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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.

Originally posted here:
Erdogan rivals surge in polls ahead of 2023 Turkey election - Arab News

On June 20, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan will go to the Occupied Territories of Cyprus in order to announce, as he stated, an essential message to the whole world.

What is it?

Erdoan curses Austria and starts a new vendetta with U.S. President Joe Biden, as, according to the Turkish president, his American counterpart has bloody hands in Palestine.

On the other hand, the only protector of the Palestinians, the supreme leader of the Muslims, is going to send an essential message to Turkish-speaking Cypriots on June 20, during his visit to Occupied Cyprus.

The message will be addressed to the whole world!

Do not be surprised if you soon receive good news about gas and oil fields in the Eastern Mediterranean, Erdoan said.

Analysts link the statement to energy deposits found in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the plan to create a maritime border with Palestine at the expense of Cypriot maritime space, something deniedby the Palestinian ambassador to Greece.

What is happening is that, having distanced himself from the West, Erdogan wants to emerge as a leader of the Muslim world, a diplomatic source told Sputnik Hellas.

Since 2009-2010, he has taken positions in favor of Gaza and the Palestinians, the source said, adding: Let us not forget that the ship to Gaza started from Istanbul.

So dont expect him to announce anything serious from the Occupied Territories, the source estimated.

Curses may erupt, the source concluded.

However, this view is also shared by influential Turkish academic lhan Uzgel..

The Palestine is a great theme to the Turkish president to boost declining public support, he said.

What he is seeking at the moment is to strengthen his profile regionally by presenting himself as the only Muslim leader to support the Palestinian cause, he continued, adding: But I do not think that will work.

If he is going to announce something resounding, it may be a leak in the Turkish media, namely the declaration of the Gaza EEZ with Turkey.

READ MORE: Erdoan: Others are jealous of Turkey, we have a drone base in Cyprus.

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What is Erdoan's upcoming "message to the world" he will deliver from occupied Cyprus? - - GreekCityTimes.com

Ankara wants to improve ties with Riyadh after relations were rocked by Khashoggi murder by Saudi hit squad in Istanbul.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi Arabias King Salman bin Abdulaziz have discussed bilateral ties in a call, the second conversation between the two leaders in less than a month.

In a brief statement late on Tuesday, Turkeys communications directorate said the two leaders evaluated matters on issues affecting both countries and steps to be taken to further the cooperation.

Turkey is seeking to improve ties with Saudi Arabia after they were thrown into crisis by the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi hit squad inside the kingdoms consulate in Istanbul.

Last year, Saudi businessmen endorsed an unofficial boycott of Turkish goods in response to what they called hostility from Ankara, slashing the value of trade by 98 percent.

Erdogans spokesman Ibrahim Kalin last month said that Erdogan and King Salman had a good call in April and that the foreign ministers of the two countries had agreed to meet.

Tuesdays conversation came a day before a meeting between Turkish and Egyptian officials in Cairo, the latest step in Turkeys push to mend relations with another United States-allied Arab power.

Turkey said in March it had started talks with Egypt to try to improve relations which collapsed after Egypts army overthrew a democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood president close to Turkey in 2013, in what Ankara said was a military coup.

Egypts restoration of ties with Qatar, after a four-year Gulf blockade along with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, has also boosted efforts towards more regional diplomacy.

Cairo has not appeared to share the same level of enthusiasm for rapprochement as Turkey. Words are not enough, they must be matched by deeds, Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry had said in March.

Theres a great deal of mistrust fuelled by eight years of open hostility, and so Egypt feels hesitant, said Nael Shama, the author of a book on Egypts foreign policy under deposed leaders Mohamed Morsi and Hosni Mubarak.

Originally posted here:
Turkeys Erdogan and Saudi King Salman discuss ties over phone - Al Jazeera English

In April 2011, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan laid out his vision for a nearly 50-kilometre canal linking the Marmara and Black seas parallel to the Bosphorus Strait, some 20km to the east. A decade later, after countless stops and starts, Turkish officials expect to break ground next month on the $20 billion project, which Mr Erdogan himself describes as crazy.

A growing chorus of critics might agree. Leading the charge is Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, widely seen as Mr Erdogans main challenger in the next presidential vote, set for 2023. He views the project as a betrayal, arguing that locals need jobs and health and financial security a great deal more than a pricey new waterway. Nearly three of every four Istanbul residents concurs, according to a 2019 survey.

Istanbul represents one-fifth of Turkeys population and more than one-third of its gross domestic product. But the Turkish economy has been stagnant since a mid-2018 currency crisis, with a steadily declining lira, massive foreign debt and persistently high inflation and unemployment. The pandemic has made matters worse, driving more than 1.5 million Turks into poverty. And a few days ago, Turkey entered its harshest lockdown yet amid record-high Covid-19 deaths.

Mr Erdogan has vowed to go ahead with the canal, arguing that it will attract much-needed foreign investment and spark economic activity. Top Turkish officials and wealthy foreigners have reportedly snapped up land along the planned route, leading to a sharp increase in real estate prices.

The government estimates the canal will generate $5bn in annual transit fees and curb traffic on the Bosphorus, which sees about three times as many ships as the Suez or Panama canal. Many critics denounce the proposal out of environmental concerns, citing predictions that the canal will destroy great swathes of farmland and the coastal habitats of many species and imperil marine ecosystems from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.

Yet due to congestion, sharp turns, narrow stretches and bottom currents, accidents on the Istanbul strait are not uncommon. In 1999, a Russian tanker split in two near the mouth of the Bosphorus, spilling 1,500 tonnes of oil that contaminated nearby beaches for two years. Last months lodged container ship in the Suez Canal, which halted traffic for nearly a week and cost Egypt millions of dollars, seems a decent advertisement for Canal Istanbul.

The 1936 Montreux Convention ensures free passage for civilian vessels through the Turkish Straits (the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles), while giving Turkey considerable control over the passage of naval vessels of non-Black Sea states. Top Justice and Development Party (AKP) officials have asserted that the new canal would enable Turkey to void the convention and establish new regulations. But this is highly unlikely, particularly as Russian President Vladimir Putin has made clear to Mr Erdogan that Montreux is a red line.

Assuming Montreux remains in effect, leading Bosphorus analyst Yoruk Isik estimates that during normal economic times shipping vessels wait an average of 20 hours to transit the strait. If true, shipping firms would have some incentive to pay for speedier, safer no-wait transit through the new canal, which will be nearly straight and potentially easier to navigate.

Mr Erdogan might also be driven by ego. Blessed with rolling hills and glistening waterways, Istanbul has for nearly three millennia provided leaders looking to cement their legacy with an ideal natural canvas. Byzas and Constantine lent the city their names. Justinian gave the world Hagia Sophia. Theodosius left his still-standing walls.

Then came the Ottomans lofty mosques and pencil-thin minarets, mostly designed by Mimar Sinan, the favoured architect of Suleyman the Magnificent, the 16th-century sultan. Mr Erdogan has already copied this style, building Turkeys largest mosque overlooking the Bosphorus from Istanbuls Asian side. But these are mere ornaments pinned on a well-aged beauty.

A second Bosphorus that transforms the city centre into an island would be an unprecedented makeover one that proved too much even for Mr Erdogans greatest predecessors. Sultan Suleyman, who ruled the empire at its peak and led it to the gates of Vienna, first floated the concept of a man-made Black Sea-Marmara waterway five centuries ago. Mimar Sinan was even said to have begun devising a route plan before the effort was abandoned.

Succeeding sultans similarly mulled the idea before finding other projects to keep them busy. The concept has also been resurrected a few times in the Republican era, including as recently as 1991 when the head of an Istanbul commission argued it would reduce maritime traffic, cutting pollution and environmental risk.

Bringing this project to fruition after so many others failed would be the capstone on the Turkish Presidents rise from the rough streets of Kasimpasa to unsurpassed greatness. Istanbul will become a city with two seas passing through it, Mr Erdogan proclaimed in 2011.

Nearly three of every four Istanbul residents are against the project

It is fitting that this may be his defining project. After taking power in 2003, Mr Erdogan took control of the public housing agency, TOKI. Over the next decade, construction in Turkey leapt five-fold as building became an economic driver and electoral tool. TOKI builds many kinds of projects to win voters, economist Mustafa Sonmez told me in 2013. Sometimes a mosque, a stadium, sometimes military compounds and malls whatevers needed.

Mr Erdogan launched one mega-project after another: a third bridge across the Bosphorus, the worlds largest airport, a railway tunnel beneath the Bosphorus, a billion-dollar port complex, a mosque looming over Taksim Square. His construction-focused agenda is one of his most successful political schemes, and one of his most despised.

The building boom was backed by his base and the AKP inner circle, many of whom reportedly profited from no-bid contracts running into the billions of dollars. It also inspired the largest wave of opposition to Mr Erdogan. In mid-2013, millions of Turks joined weeks of nationwide demonstrations that initially began to protest the razing of Gezi Park in central Istanbul.

A decade later, one wonders if Turkeys leader should have paid more mind. He always argued that the new airport, bridge and canal were key to his vision of boosting Turkeys prestige and raising GDP to $2 trillion by 2023. The centennial of the republic is now just two years away, but the Turkish economy is more than 60 per cent short of that target.

Meanwhile, the projects that have been completed look like boondoggles. Istanbul Airport opened in April 2019. Less than a year later, and weeks before the pandemic cratered the travel industry, Chinas ICBC bank was in talks to refinance $6.2bn of its loans.

The third Bosphorus bridge and adjoining Marmara Motorway opened in 2016 and soon under-performed to the extent that the Italian-Turkish consortium overseeing them walked away. Now Turkey is preparing to make a Chinese consortium the majority owner of the bridge and motorway, according to ANKA Review columnist Aygen Aytac.

Beijing is suddenly all over Mr Erdogans prestige projects. Chinas two largest port operators are the majority owners of Istanbuls Kumport, which is conveniently located on the north-western rim of the Marmara Sea, near the southern end of the planned canal. Top Chinese tech firm ZTE owns 48 per cent of Turkeys top telecoms firm, which oversees communications at Istanbul Airport, close to the planned canals northern end.

Last week, six Turkish banks, including the countrys three largest private banks, said they were unlikely to invest in the canal due to environmental concerns. This followed news that Chinese banks are considering a multi-billion-dollar investment in the planned canal, which would be incorporated into Beijings expansive Belt and Road Initiative.

Due to economic troubles and waning AKP support, the likeliest outcome for Canal Istanbul may be the bridge-to-nowhere scenario, under which construction would begin but then pause indefinitely if Mr Erdogan is voted out. But even if the canal does come to fruition, it may come to be seen not as Mr Erdogans crowning glory, but as an early sign of Chinas conquest of the great Ottoman capital.

David Lepeska is a Turkish and Eastern Mediterranean affairs columnist for The National

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Erdogan's $20bn canal to nowhere - The National

Harut Sassounian

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

The Armenian Patriarch of Turkey, Sahak Mashalian, once again issued a pro-Turkish statement, this time on the eve of the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, trying to please his Turkish masters and undermine President Joe Bidens April 24 acknowledgment.

We all understand that the Armenian community and the Patriarch in Turkey are hostages in the hands of the Turkish government. As such, they are under pressure to make pro-Turkish statements. However, there are red lines that no Armenian should cross, regardless of the circumstances or reasons. Our ancestors sacrificed their lives during the genocide, not succumbing to Turkish pressures and physical threats. The Patriarch, who is supposed to be a man of God, is obligated to tell the truth even if his life is in danger.

As I have suggested before, if the Patriarch does not want to get in trouble with the Turkish authorities, he should simply keep his mouth shut. He should not volunteer to issue statements on non-religious issues and not desecrate the memories of 1.5 million perished Armenians. We should not jump to the conclusion that every time the Patriarch issues a pro-Turkish statement he is necessarily doing it under duress. Furthermore, the Patriarch should ask himself if the Armenian community has received any benefits in return for his multiple pro-Turkish statements.

Certainly, the Turkish government has repeatedly exploited the Patriarchs words to disseminate pro-Turkish propaganda worldwide. For example, on April 23, 2021, when it became known that President Biden would issue his much anticipated acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide, the Anadolu Agency (AA), the official Turkish governments news service, reported Patriarch Mashalians condemnation of President Bidens upcoming statement. The AA headlined its news with the Patriarchs words: Using 1915 incidents for politics saddens Armenians.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on a recent visit to the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul

How could President Bidens acknowledgment of the genocide, welcomed by Armenians worldwide, sadden Armenians? On the contrary it saddened the denialist Turks and thrilled Armenians. Patriarch Mashalian should just stick to religious subjects and not pronounce judgements on other matters. Regardless of whether he is pressured by the Turkish government to make political statements or does it voluntarily, the Patriarch should refrain from taking such positions, saying that as a clergyman he only deals with religious subjects.

Here are excerpts from the pro-Turkish statement made by Patriarch Mashalian on April 23, 2021, to the Anadolu Agency which was publicized widely in the Turkish media:

It saddens us to see that the suffering of our people and the suffering of our ancestors are instrumentalized by some countries for everyday political purposes. The tension caused by the usage of the issue in parliamentary agendas for decades has not served the rapprochement of the two nations. On the contrary, it provokes hostile feelings and delays peace. We, just like our predecessors and late Patriarchs, will continue to wish for peace, friendship and well-being between Turks and Armenians. We will encourage the rebuilding of relations based on neighborhood and common grounds speedily. We prefer to be one of those who hopefully expect the revival of neighborly relations, which are unique to these lands and exist in the traditions of the two communities, between Turkey and Armenias authorities. Dear Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during his time as both Prime Minister and President, has been the only top state official in the history of the Turkish Republic to give messages on this occasion. These messages show a spirit, sharing our pain and a certain respect for the children of our nation that lost their lives in exile. In our opinion, it would be appropriate to take these as positive steps towards rapprochement in the future. If only the joint history commission they [Turkey] proposed could have been established, then at least 15 years of progress would have been made. If only the [Armenia-Turkey] protocols could have been implemented, borders could have been opened. Then the resolution of the Karabakh [issue] could have resulted differently. We still do not think it is late. The project to build a six-country basin, proposed by our Dear President for Caucasia, can bring the peace of the century to the communities in the region.

Leaving no doubt as to the pro-Turkish position of the Patriarch, Turkeys Communications Director Fahrettin Altun endorsed his statement: Sahak Mashalian, the Armenian Patriarch of Turkey, aptly noted that past sufferings must not be exploited for short-term political gains. [The Patriarch said]: We will continue to live together, peacefully and as brothers and sisters, in this land.

Turkeys presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin also expressed support for Mashalians remarks: Abusing history for a narrow political agenda helps neither the past nor the present.

Interestingly, President Erdogan sent a letter to the Armenian Patriarch on April 24, denying the Armenian Genocide and agreeing with the Patriarchs words.It is not surprising that the Turkish government supported Archbishop Mashalians candidacy for the Patriarchal elections over other less subservient candidates.

The Patriarch must realize that by making propaganda statements on behalf of Turkey, he is losing the respect of Armenians both inside and outside Turkey. His anti-Armenian words are viewed as those of a sold out Turkish agent. The Armenian Church and Armenians in Turkey should pressure the Patriarch to resign since he has lost the support of the Armenian community and can no longer function as their religious leader.

The only countries around the world that criticized President Bidens April 24 statement were: Turkey, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and the unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. This places the Armenian Patriarch in the shameful company of the enemies of the Armenian nation!

Read the original here:
How Can the Armenian Patriarch Be as Pro-Turkish as Erdogan? - Asbarez Armenian News