The United Nations’ special envoy for Syria called on the constitutional committee to return to the table after almost a year.

Addressing the Security Council, Geir Pedersen said he is “concerned” by the 10-month lapse, which he said, “sends a troubling message: That Syrians’ ability to search for a comprehensive solution is held hostage to issues unrelated to their country.”

“The committee must resume its work in Geneva in a spirit of compromise, substance and at pace,” he said, adding: “The situation today is so unprecedented that it calls for leadership, bold ideas and a cooperative spirit. A political solution is the only way forward for Syria. We may not be able to reach that in one step – but I believe we can progress toward it gradually.”

Turning to ongoing efforts to remedy devastation brought by devastating earthquakes in neighboring Syria, Pedersen said it is “absolutely vital” to get direly needed resources to northwest Syria to address “the immense suffering arising from the conflict.”

A “sustained calm” is also needed, particularly in earthquake-afflicted regions, Pedersen said, noting “a creeping rise in incidents,” including rocket fire and shelling and “crossline raids.”

The committee meetings, which started in October 2019 with 150 members, are the first concrete step to drafting a new constitution to determine Syria’s future.

Syria has been embroiled in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with brute ferocity.

Source: Daily Sabah

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A medic from Northern Ireland has spoken of his “nerve-wracking” time in the Turkish earthquake zone, treating pregnant women caught up in the disaster.

Obstetrician Paul Holmes, who is originally from Ballymena, County Antrim, spent the past three weeks working in a field hospital in southern Turkey.

“I’ve come across mums who have literally been pulled out of the rubble,” he said.

“Carrying a baby is obviously worrying for any mother at the best of times, let alone when you have survived an earthquake on this scale and in many cases have been left totally homeless and sleeping in a tent.”

Mr Holmes also experienced two “fairly major” aftershocks during his deployment, the first of which caused an electrical fire in the grounds of a damaged hospital building where he is based.

More than 50,000 people were killed when earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria 6 February and thousands more are now missing, injured or homeless as a result.

Mr Holmes arrived in Turkey on 11 February as part of a UK-Emergency Medical Team deployed by the British government through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

He helped set up a tented field hospital in Türkoğlu, in the car park of a hospital that is no longer safe because it was destabilised by the earthquake.

“The hospital was still standing, but some of the internal floors and ceilings had fallen down and it was very much not usable,” he explained.

He worked alongside Turkish medics at the joint Ministry of Defence-FCDO field hospital and spent his nights sleeping in a tent in sub-zero temperatures.

‘Ice inside tents’

Many of the women he has treated were not physically badly injured but were among the quake survivors suffering trauma, hardship and extreme temperatures as their homes were destroyed.

“Kids are coming in with lots of respiratory infections and illnesses, partly from living in tents in temperatures of minus seven or eight at night. I know the tents we are camping in have had ice on the inside some mornings never mind on the outside,” Mr Holmes explained.

He added many traumatised pregnant women were very stressed about their unborn children and his team helped to replace some of the services lost when the hospital was damaged.

“It’s been very, very rewarding to be able to see the relief on their faces as I’ve been able to show them their babies on an ultrasound scan and let them listen to the baby’s heartbeat, and just to be able to reassure them that the baby is doing very well.”

‘Grateful’

Mr Holmes grew up in Northern Ireland but moved to Scotland to study medicine when he was 18.

Now 56, he usually works at the Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Stirlingshire, but also volunteers with frontline medical aid charity UK-Med.

According to the FCDO, UK aid money pays for EMT staffs’ regular roles “to be backfilled to ensure the NHS is not impacted”.

“It is a privilege to be part of the UK government’s humanitarian response,” Mr Holmes said.

“It’s been amazing how grateful Turkish people have been for our help, partly for the medical or healthcare assistance we’ve been giving, but also I think they’ve really appreciated the expression of solidarity that the UK team coming over has meant to them.”

Mr Holmes said he was touched by the Turkish generosity of spirit, despite their loss and suffering.

He recalled that when his team apologised to patients because they had not been able to shower for a week at their camp, one patient invited them home so they could use their bathroom facilities.

Another woman collected walnuts for her garden and brought them to the aid workers.

It is not the first time Mr Holmes has been deployed to an earthquake zone to deliver medical aid, but it is the first time he has experienced powerful and dangerous aftershocks.

“The first one briefly set the hospital building on fire, which was slightly nerve-wracking. I saw smoke after it triggered an electrical fire but thankfully it was brought under control very quickly and there wasn’t huge damage.

“We had to move our overnight camping tents because they were deemed a bit close to the hospital,” he recalled.

“The other big aftershock happened in the evening time when we were standing around chatting.

“It’s not enough to knock you off your feet but the closest thing I can compare it to is when you are on a boat in choppy seas. You are not being thrown from side to side, but if you were trying to walk, you’d be unstable.”

Mr Holmes said the situation was “obviously worrying” but added he was able to stay in contact with his wife and four children every day by phone to reassure them that he was OK.

‘Brave’

He is due to return home to the UK on Saturday.

Last month, a search and rescue team from Northern Ireland returned home from Turkey after helping to rescue a woman who had been trapped in a collapsed building for nine days.

“The UK government is proud that brave firefighters and medics from Northern Ireland have been at the very heart of our efforts to help the Turkish people in their hour of need,” said UK Minister for Development Andrew Mitchell.

“The UK government’s priority now is to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches the thousands of families left homeless by the earthquake. It will be so vital in ensuring those affected can begin to rebuild their lives.”

Source: BBC

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Nato has formally launched the process to bring Sweden and Finland into its military alliance. But a key condition for Nato member Turkey is the handover of more than 70 people described by its president as terrorists.

The leaders of the two Nordic nations say they are taking the issue seriously, but ultimately extradition is up to the courts not politicians. So who does Turkey want and could they ever be deported to Ankara?

Turkey’s demands

Sweden and Finland applied to join the West’s defensive alliance after Russia launched its war in Ukraine. Turkey was the only one of Nato’s 30 member states to block their bids until the two Nordic states agreed to a set of demands – including handing over individuals with alleged terror links.

https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.47.3/iframe.htmlMedia caption,

Watch: Handshakes as Turkey signs agreement to support Finland and Sweden joining Nato

Under a memorandum signed at a Nato summit last week, Finland and Sweden agreed to address Turkey’s “pending deportation or extradition requests of terror suspects expeditiously and thoroughly”, with “bilateral legal frameworks to facilitate extradition”.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sweden had promised to extradite 73 “terrorists” and had already sent three or four of them. Pro-government Turkish daily Hurriyet published a list of 45 people, including 33 sought from Sweden and 12 from Finland.

Sought by Turkey

Turkey is particularly keen on the handover of individuals it considers linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terror group by the EU, US and UK. It is also after followers of exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen. Gulenists are blamed by Turkey for a failed coup against President Erdogan in 2016.

The BBC has spoken to three of the people sought by Turkey.

Bulent Kenes: Journalist

For years, he was editor-in-chief of Today’s Zaman, a major English-language daily in Turkey, before it was shut down in 2016. Now, he lives in exile in Stockholm.

Turkish authorities accuse him of being part of the Gulen movement, or what they call the Fethullah Terrorist Organisation (Feto). It is known for its network of schools and is not considered a terror group in the EU, UK or US.

Mr Kenes said he became a target for his outspoken criticism of President Erdogan and faced accusations of plotting to topple the government: “All the allegations are fabricated. I am an independent journalist with no affiliations with any organisation.”

He was given a suspended jail term in 2015 for “insulting the president”, in a tweet that said Mr Erdogan’s late mother would be ashamed of him.

Insulting President Erdogan remains a common charge today, with 17 journalists and cartoonists put on trial in the first three months of 2022, according to independent Turkish organisation Bianet.

Bulent Kenes believes he has become a bargaining chip between Mr Erdogan and Sweden in Nato negotiations.

He is not particularly afraid of being extradited, as that would be a “betrayal of Sweden’s own values” of democracy and protecting dissidents. “This is not a test for the Erdogan regime… this is a test for the Swedish authorities,” he said.

Fatih: ‘Reformed arsonist’

Others on Turkey’s list are far less prominent. Fatih, a Finnish Kurd, was part of a group of five young men who set fire to the door of the Turkish embassy in 2008.

Now a 37-year-old business owner and entrepreneur, he told the BBC he regretted what he did: “At that time, my life was messed up, I had many kinds of problems.”

He was surprised to find his name on the list as he finished serving a 14-month suspended sentence long ago – and paid damages to the embassy. Finnish authorities granted him citizenship a few years ago and considered the embassy case closed, he said.

Turkey accuses him of being a member of the militant PKK, which calls for greater Kurdish self-governance and is involved in an armed struggle with the Turkish state.

Fatih said he had no ties or ideological connections to the PKK, and believed he was targeted purely because of his Kurdish background.

Kurds make up 15-20% of Turkey’s population but have faced persecution in Turkey for generations. The government in Ankara is trying to ban the pro-Kurdish HDP party, the third biggest in parliament.

While Fatih did not believe he would be extradited as a Finnish citizen, he feared harassment in the local Turkish community or possible arrest abroad at Turkey’s request. He said he was very sad that Finland was having to “fight for him”.

Aysen Furhoff: Teacher who fled

Aysen Furhoff came to Sweden after serving five years of a life sentence in Turkey for trying to “subvert the constitutional order” when she was 17 and a member of the Turkish Communist Party. She said she was offered protection in Sweden after being tortured in jail.

Now 45, she lives in Stockholm with her husband and daughter and works as a teacher, and insists she is no longer involved in Turkish politics.

“I left Turkey 20 years ago. If I get sent there, they will have no use for me. Everyone I know is either dead or in prison. That’s why being on the list was surprising – who am I to them?”

Ms Furhoff says she is also being prosecuted in Turkey for being a PKK member. She admits collaborating with them for three months some 25 years ago.

While she no longer sympathises with the PKK, she denies they are a terror group and believes they should be part of discussions for a negotiated peace in Turkey.

Citing Swedish law, she is not worried about extradition but finds it hard to believe she could be an important case for Ankara.

Barriers to extradition

Legal requirements in Sweden and Finland make it very hard for Turkey to extradite the kind of numbers it wants:

• An independent court has the final say on extradition – not politicians
• Citizens of neither Sweden nor Finland can be extradited
• Foreign nationals can be extradited – but only if in line with the European Convention on Extradition
• Extradition is not allowed for political crimes or to countries where people risk persecution
• Alleged offences must be seen as a crime in Sweden or Finland.

According to Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, of the 33 Swedish names listed in Turkish media, 19 have already been rejected for extradition by Stockholm’s Supreme Court.

“We cannot go through earlier cases that have already been processed,” said Chief Justice Anders Eka.

Finland has extradited two people to Turkey out of more than a dozen requests over the past decade. The justice ministry says no new requests have been received and it has promised the Kurdish community there will be no change to the law.

Possible backlash

If Turkey’s demands are rejected, it could withdraw its support for the Nordic nations’ accession to Nato, says Murat Yesiltas of pro-government think tank Seta.

Parliaments in all 30 Nato countries will need to approve Sweden and Finland as members and that includes Turkish lawmakers. So Mr Yesiltas warns it is also about the “dignity of the Turkish parliament”.

Other commentators suggest Ankara’s push for extradition may be an Erdogan re-election strategy, or a tool to help land a US weapons sale.

There is little chance of Sweden or Finland handing over anyone on the list any time soon.

One former PKK member on the list, Cemil Aygan, has been targeted for extradition by Turkey in the past but believes Sweden’s Supreme Court will stand in its way. “If Sweden were to hand me over, my life would be over,” he told public broadcaster SVT.

Source: BBC

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Syria has borne witness to incomprehensible levels of violence against civilians by the various parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria, but first and foremost by the Syrian regime, in every part of the country, generating a constant and profound sense of fear and panic in the hearts of Syrians, that has driven them en masse to seek safety elsewhere, especially after the indiscriminate bombardment, most notably by Syrian-Russian alliance forces, partially or completely destroyed most of Syria’s villages, towns and cities, to the point that many have become uninhabitable. Meanwhile, the continuing security crackdowns by the Syrian regime’s various and far-reaching security apparatuses against Syrian dissidents have played a large role in displacing thousands more Syrians to other areas. Additionally, the siege and blockade policy enforced by the Syrian-Russian alliance forces in many areas was followed by coercive settlement agreements that resulted in the forced deportation of thousands of other people from their homes. In fact, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI) has concluded that there are grounds to believe that pro-regime forces may have committed a crime against humanity in the form of forced displacement.

Furthermore, the ongoing violations by the various parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria are the primary cause for more and more refugees fleeing. While It may be true that the rate of violations has fallen somewhat in the past two years, the cumulative effect of 12 years and counting of violations has brought about a Syria with an atrocious human rights situation, riven by killings, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, forced displacement, torture, pillaging of land and properties, and a widespread state of chronic insecurity under which assassinations and remote bombings have become prevalent, with these and many other violations combining to cause upheaval across Syria. In light of these violations that threaten the very fundamental tenets of human rights and human dignity, with no foreseeable end to this suffering or any feasible way to hold their perpetrators accountable, hundreds of Syrians are trying to sell their properties, flee their country, and seek asylum in nations worldwide.

Moreover, due to the dire situation facing refugees in neighboring host countries, especially Lebanon and Turkey, we have documented continued illegal and life-threatening migration attempts by refugees in these nations to cross into EU countries, either via land from Turkey, or via the Mediterranean Sea from Turkey, Lebanon, or the Maghreb countries. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on October 25, 2022, that the Missing Migrants Project has documented no fewer than 5,684 deaths on immigration routes to and within Europe since the beginning of 2021, with Syrians as a leading nationality on the lists of the identified victims.

Since Wednesday, June 14, SNHR has recorded, as of this writing, the death of no fewer than 37 Syrians, including seven women, who were mostly from Daraa governorate. The victims drowned to death after a fishing boat, which was carrying them along other asylum seekers from different nationalities including Egyptians, Palestinians, and Pakistanis, capsized and sank on June 14, 2023, south of Greece, approximately 47 nautical miles of the coasts of Pylos. The vessel, which carried 700-750 asylum seekers, including women and children, according to estimates, launched off the Libyan coasts towards Europe on the morning of Friday, June 9, 2023. As of this writing, the Greek authorities revealed it has saved only 104 people and retrieved 80 dead bodies for victims who have drowned to death, while around 500 others are still missing. We are deeply concerned that all of them may have died almost one week after the boat had sank. According to a joint statement by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the IOM, the boat sent out its first distress call on the morning of Tuesday, June 13, while the Greek Coast Guard announced it launched a wide search and rescue operation on the morning of June 14 after the boat had sank. The IOM and the UNHCR also stressed that search and rescue at sea is a “legal and humanitarian imperative.”

On June 19, BBC Arabic published a report saying that suggests that the overcrowded fishing boat did not move for seven hours at least before capsizing, judging by analyzing the movement of the other ships in the area. However, the Greek Coast Guard is claiming that in those seven hours the boat was on its way to Italy and there was no need for rescue. Meanwhile, Flavio Di Giacomo, the Spokesperson of the Coordination Office for the Mediterranean of the IOM, stressed in a tweet that all boats carrying must be considered “boats in distress” and must be rescued immediately with no delay even when they appear to be having no problems, because they can sink in just a few minutes.

SNHR condemns the slow response to the distress call. We call on the Greek government and the UNHCR to launch an investigation into this incident and make its findings available to the public and the families of the victims, hold those responsible accountable, and compensate the victims.

Source: reliefweb

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Turkey has launched the construction of nearly a quarter million housing units to resettle refugees in rebel-held northern Syria, Turkish media said, as repatriation efforts loom large in Turkey’s presidential runoff.

An AFP correspondent on Wednesday saw builders working and heavy machinery being used at the side on the outskirts of the town of al-Ghandura, in the Jarabulus area near the Turkish border.

“Syrian refugees living in Turkey will settle in the houses… as part of a dignified, voluntary safe return,” Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Wednesday at the launch of the project, according to private Turkish news agency IHA.

He said that “240,000 houses will be built” in the region, expressing hope that the project would be completed in three years, IHA added.

Since Syria’s war broke out in 2011, neighboring Turkey has taken in more than three million people who fled the fighting.

Most have “temporary protection” status, leaving them vulnerable to a forced return.

Anti-refugee sentiments have been running high in Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hardened his once-accepting stance towards people displaced by war as he fights for re-election in a presidential runoff this weekend.

Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has pledged to send “all the refugees home” if he wins.

The construction site Soylu visited was formerly an air strip.

On a billboard, “Project for safe, voluntary and honorable returns” was written in Arabic and Turkish, while the names of organizations including Turkey’s relief agency AFAD and the Qatar Fund for Development featured on the sign.

“Qatari emir (Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad) al-Thani and our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have taken a big step toward addressing one of the world’s most important issues,” Soylu said, according to the IHA report.

Erdogan supported early rebel efforts to topple Assad, and Ankara maintains a military presence in northern stretches of the war-torn country that angers Damascus.

Since 2016, Turkey has carried out successive ground operations to expel Kurdish forces from border areas of northern Syria.

Its troops and their Syrian proxies hold swathes of the border, and Erdogan has long sought to establish a “safe zone” 30 kilometers (20 miles) deep the whole length of the frontier.

“To date, there have been 554,000 voluntary returns,” Soylu said. “There is a serious demand for a voluntary and dignified return to this safe area.”

Earlier this month, Erdogan pledged to build some 200,000 homes in 13 locations in Syria, aiming to resettle some one million refugees, local media reported.

In November, Soylu paid a visit to open 600 basic homes in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib region, saying 75,000 houses had been constructed in the previous two years.

Source: English

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In the early hours of the morning Daria Gilani, who asked that we not use her real name, awoke to the earth shattering beneath her.

She and some friends — all Iranian asylum-seekers — came onto the “tense” and “sleepless” streets of Mersin, a port city on southeastern Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, eventually finding refuge at an improvised shelter set up for survivors of the devastating earthquake and aftershocks. 

But they were met with hostility.

The group says they were told there was “no place for foreigners” and kicked out by a security guard.

While they were eventually allowed in, after complaining to the manager of the centre, Gilani and her friends say they were separated from Turkish citizens, and put in a different part of the building with other refugees.

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On the second night, it was the same story.

“The guard was behaving harshly and refused to let us in,” she told Euronews. “I decided to camp out in the streets in order to not face the way they treated us again.”

And they are not alone with that experience.

In March, independent media organisation Syria Direct reported Syrians were in some cases being denied aid by state-linked organisations, though the vast majority are receiving help.

They cited the case of Bilal who — after losing 15 of his relatives in the disaster — was expelled from a shelter by five Turkish police officers, asking “you want to leave peacefully, or do we need to use force?”

‘Solidarity in the ruins’

Striking on 6 February, the 7.8-magnitude earthquake and series of deadly aftershocks wrecked southeastern Turkey and Syria — home to millions of refugees.

An estimated 13 million people have been affected across an area two times the size of the Netherlands, according to Didem Demircan, Deputy Executive Director of Oxfam in Turkey. 

Millions are still displaced and in desperate need of basic assistance.

In the immediate aftermath of the quake that affected 11 provinces, she says a “big” scarcity of shelter in the disaster zone caused problems. 

However, the humanitarian worker was “not sure if there was deliberate discrimination against refugees”, instead emphasising “economic inequality”.

“Unfortunately, the scale of the disaster was very big,” Demircan told Euronews. “It impacted all sensitive communities, including not only refugees but women, the poor, people living in rural areas and the elderly.”

“All injustices and inequalities were dramatically increased because of this earthquake,” she added.

Studies have shown that women and girls are disproportionately impacted by natural disasters, exacerbating the risk of violence and existing gender inequalities. 

Like others, Turks and foreigners alike, Gilani has struggled to receive regular aid, with the offices of NGOs closed or destroyed, while the migration office has postponed individual asylum appointments.  

An asylum-seeker for multiple years, she fled political persecution in Iran, but cannot seek safety elsewhere as rules prevent her from leaving Mersin. 

“The issue has caused so many refugees big troubles,” she said, adding some asylum seekers have closed their cases and left Turkey “due to all the pressures” caused by the quake. 

‘They blame us’

Refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria in particular were largely welcomed by sympathetic Turks over the past decade.

But xenophobia and racism against Turkey’s refugee population – the largest in the world – has risen over the years, as the country’s economy has hit the rocks.

Inflation has run at a breakneck rate for many months, pushing millions of Turks to the brink, while the Turkish lira has plunged in value. 

“Most Turkish people have negative views towards refugees and immigrants, just like the way the security guard treated us,” said Gilani. “But this is not a systematic issue.”

“Refugees are considered the cause of the economical problems and tensions Turkish people are facing. Now with the critical situation due to the earthquakes and limited facilities, they are showing their frustrations,” she continued.

However, Demicran, who is helping organise Oxfam’s humanitarian response, said the natural disaster had an “equalising effect”.

“Young, old, rich, poor, refugee, local, everyone has impacted the same way,” she told Euronews. 

This universalism has given rise to “solidarity” among people struck by the quake, with “everyone gathered around the rubble to save each other.”

Syrians, who number an estimated 3.6 million in Turkey, have been extensively documented helping their neighbours, and vice-versa. 

“Just like anywhere in Europe, where there is a rise of right-wing populism, [racism] is used by the politicians to raise problems within the community,” said Demicran.“They blame refugees.”

Politicians from the far-right have fuelled anti-Syrian sentiment in regions hit by the earthquakes, according to the Stockholm Centre for Freedom, a Turkish think-tank based in Sweden.

In January, Ümit Özdağ, leader of Turkey’s far-right Victory Party launched a new campaign dubbed “Bus to Damascus” aimed at deporting Syrian refugees from Turkey.

“We are all the time in the area. We also see solidarity,” said Oxfam’s Demicran. 

“We all need to act together to fight against this right-wing narrative.”

Source: Euronews

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Fourteen people have died and several others are missing after floods swept through the streets of two cities in south-east Turkey devastated by last month’s earthquakes.

Among the victims were quake survivors who had been living in container homes since the quakes.

Cars tumbled on a torrent of floodwater through the streets of Sanliurfa, where 12 people died.

A container housing two families in Adiyaman was caught up in the floods.

A woman living in the container was among two people killed in the city. Several others were reported missing. Tents in the city were evacuated.

The latest disaster came only five weeks after the twin earthquakes on 6 February in which 48,000 people were killed and many more left homeless.

Search and rescue organisation Afad said that in one 24-hour period, 136mm (5.4in) of rain had fallen in one area of Adiyaman province and 111mm (4.4in) in Sanliurfa, which saw a third of its annual rainfall in the past two days.

The governor of Sanliurfa, Salih Ayhan, said his province had never seen flooding like it and officials appealed to residents to evacuate the ground floor and basements of homes.

The bodies of five people were found in a basement apartment and Turkish media said they were Syrians.

Bodies were also recovered from an underpass at the major Abide road junction.

Several people were dragged off in their vehicles by the current of the floodwaters and people who tried to help those stranded were themselves swept away.

Dramatic footage emerged of a man being pulled out of the torrent in Sanliurfa by a local dangling a rope from a ground-floor window. A similar rescue took place at the Abide junction.

Two of the missing were firefighters, said the governor, who appealed to residents to keep well away from the moving water. A hospital was flooded and 200 patients moved elsewhere.

The rain is due to die down towards the end of the week.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is grappling with the aftermath of last month’s earthquake, is facing elections on 14 May. He has sent the interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, to the flood region.

Leading opposition figures are also due to visit Sanliurfa, and have vowed to help meet the urgent needs of residents.

Source: BBC

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Foreign ministers Mevlut Cavusoglu and Sameh Shoukry will discuss all aspects of bilateral ties.

Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, will visit Egypt on Saturday after an invitation by his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry – the first such trip in more than a decade.

The Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday that the two top diplomats will discuss all aspects of bilateral relations, as well as exchange views on regional and international matters.

For its part, the Egyptian foreign ministry said Cavusoglu’s visit “inaugurates path for restoring normal relations between the two countries”.

Relations between Turkey and Egypt turned frosty in 2013 when the Egyptian military, then led by current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, deposed democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader and an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

El-Sisi then outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood and branded it a “terrorist” organisation.

Turkey has for years served as a refuge for opposition activists from Egypt, further stoking tensions between the two regional powers.

Longstanding disagreements over the countries’ opposing roles in war-hit Libya have also impeded efforts to achieve a full rapprochement.

World Cup handshake

After years of frozen ties, Egypt and Turkey held exploratory talks in May and September 2021 to discuss restoring ties.

In November 2022, el-Sisi and Erdogan shook hands in front of Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, in Doha. The leaders met on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the football World Cup in Qatar.

And last month, Shoukry visited Turkey following devastating earthquakes that killed tens of thousands of people. It was the first such trip by an Egyptian foreign minister in more than 10 years.

While diplomatic relations between Cairo and Ankara have often been thorny, economic ties have continued unabated. The volume of trade has nearly tripled from 2007 to 2020, according to the Carnegie Middle East Center.

Source: Aljazeera

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The meeting is the first official US visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu since the Biden administration took office.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken is hosting Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Washington, DC for a meeting expected to be dominated by a potential sale of F-16 fighter jets and Turkey’s refusal to approve Sweden and Finland’s NATO accession.

The meeting on Wednesday represented the first official visit by Turkey’s top diplomat since US President Joe Biden took office nearly two years ago – something observers have said may reflect the complicated relationship between the two countries. Blinken and Cavusoglu have met before on the sidelines of NATO summits and United Nations meetings.

“We are close allies and partners,” Blinken said at the start of the meeting, “that doesn’t mean we don’t have differences, but when we have differences, precisely because we are allies and partners, we work through them.”

Prior to the meeting, US and Turkish officials said the main topics would be Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Syria, and energy cooperation.

The US has praised Turkey for some of its actions in the wake of Russia’s invasion, in particular the mediation of grain corridor talks.

However, worries persist about Ankara’s deepening relationship with Moscow. Ties between the NATO allies have strained since Turkey acquired Russian missile defence systems in 2019, which led to Ankara’s removal from the next-generation F-35 fighter jet programme.

Turkey now hopes to buy F-16 jets from the US, a sale that some top members of Congress oppose despite support from the Biden administration.

Speaking at the top of the meeting, Cavusoglu referenced the possible sale, saying, “We expect approval in the line with our joint strategic interest.”

The Turkish official said the duo would also discuss “how we can strengthen our … cooperation in our fight against terrorism”, while directly referencing ISIL (ISIS) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK – both groups Ankara sees as threats from beyond its southern border with Syria.

US officials have grown increasingly concerned about Turkey’s possible aim to carry out a new cross-border military operation against Kurdish armed groups, as well as its intent to normalise ties with Damascus.

Meanwhile, Turkey has been the main roadblock to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, which requires the approval of all 30 member states. Turkey and Hungary have yet to endorse the applications.

Turkey has accused the countries of harbouring Kurdish groups it deems “terrorists”. It said Sweden, in particular, must first take a clearer stance against these groups, as well as individuals it blames for a 2016 coup attempt.

Erdogan said on Monday that the two countries had to deport or extradite up to 130 “terrorists” to Turkey before parliament would approve their requests to join NATO. Officials from the Nordic countries have said the demands go too far.

On Tuesday, Finland said it hoped the Turkish foreign minister’s US visit would help to clear the impasse.

F-16 sale

The meeting comes after the US Department of State informally notified the US Senate and House of Representative committees that oversee arms sales of its intention to proceed with the $20bn sale of F-16s to Turkey.

The move triggered a barrage of statements from members of Congress opposing the deal, including from Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, whose leaders review major foreign military sales.

In a statement to the Reuters news agency, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said “[Turkish President Tayyip] Erdogan’s … repeated attacks on our Syrian Kurdish allies, and continued cozying up to Russia – including delaying Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership – remain serious causes for concern.”

“As I’ve said before, for Turkey to receive the F-16s, we need assurances that these concerns will be addressed,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan’s chief foreign policy adviser, told reporters on Saturday that  Washington’s demands relating to the supply of the fighter jets were “endless”.

He added he hoped the F-16 deal would not become “hostage” to the NATO memberships of Sweden and Finland.

While Congress can block foreign arms sales

Source: Aljazeera

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Sweden’s bid for NATO membership faces a dead end after a rally by the far right burns the Quran in front of Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm.

Sweden’s bid for NATO membership is up in the air amid strained ties with Turkey over Ankara’s demands to hand over Kurdish activists and prevent rallies attacking its leadership.

Tensions climaxed on January 21 when the leader of a Danish far-right political party burned the Quran while protesting in front of Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm.

Ahead of the rally, Ankara cancelled a visit by Sweden’s defence minister aimed at overcoming Turkey’s objections to its NATO membership and Turkey’s foreign minister called for the rally to be banned.

Sweden needs Turkey’s backing to gain entry to NATO as fears in Europe grow after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Here is a look at recent relations between Turkey and Sweden:

May 12, 2022

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced that Finland must apply to join the NATO military alliance “without delay”.

May 13, 2022

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it is not possible for Ankara to support Sweden and Finland joining the transatlantic military alliance, signalling a possible hurdle to the two countries’ plans to join the organisation.

May 15, 2022

The Finnish government officially announced its intention to join NATO. Sweden’s ruling party followed shortly after.

May 16, 2022

President Erdogan confirmed Turkey’s opposition to NATO membership for Finland and Sweden, shooting down a proposal by the Nordic countries to send delegations to Ankara to address the matter.

“We will not say ‘yes’ to those [countries] who apply sanctions to Turkey to join security organisation NATO,” Erdogan said at a news conference, referring to Sweden’s 2019 decision to suspend arms sales to Turkey over its military operation in neighbouring Syria.

Turkey also accused the two nations of harbouring “terror” groups, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), blacklisted by Ankara, the European Union and the United States.

Justice ministry sources told the state news agency Anadolu on Monday that Sweden and Finland had failed to respond positively to Turkey’s 33 extradition requests over the past five years.

May 18, 2022

Finland and Sweden officially applied to join the world’s biggest military alliance. The move requires the unanimous approval of the alliance’s 30 current members. The process was expected to take about two weeks.

June 28, 2022

Turkey lifted its veto over Finland and Sweden’s NATO bid after four hours of talks just before a NATO summit began in Madrid.

Turkey’s justice minister announced that as part of the deal, his country will seek the extradition of 33 alleged Kurdish fighters and coup plot suspects from Sweden and Finland.

Source: Aljazeera

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