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FridayApril 6, 2018

Tal Rifaat to be ‘cleared of terrorists’

Daily Digital NewsletterYEARS98

By Omer Koparan and Adham Kako

AFRIN/ANKARA- Residents of the recently liberated Syrian district of Afrin are making the most of freedom and enjoying the normalization of their daily lives.“In every facet of life, our conditions were quite bad. No civilian here had the right to speak their minds,” Mohammed Hamza, a civilian living in Afrin, told Anadolu Agency.“If you hadn’t adopted the ideology

of the group, you were faced with the possibility of being remanded at any moment.”Hamza also said the YPG/PKK terror group took away the people’s freedom and took captive anybody opposing them.Also mentioning the high cost of living under the control of the terrorist group, Hamza said they imposed an extra tax on all goods.On the forced mobilization of children in the region, he said they did not...

By Sarp Ozer

ANKARA - Tal Rifaat city in Syria will be cleared of terrorist groups YPG/PYD, just like Afrin, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Thursday.Speaking to a local news channel Haberturk, Bozdag said: “Just as YPG/PYD terror organizations were cleared of Afrin, now Tal Rifaat will be cleared,” referring to Syrian affiliate of PKK terror organization. Turkey on Jan. 20 launched Operation Olive Branch to

clear terrorist groups from Afrin, northwestern Syria, near Turkey’s border, amid growing threats from the region.On Mar. 18, the 58th day of the operation, Turkish troops and the Free Syrian Army members announced that the city had been liberated.On the extension of state of emergency in Turkey, Bozdag said it is “clearly needed”.“It will be extended if parliament approves,” he added.Speaking about...

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Civilians enjoy freedom in liberated Afrin

Explosives kill nearly 1,000 children in Syria in 2017

By Fatih Erel

GENEVA - The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UNICEF called for international action in response to explosive hazards in Syria where at least 910 children were killed by explosive devices in 2017.“More than 8 million people are exposed to explosive hazards in Syria, including over 3 million children,” the WHO and the UNICEF said in a joint statement on

Wednesday.At least 910 children were killed and 361 children were maimed in Syria in 2017, including by explosive remnants of war and victim-activated improvised explosive devices, WHO and UNICEF said.1,000 children were reportedly killed or injured in intensifying violence in the first 2 months of 2018 alone, they said.Noting about the situation in Raqqah city where an estimated 200,000...

By Fatih Hafiz Mehmet

ANKARA - The Greek media is publishing more negative stories about Turkey than the Turkish media does about Greece, according to one international relations expert.Fragile ties between Turkey and Greece have fallen to new lows following Greek courts’ repeated refusal to extradite eight alleged putschist ex-Turkish soldiers in the wake of the 2016 defeated coup and the Turkish detention last month of two Greek soldiers.The first quarter of 2018 has been particularly tense. Apart from the soldiers issue, the Greek Cypriots’ unilateral hydrocarbon search activities is a matter of grave concern to Turkey.Professor Ali Huseyinoglu, a member of Trakya University’s Balkan Research Institute, told Anadolu Agency that Turkish-Greek relations had already been fragile before the alleged putschist ex-Turkish soldiers fled to Greece in July 2016.“There is also the issue of historical ‘otherness’,” Huseyinoglu said.“In Greece in 2018, the most powerful ‘other’ neighboring country is Turkey,” he said, adding that the resulting prejudice against Turkey is being fanned by politicians and the media. Huseyinoglu said both the right-wing and left-wing Greek media hold anti-Turkey bias.“Turkey’s image in the Greek media is much more negative than the image of Greece in the Turkish media,” he said...

Turkey urges pressure on Assad regime for aid delivery

Presidential spokesperson says immediate delivery of humanitarian aid in Syria requires stepped-up pressure on Assad regime

By Cansu Dikme

ANKARA - Turkey on Friday urged greater pressure on the Assad regime to allow the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to Syrians.“In order to swiftly deliver humanitarian aid in Syria, the pressure on the [Assad] regime must be stepped up,” presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin told reporters in the capital Ankara.

Kalin held the Assad regime responsible for the failure to implement a cease-fire as well as blocked aid deliveries, calling it “the biggest obstacle.”Kalin also said to date Turkey has distributed $630 million worth of humanitarian aid to the war-torn country.On Feb. 24, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2401, which called for a...

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Experts voice concern over anti-Turkish bias in Greece

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