Day: January 20, 2023

The US launched a pilot program Thursday to allow Americans to sponsor the resettlement of arriving refugees.

The State Department said the program, “the Welcome Corps,” empowers Americans to “play a leading role in welcoming refugees arriving through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and supporting their resettlement and integration as they build new lives in the United States.”

Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Julieta Valls Noyes, told reporters that welcoming refugees reflects the values of the country.

“Our goal in 2023 is to mobilize 10,000 Americans to step forward as private sponsors and help resettle at least 5,000 refugees,” she said.

The program will have two phases, said the agency. The first will be to match private sponsors participating in the Welcome Corps with refugees who will be resettled under the USRAP.

“In the second phase of the program, which will launch in mid-2023, private sponsors will be able to identify refugees to refer to the USRAP for resettlement and support the refugees they have identified. Further details on the second phase of the program will be forthcoming,” it said.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Amid media reports that the Greek government seeks to outlaw the Ellines party, led by Ilias Kasidiaris, a former deputy and spokesperson of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party that was declared a criminal group and banned in October 2020, one rightfully wonders what Athens thinks about the terror group PKK’s current operations on its soil.

The presence in Greece of the PKK, which has been listed as a terrorist organization by the US, EU, and UK, dates back to the 1980s. Athens saw the PKK, along with other far-left terror groups, including the DHKP-C and ASALA – the latter infamous for its campaign to assassinate Turkish diplomats in 1973-1986 – as a “strategic asset” against Ankara. This was marketed to the Greek public as part of Greece’s policy of supporting so-called “national liberation struggles.”

Against this background, Greece provided numerous PKK terrorists with political asylum, safe houses, and the freedom to operate freely to enlist the political and financial support of the Greek public.

Greece’s support for the PKK terror group reached its zenith in the 1990s in parallel to the deterioration of relations with Türkiye. Many PKK arsonists and terrorists who were arrested at the time confessed that Greek spy services had trained them.

Even though Greece kept rebuffing the accusations as “Turkish propaganda,” Ankara’s arguments proved vindicated in the events surrounding the 1999 capture of the terrorist PKK ringleader Abdullah Ocalan, who stayed for a couple of days in Athens after being expelled by Syria and ended up in the Greek Embassy’s residence in Kenyan capital Nairobi before his capture.

It was later understood that then-Prime Minister Costas Simitis had ordered the Greek secret service to remove Ocalan from Greece and Greek protection out of concern that Türkiye would become aware of his presence and sever ties with Greece, triggering a crisis that could even lead to war.

Consequently, Athens, caught red-handed, significantly reduced its support for the PKK terror group. The improvement of Turkish-Greek relations from the late 1990s to the mid-2010s also played a role in this state of affairs.

In recent years, along with the deteriorating relations between Ankara and Athens as a consequence of Greece’s maximalist demands in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, provocative actions, and rhetoric against Türkiye, Athens brought back its “PKK card.”

In March 2022, a major Greek broadcaster aired footage of a PKK camp in the central city of Lavrion and interviews with some terrorists and sympathizers affiliated with the terror group. Moreover, Turkish authorities last September arrested some PKK terrorists who said they had been trained in the same camp.

Often reminding European countries of its stance against PKK terrorism, it would be a delusion for Türkiye to expect Athens to be as harsh towards PKK terrorism as it is towards extremist movements. PKK is known to be both a threat to democratic regimes and human life.

Source: Anadolu Agency

An historic building in the center of Peru’s capital Lima caught fire late Thursday a few meters from the iconic Plaza San Martin, where thousands of demonstrators gathered to demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte and the closure of Congress.

During a large national strike organized by a workers’ confederation, protesters clashed with police in Plaza San Martin when flames began to raze the building.

Some residents in the area said the fire was caused by tear gas bombs thrown by police to break up the protesters.

“They threw tear gas bombs on the roof and the fire started,” said the son of the owner of the building that caught fire, blaming the police for causing the incident.

The building, which is 500 square meters (5,382 square feet), is considered a cultural heritage site.

Firefighters continued trying to control the blaze.

In the southern city of Arequipa, around 1,000 protesters tried to storm the airport but were confronted by police firing tear gas.

Two people were killed and another was injured by gunfire amid protests Wednesday in Lima, bringing the overall death toll to 53 since the protests began.

Peru has been the scene of violent protests since former President Pedro Castillo was ousted and arrested after he attempted to dissolve Congress and rule by decree in an effort to avoid impeachment over allegations of corruption.

Boluarte has said she is not willing to step down.

Source: Anadolu Agency