Day: July 1, 2021

As Canada prepares to commemorate its birth as a nation on July 1, it will be a bleak anniversary overshadowed by the chilling news that there are 1,148 unmarked graves discovered at the sites of three former Indian residential schools.

In late May, 215 graves were found by the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation at the site of a former school at Kamloops, British Columbia (B.C.). The revelation prompted national outrage, as the news that residential schools – the first one opened in the 1820s – were forced onto First Nations with compulsory attendance by children. The idea was to instill white culture in the “savages.”

In mid-June, 751 unmarked graves were discovered at the former Marieval residential school by the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan. The graves were once again proof of historic ill-treatment of Indigenous children – survivors told of malnutrition, beatings, and sexual abuse at two Catholic-Church run schools.

The Marieval finding stoked the outrage of Canadians to a higher pitch and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized on June 25 for Canada’s historic deplorable treatment of First Nations people.

“To the members of the Cowessess community and Treaty Four communities, we are sorry,” the prime minister said. “It was something that we cannot undo in the past, but we can pledge ourselves every day to fix it in the present and into the future.” Treaty Four represents a historic treaty between Queen Victoria and some First Nation tribes.

But there was more horror to come.

On Wednesday, another revelation came out, this time from the Ktunaxa Nation (Lower Kootenay Band) that 182 shallow unmarked graves lay at the former St. Eugene’s Mission Residential School near Cranbrook, B.C. Once again, the school, which operated from 1912 to the 1970s, was run by the Catholic Church.

The revelations have cast a pall over Canada Day. On Parliament Hill in the nation’s capital of Ottawa, the red and white Maple Leaf flag of Canada will fly at half-mast, as it will in many communities across the country.

Canada is a nation reeling.

Bob Chamberlin, former vice president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said Wednesday that more horrors await as other former residential schools are checked.

“I believe we are at the very tip of the iceberg,” he said in a television interview.

There were 139 Indian residential schools operated across Canada and the country’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, said the goal was to subvert the “savages” and turn them into copies of white European settlers. Those considered “savages” were the First Nations members, who originally populated the land, the Metis – of mixed Indigenous and European descent – and Inuit, inhabitants of the far north in Canada and historically known as Eskimos.

About 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children went through the schools, taken from their parents by force if necessary. At least 4,000 died and, as in the case of the unmarked graves discovered to date, many of the children just disappeared with their parents left wondering what happened to them.

The schools were run by the United, Anglican, Presbyterian and Catholic churches. The first three issued formal apologies for their roles in the schools. But while local Catholic authorities said they were sorry, Trudeau and First Nations leaders called for Pope Francis to officially apologize. It is estimated that about 60% of the schools were operated by the Catholic Church.

However, the discovery of the graves may have signaled a change. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said Tuesday that Canadian Indigenous leaders will meet with the Pope before year’s end, Dec. 17 and 20.

“Pope Francis is deeply committed to hearing directly from Indigenous Peoples, expressing his heartfelt closeness, addressing the impact of colonization and the role of the Church in the residential school system, in the hopes of responding to the suffering of Indigenous Peoples and the ongoing effects of intergenerational trauma,” the CCCB said in a statement, Tuesday.

But Bobby Cameron, Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations chief, said in a media release Wednesday that the Catholic Church should also follow through with its promise to provide C$25 million financial compensation to First Nations residential school survivors. So far, only $34,650 has been raised.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Iran’s basketball team has landed in trouble weeks ahead of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo after being held at Tehran’s international airport for allegedly possessing banned substances, according to reports.

Upon arriving on Tuesday at Imam Khomeini International Airport after playing three friendly games in Japan in preparation for the Summer Olympics, the team members were apprehended by airport security staff for possessing “unauthorized food items,” local media reported.

According to reports, at least 46 items of unauthorized goods were found in their luggage, which they had distributed amongst themselves.

Following the security check, all members of the team were taken in preventive police custody, reports said.

They were released a few hours later after the intervention of Iran’s National Olympic Committee except for three unnamed players and one support staff member who later walked out on bail of 20 million tomans ($475).

While details of the incident have not yet been divulged by the country’s basketball association, Deputy Sports Minister Mehdi Alinejad was quoted as saying Wednesday that a disciplinary committee has been constituted to look into the matter.

This is not the first time that Iran’s basketball team has landed in troubled waters. On one previous occasion, they had been stopped at the airport for bringing a number of mobile phones from abroad.

Interestingly, the captain of the national basketball team, Samad Nikkhah Bahrami, has been nominated to be the country’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics on July 23.

Bahrami, 38, had previously been Iran’s flag-bearer at the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well as the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.

The Tokyo Olympic Games, which had been set to kick off on July 24 last year, were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Anadolu Agency

A French lawmaker on Wednesday criticized how women in the country who wear headscarves are targeted while taking part in a debate in parliament on a controversial separatism bill.

“I really don’t understand why we target women with headscarves [in France] and not other things,” lawmaker Annie Chapelier told parliament.

Her remarks came after the Democratic Movement (MoDem), an ally of President Emmanuel Macron’s La Republique En Marche (LREM) party, offered to add an article “banning ballot box attendants from wearing religious symbols” to the bill.

The proposal sparked discussions in parliament, and Chapelier, a member of the Agir ensemble group in the National Assembly, reminded that only 25% of voters go to the ballot boxes and some polling stations desperately seek poll workers.

She stressed that the government was developing theories to ban people who do their civic duty from being polling officials.

“Before headscarved women intervened at the ballot boxes, men wearing kippah were not told anything,” she said, adding that being a poll worker should be equally open for everyone just like citizenship.

“Don’t make fake excuses to target and accuse women with headscarves that you don’t want to accept,” she said.

– Proposal rejected

After a two-hour debate on the article, the proposal was rejected by parliament.

The proposed law was first introduced by Macron last year to fight so-called “Islamist separatism.” It was adopted by the Senate on Feb. 13 with several amendments that toughen provisions previously approved by the National Assembly.

The assembly began re-debating the draft bill on June 28.

The bill prohibits parents from wearing visible religious symbols while accompanying their children on school trips, the wearing of the burkini — a swimming costume that covers the whole body with the exception of the face, hands and feet and is worn by many Muslim women — in public swimming pools and “preventing minor girls from concealing their face or wearing religious symbols in the public space.”

It also bans “prayers on university premises and the display of foreign flags at weddings.”

It is being criticized by the international community, non-governmental organizations and especially the UN for targeting and alienating the Muslim community and imposing restrictions on almost every aspect of their lives.

There has been a rise in attacks on mosques in the country since the announcement of the draft bill. While some mosques have come under arson attack, others’ walls have been sprayed with Islamophobic slogans.

– Top polling official demoted due to headscarf

Rachida Kabbouri, a top polling official during France’s regional elections on June 20, was demoted from her post for wearing a headscarf.

Kabbouri, a Muslim municipal councilor of the European Ecology – The Greens (EELV) party in Vitry-sur-Seine in the greater Paris Ile-de-France region, had been appointed head of a polling station in the department of Val-de-Marne during the first round of elections.

Speaking to the French media after the incident, she said she “felt injustice and exclusion to tears.”

Source: Anadolu Agency

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4Y-2495947901-07-2021 11:27 Ankara

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Turkey returns to normal after fall in COVID-19 cases

– With curfew lifted, cinemas, cafes, restaurants reopen with no limit on gatherings

By Orhan Onur Gemici

ANKARA (AA) – With the third stage of normalization process underway, Turkey Thursday ended some COVID-19 restrictions as of 05.00 a.m. local time.

Turkish Interior Ministry issued a circular on June 27 to announce the measures being taken in the third stage of the gradual normalization process.

The curfew between 22:00 p.m. and 05:00 a.m. from Mondays to Saturdays, and the full-day curfew on Sundays, and the intercity travel restrictions have ended, according to the ministry.

All workplaces and cinemas, which have suspended their activities as part of the coronavirus measures, will reopen.

Cafes and restaurants will serve people with no limitation on the guest number in indoor and outdoor areas.

Restrictions and measures in accommodation facilities will end, with hygiene, mask, and social distancing rules still to be followed.

Outdoor wedding ceremonies will be held without a guest limit and food/drink can be served, while some restrictions are still in place for indoor ceremonies.

Events such as concerts, festivals, and youth camps will be allowed provided that the previously set rules are followed.

Last week, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey is set to end the pandemic curfews as of July 1 after a nationwide fall in COVID-19 cases.

On June 1, the country eased some measures following a 17-day strict lockdown.

On Wednesday, Turkey confirmed over 5.42 million coronavirus cases in total, while the nationwide death toll has reached 49,732 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.9 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 182.2 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro told supporters in the city of Ponta Pora on Wednesday that a Senate commission investigating his conduct during the coronavirus pandemic “can’t touch him,” calling some of its members “criminals.”

“They can’t touch us. They won’t get us out of [office] with lies or with a CPI [Senate investigative committee], which is made up of seven criminals”, Bolsonaro said.

“We have a mission ahead of us: to lead the destiny of our nation and ensure the well-being and progress of our people.”

In remarks praising the military, he said “I only feel peace and tranquility because I know that, in addition to the people, I have the Armed Forces committed to democracy and our freedom.”

Bolsonaro’s remarks came on the same day that opposition lawmakers filed an impeachment request against him in the lower house of Congress. More than 120 similar requests have already been filed. Previous requests were shelved by lower house Speaker Arthur Lira, who refused to put them to a vote.

The latest initiative, with the signatures of former Bolsonaro allies, is being called a “super request” in the country as it lists 21 acts by Bolsonaro considered crimes of responsibility. In addition to representatives from the left, the center and the right, the document has also been signed by civil society entities.

Among the acts listed are fomenting conflict with other nations, xenophobic remarks, threats to Congress and the Supreme Court, undue interference with the Federal Police and the Armed Forces, participation in anti-democratic acts and in pro-military intervention protests, threats against an official representative, omissions and errors in combating the coronavirus pandemic, attacks on the electoral process, and failure to create a plan to protect indigenous peoples amid the pandemic.

Pressure for Bolsonaro’s removal from office has increased in recent days, since the revelation of allegations of corruption in the purchase of vaccines. The progress of the committee’s work in the Senate has also made Bolsonaro more vulnerable.

Source: Anadolu Agency

A hidden gem in the ancient Phrygian Valley has become an alternative tourist destination in western Turkey with the many historical places and “fairy chimneys” it boasts.

Uclerkayasi village in Ihsaniye district of Afyonkarahisar province is a “hidden paradise,” according to Tanju Tetik, head of the Phrygian Culture Foundation.

Tetik said the village carries traces of Phrygian, Hellenic, Galatian, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman civilizations.

Noting that there are many Phrygian artifacts in their village, he said more tourists are visiting the region with the increased tourism investments under the leadership of Afyonkarahisar Governor Gokmen Cicek.

The village offers a glimpse of the lives of Phrygians with open-air temples, rock tombs, living areas in single and multi-story rock-carved houses, wine cellars, dungeons, king’s tombs and fairy chimneys which are as old as 3,000 years.

“We can call here the mysterious village of the Phrygians. Recently, this mystery has started to slowly disappear,” Tetik said.

Saying that the area has become well-known by the people, he added that Emre Lake and Ayazini village in the region are also famous.

“Local and foreign tourists stop by Uclerkayasi village when they see the rock settlements on the way while visiting these areas. The number of tourists coming to our village is increasing day by day,” he said.

Aziz Ahmet Ozdemir, who runs a restaurant and boutique hotel in the village, said there is a large number of European visitors coming to the region.

“Natural habitats, villages and historical places top people’s lists due to the [coronavirus] pandemic,” Ozdemir said.

Inscribed tentatively on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the Phrygia Valley spreads across the capital Ankara and central Eskisehir as well as its neighbors in the Aegean region, Kutahya and Afyonkarahisar.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Phrygia is a civilization that existed in 800 B.C. and dominated central Anatolia from the Mediterranean Sea to the south and Black Sea to the north.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The S&P 500 closed at a new record high Wednesday with a steep decline in volatility.

The index finished up 0.1% at 4,297 after hitting an all-time high of 4,301 during trading hours.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 210 points or 0.6% to 34,502. The Nasdaq, on the other hand, was down 24 or 0.2% at 14,502.

The fresh record in the S&P 500 came as the VIX volatility index showed a steep decline. The fear index was as high as 17.31 during the day but fell to 15.83 at the market close for a 1.2% daily loss.

The dollar index, on the other hand, was up 0.3% at 92.35 at the time. The yield on 10-year US Treasurys was down 0.6% at 1.471%.

Investors will be closely watching nonfarm payrolls data for June which will be released Friday before the market open. The market estimate is an increase of 700,000.

US private payrolls increased 692,000 in June, beating market expectations of 600,000, according to ADP Research Institute’s national employment report released earlier.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkey could play an important role in bringing peace to Afghanistan due to its position of respect in the war-torn country, political and security experts from three countries said Wednesday.

Speaking at a seminar on “Conversations on the Afghan Peace Process: Turkey’s Role in Afghanistan” organized by the think-tank the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI), Pakistan’s former Foreign Secretary Aziz Ahmad Chaudhry said the situation in Afghanistan is very critical.

“We all know how critical it is that we have peace in Afghanistan. I think nobody knows more than the Pakistani government, its leaders and people that an unstable Afghanistan can be a nightmare for all the region,” said Chaudhry, who is also director general of the ISSI.

Turkey and Afghanistan have long-standing diplomatic relations that go back to 1920 and Ankara has been trying to find ways to start some kind of political process, he added.

Murat Aslan, a security expert from Turkey, said Ankara’s policies are based on a shared interest policy as opposed to one based on self-interest.

“Afghanistan’s interests lie in a peaceful stable country in order for any development projects to be realized,” he said.

“When I was in Kabul, I asked one question to several people — ‘How do you look to Turkey?’ And all of them gave the same answer: ‘Turkey is our brother,’” he recalled.

With Turkey’s proposal of a new trilateral mechanism involving Turkey for protecting Kabul’s airport after the US pulls out of Afghanistan, Ankara-based defense expert Merve Seren suggested that Turkey’s presence in Kabul needs legal cover from the United Nations.

“Turkey’s presence in Afghanistan needs to be legitimized through a UN resolution and also the Afghan government to officially request Ankara to help the Afghan people,” said Seren, an assistant professor at Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University.

“Turkey has to be there not only just because of the NATO issue, but I think we have a very big migration problem, [as] we are getting the most migration from Syria and then from Afghanistan,” she added.

Speaking to reporters on June 14 at the end of a series of meetings with NATO leaders on the sidelines of the alliance’s summit in Brussels, Belgium, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey was also seeking Pakistan and Hungary’s involvement in the new mission in Afghanistan following the departure of the US-led NATO force.

– Turkey’s large role in Afghanistan

While welcoming Erdogan’s proposal for Turkish troops to guard Kabul airport, Zalmai Nishat, a Kabul-based senior policy expert, said he sees a larger Turkish role in Afghanistan.

“Turkey could play an important role in internal consensus building among Afghanistan’s multi ethnic populace and also in regional consensus building,” he said.

“Turkey has evolved to play a reconstruction and capacity building role in Afghanistan. Therefore, Turkey is in the best position to play a potentially great role, which should be strongly encouraged,” said Pakistan’s former ambassador to Turkey Muhammad Haroon Shaukat.

Referring to the current situation in Afghanistan, experts said the political process is the only way to resolve things.

“With limited gains, Afghanistan is far from being stable, as it continues to be challenged by a plethora of problems, thus presenting challenges to the international community and the region,” said Amina Khan, director of the Centre for Afghanistan, Middle East and Africa at ISSI.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Brazil surpassed 500,000 deaths from the coronavirus on June 19, a record that will mark one of the saddest chapters in the country’s history.

Although many Brazilians forgot it, there was another tragedy that exterminated at least 500,000 in the 19th century, mainly affecting residents in the northeast, which at that time was part of the Empire that lasted until 1889.

That tragic period is known as “The Great Drought” or “Drought of the Brazilian Northeast.”

Although many remember the Spanish Flu of 1918 when the coronavirus began to haunt the world in March 2020, another catastrophe killed 50 million people around the globe between 1877 and 1879. In that case, the main cause of death was hunger and not a virus.

In times when it was difficult to forecast, a succession of combined climatic events generated an unprecedented drought at the equatorial region of the planet.

In Brazil, specifically, a lack of rain started dark times, hardships and famines, which also included a smallpox epidemic.

Within the Brazilian imperial period, Ceara was the most affected province. In 1878, alone, the worst year of the drought in that territory, 119,000 died.

There were three years in a row without rain, without harvest, without plantations. Herds and families were completely lost. Many who managed to survive decided to move to other less-affected regions.

In three years, the province went from having 900,000 residents to 750,000, according to data published in Climatology, Epidemics, and Endemics of Ceara, a book by Dr. Baron de Studart.

That drought and previous and subsequent ones were associated with the El Niño phenomenon, which directly interfered with the climate of the region and other areas of the country.

The only comparable tragedy since then is the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to claim victims in Brazil. There are already more than 513,474 deaths and the rate of death has not decreased despite accelerated vaccination in most states.

Either way, times are different. During the Great Drought, Brazil had fewer than 10,000,000 residents — half lived in the Northeast.

The more than 500,000 who died between 1877 and 1879 represented more than 5% of the population. Currently, the most populous country in Latin America has 210 million residents and 500,000 deaths — not even 0.3% of its population.

Although the events are completely different, without mentioning available technology, we can find similarities between the historical events.

In 1877 and during the current pandemic, the effect on deaths was the result of the sum of a natural phenomenon, an economic crisis, failures in government assistance and political disputes; they happened in the 19th century and continue today.

“Plague and famine kill more than 400 people a day,” wrote renowned writer and pharmacist Rodolfo Teofilo in a chronicle in 1878.

“In the morning, they collect dead children and gather them into a huge bag, then cover them with a handkerchief and direct them to their grave,” he said. “We will not have one of the crown jewels left, but no Northeast will starve,” he told the emperor at that time, Pedro II.

Hunger and lack of prospects caused a “diaspora” of the inhabitants of the Northeast throughout the Brazilian territory. Some fled to the Amazon region, while others sought a better life in the Southeast — specifically Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro.

“They died of hunger and thirst, they had nothing to eat, and they died in the middle of the streets of the cities, on the highways of the country,” said de Studart. “After feeding on wild roots, some species of cacti and bromeliads, the palm of the carnauba and palm trees, the hungry began to eat the most disgusting meats, such as dogs, vultures, and crows, in addition to some reptiles.”

In addition to wandering hungry through the squares of the current state capital, Fortaleza, those who left the dry fields also tried to advance to neighboring provinces: Bahía, Recife and Alagoas, a little less affected by the catastrophe.

“It was like the refugee crises that we see today. Neighboring states and major capitals refused to receive desperate travelers,” said Dain Borges, history professor at the University of Chicago and specialist in 19th and 20th centuries in Latin America.

In camps that were improvised to receive the processions, not even the minimum hygiene conditions were respected and there, using unprotected agglomerations, smallpox wreaked havoc.

“The precarious houses used to be stuck holding thin tarps, without divisions. The concentration of populations affected by the drought in these camps forced the ideal conditions for the smallpox epidemic,” said Gleudson Passos, history professor at the State University of Ceara (UECE).

“Smallpox spread like a fire that starts with a flame in the middle of a pile of dry straws. At the end of October 1878, there was no longer any hope of reestablishing the hospital service in the region, due to the number of infected people who arrived every day,” Teofilo wrote in another story.

“On December 10, the Lagoa Funda cemetery received 1,000 deceased. That number sowed panic among the inhabitants,” he said in another.

The daily average deaths from COVID-19 in Brazil is 1,661.

“These prolonged droughts would have minimal effects on societies like the current one, which has adequate transportation, non-agricultural industries and reasonably distributed resources. That logic is not in dispute. If that society existed in Brazil in 1877, no emergency actions would have been necessary, nor would such a crisis have been triggered,” wrote historian Roger Cunniff in his book, The birth of the drought industry.

“In 1877, a set of synergistic forces formed a plot that linked different social, economic, environmental, and productive crises. The result of that sum was much worse than it would be if each of them were isolated. It is what is happening today in Brazil and other countries of the world with the COVID-19 pandemic,” Passos told Anadolu Agency.

Regarding statistics, the estimated number of 500,000 victims from the Great Drought could be conservative.

According to the latest calculations made by the Our World in Data project at Oxford University in the UK, more than 750,000 people died during the three years of drought, epidemic and crisis.

According to Dain Borges, comparing the current pandemic with the crisis in 1877-1879 would be “a big mistake.”

“But it is clear that unlike what happened in the 19th century, the current Brazilian State does have or had the resources to better face the health and social crisis caused by the pandemic,” said the historian.

“A year ago, when all countries were running to confront the coronavirus, the government led by [President Jair] Bolsonaro had the ability to lessen the crisis and it did not do so by choice. Thinking about that, it is much more difficult to judge the errors of the imperialist governments of 1877,” he said.

In the artistic context, the crisis of the Great Drought in the Northeast was one of the main sources of inspiration for Brazilian writers such as Graciliano Ramos, Jose Lins do Rego and Jose Americo de Almeida, among others.

Famous painter Candido Portinari portrayed a family in exodus in a series that also includes two other works that refer to the tragedy: “Dead Child” and “Entierro en la red.”

In music, “La triste departure,” a song by the poet Patativa do Assare, became popular with the voice of famous singer Luiz Gonzaga.

Source: Anadolu Agency