BERLIN, February 7 -- An article based on BAMF statistics, there has been a great increase in the number of Turkish citizens who applied for asylum in Germany since the coup attempt on July 15, 2016. According to the statistics, the number of Turks in the applications from Turkey has increased fivefold, surpassing the number of Kurds. The education level of asylum seekers has increased significantly as well, with one out of two applicants having university education. 48% of the asylum seekers in the first half of 2018 hold bachelor's degrees. Interior Ministry's data shows that Turks came in sixth in asylum seekers to Germany in 2018, with 10.655 applicants. This number was 8.483 in 2017. The increase is credited to the political situation in Turkey. The same article says 4.383 Kurds with Turkish citizenship appealed in 2016, when the number of Turks was at 1.197. In 2018, 4.067 Kurds and 5.776 Turks sought asylum in Germany. Another significant point is the rate of approval for asylum claims: %71 of appeals by Turks have been accepted, while the rate remained at 12% for Kurds.
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ROTTERDAM, February 4 -- 2019 kicked off with lots of tornadic activity across southern Europe and the Mediterranean. A total of 61 reports are available in the European Severe Weather Database. Southern Europe, particularly the coastal areas and in general most of the Mediterranean region is typically prolific with tornadoes in January. The surface temperatures of the Mediterranean remain comparatively warm, producing steep lapse rates, particularly during intrusions of cold, polar airmass from the north. Both mesocyclonic and non-mesocyclonic tornadoes are frequently observed, although non-mesocyclonic are more common. By far the most important events were the tornadoes in Antalya province, SW Turkey first on January 24 and then again on January 26. In total at least 7 tornadoes hit Antalya and its vicinity, with 2 reported to have hit the city center and one hit the airport. Several fatalities and widespread damage were reported. Several additional events were reported in the vicinity of Rhodes Island, Greece. HILDESHEIM, February 3 -- About 150 participants covered about 16 kilometers on the first day of the long march on the route between Hildesheim and Sarstedt. In the German city of Hildesheim, a three-day march for the freedom of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan started on Saturday. The participants covered about 16 kilometers on the first day. The traditional three-day march started on Saturday in the Hildesheim city of Lower Saxony state under the motto "Freedom for Öcalan, status for Kurdistan". About 150 participants covered about 16 kilometers on the first day of the long march on the route between Hildesheim and Sarstedt. A minute's silence was observed for the martyrs of the Kurdish liberation movement before the march kicked off in front of Hildesheim train station. Unfurling a banner in German, which read "Freedom for Öcalan, status for Kurdistan", the activists started the march with posters of Leyla Güven in their hands, accompanied by music and slogans. Provocations by Turkish nationalists were hardly noticed and drowned in slogans. The mood of the activists was very good on the first day of the march. On its second day, the march kicked off at 11 clock from Sarstedt and will continue until Laatzen before the demonstration moves on to the state capital Hannover on Monday. As part of the demonstration, a rally will be held in front of the Lower Saxony State Parliament in Hannover and a file will be submitted to the parliament. ANKARA, January 28 -- Turkey is aiming to form safe zones in northern Syria so that Syrian refugees hosted by Turkey could return to their home country, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. Speaking in Istanbul on Monday, Erdogan also said nearly 300,000 Syrians had already returned to areas controlled by Turkish-backed rebels in northern Syria, adding that he expected millions of Syrian nationals to return to the proposed safe zones. Turkey hosts about four million Syrian refugees. US President Donald Trump announced in December the withdrawal of the 2,000 US troops from Syria and Erdogan subsequently said they had discussed setting up a 32km-deep safe zone in Syria along the border with Turkey. On Friday, Erdogan said that Turkey expected the safe zone to be set up within a few months, otherwise, it would establish a buffer zone without the help of other nations. He added that the zone will aim to protect Turkey from "terrorists", referring to the US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia that controls areas in northeastern Syria along the Turkish border. Ankara wants the zone to contain the fighters of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which the United States has armed and trained to fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS). The YPG is seen as an effective ground force by the US in the fight against ISIL, but Turkey says it is linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara and Washington list as a terrorist group. Turkey's foreign minister said on Thursday that Turkey has the capacity to create a safe zone in Syria on its own, but will not exclude the US, Russia, or others if they want to cooperate. "Turkey has not forced refugees to go back to Turkey for years. However, around 300,000 refugees returned to areas held by Turkey and Turkey-backed rebels in northern Syria, such as Jarablus and Al-Bab," Al Jazeera's Osama Bin Javid, reporting from Gaziantep on Turkey-Syria border, said. "And more refugee returns are only possible, according to Erdogan, if Turkey can have some sort of control from the west side of the Euphrates River until the Iraqi border." STRASBOURG, January 27 -- The Kurdish youth in Europe are preparing to stage a Long March from Luxembourg to Strasbourg. The march, to take place between 10-16 February will be held under the motto “The time has come. Rise up, smash the conspiracy and free Leader Apo”. The kick-off event for the march will be held in the German city of Saarbürcken on the 10th of February. The march will continue till Strasbourg where a mass demonstration will take place this year once again on February 16th in protest at the international conspiracy against Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan. Calling attention to the critical conditions of Kurdish hunger strikers demanding freedom for Öcalan, the preparation committee called for strong participation in the march. BEIRUT, January 23 -- Kurdish-led fighters overran the last village held by the Islamic State group in Syria on Wednesday, confining its once vast cross-border “caliphate” to two small hamlets. It is the culmination of a broad offensive launched by the Syrian Democratic Forces last September with U.S.-led coalition support in which they have reduced the jihadis’ last enclave on the north bank of the Euphrates valley near the Iraqi border to a tiny rump. The capture of the village of Baghouz leaves the few remaining diehard IS fighters holed up in scattered farmhouses among the irrigated fields and orchards on the north bank of the Euphrates River. “Search operations are continuing in Baghouz to find any IS fighters who are still hiding,” the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said. “The SDF will now have to push on into the farmland around Baghouz.” The Observatory said late on Tuesday that around 4,900 people, mostly women and children but including 470 IS fighters, had fled the jihadis’ fast dwindling enclave in two days. Of those 3,500 surrendered to the advancing SDF on Tuesday alone. They were evacuated on dozens of trucks chartered by the SDF. The fall of Baghouz follows the SDF’s capture of the enclave’s sole town of Hajin and the villages of Al-Shaafa and Sousa in recent weeks. The new wave of departures means that nearly 27,000 people have left former IS areas since early December, including almost 1,800 jihadis who have surrendered, the Observatory said. The whereabouts of the ultra-elusive IS supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has made just one public appearance — in Iraq’s then IS-held second city Mosul in 2014 — are unknown. The U.S.-led coalition declined to be drawn on when it expected its SDF allies to overrun the final sliver of territory still under IS control. It stressed the operation’s bigger goal was to minimize the continuing threat the jihadis could pose from underground. “It is difficult to say how much longer, despite the progress,” coalition spokesman Colonel Sean Ryan said. “We try to stay away from timelines as it is more about degrading the enemy’s capabilities. “We are seeing a lot of enemy fighters fleeing. The Syrian forces are less than 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Iraqi border but still fighting against a resistance of diehard fighters.” The remaining jihadis are well within artillery range of Iraqi forces stationed along the border, who are determined to prevent fugitive IS fighters from slipping across. On Saturday, Iraqi shelling and airstrikes on IS positions in an around Baghouz killed at least 20 jihadis, according to the Observatory. The coalition has stepped up its own airstrikes against IS since the jihadis killed four Americans and 15 other people in a suicide bombing on a restaurant in the flash point northern town of Manbij on Jan. 16. The U.S. losses were the biggest since Washington deployed troops in Syria in 2014 in support of the SDF. Previously it had reported just two combat losses in separate incidents. The Manbij bombing rekindled controversy triggered by President Donald Trump last month with his surprise announcement of a full withdrawal from Syria. The U.S. president justified the order with the assertion that the jihadis had now been “largely defeated” in Syria, a claim that the attack threw into renewed question. It is a far cry from the jihadis’ peak in 2014, when they overran large parts of Syria and neighboring Iraq, and IS proclaimed a “caliphate” in areas under their control. The gains have come at the cost of heavy losses for the mainly Kurdish fighters of the SDF and despite their sense of betrayal by their U.S. ally after Trump’s withdrawal announcement. Neighboring Turkey has threatened repeatedly to launch a cross-border operation to crush the Kurdish fighters of the SDF and the autonomous region they have set up in areas of northern and northeastern Syria under their control. Turkish troops had been held at bay by the intervention of U.S. troops who set up observation posts along the border and mounted joint patrols with Kurdish fighters. But with those troops gone, the Kurds fear they will be exposed to the full might of the Turkish military. January 21 -- Kurdish communities in Europe send out a message and recalled that the Leyla Guven’s hunger strike is on the 75th day. The Kurdish groups noted that Leyla Guven’s life is at grave risk, her demands should immediately be met. The co-chair of the DTK and MP for HDP, Leyla Guven, political prisoners in North Kurdistan, Kurdish activists in South Kurdistan, Europe and Canada are on a hunger strike campaign to protest the strict isolation imposed on the Kurdish People’s leader, Abdullah Ocalan and demand his freedom. Kurdish youth community in Europe has also initiated a social media campaign, and continue to express their solidarity with Leyla Guven. The youths emphasized that Leyla Guven’s life is at risk, and they strongly criticized the silence of the international organizations. ISTANBUL, January 17 -- Turkey deported Dutch journalist Ans Boersma on Thursday morning for unknown reasons, according to several reports. “And then suddenly you are in the plane back to the Netherlands,” Boersma, Turkey correspondent for the Dutch news outlet Het Financieele Dagblad (FD), tweeted just after midnight Thursday morning. “Unwanted person declared in Turkey. #pressfreedom #freeturkeymedia” On Wednesday, when Boersma reported to immigration services for an extension of her residence permit, police told her she was being expelled from the country for safety-related reasons, according to FD. She had been working in Turkey since 2017 and had just received her 2019 Turkish press card last week. “Ans did her work sensibly and responsibly,” FD chief editor Jan Bonjer said. “This measure is a flagrant violation of press freedom. It is extremely sad that journalists in Turkey cannot do their work undisturbed.” Istanbul-based German journalist Christian Fieland said Boersma would not be returning to Turkey for at least 6 years. “Apparently Ans can't come to Turkey for 6 years and her press card has been revoked,” he tweeted. Ragip Soylu, former correspondent for pro-government Daily Sabah, said the deportation was unrelated to her work. “A Turkish official asserts that Dutch journalist Ans Boersma’s deportation wasn’t related to her journalistic activities or her reporting from Turkey,” Soylu tweeted . “‘To the best of my knowledge, our office had recently approved her press credentials for 2019,’ the official said.” Turkey ranks 157th out of 180 countries on Reporters Sans Frontiere’s 2018 press freedom index. Ankara is currently holding more than 160 journalists in detention, according to P24, a platform that promotes editorial independence in Turkey.In recent years, Turkey has deported more than a dozen foreign journalists, from the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, and other western countries. Last month, Turkey released Austrian journalist Max Zirngast after three months in prison, and allowed him to return home. ANKARA, January 15 -- After talks with US President Donald Trump Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed his country’s intention to create a buffer zone in northern Syria. Erdogan was speaking on Tuesday at a meeting with parliament members from the Justice and Development Party he leads. "In yesterday’s telephone conversation US President Donald Trump reaffirmed his decision to pull troops out of Syria. We’ve decided to go ahead with our contacts on all issues involving Syria, including the security zone Turkey will create," the daily Sabah quotes Erdogan as saying. MANBIJ, January 8 -- Russian military police have started patrolling the surroundings of the northern Syrian city of Manbij in the Aleppo governorate, near the border with Syria. "Today we started patrolling the security zone near the city of Manbij and its surroundings. The task is to ensure safety within the zone of responsibility, to control the positions and movement of armed groups," he said. The route of military police patrols will change regularly. According to Mamatov, during their missions Russian servicemen are receiving reports from local residents about weapons caches and unexploded ordnances left after the region’s occupation by militants. Following the US decision to withdraw troops from Syria, groups of Kurdish Self-Defense Forces requested the Damascus government to establish control over territories they used to hold, including Manbij. According to the Syrian Defense Ministry, about 400 members of Self-Defense Forces left the city and headed to the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, where they are set to concentrate on fighting against the Islamic State terrorist group. RIYADH, January 3 -- Saudi state media say that 11 suspects in the slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi have attended their first court hearing, with prosecutors seeking the death penalty for five of them. Thursday's brief statement from the state-run Saudi Press Agency did not name the suspects. Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, was killed on October 2 at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. He had written columns critical of Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Saudi Arabia initially denied Khashoggi was killed but acknowledged his slaying weeks later. Turkish media have published photographs of members of the crown prince's entourage at the consulate ahead of the slaying. Khashoggi's body, believed to have been dismembered, has not been found. AZAZ, January 2 -- Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees, and as the fighting subdues, some are choosing to return home reports. The General Director of the Bab al-Salama Border Crossing in the city of Azaz in northern Syria, Qassem al-Qassem, said that 3,421 Syrians had permanently returned to their country from Turkey over the Eid al-Adha holiday because of the security established in their areas after the Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations. Qassem said in a statement carried by the Anadolu Agency that Turkish authorities had provided a chance for Syrians living in Turkey to visit their country during the holidays and then return again to Turkey. He said that in this context, tens of thousands of Syrians had visited their country during Eid al-Adha in August. He said that, “about 32,419 Syrians returned to Turkey, while 3,421 preferred to remain in their country because of the security established in their areas after the Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations carried out by the Turkish army against terrorist groups in northern Syria.” Qassem expressed his confidence that the number of Syrians returning from Turkey to their country would rise after the liberation of Manbij and Tel Rifaat from terrorist groups. During Operation Euphrates Sheild, Turkish forces and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) were able during to clear large portions of the northern Aleppo countryside, including the cities of al-Bab and Jarablus, of the Islamic State between August 2016 and March 2017, which allowed thousands of Syrians to return to their homes. On Mar. 24, 2018, The Turkish army in cooperation with the FSA was able to expel the Kurdish People’s Protection Units from Afrin entirely with Operation Olive Branch. BAGHDAD, December 26 -- The ISIS terrorist group has kicked off a series of attacks in western and northwestern regions of Iraq, revealed security and political sources. Examples of these attacks, were the car bombing in Tal Afar on Tuesday that left two people dead and the kidnapping of 14 civilians in Kirkuk also on Tuesday. The developments have taken place a year since former Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi’s announcement that ISIS has been defeated in Iraq. An informed political source told Asharq Al-Awsat that prior to the arrival of ISIS, corruption among the military was rife in these regions. This would eventually pave the way for ISIS’ onslaught. After the liberation, however, the regions became embroiled in a struggle for power among forces that emerged victorious in the May parliamentary elections, the source said on condition of anonymity. Each of the victors alone wants to assume power, he went on to say. This dispute is being played out in parliament and government whereby the Sunni camp has been split into two: the Islah and Binaa blocs. The rivalry between them is demonstrated in the differences over ministerial portfolios. The dispute could later seep into the provinces and state agencies, he added. This rivalry could ultimately be exploited by ISIS, he warned.
Meanwhile, security expert Saeed al-Jayashi told Asharq Al-Awsat that since June, ISIS has been working on developing its media and since August, it has been upping its terror operations. He added that the Iraqi armed forces have developed high expertise in combating ISIS. The current developments, however, he warned, cannot be tackled with security measures, but through political and social means. On the Tal Afar bombing, MP Hassan Touran told Asharq Al-Awsat that the region is an important Turkmen area. It also lies inside the Nineveh province and on the volatile Syrian border. ISIS is trying to regroup and recover its power in this region through all possible means, he warned. The security plan in place must therefore be reviewed in order to counter the organization. ANKARA, December 25 -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent more troops to Syria’s border on Monday ahead of an imminent U.S. withdrawal, as the White House announced he had invited Donald Trump to Ankara. Unlike several other allies of the United States, Turkey has praised President Trump’s decision to withdraw 2,000 of his ground forces from Syria, a country where it will now have a freer rein to target Kurdish fighters. On Monday Ankara sent more troops to its Syrian border and said an offensive targeting the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia and IS group will be launched in the coming months. Turkey views the YPG as a “terrorist offshoot” of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. But the militia has also been a key U.S. ally in the fight against Islamic State in Syria, working with American forces on the ground there. “Just as we did not leave our Syrian Arabs to Daesh (ISIS), we will not leave Syrian Kurds to the cruelty of the PKK,” Erdogan said during a speech in Ankara. A Turkish military convoy arrived overnight on Monday at the border with local media reporting that some vehicles had entered Syria. In a telephone conversation Sunday between Trump and Erdogan, which both sides described as “productive,” they agreed to avoid a power vacuum in Syria after the U.S. withdrawal. “President Erdogan invited President Trump to visit Turkey in 2019. While nothing definite is being planned, the president is open to a potential meeting in the future,” a White House spokesperson later said on Monday evening. Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters on Monday that a U.S. military delegation would arrive this week to “discuss how to coordinate (the withdrawal) with their counterparts.” A Turkish foreign ministry delegation would go to Washington for talks early January, he added. Trump stunned the U.S. political establishment and allies last week with his decision, days after Erdogan had warned that Ankara would soon launch an offensive in northern Syria. Critics of Trump’s decision fear that thousands of Islamic State (ISIS) group extremist members are still thought to be in Syria, despite Trump’s claim of having defeated ISIS. The U.S. leader tweeted that Erdogan had told him Ankara would “eradicate” the last IS elements. And Kalin vowed that there was “no question of a step backwards, vulnerability or a slowdown in the fight against Daesh (ISIS).” He added: “Turkey will show the same determination against Daesh. To beat Daesh, we don’t need the PKK or the YPG. We can bring peace to this region.” The Turkish military convoy with howitzers, artillery batteries and several units of the armed forces, was deployed to the border district of Elbeyli in Kilis province, state news agency Anadolu reported on Monday. |
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