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Turkey eyes legal steps after Kurdish militant group PKK disbands

After the decision by the Kurdish militant group PKK to disband, Turkey was eyeing Wednesday a raft of legal and technical measures to ensure its full implementation and finally end a four-decade insurgency.Monday’s announcement sought to draw a line under a bloody chapter that began in 1984 when the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) took up arms, triggering a conflict that cost more than 40,000 lives.”What matters most is the implementation,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday, pledging to “meticulously monitor whether the promises are kept”. The pro-Kurdish DEM party, a key player that facilitated contact between jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan and the political establishment, urged Ankara on Tuesday to take “confidence-building steps” such as freeing political prisoners. So far, Turkish officials have said little but the government is working on a proposal that could ease prison sentences in general. The text, which should be submitted to parliament by June at the latest, provides for the conditional release of all those in pre-trial detention for offences committed before July 31, 2023.  There are also plans to release to house arrest those who are sick, or women with children, if they are serving sentences of less than five years. The moves could affect more than 60,000 people, Turkish media reports say. – No general amnesty -But the authorities are reportedly being careful not to frame it as an “amnesty”. “Sick prisoners should not die in prison… These measures should not be interpreted as a general amnesty, which is not on the agenda,” Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said.But DEM co-chair Tulay Hatimogullari said a move to free prisoners was essential.”There are nearly 10,000 political prisoners in this country… If a peace process is ever to get under way, they must be released as soon as possible,” she said Monday. For DEM, that must include prisoners like Selahattin Demirtas, the charismatic former leader of a former pro-Kurdish party who has been jailed since 2016.”With the complete elimination of terror and violence, the door to a new era will open,” Erdogan said Monday.Some prisoners, such as Demirtas or the philanthropist Osman Kavala, who is serving life on charges of “trying to overthrow the government”, could in theory be quickly freed if Turkey heeded rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, which has repeatedly demanded their release. – Proof of disarming -But before that, Ankara is awaiting concrete proof that the PKK has actually laid down its weapons, Abdulkadir Selvi, a columnist close to the government, wrote in the Hurriyet newspaper. “The democratic changes will start after the head of the MIT (intelligence services) has submitted his report to President Erdogan,” he wrote. According to Turkish media reports, the MIT will supervise the weapons handover at locations in Turkey, Syria and Iraq. It will register the weapons handed in and the identity of the fighters in coordination with the Syrian and Iraqi authorities. “Our intelligence service will follow the process meticulously to ensure the promises are kept,” Erdogan said Wednesday. Most of the PKK’s fighters have spent the past decade in the mountains of northern Iraq. Those who have committed no crime in Turkey will be allowed to return without fear of prosecution. But the PKK’s leaders will be forced into exile in third-party states such as Norway or South Africa, media reports suggest. – Deposed mayors -Duran Kalkan, a member of the PKK’s executive committee, said Tuesday that renouncing armed struggle “can only be implemented under (Ocalan’s) leadership” and when he is guaranteed “free living and working conditions”. Experts say prison conditions for Ocalan, 76, will be “eased” but he is unlikely to leave the Imrali prison island where he has been held since 1999, largely because his life would be threatened.  “Naming trustees (to replace deposed mayors) will become an exceptional measure… after the terrorist organisation is dissolved,” Erdogan said, suggesting that Kurdish mayors removed from office over alleged ties to the PKK would be reinstated. In total, 16 opposition mayors from the DEM and the main opposition CHP have been removed since local elections in March 2024. 

‘No more empty statements:’ Iran ex-detainees press Sweden over death row academic

Over 20 foreign nationals who themselves endured years of captivity in Iran on Wednesday urged Sweden to step up efforts to free a Swedish-Iranian citizen sentenced to death in the country, after he had a heart attack last week.Ahmadreza Djalali, an academic who was sentenced to death in 2017 on espionage charges he denies, suffered a heart attack in Tehran’s Evin prison, his wife said Friday.Djalali, 53, is among a number of Europeans held by Iran in what some countries including France call a deliberate hostage-taking strategy to extract concessions from the West at a time of tension over Tehran’s nuclear programme.Djalali’s condition, “worsened by years of medical neglect and psychological torment, is now dire,” said the 21 former detainees including British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert and US-Iranian Siamak Namazi, who were freed only after years-long ordeals in prison.”While the Islamic Republic and its heinous practice of hostage diplomacy is the clear culprit here, we are deeply troubled by your government’s failure to use the means at its disposal to rescue Dr Djalali,” they said in the letter addressed to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson via Stockholm’s embassy in Washington.”No more empty statements. Sweden must act with the same urgency and resolve it has shown in securing the freedom of other citizens,” they added in the letter seen by AFP.Djalali was granted Swedish nationality while in jail.- ‘A path home’ -The letter said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had offered a possible way forward in a recent social media post that it said “implicitly linked” the case to Iran’s inability to access treatment for epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a disease that affects hundreds of Iranian children and can be fatal without proper care.”The specialised wound dressings required to treat EB, produced by a Swedish company, have long been blocked due to over-compliance with sanctions,” the letter said.In a post on X last week that lamented a “regrettable shift” in bilateral relations, Araghchi said “Sweden ceased non-sanctionable exports of medicines, including specialised and unique gear for children afflicted with EB”.In June 2024, Tehran freed two Swedes held in Iran in exchange for Hamid Noury, a former Iranian prisons official serving a life sentence in Sweden. To the disappointment of his family, Djalali was not included in the swap.In the letter, the ex-detainees told Kristersson: “A path to bring Dr Djalali home — alive, not in a coffin — appears within reach. “If Sweden fails to pursue it seriously and this Swedish citizen dies in captivity, history will record that your government had more than one chance to save him — but chose not to. That responsibility will rest squarely with you.”

Strikes kill 29 in Gaza, amid hostage release talks

Gaza rescuers said at least 29 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff over the release of hostages.Negotiations for the release of the remaining hostages have been ongoing, with the latest talks taking place in the Qatari capital Doha, where US President Donald Trump landed on Wednesday.Netanyahu’s office said the premier had discussed with Witkoff and his negotiating team “the issue of the hostages and the missing”.Hamas had on Tuesday said it called on Trump’s administration, which recently began direct talks with the group, “to continue efforts to bring the war to an end”.Fighting meanwhile raged on in Gaza, where the civil defence agency reported that “at least 25 people were killed and dozens wounded” in Jabalia, in northern Gaza.Another four people were killed in a strike on the southern city of Khan Yunis, agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.AFP footage from north Gaza showed women in tears as they kneeled next to bodies wrapped in white shrouds stained by blood.”It’s a nine-month-old baby. What did he do?” one of them cried out.- Shortages -Mohammad Awad, an emergency doctor in northern Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital, told AFP that supply shortages meant his department could not properly handle the flow of wounded from the Jabalia strike.”The hospital could not accommodate the wounded. There are not enough beds, no medicine, and no means for surgical or medical treatment, which leaves doctors unable to save many of the injured who are dying due to lack of care”, he said.Awad added that “the bodies of the martyrs are lying on the ground in the hospital corridors after the morgue reached full capacity. The situation is catastrophic in every sense of the word.”Israel imposed an aid blockade on the Gaza Strip on March 2 after talks to prolong a January 19 ceasefire broke down.The resulting shortages of food and medicine have aggravated an already dire situation in the Palestinian territory, although Israel has dismissed UN warnings that a potential famine looms.Medical charity Medecins du Monde said Tuesday that acute malnutrition in Gaza has “reached levels comparable to those seen in countries facing prolonged humanitarian crises spanning several decades”.Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18, with officials later talking of retaining a long-term presence in the Palestinian territory.- ‘Full force’ -Following a short pause in air strikes during the release of US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander on Monday, Israel resumed pounding Gaza.Netanyahu said on Monday that the military would enter Gaza “with full force” in the coming days, despite ongoing ceasefire efforts.He added that his government was working to find countries willing to take in Gaza’s population.The Israeli government approved plans to expand the offensive earlier this month, and spoke of the “conquest” of Gaza.Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s October 2023 attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead. Hamas is also holding the body of an Israeli soldier killed during a previous war in Gaza, in 2014.The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 52,908 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.

Human Rights Watch warns of migrant worker deaths in 2034 World Cup host Saudi Arabia

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday said grave abuses were being committed on giant construction sites in Saudi Arabia and warned the risks to migrant workers could increase as the building of stadiums for the 2034 World Cup gathers pace.HRW said “scores of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia die in gruesome yet avoidable workplace-related accidents, including falling from buildings, electrocution, and even decapitation”.The NGO, which has studied nearly 50 cases of deaths in Saudi Arabia, said Saudi authorities had “failed to adequately protect workers from preventable deaths, investigate workplace safety incidents, and ensure timely and adequate compensation for families” including through life insurance policies and benefits to survivors.”The risks of occupational deaths and injuries are further increasing as the Saudi government ramps up construction work for the 2034 World Cup as well as other ‘giga-projects’,” HRW added.The Gulf kingdom was handed the right to host the 2034 World Cup at a FIFA Congress last December despite concerns about its human rights record, the risks to migrant labourers and criminalisation of same-sex relationships. It was the only candidate.The NGO called on FIFA to ensure all work-related deaths in Saudi Arabia are properly investigated and that bereaved families receive compensation.- ‘Long and burdensome’ -FIFA has committed to establishing a workers’ welfare system, which it says includes “dedicated mandatory standards and enforcement mechanisms applicable to all companies and workers involved in… World Cup-related construction and service delivery” in Saudi Arabia. But HRW said football’s world governing body did not provide “details on concrete measures to prevent, investigate, and compensate migrant worker deaths such as risk-based heat protection measures or life insurance”.The NGO claimed “FIFA is knowingly risking yet another tournament that will unnecessarily come at a grave human cost”, referencing the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.Similar concerns over workers’ welfare dogged Qatar ahead of its hosting of international football’s showpiece tournament.Amnesty International and other rights groups claimed thousands of migrant workers died in the lead-up to the 2022 tournament, though Doha has said only 37 workers on World Cup projects perished — and only three in work-related accidents.HRW stated in its report that the majority of migrant worker deaths in Saudi Arabia are attributed to “natural causes” and are therefore neither investigated nor compensated.According to figures provided by the NGO, for example, 74 percent of 1,420 Indian migrant worker deaths recorded at the Indian embassy in Riyadh in 2023 were attributed to natural causes.HRW added “even work-related death cases categorised as such in a migrant worker’s death certificate are sometimes not compensated as they should be according to Saudi law and international labour standards”.”In migrant death cases that are compensated, the process is long and burdensome,” the report said, providing an example of one such compensation process that took a decade to be completed.”My sons are 11 and 13 years old. When my husband died, they were 11 months and two years old. If we had received compensation right after his death, it would have provided so much relief,” the wife of a deceased worker, who was not named, told HRW.In response to the report, FIFA shared with AFP a letter it sent last month to HRW from its secretary general Mattias Grafstrom.The letter says Saudi Arabia has “in the past years been investing heavily in the development of its society and economy”, using international companies.Grafstrom notes that Saudi Arabia “has taken significant steps to reform its labour laws since 2018”, including the abolition of parts of the kafala system which ties workers to their employers, and introducing standardised contracts for workers.The Saudi government, he says, has also committed to working with the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO) “on the further expansion and effective implementation of these reforms”.”In line with its human rights commitments, FIFA seeks to play its part in ensuring strong protections for workers employed by third parties in the construction of FIFA World Cup sites,” Grafstrom adds.AFP has also contacted the Saudi government for comment.

Syrians hail lifting of US sanctions as start of ‘new era’

The sound of fireworks and applause rang out in Syria’s major cities overnight, as Syrians celebrated US President Donald Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on the devastated country.In Syria’s second city Aleppo, dozens of men, women and children took to the central Saadallah al-Jabiri Square, waving the new Syrian flag and singing.Hours earlier in Riyadh, Trump announced he would lift sanctions on Syria, as the country seeks to rebuild after the December ouster of longtime president Bashar al-Assad.Soap factory owner Zain al-Jabali, 54, rushed to the square as soon as she heard the news.”These sanctions were imposed on Assad, but… now that Syria has been liberated, there will be a positive impact on industry, it’ll boost the economy and encourage people to return,” she told AFP.Amid the sound of cars honking in celebration, 26-year-old Ghaith Anbi described the news as “the second joy since the fall of Assad”.”Lifting the sanctions on the Syrian people will have a very positive impact on reconstruction and rebuilding infrastructure, especially in Aleppo as an economic city,” the civil engineer told AFP.”There will be great economic prosperity for the Syrian people,” he said.- ‘Turning point’ -In the Saudi capital on Tuesday, Trump announced he was lifting the “brutal and crippling” Assad-era sanctions, in response to demands from new Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s allies in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.Trump said it was Syrians’ “time to shine” and that easing sanctions would “give them a chance at greatness”.The Syrian foreign ministry called Trump’s decision a “pivotal turning point” that would help bring stability, draw in investment and reintegrate the country into the global economy.Finance Minister Mohammed Barnieh said Trump’s lifting of sanctions “will help Syria in building its institutions, providing essential services to the people and will create great opportunities to attract investment and restore confidence in Syria’s future”.The United States imposed sweeping restrictions on financial transactions with Syria during the brutal civil war that began in 2011, targeting the ousted president, his family members and key government and economic figures.In 2020, new sanctions came into effect under a US law known as the Caesar Act, punishing any companies linked to Assad in efforts to force accountability for human rights abuses and to encourage a political solution.”These sanctions only ever hurt the Syrian people, not the regime,” 63-year-old Taqi al-Din Najjar told AFP from Aleppo.In Damascus, dozens more gathered in the capital’s iconic Umayyad Square, chanting and singing in joy.”My joy is great. This decision will definitely affect the entire country positively. Construction will return, the displaced will return, and prices will go down,” said Hiba Qassar, a 33-year-old English teacher.Ahmed Asma, 34, expressed hopes that “now that the sanctions are lifted we can live as we did before, or even better”.”We hope this is the start of a new era for Syria,” he told AFP as he drove through the square.

China’s Tencent posts forecast-beating Q1 revenue on gaming growth

Chinese internet giant Tencent on Wednesday reported a better-than-expected increase in first-quarter revenue, propelled by growth in gaming as the firm’s strategic drive into artificial intelligence deepens.Shenzhen-based Tencent is the operator of China’s multifunctional app WeChat and a major player in the global gaming industry.The firm also has a presence in cloud computing, entertainment and …

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Trump presses Syria leader on Israel relations after lifting sanctions

US President Donald Trump asked Syria’s new leader on Wednesday to normalise relations with Israel after he offered a major boost to the war-ravaged country by announcing the lifting of sanctions.Trump, on a state visit to Riyadh, became the first US president in 25 years to meet a Syrian leader — Ahmed al-Sharaa, an erstwhile Islamist guerrilla and onetime jihadist once on a US wanted list who led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December.The interim Syrian president and Trump, wearing matching suits, shook hands as they met jointly with Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. and, by video link, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the key supporter of the new government in Damascus.Turkey and Saudi Arabia had both advocated reconciliation with Syria but the move is the latest to put Trump at odds with Israel, which has voiced pessimism over Sharaa and ramped up strikes to degrade the longtime adversary’s military capabilities.The White House said that Trump asked the Syrian leader to normalise relations with Israel by joining the so-called Abraham Accords signed by some Gulf Arab states.Trump also asked Sharaa to deport Palestinian militants and tell foreign fighters to leave the country, as well as to take control of camps for captured Islamic State group fighters, currently run by Kurdish militants opposed by Turkey, the White House said.Syria’s foreign ministry hailed the meeting as “historic”, but did not mention the Abraham Accords. Syrian state media also did not mention normalisation.The foreign ministry said the leaders discussed “avenues for Syrian-American partnership in counterterrorism efforts” and the importance of lifting sanctions and supporting reconstruction. After the longer-than-expected half-hour meeting, Trump said the Assad-era sanctions had been “really crippling” on Syria.”It’s not going to be easy anyway, so it gives them a good, strong chance, and it was my honour to do so,” Trump said, addressing Gulf Arab leaders.- Biggest applause -The former reality television host, always attuned to crowd sizes, took note of the rapturous reception when he announced the decision at a Riyadh investment forum Tuesday.”That was the thing that got the biggest applause from the room. We had a very crowded room with thousands of people,” Trump said.After the announcement, Syrians celebrated the easing of sanctions, with dozens of men, women and children gathering in Damascus’s Umayyad Square.”My joy is great. This decision will definitely affect the entire country positively,” said Huda Qassar, a 33-year-old English-language teacher.The Syrian foreign ministry called Trump’s decision a “pivotal turning point”.The United States imposed sweeping restrictions on financial transactions with Syria during the brutal civil war and made clear it would use sanctions to punish anyone involved in reconstruction so long as Assad remained in power without accountability for atrocities.Trump gave no indication that the United States would remove Syria from its blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism — a designation dating back to 1979 over support to Palestinian militants that severely impedes investment.A senior envoy of the Joe Biden administration met Sharaa in Damascus in December and called for commitments, including on the protection of minorities.In recent weeks, Syria has seen a series of bloody attacks on minority groups, including Alawites — the sect of the largely secular Assad family — and the Druze.Rabha Seif Allam of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo said easing US sanctions would help reintegrate Syria with the global economy by allowing bank transfers from investors and from millions of Syrians who fled during the civil war.”Lifting sanctions will give Syria a real opportunity to receive the funding needed to revive the economy, impose central state authority and launch reconstruction projects with clear Gulf support,” she said.- Qatar plane controversy -Trump later heads to Qatar, which has stirred controversy by offering a $400 million luxury aircraft to serve as a new Air Force One and then go to Trump’s personal use.The move raises major constitutional and ethical questions — as well as security concerns about a foreign power donating the ultra-sensitive presidential jet.Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, Tuesday vowed to hold up all Justice Department political appointees in protest over the move. Qatar has been a key intermediary with Hamas, helping Washington negotiate directly the release this week from Gaza of US-Israeli joint national Edan Alexander.