More than 30 rescue workers have died in an avalanche in eastern Turkey while trying to find people missing after an earlier snowslide. The country's emergency and disaster management agency said rescue teams were searching for victims of the first avalanche, which killed at least five people, when a second struck
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Plane breaks apart after skidding off track at Istanbul airport – video
A Pegasus Airlines plane has slid off the runway at Sabiha Gökçen airport in Istanbul. Footage shows the aircraft in a ditch, with the front part snapped and facing away from the rest of the body. No casualties have been reported so far
Continue reading...500,000 flee Syrian regime’s deadly offensive in Idlib
Turkey intervenes, raising tensions, after weeks of aerial bombardment of rebel territory
More than half a million people have been displaced in Syria’s last rebel stronghold by a deadly regime offensive that has led Turkey to intervene in the fighting and has raised tensions between Damascus, Ankara and Moscow.
Weeks of intensive aerial bombardment by the forces of Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies and a bruising ground offensive have emptied entire towns in north-west Idlib province and sent huge numbers of civilians fleeing north towards the Turkish border.
Continue reading...Syria: Half a million displaced in Idlib, says UN body
Almost 300 civilians have been killed since renewed bombardment in the region
A regime offensive in Syria’s last rebel enclave has caused one of the biggest waves of displacement in the nine-year war, as tensions spiked between Ankara and Damascus following a deadly exchange of fire.
Weeks of intensive aerial bombardment and a bruising ground offensive have emptied entire towns in northwest Idlib and sent huge numbers fleeing north towards the Turkish border.
Continue reading...Syria: pro-Assad forces batter Idlib and spark fears of fresh crisis
Wave of airstrikes force 700,000 civilians to flee towards Turkish border
Syria’s last opposition-held province has been battered with 200 airstrikes in the past three days in an assault that has pushed 700,000 civilians to flee towards the Turkish border and sparked fears of an impending international crisis.
The strikes on north-west Idlib were carried out mainly against civilians, the US special envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey, said on Thursday.
Continue reading...Greece defends anti-migrant floating barrier amid growing criticism
Minister says barrier would send message to smugglers that ‘rules of the game have changed’
The Greek government has defended plans to erect a floating barrier in the Mediterranean to deter thousands of people determined to reach Europe from making the sea journey from Turkey.
Dismissing criticism, the country’s minister for migration and asylum, Notis Mitarakis, said the proposed barrier in the Aegean Sea would send a strong message to people smugglers that the “rules of the game had changed”.
Continue reading...The Guardian view on Libya and foreign interference: talking peace, shipping arms | Editorial
The north African country’s population have suffered years of turmoil, fuelled by the meddling of outside players. The civil war may yet escalate
Let’s all be good. This was, in essence, the conclusion of the conference in Berlin this month which aimed to at least begin the work of ending a war which has cost thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Libya. Participants agreed that foreign meddling should cease and that everyone should abide by the UN arms embargo.
Despite the desperate need for peace, there was good reason to be cynical. The host, Angela Merkel, argued publicly with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, over what had actually been agreed. Fighting soon raged again. The UN refugee agency announced on Thursday that it is suspending all operations at a facility in Tripoli and moving refugees from the site, fearing for their safety and that of its staff and partners amid worsening conflict. The UN says that several participants in the Berlin meeting have since shipped both arms and mercenaries to Libya, blatantly violating the embargo.
Continue reading...Most of 11m trees planted in Turkish project ‘may be dead’
Agriculture and forestry union says up to 90% of saplings they have looked at so far have died
Up to 90% of the millions of saplings planted in Turkey as part of a record-breaking mass planting project may have died after just a few months, according to the country’s agriculture and forestry trade union.
On 11 November last year, which the government declared National Forestation Day, 11 million trees were planted by volunteers in more than 2,000 sites across the country, including by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the parliament Speaker, Mustafa Şentop.
Continue reading...Iranian rapper Amir Tataloo arrested in Turkey
Musician was detained in Istanbul after Tehran issued Interpol request
The rapper Amir Tataloo, one of Iran’s most famous musicians, has been detained in Istanbul after an Interpol request from Tehran authorities.
Turkish police confirmed on Tuesday they detained Tataloo, real name Amirhossein Maghsoudloo, in Istanbul’s Fatih district because of an Interpol red notice flagging him as a wanted person.
Continue reading...‘I hope God will help us’: search for Turkey earthquake survivors continues – video
The death toll from a powerful earthquake that hit eastern Turkey stood at 29 on Saturday night and could rise further, warn officials.
Footage showed rescuers pulling the injured from under a collapsed building in Elâzığ province as the search for people continued
Continue reading...Turkey earthquake: death toll rises as search for survivors continues
At least 29 people killed and more than 1,200 injured in 6.8-magnitude quake
A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake in eastern Turkey has killed at least 29 people, with the death toll expected to rise as rescuers search for survivors under the rubble in freezing winter conditions.
The quake late on Friday injured at least a further 1,200 people in the hardest-hit Elazig and Malatya provinces and was followed by more than 390 aftershocks, 14 of which had magnitudes above 4 which were felt as far away as Iran and Lebanon.
Continue reading...Syrian airstrikes in Idlib leave at least 18 dead despite ceasefire
Children and rescue workers among those killed after market and industrial zone hit
At least 18 civilians have been killed in airstrikes as an offensive by Bashar al-Assad’s forces presses ahead, burying a supposed ceasefire in Syria’s last opposition-held province.
Airstrikes carried out by the Syrian air force and its Russian allies hit a market and industrial zone in Idlib city in a ferocious attack on Wednesday, destroying several buildings and setting cars on fire, leaving the torched corpses of motorists trapped inside.
Continue reading...Libyan warlord Haftar leaves Moscow without signing ceasefire deal
General had been in Russian capital seeking deal with head of Libya’s UN-recognised government
Libya’s eastern strongman Gen Khalifa Haftar has left Moscow without signing a ceasefire agreement to end nine months of fighting in the country, leaving the future of a fragile truce uncertain..
The commander’s abrupt departure in the early hours of Tuesday was a setback for an international diplomatic push in recent days, though Moscow insisted it would continue mediation efforts.
Continue reading...Libya ceasefire in doubt as rival forces accuse each other of breaches
Warring sides also plan to deploy more troops despite Russian-Turkish brokered deal
A Russian-Turkish brokered ceasefire between the two warring groups in Libya was struggling to take hold in Tripoli as both sides accused the other of breaches and laid out plans to mobilise more forces.
In a breakthrough on Saturday, both sides in the civil war – the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), based in Tripoli, and the Libyan National Army (LNA) forces led from the east of Libya by Gen Khalifa Haftar – agreed to a ceasefire proposed last week by Russia and Turkey.
Continue reading...Confusion clouds international efforts to reach Libya ceasefire
Erdoğan and Putin make call for ceasefire, as Italian PM hosts Libyan factions in Rome
An unprecedented drive involving Europe, Russia and Turkey has been launched to broker a Libyan ceasefire, and end the risk of the country collapsing into total all-out war.
However, it is unclear to which extent the joint Russian-Turkish call for a ceasefire by 12 January should be seen as complementary or in competition to an intensified Italian-led European push to end the fighting.
Continue reading...Dozens killed in bombing of military academy in Libya
The Tripoli-based government’s training centre came under attack from rebels as regional tension grows over civil war
At least 28 people have been killed in an attack on a military academy in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, the government’s health minister said.
Tripoli, which is under the control of the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), is facing an offensive by Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) that began in April.
Continue reading...Turkish MPs pass bill to send troops to support Libyan government
Move meant as deterrent to Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar raises fears of escalation in violence
Turkey’s parliament has approved by a large majority a bill that allows troops to be deployed to Libya in support of the Tripoli-based government in the country’s worsening civil war.
The vote, taken during a special sitting, comes amid fears that the threat of Turkish intervention, in addition to that by other regional competitors, could intensify violence in Libya. MPs voted 325-184 in favour of the deployment.
Continue reading...Field of broken dreams: football’s slave trade – photo essay
All they want is to do is play professionally, but for many young hopefuls from Africa their expensive journey to Turkey ends in exploitation
• Photographs by Italo Rondinella
For months, Yves Kibendo woke up every morning at 6am. He would leave his house in an ancient area of Istanbul, returning late in the evening, after working for 12 hours in a textile factory.
He was paid under the table, or sometimes not at all.
Continue reading...The power behind the thrones: 10 political movers and shakers who will shape 2020
Some are trusted aides, others are fixers who work in the shadows. Often unelected and unaccountable, they all have the ear of national leaders
The role of Dominic Cummings in plotting and facilitating Boris Johnson’s drive for power has focused attention on the influence exerted by behind-the-scenes advisers and confidants who have the ear of prominent politicians.
Powerful men and women around the world all have personal counsellors, trusted aides and backroom mentors. Then there are the “insiders” – string-pullers, fixers and manipulators with ambitions of their own. Few become well-known, although Cummings’s notoriety is by no means exceptional.
Continue reading...Erdoğan arrives in Tunisia for surprise talks with president
Turkish leader’s visit comes as Ankara moves to strike deals with Mediterranean nations
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has arrived in Tunisia on a surprise visit for talks with his Tunisian counterpart, his office has said.
The visit, the first by a head of state since the Tunisian presidential elections in the autumn, comes as Turkey has ramped up efforts to strike deals with nations on the Mediterranean, where Ankara has been at odds with Greece over resources off the coast of the divided island of Cyprus.
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