Month: May 2021

Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi arrived in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Sunday for talks on the Gaza cease-fire with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry, according to Egyptian media.

The state-run Al-Akhbar newspaper said the two diplomats will discuss ways of consolidating the cease-fire and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

In a Twitter post, Ashkenazi thanked Shoukry for the invitation to visit Egypt which he said was “the first formal visit of an Israeli FM in 13 years.”

Ashkenazi said discussions will focus on the recent cease-fire agreement with Hamas, Gaza reconstruction, returning of Israeli soldiers held captives by Hamas as well as other regional issues and bilateral relations.

“We will discuss establishing a permanent cease-fire with Hamas, a mechanism for providing humanitarian aid & the reconstruction of Gaza with a pivotal role played by the international community,” Ashkenazi said. “First and foremost, Israel is fully committed to returning our MIA’s held by the Hamas.”

In April 2016, Hamas said it had taken four Israeli soldiers captive while withholding their identities except for Oron Shaul, an Israeli soldier missing since the 2014 Israeli offensive on Gaza.

An Egyptian-brokered truce that took effect in the early hours of May 21 ended Israel’s 11-day bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli attacks in Gaza and the West Bank killed at least 289 people, including women and children, and left behind a trail of destruction. Health centers, media offices, as well as schools were among the structures targeted.

The head of the UN Human Rights Council has said that the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza may constitute war crimes.

Source: Anadolu Agency

India’s economy expanded by 1.6% in the January-March period of this year, but it contracted 7.3% during the full fiscal year 2020-21 due to the novel coronavirus, according to the country’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Monday.

India, one of the G20 countries, saw its economy expand in two consecutive quarters with that result after gross domestic product (GDP) growth came at 0.5% in the third quarter of the fiscal year 2020-21, which was the October-December period of last year.

Its deficit for the 2020-21 full fiscal year, which ended on March 31, stood at 9.3% of GDP. Infrastructure output increased 56.1% in April from the same month of last year.

The country still has a long way to go for complete recovery from the pandemic after it saw a growth rate of 4% in the full fiscal year 2019-20.

The number of new COVID-19 cases in India has spiked recently, while the lack of vaccinations has taken a toll.

Since the start of the pandemic, more than 28 million cases carried the country to second place, above Brazil and behind the US, according to Maryland’s Johns Hopkins University data.

The country saw almost 330,000 deaths, coming third in the world, the data shows.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The World Health Organization (WHO) will send 5 million coronavirus vaccines to Venezuela in July, the country’s president announced Sunday.

Nicolas Maduro said in a nationally televised broadcast that the WHO will deliver the vaccines through its COVAX facility, a system to provide vaccines to developing nations.

Maduro noted that he has requested the Johnson & Johnson vaccine through the COVAX system.

He added that his government has already made two payments to the COVAX system, without offering further details.

“We are waiting for the schedule that has been discussed with the COVAX system to be fulfilled…I have faith that it will be fulfilled,” he said.

Maduro’s comments came hours after Venezuela received 500,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.

So far, Venezuela has received about 3.2 million vaccine doses, all of them from Russia and China.

Over the weekend, the Venezuelan government announced the beginning of a massive vaccination campaign throughout the country.

Overall, according to the Venezuelan government, the country has recorded roughly 230,000 cases of COVID-19 and 2,595 deaths.

Of these cases, Maduro said they are analyzing five cases in the bordering state of Apure. He said there are reasons to believe that these cases are of the Indian variant.

“We are investigating. It seems that from Colombia, through Apure, the mutant variant from India entered,” he said.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s economy posted 7% growth year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021 while the global economy is still suffering from the coronavirus pandemic, according to official data announced on Monday.

Turkey performed better than numerous other countries, including EU members and G7 countries, and posted the highest growth among fellow OECD countries.

Turkey’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 29.1% and reached 1.4 trillion Turkish liras ($188.6 billion) at current prices in the first quarter of the year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

Over the same period, in contrast, most of the OECD, EU, G7 countries with available data posted declines.

OECD countries’ average GDP growth rate was minus 0.8% in the same period.

Among the OECD countries, Turkey was followed by Colombia, South Korea, and France with 2%, 1.7%*, and 1.5%, respectively, while the UK posted the largest decline with minus 6.1%.

EU members’ average growth rate was also minus 1.7%. The biggest GDP increase was posted by France with 1.5%, while the largest contraction was seen in Portugal with minus 5.4%*.

Turkish economy also outperformed all seven major economies – Group of 7 nations – consisting of Canada (0.3%), France (1.5%), Germany (-3.1%*), Italy (-1.4%), Japan (-1.8%), the UK (-6.1%), and the US (0.4%).

The G7 nations’ average GDP rate was minus 0.8% in the first quarter of the year.

Source: Anadolu Agency

China on Monday further relaxed its family planning policy and allowed couples to have three children, the state-run media said.

According to Global Times, the Chinese government has taken the decision to improve its population structure and counter the country’s aging population problem.

The authorities are also planning to improve the maternity leave and maternity insurance systems and strengthen supporting policies in fields such as tax and housing, the daily reported.

Last year in November, China released its five-year plan from 2021 to 2025 to promote balanced population development. Under the new policy, the government would provide extensive social and economic support to counter the shrinking workforce and aging population problems.

In 2016, China relaxed restrictions and allowed couples to have a second child due to the rapid increase in the aging population.

Earlier in 1978, the country imposed a controversial “one child policy” in an effort to reduce poverty and develop the economy.

The country birthrate dropped as the number of newborns in China dropped from 17.25 million in 2017 to 14.65 million in 2019, Global Times quoted a report of the research center under the Ministry of Public Security.

While the number of newborn babies registered with public security organs in 2020 was 10.04 million, 15% down from the previous year.

It was the fourth consecutive year of falling births despite the implementation in 2016 of a universal second-child policy that allows all couples to have two children, the data showed.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid

Source: Anadolu Agency

YPG/PKK terrorists are attempting to intimidate the Arab people living in the regions under their occupation in northeastern Syria, detaining and forcibly recruiting them.

The terror group continues to oppress the people in Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa cities, who are against the fuel price hike and fall in their income from agricultural products.

Anadolu Agency correspondents obtained a video footage recorded by the members of a house raided by terrorists.

Speaking in the video, a women said: “This is the living room. Look, they deliberately broke them. They broke the windows with their guns. They wanted to kill us.”

Meanwhile, YPG/PKK terrorists reportedly detained some 12 women and children during a raid on the village of Kherbet Bakar, west of Raqqa.

Also, the terror group continues to forcibly recruit people in Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa provinces.

Terrorists recruited a total of 70 young people in eight villages of Deir ez-Zor and 24 others in Raqqa.

The young recruits are transferred to the so-called camps established by the YPG/PKK for armed training.

Also, at least two civilians were injured when terrorists opened fire on a house in Kherbet Bakar where a young man who fled forced recruitment in Raqqa took shelter.

Documenting the violations against civilians in Syria, the Syrian Network for Human Rights, in its report released on May 22, said that nearly 3,800 civilians are forcibly held in detention centers established by the YPG/PKK-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Afghanistan looks forward to deepening relations of friendship with Turkey, the country’s national security adviser said during a meeting with the Turkish ambassador in the capital Kabul on Monday.

In little over a week since taking charge, Turkey’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Cihad Erginay met with a number of top Afghan officials, assuring them of Turkey’s continued support for the peace process and development in the war-weary country.

National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib’s office tweeted after the meeting, stating that Erginay expressed Turkey’s continued partnership and support to Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani hailed Turkey’s efforts for peace in Afghanistan as the country witnessed a surge in Taliban assaults following a brief truce.

Upon request of the US, Turkey pledged to host a high-level international peace conference on Afghanistan in April, but the Taliban declined to attend, forcing Ankara to postpone it.

Instead, a trilateral conference of Pakistani, Afghan, and Turkish foreign ministers was held on April 23 that called on the Taliban to return to the negotiating table and resume peace talks.

At the end of the meeting, all three countries deplored the high level of violence in the joint declaration and emphasized an immediate, sustainable, and comprehensive cease-fire as a prerequisite for creating a conducive atmosphere for the success of peace talks.

The three also reiterated their commitment to a peaceful, sovereign, independent, democratic, and united Afghanistan.

Since US President Joe Biden announced a withdrawal date for American troops in September 2021, Afghanistan has seen an increase in deadly Taliban assaults on security forces and law-enforcement agencies across the country, resulting in mounting casualties on all sides.

Source: Anadolu Agency

YPG/PKK terrorists are attempting to intimidate the Arab people living in the regions under their occupation in northeastern Syria, detaining and forcibly recruiting them.

The terror group continues to oppress the people in Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa cities, who are against the fuel price hike and cut in income from agricultural products.

Anadolu Agency correspondents obtained a video footage recorded by the members of a house raided by terrorists.

Speaking in the video, a women said: “This is the living room. Look, they deliberately broke them. They broke the windows with their guns. They wanted to kill us.”

Meanwhile, YPG/PKK terrorists reportedly detained some 12 women and children during a raid on the village of Kherbet Bakar, west of Raqqa. They also recruited 70 young people in eight villages of Deir ez-Zor and 24 others in Raqqa.

The young recruits are transferred to the so-called camps established by the YPG/PKK for armed training.

Also, two civilians were injured when terrorists opened fire on a house in Kherbet Bakar where a young man, who fled forced recruitment in Raqqa, took shelter.

Separately, four civilians were injured when terrorists opened fire on the people protesting against the forced recruitment in Manbij, Aleppo. Some of the injured people are in critical condition.

Documenting the violations against civilians in Syria, the Syrian Network for Human Rights, in its report released on May 22, said that nearly 3,800 civilians are forcibly held in detention centers established by the YPG/PKK-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz and Gozde Bayar

Source: Anadolu Agency