Category: General

Turkey’s main opposition leader on Tuesday pledged to the country’s young people that he would give them the freedom they want.

“Dear young people! I will give you the freedom that you wanted and missed,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), told his party’s parliamentary group in the capital Ankara.

“You will achieve such freedom that you will criticize the person who you brought to power in the strongest way, if necessary,” he added.

Kilicdaroglu said that his party would strive to enlighten the entire country with all its young people.

“If you hear a knock on your door in the early morning, you will know that it’s a milkman, not a police officer, I promise you such freedom,” he added.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The Netherlands announced their 26-man squad for the EURO 2020 tournament on Wednesday.

The Dutch national football team will play all of their group stage matches in the Netherlands.

The Frank de Boer-led team will open the tournament in Group C against Ukraine at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruijff Arena on June 13. They will also play, Austria and North Macedonia.

The one-month tournament will be held in 11 cities across Europe beginning June 11.

The round of 16 matches will be held in London, Amsterdam, Seville, Bucharest or Glasgow between June 26 and June 29.

The quarterfinals will be played July 2 and 3 in Munich, Baku, Saint Petersburg and Rome and the semifinals will be hosted in London on July 6 and 7.

The final in the English city will be played on July 11.

– Netherlands squad

Goalkeepers: Maarten Stekelenburg (Ajax), Jasper Cillessen (Valencia), Tim Krul (Norwich City)

Defenders: Nathan Ake (Manchester City), Matthijs de Ligt (Juventus), Daley Blind (Ajax), Joel Veltman (Brighton), Jurrien Timber (Ajax), Patrick van Aanholt (Crystal Palace), Denzel Dumfries (PSV Eindhoven), Stefan de Vrij (Inter), Owen Wijndal (AZ Alkmaar)

Midfielders: Frenkie de Jong (Barcelona), Ryan Gravenberch (Ajax), Georginio Wijnaldum (Liverpool), Donny van de Beek (Manchester United), Marten de Roon (Atalanta), Davy Klaassen (Ajax), Teun Koopmeiners (AZ Alkmaar)

Forwards: Memphis Depay (Olympique Lyon), Luuk de Jong (Sevilla), Wout Weghorst (Wolfsburg), Quincy Promes (Spartak Moscow), Cody Gakpo (PSV Eindhoven), Donyell Malen (PSV Eindhoven), Steven Berghuis (Feyenoord)

Source: Anadolu Agency

An Israeli carrier was forced on Tuesday to cancel a flight to Dubai after failure to obtain Saudi permission to fly through its airspace, according to Israeli media.

Israeli army radio said the passengers waited for 10 hours at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv before the Israir flight was canceled.

The reason for the Saudi refusal to grant permission to the Israeli flight remains unclear. Riyadh has allowed Israeli flights to use the Saudi airspace en route to Dubai since November.

Without using Saudi airspace, flights between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be difficult and unsustainable, as it makes the flight period eight hours instead of three hours.

In December, Israir announced a flight program of two flights daily between Israel and the UAE. Other Israeli carriers, including El Al, also had similar flight programs.

In September 2020, the UAE and Israel signed a US-sponsored deal to normalize their relations. Since then, the two countries have signed dozens of bilateral agreements in various fields, including investment, banking services, and tourism.

*Ahmed Asmar in Ankara contributed to this report

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s fourth judicial reform package will soon be submitted to lawmakers, the country’s president said on Wednesday.

“The fourth judicial package, which constitutes a new link in our reform efforts, will be submitted to our parliament soon,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Justice and Development (AK) Party’s parliamentary group.

The fourth package will include some “very important” innovations to help the public deal with the administrative judiciary and to enhance guarantees in criminal proceedings, he said.

“Right afterwards, we will roll up our sleeves for the fifth judicial package,” Erdogan added.

On continuing efforts to draw up a new constitution to replace Turkey’s coup-era charter, he said: “A new constitution will come out of the nation’s conscience and views, and it will be the most valuable legacy that we will leave to future generations.”

Erdogan declared last November that his administration would enact sweeping reforms in the economy and judiciary with new steps to raise the standards of democratic rights and freedoms.

Source: Anadolu Agency

EDIRNE, BALIKESIR, Turkey (AA) – Turkish security forces arrested 22 more people over suspected links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, security sources said on Monday.

Security forces in the northwestern province of Edirne nabbed eight suspected members of FETO who were planning to illegally cross into Greece, said the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Police began following a minivan coming from Istanbul.

When the suspects noticed they were being followed by the police, they tried to hide at a house in the city center, the sources added.

Turkish forces raided the house and arrested eight suspected FETO members, including dismissed police officers and teachers.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in the northwestern Balikesir province issued warrants for 26 FETO suspects.

The suspects, which include active-duty military personnel, dismissed soldiers and senior FETO members, known as “covert imams” were found to be in contact with FETO members via payphone, the sources said.

A total of 14 suspects were arrested in simultaneous operations across 17 provinces as part of the investigation launched by prosecutors in Balikesir province, said the sources, requesting anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Efforts are ongoing to track down and apprehend the remaining suspects.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, in which 251 people were martyred and 2,734 injured.

Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.

Source: Anadolu Agency

EDIRNE, Turkey (AA) – Turkish security forces on Monday nabbed eight suspected members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) – the group behind the defeated 2016 coup attempt – who were planning to illegally cross into Greece, according to security sources.

Police in the northwestern province of Edirne, which borders Greece, began following a minivan coming from Istanbul, said the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

When the suspects noticed they were being followed by the police, they tried to hide at a house in the city center, the sources added.

Turkish security forces raided the house and arrested 8 suspected FETO members, including dismissed police officers and teachers.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, in which 251 people were martyred and 2,734 injured.

Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.

Source: Anadolu Agency

ANKARA (AA) – The second Africa Media Representatives Training Program organized by Turkey started on Monday.

The virtual session is being hosted by Anadolu Agency’s News Academy, the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB), and the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT).

In the opening session, Murat Kazanci, YTB’s head of cultural and social affairs, said the program benefits journalists, and they will continue to hold such workshops.

TRT’s Deputy Head of Education Department Mustafa Canturk said the public broadcaster has held media training programs in over 80 countries since 2015.

Anadolu Agency’s News Academy Director Bora Bayraktar said recent developments in the media sector, as well as current affairs, would be covered in the program until May 31.

Both the participants and trainers will learn from each other’s experiences, he added.

The participants shared their expectations from the program, hoping to enhance their skills as well as improve cultural ties with Turkey.

Sessions in the 8-day program will include combatting disinformation, social media, photo editing and photography, video, news writing, new media, as well as interview techniques.

The first training for African journalists, held from Oct. 23 – Nov. 12, 2019, was attended by 20 correspondents from 13 countries.

Source: Anadolu Agency

ISTANBUL (AA) – Reports of anti-Muslim and Islamophobic hatred in the UK skyrocketed by 430% on May 8-17 compared to the previous week, with one monitoring group on Monday linking the surge to the most recent escalation between Israel and Palestinians.

Thirteen reports related to Islamophobic attacks on May 1-7 increased to 56 the following week, according to a statement by Tell Mama UK, which said the incidents were “clearly affected by what takes place in Israel and Palestine.”

“Following the spike, we have and continue to observe a concerning number of reports regarding examples of racist bullying amongst students. And in some cases, worrying and wholly unacceptable comments from staff and management in some schools towards students,” said the group.

Citing the country’s 2010 Equality Act, the statement underlined that “public bodies including schools must have due regard to eliminate discrimination, advance equality between those who share a protected character and those who do not and must endeavour to foster positive and good relations between such groups.”

It urged full investigations on such incidents “alongside meaningful community engagement, and training to ensure compliance with equalities legislation moving forward, to understand how harmful language does impact students and wider communities.”

“Teachers must also set an example by reminding students that bullying, racism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hatred will not be tolerated.”

Tensions escalated across the Palestinian territories last month over an Israeli court verdict to evict Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in favor of settlement groups. The situation worsened after Israeli forces raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque and assaulted worshippers inside.

The confrontation spread to the Gaza Strip, with Israel launching airstrikes that killed at least 248 Palestinians, including 66 children and 39 women, and injured more than 1,900 others. Health authorities in the West Bank also confirmed 31 killed in the occupied region, totaling 279 across all Palestinian territories.

Twelve Israelis were also killed in Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

At least 2,000 buildings were completely destroyed and 15,000 buildings became unusable in the Israeli attacks on the enclave, according to the Gaza-based Palestinian Ministry of Labor and Housing.

Some four mosques and dozens of police stations were completely destroyed in the attacks, while many factories in the industrial zone became unusable.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.

Source: Anadolu Agency

ANKARA (AA) – The autonomous Bangsamoro government in the southern Philippines on Monday kicked off its first Peace and Security Summit for Sustainable Local Development in the region.

Murad Ebrahim, chief minister of the region, told Anadolu Agency that the summit will bring together “all the leaders, the local governments, the security, and the private sector in order to be able to work out together.”

“The summit is being held to strengthen our cooperation in line with peace operations in Mindanao and in neighboring provinces,” Ebrahim said.

The Social Services and Development Ministry of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is hosting the summit in the capital Cotabato with the attendance of various civil society organizations (CSOs), NGOs, and other humanitarian groups.

Social Services and Development Minister Raissa H. Jajurie said in an earlier statement that it is important to identify “more coherent strategies and areas for cooperation between the Bangsamoro government and other development partners towards durable solutions to displacements and sustainable development.”

“The regional government and the ministry itself will seek solutions to protect Bangsamoro constituents in order to attain and achieve lasting peace in the region,” he said.

Mohagher Iqbal, the basic, higher and technical education minister, said that the CSOs and private sector can contribute to the various priority programs of the region, including education, social services, health, and the economic development of the Bangsamoro people, and ensure that collaboration between the public and private sectors is efficient.

“We need to have a mechanism in place that would define the CSOs’ participation in achieving Bangsamoro development goals. This mechanism, or set of protocols, will also prevent the duplication of roles and the effective use of resources,” he added.

– Extending transition until 2025 lies with Congress

In a separate statement, the Third-Party Monitoring Team (TPMT) on the region’s transition said it is closely following the ongoing deliberations in the Philippine Congress on extending its transition period by seeking to amend the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).

“The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro [CAB] and the Organic Law share the same objectives of achieving lasting peace on the basis of justice, as well as genuine and meaningful self-governance for the Bangsamoro,” the team said.

The team said whether or not an extension of the transition period is justified is a “decision up to the elected representatives of the Filipino people.”

It said Philippines Secretary Carlito G. Galvez, adviser to President Rodrigo Duterte on the peace process, and Chief Minister Ebrahim have both “made clear their strong advocacy for an extension of the period of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), before a regional election in 2025 in line with the majority of the bills filed in Congress.”

“We further note the active discussion among the public and civil society in Bangsamoro on the extension, including the petition of more than 1 million signatures in support of the extension,” the statement added.

After forming the transitional government in February 2018, whose mandate ends in 2022, voices in and outside Bangsamoro have grown stronger to extend the transition period until 2025.

The officials and civil society in the Bangsamoro autonomous region say the normalization process demands more time to finally pave the way for elections in 2025.

They argue that many important goals in an agreed peace plan have yet to be realized.

Several bills have been submitted in Philippines Congress to extend the period until 2025.

“Now, after more than a year in office, we see that time until 2022 will not be enough in implementing the provisions of the agreement,” Ebrahim told Anadolu Agency in a recent interview.

Calling the timeframe “very ambitious from the start, especially when taking into account comparable international experience for transitions to peace,” the monitoring team said the region faces “a complex task of establishing an autonomous political entity which should not be underestimated. The constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic have considerably added to the challenges.”

“Realizing those dreams will require all partners to the peace process to continue to demonstrate the commitment, perseverance and patience which has achieved so much to this point.”

Source: Anadolu Agency