Day: July 24, 2021

Anadolu Agency is here with a rundown of the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic and other news in Turkey and around the world.

Coronavirus and other developments in Turkey

Turkey has administered more than 65.1 million coronavirus vaccines doses since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in January, according to official figures.

More than 39.29 million people have gotten their first dose, while over 22.15 million have received their second dose, according to Health Ministry data.

To date, an excess of 63.26% of the adult population has received at least one dose. The ministry also confirmed 11,094 new infections and 60 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours, while as many as 5,215 more patients recovered.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged more aid for the flood-hit Black Sea region as he visited where at least six people died and two people are still missing from flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rain last week.

The Foreign Ministry rejected the UN Security Council’s statement as well as “unfounded claims” of several countries on reopening of Maras in Turkish Cyprus.

Fifty-two irregular migrants were held in eastern Turkey after they entered the country illegally.

Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum praised “Climate Resilient Cities” during an address to a high-level G20 meeting.

COVID-19 updates worldwide

More than 3.79 billion coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, according to Our World in Data, a tracking website affiliated with Oxford University.

Italy reported 5,143 new cases in the last 24 hours, according to figures released by its Health Ministry.

Malaysia reported 15,573 new infections, the highest daily jump since the pandemic began.

At least 19 additional cases were reported among Tokyo Olympics participants.

New Zealand announced a temporary end to a travel bubble with Australia over the spread of the more severe Delta variant.

The highly contagious Delta variant now makes up an estimated 84% of new cases in Germany.

The Philippines announced extending its travel ban to Malaysia and Thailand to curb the spread of the Delta variant.

More than 800,000 people in the UK are estimated to have contracted the coronavirus last week.

Other global developments

The Olympic Games officially began with the opening ceremony in a near-empty National Stadium in the Japanese capital of Tokyo in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic.

The leader of Tanzania’s main opposition party will be charged with terrorism after he was arrested in a midnight raid.

Palestinian resistance group Hamas blamed Israel for what it considered the “execution” of a Palestinian detainee.

The death toll rose to 39 from rain-related incidents in India’s western Maharashtra state.

A new nationwide poll found that 64% of Americans believe that racism against Blacks is widespread in the US.

Uzbekistan will go to polls Oct. 24 to elect a new president.

Taliban issued a stern warning against recent US airstrikes and threatened to retaliate one day after the Pentagon confirmed targeting insurgents, weeks ahead of a complete departure from Afghanistan.

The funeral of assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moise took place in Cap-Haitien amid heavy security following violent protests.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkey on Saturday extended its condolences to India over the loss of lives in recent floods and landslides in the western Maharashtra state.

“We are deeply saddened that the floods and landslides in the Maharashtra province of India have caused the loss of more than 100 lives” and left dozens missing and several others injured, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“We extend our condolences to the people and Government of India and to the families of those who lost their lives, and wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” it added.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency on Saturday morning, Vijay Wadettiwar, the state’s relief and rehabilitation minister, said: “Till yesterday evening, 136 people have died in rain-related incidents.”

Maharashtra and other Indian states are currently witnessing monsoon rains that have caused flood-like situations in many areas and left thousands of people stranded in the state.

Source: Anadolu Agency

A museum façade in London’s Hoxton region turned into an unlikely battlefield in the wake of last year’s police murder in the US of George Floyd, a shocking death which triggered Black Lives Matter protests not just nationwide, but around the globe.

The dispute at this otherwise peaceful site centers on whether to remove a statue of Sir Robert Geffrye, a merchant who, in 1685, also served as lord mayor of London, a statue now standing in a niche above the main entrance to the Museum of the Home.

Since last May, when Floyd was murdered, local campaigners have spotlighted the underside of Geffrye’s public face: his involvement in the UK’s Africa slave trade.

His fortune, after all, came largely from trafficking Black people with the East India Company and Royal African Company in the 17th century.

“He was an investor in transatlantic slavery and is listed among the original charter members of the Royal Africa Company, in 1672,” according to the authoritative Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Geffrye, who also occupied various high offices in London, had a substantial investment in the slave trade, the records show.

Why a statue of Geffrye?

The Museum of the Home until recently was known as the Geffrye Museum, because it is situated in former 18th-century alms-houses – houses built for Britain’s the poor and needy – houses funded by Sir Robert Geffrye (1613 -1703).

The statue of Geffrye – a 20th-century copy of the 1723 original – has stood above the museum entrance since 1912.

There is also a memorial for Geffrye and his wife inside a small chapel situated in the museum, based on his will.

In July 2020, following protesters’ destruction in Bristol, southwestern England of a statue of Edward Colston, an MP and slave merchant, the public was asked its views – called a public consultation – on possible removal of the Geffrye statue.

Though a large majority of 71% of the public favored the statue’s removal, this apparently was not enough for the museum to do so, unlike the Museum of London Docklands, which removed the statue of Robert Milligan, another slave trader, in June 2019.

“In light of new legislation proposed by the government in January 2021 to protect historic monuments at risk of removal or relocation, the Board believes that its original decision is the only practical option for the foreseeable future,” the museum told Anadolu Agency, referring to its decision to “contextualise” Geffrye’s life rather than remove the statue.

“The ongoing debate about the Geffrye statue raises important questions,” it said.

“The Museum is continuing to listen carefully to all the issues raised and is committed to being open about the history of Geffrye on-site and online and to confront, challenge and learn from the uncomfortable truths of the origins of the Museum buildings.”

‘Ripped from their homes’

Geffrye held shares in the Royal African Company and part-owned the slave ship China Merchant, according to Sasha Simic, a member of Hackney Stand Up to Racism – a group campaigning for the statue’s removal.

Simic told Anadolu Agency that the Royal African Company “sent more than 500 slave ships to West Africa between 1672 and 1713, enslaving people from their homes in Benin, Nigeria, Gambia, and the Gold Coast.”

“Those people were ripped from their homes and sold to plantation owners in Barbados, Jamaica, Nevis, Virginia, and Antigua.”

Simic said that, according to research by archaeologist Sean Kingsley, 279 voyages were taken by the Royal African Company between 1672 and 1713.

On these voyages, over 65,400 Africans were trafficked to the Caribbean, and nearly 14,700 died in the cramped, disease-ridden crossing ships, where they were treated as perishable goods rather than human beings.

“The British establishment built their wealth from the North Atlantic slave trade,” explained Simic.

“Their wealth comes from 400 years of slavery which tore 12.8 million people from their homes in West Africa.”

Simic said the statue should be taken down and displayed in the Museum of the Home, which in December 2019 changed its name from the Geffrye Museum after a government-funded £1.8 million ($2.48 million) renovation.

He thinks visitors to the museum should be able to learn about Geoffrye’s slave trade-tainted past.

“We want the whole story to be told – not a myth which tells us Geffrye was a ‘philanthropist’ but not how he made his money,” Simic said.

“We say the trustees of the Museum of the Home should take the statue down and display it in the museum, with his involvement in the slave trade made open and transparent,” he argued.

“The visiting public should be allowed to make up their own minds as to whether the slaver Geffrye deserves to be remembered as a ‘philanthropist’.”

The museum speaks

The Museum of the Home, which explores changing British homes and gardens through the centuries alongside shifting lifestyles, is standing for now by its original decision to keep the statue in its original place, but says it is “committed to a transformative programme.”

The museum explained to Anadolu Agency that it is “proceeding with ideas about what explaining and contextualising the statue in its original position could look like.”

“The first step has been to install a panel near the statue telling a fuller history of Geffrye, including his persistent investment in the forced labour and trading of enslaved Africans, and acknowledging that the statue is the subject of much discussion,” said its media office in a statement.

“Alongside this, the Museum is committed to a transformative programme of structural and cultural change to become truly representative and inclusive, through our new galleries and displays, creative programming, partnerships and workforce.”

Claims of government pressure to keep statue in place

Simic claimed that Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden had “threatened” the museum over its board possibly removing the statue, saying that the museum’s funding would be affected.

Anadolu Agency’s email requests to Dowden – whose portfolio also includes digital, media and sport – to respond to this claim went unanswered.

The museum declined to directly address the claim, but did say keeping the statue in place was the “government’s position.”

“The Board’s original decision was made in line with government’s position that statues should not be removed, but should be interpreted in situ, in order to tell the full story of Britain’s past,” it said.

However, Simic argued that communication between Dowden and the museum made the threat of interference very clear.

“In a barely disguised reference to the possible consequences if the statue was moved, Dowden reminded the trustees of the Museum that they were ‘a government-funded organisation’,” he said.

“The Museum also received a follow-up communication from the DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport) which asked them to redraft a statement on the statue so that references to Dowden’s direct intervention were removed in favour of a vague allusion to ‘relevant government agencies’.”

‘Geffrye must fall’

“Those of us who say #GeffryeMustFall have been accused of wanting to ‘cancel culture’ and ‘re-write history’ but it is Dowden and (Housing Secretary Robert) Jenrick and (Prime Minister) Boris Johnson’s government who want to distort and obscure history,” Simic added.

“This is a movement that won’t be stopped,” he stressed.

“If the City of London and The British Museum can remove monuments to slavers, then why can’t The Museum of the Home?

He underlined: “Geffrye must fall. Geffrye will fall.”

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkey has administered nearly 65.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in January, according to figures released on Saturday.

The country is continuing its intensive vaccination campaign to curb the virus’s spread, with all people aged 18 and over currently eligible for vaccine shots.

According to the Health Ministry, over 39.3 million people have received their first dose, while more than 22.4 million are fully vaccinated.

To date, 63.44% of the adult population has received at least one vaccine dose, with a total of 221,463 coronavirus tests done over the past day.

The ministry also confirmed 12,381 new infections and 58 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours, while as many as 5,383 more patients recovered.

Pointing to a rise in new infections, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on Twitter urged people to get vaccinated.

On July 1, Turkey entered a normalization phase, lifting almost all virus-related restrictions amid a nationwide drop in cases and an expedited vaccination drive.

However, seeking to limit the spread of the virus’ Delta variant, the country has suspended flights from India, where the strain first appeared.

Arrivals from the UK, Iran, Egypt, and Singapore are also required to have negative COVID-19 test results within 72 hours before their departure.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 4.14 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 193.16 million cases reported, according to the US’ Johns Hopkins University.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s environment and urbanization minister praised “Climate Resilient Cities” on Friday during an address to a high-level G20 meeting.

Speaking at the Cities and Climate Action session, Murat Kurum defined climate resilient cities as those that use natural resources effectively, ensure the balance between production and consumption and develop and implement participatory policies.

Kurum was in Naples, Italy to attend a meeting of environment and energy ministers from the Group of 20.

He said for these kinds of cities, integrated plus harmonious policies and strategies are needed.

Emphasizing that in addition to increasing the resilience of cities, durable infrastructure applications are one of the important issues for adaptation to climate change at the local level, Kurum said it is extremely important to accelerate durable infrastructure investments and to use resources efficiently.

Noting that the transformation of cities should be placed at the top of priorities to be successful in combating climate change, Kurum said: “As Turkey, we know that determination in this matter is important to be successful. We are taking steps to ensure the highest level of cooperation on a national and local scale.”

Turkey is expanding its smart city and zero waste practices with regional and local action plans that were started in the Black Sea region, said Kurum.

“As the Ministry, we have accelerated our efforts to reduce energy consumption in our buildings,” he added.

“We carry out all our construction activities with this sensitivity, in our 2.5 million houses we have built so far and 300,000 urban transformation houses that are currently underway,” he said.

Kurum added that Turkey chooses natural materials, install solar energy systems and implement systems that produce their own electricity in all of its urban transformation projects, social housing and public buildings.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Since the drafting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen in 1789, France describes itself to be the epitome of justice and desires to share its understanding of human rights with the rest of the world.

However, France has taken one step closer towards tyranny and persecution. After being announced in October 2020 by French President Emmanuel Macron and months of discussions, the Anti-Separatism Bill has finally been adopted by the Parliament.

What changes is it bringing, and how is it going to affect French Muslims?

Here are the most fundamental reforms introduced by the Law. It will expand government powers to dissolve an organization, a framework which is already loose and enabled the dissolutions of two major Muslim NGO in 2020. In addition, cultural associations will be submitted to tighter fiscal and administrative control.

Organizations seeking public funds will have to sign a “Republican Contract” and abide by its conditions, which is nothing short of a philosophical submission to the State’s ideology.

The very French version of secularism (laicité) – which already requires political, philosophical and religious neutrality for any civil servant – is strengthened by extending this legal condition to non-civil servants associated with public or private bodies involved in a public service mission.

To reinforce it even more, the law targets Islamic private education by introducing new executive tools facilitating the suspension or closure of Islamic private schools.

It also severely restricts home-schooling. This new framework de facto forces Muslim parents to send their children through the public secular education system where overt religious signs such as headscarf are forbidden. The government viciously tries to weaken the actual transmission of Islam for the benefit of French secular philosophy.

Obviously, to avoid the accusation of Islamophobia, the bill does not mention by name Islam or Muslims, but Macron stated when he announced the reform, “what we need to tackle is Islamist Separatism”, indicating that the bill specifically aims at the Muslim community.

If referred to the Constitutional Council, some dispositions of the bill, especially the one regarding home-schooling, could be struck down, but the overall backbone of the bill will not be affected.

It would be a major mistake to believe that such a piece of legislation will have no concrete consequences, disconnected from a wider plan to submit France’s Muslim population to a second class status.

Mechanics of persecution

When introducing the bill, the Council of Ministers explained that it “is a structuring element of the government’s strategy to combat separatism and attacks on citizenship”, implicitly pointing at an already existing strategy. As no French Muslims ever demanded to live in a separate State within the French national territory, it is necessary to identify the institutional mechanics of this “strategy” and its political objective.

In 2019, former Home Secretary Christophe Castaner, in an address to the Prefects, unveiled that the State had been piloting a policy aimed at stopping “Islamism”, and “communitarian withdrawal” since 2018.

By “Islamism’ , “Radical Islam”’ or “Islamist Separatism” the government means normative Islamic beliefs in and so far as, according to the French State, wearing hijab, a beard, praying or increasing one’s religiosity during the month of Ramadan is a “weak signal” of “radicalization”.

What is then “communitarian withdrawal” ? To understand this expression, it must be mentioned that France does not recognize the political and legal existence of minorities on its soil.

This stance reflects the very French idea, inherited from Jacobinism, that the nation is and must be one under the banner of the Republic. This unity must not be understood as a form of national solidarity but rather as an identitarian idea according to which equal is synonymous with identical.

Hence, “communitarian withdrawal” describes behaviors, be they cultural or religious, of a minority group of individuals, united by a specific identity, that differ from the actual norm of the majority.

The first two years of the policy were implemented in 15 unknown areas in total secrecy. As announced by the former home secretary, it resulted in 1,030 controls of public establishments (mosques, schools, cultural or sporting establishments, or public houses) believed to be run by “Islamists” and followed an explicit modus operandi.

“As soon as there are doubts about a place or an association, I ask you not to hesitate to carry out inspections and controls. And if breaches are established, I ask you to order administrative closures without hesitation,” Castaner said.

These “inspections and controls” are conducted by administrative controllers who scrutinize every piece of legislation applicable to the public establishments which means the authorities can use doubts about hygiene, the control of regulations concerning sports activities, rules concerning the reception of minors or the fight against fraud to inspect places open to the public.

Castaner described this method as “systematic obstruction.” It represents a strategy of maximum pressure on Muslim civil society to make day to day work intolerably difficult, asphyxiating a community already weakened by decades of systemic bigotry.

In the same address, the former home secretary announced that the policy was now to be implemented across the country.

In order to facilitate such an implementation, the French State created 101 “departmental cells fighting against Islamism and communitarian withdrawal”. According to the State, these cells are “a multidisciplinary team, placed under the authority of the departmental prefect, that aims to coordinate the action of all actors likely to contribute to the fight against Islamism and community withdrawal.”

Their task ? To function as a specific anti-Muslim intelligence, gather relevant information and submit it to the Prefect who will process it and demand an inspection to be carried out in case of “doubt”.

As of May 2021, it led to the closure of at least 37 mosques, 4 schools and 210 public houses run by French Muslims. In addition, some 559 Muslim-owned businesses or organizations have been closed down, and 22,222 were investigated. It also allowed the state to seize more than €43 million ($50.6 million) from an already impoverished Muslim community.

It means that, on average, 27 controls take place each business day, 569 a month, four closures are announced each month and €10 million ($11.8 million) seized each year.

The French Prime Minister Jean Castex issued a public circular on the 24th of June, explicitly identifying the higher aim of the Anti-Separatism Bill: “This obstruction policy will soon be strengthened by the dispositions of the bill to Reinforce Respect for Republican Principles (Anti-Separatism Bill).”

Through this legislation, the French government only expands its already large legal and executive powers to amplify and facilitate its anti-Islam policy.

The newly introduced framework is very clear: the French State is at war with its Muslim community, which will now have to submit to extraordinary and extreme demands of allegiance.

As the infamous Imam’s charter states, French Muslims are “bound by a pact” to France which demands a full submission to its ideology. Faith-inspired dissent is not to be tolerated. The results of this “systematic obstruction”, shocking, only point at the reality of a systematic attack on Muslims.

A very real State-led Islamophobic persecution is taking place in front of our eyes.

* Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of the Anadolu Agency.

1 – https://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/lutte-contre-les-separatismes-le-verbatim-integral-du-discours-d-emmanuel-macron-20201002

2 – See Christophe Castaner hearing at the Law Commission, 8th october 2019.

http://videos.assemblee-nationale.fr/vod.php?media=8204226_5d9ca9d57c415&name=%22Commission+des+lois+%3A+M.+Christophe+Castaner%2C+ministre+de+l’Intérieur%22+du+8+octobre+2019

3 – For more details, see the works of Aissam Ait Yahya, De l’idéologie islamique française, or Alain de Benoist’s “Jacobinisme ou Fédéralisme”.

4 – https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Archives/Archives-ministres-de-l-Interieur/Archives-Christophe-Castaner/Interventions/Discours-d-ouverture-de-M.-Christophe-Castaner-lors-du-seminaire-des-prefets-consacre-a-la-lutte-contre-l-islamisme-et-le-repli-communautaire

5 – Ibid.

6 – https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/15/comptes-rendus/cion_lois/l15cion_lois1920045_compte-rendu

7 – https://www.cipdr.gouv.fr/islamisme-et-separatisme-clir/

8 – See the monthly press releases by the Home Secretary regarding its struggle against “radical Islam”, available here : https://www.interieur.gouv.fr

9 – Official wording of the Anti-Separatism Bill. See https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/download/file/pdf/cir_45206/CIRC

Source: Anadolu Agency

Moroccan coast guards have rescued 368 irregular migrants, including three children and seven women, off the kingdom’s coast in the Mediterranean Sea, according to the Moroccan news agency MAP.

The bulk majority of those rescued hailed from sub-Saharan Africa in a four-day operation that took place between July 20 and 23.

“The migrants were facing difficulties aboard 22 inflatable boats, 30 kayaks, and five rubber wheels,” MAP said.

In November last year, the Moroccan Interior Ministry said it had foiled 26,800 illegal immigration attempts in 2020 and dismantled more than 196 migrant trafficking networks.

For years, Maghreb countries — Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia — have witnessed attempts by migrants from mainly sub-Saharan Africa to reach Europe.

In the first half of 2021, nearly 15,000 people illegally crossed into Spain, an increase of 63% from the same period in 2020, according to the Interior Ministry.

This year, migrant routes to Spain have also become more fatal.

Nearly 2,100 people died or went missing trying to cross Africa into Spain, five times higher than last year, according to the human rights organization Caminando Fronteras, or Front Line Defenders.

Source: Anadolu Agency

South Korea claimed the gold medal in the archery mixed team event at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday.

South Korea’s duo An San and Kim Je Deok defeated the Dutch pair of Steve Wijler and Gaby Schloesser 5-3 in the final at the Yumenoshima Archery Field.

Turkey’s pair of Mete Gazoz and Yasemin Ecem Anagoz came in fourth after losing to Mexico in the bronze medal game.

Alejandra Valencia and Luis Alvarez of Mexico bagged the bronze medal with a 6-2 win against the Turkish duo.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Saturday decried a decision by the African Union (AU) to grant Israel an observer status at the pan-African bloc.

“This decision enhances the legitimacy of the (Israeli) entity on our land and gives it more opportunities to continue its plans to erase Palestinian rights and to continue its brutal crimes against our people,” Hamas said in a statement.

It called on African states which it said “still suffer from the yoke of colonialism and racism” to “expel” Israel from the AU and to slap it with sanctions “until it acquiesces in truth and justice.”

Israel announced on Thursday that it has attained observer status at the AU after nearly two decades of diplomatic efforts.

Israel’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Burundi, and Chad, Aleli Admasu submitted Israel’s charter as an observer member to Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairman of the 55-member states continental body.

“This is a day of celebration for Israel-Africa relations. This diplomatic achievement is the result of consistent work by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its African Division, and Israeli embassies on the continent,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement.

“This corrects the anomaly that has existed for almost two decades and is an important part of strengthening the fabric of Israel’s foreign relations. It will help us strengthen our activities on the African continent and with the member states of the organization,” Lapid said.

It is noteworthy that relations between Africa and Israel have been tense since the 1960s against the backdrop of the outbreak of national liberation movements on the continent and the escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Arab-Israeli wars in 1967 and 1973 prompted the sub-Saharan African countries to sever their relations with Israel. However, Tel Aviv sought over the following years to improve relations with many countries of the continent.

Source: Anadolu Agency