Author: M Barbu

Cypriot and Lebanese NGOs call for stop to ‘chain-refoulement’ to Syria

Four Lebanese and Cypriot NGOs released a joint letter on Friday, 11 August, calling Cyprus to stop its pushbacks of asylum-seekers back to Lebanon, where they are unlawfully deported back to Syria.

The letter said that Cypriot authorities had forcibly returned at least 109 individuals from Cyprus to Lebanon since July, of which at least 73 “were subsequently deported to Syria and handed over to the Syrian regime.”

Turkey expands crackdown, airstrikes against PKK as Erdogan lashes out at West

The Turkish Defense Ministry said 16 new targets, including caves, bunkers and warehouses in the northern Iraqi regions of Metina, Hakurk, Gara, Qandil and Assos, were destroyed in the strikes.

The Turkish Defense Ministry said 16 new targets, including caves, bunkers and warehouses in the northern Iraqi regions of Metina, Hakurk, Gara, Qandil and Assos, were destroyed in the strikes.

Turkey carried out on Tuesday fresh airstrikes in five northern Iraqi regions in retaliation for a suicide bombing in Ankara by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) over the weekend.

The Turkish Defense Ministry said 16 new targets, including caves, bunkers and warehouses in the northern Iraqi regions of Metina, Gara, Qandil, Hakurk and Assos, were destroyed in the strikes.

These airstrikes represented the second wave of attacks in northern Iraq that Turkey initiated following the assault on the main gate of Turkey’s national police headquarters in the capital on Sunday. The attack left two police officers injured and resulted in the death of two militants. Turkish forces previously hit 20 targets in Metina, Hakurk, Qandil and Gara late on Sunday. The PKK, claiming responsibility for the attack, maintains bases scattered across the mountainous region of northern Iraq. The militant group is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Simultaneously, Turkish authorities conducted over 450 counterterrorism operations within the country on Tuesday, with Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announcing the rounding up of at least 90 individuals in raids across 18 different provinces, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu News Agency.

The Turkish Interior Ministry on Monday identified one of the assailants as PKK militant Hasan Oguz, adding that efforts to identify the others were still underway. Some Turkish media outlets claimed that the second assailant might be a foreigner; however, there was no official Turkish confirmation, and Al-Monitor could not verify this claim.

Still, in televised remarks on Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at Western capitals over the attack. “Undoubtedly, the messages of condolences and condemnations you convey after every terrorist act are meaningful and valuable, but … they are never sufficient for our success in the fight against terrorism,” he said.

Adding that no national security threats to his country stemmed solely from local dynamics, Erdogan said, “The overt support provided to terrorists in northern Syria is the most concrete example of this.” He was referring to the US-allied Syrian Kurdish groups that Turkey equates with the PKK.

The United States, NATO and the majority of EU capitals issued swift condemnations following the attack.

Adding that had the assailants of the Ankara attack managed to escape abroad they would “have been protected as political refugees,” Erdogan said, “Unfortunately, in such a situation, some of our friends who condemned the terrorist act would most probably deny our extradition requests.”

Turkey’s extradition requests from Western capitals have taken on new prominence as part of Sweden’s pending NATO accession. Turkey’s requests from Sweden in return for greenlighting the Nordic nation’s accession include extradition or deportation of dozens of individuals over their alleged ties to the PKK.

Sweden also condemned the attack, with Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom saying his country “[is] standing firm in its long-term commitment and partnership with Turkey to fight all kinds of terrorism.”

In July, Erdogan pledged to send Sweden’s NATO accession protocol to the Turkish parliament after the legislative body returned from the summer recess, but Ankara’s messages over the past weeks airing grievances with Stockholm have raised question marks over the pending ratification.

Sunday’s attack, which took place nearly 300 meters (0.2 miles) from the Turkish parliament as it returned from summer recess, came at an uneasy time with Sweden. Two days prior to the attack, an anti-Erdogan protest took place near the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm and drew harsh condemnations from the Turkish government.

Accusing Swedish authorities of being reckless and lax, Erdogan’s spokesman, Akif Cagatay Kilic, said, “All kinds of crimes and insults have become free in Sweden under the disguise of freedom.”

Hungary and Turkey are the sole holdouts to ratifying Sweden’s accession. NATO’s decision-making process requires consensus among all member states.

Turkey’s Fidan declares all PKK, YPG facilities in Syria, Iraq ‘legitimate targets’

High-level and open threats by Turkey have ramped up fears of a fresh escalation in northern Syria between Turkish forces and Syrian Kurdish groups that Ankara deems terrorists.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday that Kurdish militants’ facilities and infrastructure in Syria and Iraq are “legitimate targets” for his government following a suicide bombing attack in Ankara over the weekend. He pledged an “extremely clear” retaliation.

Azerbaijan eyes Iran, Armenia borderlands after ‘voluntary’ exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh

The fall of the Nagorno-Karabakh government after 30 years could empower Turkey and weaken Iran.

The convoys snaked for miles along mountain passes as the mass exodus of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority Armenian enclave that is formally part of Azerbaijan, continued to unfold. Western leaders wrung their hands but did nothing to stop it. With the few belongings they could retrieve — mattresses, refrigerators, pots and pans — piled precariously on their battered Soviet-era cars, over 100,000 people, almost triple the population of Lichtenstein, fled the contested region where Armenians dwelled for millennia until Azerbaijan first starved them under a nine-month-long blockade then attacked them on Sept. 19 in what it called an “anti-terror operation.”

Connexions entre groupes djihadisteset réseaux de contrebande et de traficsillicites au Sahel

Le Sahel est confronté depuis plusieurs années à une série de menaces dont les plus emblématiques sont le terrorisme islamiste, les trafics illicites et la criminalité organisée. Ces menaces ont contribué à déstabiliser cette région et dans certains pays accentué la fragilité de l’Etat. Souvent, la faiblesse des institutions démocratiques et le rôle partiellement dysfonctionnel des forces de sécurité, le manque de stratégies sécuritaires au niveau national, l’insuffisance des ressources financières, ainsi que les intérêts contradictoires des divers acteurs empêchent la mise en place de structures de sécurité modernisées. Cette situation aggrave le climat d’insécurité et accentue davantage les risques d’instabilité non propice
au développement socio-économique des pays de l’espace sahélien. C’est dans ce contexte que prospèrent également les réseaux de narco trafiquants, qui essaiment dans cette partie du continent à travers plusieurs axes transfrontaliers contribuant à déstabiliser la région du Sahel et à fragiliser la paix et la sécurité dans cette zone.

Rising Islamist militants’ violence in the Sahel, a dynamic that dominates Africa’s fight against extremists

In 2021, Africa suffered a new record level of Islamist violence, driven by a 70% increase in violence linked to militant Islamist groups in the Sahel.

Strengths

  • The almost doubling of violence linked to militant Islamist groups in the Sahel (from 1,180 to 2,005 events) highlights the rapid escalation of the security threat in the region. This peak is the most important change among all regions prone to violence by militant Islamist groups in Africa. It eclipses a 30% reduction in violence in the Lake Chad Basin, northern Mozambique and North Africa.
  • Overall, violence related to militant Islamist groups increased by 10% in 2021, reaching a record level of over 5,500 events attributed to these groups in Africa. This has continued an upward trend since 2016. However, the annual rate of increase was, in 2021, much lower than the 43% increase reported in 2020.
  • The number of deaths attributed to militant Islamist groups fell by 7% in 2021 compared to 2020, reaching around 12,700 deaths across Africa. This includes a 14 per cent decrease in deaths attributed to violence against civilians and a decrease in all regions outside the Sahel.
  • Battles between militant Islamist groups and military forces or non-state armed groups constitute 52 per cent of the violent events counted in 2021. In recent years, this reflects the continuation of a significant increase in the number of battles in northern Mozambique, Somalia and the Sahel.
  • The violence of militant Islamist groups remains largely concentrated in five theatres – Somalia, the Lake Chad Basin, Mozambique, and North Africa – each including separate local actors and particular challenges.

LES GROUPES DJIHADISTES AU SAHELUNE COMMUNICATION GLOBALEÀ L’ÉPREUVE DES RÉALITÉS LOCALES

Cette étude analyse les dynamiques locales qui expliquent la résilience des groupes qualifiés de djihadistes et de terroristes en Afrique subsaharienne, notamment la Katiba Macina, AQMI (Al-Qaïda au Maghreb islamique), le Groupe de soutien à l’islam et aux musulmans, l’EIGS (État islamique au Grand Sahara) et Boko Haram. Centrée sur la partie occidentale de la bande sahélienne, elle ouvre aussi des perspectives comparatistes avec les Chebab de Somalie, du Kenya ou du Mozambique, ainsi que les ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) de l’est de la République démocratique du Congo.