Day: February 2, 2022

Beijing on Wednesday hit back at Tokyo, calling a resolution adopted by Japanese parliament as “severe political provocation against the Chinese people.”

“The so-called resolution about human rights adopted by the Japan’s House of Representatives is extremely vile in nature, as it disregards facts and truth, maliciously denigrates China’s human rights conditions, gravely violates international law and basic norms governing international relations, and grossly interferes in China’s internal affairs,” said Zhao Lijian, a Foreign Ministry spokesman.

Japanese lawmakers on Tuesday called for scrutiny into alleged human rights violations in China.

“We regard changes to the status quo by force, symbolized in the serious human rights situations, as a threat to the international community,” read the resolution adopted by the lower house of Japanese parliament.

It pointed to Uyghur-dominated Xinjiang province, Hong Kong, Inner Mongolia and Tibet.

“The so-called human rights issues claimed by the Japanese side are purely China’s internal affairs, bear on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and allow no irresponsible comment by any external forces,” Zhao said.

The resolution argued that human rights issues “go beyond the internal affairs of a country and are of interest to the entire international community.”

The Chinese diplomat reminded Japan of its “innumerous crimes during the war of aggression,” referring to the Second Sino Japanese War between 1937 and 1945.

“With a deplorable track record in human rights, it has no authority whatsoever to make wanton remarks about other countries’ human rights conditions,” the Chinese official stressed.

The legislators sought “Beijing’s accountability and called for the constructive involvement of the Japanese government.”

They also noted the international community’s “concern over infringements of the freedom of religion and imprisonment in China.”

“This is a severe political provocation against the Chinese people,” Zhao said, adding that the issue was raised with the Japanese side.

“Some Japanese politicians, in utter disregard of overall China-Japan relations and norms of state-to-state interaction, went to great lengths to piece together the so-called resolution,” he added, warning that Beijing “reserves the right to take further measures.”

China is gearing up to launch the Beijing Olympics later this week, despite a boycott call by multiple Western nations, including the US, UK, and Canada, due to concerns centered on China’s human rights record.

It denies any wrongdoing and has termed the allegations as a “political virus” used by the West to malign China.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Scenes of Syrian refugees struggling to survive in freezing temperatures have left Ibraheem Khalil with a heavy heart.

Seeking to provide a helping hand, the 34-year-old Palestinian launched an online campaign to raise funds to build homes for Syrian refugees living in harsh winter conditions.

Khalil, a social activist, said the campaign originally aimed to buy radiators for Syrians displaced from their homes by the 11-year conflict in their country.

“The idea then developed to find sustainable solutions for the refugees until they can return back to their country,” he told Anadolu Agency.

Since the campaign started, Khalil receives every day hundreds of messages on his Facebook page from Palestinians in Israel donating for Syrian refugees.

So far, the campaign has collected more than 10 million shekels (around $3,145,297) from Palestinians in Arab cities in Israel.

Last week, the activists expanded the fund-raising campaign for Syrian refugees to the West Bank and Jerusalem.

“This campaign shows that the Palestinians and Syrians are one nation,” Khalil, who is also a horse trainer, said.

In Syria, over 6.7 million people have been internally displaced by the country’s civil war, triggered by the Bashar al-Assad regime’s harsh crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011. Another 6.8 million Syrians live as refugees in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkiye.

Most displaced people found shelter in tents, unfinished buildings, leaving them particularly vulnerable to harsh winter conditions.

True face

Jabr Hijaz, a friend of Khalil, joined the fund-raising campaign to ease the misery of Syrian refugees.

“I experienced life in the outdoors. I really feel for Syrian children living in the camps,” Hijaz, from the town of Tamra, 20 kilometers east of Acre, told Anadolu Agency.

“Photos that came from the camps make the stones feel,” he said.

Khalil and Hijazi are both coordinating with relief organizations to build hundreds of houses for Syrian refugees north of Syria, north of Jordan and south of Turkiye.

Hijazi said the campaign for Syrian refugees reflects the true face of the Arab community in Israel.

“The (Israeli) occupation wanted us to see our community as a criminal community, but this campaign makes us very proud of ourselves,” added Hijazi, who lost his brother by Israeli fire during protests against organized crime in Israel.

“A few members who work in organized crime aren’t reflecting the reality of us,” he said.

Palestinians who managed to stay in their homes during the Nakba — forced exodus — of 1948 are known as Arab Israelis. They make up around 20% of Israel’s population.

They are centered in a group of Arab towns in central Israel known as the “Little Triangle,” along with the Galilee (north) and Negev regions (south).

Numerous human rights groups decry Israeli policies against Arabs as a form of modern-day apartheid, with Arabs suffering racial discrimination in education, work, and health care.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had a phone call with Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo on Wednesday, during which he condemned a coup attempt in the West African country besides expressing solidarity with the people, diplomatic sources said.

Heavy gunfire was heard near the presidential palace in the capital Bissau on Tuesday, leading to reports of a coup attempt in the country which has a history of military takeovers.

Soldiers in military vehicles drove through the streets, and some were also deployed around government buildings, according to local media reports.

The sources added that the Turkish diplomat also spoke to his Bissau-Guinean counterpart Suzi Carla Barbosa.

Embalo had described the coup attempt as an attack against democracy, attributing it to “the work of isolated elements.”

In a tweet, the president said he was “fine,” and that the “situation is under government control.” He thanked the people of Guinea-Bissau and the rest of the world for their concern.

Three countries in West Africa – Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso – have witnessed military coups over the last 18 months.

Recent violence in Guinea-Bissau came days after Embalo reshuffled his Cabinet, a decision initially challenged by Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam’s party.

Relations between the president and the Nabiam-led government are said to be tense in recent months.

Guinea-Bissau has had nine coups and attempted coups since its independence from Portugal in 1974.

For more than four decades, no elected head of state had finished a five-year term until Jose Mario Vaz completed his tenure in June 2019.

In 2009, then-President Joao Bernardo Vieira was assassinated in what was said to be an apparent revenge attack by soldiers for the killing of the country’s then-army chief, who was at odds with Vieira.

Source: Anadolu Agency

On the eve of an official visit to Ukraine by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, locals in the eastern region of Donbas voice support for Ankara’s possible mediation between Kyiv and Moscow, calling for dialogue in defusing the conflict between Kyiv and Moscow.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, a resident of Kramatorsk — an industrial city that fell to pro-Russian separatists in 2014 before the Ukrainian army regained control, underlined that ties between Ankara and Kyiv are “good,” and that Turkiye’s mediation would be “be better than (that of) the US, which wants to interfere here (in Ukraine’s affairs).”

“The thing that Turkiye provided Ukraine, the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and the joint production that seems to be underway, is very good and very wonderful,” said a pensioner in the city, who did not want to be named.

“The way President Erdogan speaks about Ukraine is like a father’s care, he’s ready to help with all means,” he added.

He also stressed that in general, only “positive thoughts are evoked by Turkiye’s role” in resolving the conflict in Ukraine.

Another resident of the city, located in the region of Donetsk in Donbas, said she hopes Ukraine’s friendship with Turkiye will continue and that she believes that Ankara will help her country.

Everyone should help each other

“I, like any other person who feels that someone wants to help them, think that (Turkiye’s support) is normal. Everyone should help one another. The more powerful helping the less powerful. I think it’s all natural. I think whoever helps us is close to us, if not our brother,” said another resident, Yuriy Rud.

Rud underlined that once Ukraine is back on its feet after the conflict is over, it “will definitely return (the favor) that Turkiye provided.”

He added that Erdogan was coming to Ukraine “in peace.”

Rud went on to say that whoever helps Ukraine, Kyiv will do the same back, but that “whoever kicks us, tramples our ground, will get what he deserves.”

“Now, we feel there are close countries that help us. We’re calmer now. When we were alone, it wasn’t easy,” he said.

Boosting relations

Another pensioner asserted that Erdogan’s visit to Kyiv would help boost relations.

“I think there’ll be some help provided to Ukraine. The UAVs (Turkiye provided) are very good … it’s great that they’re helping Ukraine,” she said.

“Ukraine is a peaceful country. But, wherever Russia goes, there is also war, starting with Karabakh (region of Azerbaijan), and so on in Moldova, Syria, Lebanon. It (Russia) is everywhere (causing conflict). It’s just an aggressor country. That’s what I think,” she added.

Erdogan said on Tuesday that his country does not want war between Russia and Ukraine and hopes tensions are resolved peacefully.

“We would never want a war between Russia and Ukraine. This is not a good omen for the region. As a NATO country, we do not want such a thing, we do not accept it … I hope we can resolve this peacefully,” he noted.

The Turkish president has said on multiple occasions in recent weeks that he is ready to host the leaders of Russia and Ukraine to help calm the tensions between their countries.

NATO last week rejected Russia’s demands to withdraw its troops and weapons from Eastern Europe and to halt the integration of Ukraine, urging Moscow to focus on diplomatic engagement and to start talks on arms control.

Ukraine and Russia have been locked in a conflict since hostilities in Donbas broke out in 2014 after Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula.

Russia also recently amassed tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine’s borders, prompting fears that the Kremlin could be planning another military offensive against its ex-Soviet neighbor.

Moscow has denied it is preparing to invade and said its troops are there for exercises.

Source: Anadolu Agency

At least 12 irregular migrants were found frozen to death in northwestern Turkiye after they were pushed back from neighboring Greece, the Turkish interior minister said on Wednesday.

Twelve of 22 migrants “pushed back” by Greek border forces and stripped of their clothes and shoes “froze to death,” Suleyman Soylu said on Twitter.

The EU “is remediless, weak and void of humane feelings,” said Soylu, adding that while Greek forces acted as a “thug” against people who had been made “victims,” they were tolerant towards members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization, which was behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkiye.

Thousands of the terror group’s members fled to Greece after the coup bid on July 15, 2016, which was orchestrated by FETO and its ringleader Fetullah Gulen. It left 251 people dead and 2,734 injured.

Soylu shared several photos of the site where the irregular migrants were found, with the victims blurred.

Earlier, the governor’s office of Edirne province in northwestern Turkiye released a statement, saying that the bodies of nine migrants were found in the Pasakoy village of Ipsala district, less than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the Greek border.

“Another migrant at risk of frostbite was rescued and transferred to the Kesan State Hospital,” the statement added.

Turkish teams continue to conduct search and rescue missions in the area for migrants who may need medical assistance, it added.

An investigation has been launched into the incident, it said.

Meanwhile, Greek Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi issued a statement on Twitter regarding the incident, calling it a “tragedy”.

“The deaths of 12 migrants on the Turkish border near Ipsala is a tragedy,” he said.

Mitarachi, however, added: “Any suggestion that they were pushed back into Turkey is patently false.”

Turkiye has been a key transit point for asylum seekers aiming to cross into Europe to start new lives, especially those fleeing war and persecution.

Turkiye and international human rights groups have repeatedly condemned Greece’s illegal practice of pushing back asylum seekers, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable people, including women and children.

Source: Anadolu Agency