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☆ Explainer: What's at stake in Turkey's landmark elections?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The election takes place three months after earthquakes in southeast Turkey killed more than 50,000 people. WHAT'S AT STAKE FOR TURKEY ... They would also dismantle his executive presidency in favour of the previous parliamentary system, and send back Syrian refugees. The opposition has echoed Erdogan's plans to return some refugees to Syria, but neither has set out how that could safely take place. How the opposition will garner support among the Kurdish voters, accounting for 15% of the electorate, remains key.

☆ What's at stake in Turkey's landmark elections?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Modern Turkey's longest-serving leader, Erdogan has championed religious piety and low interest rates at home while asserting Turkish influence in the region and loosening the NATO member's ties with the West. The election takes place three months after earthquakes in southeast Turkey killed more than 50,000 people. WHAT'S AT STAKE FOR TURKEY ... The opposition has echoed Erdogan's plans to return some refugees to Syria, but neither has set out how that could safely take place. How the opposition will garner support among the Kurdish voters, accounting for 15% of the electorate, remains key.

☆ Two decades after Saddam's fall, Iraqis still haunted by disappearances
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Charlotte Bruneau | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

As exhumations dragged on, more atrocities were committed in sectarian conflict and amid the rise and fall of armed groups, such as Al Qaeda and Islamic State militants, as well as Shi'ite Muslim militias. Tens of thousands of Iraqis were killed by Saddam's forces during his rule. According to Siddiq, massacres committed by Islamic State militants, who seized much of northern Iraq in 2014 and held it for three violent years, have been prioritised. In Sinjar, where Islamic State committed what U.N. investigators described as genocide against Iraq's Yazidi minority, about 600 victims have been reburied, with some 150 identified. His name was not among the hundreds of victims identified by Siddiq's team, and Mohammed remains in limbo.

Tehran and Riyadh agreed "to resume diplomatic relations between them and re-open their embassies and missions within a period not exceeding two months", according to a statement issued by Iran, Saudi Arabia and China. Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for missile and drone attacks on the kingdom’s oil facilities in 2019 as well as attacks on tankers in Gulf waters. In Friday's agreement, Saudi Arabia and Iran also agreed to activate a security cooperation agreement signed in 2001, as well as another earlier accord on trade, economy and investment. The agreement was signed by Iran's top security official, Ali Shamkhani, and Saudi Arabia's national security adviser Musaed bin Mohammed Al-Aiban. Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran in 2016 after its embassy in Tehran was stormed during a dispute between the two countries over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric.

☆ Explainer: What's at stake in Turkey's upcoming elections?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The opposition promises to reverse many of the policies of Erdogan, who has championed religious piety, military-backed diplomacy and low interest rates. WHAT'S AT STAKE IN THIS ELECTION FOR TURKEY ... Erdogan has also centralised power around an executive presidency, based in a 1,000-room palace on the edge of Ankara, which sets policy on Turkey's economic, security, domestic and international affairs. Economists say Erdogan's calls for low interest rates sent inflation soaring to a 24-year high of 85% last year, and the lira slumping to one tenth of its value against the dollar over the last decade. How the opposition will garner support among the Kurdish voters, accounting for 15% of the electorate, remains key.

After serving as mayor of Istanbul, he stepped onto the national stage as head of the AK Party, which triumphed in 2002 national elections. Western allies initially saw Erdogan's Turkey as a vibrant mix of Islam and democracy which could be a model for Middle East states struggling to shake off autocracy and stagnation. Faced with a struggling economy, a weak currency and a countdown to this year's election, Erdogan sought rapprochement with rivals across the region. Now he must convince voters he is the leader to rebuild Turkey from the rubble after this month's earthquake. That will be, in all likelihood, to the detriment of the ruling AK Party and President Erdogan," said Sinan Ulgen, director of the Istanbul-based Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies.

[1/2] Police officers stand amid the rubble of a damaged building at the site of a rocket attack in the Kafr Sousa neighbourhood of central Damascus, Syria, February 19, 2023. Its support for Damascus and the Lebanese group Hezbollah has drawn regular Israeli air strikes meant to curb Tehran's extraterritorial military power. A source close to the Syrian government with knowledge of Sunday's strike and its target said it hit a gathering of Syrian and Iranian technical experts in drone manufacturing, though he said no top-level Iranian was killed. "The strike hit the centre where they were meeting as well as an apartment in a residential building. On Sunday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned what it described as attacks on "residential buildings in Damascus which killed and maimed innocent Syrian citizens".

☆ After devastating quake, thousands of Syrians return home to war zone
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Khalil Ashawi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"I haven't seen my family for four years, as I live alone in Turkey," Qramo said after crossing into Syria. Qramo, who had been living in the city of Gaziantep, said people were staying in tents in the cold and rain. In Gaziantep, Qramo said police had moved Syrians out of a mosque where they were sheltering to make way for Turkish families. Several Turks in other quake-hit towns and cities have accused Syrians of robbing damaged shops and homes. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck before dawn 11 days ago, killing more than 38,000 people in Turkey and 5,800 in Syria.

☆ In 'miracle' escape from earthquake, Syrian woman rescues children and bag of memories
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Yamam Al Shaar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Um Kanan, a Syrian woman who survived the quake along with her children, stands on the rubble of what was once her building, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, in Jableh, Syria February 14, 2023. "The children and I, by some miracle, we ended up in this small space that I had left empty." Feeling uneasy in the hours leading up to the earthquake, Um Kanan said she had prepared the bag the day before, filling it with family certificates, IDs and her marriage certificate, as well as photo albums and videos. Recalling the moment she walked from the wreckage with her bag, she said she had felt victorious. "I was so happy that we all came out safe - and I took my memories with me."

☆ Explainer: How Syria's war has hindered earthquake relief
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] A White Helmet volunteer stands among rubble, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, in Harem, Idlib, Syria February 10, 2023. Relief efforts have been hampered by a civil war that has splintered the country and divided regional and global powers. U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths, who was visiting Syria on Monday, is lobbying at the United Nations to open additional crossings from Turkey to bring earthquake relief. A few efforts to deliver humanitarian aid across Syria's internal front lines since the earthquake struck have shown how fraught and difficult the process is. Italian medical aid arrived in Damascus on Sunday, the first European earthquake help to arrive to government zones.

[1/8] Seho Uyan, who survived a deadly earthquake, but lost his four relatives, sits in front of a collapsed building in Adiyaman, Turkey February 11, 2023. Turkey said about 80,000 people were in hospital, with more than 1 million in temporary shelters. U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths described the earthquake as the region's worst event in 100 years, predicting the death toll would at least double. He praised Turkey's response, saying his experience was that disaster victims were always disappointed by early relief efforts. It has killed 24,617 inside Turkey, and more than 3,500 in Syria, where tolls have not been updated since Friday.

☆ Turkey orders arrests over collapsed buildings in earthquake
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Daren Butler | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/7] Rescuers carry survivor Muzeyyen Ofkeli in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, in Hatay, Turkey February 12, 2023. Environment Minister Murat Kurum said that 24,921 buildings across the region had collapsed or were heavily damaged in the quake, based on assessments of more than 170,000 buildings. Rescuers were still looking for survivors in the earthquake rubble six days after the disaster, which hit parts of Syria and Turkey. The upmarket 12-storey residential complex was completed a decade ago and contained 249 apartments. The arrested man told prosecutors he did not know why the complex collapsed and that his desire to go to Montenegro was unrelated, Anadolu reported.

The government declared a "level 4 alarm", calling for international assistance, and a three-month state of emergency in the most affected provinces. 'BLACK SWAN'Reconstruction costs are likely to run to many billions of dollars, straining an economy already hit by 58% inflation. The six-party opposition said only that the government should work "without discrimination" to address the disaster that hit regions including Kurdish communities and Syrian refugees. But Ugur Poyraz, Secretary General of centre-right nationalist IYI Party, said he had toured severely hit areas and as of Tuesday morning seen no sign of emergency rescue workers. "The response of Erdogan's government to this natural disaster might shape the attitude of the floating voter but the loyalties of most voters are already determined."

☆ Earthquake piles misery on war-ravaged Syrians in wintry north
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] People gather as rescuers search for survivors under the rubble, following an earthquake, in rebel-held town of Jandaris, Syria February 6, 2023. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake sent people rushing into the streets in the country's north, where air strikes and shelling have already traumatised the population and weakened the foundations of many buildings. In the rebel-held town of Jandaris in Aleppo province, a mound of concrete, steel rods and bundles of clothes lay where a multi-storey building once stood. "We were pulling people out ourselves at three in the morning," he said, his breath visible in the cold winter air as he spoke. Further west, the main hospital in the rebel-held town of Afrin was teeming with wounded residents writhing on the ground and women struggling to reach loved ones by phone as the lines were down.

☆ Turkey's push into Iraq risks deeper conflict
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Amina Ismail | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

REUTERS/Amina IsmailSARARO, Iraq, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Looming over the deserted village of Sararo in northern Iraq, three Turkish military outposts break the skyline, part of an incursion that forced the residents to flee last year after days of shelling. Turkey's advances across the increasingly depopulated border of Iraqi Kurdistan attract little global attention compared to its incursions into Syria or the battle against Islamic State, but the escalation risks further destabilising a region where foreign powers have intervened with impunity, analysts say. EMPTY VILLAGESA Kurdish official, who declined to be named, also said Turkey now had about 80 outposts in Iraq. NEW TARGETSBeyond the humanitarian impact, Turkey's incursion risks widening the conflict by giving carte blanche to regional rival Iran to step up intelligence operations inside Iraq and take its own military action, Kurdish officials say. According to a Washington Institute report, attacks on Turkish military facilities in Iraq increased from an average of 1.5 strikes per month at the start of 2022 to seven in April.

Now Israel has normalised relations with more Arab states, while Palestinians have grown more isolated and divided. Most world powers consider Israel's settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal. Israel says its West Bank raids targeted militants such as the suspects behind deadly attacks carried out by Palestinians inside Israel last year. "Each area of the West Bank is witnessing some form of armed clashes, but these are not united mass-scale movements," said Tahani Mustafa of the International Crisis Group. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting Israel and the West Bank this week.

☆ Israeli army reinforces in West Bank after synagogue shooting
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Maayan Lubell | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Friday night's shooting came a day after the deadliest Israeli raid in the West Bank in years and cross-border fire between Israel and Gaza that heightened fears of a spiral in bloodshed. On Saturday, the Israeli ambulance service said two people were hurt in what appeared to be another shooting attack. "Following an IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) situational assessment, it was decided to reinforce the Judea and Samaria (West Bank) Division with an additional battalion," the military said. It came days before a planned visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel and the West Bank. Violence in the West Bank surged after a spate of lethal attacks in Israel last year.

☆ Explainer: What's at stake in Turkey's upcoming elections
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

WHAT'S AT STAKE IN THIS ELECTION FOR TURKEY... Opposition parties have pledged to restore central bank independence, bring back parliamentary government and introduce a new constitution enshrining the rule of law. Meanwhile Turkey's top court is hearing a case to shut down the third-largest parliamentary party, the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), and has frozen some of its accounts. Once campaigning starts, opposition parties may find it harder to get their message heard. Though the election deadline is mid-June, Erdogan's party has said they may be brought forward.

☆ Iran's 'death committee' president unyielding in defence of clerical rule
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Parisa Hafezi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Raisi, then deputy prosecutor general for Tehran, was a member of the capital's death committee, according to Amnesty. In 2016, another member of the Tehran "death committee" said, "We are proud to have carried out God's order,” state media reported. "Raisi has been brought up as president for a few reasons, including his brutality, loyalty, and lack of conscience. SANCTIONED BY U.S.Raisi was born in 1960 to a religious family in Iran's northeastern Shi'ite Muslim city of Mashhad. Khamenei, not the president, has the final say on all major policy under Iran's dual political system split between the Shi'ite clerical establishment and the government.

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 17 (Reuters) - A long-running dispute on oil revenue-sharing between Iraq's national government and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region may be resolved within months with agreement on a hydrocarbons law, Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Tuesday. Agreement on regular budget payments from Baghdad would help authorities in the Kurdish Regional Government resolve payment delays to international oil companies in the region, as well as easing a backlog in salary payments for KRG employees. Asked about the timing for agreement on the hydrocarbon law, Barzani said it should be within months. Under the Iraqi constitution, the KRG is entitled to a portion of the national budget. The standoff has affected the KRG's ability to pay international oil companies (IOCs) operating on its territory and to pay thousands of local employees.

Summary Abraham Accords meant to lead to wider normalisationBut four new Arab partners of Israel now in tough spotHow to deal with rightists without ditching Palestinians? It is expected to be the widest-ranging deal of its kind between Israel and an Arab state. "This is the proof that one can make peace without concessions, without capitulation - but rather, peace, peace, between people who have affection for one another," he said in comments published by the conservative Israel Hayom newspaper. “Arab countries who formed normalisation ties with the state of occupation are required more than ever to revise these agreements,” he told Reuters by phone. Netanyahu has pledged to build on the achievement during his previous term of the Abraham Accords that opened the way for a possible normalisation of relations with other Arab countries.

☆ Turkish court sentences Erdogan rival to jail with political ban
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Ali Kucukgocmen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

A six-party opposition alliance has yet to agree their presidential candidate, and Imamoglu has been mooted as a possible leading challenger to run against Erdogan. 'VERY SAD DAY'[1/5] Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and his wife Dilek sit at his office as a Turkish court sentenced Imamoglu, a popular rival of President Tayyip Erdogan, to more than two years in prison and imposed a political ban for insulting public officials, in Istanbul, Turkey, December 14, 2022. A jail sentence or political ban on Imamoglu would need to be upheld in appeals courts, potentially extending an outcome to the case beyond the elections date. "The ruling will be final only after the higher court decides whether to uphold the ruling or not. Under these circumstances, it would be wrong to say that the political ban is in place," Timucin Koprulu, professor of criminal law at Atilim University in Ankara, told Reuters after the ruling.

The meeting between the global economic powerhouse and Gulf energy giant comes as Saudi ties with Washington are strained by U.S. criticism of Riyadh's human rights record and Saudi support for oil output curbs before the November midterm elections. China, the world's biggest energy consumer, is a major trade partner of Gulf oil and gas producers. Saudi Arabia is its top oil supplier and state-run Saudi Aramco has annual supply deals with half a dozen Chinese refiners. While economic ties remain anchored by energy interests, bilateral ties have expanded under the Gulf's infrastructure and technology push, part of diversification plans that have gained importance as the world turns away from fossil fuels. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have said they would continue to expand partnerships to serve economic and security interests, despite U.S. reservations about their ties with both Russia and China.

BEIRUT/ANKARA, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Syria is resisting Russian efforts to broker a summit with Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan, three sources said on Friday, after more than a decade of bitter enmity since the outbreak of Syria's civil war. Assad says it is Turkey which has backed terrorism by supporting an array of fighters including Islamist factions and launching repeated military incursions inside northern Syria. Ankara is readying another possible operation, after blaming Syrian Kurdish fighters for a bombing in Istanbul. However, three sources with knowledge of Syria's position on possible talks said Assad had rejected a proposal to meet Erdogan with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. "It would be the beginning of a major change in Syria and would have very positive effects on Turkey.

☆ Arab fans unite after surprise wins in Qatar
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Muath Freij | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

That chance to make history has forged a sense of solidarity among Arab supporters in Doha. "When Saudi Arabia play I am Saudi and when Morocco play, all the Arab people..." said Mansouri "...are Moroccans!" Mansouri said it felt as if Morocco and Saudi Arabia were both playing on home ground in Qatar, something which may have helped them reach new heights. All Arab and Gulf people support any (Arab) team," said Saudi supporter Khaled al-Asaimi, echoing the tone set by the leaders of Qatar and Saudi Arabia at the start of the tournament. Tensions between the two neigbours led Saudi Arabia and its allies to declare a travel and trade embargo on Qatar in 2017, a move only rescinded last year.

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