US nuclear weapons agency breached in cyber attack

CISA has warned about the difficulty of completely 

ridding the government network of malware

Dev Kundaliya
18 December 2020

The SolarWinds hack - an extensive cyber-espionage campaign that has affected multiple US federal agencies - also compromised the networks of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and US Department of Energy (DoE).

Citing official familiar with the matter, Politico reports that the NNSA, which is responsible for maintaining the USA's stockpile of nuclear weapons, has evidence that the hackers accessed its networks as part of the attack, first reported on the 13th December.

Officials found suspicious activity in the networks of the DoE's Richland Field Office, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Office of Secure Transportation, and the Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories in Washington and New Mexico.

The cyber attack caused the most damage to the FERC's network, it claimed.

Shaylyn Hynes, a DoE spokesperson, told Politico that the initial investigation has found that the malware did not impact the mission critical national security functions of the department.

"When DoE identified vulnerable software, immediate action was taken to mitigate the risk, and all software identified as being vulnerable to this attack was disconnected from the DoE network," she said.

In a statement on Thursday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned that it might be difficult to eliminate the malware completely through network software.

"Removing this threat actor from compromised environments will be highly complex and challenging for organisations," the agency said. "The FBI is investigating and gathering intelligence in order to attribute, pursue, and disrupt the responsible threat actors."

SolarWinds, the company behind the software the hackers targeted, stated earlier this week that hackers with ties to an "outside nation state" breached the company's network and inserted malicious code into a Windows DLL file used by their Orion network management software.

The company said that updates to the software were issued between March and June of this year, and fewer than 18,000 customers are thought to have downloaded the compromised update.

Earlier, the US government also acknowledged media reports that hackers backed by a foreign government were able to compromise the computer networks of the US Treasury Department and an agency within the Commerce Department.

On Wednesday, it emerged that cybersecurity giant FireEye, whose own networks were recently compromised by the hackers, teamed up with Microsoft and the domain registrar GoDaddy to create a killswitch for the Sunburst backdoor which was used by attackers to target networks of federal agencies.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agencies are expected to brief the members of Congress about the security breach on Friday.

Arter in Istanbul, “a sustainable, vibrant cultural hub” in the making


MELIS ALEMDAR
24 SEP 2019

Contemporary art space Arter’s move into its new building in Dolapdere became a cause for celebration in Istanbul’s art circles in September. We talked to Arter’s Communications Director Ilkay Balic to get a better understanding of this new space.

Arter's new building, designed by Grimshaw Architects of London, is located in Dolapdere, Istanbul. (Cemal Emden / Arter)

Arter opened with seven exhibitions independent of each other, two of which are group exhibitions. Why were these exhibitions (themes/artists) selected for the opening?

Ilkay Balic: Arter’s inaugural programme features seven exhibitions in total, four of them drawn from its collection that comprises more than 1,300 works as of 2019.

As a main principle, our exhibition programme is committed to re-contextualising the [Arter] Collection by way of curated exhibitions; at the same time we make an effort to explore its potential in a broader perspective, namely through exhibitions based on a hybrid approach featuring works both from and outside the Collection.

Rather than dedicating a specific gallery to permanent collection display, we treat the Collection as a “pool of works” from which exhibitions are curated, with the aim of providing transitions amongst different themes, media, movements and temporal accents existing in the Collection.

At our new home, another line of programming will most certainly entail new productions. We will continue supporting the production of new works within the framework of our exhibitions as well as dedicating gallery spaces to exhibitions that consist entirely of new productions.

Can you briefly tell us about the seven exhibitions up right now?

IB: The collection-based group exhibition What Time Is It? is curated by Emre Baykal and Eda Berkmen, and formed around the concepts of memory, time and space.

Curated by Selen Ansen, Words Are Very Unnecessary is also a collection-based group exhibition that revolves around the themes of gesture, remains and trace.

Curated by Başak Doga Temur, the Altan Gurman retrospective exhibition is put together from the collection and brings to light the entire oeuvre of the artist who died in 1976.

Devised with a retrospective approach, Ayse Erkmen’s exhibition Whitish brings together works produced since the 1970s and new pieces the artist has produced specifically for this exhibition, offering an in-depth overview of Erkmen’s practice.

Rosa Barba's solo presentation titled The Hidden Conference comprises of a three-part film series that the artist shot at different museum storage facilities.

Inci Furni’s solo exhibition She Waited For A While comprises entirely of new works the artist has produced for this exhibition.

Celeste Boursier-Mougenot’s offroad, v.2 features three grand pianos that drift at different speeds in interaction with the speed and direction of the wind outside.

Altan Gurman's retrospective can be viewed at Arter until February 9, 2020.

 (Hadiye Cangokce / Arter)

Arter offering free entrance from its opening in September until 2020 is an enticing offer for art lovers. What will be the pricing policy in 2020?

IB: In order to make our exhibitions accessible without the worry of affordability, we have pitched our entrance fee at a reasonable fee of 25 Turkish Lira.

Moreover, thanks to our Corporate Sponsor Tupras, visitors 24 and under will be able to view all Arter exhibitions free of charge as of January 2020.

Arter used to be on Istiklal Street since 2010, but the collection goes back to 2007. Did the Vehbi Koc Foundation know it would one day have its own 18,000 sqm building when it set out? How did the new building and exhibitions come about?

IB: The Vehbi Koc Foundation is Turkey’s first private foundation, under whose wings was created Turkey’s first private museum, bearing the name of Vehbi Koc’s late spouse Sadberk Hanım, in 1980. The Foundation’s involvement with contemporary art goes back to the year 2005, when a strategic plan was devised with the ultimate goal of founding a sustainable contemporary art institution.

Since 2006, many key steps were taken in this respect including the establishment of the collection in 2007, the commitment to sponsoring the Istanbul Biennial (in collaboration with the parent company Koc Holding) until 2027, publication of monographs of leading Turkish artists concurrent with the exhibition series “Adventure Istiklal” (in collaboration with Yapi Kredi Publishing) from 2007 to 2011, and the creation and management of Tanas, Berlin (in collaboration with Edition Block) from 2008 to 2013, among others.

The opening of Arter at its venue on Istiklal Street in May 2010 indeed marked an important moment in this series of steps and was a clear sign that the Foundation’s support for and efforts in the field of contemporary art were going to continue. Arter was announced as a preparatory testing ground, a platform for learning and exploration towards the actualisation of the museum-scale building that would also accommodate the collection and entail a much broader and more comprehensive content that we would carry into the future.

For the architectural design of the museum, a paid project competition was initiated in 2013. The winners of this competition were Grimshaw Architects of London, who have taken the lead in the design process with contributions by Thornton Tomasetti, Max Fordham, and Neill Woodger Acoustics. The construction of the building was started in 2015 and completed in 2019. We are more than happy and proud to be able to open Arter’s new home in 2019, which also marks the 50th anniversary of the Vehbi Koc Foundation.

Arter’s new building is conceived as a versatile space, presenting multi-layered possibilities to discover, enjoy and engage in a closer dialogue with art. The building consists of physically intersected spaces in a strong visual dialogue with the city. Sprawled across an indoor area of 18,000 m2, Arter’s main function areas are connected by a central atrium that serves as the heart of the building. Spread on six floors, the galleries feature varying volumes, ceiling heights and a high degree of flexibility.

At its new home, Arter will strive to be a sustainable, vibrant cultural hub, making its broad range of programmes accessible to everyone.

Inci Furni's 'She Waited for a While' exhibition is on view at Arter until January 26, 2020. (Hadiye Cangokce / Arter)

Why was Dolapdere, a not-yet-gentrified part of Istanbul selected for the new designer building for Arter? What do you envision the interaction between Arter and Dolapdere to be?
? What do you envision the interaction between Arter and Dolapdere to be?


IB: The original plan at the time where the strategic plan was devised was to create a campus of three signature buildings hosting three different collections (namely Sadberk Hanım Museum’s archaeological, Turkish-Islamic collections, and Arter’s collection of contemporary art); however, it proved very difficult to find a suitable site close to town centre. In order not to lose more time, the “campus” idea was relinquished and the decision was taken to pursue an alternative purely for Arter.

The Koc Family owned an old industrial building of 15,000 sq. m. in Dolapdere, a stone’s throw from Taksim Square and Gezi Park, which they kindly donated to the Vehbi Koc Foundation in 2013. Initially we considered the possibility of converting this industrial building to a museum, but restoration costs to comply with the new construction regulations were much too high, and thus rendered the conversion inviable. Subsequently, it was decided to demolish the old building and to construct a signature building on the same site; hence the location of Dolapdere.

Arter has arrived to Dolapdere as a new neighbour and aspires to be a good one indeed. Since day one, we have chosen to engage in close dialogue with our fellow neighbours, first by sending out letters addressed to each household, apologizing in advance for the nuisance that would come with the construction of a new museum building. Later on, we have collaborated with YADA Foundation for an exploratory research on the social and cultural structure of the neighbourhood as well as the expectations, hopes and worries of our neighbours concerning Arter’s relocation to Dolapdere.

While we continue to be in constant dialogue with the local authorities, community centres and NGOs in the area, we have also incorporated the intention of being a good neighbour into our programming. Arter’s membership programme will include a category of “Neighbour”, inviting the residents of adjacent quarters to visit exhibitions free of charge as well as offering special discounts in our events and learning programmes, bookstore and bistro. As part of our Learning Programme, we shall introduce monthly get-togethers with our communities, including artists, visitors, partners and neighbours to encourage listening and dialogue amongst different groups.

Jonas Mekas will be the first filmmaker whose films will be screened at Arter's film programme starting in October 2019. (Jonas Mekas / Arter)

Can you tell us a bit about Arter's other activities besides exhibitions? (such as workshops, film screenings, publications)

IB: At its new building in Dolapdere, Arter will present exhibitions drawn from its own collection as well as curated exhibitions of non-collection works. Furthermore, with events that bring together various disciplines of art, film and learning programmes, along with publications promise a rich multidisciplinary programme.

Our multidisciplinary events programme will feature outstanding and innovative examples of performing arts, classical, contemporary and electronic music, film, performance and digital arts, where possible in dialogue with the collection and exhibitions. Collaborating with local and international artists, curators and various institutions, we will also commission and co-produce new works.

Grimshaw Architects have designed two flexible performance halls, namely Sevgi Gonul Auditorium (named after the late daughter of Vehbi Koc, with whose legacy Arter’s construction has been funded through the Foundation) and Karbon, a 400 sqm “Blackbox” with state of the art theatre technology, which will meet the requirements of our targeted multidisciplinary, dynamic programme. The events will not be limited to Arter’s two performance halls, but are also held in different areas of the building.

Arter’s Film Programme will include regular weekly screenings in addition to retrospectives focused either on a theme or a director as well as comprehensive presentations enriched with talks and parallel events. The programme will kick off with a retrospective on Jonas Mekas.

Arter’s Learning Programme will present processes and activities that aspire to interpreting our times through art. Providing grounds for everyone to enjoy creative processes, the programme facilitates dialogue around contemporary art through exploring the interrelationships between its multiple contexts, the audience’s daily lives and imaginations. Shaped through a receptive and responsive attitude towards users’ affinities, the programme intends to build lasting connections between artists, audiences and partners.

The programme will feature? What do you envision the interaction between Arter and Dolapdere to be?


IB: The original plan at the time where the strategic plan was devised was to create a campus of three signature buildings hosting three different collections (namely Sadberk Hanım Museum’s archaeological, Turkish-Islamic collections, and Arter’s collection of contemporary art); however, it proved very difficult to find a suitable site close to town centre. In order not to lose more time, the “campus” idea was relinquished and the decision was taken to pursue an alternative purely for Arter.

The Koc Family owned an old industrial building of 15,000 sq. m. in Dolapdere, a stone’s throw from Taksim Square and Gezi Park, which they kindly donated to the Vehbi Koc Foundation in 2013. Initially we considered the possibility of converting this industrial building to a museum, but restoration costs to comply with the new construction regulations were much too high, and thus rendered the conversion inviable. Subsequently, it was decided to demolish the old building and to construct a signature building on the same site; hence the location of Dolapdere.

Arter has arrived to Dolapdere as a new neighbour and aspires to be a good one indeed. Since day one, we have chosen to engage in close dialogue with our fellow neighbours, first by sending out letters addressed to each household, apologizing in advance for the nuisance that would come with the construction of a new museum building. Later on, we have collaborated with YADA Foundation for an exploratory research on the social and cultural structure of the neighbourhood as well as the expectations, hopes and worries of our neighbours concerning Arter’s relocation to Dolapdere.

While we continue to be in constant dialogue with the local authorities, community centres and NGOs in the area, we have also incorporated the intention of being a good neighbour into our programming. Arter’s membership programme will include a category of “Neighbour”, inviting the residents of adjacent quarters to visit exhibitions free of charge as well as offering special discounts in our events and learning programmes, bookstore and bistro. As part of our Learning Programme, we shall introduce monthly get-togethers with our communities, including artists, visitors, partners and neighbours to encourage listening and dialogue amongst different groups.

Jonas Mekas will be the first filmmaker whose films will be screened at Arter's film programme starting in October 2019. (Jonas Mekas / Arter)

Can you tell us a bit about Arter's other activities besides exhibitions? (such as workshops, film screenings, publications)

IB: At its new building in Dolapdere, Arter will present exhibitions drawn from its own collection as well as curated exhibitions of non-collection works. Furthermore, with events that bring together various disciplines of art, film and learning programmes, along with publications promise a rich multidisciplinary programme.

Our multidisciplinary events programme will feature outstanding and innovative examples of performing arts, classical, contemporary and electronic music, film, performance and digital arts, where possible in dialogue with the collection and exhibitions. Collaborating with local and international artists, curators and various institutions, we will also commission and co-produce new works.

Grimshaw Architects have designed two flexible performance halls, namely Sevgi Gonul Auditorium (named after the late daughter of Vehbi Koc, with whose legacy Arter’s construction has been funded through the Foundation) and Karbon, a 400 sqm “Blackbox” with state of the art theatre technology, which will meet the requirements of our targeted multidisciplinary, dynamic programme. The events will not be limited to Arter’s two performance halls, but are also held in different areas of the building.

Arter’s Film Programme will include regular weekly screenings in addition to retrospectives focused either on a theme or a director as well as comprehensive presentations enriched with talks and parallel events. The programme will kick off with a retrospective on Jonas Mekas.

Arter’s Learning Programme will present processes and activities that aspire to interpreting our times through art. Providing grounds for everyone to enjoy creative processes, the programme facilitates dialogue around contemporary art through exploring the interrelationships between its multiple contexts, the audience’s daily lives and imaginations. Shaped through a receptive and responsive attitude towards users’ affinities, the programme intends to build lasting connections between artists, audiences and partners.

The programme will feature a variety of events and interpretation tools including guided tours, audio guides, artist talks, panel discussions, workshops and podcasts. To accommodate these activities, our new building has a dedicated learning studio with flexible modular layout, a hands-on production studio for users who would like to engage in artistic production themselves and a digital lab area.

At the same time, a research programme aimed at professionals and cultural producers is also initiated. Arter Research Programme aims to support cultural producers in articulating their own perspectives, artistic research methodologies and language of expression in relation to the times in which we live. For the first edition of Arter Research Programme, ten participants have been invited based on their research topics, diverse methodologies and engagement with collective processes. There will be revisions made to the programme based on the experience gathered in the first edition.

At its new building, Arter will continue presenting publications that aim to enhance and stimulate conversations around contemporary art. The publications programme will also launch two new series focusing on Arter's collection: Arter Close-Up and Arter Background.
Source: TRT World

AUTHOR
Melis Alemdar is a staff writer at TRT World.

Princess, painter, pioneer: Fahrelnissa Zeid at Tate Modern

A celebrated Turkish artist gets a major UK retrospective at the Tate Modern. "How is it that somebody so extravagant, charismatic, such a wonderful artist, could have been neglected?" co-curator Kerryn Greenberg tells TRT World.

MELIS ALEMDAR
27 JUN 2017

"My Hell", Fahrelnissa Zeid's 1951 portrait is on loan from Istanbul Modern to Tate Modern for a major retrospective. (TRT World and Agencies)

LONDON — A pioneer of modern art in Turkey, Fahrelnissa Zeid was born in 1901 in Istanbul into a prominent family of politicians, artists and writers. Known in Turkey primarily for her monumental abstract canvases that vibrate with energy, Zeid has also painted striking portraits, and lived and exhibited in cities such as Paris, London, New York, Berlin and Amman after marrying into the Iraqi royal family. Zeid died in 1991, leaving behind a significant body of work that was not as well known in the Western world as it was in the Middle East.

Starting on June 13, Zeid gets her first major UK retrospective at London's Tate Modern that will be on display until October 8. Istanbul Modern, a museum that has some of her most significant pieces in its collection, is also holding a smaller-scale exhibition in Turkey until July 30 in tandem with the Tate Modern show.

TRT World caught up with Kerryn Greenberg, one of the co-curators of the Tate Modern exhibition, to dive into the fascinating world of Fahrelnissa Zeid, princess and painter.

What made the Tate Modern decide to hold a Fahrelnissa Zeid exhibition at this point in time?

KERRYN GREENBERG: Over the last couple of years we've been looking at artists who had remarkable careers during their lifetime but for some reason or another have been neglected in especially the Western art historical canon. And we've been thinking about those artists and wanting to reposition them and give them their due. This is very much a part of a lineage of exhibitions that we've been doing mid-scale retrospectives of artists [from] outside of the West who have ... been somewhat forgotten. This is an exhibition that follows Choucair from Beirut, Ibrahim el Salahi from Khartoum in Sudan, Bhupen Khakhar … It's very much kind of a continuum.  

Zeid's self-portrait from 1944, part of the Sema and Barbaros Caga Collection, hangs in the first room, introducing the Turkish female painter. (TRT World and Agencies)

In terms of Fahrelnissa Zeid, it's a conversation that's been happening for many years before we decided to stage this exhibition. We've been very actively looking at the Middle East, looking at artists from Turkey, thinking about how the collection can grow. We actually acquired her work for the collection in advance of this exhibition – which is quite a typical way of working – and wanted to kind of make sense of that and show her work to the public. She's obviously had a lot of attention in Turkey in recent years; in Sharjah [Biennial in 2015] through the Istanbul Biennale [in 2015] and so on, so it was an opportunity to think "Well, how would we look at Fahrelnissa Zeid?" Given she had this really important career in London, how is it that somebody so extravagant, charismatic, such a wonderful artist, could have been neglected?

So that's really kind of the background for this show. This is, as I said, a mid-scale retrospective. It's hung more or less chronologically: It begins with a self portrait from the early 1940s and ends with a work called Someone from the Past which is a self-portrait from 1980. We're very keen to show the span of her career, that she was working across the 20th century pretty much, in some of the most interesting places at some of these very crucial times.  

Kerryn Greenberg, along with co-curator Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, has organised the mid-scale retrospective for renowned Turkish artist Fahrelnissa Zeid in the UK at the Tate Modern. (TRT World and Agencies)

In Turkey, of course she was there – and very friendly with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk at a time of great modernisation, rapid change in Turkey. She happened to be in Berlin in the mid- to late-1930s and had an opportunity to meet with Hitler which is kind of an extraordinary story at the time of the rise of Nazism in Germany. And then, of course, her career mostly took place in London and Paris post-[WWII] when those two cities were trying to reestablish themselves after the trauma of the war.

She's an artist, I think, who has had an extraordinary life, created some amazing paintings, often on a very monumental scale, and although those have had a fair amount of exposure in Turkey, they really are not known in the United Kingdom at all. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to look at that work and present it to our audiences.

Fahrelnissa Zeid is a remarkable woman from a remarkable family. Can you tell us a bit about her, and her family?

KG: Yes, of course! She was born in 1901 in Buyukada [the largest of the Princes' Islands off the coast of Istanbul]. Her uncle [Cevat Pasha] was the Grand Vizier, one of the Grand Viziers, I should say. They came from a very modest background initially, and rose up through the Ottoman Empire to be a very prominent and sophisticated and elite family. Her father [Shakir Pasha] had first met her mother [Sara Ismet Hanim] in Crete. He'd been posted there by his brother. [Zeid]… had a relatively privileged upbringing. Her family [was] very artistic, she was exposed to literature, to music, to French, to arts. Her mother was a big influence on her; she painted landscapes and still lifes on silks; her older brother [and uncle's namesake] Cevat had dropped out of Oxford to study art in Rome, and it was also a huge influence on her.

Zeid's 1915 watercolour portrait of her grandmother, on loan to Tate Modern from her grandson Raad Zeid al Hussein, greets visitors as they enter. (TRT World and Agencies)

The first work in the exhibition, alongside the self-portrait, is a small watercolour painting from 1915, when the artist was only 14 years old is a portrait of her grandmother. So you can see that from a very young age she was painting and drawing and that just continued and accelerated throughout her life. It was a very natural thing for her to do because she came from this artistic family. In 1914, her father was shot and killed. Her brother Cevat [Sakir Kabaagacli, later a famous author under the pen name 'The Fisherman of Halicarnassus'] who, as I said was a hugely important figure in her life, was convicted of manslaughter. And that completely turned her life upside down. A few months later, [WWI] was declared as well, and so all remaining male relatives were called into service. The family were torn apart by these very dramatic and tragic events. Furthermore … at that point, being in school at a French convent ... had provided this kind of safety net, I suppose, with all this personal turmoil going on. Unfortunately, because of the war, the French convent was forced to close. So her life was massively turned upside down. During the war she continued to stay in Istanbul. She then, as soon as the war was over in 1919, she was one of the first women to study at the Fine Arts Academy for Women in Istanbul. A year later, she married Izzet Melih Devrim, a very prominent Turkish writer but also president of the tobacco company [Société de la régie co-intéressée des tabacs de l'empire Ottoman]. It was at that point that she began to be exposed to Western art history because they went to Venice for their honeymoon in 1920. And from there it was regular trips to Europe. That was kind of the redeeming features of a quite a troubled marriage.

She had three children with Devrim: Faruk, who unfortunately died very young from scarlet fever; and then Nejad Devrim, who of course became a very important Turkish painter who had a wonderful career of his own in Paris and beyond; and then also Sirin, who became a dramatist and very involved in the theatre and moved to America.

I could go on and on about her life – she then moves to Berlin, of course, to Baghdad, back to Istanbul, from Istanbul to London, London to Paris …. In between she's travelling all over Europe. In 1950, [she] has a major show in a small commercial gallery [the Hugo Gallery] in New York but a really prominent one where the likes of Warhol and Magritte were also showing. She happens to be in the most interesting places at these momentous moments and I think that very much impacts on the kind of work that she's making. And you can see in terms of tracing her own life story and tracing the stylistic changes in her practise there's a connection.

In this show, what we've tried to do is, set in the first room, give people an introduction to this very rich life and the fact that it does include the death of her firstborn, marrying into a royal family [via her second husband Prince Zeid bin Hussein, the then Iraqi ambassador to Ankara], narrowly escaping political assassination during the Iraqi coup d'etat in 1958 … All these kind of elements that make for an incredibly interesting story but really are the backdrop behind the work, that the work is allowed to have centre stage.

Tate Modern describes Zeid's abstract works as "a synthesis of Islamic, Byzantine, Arab and Persian influences fused with European approaches." Could you elaborate on her influences, both historic and contemporary?

KG: I think often these were subconscious. She describes working in a frenzied state, almost working through the night, almost like...she compares it to being like a volcano erupting lava, which I think is such a lovely quote! She's in touch with herself, she's in touch with the canvas and it's like something is flowing from within her that she cannot stop. I think you can really see that in the brushwork; she's very hurried. There's an imprecise precision in a sense – she knows what she's wanting to achieve, and she's in a hasty kind of execution. She talks about when you step back, when she steps back, and we're just talking to other people being able to synthesise their influences much more clearly once the painting is finished than during the process

.

Zeid's massive 1951 painting, 'My Hell', that Greenberg calls "her masterpiece" was donated to Istanbul Modern by her children, Sirin Devrim and Prince Raad. It is on loan to Tate Modern for the Zeid retrospective. (TRT World and Agencies)

So I think her exposure – I mean Turkey being such an important place [where] East meets West; where there's layers and layers of history … A lot of that was inside her. Whether she was conscious or it was part of her subconscious, it was coming to the fore. I think particularly in these abstract paintings, when you can see the way she's using the black line in order to highlight colour, you can see the influences of stained glass windows. It's exactly that same process, the black leaded line, the iridescent formations of colour, her interest in taking geometry, quite simple forms essentially. In My Hell, where you have the repetition of the triangular shape and it's taking very simple geometric shapes and then building up a more complex pattern that then becomes a very moving composition and I think that's very much something that happens in mosaic, taking little elements and building up a greater image.

In terms of her engagement with Western abstraction, of course she was in Paris and London in the mid- to late-1940s when other artists were questioning "What can art do?" in the wake of [WWII]. "What is the responsibility of artists? How do we make art in a world that has revealed itself to be just so ruthless, essentially?" So I think this idea of transmitting beauty, looking back at nature, and the shapes of nature, the colours of nature, and trying to create something that speaks on a very emotional level, I think, to people's experiences of the world.

The artist in her studio, circa 1952. (TRT World and Agencies)

So the way that she titles the pieces, even though they're not representative they're still, you know – the Octopus of Triton, Break of the Atom and Vegetal Life – very poetic titles. When you look through her sketchbooks and notebooks you can see her interest in literature and poetry and beauty. By and large she was not a political artist but she was working in heavily contested places at very important moments.

Zeid's paintings, even the non-representative ones, often have imaginative titles, such as 'The Octopus of Triton', an abstract work from 1953. (TRT World and Agencies)

Istanbul Modern, a prominent museum in Turkey, has loaned several pieces for this exhibition, such as 'My Hell' from 1951, an colourful abstract painting on a huge canvas, and 'Resolved Problems' from 1948, another colourful, but smaller abstract painting. Can you tell us about them? Their use of size, colour, shape and pattern, for example?

KG: I think to understand Resolved Problems one has to take a step back to look at Fight Against Abstraction. Because I think there you can see this internal conflict that she's facing between her background, her training in figuration, and this move towards abstraction. I think of Resolved Problems as being one of the first works in which she does resolve that internal conflict. It's a very modestly scaled work [130 x 97 cm], but she's got all the elements, I think, in terms of understanding form, understanding composition, palette, how cool and warm colours can intersect with each other and complement each other ... And that just then explodes into works like The Arena of the Sun, Basel Carnival, and her masterpiece, My Hell, from 1951. Now My Hell has been widely seen in Turkey, of course, because it's in the Istanbul Modern collection but it hasn't been seen in London since 1954 when it was shown at the ICA [The Institute of Contemporary Arts] in this very important exhibition that she had in one of the most important venues in London at the time. So for us to be able to bring all these together I think is a really important moment, and we're very indebted to Istanbul Modern for lending one of the most important pieces in their collection to us.

Zeid's 1947 painting 'Fight Against Abstraction' exposes an "internal conflict that she's facing between … her training in figuration, and this move towards abstraction." (TRT World and Agencies)

This room really begins with Resolved Problems from 1948, and it carries on through the 1950s when she is really making a name for herself as an international abstract female painter. And then concluding with her painting from 1962, Break of the Atom and Vegetal Life, which is not the last abstract painting she makes, but it's becoming one of the last.

Zeid has said "I … cease to be myself in order to become part of an impersonal creative process that throws out these paintings much as an erupting volcano throws out rocks and lava," adding, "Mostly, I become aware of the picture only after it is completed." Do you find her works are as spontaneous as she believed them to be, or was there an underlying dynamic at work?

KG: When you look at how she painted, she would typically sketch out some lines and then block out colour and I think so in some ways that initial sketching out, working out the movements, I think must have happened quite quickly. She had a vision and she was mapping it out. And then she was blocking in the colour to try and test it. So yes, I think she worked quite quickly, but on such a huge scale. I mean My Hell was pinned across the corner of her studio because her studio wasn't big enough to accommodate it. I also think that she was interested in creating an environment – she wants to be surrounded by her works so she would pin them to the ceiling, she would wrap them around the corners of the room, she would invite people to her home in Amman and she would unfurl a large canvas, almost like a red carpet, up towards the steps of her home. She was interested in how people would engage with her practise. So, definitely, this kind of creating a world around her. In terms of the lava [metaphor], she was, at least from her writings, deeply interested in nature. She tried to be in tune with the world around her in quite a deep and spiritual way.

Zeid painted a portrait of her friend and art critic Rene Barotte in the 1970s, which is now part of the Raad Zeid al Hussein Collection. (TRT World and Agencies)

There are also figurative works such as portraits in this exhibition. Are they the exception to the rule? Could you tell us about them?

KG: She was a painter [who shouldn't be classified simply as abstract or figurative]. She was different things at different points in her life. So yes, the exhibition begins with her self-portrait from the early 1940s, and ends with a late self-portrait. After the coup d'etat in Iraq in 1958 she returns to portraiture and starts to paint people who are very close to her. By this point she's in her early- to mid-sixties, she's seen quite a lot of the world, I think she's very much starting to take stock of her own life and trying to keep people who are close to her and remember them. Even through her abstract period she continues to draw in her sketchbook both figurative sketches – so little portraits, but also landscapes and still lives and so on; little scenes that she wants to remember. So she's never one thing or another thing – she's a complex artist with different layers.

Love jihad': What a reported miscarriage says about India's anti-conversion law

By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

Published1 day ago

There have been protests against the law on "love jihad"

Reports that a pregnant Hindu woman who was forcibly separated from her Muslim husband and may then have miscarried have highlighted controversies over a new anti-conversion law in India.

Earlier this month, a video clip went viral in India.

It showed a group of men, with orange scarves draped around their necks, heckling a woman in Moradabad town in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

"It's because of people like you that this law had to be enacted," one of the men scolds her.

The hecklers were from Bajrang Dal, a hardline Hindu group which supports Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The law they are talking about is the Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance that the state recently brought in to target "love jihad" - an Islamophobic term radical Hindu groups use to imply that Muslim men prey on Hindu women to convert them to Islam through marriage.

The incident in the video took place on 5 December. The Bajrang Dal activists handed over the 22-year-old woman, her husband and his brother to the police, who then sent her to a government shelter and arrested the men.

Days later, the woman, who was seven weeks pregnant, alleged she suffered a miscarriage while in custody.

Earlier this week, a court allowed her to return to her husband's home after she told the magistrate that she was an adult and had married the Muslim man by choice. Her husband and brother-in-law remain in jail.

In media interviews since being released on Monday evening, she has accused the staff at the shelter of mistreating her and said that her initial complaints of stomach pain were ignored. The shelter has denied the allegations.

The 22-year-old woman was taken to hospital after she complained of pain in the abdomen

"When my condition deteriorated, they took me to a hospital [on 11 December]. After a blood test, I was admitted and they gave me injections, after which I started bleeding."

Two days later, she said, she was given more injections. The bleeding increased and her health worsened, leading to the loss of her baby, she says.

Whether that is true and what exactly happened in the hospital is still unclear.

On Monday morning, while she was still in detention, the authorities rubbished reports that she had miscarried. The reports were based on interviews with her mother-in-law.

The chairperson of the Child Protection Commission, Vishesh Gupta, denied all reports of the miscarriage and went as far as to insist that "the baby is safe".

A gynaecologist at the hospital where she was treated told reporters that "the seven-week-old foetus could be seen in the ultrasound". However, the doctor added only "a trans-vaginal test could confirm whether the baby was safe or not".

The Hindu-Muslim marriage stuck in court
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But the authorities have not yet commented on the allegations she has made since her release. They have also not given her the results of her ultrasound examinations or details of which medicines she was injected with.

So, five days after she was first taken to hospital, there's still no clarity on the status of the baby, raising questions and doubts.


But reports that the young woman may have had a miscarriage have caused outrage in India, with many taking to social media to blame the authorities for it.

In India, interfaith marriages have long attracted censure, with families often opposing such unions.

But the new law, which stipulates that anyone wishing to convert must seek approval from the district authorities, gives the state a direct power over the citizens' right to love and choose a spouse.

It carries a jail term of up to 10 years and offences under it are non-bailable. At least four other BJP-governed states are drafting similar laws against "love jihad".

Critics have called the law regressive and offensive and said it would be used as a tool to target interfaith couples, especially liaisons between Hindu women and Muslim men.

A petition has also been filed in the Supreme Court, demanding that it be scrapped.

A march against "love jihad" in the western city of Ahmedabad in 2018

In the short time since it was passed on 29 November, at least half a dozen cases have been reported under the controversial law.

Weddings of interfaith couples, between consenting adults and even those involving parental approval, have been halted and Muslim grooms have been arrested.

The 22-year-old woman says she had converted to Islam and married her Muslim husband in July in Dehradun, a city in the neighbouring state of Uttarakhand. They were intercepted when they came to Moradabad to register their wedding.

"The biggest problem with a law like this is that it treats interfaith love as a criminal activity," says historian Charu Gupta.

"It also refuses to believe that a woman has agency, it disregards her free will. Isn't it a woman's choice who she wants to marry? And even if she wants to convert to another religion, what is the problem?

"This law," she says, "is so wide in its range and scope, and it puts the onus on those charged under it to prove their innocence. And that is very dangerous."

Bank of England governor apologises after FCA failings over £237m investment scandal

Andrew Bailey led the City watchdog at the time of the collapse of London Capital & Finance, affecting 11,600 investors.

SO THEY PROMOTED HIM

John-Paul Ford Rojas
Business reporter @JPFordRojas
Thursday 17 December 2020

Image:Andrew Bailey was chief executive of the FCA from 2016-202

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has apologised after an independent report severely criticised the City regulator that he led at the time of a £237m investment scandal.

The report found the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was "wholly deficient" in the oversight of minibond provider London Capital & Finance (LCF).

Former Court of Appeal judge Dame Elizabeth Gloster found there had been "significant gaps and weaknesses" in the FCA's practices and policies.

The FCA's oversight was "wholly deficient", a damning report found

LCF's demise in early 2019 left 11,600 investors in mini-bonds facing losses of up to £237m.

Mr Bailey was chief executive of the FCA, which regulates thousands of financial firms, from 2016 to 2020 before taking over from Mark Carney at the Bank of England.

Former Court of Appeal judge Dame Elizabeth Gloster found there had been "significant gaps and weaknesses" in the FCA's practices and policies.

LCF's demise in early 2019 left 11,600 investors in mini-bonds facing losses of up to £237m.

Mr Bailey was chief executive of the FCA, which regulates thousands of financial firms, from 2016 to 2020 before taking over from Mark Carney at the Bank of Engla

In response to the report, Mr Bailey issued a statement apologising to LCF investors.

He said when he took over at the FCA in 2016 it was clear that "substantial reform" in the way it supervises many firms was needed and that immediate steps were taken "to change the approach".

"The required changes in culture, mind-set and systems was a major programme of work across the organisation, which took some time to put into effect," Mr Bailey said.

"I am sorry those changes did not come in time for LC&F bondholders."

New FCA boss Nikhil Rathi said the report made sobering reading

LCF was regulated by the FCA but the mini-bonds it sold to raise funds for small companies was not, leaving investors with no recourse to compensation.

The Treasury said it would now examine the case for a compensation scheme that would make payments to some of the affected customers.

The report into the scandal found that flaws in the watchdog's approach to its regulatory "perimeter" meant the firm was able to use its FCA-regulated status as an "unjustified imprimatur of respectability" even in relation to its non-regulated bond business.

"Responsibility for the failure in respect of the FCA's approach to its perimeter rests with the executive committee and Mr Bailey," it concluded.

Dame Elizabeth also pointed to flaws in the watchdog's training of its staff and inaction in the face repeated warnings about LCF's activities.

"As a cumulative result of these failures, the FCA did not appreciate the true nature of LCF's business or the risks that it posed to consumers," the report said.

FCA regulates thousands of financial firms

"Neither did the FCA appreciate the significance of an ever-growing number of red flags, which were indicative of serious irregularities in LCF's business."

Sky News revealed that the findings have prompted senior parliamentarians to call for two top executives at the FCA, Megan Butler and Jonathan Davidson, to repay £90,000 in bonuses awarded for the 2018/19 financial year.

The FCA said it did not have a scheme in place to claw back the bonuses. Bonuses to the pair for the 2019/20 financial year, which had been deferred, will not be awarded.

New FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi said the report made "sobering reading" and that he was committed to implementing its nine recommendations.

The regulator said: "We are very sorry for the errors we made in our handling of this case."

Pat McFadden MP, Labour's shadow economic secretary to the Treasury, said: "This scandal represents a shocking failure of supervision in which some people lost their whole life's savings."

In response to the report, Mr Bailey issued a statement apologising to LCF investors.


He said when he took over at the FCA in 2016 it was clear that "substantial reform" in the way it supervises many firms was needed and that immediate steps were taken "to change the approach".

"The required changes in culture, mind-set and systems was a major programme of work across the organisation, which took some time to put into effect," Mr Bailey said.

"I am sorry those changes did not come in time for LC&F bondholders."

LCF was regulated by the FCA but the mini-bonds it sold to raise funds for small companies was not, leaving investors with no recourse to compensation.

The Treasury said it would now examine the case for a compensation scheme that would make payments to some of the affected customers.

The report into the scandal found that flaws in the watchdog's approach to its regulatory "perimeter" meant the firm was able to use its FCA-regulated status as an "unjustified imprimatur of respectability" even in relation to its non-regulated bond business.

"Responsibility for the failure in respect of the FCA's approach to its perimeter rests with the executive committee and Mr Bailey," it concluded.

Dame Elizabeth also pointed to flaws in the watchdog's training of its staff and inaction in the face repeated warnings about LCF's activities.

"As a cumulative result of these failures, the FCA did not appreciate the true nature of LCF's business or the risks that it posed to consumers," the report said.

"Neither did the FCA appreciate the significance of an ever-growing number of red flags, which were indicative of serious irregularities in LCF's business."

Sky News revealed that the findings have prompted senior parliamentarians to call for two top executives at the FCA, Megan Butler and Jonathan Davidson, to repay £90,000 in bonuses awarded for the 2018/19 financial year.

The FCA said it did not have a scheme in place to claw back the bonuses. Bonuses to the pair for the 2019/20 financial year, which had been deferred, will not be awarded.

New FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi said the report made "sobering reading" and that he was committed to implementing its nine recommendations.

The regulator said: "We are very sorry for the errors we made in our handling of this case."

Pat McFadden MP, Labour's shadow economic secretary to the Treasury, said: "This scandal represents a shocking failure of supervision in which some people lost their whole life's savings."

Underage tobacco use falls despite cigarette strength, CDC finds

by Richard Clough and Tiffany Kary

DECEMBER 17, 2020

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Here's some good news in an otherwise troublesome year: Kids aren't turning to tobacco as often, even shunning the popular e-cigarettes, and that started even before the U.S. quarantines and lockdowns.

The number of middle- and high-school students who use tobacco products fell 28% in 2020 to about 4.5 million, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention using survey data collected from Jan. 16 to March 16. The declines were driven largely by lower use of e-cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco products.

Underage tobacco use is a central issue for cigarette makers as well as e-cigarette companies such as Juul Labs Inc., whose vape devices have faced scrutiny over whether they appeal disproportionately to minors. Philip Morris International Inc. received a key authorization this month from the Food and Drug Administration, which found no evidence its IQOS 3 heated tobacco system led to increased youth uptake.

Still, not every type of product is falling out of favor. The CDC found no change in the use of cigarettes, heated tobacco products, hookah or pipe tobacco by students. And despite an overall decline, nearly one-quarter of high school students still use some type of tobacco product.

The surprising resilience of cigarettes echoes findings by Altria Group Inc. that cigarette sales had remained strong during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company, which markets the Marlboro brand in the U.S., has said that some older smokers who had adopted vaping switched back to cigarettes.

Groups that promote e-cigarettes as less harmful than cigarettes have voiced concerns that 2019's spate of deadly lung-illnesses may have scared some vapers back to cigarettes. Anti-tobacco groups have said there's no proof that e-cigarettes are less harmful overall, and that they've helped addict a younger generation to tobacco through high levels of nicotine, as well as discreet packaging and fruity flavors, which regulators have since cracked down on.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

CDC: About one in five U.S. adults reports tobacco product use

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

(HealthDay)—About one in five U.S. adults reported currently using any tobacco product in 2019, with most reporting use of combustible products, according to research published in the Nov. 20 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Monica E. Cornelius, Ph.D., from the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues used data from the 2019 National Health Interview Survey to examine national estimates of tobacco product use among U.S. adults aged 18 years and older.

The researchers found that an estimated 50.6 million U.S. adults (20.8 percent) reported currently using any tobacco product, including cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, and pipes (14.0, 4.5, 3.6, 2.4, and 1.0 percent, respectively). Among current tobacco product users, most (80.5 percent) reported using combustible products (cigarettes, cigars, or pipes); 18.6 percent reported use of two or more tobacco products. A higher prevalence of any current tobacco product use was seen for the following groups: men; adults aged 65 years and younger; non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native adults; those whose highest level of educational attainment was a General Educational Development certificate; those with an annual household income less than $35,000; lesbian, gay, or bisexual adults; uninsured adults and those with Medicaid; those with a disability; and those with mild, moderate, or severe generalized anxiety disorder. Adults aged 18 to 24 years had the highest use of e-cigarettes (9.3 percent).

"The implementation of comprehensive, evidence-based, population-level interventions in coordination with regulation of tobacco products, can reduce tobacco-related disease, disparities, and death in the United States," the authors write.


Explore furtherCDC: Almost 20 percent of U.S. adults currently use tobacco products

More information: Abstract/Full Text

Journal information: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

#MGM MALE GENITAL MUTALATION 

Infant circumcision may lead to social challenges as an adult

by Aarhus University

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Infant circumcision may lead to social challenges as an adult


Undergoing circumcision as an infant has delayed psychological complications. This is shown by an international study led by researchers from Aarhus University.

Researchers have long disagreed about the health implications—also for mental health—of small boys being circumcised. A study now shows that infant circumcision, which is the case for a third of the world's male population, has consequences in adulthood. Alessandro Miani and Michael Winterdahl from Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital have coordinated the study.

"We wanted to challenge the assumption that there are no delayed consequences of infant circumcision apart from the purely physical because of the absence of foreskin," says Michael Winterdahl about the background for the study.

Emotionally stability

The researchers recruited 408 American men who had been circumcised within the first month of their lives and 211 American men who had not been circumcised. All participants completed six questionnaires focusing on the ability to bond with others and the handling of stress.

"The study showed that men who had undergone circumcision as an infant found it more difficult to bond with e.g. their partner and were more emotionally unstable, while the study did not find differences in empathy or trust. Infant circumcision was also associated with stronger sexual drive as well as a lower stress threshold," says Michael Winterdahl.

He elaborates: "We know from previous studies that the combination of attachment to a partner and emotional stability is important in order to be able to maintain a healthy relationship, and thus family structure, and a lack of such, may lead to frustration and possibly less restricted sexual behavior."

Stressed infant

The results have been published in the journal Heliyon.

According to the researcher, the study links the state of stress that infant circumcision triggers in the infant, with the altered behavior which is first revealed as an adult.

"Our findings are especially interesting for coming parents who want to make an informed choice about circumcision on behalf of their child, but are also directed at anyone who wishes to see more light shed on a very taboo topic that often drowns in an emotional discussion," says Michael Winterdahl.

He stresses that the study does not, as such, point to any pathological changes among circumcised men.

"Our study says something about differences at population level, not about individuals. It's important to remember that as individuals, we vary enormously in virtually all parameters—also in how we bond with our partner, for example," he says.


Explore further Infant circumcision can be safely performed in rural Africa

More information: Alessandro Miani et al. Neonatal male circumcision is associated with altered adult socio-affective processing, Heliyon (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05566

Provided by Aarhus University

Air pollution linked to higher rates of kidney disease

by American Society of Nephrology

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

New research indicates that people may face a higher risk of developing kidney disease if they live in areas with elevated air pollution. The findings appear in an upcoming issue of JASN.


Exposure to tiny particles of air pollution—called fine particulate matter—is known to increase people's risk for developing cardiopulmonary diseases, but its effects on kidney health are unclear.

To investigate, a team lead by Luxia Zhang, MD, MPH and Shaowei Wu, MD, Ph.D. (Peking University) analyzed survey data from 47,204 adults in China and estimated 2-year air pollution levels at each participant's residential address from satellite-based information.

Approximately 10.8% of participants had chronic kidney disease. Each 10 μg/m3 increase in the concentration of fine particulate matter at a participant's address was associated with a 1.3-times higher odds of having the disease. This link was significantly stronger in urban areas, males, younger participants, and participants without comorbid diseases.

"Although ambient air quality has improved substantially during the past 5 years in China, the national annual particulate matter level in China exceeds the World Health Organization's guideline," said Dr. Zhang.

The authors noted that the findings provide evidence to policy makers and public health officials for the need for stricter air quality control measures to help protect individuals' kidney health.


Explore further Fine particle air pollution linked with poor kidney health

More information: "Long-Term Exposure to Ambient PM2.5 and Increased Risk of CKD Prevalence in China," JASN, DOI: 10.1681/ASN.2020040517

Study of relationship between poverty and mental health shows cash support can help

by Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A small team of researchers from MIT and Harvard University has published a Review piece in the journal Science analyzing the relationship between poverty and adverse mental health. They note that studies have shown supporting poverty-stricken people with mental health issues can improve their standard of living and by extension, society at large.


Prior research has shown that there is a link between mental health and poverty for some people. Research has also shown that it is not always easy to determine whether mental health problems lead to poverty, or vice versa. In either case, the researchers begin their paper by wondering why people who live in poverty suffer disproportionately from mental illnesses such as anxiety depression, and explore whether government and societal intervention could improve the situation.

The authors also note that anxiety and depression are the most common forms of mental illness worldwide—and studies have shown that rich and poor alike suffer from them, though more recent evidence has shown that the poor are more likely to suffer from one or the other. They have published their Review piece to highlight the evidence of a bidirectional causal relationship between mental illnesses and poverty and to explore the possible benefits of mental health care efforts.

They suggest the logical place to start is understanding the mechanisms involved. That, they note, will take some research, which is historically a high priority of decision makers. They do point out that several studies have shown what can happen when people with mental illnesses are given medical support—quite often, their symptoms improve along with their ability to improve their financial situations. Thus, the researchers argue that there is a strong economic case for investing in health services for those living in poverty. If people emerge from poverty, they note, society benefits, because they will no longer need other kinds of assistance such as welfare. Their children would benefit, too, as such programs could break the chain of poverty that persists in countries around the world.

The authors conclude that the current pandemic has shown that such assistance is crucial to protecting some of society's most at-risk people.


Explore further  

Fear of COVID-19 raises risk of depression among Soweto's deprived communities

More information: Matthew Ridley et al. Poverty, depression, and anxiety: Causal evidence and mechanisms, Science (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.aay0214

Journal information: Science

 

Turkey, Iraq agree to cooperate against Kurdish PKK

Posted on December 17, 2020 by Editorial Staff in PKK, Politics, Politics

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, poses for photographs with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, left, during a welcome ceremony prior to their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, December 17, 2020. Al-Photo: Turkish Presidential Press Service via AP

ANKARA,— Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi arrived in Turkey on Thursday, the most high-profile visit by an official from Baghdad since Ankara launched a military operation in the summer against Kurdish PKK rebels in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Al Kadhimi met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish officials.

Turkey and Iraq have agreed to continue their cooperation in fighting extremist organizations, including the Islamic State group and Kurdish rebels, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday.

Speaking to reporters following meetings with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Erdogan also said he hoped that an Iraqi-Turkish oil pipeline that was damaged by the IS during the conflict against the militant group would soon be repaired and would resume oil transfers to world markets.

Turkey has carried out numerous ground and aerial cross-border offensives into neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan Region to attack militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, who maintain bases in the region. The latest offensive in June 2020, dubbed Operation Claw Tiger, saw Turkish commandos being airlifted into Iraqi territory.

The PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy in Turkish Kurdistan for the Kurdish minority who make over 22.5 million of the country’s 82-million population.

More than 40,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish rebels, have been killed in the conflict.

A large Kurdish community in Turkey and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels and Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK group in 1974 and currently serving a life sentence in Turkey.

“We have agreed to continue our struggle against our common enemies IS, PKK and FETO,” Erdogan said — the latter a reference to a network led by U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey blames for a failed coup in 2016. Gulen denies involvement in the attempt.

“There is no place for separatist terrorism in Turkey, Iraq or Syria,” Erdogan said. “Our region will not find peace until terrorism is quashed.”

Speaking through an interpreter, al-Kadhimi told reporters that it was “not possible for Iraq to show tolerance toward any (group) that threatens Turkey.”

The two countries also agreed to continue working on a Turkish-proposed action plan geared toward the “effective use” of the waters of the Tigris River, following Turkey’s construction of Ilisu Dam in southeast Turkey, the Turkish leader told journalists.

“As Turkey, we stress that water shouldn’t be assessed as a factor for disagreement, but a field for cooperation,” Erdogan said.

Copyright © 2020, respective author or news agency, Ekurd.net | AP

THE PUK GOVT IN KURDISH IRAQ (BORDERING TURKEY WHICH IT SELLS OIL TO)  AGREES WITH THIS AND AIDS TURKEY IN ITS WAR ON FELLOW KURDS IN THE PKK