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Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides has been going all out on a preemptive diplomatic strike aimed at garnering support in Brussels, Washington, and the international community to stop Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from revealing surprises to the world during a scheduled visit to the island on July 20.

Appearing Sunday as a guest on The Greek Current, a podcast by the Hellenic American Leadership Council in collaboration with Kathimerini, Christodoulides said it was critical that Erdogan be stopped from making more provocative and illegal actions that would negatively affect the interests of the United States, the European Union, and the international community.

Erdogan has been talking up his upcoming visit to the northern part of Cyprus, assigning special meaning on July 20 as Peace and Freedom Day for Turkish Cypriots, the very same hot summer day in 1974 viewed by Greek Cypriots in the south as an invasion when Turkish troops landed on the island in response to a Greek-inspired coup engineered by Athens.

While it is expected that statements about Varosha, an abandoned ghost town in the north set to reopen, would draw strong reactions from Greek Cypriots in the south, there were other rumors on social media that could have raised the alarm in Nicosia.

Erdogan said he would make a big announcement on July 20, prompting political pundits on social media to wonder whether recent visits to the north by Pakistani dignitaries could signal an attempt by the Islamic Republic to establish diplomatic relations with a Turkish Cypriot administration currently recognized by no other country except Turkey.

We are using all available means, which are diplomatic, political, and legal means in order to stop Turkey, Christodoulides said.

The Cypriot minister, who was in Brussels on Monday, held discussions with many of his counterparts including from France, which holds the Security Council presidency this month, but also Egypt and Pakistans foe India on the sidelines of the Foreign Affairs Council.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, citing a diplomatic source, it was particularly important for Cyprus to organize the working breakfast for the EU Foreign Ministers, with the Egyptian Foreign Minister as a guest, adding that the Egyptian minister praised the role of Cyprus in the region, while he referred to his interventions in the destabilizing role of Turkey.

Cairo has been at odds with Ankara since 2014 after Erdogan questioned in a speech at the UN General Assembly the legitimacy of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, an army general back in 2013 when he overthrew the government that had wide support from the Muslim Brotherhood, a group favored by conservatives in Turkey.

Christodoulides, a former career diplomat, also argued that if Turkey went ahead with its plans during the Varosha visit, other actions by Ankara could negatively influence the Middle East as well as the interests of the EU, US, and the international community.

If the international community is perceived by Turkey as weak or [in]decisive in its response, Ankara will see no reason to backtrack from implementing its planning in relation to Varosha, the minister said.

So whats important now is to act [pro]actively before Mr Erdogan comes to Cyprus, before July 20, in order as I told you to stop Mr Erdogan from proceeding with more provocations, the minister told the podcast.

Christodoulides said he also replied to a letter by US President Joe Biden and spoke on the phone with State Secretary Antony Blinken, stressing his main message that we act now, preventatively, so as not to find ourselves before a situation that is irreversible.

We cannot allow Mr Erdogan to deliver on his promises to announce, as he called it, surprises to the world during his upcoming illegal visit to the occupied part of Cyprus.

Christodoulides called on allies to join the effort, saying the only way to do so would be to send now a clear message of decisiveness from the international community.

Cyprus has been divided for decades between a Turkish Cypriot north and a Greek Cypriot south, which also functions internationally as the Republic of Cyprus.

Multiple efforts at reaching a settlement collapsed one after the other, with the south insisting on a federal solution and the north wanting to part ways, with Turkish Cypriots accusing Greek Cypriots of not being sincere or ready to share equally the administration of the island. [Kathimerini Cyprus]

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Cyprus against the clock to stop Erdogan - Kathimerini English Edition

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has launched a tirade over the Cyprus issue saying he was the only one still living, along with one top former EU official, who really knows what went in during the high-level negotiations in Burgenstock, Switzerland in March 2004.

In an interview with Turkish channel TRT on Tuesday night, Erdogan spoke on several topics such as Turkey-US relations and the situation in the eastern Mediterranean, also touching on the Cyprus issue and Ankaras often fraught ties with the EU.

Answering questions from journalists Erdogan said: Every now and then you bring before us the eastern Mediterranean, every now and then you bring before us Cyprus. Believe me, within the EU, no country in recent times knows how this division came about.How was the division made?How did the talks in Burgenstock take place? Nobody knows that.The only one who knows this is me.

Erdogan said when other politicians talk about Burgenstock, not even Greek premier Kyriacos Mitsotakis knows what really went on there at the highest level.

He referred to the fact that former UN Secretary-General, the late Kofi Annan, presided over the 2004 talks, though Erdogan failed to remember that Annans special envoy Alvaro de Soto was also in at the highest level. De Soto aside, he was also likely referring to the fact that the leader on the Greek Cypriot side at the time, Tassos Papadopoulos is also deceased.

There was one other person at the talks, he said, who participated on the part of the EU, and that was Gunther Verheugen who was the EU Commissioner for Enlargement at the time. Wherever he went he was telling the truth, said Erdogan. But no one gets up to ask him now.

Indeed, after Greek Cypriots rejected the Annan solution plan in late April and a week later joined the European Union on May 1, 2004, Verheugen publicly accused Cyprus of cheating its way into EU membership.

Erdogan said that in the middle of the Burgenstock talks Greece and the Greek Cypriots were ready to leave the table and only Kofi Annan stopped them, saying: You cannot leave, according to the Turkish president.

Annan told them I gave my word to Erdogan. We will finish the work here and then we will leave. They [the Greek side] came back and sat down. And after that meeting a referendum was held. They said yes in the north and then they [the EU] allowed the south to join, said Erdogan. They are not honest and now they come and without shame they tell us we have no rights over the gas and oil around Cyprus? he added. Erdogan said if it was up to Brussels, they would ask Turkey to disappear from the region altogether.

Referring to French President Emmanuel Macron who in late 2019 said Nato was becoming brain dead, Erdogan said that without a strong Turkey, the transatlantic military alliance was not strong.

In this context, Erdogan had harsh words for US President Joe Biden ahead of the upcoming Nato summit on June 14. At the meeting, we will ask why the Turkey-US relations are going through such a tense period, said Erdogan who added that he has worked with a number of former US presidents including Barack Obama and Donald Trump. He did not have such a tension with any of them, he said. The anger towards Biden however has more to do with the US recent recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide. Those who corner Turkey this way will lose an important friend, said Erdogan.

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Erdogan: I'm one of the few who knows what really happened at Burgenstock - Cyprus Mail

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on US President Joe Biden to reverse a decision to name the 1915 massacreof Armenians by the former Ottoman Empire genocide,warning that the declaration would harm bilateral ties.

In a statement on April 24, Biden honored all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today,becomingthe first US president to formally refer to the killings as genocide.

The US president has made baseless, unjust and untrue remarks about the sad events that took place in our geography over a century ago, Erdogan said after a cabinet meeting onMonday.

I hope the US president will turn back from this wrong step as soon as possible, he added.

Erdogan stressed that the move would hinder ties, advising the United States to look in the mirror.

If you say genocide, then you need to look at yourselves in the mirror and make an evaluation. The Native Americans, I dont even need to mention them, what happened is clear, he said, in reference to the treatment of indigenous people by European settlers at the end of the 15th century as they colonized North America.

According to a team at University College London, back then, some 55 million indigenous people died during the European conquest of America.

The majority of the deaths occurred by diseases brought over from Europe. War, slavery, and displacement also contributed to the decline of the populations of the indigenous community.

Erdogan said, While all these truths are out there, you cannot pin the genocide accusation on the Turkish people.

The Turkish president said his country still sought to establish good neighborly ties with Armenia, reiterating his call on Turkish and Armenian historians to form a joint commission to investigate the events in 1915.

Erdogan also contested the death toll and said some 150,000 people had been killed, as opposed to the roughly 1.5 millionArmenia says were massacred.

The toll was exaggerated by adding a zero to the end, he said.

Ankara acknowledges that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces duringWorld War Onebut denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute genocide.

Turkey also argues that such accusations do not take into account the number of the Turkish deaths during the conflict.

On Sunday, Erdogans spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara would respond to Bidens simply outrageous statement in coming days and months.

According to Turkeys Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop, Turkish lawmakers are due to respond to Bidens remarks on Wednesday.

Bidens decision came amid already strained ties between Ankara and Washington over a host of issues, including Turkeys acquisition of Russian S-400 missile defense systems.

Erdogan said he expected to open the door for a new period in relations and to discuss all disputes with Biden at a NATO summit in June, but warned of a further deterioration in ties unless the allies can compartmentalize issues.

Earlier on Monday, angry Turks gathered outside the American consulate in Istanbul to protest Bidens statement.

The demonstrators chanted slogans such as Genocide is a lie, its an American plan,and also called for an end to the American militarys use of the Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey.

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Erdogan to Biden: US must look in mirror before accusing ...

Devlet Bahceli, leader of the M.H.P., one of the right-wing nationalist groups allied with Mr. Erdogan, denied any links to the mafia in comments on Tuesday.

Mr. Peker is not the only one with allegations of dirt against the government. Mr. Erdogans political opponents, sensing his growing vulnerability, have sought to expose allegations of corruption or abuse of power at every turn.

But Mr. Peker, with as many as four million viewers tuning in to his rambling, hourlong videos, is by far the most trenchant and damaging.

Among the unproven accusations he has tossed out are the illegal seizure of a marina by a government insider and the subsequent use of it for drug trafficking; the death of a woman who filed a complaint of sexual assault against a well-placed A.K.P. lawmaker; and even crimes that he said he committed himself at the behest of senior officials, such as instigating the assault of a former A.K.P. lawmaker, threatening university academics who signed a peace petition, and aiding Mr. Soylu, the interior minister, in his rivalry against Mr. Albayrak, Mr. Erdogans son-in-law.

Many of the allegations were directed against the former interior minister, Mr. Agar, and his son, who have both rejected the claims as baseless. The police have said that the woman who filed the sexual assault case had died in a suicide.

In an interview with the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, Fikri Saglar, a former lawmaker, said, We can call this the second Susurluk incident. Mr. Saglar was a member of the parliamentary committee that investigated the 1990s scandal.

It may be more serious, he added. Susurluk was like the foundations of exposing relations between politicians-mafia-the state, now traces of what this establishment has been doing are revealed.

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Claims From an Organized Crime Boss Rock Turkeys Government - The New York Times

GAZA CITY:As a ceasefire took hold in Gaza on Saturday, Palestinians began to count the cost of Israels 11-day war.

Airstrikes and artillery shelling destroyed or damaged nearly 17,000 homes and businesses, 53 schools, six hospitals, four mosques, and 50 percent of Gazas water supply infrastructure, leaving 800,000 people without regular access to clean piped water.

Naji Sarhan, an official at Gazas Works and Housing Ministry, estimated the financial losses from the Israeli attacks at $150 million. However, it is the human cost that is the most devastating. The Israeli onslaught killed at least 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, and a refugee agency in Gaza has launched a special program to help young people traumatized by the violence.

Among them are the survivors of a devastating Israeli attack last week on Al-Wehda Street in Gaza City, in which at least 42 people were killed and more than 50 were injured. Three sisters Hala, Yara and Rola Al-Kulak and their father Muhammad died under the rubble of their home, which, along with several others on Al-Wehda Street in Gaza City, was hit by Israeli airstrikes, leaving at least 42 killed and more than 50 wounded. The mother of the three daughters, Dalal, and her only son, Abdullah, aged just 2, survived.

Abdullah and Dalal have been in shock since the airstrikes, Dalals father, Ahmed Al-Maghribi, told Arab News. His daughter is being treated with sedatives. Sometimes she does not believe that she lost her husband and daughters, while at other times she asks why they killed them, he said.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said in a statement that the three sisters and eight other children out of the 60 who lost their lives in the first week of the war were participating in its psychological and social program aimed at helping them deal with trauma.

The children, aged 5 to 15, were killed in their homes in densely populated areas along with countless relatives, according to the council.

We were shocked to learn that eight children we were helping were bombed while they were at home and thought they were safe ... They are now gone, killed with their families, buried with their dreams and the nightmares that haunt them, said NRC Secretary-General Jan Egeland.

HIGHLIGHTS

Hundreds of Hamas fighters paraded in Gaza and the groups top leader made his first public appearance on Saturday, in a defiant show of strength.

Several thousands marched on Saturday in France, Britain and Pakistan in support of Palestinians.

The UN Security Council calls for the full adherence to the ceasefire.

Qatar will pursue efforts to stop Israeli aggression against Palestinians and Al-Aqsa Mosque with concerned parties, emir tells President Abbas.

Dalal was very attached to her daughters. She gave them a lot of attention that helped them in school, Al-Maghrabi told Arab News.

Hudhaifa Al-Yaziji, director of the NRC in Gaza, said the organization works with 118 schools in the Gaza Strip, and that their psychological and social services reach more than 75,000 students as part of the Better Learning Program.Al-Yaziji believes that the war will increase the number of children and students who need psychological and social interventions.

He told Arab News that Al-Kulaks children and others who were killed were receiving the councils services to deal with previous traumas they suffered as a result violence endured in Gaza. Al-Yaziji said that the most prominent symptom that requires treatment is nightmares.Sumaya Habib, a doctor at the Ministry of Health, and a team of specialists are busy treating children traumatized from previous Israeli wars and rounds of violence.

Habib told Arab News that the current war has been extremely harsh and will have negative effects on the majority of the children in Palestine.She believes that children like Abdullah Al-Kulak, who escaped with his mother from under the rubble, will have more severe traumas.According to Habib, the mental scars that will affect children have many forms, most notably the loss of sense of safety and security, panic attacks and aggression. For females, they will lose, in varying degrees, a part of their femininity and display violent characteristics and practices.The council said 80 percent of Gazan students had a positive outlook for the future in 2019, but by September 2020, that had dropped to just 29 percent.The war will make more children lose their positive outlook on the future, as they see death with every raid and with every explosion, Habib said.

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Erdogan rivals surge in polls ahead of 2023 Turkey election - Arab News