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You are here: Home / Archives for Turkey

UNHCR: 13.6 million displaced by conflict in Iraq and Syria

November 12, 2014 by Nasheman

Syrian Kurdish refugees try to get warm around a fire at a refugee camp in the town of Suruc, Sanliurfa province, on November 7, 2014. AFP / Aris Messinis

Syrian Kurdish refugees try to get warm around a fire at a refugee camp in the town of Suruc, Sanliurfa province, on November 7, 2014. AFP / Aris Messinis

by Al-Akhbar

About 13.6 million people, equivalent to the population of London, have been displaced by conflicts in Syria and Iraq, many without food or shelter as winter starts, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday.

“The whole humanitarian community is facing shortfalls. People are becoming numb,” said Amin Awad, who heads UNHCR’s Middle East and North Africa bureau.

“Now when we talk about a million people displaced over two months, or 500,000 overnight, the world is just not responding,” he told reporters in Geneva.

The 13.6 million include 7.2 million displaced within Syria – an increase from a long-held UN estimate of 6.5 million, as well as 3.3 million Syrian refugees abroad, 1.9 million displaced in Iraq and 190,000 who have left to seek safety.

The vast majority of Syrian refugees have gone to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey, countries which Awad said “are putting us all to shame” with their support for homeless Syrian families.

“Other countries in the world, especially the Europeans and beyond, should open their borders and share the burden.”

UNHCR says it is short of $58.5 million in donations to prepare 990,000 people for winter, money that would cover basic supplies such as plastic sheeting and warm clothing.

Awad said Russia and China, both in the UN Security Council, came in bottom of a list of top donors and should contribute more.

“Politically they cannot really be indifferent, therefore humanitarian is an imperative and it has to be put first and foremost if there is no (political) settlement … They need to contribute one way or the other, like the others do,” he said.

Lack of funds

The UN refugee agency said Tuesday it had been forced to slash the number of people it can help prepare for winter in conflict-ravaged Syria and Iraq for lack of funds.

Awad lamented that his agency was forced to make “tough choices.”

The agency said it was facing a shortfall of $58 million (47 million euros) for its efforts to prepare millions of displaced people in Syria and Iraq for winter.

As a result, as many as one million displaced people desperate for blankets, kerosene, warm clothes and other items needed to keep warm and dry may have to go without assistance, it warned.

“I wish we could support everybody, and I wish that we could keep everybody warm,” Amin told reporters in Geneva, adding however that “the world is not responding.”

“Many fled with nothing,” UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters.

With winter already on the doorstep, and temperatures falling as low as minus 16 degrees Celsius in some parts of Syria and Iraq, UNHCR has already invested $154 million in winter aid for the devastated countries.

But because of the funding shortfall, it has been forced to revise down the number of people it can help.

The agency had planned to help 1.4 million people in Syria and 600,000 people in Iraq, but now expects to reach only 620,000 in Syria and 240,000 in Iraq.

As a result, UNHCR said it was being forced to make “some very tough choices over who to prioritize.”

“The needs are massive but funding has not kept up apace with the new displacement,” Fleming said.

Those at higher, colder altitudes, as well as vulnerable people such as the sick, the elderly and newborns, are first in line for aid, Amin said.

He noted that 11 young children froze to death in Syria last year.

“The same can happen this year with children, elderly and frail persons,” he warned.

(Reuters, AFP)

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Jordan, Lebanon, Refugees, Syria, Turkey, UN, UNHCR

International Criminal Court (ICC): Israel committed 'War Crimes' but it's not our problem

November 8, 2014 by Nasheman

According to lawyers, the court’s decision confirms that Israel has a ‘special status’ in regards to international law.

Israeli naval vessels approach one of the boats in the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" in the Mediterranean Sea in 2010. (Photo: Reuters)

Israeli naval vessels approach one of the boats in the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” in the Mediterranean Sea in 2010. (Photo: Reuters)

by Telesur

International Criminal Court (ICC) lawyers believe that Israel is guilty of “war crimes” for the raid on an aid ship bound for Gaza in 2010 that killed nine Turkish activists. However, they have also decided that the case does not meet their criteria for prosecution, according to court papers seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

On May 31, 2010, the Israeli military forcefully boarded six civilian ships from the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” that were traveling from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid and construction materials to the besieged region. The army boarded the ships in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea.

The activists on board say they did not put up a fight, however the Israeli army insists that they were met with resistance – which led to several activists being killed, including eight Turkish nationals and an American of Turkish origin on the Mavi Marmara boat.

The ICC does not have jurisdiction over crimes committed in either Turkey, where most the boats were registered, or Israel, since neither are members of the ICC. However, the Mavi Marmara was registered to the Comoros Islands, which is a member, making the crimes on board eligible for ICC investigation.

“The information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes under the Court’s jurisdiction have been committed in the context of interception and takeover of the Mavi Marmara by IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) soldiers on 31 May 2010,” read the papers.

But the papers also added that prosecutors had decided the crimes “were not of sufficient gravity to fall under the court’s jurisdiction,” reported Reuters. Their evidence and criteria for making this decision however, remained vague.

“Not having collected evidence itself, the Office’s analysis in this report must therefore not be considered to be the result of an investigation,” the paper read.

However, according to the ICC website, considering individuals guilty of war crimes does make them eligible to be tried under the ICC.

“The mandate of the Court is to try individuals rather than States, and to hold such persons accountable for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole, namely the crime of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression…”

The Indian Ocean State, another ICC member, referred the raid to court, which obligated the ICC to begin preliminary examinations into the matter, according to their mandate.

“The Prosecutor’s decision marks the first time a State referral by an ICC States Party has ever been rejected by … Prosecutor without even initiating an investigation,” said lawyers Rodney Dixon and Geoffrey Nice in a statement.

“It confirms the view expressed by politicians, civil society organizations, NGOs and commentators from many quarters that Israel has a ‘special status,'” they added.

The report comes the same day that Bulent Yildirim, president of the Turkish NGO Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) – one of the NGOs who organized the flotilla – praised the ICC, expecting that they would announce on Thursday that Israel is guilty of “war crimes.”

The ICC’s final decision is likely to anger other Turkish activists, but also Ankara who accused Israel of mass murder after the IDF attacked the flotilla.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Gaza, Gaza Freedom Flotilla, ICC, IDF, International Criminal Court, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, Turkey

Century old legacy of Islamic practice in Austria under threat

October 21, 2014 by Nasheman

Austria-mosque

by Sakeena Suliman, Cii News

Austria intends to establish an Austrian Islam. Echoing the 2013 sentiments of warmonger Tony Blair to create an Islam that Europe and the West will be pleased with, Austria has amended its 102 year old law on Islam.

Institutionalised in 1912 to safeguard the rights of Muslims and independently recognised by the government, fear of “extremisim” has led to the state’s extremist draft.

The amendments include banning Muslim organisations from receiving finances from abroad, the Quraan is to get a unified German-language translation and 70 of the 300 Imams in Austria will be outlawed for being employed by foreign countries.

Islam has so far existed in Austria on equal terms with other religions like Catholicism, Lutheranism, Judaism and Buddhism. There has been strong criticism for the state’s singling out Islam, practiced by almost six percent of the 8.6 million Austrians.

Cii Radio spoke with Doctor Farid Hafez, born in Austria but working and living in Vienna. Hafez earned an MA and PhD at the Department of Political Science, University of Vienna and an MSc in civic education at the University of Krems and Klagenfurt. He currently lectures at different universities and colleges in Austria. Part of his research includes the role of Islamophobia in Austrian party politics and Islamic political theory.

Hafez says until recently the legal recognition allowed Austrian Muslims much more independence than Muslims living elsewhere in Western Europe. “The masses of the Muslim people were quite astonished about what is going on here. Also because the Islamic Council [of Austria] did not really inform the Muslim people what was happening behind the scenes.”

The draft for a new Islam law has been an interest of the Islamic Council since 2003 but did not materialise because of the tense political atmosphere that worsened due to the far right’s use of Islamophobic slogans during their elections campaigns.

“… Generally speaking in the society Islamphobic attitudes have become more widespread. Therefore this draft for a new Islam law could not be implemented because there was no political party that said it was going to push something more liberal for the Muslim people. Now due to the discourse of the so called Islamic state in Iraq and Syria there was a possibility for the government to say they are going to bring this new draft for Muslims, there are going to say it’s good for them but on the other hand they are going to get tougher with the Muslims and show them the borders of action,” explained Hafez.

The draft, presented by a few leading government parties, among them the Social Democrats and the Conservative Party, is actually the implementation of institutionalised Islamophobia.

“What is going on here these days is that you have many, many, many discriminations… Twenty five percent of Imams in Austria are paid by the Turkish Government through an organisation which is connected to the ministry of religious affairs in Turkey, they want to restrict the Turkish influence. It also has to do with the general suspicion against the Turkish government, Erdogan, and on the other side they want to have an Austrian Islam,” said Hazfez.

“Muslims also want to have an Austrian Islam but it’s not an Islam dictated by the Austrian government but it’s an Austrian Islam that’s coming from bottom up. That’s where the difference lies, and it’s a crucial difference.”

The draft is undoubtedly driven by a general suspicion against Muslim people. While the draft has not yet gone so far as to control topics delivered at Friday sermons, Hafez said “the debate for that is already alive” with government declaring that Imams be trained at the University of Vienna.

“The Islamic council has no right to say who it wants or not so it’s possible that a non-Muslim could train the imams. In addition to that the training of Imams is something that, you can have theology in a university but the training of Imams is very much connected to the history and the institution of Islamic life. We see here in the draft it looks like the state wants to create an Imam it wants, together with the Islamic Council but it will have the main say in it and that’s a dangerous development it looks like the state wants to create its own Austrian Islam according to its own vision and that’s against the Austrian constitution because the Austrian constitution.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Austria, Europe, Islamophobia, Sakeena Suliman, Turkey, War on Islam, War on Terror

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