SOCIALIZE BIG PHARMA

Coronavirus vaccine: Did Pfizer put profit first?

The global pharmaceutical industry was able to develop multiple COVID-19 vaccines in record time. But has profit been put over human lives?



Pfizer has so far insisted on reserving intellectual property rights for its vaccine

Last year, Albert Bourla had a choice and he decided to take a massive risk. The CEO of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer could have made it easy for himself by accepting billions of dollars and participating in Operation Warp Speed, the US government's initiative to create multiple vaccines as fast as possible. But he preferred to remain independent.

Bourla decided to invest $2 billion (€1.6 billion) in BioNTech, a startup company in western Germany. His instinct was right: BioNTech came up with the formula for the first COVID-19 vaccine to be approved by the United States, EU and other governments. By the end of the year, Pfizer had produced 50 million doses of BioNTech's COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, BNT162b2. The goal for 2021 is to produce more than a billion doses.

For many, Bourla and BioNTech founders Özlem Türeci and Ugur Sahin are heroes in the global fight against COVID-19. The companies had previously collaborated on a flu vaccine in 2018, and their latest endeavor could save the lives of incalculable numbers of people.

Bourla (left) and Sahin are seen as heroes in the

 fight against the pandemic Viagra and more

Pfizer got its start in 1849, when Charles Pfizer and his cousin Charles F. Erhart, both of German descent, founded Pfizer & Co. in New York and started producing an antiparasitic drug called santonin. Today, Pfizer has more than 100,000 employees, and one of its bestsellers is the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra.

New challenges arose in 2020 for the pharma sector, which generated global sales of about $1.1 trillion in 2019. The rapid development of multiple COVID-19 vaccines showed what the industry could do under enormous pressure. However, the real test might only be beginning for a sector that has often been accused of being more interested in maximizing profits than in saving lives.
'Pfizer exercised pressure'

A few weeks ago, only the mass-circulation press was using the expression "vaccine debacle" in Germany. But now it's being employed widely, by politicians and much of the population. The gist: while countries such as Israel, the UK and the United States are vaccinating populations in large numbers, the EU — represented by an incompetent negotiating team — failed to order enough doses in time. On top of that, the narrative goes, the EU was also too tightfisted.

Peter Liese, a member of the European Parliament for the Christian Democrats and a medical doctor, has regularly appeared on German TV talk shows to counter that argument.

"Pfizer exercised pressure on the European Commission," Liese told journalists in August. "Pfizer apparently did not initially want to accept something that is the law in Europe — namely that, when a mistake is made and somebody is hurt, there has to be liability."

The negotiations dragged on and finally concluded in November. For weeks, more than 20 lawyers for the US giant sat across the table while the European Commission's negotiators kept a low profile and did not comment on the proceedings.

In retrospect, said Liese, this was a mistake. "The reasons were not communicated because the Commission always behaves well. There was the question of privacy, and it did not want to disavow the negotiating partners," he said. "But it would have made a different impression on the public, and there would have been more pressure on Pfizer, of course."


When Liese met with BioNTech scientists during the stalled negotiations process, he could sense how uncomfortable they were with the issue. "I could read in their eyes how embarrassed they were that a contract with the EU might actually not be signed despite the fact that they were working in the EU and had been given EU support to develop the vaccine in the first place," he said.

The issue of liability has been lost in the current discussion, but Liese said had the European Union not been so assertive on this point, fewer people would be as willing to be vaccinated at all. "Those in charge at Pfizer have failed to satisfactorily refute the accusation that they put profit over health," he said.

Argentina's raw deal

Argentine Health Secretary Gines Gonzalez Garcia exploded when asked about Pfizer at a press conference earlier in February. The company, he said, had "behaved very badly."

In August 2020, more than 6,000 Argentines responded to a call to participate in the phase 3 trials of the BioNTech-Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Half of them received the vaccine; the other half were given a placebo. The participants saw themselves less as test subjects than as contributors to the formalizing of a contract.

They would be disappointed. Not a single dose has been administered in Argentina now that the vaccine has been approved. Argentina is currently supplied with Russia's vaccine, Sputnik V.

Government officials have also said they were unable to find an agreement with Pfizer regarding liability. "They are responsible for the vaccine, not the state," said President Alberto Fernandez. "The state buys, and they sell. I do not understand why we should provide them with a standard that would absolve them of all civil and criminal liability."

Pfizer has argued that the negotiations did not fail for reasons of liability, but because Argentina did not want to pay for the transport of the vaccine, which must be stored at an extremely low temperature.

"The market rules the world: That's just the way it is," said Hugo Pizzi, an epidemiologist based in the Argentine city of Cordoba. He has written more than 20 books about infectious diseases, and is one of the country's most renowned doctors. "And many countries are happy to follow these rules. How else can you explain that Canada has bought more vaccines for its population than necessary — instead of showing solidarity."

Pizzi said he would tell Pfizer's CEO to "think about the tragedy the world is going through, about Argentina's contribution to the vaccine being approved and about what's most important: solidarity!"

Pfizer's 'mercantilistic approach'

Marta Diez, Pfizer's country manager for the Andean cluster, was ecstatic after signing a contract to supply Peru with 20 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. "It is a great honor to work with the Peruvian government, with the common aim to make the COVID-19 vaccine available to Peruvians as fast as possible," she said.

Peru has one of the highest COVID-19 mortality rates in the world. Almost 44,000 of the 32 million inhabitants have died of the disease, and Peru desperately needed the vaccine.

But Victor Zamora, who was Peruvian health minister when the pandemic began a year ago, is not in the mood for celebration. He was "very surprised considering the run-up," he said. "Pfizer knows at what price and on what terms countries are buying. The company knows which countries have accepted which clauses."

Peru has struggled with one of the highest death rates in the world

As in the EU and Argentina, the negotiations with Peru were tough and went on for months. Though Pfizer has called the negotiations confidential, Zamora said the company had demanded guarantees in case the state could not pay. There are reports that company officials sought access to state property as collateral.

Godofredo Talavera Chavez, a surgeon and the president of Peru's medical federation, said the company's strategy was no surprise. "Pfizer has a mercantilist approach. They used their power to sell Viagra and they're doing exactly the same with the vaccine," he said.

He said he was particularly angry because more than 300 of his colleagues had died in intensive care units as part of their efforts to fight the pandemic.
Wariness in Nigeria

When Aisha Isa Yusif heard about the BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, she got scared. Usually, the lawyer and human rights activist is not easily perturbed, but she has not forgotten what happened 25 years ago in Kano, the fourth-largest state in the country.

"When I hear the word Pfizer, I think about the lawsuit that Kano's state government filed against the pharmaceutical company,” she said. "My homeland wanted compensation for the families who were hurt by Pfizer."

During the meningitis epidemic in 1996, children in Kano were administered an oral antibiotic called Trovan as part of an operation that was passed off as humanitarian. What none of the participants or their parents knew was that Trovan had not been approved. According to official statistics from the government, 11 children died and more than 200 suffered permanent side effects such as paralysis, blindness, deafness and brain damage. Pfizer initially refused to take responsibility.

Eventually, Pfizer settled out of court with the state of Kano and agreed to pay $75 million in damages. According to WikiLeaks, Pfizer hired private detectives to look for evidence of corruption on the attorney general's part.

A number of African nations, such as Zimbabwe, 

have opted for Chinese vaccine from Sinopharm

CLIENT STATES OF CHINA

It is cases such as these that have made the Danish physician Peter C. Gotzsche one of the pharmaceutical industry's biggest opponents. Though he used to work for the industry, he grew increasingly skeptical and has now written several books in which he shares his misgivings, including Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare.

"They are worse than any other industry," he said. "Corruption, bribery and the marketing of non-approved drugs are expected." He said Pfizer has been one of the world's worst companies in the past 50 years, and can't understand why the pharma industry is allowed to make so much money in a pandemic: "There should not be any patents for vaccines. They should not be a capitalist commodity but something produced for the general good."

Could COVAX help?

Led by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, the global COVAX initiative would allow rich countries to pay for poorer countries to receive vaccines. The goal is to make available 2 billion doses in 2021 in order to put an end to the current, acute phase of the pandemic.

"We are making up to 40 million doses of our COVID-19 vaccine available to the COVAX initiative this year,” Pfizer wrote in a statement in response to a request for comment from DW. "Our priority is to bring treatment and vaccines to those who need them as fast as possible."

Elisabeth Massute, an advocacy officer at Doctors Without Borders, is not impressed. "It's just 2% of the vaccines that can be produced this year and next year," she said. "When you look at how many countries will actually be provided for by COVAX, it's clearly not enough."

Massute does not consider herself an opponent of the pharma industry, but she said governments should stand up to the companies more.

"Why does the German government, for example, not say: 'We have given out so much money via our research ministry, and we will therefore attach certain conditions to the funds?'" she asked.

After all, BioNTech received €375 million in research funds to develop the vaccine as quickly as possible.

What will be decisive for the industry's reputation in the long run will be whether it agrees to waive patents. India and South Africa have already requested that this be done so that any company in the world could produce vaccines.

Pfizer, so far, has insisted on reserving its intellectual property rights. Protection is relevant for several reasons, according to the company. "First, because it helps to protect patients from potentially dangerous counterfeit and unapproved products. Second, it protects companies from improper use. Patent protection enables voluntary licensing, which allows us to make our products globally available in order to fight the pandemic," it said in a statement.

Massute doesn't believe this is a valid argument. "If you look at those who discovered insulin, the patent was sold for a symbolic dollar. Or consider the researcher who developed the polio vaccine and asked: 'Could you patent the sun?' Health doesn't fit into the traditional rules of the system, because human lives don't have a price tag."

This article has been translated from German.

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Coronavirus vaccine: Did Pfizer put profit first? | World| Breaking news and perspectives from around the globe | DW | 21.02.2021

COLONY OF QUEBEC INC.

Political crisis adds to heavy burden on Haiti's youth


Issued on: 21/02/2021 - 

Kervens Casseus, 20, studies on the roof of his uncle's house in Port-au-Prince on February 18, 2021, one of many young Haitians deeply affected by political crisis, economic inequality and street crime Valerie Baeriswyl AFP/File

Port-au-Prince (AFP)

The political crisis paralyzing Haiti has not only hampered young people's schooling and compromised their future, it has aggravated existing challenges that have forced many to grow up far too fast.

Sitting on the roof of a house his uncle is building, 20-year-old Kervens Casseus balances his geology book on a broken cinder block he uses as a makeshift desk.

"The opposition and the ruling authorities: they're the ones destroying the country," says Casseus, who has not been in class once this month.

\A high school senior pursuing science studies, he has received neither homework nor any instruction from his teachers.

The school calendar is in such flux that he has no idea when the all-important Baccalaureate exams will be given.

In a country where deep economic inequality and the rise of violent street gangs cast further shadows, the young are being deprived of their childhood, parents say.

- 'I'm afraid' -

Casseus is a pupil in the county's seriously underfunded public schools. Eighty percent of Haiti's schools are private.

At an age when he should be savoring life to its fullest, Casseus sits, listless and immobilized, in the heart of the Haitian capital.

"I'm afraid," admits the slender young man, who for three years has shared a modest apartment with his aunt, since his parents live outside the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

"It was just this morning, when I came out looking for you, that I went out on the main street for the first time in the entire month of February," he tells an AFP reporter.

"And it felt strange."

He says the street has been unusually quiet since February 7, a date that marked what he called a "dramatic change."

That was when the political opposition and some civil society groups said they would no longer recognize Jovenel Moise as the nation's legitimate president -- kicking off weeks of violent street protests.

Amid an extended dispute over alleged election fraud, Moise has insisted that his term runs until February 7, 2022.

- The politics of school opening -

Haiti has largely been spared the worst of the Covid pandemic, so when the political crisis flared this month, students were attending school.

But since then most educational establishments in the capital have been closed, since remaining open is seen as a vote of confidence for Moise.

"Children have to go to school, but if you say that today in Haiti, some people will put you in a political category," says one teacher who, fearing reprisals, insisted on speaking anonymously.

The political crisis has aggravated the profound economic inequality affecting Haiti and its schools.

Casseus, left to navigate his own education, has difficulty even paying for his cellphone service.

Meanwhile, barely a mile away, five-year-old Lucie is ensconced in a big pink armchair and attentively following her teacher's online lecture.

Sitting before her computer, she wears the uniform of her church-run school.

"I don't think every Haitian parent has computer equipment at home and a reliable internet connection, not to mention the problem of electricity," says her father, Jean Romuald Ernest, acknowledging his own good fortune.

"Last week, the teacher had to stop class when her laptop ran out of charge," says the 47-year-old father of three -- two of whom are now back in school.

- White hair at 11 -

As a doctor married to an accountant, Ernest and his wife are in the minority in a country where 60 percent of people survive on less than $2 a day.

But that doesn't mean his family is spared the consequences of the crisis.

"We don't have children anymore" in Haiti, Ernest says. "We have small adults."

"A child who sees burning tires on the side of the road, or a person who has been shot, and asks you, 'Papa, what is that? Why did it happen?' And this child hears gunshots nearby, he is stressed," Ernest says.

Any suggestion that the polarized political scene does not affect Haitians' daily lives makes him crazy.

"I was stunned to discover that my oldest daughter, at 11, already has white hair!" the doctor says. "That's how bad the stress is."

With political uncertainty coming on top of the proliferation of armed gangs blamed for a surge of kidnappings, anxiety has become Haitians' daily lot.

The nation's media are replete with stories of the tragedies that sometimes befall Haitians attempting to flee to the American continent, but young Casseus said he understands what is driving them.

"We have our dreams, but with the crisis in the country we can't achieve them," he says.

"That's why you see most young people trying to leave the country."

© 2021 AFP

UN Security Council to meet on global warming impact on world peace



Issued on: 21/02/2021

The chamber of the UN Security Council seen on September 20, 2017

 Stephane LEMOUTON POOL/AFP/File


United Nations (United States) (AFP)

The UN Security Council will hold a summit of world leaders Tuesday to debate climate change's implications for world peace, an issue on which its 15 members have divergent opinions.

The session, called by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and conducted by video-conference, comes just days after the United States under President Joe Biden formally rejoined the Paris climate change accord.

Johnson, whose country now holds the Security Council's rotating presidency, will address the forum, as will US climate czar John Kerry, French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the prime ministers of Ireland, Vietnam, Norway and other countries, diplomats say.

The meeting will serve as a test for US-China relations, one UN ambassador said on condition of anonymity, alluding to one of the few issues where the two big powers might agree. But this is not a given.

"We should watch how the Chinese position themselves with the Americans," this ambassador said.

Traditionally, the ambassador said, "you know that the Russians and the Chinese will immediately say (climate change has) 'nothing to do' with the council's issues."

Today, however, "the Chinese are more liable to be slightly open to that discussion," which "leaves the Russians pretty much on their own."

Russia does not see climate change as a broad issue for the Security Council to address. Moscow prefers dealing with climate questions on a case-by-case basis, diplomats told AFP.

Tuesday's meeting "will be focused on the security aspects of climate change," a second ambassador said, also on condition of anonymity.

Some non-permanent members of the council including Kenya and Niger have clearly expressed their concerns about climate change's impact on national security.

Others do not want to "turn the Security Council into another organ which is looking just at the issues more broadly around finance, adaptation, mitigation and negotiations," the second ambassador said.

- Implications for conflict -

"Both China and Russia, but not only them, are reluctant to have the Security Council discuss climate change and its implications," said a third ambassador, who ruled out the possibility of the council adopting a joint statement at this point.

"China and Russia think that it can become intrusive, that it is not about peace and security," this ambassador said.

"They don't want the Security Council to do decision-making about economic choices. Even they understand that climate change has implications for conflict drivers."

"Desertification, population movements and competition for access to resources" are linked to global warming, said another diplomat.

This is important for Tunisia, Norway and Ireland. The latter two have been on the council since January.

In the Lake Chad region of central Africa, the problem is not something to be left "for tomorrow. It already existed yesterday," an ambassador from Africa said.

He said the issues of access to water and production of animal feed can trigger violence between different communities and lead to idle, disaffected youths being recruited by jihadist groups.

The arrival of the Biden administration with its pledge to make global warming a top priority -- in contrast with Donald Trump, who regularly questioned the science behind climate change -- should change the Security Council's dynamics on this issue, diplomats said.

Last year, Germany, which then had a seat on the council, drafted a resolution calling for the creation of a special UN envoy post on climate-related security risks.

One goal of the job would be to improve UN efforts involving risk assessment and prevention.

But Germany never put the text up for a vote because of veto threats from the United States, Russia and China.

Today, with the new US approach, that draft resolution has a chance of being approved, said an ambassador with a seat on the council.

© 2021 AFP

Argentina has new health chief after vaccine line-jumping scandal



Issued on: 21/02/2021 - 

Carla Vizzotti, pictured in August 2020, has been sworn in as Argentina's new health minister 

Juan MABROMATA POOL/AFP/File


Buenos Aires (AFP)

Argentina's new health minister took office on Saturday following the resignation of her predecessor after he was caught helping friends skip the line for Covid-19 vaccinations.

Carla Vizzotti, an internal medicine specialist, was sworn in by President Alberto Fernandez at the presidential residence in a brief ceremony broadcast on television. She did not issue a statement afterward or take questions from the media.

As a former deputy minister, Vizzotti, 48, was responsible for securing the Russian Sputnik V vaccine for Argentina.

Former health minister Gines Gonzalez Garci resigned late Friday after it emerged that the 75-year-old doctor had aided acquaintances in getting vaccinated ahead of their turn.

The scandal broke after a 71-year-old journalist, Horacio Verbitsky, announced on the radio that, owing to his longstanding friendship with the minister, he had been able to get vaccinated in his office ahead of the general population.

So far only health workers have been vaccinated in Argentina and vaccinations for people aged over 70 only began on Wednesday in the province of Buenos Aires.

Local media reported that other people close to the government were also vaccinated at the health ministry.

The Public Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation, local press reported.

So far Argentina has received 1.2 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine and 580,000 of Covishield from the Serum Institute of India.

The country has recorded more than two million cases of Covid-19 and 51,000 deaths, out of a population of 44 million people.

© 2021 AFP

Privacy faces risks in tech-infused post-Covid workplace


Issued on: 21/02/2021 

A thermal imaging camera are displayed on a screen as a person waits at the reception desk at the St Giles Hotel near Heathrow Airport in west London, in an example of technology being used to screen for Covid-19 symptoms 

Ben STANSALL AFP/File


Washington (AFP)

People returning to work following the long pandemic will find an array of tech-infused gadgetry to improve workplace safety but which could pose risks for long-term personal and medical privacy.

Temperature checks, distance monitors, digital "passports," wellness surveys and robotic cleaning and disinfection systems are being deployed in many workplaces seeking to reopen.

Tech giants and startups are offering solutions which include computer vision detection of vital signs to wearables which can offer early indications of the onset of Covid-19 and apps that keep track of health metrics.


Salesforce and IBM have partnered on a "digital health pass" to let people share their vaccination and health status on their smartphone.

Clear, a tech startup known for airport screening, has created its own health pass which is being used by organizations such as the National Hockey League and MGM Resorts.

Fitbit, the wearable tech maker recently acquired by Google, has its own "Ready for Work" program that includes daily check-ins using data from its devices.

Fitbit is equipping some 1,000 NASA employees with wearables as part of a pilot program which requires a daily log-in using various health metrics which will be tracked by the space agency.

Microsoft and insurance giant United HealthCare have deployed a ProtectWell app which includes a daily symptom screener, and Amazon has deployed a "distance assistant" in its warehouses to help employees maintain safe distances.

And a large coalition of technology firms and health organizations are working on a digital vaccination certificate, which can be used on smartphones to show evidence of inoculation for Covid-19.

- 'Blurs the lines' -

With these systems, employees may face screenings even as they enter a building lobby, and monitoring in elevators, hallways and throughout the workplace.

The monitoring "blurs the line between people's workplace and personal lives," said Darrell West, a Brookings Institution vice president with the think tank's Center for Technology Innovation.

"It erodes longstanding medical privacy protections for many different workers."

A report last year by the consumer activist group Public Citizen identified at least 50 apps and technologies released during the pandemic "marketed as workplace surveillance tools to combat Covid-19."

The report said some systems go so far as identifying people who may not spend enough time in front of a sink to note inadequate hand-washing.

"The invasion of privacy that workers face is alarming, especially considering that the effectiveness of these technologies in mitigating the spread of Covid-19 has not yet been established," the report said.

The group said there should be clear rules on collection and storage of data, with better disclosure to employees.

- A delicate balance -

Employers face a delicate balance as they try to ensure workplace safety without intruding on privacy, said Forrest Briscoe, professor of management and organization at Penn State University.

Briscoe said there are legitimate reasons and precedents for requiring proof of vaccination. But these sometimes conflict with medical privacy regulations which limit a company's access to employee health data.

"You don't want the employer accessing that information for work-related decisions," Briscoe said.

Biscoe said many employers are relying on third-party tech vendors to handle the monitoring, but that has its risks as well.

"Using third-party vendors will keep the data separate," he said.

"But for some companies their business model involves gathering data and using it for some monetizable purpose and that poses a risk to privacy."

The global health crisis has inspired startups around the world to seek innovative ways to limit virus transmission, with some of those products shown at the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show.

Taiwan-based FaceHeart demonstrated software which can be installed in cameras for contactless measurement of vital signs to screen for shortness of breath, high fever, dehydration, elevated heart rate and other symptoms which are early indicators of Covid-19.

Drone maker Draganfly showcased camera technology which can be used to offer alerts on social distancing, and also detect changes in people's vital signs which may be early indicators of Covid-19 infection.

A programmable robot from Misty Robotics, also shown at CES, can be adapted as a health check monitor and can also be designed to disinfect frequently used surfaces like door handles, according to the company.

But there are risks in relying too much on technologies which may be unproven or inaccurate, such as trying to detect fevers with thermal cameras among moving people, said Jay Stanley, a privacy researcher and analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Employers have a legitimate interest in safeguarding workplaces and keeping employees healthy in the context of the pandemic," Stanley said.

"But what I would worry about is employers using the pandemic to pluck and store information in a systematic way beyond what is necessary to protect health."

© 2021 AFP

The Kurdish Dream Of A State – Analysis

Kurdish-inhabited area, by CIA Factbook. Source: Wikipedia Commons

February 21, 2021 Anondeeta Chakraborty* 0 Comments

By Anondeeta Chakraborty*

The Kurds are often considered to be the largest ethnic group without a territorial boundary of a State. Today, the Kurdish population is dispersed unevenly across countries like Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria mainly. A part of the Kurdish population is also spread across Trans Caucasus and Central Asia. There remains a debate amongst scholars about the ethnic roots of the Kurds. It was during the 7th century that the name ‘Kurds’ was attributed to Western Iranian people, residing along the mountain chain of Zagros and in the eastern boundary of Taurus. The Kurdish as an ethnic group had a considerable influence in the history of middle-west until the Arab Caliphate ceased to exist in 1258.

To understand the Kurdish freedom struggle, it is imperative to have a more or less clear understanding of the Kurdish history. The Kurds have always been a significant ethnic group, even during the period of Ottoman rule. With the dissolution of the large Ottoman Empire after the First World War by the Treaty of Sevres, the large ethnic Kurdish population got divided haphazardly between the territories of Iraq, Syria and Turkey, making them a large minority group in each of the States. The Arab states have always seen the idea of an independent Kurdistan as a potential threat to their existence and hence, no stones have been left unturned to suppress the Kurdish nationalist struggle. It would be methodical to look at the history of the Kurdish freedom struggle based on respective countries involved in the Kurdish conflict.

TURKEY

The Treaty of Sevres was one of the series of treaties that brought an end to the 1st World War. It was rejected by the Turkish leader Kamal Ataturk, and the new Treaty of Lausanne was negotiated in 1923. This new treaty gave control of the entire Anatolian Peninsula as well as of the Kurdish homeland in Turkey to the nascent Turkish Republic. Unlike the Treaty of Sevres which provided for a referendum to be conducted to negotiate the issue of an independent Kurdish homeland, the new Treaty of Lausanne did not lay down a single word for Kurdish autonomy or the probability of a referendum to decide the Kurdish fate in this new Turkish state.

After Ataturk consolidated his political grip over Turkey, the actual face of the regime was getting more and more evident. By 1978, Kurdish language, Kurdish names, folklores, attires and all other forms of cultural representation was banned. In an effort to deny the very Kurdish existence in the country, they were started being referred to as the “Mountain Turks”. Following the military coup of 1980, the use of Kurdish language in either public or private life was banned, so were the use of the words “Kurds”, “Kurdistan” or Kurdish. Such forceful repression and growing discontent among the Kurdish population prompted the formation of PKK – Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (Kurdistan Worker’s Party), a far left militant and political organization under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan.

A full scale military insurgency was yet to begin until 15th August, 1984 when the PKK officially declared a Kurdish uprising. From 1984 till 1st September 1999, when the PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire, Turkey saw unprecedented instances of human rights violations. About 40,000 civilians died in these 15 years. After 5 years of maintaining ceasefire, it was finally lifted by the PKK on 1st June, 2004. The military uprising of this decade was much more brutal and vicious than what it had been like earlier. The number of Human Rights abuses increased at an exponential rate. Torture, systematic execution of Kurdish civilians, forced displacement; arbitrary arrest became the norm of the day. Since the summer of 2011, the uprising took a more violent turn with large scale hostilities. In 2013, the process of negotiation was started between the PKK and the Turkish Government. Another ceasefire was declared bilaterally when Ocalan announced the “end of armed struggle” which was only to be resumed again in 2015 following the widespread massacre of PKK activists in Iraq at the hands of the Turkish military.

According to the statistics given by human rights organizations, more than 4000 Kurdish villages have been destroyed since the beginning of the uprising, with 380,000 and 1,000,000 Kurdish villagers being forcefully evacuated. Some 35,000 Kurds have been killed, 17,000 have disappeared while 119,000 Kurds have been imprisoned by the Turkish authorities arbitrarily. The condition at present is still the very same with rampant human rights violations, arbitrary arrest and detentions. Negotiations between the Turkish government and the PKK have become impossible in such a situation of mutual hostility and violence.

IRAQ

After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, a significant number of Kurds became a minority in Iraq. The first phase of Iraqi-Kurdish conflict began with the arrival of the British. Through some secessionist attempts, Mahmud Barzanji became successful in uniting the Kurdish tribes to form a short-lived autonomous, self-proclaimed Kurdish kingdom in Iraq between 1919 and 1922. Though his plan of a Kurdish kingdom eventually failed, the struggle for freedom was carried out by other Kurdish leaders like Ahmed Barzani(1931), Mustafa Barzani (1943-1945) in the first phase of freedom struggle.

In 1943 after Mustafa Barzani was exiled to Iran, the Kurdish revolt suffered a setback. At this point, Iraq witnessed the 14th July Revolution ousting the Hashemite monarchy from power and bringing General Abdul Karim Qasim to power. In 1958, after returning from his exile, Barzani made an attempt to negotiate Kurdish autonomy in the north of Iraq with General Qasim’s government, which ultimately failed, culminating in the first Iraqi- Kurdish Civil War (11 Sept, 1961 to 1970) with casualties more than a million. Despite repeated attempts at negotiations for Kurdish autonomy in Iraq, a second Iraqi- Kurdish Civil War became inevitable in 1974 which resulted in a total massacre of the Kurdish militias and a recapturing of northern Iraq by the Iraqi troops. This led to a political vacuum in the area with the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) gaining power and leading an insurgency campaign against the Iraqi Government. The PUK suffered a major defeat from KDP in 1978 with support from Iran.

The Iraqi- Kurdish conflict resurfaced as a part of the Iran- Iraq War when the Kurdish parties plotted against Saddam Hussein with help from Iran. By then the Iraqi government had had enough of “non-loyal” Kurdish presence in the North and started its genocidal campaign called ‘Al- Anfal’ for the ethnic cleansing of the Kurds, in which over 200,000 Kurds were killed. In spite of the mutual recognition after 2003 Iraq War and the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, conditions have not improved, with repeated clashes erupting between the Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraqi central government over a multitude of issues, but mainly power sharing and oil reserves. The 2017 Iraqi- Kurdistan referendum also ended with a diplomatic crisis.

SYRIA

Ethnically and linguistically, the Kurds form a major ethnic group in Syria. But despite such a numerical strength, the Syrian Kurds have not gained any autonomy unlike their Iraqi counterparts. Roughly 15 percent of the total Kurdish population in Syria remains stateless, in a legal vacuum without any fundamental rights. Despite Kurdish being the second most widely spoken language in Syria, it has never been officially recognized. In 1962, on the pretext of illegal immigration from Turkey and Iraq, 20 percent of Syria’s Kurdish population were stripped of citizenship.

After the 1970 military coup which brought Hafez al- Assad to power, instances of arbitrary behavior of the Syrian Government towards the Kurdish population increased by leaps and bounds. The same legacy was carried forward by his son, Bashar al- Assad. After the Arab Spring of 2011 which culminated into a deadly civil war in Syria, things got very complex in the Syrian political arena. The civil war gave birth to radical Islamic extremist militia, the ISIS (Islamic state of Iraq and Syria), which made the very existence of Kurds in Syria as well as in Iraq a big question mark.

As of now, the struggle of the Kurds is not against an arbitrary dictatorial government but against these forces of radical militia which threaten the very existence of the ethnic group. The Kurds have consolidated themselves under the pseudo military border guard called Peshmerga, to take up arms against this extremist militia. The Kurdish lands that were won back from the ISIS now form a de facto autonomous region called Rojava, under Kurdish administration, covering the sub regions of Afrin, Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabqa, Manbij and Deir Ez- Zor.

CONCLUSION

With a sudden surge of right wing nationalism and majoritarianism in world politics, the chances of diminution of this long battle for recognition have taken a further step back. None of these three countries are ready to sit on the negotiation table. To worsen matters, Turkey has initiated a military offensive, codenamed Operation Peace Spring in north eastern Syria, apparently as a way of driving out the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), an ally of the PKK. But the implementation of this operation clearly suggests that it is just another tool to eliminate about 3.6 million of Kurds refugees from Turkey, in this particular area, who were proposed to be resettled here. The political atmosphere still being volatile in Iraq and Syria, no question of catering to the demands of the minority Kurds or even giving them the bare minimum social and political rights is arising; as of now. Things have taken a turn for the worst. The Kurds, as a community still needs to fight the battle for their existence. The struggle for their survival continues and it is a zillion miles away from being over.

*Anondeeta Chakraborty is a Research Coordinator at Global Counter Terrorism Council

Putin Considers Slamming Door On Iran And Opening Window For Israel – OpEd

Russia's Vladimir Putin and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu. File photo Credit: Kremlin.ru

February 21, 2021

By Arab News

By Baria Alamuddin*

A remarkable meeting occurred in January between Syrian and Israeli officials at the Russian base near Latakia in western Syria. It appears to have been precipitated by Israeli concerns about the increasing sophistication of high-precision Iranian missiles and drones in Tehran’s satellite states.

Israel wanted to convey the message to Tehran that an Iranian military presence in Syria would never be permitted. Perhaps more remarkable than the meeting itself was the extensive pressure exerted by the Russians to force Damascus to participate, including temporarily suspending fuel supplies.

Some observers view Moscow’s persistent efforts to bring Israeli and Syrian officials closer together as the prelude to a peace accord, similar to those brokered with other Arab states. If Russia did facilitate such a deal, the essential elements are obvious: Return of the Golan, in exchange for wholesale Iranian exclusion from Syrian territory – a major concession to swallow for both sides, but offering huge strategic gains. If Putin decides to put his boot on Assad’s neck, this is probably an offer that the gravely weakened Syrian dictator couldn’t refuse — particularly as it was Russia’s 2015 intervention that fundamentally shifted the course of the Syrian conflict.

It’s no secret that many Assad regime officials are fed up with the contempt they experience from Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel who behave as if Damascus belongs to them. Similarly for Russia, Iran has gone from being a necessary ally to a liability. Russia’s massive military investments in Syria will never be secure as long as Iran’s radicalized militias provoke regional conflict.

Meanwhile, the depths of Putin’s commitment to Israel — and to his friend Benjamin Netanyahu —were highlighted again last week with a Russia-brokered prisoner swap, the third such exchange amid successive rounds of Israeli elections in which Netanyahu has been fighting for his political life.


Russia has conspicuously left Syrian airspace wide open for Israel to strike Iran-associated targets on a daily basis. US intelligence sources describe Syrian airspace as “saturated” with Israeli and Russian planes, necessitating close coordination. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently pledged to Israel’s leaders: “If you have facts that your state is facing threats from Syrian territory, report the facts urgently and we will take every measure to neutralize the threat.”

The Biden administration appears to have reconciled itself to Syria being consolidated under Russian influence; better this than being an Iranian satellite or spawning ground for Daesh. Trump’s Syria envoy, James Jeffrey, warns: “Russia is trying its very best to present an alternative security architecture for the region. (The Russians) are our competition in the region as much as the Iranians are.” Indeed, Biden’s lack of outreach to Arab leaderships may spur them to seek closer Russian ties.

While Biden aspires to be tough with Moscow, he clearly isn’t seeking confrontation for the sake of confrontation, evidenced by the swift return of both sides to the START Treaty. However, this will remain a highly transactional relationship, with Putin seeking as many negotiating cards as possible, even when Russia-US interests overlap.

This is likely to be the case with Iran’s nuclear program. Both Putin and Biden support a return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Indeed, behind the scenes Russia has been encouraging Tehran not to violate its JCPOA commitments, with Lavrov warning Iran “not to give into emotions” and withdraw from the IAEA Additional Protocol. Moscow furthermore has a strategic interest in widening the deal to encompass the curtailment of Iran’s proxy paramilitaries.

Russian diplomacy in Lebanon is also becoming increasingly visible in support of Saad Hariri forming a government, after Western efforts appear to have petered out. This is another arena where Russian diplomacy could constrain Iranian influence, particularly as Moscow’s curtailment of Iran’s activity in Syria would limit Tehran’s ability to arm and support Hezbollah, while abruptly putting a halt to Hezbollah’s regional aspirations. Russia has also been intervening in the floundering Afghan peace process, having most to lose from a terrorism-exporting failed state in its backyard.

Biden should be urging Turkey, as a NATO member, to act as a check on Russian expansionism, particularly as Turkish ambitions so frequently clash with those of Moscow: Ankara backed the winning side, Azerbaijan, in Nagorno-Karabakh, while Moscow (previously the pre-eminent Caucasus power) only latterly intervened to calm the situation.

As part of this Armenia-Azerbaijan peace accord, “sister states” Turkey and Azerbaijan are now physically linked by a “pan-Turkic super-highway” via Armenia. This affords Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman ultra-nationalist regime enhanced access to the Turkic states of Central Asia, which Russia and China regard as their exclusive zone of influence. Turkey’s close ties to Ukraine, including military assistance, are an irritant to Putin’s aspirations to dominate the Black Sea region.

Since 2017 the Central African Republic (CAR) has been the centerpiece for Putin’s expansionist Africa strategy, offering the tantalizing prospect of monopolies over the region’s vast mineral riches. But with the CAR dissolving into renewed paroxysms of civil war, Putin has been compelled to send hundreds of additional mercenaries (or “military instructors”), as his dreams of lucrative African adventures turn into a costly headache.

With a plurality of crises in former-Soviet states (notably Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia), a newly assertive domestic protest movement (personified by Alexei Navalny) and a tough economic outlook, Putin appears unusually vulnerable and overstretched. Thus, for the time being, Moscow has gone from being the foremost global provoker of conflicts to energetically putting out fires and calming things down — not least in the Middle East, where Putin is sick of Tehran’s warmongering and ceaseless provocations.

Russian pre-eminence in Syria and the region is certainly not our ideal scenario, given the implications for governance, freedoms and human rights. However, given the overarching menace from Tehran, Hezbollah, Daesh, Al-Qaeda and a thousand and one other paramilitary proxies, matters could be infinitely worse.

• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

UN condemns Myanmar junta after two killed in anti-coup unrest

Issued on: 21/02/2021 - 

Authorities have gradually ratcheted up their tactics against a massive and largely peaceful civil disobedience campaign demanding the return of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi STR AFP


Yangon (AFP)

The deaths of two anti-coup protesters in Myanmar sparked fresh UN condemnation of the country's new military regime on Sunday, as mourners prepared for the funeral of a young woman who became a national symbol of resistance to the junta.

Authorities have gradually ratcheted up their tactics against a massive and largely peaceful civil disobedience campaign demanding the return of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Saturday marked the deadliest day yet in more than two weeks of nationwide street demonstrations when security forces fired upon a rally in Mandalay, sending the crowd fleeing in fear.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the use of "deadly violence" in the melee, which emergency workers said had killed one teenager and wounded dozens more.

"The use of lethal force, intimidation & harassment against peaceful demonstrators is unacceptable," Guterres wrote on Sunday.

The confrontation began when security forces in Mandalay, the country's second-largest city and cultural capital, attempted to raid a shipyard and detain port staff on strike to protest the army takeover.

Medical rescue workers said the troops used live rounds, rubber bullets and tear gas against a crowd of people who had started flinging rocks in an effort to stop the arrests.

"Two people were killed," said Hlaing Min Oo, the chief of a Mandalay-based volunteer emergency rescue team.

Another emergency worker on the scene, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, confirmed the death toll.

Graphic video circulated on Facebook showing a teenaged victim, splayed on the ground and bleeding from his head as a bystander placed a hand on his chest to feel for a heartbeat.

Hlaing Min Oo said another 30 were wounded, with half of the injuries from live rounds.

Local media reported more than a dozen people were arrested after the clash.

"They beat and shot my husband and others," one resident told AFP. "He was standing on the side and watching the protest but the soldiers took him away."

Myanmar emerged from its seventh consecutive overnight internet blackout on Sunday, a measure imposed by the junta after neighbourhoods mobilised watch groups to guard against evening arrests.

A funeral was to be held in the capital Naypyidaw for a young protester who died on Friday after being shot in the head during a rally last week.

Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, who turned 20 last Thursday as she lay unconscious in a hospital bed, has since become a potent symbol of the campaign against military rule.

Demonstrators have hoisted her photos high on street marches and unfurled a huge banner of artwork from a bridge in Yangon depicting the moment she was shot.

Vigils for the grocery store worker were held across the commercial hub on Saturday, with protesters lighting candles and laying roses by a banner with her picture.

- Hundreds arrested -

Much of Myanmar has been in uproar since troops detained Suu Kyi on February 1, with massive street demonstrations seen in major cities and isolated villages across the country.

The new junta has so far remained impassive in the face of relentless international condemnation, with the US, Britain and Canada all unveiling sanctions targeting the country's top generals.

European Union foreign ministers will meet Monday to discuss their own measures against the regime.

The bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged security forces to "immediately stop violence against civilians" on Saturday after the violence in Mandalay.

Nearly 570 people have been detained since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group.

Among those targeted have been railway workers, civil servants and bank staff, who have walked off their jobs as part of the anti-coup campaign.

A military spokesman said this week that one police officer had died in Mandalay after another clash there.

Suu Kyi -- who has not been seen since she was detained in a dawn raid -- has been hit with two charges by the junta, one of them for possessing unregistered walkie-talkies.

Her hearing is expected on March 1.

Myanmar protesters gather again as UN chief condemns deadly crackdown

Issued on: 21/02/2021 - 

Text by :FRANCE 24

Thousands of opponents of Myanmar's military coup gathered again on Sunday in towns from north to south, undeterred by the bloodiest episode of their campaign the previous day when police and soldiers opened fire in the city of Mandalay, killing two.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the use of "deadly violence" in the country's second-most populous city, which emergency workers said killed one teenager and wounded dozens more.

"The use of lethal force, intimidation & harassment against peaceful demonstrators is unacceptable," Guterres wrote.

The military has been unable to quell the demonstrations and a civil disobedience campaign of strikes against the February 2 coup and the detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others, even with a promise of a new election, arrests and warnings against dissent.

Early on Sunday, police arrested a famous actor wanted for supporting opposition to the coup, his wife said, while Facebook deleted the military's main page under its standards prohibiting the incitement of violence.

In the main city of Yangon, several thousand young people gathered at two sites to chant slogans, while hundreds massed peacefully in the second city of Mandalay, footage by a media outlet showed.

In Myitkyina town in the north, which has seen confrontations in recent days, people laid flowers for the dead protesters while young people with banners drove around on motorbikes.

Crowds marched in the central towns of Monywa and Bagan and in Dawei and Myeik in the south, posted pictures showed.

"They aimed at the heads of unarmed civilians. They aimed at our future," a young protester in Mandalay told the crowd.

Military spokesman Zaw Min Tun, who is also the spokesman for the new military council, did not respond to request for comments.

He told a news conference on Tuesday the army's actions were within the constitution and supported by most people, and he blamed protesters for instigating violence.

The more than two weeks of protests had been largely peaceful, unlike previous episodes of opposition during nearly half a century of direct military rule to 2011.

Members of ethnic minorities, poets and transport workers marched peacefully on Saturday in various places but tension escalated in Mandalay where police and soldiers confronted striking shipyard workers.

Some demonstrators fired catapults at police as they played cat and mouse. Police responded with tear gas and gunfire at the protesters, witnesses said.

Video clips on social media showed members of the security forces firing and witnesses said they found the spent cartridges of live rounds and rubber bullets.

Two people were shot and killed and 20 were wounded, said Ko Aung, a leader of a volunteer emergency service.

>> Myanmar marks Union Day with the multi-ethnic national dream slipping further away

Police were not available for comment but the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the strikers sabotaged vessels and attacked police with sticks, knives and catapults. Eight policemen and several soldiers were injured, it said.

The newspaper did not mention the deaths but said: "Some of the aggressive protesters were also injured due to the security measures conducted by the security force."

A young woman protester became the first death among anti-coup demonstrators on Friday. She was shot in the head on February 9 in the capital, Naypyitaw. The army says one policeman has died of injuries sustained in a protest.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) condemned the violence in Mandalay as a crime against humanity.

The army seized power after alleging fraud in Nov. 8 elections that the NLD swept, detaining Suu Kyi and others. The electoral commission had dismissed the fraud complaints.

Facebook said it deleted the military's main page, Tatmadaw True News Information, for repeated violations of its standards "prohibiting incitement of violence and coordinating harm”.

'Unacceptable' use of force

Early on Sunday, police arrested actor Lu Min, who has been a prominent figure in Yangon protests and was one of six celebrities who the army said on Wednesday were wanted under an anti-incitement law for encouraging civil servants to join the protest.

His wife, Khin Sabai Oo, said in a video posted on his Facebook page that police had come to their home in Yangon and taken him away.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group says 569 people have been detained in connection with the coup.

Western countries that earlier condemned the coup spoke out against the violence.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was "deeply concerned" by reports that security forces had fired on protesters, while France's foreign ministry strongly condemned the "unacceptable" use of violence against protesters.

Singapore and Britain also condemned the violence, with British foreign minister Dominic Raab saying shooting protesters was "beyond the pale".

The United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand have announced limited sanctions with a focus on military leaders but the generals have long brushed off foreign pressure.

Suu Kyi faces a charge of violating a Natural Disaster Management Law as well as illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios. Her next court appearance is on March 1.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)

VIDEOS

Myanmar protesters gather again as UN chief condemns deadly crackdown (france24.com)

Myanmar grieves as funeral rites held for young anti-coup protester

Issued on: 21/02/2021 - 

Thousands lined the route of the funeral procession 

to pay tribute to Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing in Myanmar's capital 

STR AFP

Naypyidaw (Myanmar) (AFP)

A sombre Buddhist funeral song rung out in Myanmar's capital as the body of a young woman, struck down during a rally against this month's military coup, was carried to a ceremony marking the end of her short life.

Thousands lined the route of the procession to pay tribute to Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, who was shot in the head two days before her 20th birthday at a protest demanding the release of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The grocery store worker was kept on life support for 10 days but succumbed to her wounds on Friday, making her the first protester killed for participating in the massive civil disobedience campaign sweeping the country

An honour guard linked hands and formed a circle around her coffin as her family members and other mourners drew near to pay their respects.

"Please don't go," one older relative whispered, grief-stricken, as she gazed down at the open casket.

A large motorbike procession rode in convoy with the ornate black and gold hearse that transported Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing to the funeral hall, alongside other vehicles decorated with floral wreaths and photographs of the deceased.

Mourners gathered outside the funeral hall held up the three-finger salute that has been adopted as a gesture of resistance to military rule.

The crowd departed as her coffin was set ablaze for her cremation, a thin plume of smoke rising from the funeral hall's chimney.

One young woman walked back to the road while holding aloft a vinyl banner with an image depicting the moment Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing was shot, as others held her in a vain effort to render first aid.

- 'She had so much hope' -

"She was a young person who had much hope for her future," her sister Poh Poh told AFP almost two weeks ago.

In the days since she was shot, Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing has become a potent national symbol of resistance to military rule.

Vigils in her honour have been held elsewhere in the country, with protesters laying flowers at memorials to the victim and reciting the Metta Sutta -- a Buddhist prayer urging protection from harm.

"We cannot attend her funeral, so we are praying for her," Ye Lin Tun, who gathered alongside friends in Yangon to mark the death on Sunday, told AFP.

Demonstrators have in recent days hoisted photos of Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing in street marches, and news of her death on Friday sent a flash of anger through the country.

Some in the protest movement have described her as a "martyr", and rights groups have demanded an independent investigation into her death.

"This police killing is outrageous and unacceptable, there are no other words for it," Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch said.

"The officer who pulled the trigger must be investigated, arrested, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

State media claimed on Sunday that an autopsy of Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing's body showed the bullet was not fired by police officers.

It also claimed she was "throwing stones" at security forces at the protest.

But Amnesty International said footage of the incident showed that "police recklessly targeted protesters, with no respect for their lives or safety".

© 2021 AFP

VIDEOS 

Myanmar grieves as funeral rites held for young anti-coup protester - France 24

‘Stakes are high’ as QAnon conspiracy phenomenon emerges in France



Issued on: 20/02/2021 - 

A QAnon sign is held aloft at a protest rally in Olympia, 

Washington state, USA on May 14, 2020. © Ted Warren, AP

Text by: Tom WHEELDON

After rising to the fore in the US during the most fraught presidential campaign the country has seen for decades, the QAnon phenomenon has emerged in France – prompting President Emmanuel Macron’s government to order a multiagency inquiry on conspiracist movements scheduled to report back at the end of February.

The French state agency responsible for tackling sectarian movements, MIVILUDES, has received some 15 reports over recent weeks raising the alarm about the rise of QAnon in France, Le Figaro reported. The agency described the development of the movement as “highly concerning” in an internal communication seen by the French paper.

As she commissioned an inquiry by the police and MIVILUDES, Minister for Citizenship Marlène Schiappa expressed the same sentiments: The development of “new conspiracist groups” on French soil is “very worrying”, she told France 3 in January – underlining that the government “has its eye on” QAnon.

The QAnon phenomenon encompasses “a few hundred thousand” adherents, Tristan Mendès France, an expert on conspiracist movements at Paris-Diderot University, told Le Figaro.

The website DéQodeurs is a major French gateway to its world. The site’s centrepiece is a big screen at the top of the homepage broadcasting a video titled “We are the people” – which has also garnered more than 57,000 views on YouTube since its publication on January 27, even though the site removed DéQodeurs’ dedicated channel in October.

‘Nothing on this earth can stop us’

The video opens with a martial drumbeat playing over an image of the US Capitol in black and white, with dark clouds dominating the sky. “You see, my son, I was your age; I wasn’t yet 15,” the voiceover starts. “The world was a crazy place.” An image follows of St. Peter’s Square menaced by storm clouds. “But this was only the beginning of the story,” the voice continues as the music becomes slower and gentler.

“Some people understood things since the start and they didn’t mess around,” it carries on. “And here and there you can hear them singing.” A photo shows a group of people putting their hands together. A song breaks out, with a chorus saying “we are the people, we are united, nothing on this planet can stop us”.

The DéQodeurs website offers links to “information” including articles relaying fake news based on QAnon tropes – such as the baseless claim that in 2016, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was about to release documents proving the existence of a massive paedophile ring in Washington DC. A section titled “armoury” offers videos – including a two-hour long segment stating falsehoods purporting to provide “absolute proof” that electoral fraud robbed Donald Trump of victory in November’s US presidential election, spoken using French translation clumsily superimposed over an American voice.

The idea of Trump as a hero waging a secretive war against a cabal of cannibalistic, Satan-worshipping paedophiles is the heart of QAnon’s fantasy – none of which is true.

The main figure behind DéQodeurs is Léonard Sojili, an Albanian national who first emerged on the French internet in 2011, promoting 9/11 conspiracies. Sojili also propagates QAnon theories through the YouTube channel Thinkerview. On this platform he mixes support for the conspiracy theory with interviews of prominent French figures from across the political spectrum. Thinkerview boasts some 773,000 subscribers.

A more surprising title boosting QAnon is France-Soir. This publication was one of the country’s most august broadsheets during the post-war economic and cultural flowering of France’s Trentes Glorieuses, publishing articles by the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre and novelist Joseph Kessel. The newspaper closed in 2012 after moving downmarket.

But France-Soir was relaunched four years later as a populist website sometimes trafficking in conspiracy theories, with its last remaining journalists sacked in 2019. Over the past year, the publication went from publishing coronavirus disinformation to publishing fake news to promoting QAnon theories.

Many QAnon proponents have weaved Covid-19 pseudoscience into their fantasy. France-Soir’s QAnon material “fits with” the publication’s “scepticism with government Covid policy”, said Emily St Denny, an expert on French politics at the University of Copenhagen.

“The emergence of QAnon in France is a recent development,” she noted, “having emerged largely in the second half of 2020, in parallel to the pandemic and public health restrictions put in place to curb it.”

A ‘unifying voice’

The popularity of pseudo-documentary Hold-Up shows that Covid disinformation has a big audience in France: It got more than 2.5 million views after its release in November, with several famous faces including iconic actress Sophie Marceau sharing the video. The film propagates an array of debunked claims, including the notion that a global cabal of elites is using the pandemic to create a totalitarian New World Order – a similar trope to QAnon’s belief in a conspiracy of Satan-worshipping paedophiles.

While it tends to eschew such lurid narratives, anti-vaccine sentiment is relatively widespread in France. An Ipsos poll published in November found that 46 percent of French adults said they would refuse to receive a Covid-19 vaccine – compared to 21 percent in the UK. A 2019 Gallup poll found that one in three French people thought all vaccines are dangerous – the highest proportion of respondents to say so in 144 countries surveyed.

“We’ve had suspicions about lockdowns, curfews and medical practices activating traditional French phenomena such as anti-vax sentiment and newer ones such as the alternative health movement,” said Andrew Smith, a professor of French politics at the University of Chichester.

QAnon is dangerous in this context, he noted, because it “offers a kind of unifying voice for a number of things challenging scientific and political authority – one that says to people ‘What do you think? Has anyone asked you?’ while presenting them with a conspiracy theory through the concept of gamification, a kind of puzzle-solving that becomes intoxicating to many”.

These factors mean that QAnon’s French sympathisers are far more ideologically heterogenous than those in the US, St Denny observed: “QAnon in France is definitely not the monopoly of far-right sympathisers as it might be in the US. Its anti-government underpinnings have made the conspiracy theory attractive to a very disparate collection of groups and individuals including established conspiracy theorists, some fringes of the Yellow Vests movement, and some of the more conspiracy-oriented among the alternative health movement.”

The “stakes are high” in France considering QAnon’s “disruptive potential in terms of giving a broad coalition the ideological glue to act together in ways that may be threatening to democratic or social processes”, St Denny continued.

“What strikes me is that in the US it took three years after its creation for QAnon to make an inroad into the mainstream,” Smith said. “In France, I don’t think it’s a political danger in the immediate sense – I don’t think the chap behind the DéQodeurs website is going to run for the presidency.”

“But QAnon’s rise does represent part of an erosion of sociocultural standards, including faith in parliamentary democracy as a system of rule,” he concluded. “It is an alarming threat to the values of the French Republic, as a Counter-Enlightenment trend that denies universalism.”