASEFIRE IN CALL WITH TURKEY’S PRESIDENT

The Turkish and Russian “struggle over shipping issues” could be an additional worry for Erdogan, said Karasik. If the Western powers sanction Russian vessels, Ankara could be confronted with demands to close the vital Dardanelles shipping route to Russia’s maritime industry,” he continued.

Karasik added that Erdogan is “using the Finnish and Swedish applications to garner favors from other countries so Turkey benefits in the end.”

Erdogan’s efforts to destabilize the NATO alliance gained traction after a segment of the Turkish military launched an unsuccessful coup against him in 2016.

TURKEY SENTENCES FORMER SOLDIERS TO LIFE OVER FAILED COUP ATTEMPT AGAINST ERDOGAN

Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Mehmet Yalinalp, who was dismissed from the military following the failed coup while he was serving as the head of NATO’s air command strategy in Germany, whose email was recently quoted in a book, titled “Erdogan Rising: A Warning To Europe,” by Hannah Lucinda-Smith, where he noted the change of views on NATO: “As the historical purge of thousands of military personnel takes a faster speed, I and my Turkish colleagues observe a considerable rise of ultra-nationalist, anti-western sentiments within our military and throughout our state departments.”

Yalinalp noted that new Turkish military personnel in NATO “have a radical mindset, some question the values of NATO and even hate Western organizations, while holding pro-Russia/China/Iran sentiments.”

Burak Bekdil is prominent Turkish political columnist who wrote for Hurriyet Daily News for 29 years, and is now a fellow for the Middle East Forum, told Fox News Digital : “I called Erdogan Putin’s man in NATO though there are nuances to my more ideological assessment. Erdogan feels at home comfort when he deals with authoritarian leaders like himself, instead of liberal democrats who remind him of Turkey’s widening democratic deficit.”

Bekdil, who was fired from Hurriyet Daily News in 2017, for writing critical articles about Turkey on a US news site, added that” There is also a transactional Erdogan who is programmed to use the West and its institutions, including NATO, where it’s useful and confronting them when that is useful. Despite the transaction-himself, Erdogan has been Putin’s man in NATO, too, for ideological reasons as well: His ideological raison d’etre is pillared on a rigid anti-West thinking.”

TURKEY RISKS ‘HISTORIC’ SWEDEN, FINLAND NATO BID BY PRIORITIZING POLITICAL AGENDA

Some commentators say enough is enough and Turkey should be kicked out of NATO. Daniel Pipes, the president of the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia, said recently, “I don’t think Turkey belongs in NATO. I’ve been saying this for a decade.

“It is time to expel Turkey from NATO. Let it go to Russia, let it go to China. Good riddance,” Pipes declared.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/turkey-russias-secret-weapon-inside-nato

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BERLIN — Tareq Alaows was hoping to become the first Syrian refugee to win a seat in Germany’s parliament when the country goes to the polls in September.

Speaking to NPR in February after announcing his candidacy with the Green Party, the 31-year-old lawyer and human rights activist from Damascus was full of ambition to help make Germany a better place.

“From my own experience as an asylum-seeker, I know that Germany needs to improve its integration policies, because they impact everyone, not just refugees,” he said. “I want to effect change for everyone in Germany.”

When Alaows fled the war in Syria in 2015, he thought he was leaving the threat of violence behind him. “The whole reason I came to Europe was so that I could live in safety and with dignity,” he said.

That has not come to pass. Citing death threats and a racist offensive against him and people close to him, Alaows withdrew his candidacy to represent the constituency of Oberhausen, in North Rhine-Westphalia state, in parliament on March 30.

The intolerance and intimidation Alaows faces have been widely condemned but are nothing new for Muslim and nonwhite public figures, or for politicians who openly support refugees. His dramatic campaign ending follows a rise of ethnic discrimination and violence in Germany in recent years, according to the government’s Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency.

“We have a problem with racism”

Lamya Kaddor, at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2016, is running to represent a Duisburg district in September’s election as a Green Party candidate. She was born in Germany to parents who came from Syria decades ago. Alexander Koerner/Getty Images for Brigitte

Alaows is not currently talking to the press, although he has spoken to Green Party candidate Lamya Kaddor.

“I wasn’t surprised by the threats and abuse pitted at Tareq, but I think he was,” Kaddor said. “We have a problem with racism in this country, and not just with far-right extremists. Racism is widespread, even in the middle of society.”

Kaddor, who is running to represent a Duisburg district in the September election, said she too faces racism daily. She was born in Germany to parents who came from Syria several decades ago. She vows she won’t let intimidation stop her election campaign.

“I’m used to a certain level of hatred and hostility. It doesn’t scare me anymore,” Kaddor said. “But it’s frightening for Tareq, who’s experiencing such vehement racist abuse for the first time.”

Like Kaddor, journalist Ferda Ataman was saddened but not surprised by Alaows’ decision.

“Being the target of racist abuse and threats myself, I fully understand why Tareq Alaows has stepped down,” said Ataman, who was born in Germany after her parents emigrated from Turkey. “But it’s very bitter news. Effectively, he’s unable to take part in our democratic process, which is a damning verdict on our society.”

Ataman, who wrote the book Ich bin von hier. Hört auf zu fragen! (I’m From Here. Stop Asking!), is the director of Neue deutsche Medienmacher, an organization that advocates for diversity in the media and politics and offers support to journalists facing racist threats. She said they have a long way to go.

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São Paulo – The Arab immigration to Brazil has gone through moments of large and small influxes since the late 19^th century. But it has never stopped. Directly related to exoduses ushered in by conflicts and instabilities in the source countries, the immigration is also linked to the presence of descendants in Brazilian cities and government initiatives to welcome them.

A professor of Contemporary History at the History Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Murilo Meihy says that there Arab immigration to Brazil is not recent. “It never ends; it’s cyclic and connected to the conflicts in the Middle East. Brazil is a destination as it already has an integrated network that keeps this influx alive,” he says.

A professor of History of Asia at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) and author of the book Imigração Árabe no Brasil: história de vida de libaneses muçulmanos e cristãos [Arab Immigration to Brazil: Life Story of Muslin and Christian Lebanese], Samira Adel Osman also notes the conflicts in the region have been the major driver for immigrants.

Refugees: Conflicts lead to exoduses

“Examples can be local or regional issues, such as when Christians came in the late 19^th century due to the crackdown by the Ottoman Empire (which included Lebanon and Syria at the time) or religious conflicts among Druses and Maronites; world wars are another reason, as the poor living conditions and the presence of the European powers in the region drove other influxes. The Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) can also be mentioned as a local factor, as can the Syrian Civil War that’s been ongoing since 2011,” says Osman. Over the last years, the Arab immigration to Brazil takes on another dimension: the refugees.

According to data gathered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and made public by Brazil’s Ministry of Justice, in 2019 there was 79.5 million forcedly displaced people around the world, including 45.7 million internally displaced people; 20.4 million were refugees under a UNHCR mandate; 5.6 million under a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)’s mandate; 4.2 million asylum seekers; and 3.6 million were displaced Venezuelans living abroad.

According to Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security, the number of Syrian asylum seekers in the country – most of them are Arabs – reached 429 in 2019. In the same year, the country received 229 asylum requests from Morocco and 196 from Lebanon.

ADUS Institute refugee service coordinator Laura Lopes says the NGO has recorded a large influx of Syrian refugees from 2013 to 2014, but this influx has decreased over the years. The reason, she says, could be financial as leaving Syria for Brazil has a higher cost than seeking refugee in closer countries, such as Turkey and Jordan.

“Brazil has adopted policies to receive Syrian refugees during the peak of the crisis and presented itself as a welcoming country. But there’s no structure for integration in our society,” says Laura. In 2020, 27 Syrian refugees were registered at ADUS, while 2013 and 2014 had seen 300 refugees assisted by the institute, which offers training courses, legal advice, and Portuguese classes, among other support activities.

Statistics

The number of Arabs that have migrated to Brazil is controversial. Osman mentions figures from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showing that 1940 around 40,000 Syrian and Lebanese immigrants arrived in Brazil, a number that hasn’t stopped growing since.

Immigrants settled on the 25 de Março street: Statistics on the arrivals are controversial

“The statistics are controversial, particularly from the perspective of a historical evaluation of this migration flow. The major problem refers to the way these immigrants were registered, with no standardization. The official data may show them as Turkish, Arab Turkish, non-Arab Turkish, Syrians, Lebanese, Syrian Lebanese, Syrians and Lebanese, Arabs. We can only be sure that, from the late 19^th-century to the end of the 1^st World War they were registered as Turkish because the Ottoman Empire issued the passports. The source region (Lebanon or Syria) wasn’t always specified. Moreover, people from those places could also be Armenians or Jews,” says Osman.

Last July, the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) released a survey carried out by Ibope Inteligência and H2R Pesquisas Avançadas on the Arab Immigrants. The study showed that in 2020 11.6 million Arabs and descendants lived in Brazil – 10% of them are immigrants, and 41% are grandchildren of immigrants.

The future

As it has occurred in the last couple of years, the Arab immigration to Brazil tends to continue, alternating between higher and lower influxes.

“Some regions of Lebanon, such as the Beqaa Valley have entire families in Brazil, with branches that have formed due to the instability in the country,” says Meihy. “And since this flow is historic, it can be expected to remain. After all, there’s a heritage involved, ties between both countries.”

Altinawi (L) with his family and friends: In Brazil people help each other

Meanwhile, those that are already here try and build a life. In 2013, the 48-years-old Syrian engineer Talal Altinawi (pictured above) came to São Paulo with his wife and two kids. He was one among so many refugees that had to leave their homes during the conflict that’s ravaged the country since 2011. He went through Lebanon before arriving in São Paulo.

“The advantage of being here in Brazil is that people really help each other and are pleased to so. That doesn’t happen in every country,” he says. Since arriving in Brazil, Altinawi has sold food on demand, opened a restaurant after an online crowdfunding, and then closed the restaurant two years later.

Altinawi lived in Brás, a district located immediately to the historic downtown. Now, in Campo Belo, he sells food to order in a process he describes as building his life in Brazil. “The downside here, and not only here, is that the financial crisis hinders our growth.” With the pandemic, difficulties increased: “We were getting steady, growing even, but the pandemic got in the way. We are not yet as we’d like to be, but we’re trying,” he says.

Despite the many challenges, Altinawi settled in Brazil. Now, his older children are 18 and 15. And the youngest, who was born in São Paulo, is six. “I’m going back to Syria one day to visit the country, but not to live there. I belong in Brazil now,” he says.

*Special report by Marcos Carrieri.

Translated by Guilherme Miranda

Source: https://anba.com.br/en/influx-of-arab-immigrants-to-brazil-remains-constant/

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Here are some numbers: 

Human cost

387,000: people killed since the start of the war in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

Almost 5.6 million: fled abroad, mostly to the neighbouring countries of Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, UN refugee agency statistics show.

Of those, more than one million Syrian refugee children have been born in exile over the past decade.

6.7 million: people displaced from their homes by fighting inside Syria, many living in camps, says the UN humanitarian agency.

Around 13.4 million people in the country require humanitarian assistance.

Some 100,000 people have died of torture in government-run prisons and around 100,000 are still in jail, the Observatory says.

Some 200,000 people have gone missing, according to the war monitor.

More than eight years and six months: since American freelance journalist Austin Tice went missing on 14 August, 2012.

More than 8 years and 3 months: since British Sunday Times journalist John Cantlie was kidnapped by the Islamic State jihadist group in northern Syria on 22 November 2012.

Chemical weapons

38: instances of the use of chemical weapons, of which 32 were attributed to Syrian government forces, according to the UN.

Around 1,400: people killed in one single alleged regime chemical attack in 2013, according to the United States.

Fragmented country

Ten years of fighting have irreversibly changed Syria’s map and the lives of more than 20 million people who still live in the country.

More than 13 million people live in areas held by the regime, which now controls more than 60% of Syria, according to UN and Observatory figures respectively.

Some 2.9 million live in a northwest region controlled by Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate and allied rebel groups, the UN estimates.

Around 2.6 million live in Kurdish-controlled areas in the northeast.

Around 1.3 million reside in northern areas held by Turkish troops and their Syrian proxies near the border with Turkey.

Ravaged economy

€1 trillion: economic cost of ten years of war, according to the World Vision charity.

€77bn in revenue has been lost from hydrocarbons, Syria’s oil minister said in February.

Around 400 barrels per day of oil were produced before the war, but just 89 bpd were produced in 2020. Of this, up to 80 bpd was in Kurdish areas outside regime control, the oil minister said.

98%: devaluation of the Syrian pound to the dollar on the black market over the past decade.

33 times higher: food prices across the country, compared to the five-year pre-war average, the UN food agency says.

Six times higher: price of subsidized bread in government-held areas compared to 2011.

12.4 million people inside Syria are struggling to find enough food each day, the World Food Programme says.

More than 60% of children in Syria are facing hunger, British charity Save the Children says.

Two million: Syrians estimated to live in extreme poverty, the UN says.

Battered infrastructure

70% of electricity network substations and fuel supply lines were put out of service due to the war, the electricity ministry said in 2019.

70% of healthcare workers have fled the conflict, while only 58% of hospitals are fully functional, the UN says.

A third of schools are in ruins or have been commandeered by fighters, according to the UN children’s agency.

Over 2.4 million children inside of Syria are out of school, UNICEF says.

---

Source: Ten years on: Syria’s war in numbers

Source: https://www.syriahr.com/en/208791/

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After a year of invasions, attacks, aggression, ethnic-cleansing, using Syrian refugees as mercenaries, buying Russian defense technology and working with Iran to oppose the US role in Syria, Turkey’s regime is trying to change its tune to sabotage Israel’s growing friendship with Greece and the UAE.

Ankara has worked closely with western lobbyists and experts who it has cultivated over the years to push this narrative. It is a sophisticated attempt aimed at trying to convince Israel’s government that Ankara wants a new leaf in relations, but Ankara refuses to change and merely wants to muddy the waters between Israel and Jerusalem’s partners in the region.

The push began at Israel HaYom, a newspaper Ankara assumes is read by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and which it thinks is a line directly into Israel’s right-leaning ruling politicians. Turkey watched closely the US election, afraid of president-elect Joe Biden after having poured support towards the Trump administrations.

Between December 5 and 6 articles appeared in Hebrew and then English suggesting that Turkey wanted reconciliation with Israel after a decade in which Ankara’s increasingly anti-Israel regime had hosted Hamas and compared Israel to the Nazis. The “reconciliation” would involve Turkey getting everything it wanted and ruining Israel’s relations with Greece and Cyprus.

Israel had signed a gas pipeline deal with Greece and Cyprus this year and Turkey wants to sabotage that. So “reconciliation” would mean Israel losing allies and Turkey hosting Hamas terrorists and calling Israel a nazi country. Turkey would get everything. Israel: Nothing.

Turkey also pushed this story via Al-Monitor, with an article claiming shared interests on Iran and in the Caucasus push Israel and Turkey closer. In fact Turkey often welcomes Iran regime figures and with Iran it supports Hamas and vows to “liberate” Jerusalem. There is no evidence Israel and Turkey have any shared interests on Iran. But the article claimed “secret contacts between Turkey and Israel.”

There was. No evidence of these supposedly “secret” contacts except Turkey purposely leaking this to make it seem Israel was ready to do Ankara’s bidding. This is the same Turkish regime that said “Jerusalem is ours” and frequently bashes Israel. The regime has never said anything positive about Israel in the last decade. An article on November 30 at Al-Monitor also suggested a “secret channel.” If it’s secret why is Turkey talking so much about it to journalists?

Nevertheless, the willing lobbyists who work on Ankara’s behalf pushed this narrative, complete with maps made in Turkey printed in Israeli media and think tanks. The maps showed Turkey controlling waters off Cyprus and even maybe carving away part of Israel’s Exclusive Economic Zone. This would be “reconciliation” by way of surrendering Israel’s decades of work on gas development at sea and Israel’s work with Cyprus, Greece, and Egypt. Israel’s work with Greece is also linked to the new peace with the UAE because the UAE and Greece are increasing cooperation.

Turkey’s regime led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan has roots in the Muslim Brotherhood and is the main opponent of Egypt’s current leadership. Turkey even threatened to break relations with the UAE for normalizing ties with Israel. Ankara has worked to isolate Israel and stop normalization, threatening countries that work with Israel. This is part of Turkey’s “reconciliation.”

Ankara also pretended it was willing to “mend fences” by appointing a new envoy who is known for anti-Israel and anti-Zionist views. Reports last week said Turkey had appointed Ufuk Ulutas as a new envoy. Ulutas wrote in 2013 that Zionism as a “culturally/religiously racist” ideology and that it has “separatist content as well as expansionist policies, the plan committed many massacres, displacing millions of people. It physically and mentally tortured locals.” This is Turkey’s attempt to “mend fences” with Israel, by sending an envoy who accused Israel of “displacing millions” and has called Zionism “racist.”

It was Turkey that withdrew its ambassador from Israel several times over the past decade. Turkey’s regime helped support the Mavi Marmara that tried to break the blockade on Gaza in 2010. Ankara then ordered Israel to apologize for stopping the ship in a raid that led to ten deaths after Israeli soldiers were attacked.

Turkey was the main opponent of US President Donald Trump moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. Erdogan compared Israel to Nazi Germany at the UN in September 2019. Turkey gave Hamas leaders, including numerous wanted terrorists, a red carpet twice this year, leading to the US State Department condemning Ankara.

Reports in the UK suggest that Hamas plans terror attacks from Turkey and has done cyber attacks and that the Mossad concluded Turkey is a rising threat, according to the Times of London. In addition Turkey harassed an Israeli ship off Cyprus last year and the IDF has said Turkey’s threats could be a challenge, according to an annual report reported in January.

Ankara has made no moves to condemn Hamas terrorism or apologize for comparing Israel to the Nazis. While the UAE is celebrating Hanukkah and welcoming Jews, Turkey is increasingly antisemitic and extremely anti-Israel. Nevertheless the narrative from Ankara continues.

While Turkey is the largest jailor of journalists and all media in Turkey is pro-government, there are no articles in Turkey supporting Israel, but foreign newspapers are being fed information from Ankara about the “reconciliation.”  Turkey even pushed an article at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, arguing that Israel should ignore Cyprus water rights and gas claims and create a direct maritime jurisdiction with Turkey. This would give Turkey everything and Israel nothing and violate agreements with Cyprus and international law.

Turkey did this before in the spring, trying to slow down Israel’s energy ties with Egypt, Greece and Cyprus and France. Turkey claims that the US has obstructed its “geostrategic destiny,” according to an article at the Hoover Institution. The destiny appears to be one that includes occupying Syria, ethnically-cleansing Kurds and supporting attacks on Armenians, as well as hosting Hamas and fueling extremism from the Middle East to Europe.

The story of the “secret” push to mend-fences with Israel is all about Turkey trying to use media and its long propaganda arm abroad to harm ties between Israel, Greece, Cyprus and the UAE, making it appear Israel is conducting “secret” talks behind the backs of its friends. Turkey leaked this entirely to harm Israel’s relations and even sent maps to Israeli media to use, maps that ignore Cyprus and violate agreements Israel has.

Israel’s friends and partners in Cyprus, Greece, Egypt and the UAE are the opposite of Ankara’s regime. They don’t host Hamas and call Israel a Nazi country, they don’t bash Israel and they don’t appoint envoys known for claiming Zionism is racist. Ankara is one of the most hostile countries in the world to Israel outside of Iran. No other countries in the world besides Ankara and Iran give Hamas a red carpet and Turkey’s current leadership gives Hamas even more respect than Iran does, treating it with the respect of a foreign country.

Ankara has a long history of mobilizing media abroad through contacts to push its narratives, usually to get everything it wants and giving nothing in return. For instance Ankara speaks to friends and lobbyists in Washington to claim that it was “confronting Iran and Russia,” when in fact Ankara was working with Iran and Russia against US interests in Syria and buying Russia’s S-400s.

Now Turkey has pivoted to try to pretend it wants to compartmentalize certain issues with Israel, such as trade and maritime ties, as part of pretending the last year of chaos and extremism Ankara unleashed is behind it. Ankara wants more than anything to play the “good cop” for the new Biden administration, much as it worked to get support from Trump for invasions of Syria, Libya, and threats against Greece and Armenia.

But reality shows what is actually happening in Ankara. The regime is increasingly a far-right openly racist regime against Armenians and Kurds, and Jews are often objects of hatred for the Turkish-backed extremists that it has unleashed in Syria and other countries. If Turkey wanted reconciliation it wouldn’t use it to sabotage Israel’s alliances and isolate Israel and its own media, which is entirely pro-government, would support Israel.

Instead Turkey bashes Israel at home and tars Israel as a “Nazi” country. That is not how reconciliation works. The leaked stories about “secret” talks are designed only to muddle Israel’s relationships with other states in the region as part of an Ankara regime project which it openly says is designed to “liberate” Jerusalem from the “Zionists,” an ideology of religious extremism Ankara shares with Iran’s regime.

While countries like the UAE are welcoming Israelis and Jews and talking about tolerance, Ankara’s government jails dissidents and lashes out at minorities, spreading hatred and intolerance. In that toxic mix, there is no reality of mending fences, only a new anti-Israel envoy and an extremist authoritarian government in Ankara that wants Israel isolated so it can manipulate the incoming Biden administration. When Turkey apologizes for comparing Israel to the Nazis, then that might be evidence that it has changed. Ankara’s current regime will never do that.

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/turkeys-regime-seeks-to-isolate-israel-using-reconciliation-propaganda-651911

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Mohssen Assanimoghaddam—DPA/Getty Images

It feels like a lifetime ago that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was shoving Syrian refugees toward Greece in a desperate attempt to involve the Europeans more directly in Syria. Erdogan had learned the hard way that he wasn’t a match for Syria’s Bashar Assad so long as Russia’s Vladimir Putin was backing him.

That was barely a month ago.

Erdogan gambled that avoiding another migration crisis was Europe’s top priority, which would give him leverage over Brussels. Needless to say, Europe now has other priorities. But just because coronavirus is front of mind these days doesn’t mean the potential for another European refugee crisis has gone away. Here’s what you need to know.

Why It Matters:

Start with the current situation in Syria. After a near-decade of civil war, there’s not much health care infrastructure left to deal with the coronavirus outbreak—just 64 percent of public hospitals in the country are deemed to be “fully functioning.” Coronavirus was first officially announced on March 22, and the virus prompted Assad to pause mandatory military conscription and all non-essential business, halt public transport, impose curfews and limit travel between the regions under his control. But instituting lockdowns are a last-ditch effort undertaken by governments to buy themselves time to shore up medical supplies and ensure their health care system isn’t overwhelmed; as France, the U.S., and countless other developed markets are currently proving, that’s difficult under the best of circumstances and comes with tremendous economic costs. With its economy and healthcare system already in tatters, Syria isn’t in a position to deal with either the medical or financial fallout from the coronavirus.

And that’s the uncontested part of Syria. The situation in Idlib, the last remaining holdout of anti-Assad forces in the country and the focus of the Turkish offensive, is another matter entirely. One million people have been displaced in Idlib, and social distancing isn’t a viable option in overcrowded refugee camps. If violence wasn’t enough to get Syrians to flee, the prospect of contracting coronavirus in a country with such few medical resources left may well do the trick. Hence why Ankara is eyeing the Syria situation so warily, worried that individuals with coronavirus may still try to sneak through the shuttered Syria-Turkey border.

What Happens Next:

With transmissibility of the coronavirus as high as it is, that would be a major problem for Turkish authorities already very much struggling with their coronavirus response domestically. Erdogan will try to reinforce the Turkish-Syria border with more Turkish troops; the 3.6 million Syrian refugees already being housed in Turkey are far from popular among the Turkish populace, which makes diverting resources to assist them that much harder. So long as there is not a massive exodus of Syrian refugees towards Turkey, Erdogan is content to ignore them for the sake of his own political fortunes and Turkey’s financial position.

But avoiding that exodus depends on Russia not prodding Assad to launch an offensive to capture Idlib and secure total victory. Russia is also struggling to contain the coronavirus outbreak at home, but if the opportunity presents itself, it might well push Assad to assert more control over the city, bringing more refugees to Turkey and piling the domestic pressure on Erdogan.

That’s the nightmare situation for Erdogan, as Erdogan can’t try the same move of pushing refugees into Europe like he did last month. Certain European countries—Greece chief among them—treated Erdogan’s decision to send refugees to European borders as a hostile act, though some countries (like Germany) tried to remain level-headed about it, hoping that sending more money to Ankara would kick the can down the road further. If Erdogan were to try to do the same with refugees carrying coronavirus (or even just suspected of doing so), it would be treated as an openly hostile act.

And the Europeans are also braced for such a move following the events of last month. Greece suspended asylum applications in violation of international law, but with the backing of Brussels, which placed the continent’s territorial sovereignty above international law. A refugee crisis interwoven with a coronavirus crisis is a crisis for the entire E.U. And unlike financial matters that typically lay bare the schisms in the union (the latest is the flare-up between north and south over coronabonds), an assault on the territorial integrity and health of the European public would bind the E.U. together in the face of this common, immediate threat.

Two things, in particular, are worrying European lawmakers these days on the migration front; first, the warming weather might compel some refugees to undertake the journey regardless of whether or not they have Turkish support. Second, Erdogan is notoriously erratic when he feels political pressure, and if he gets to that point of desperation, he might try to foist Syrian refugees on Europe in an attempt to relieve pressure on himself back home. But Europe will hold the line in protecting its borders from the outside… even if it requires violence. That’s bad news for a Europe that wanted to project itself as a beacon of Western and humanitarian values to the world, that’s bad news for Erdogan who will struggle to offload a refugee population that Turks are growing increasingly hostile against, and it’s even worse news for the refugees stuck in the middle between the two.

The One Thing to Say About It on a Zoom Call:

This wouldn’t be a 21st-century crisis if refugees didn’t manage to get the most screwed at the end. This might be the one thing that coronavirus hasn’t upended.

The Key Quote That Sums It All Up:

“The epidemic has bolstered the cause of those who have long opposed refugees — most of them the same parties and politicians who advocate for strict border controls. But if the public debate plays up the perceived link between the virus, borders, and migrants, this will come dangerously close to arguments about national purity and racial superiority.” Pawel Zerka of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

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Not only is Greece is in control of the migrant crisis at the Greek-Turkish border, but attitude towards migrants within the country have changed considerably, said Czech Ambassador to Athens Jakub Karfík on Monday.

The fact that most migrants do not come from Syria, but instead are flowing in from other countries, has radically changed Greek opinion on migration.

“The fact that economic migration from other regions has become part of the refugees’ movement from the Syria war zone has changed the Greeks’ view of the situation,” Karfík said in an interview with Echo24, adding that the locals are helping Greek soldiers defend the borders.

The ambassador notes that he has never seen anything like this in his time as an ambassador.

According to Karfík, the atmosphere in Greece has changed, not only because of border control. Until recently, Greeks were helping refugees from Syria. Today, however, mass protests demonstrate that they do not want them on the islands, with many Greek citizens expressing anger with local NGOs who are aiding migrants.

Karfík said that the tens of thousands of migrants trying to reach the EU across the Turkish-Greek border keep complicating the situation in Southern Europe and challenges still remain, especially if Turkey becomes more aggressive.

Greeks reject mass migration

According to polls, 90 percent of Greeks support measures taken by the local government.

The Czech Ambassador believes that the Greeks’ opinion on refugees has changed due to economic migration from regions other than Syria. Migrants trying to get to Greece come from Afghanistan, Congo, Somalia, or Iraq, while Syrians make only about five percent of those detained on land borders.

According to recent news reports, the situation on the Greek-Turkish border has not changed; Karfík even says that it is calming down, adding that the migrant onslaught is “without any doubt a tool of political pressure”.

In a recent interview on CNN Turk, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu was open about Turkey’s plans.

“Europe cannot endure this, cannot handle this,” said the interior minister, adding that “the governments in Europe will change, their economies will deteriorate, their stock markets will collapse.”

The Czech ambassador said that the Turkish side is using several propaganda tools in the media. The Czech ambassador agrees with Greece, which claims that the Turks’ initial report on the open European border was an act of asymmetrical and hybrid media warfare.

Karfík, however, thinks that Greece is basically in control of the situation since only a few hundred, not thousands of migrants have managed to cross the border.

“In addition to closing the border, the Greek government also suspended asylum procedures for one month, which is an extraordinary step. Moreover, the composition of migrants has changed. There are mainly young men among them; families with children apparently returned to Turkey,” says Karfík.

Title image: A migrant man covers his face as he walks near the Turkish-Greek border on Sunday, March 8, 2020. Thousands of migrants headed for Turkey’s land border with Greece after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government said last week that it would no longer prevent migrants and refugees from crossing over to European Union territory. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Source: https://rmx.news/article/article/greeks-no-longer-want-migrants-says-czech-ambassador-to-athens

The post Greeks no longer want migrants, says Czech ambassador to Athens first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The Syrian army’s offensive in the Idlib province in December, accompanied by the mass bombing of settlements by the Russian Aerospace Forces, has brought the Middle East to the brink of a new migration catastrophe.

The series of bombing runs which began on December 12 has forced more than 200,000 residents of the northern regions of Syria to leave their homes, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told Reuters.

According to the department, by December 25 the number of refugees fleeing towards the Turkish border had reached 235,000.

With support from artillery and ships deployed in the Mediterranean Sea, the Russian Aerospace Forces have made more than 170 bombing runs, obliterating the cities of Maarat al-Numan and Saraqib, as well as several other towns in Idlib.

“The new escalation of violence in north-western Syria is making the civilian population suffer from the destructive consequences of combat,” said the OCHA. Tens of thousands of other families are also ready to leave their homes but are afraid of airstrikes and bombing runs.

The wave of migrants is heading towards Turkey, which has already accommodated 3.7 million Syrians who have been forced to flee the war, which has been raging for eight years.

Assad’s army’s new attempt to take control of Idlib, where roughly 3 million people remain, threatens to cause a repeat of the migrant crisis. As part of the deal, it signed with the EU in 2016, Turkey has undertaken to act as a barrier to migrants aiming for European countries.

However, “unless the violence in Idlib stops, Ankara will not be able to bear this burden single-handedly,” said Turkish President Recep Erdogan on Sunday. According to him, roughly 80,000 Syrians are already waiting on the border, and this number could grow.

The refugee problem is concerning to Germany, which accepted roughly 2 million migrants last year, and is spending €12.9 billion per year supporting them.

On Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made an urgent visit to Ankara in order to discuss the migration pact, to which Brussels has allocated €3 billion, with Erdogan.

With these funds, Turkey is supposed to build and maintain migrant camps, and prevent migrants from reaching the border with Greece.

Last week, US President Donald Trump called for an end to the “carnage” in Idlib. “Russia, Syria, and Iran are killing thousands of innocent civilians. Stop it,” he wrote on Twitter.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, following talks with his Iranian colleague Mohammad Javad Zarif, claimed that Washington is guilty of the escalating violence. According to Lavrov, the US has been “fueling separatism” in north-eastern Syria.

Source: http://uawire.org/russia-threatens-to-unleash-hundreds-of-thousands-of-syrian-refugees-on-europe#

The post Russia threatens to unleash hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees on Europe first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Five years after Europe’s migrant crisis eased, Turkey is warning that it may no longer be able to handle a growing flood of refugees from Syria on its own.

Tens of thousands of Syrians have moved towards the Turkish border in recent weeks because of attacks launched by Syrian regime and Russian forces on rebel positions in Syria’s north-western Idlib province.

The situation could exacerbate severe overcrowding and dire conditions in migrant camps on the Greek islands, which have already seen an uptick in arrivals from the Turkish coast since the summer.

If Syrians start to pour across the Turkish border, “Turkey will not carry this migration burden alone”, said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country is hosting 3.7 million Syrian refugees.

“The negative effects of this pressure on us will be an issue felt by all European countries, especially Greece,” he said, warning that a repeat of the 2015 migration crisis would become inevitable.

A Syrian boy held by his mother in a convoy of vehicles fleeing Idlib province CREDIT: AFP

The post Turkey warns refugee crisis could return with a vengeance in 2020 as Greece struggles with overcrowded camps first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The European Union must continue protecting Syrian refugees within Turkey, but should also take further responsibility and resettle more of them, Human Rights Watch associate director Gerry Simpson wrote in an op-ed published by the EU Observer on Wednesday.

More effort from the EU to safeguard the refugees is essential now because they face the danger of forced deportation from Turkey, Simpson said.

Turkey hosts more than 3.6 million registered Syrian refugees, but public discontent with the number of Syrians in the country has risen as Turkey’s economy has stuttered in recent years, and the government has responded by cracking down on undocumented migrants.

Reports by media outlets and NGOs have said Syrians are in danger of arbitrary arrest under the crackdown and that some have been forced to sign voluntary return papers before being bused back to Syria.

Eighteen Syrians told Simpson and his colleague during interviews that this had happened to them in immigration removal centres in Istanbul and the southern Turkish city of Antakya.

“I was deported with about 35 Syrians on a large bus. They handcuffed us and … they beat some of the men on the bus with truncheons when they asked to go to the toilet or for water. We all spoke with each other [and] no one wanted to go back to Syria,” Simpson quoted one of the men as saying.

The return of Syrians to the opposition-controlled Idlib province puts their lives in danger due to ongoing Syrian government attacks, backed by Russian.

Turkey should end the forced deportations and other abuses against Syrians, “but the EU also needs to reverse course on its own problematic policies toward Syrian refugees,” Simpson said.

The EU has paid Turkey more than 6 billion euros so far to fund refugee-related projects but demanded a halt to the flow of migration from Turkey in exchange.

“Yet Turkey has never met the EU’s safe third country criteria, which require effective protection and access to jobs and services,” Simpson said.

Ankara’s plans to resettle millions of Syrians in areas of northern Syria captured in a recent military operation could put the refugees at further risk, he said.

“The European Union should continue to support the registration and protection of Syrian refugees in Turkey, but it should also resettle more Syrian refugees from Turkey,” said Simpson.

“The European Commission should urgently publicly acknowledge that Turkey is committing grave abuses against Syrians, press Turkey to end them, and press the UN refugee agency to monitor whether Syrians detained in immigration removal centres or other facilities actually wish to remain in Turkey.”

Source: https://ahvalnews.com/syrian-refugees/eu-must-take-responsibility-syrian-refugees-turkey-ngo-director#

The post EU must take responsibility for Syrian refugees in Turkey – NGO director first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.