Tunisia drought threatens 'catastrophic' grain harvest

by Aymen JAMLI

The soil is dry and dusty in Tunisia, a small country that is expected to endure worsening water scarcity as climate change intensifies.

A severe drought in North Africa has left Tunisian farmers bracing for a catastrophically poor harvest, imperiling food security in the cash-strapped country.

At a time when the global cereals market has been disrupted by the Ukraine war, Tunisia's domestic grain production has also withered under a lack of rainfall that has killed off crops.

Even before the roasting summer months, the soil is dry and dusty in the small Mediterranean country, whose water resources are steadily depleting as climate change intensifies.

"We've never seen a drought this bad," said wheat farmer Tahar Chaouachi, walking despondently through his field, 55 kilometers (35 miles) inland from the capital Tunis.

"It's been dry for the last four years but we expected some rain this season. Instead, it's become worse."

With some Tunisian water reservoirs almost completely dry, authorities imposed emergency measures last month, rationing household supplies and banning water use for washing cars—as well as for irrigating fields.

"Production is at zero," said Chaouachi, whose farmland lies in Beja province, a key grain production area since the days of the Roman Empire.

"The situation is unsustainable. We're losing everything we spend on seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and wages," he said. "There's no telling where things are heading."

The almost completely dry reservoir of Chiba dam near the city of Korba in northeastern Tunisia.

The shortages come at a critical time for Tunisia, a net importer of wheat that has been hit hard by price hikes since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, both huge cereals exporters.

A painful cost-of-living crisis is compounding woes as the government is in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package.
'Seeds just died'

Tunisia—a country of 12 million where almost every meal involves bread, couscous or other cereals-based food—needs three million tonnes of wheat and barley a year.

Normally around two-thirds of this comes from overseas, but with the Ukraine war showing no signs of abating, that option looks expensive or even impossible.

The lack of rain has left reservoirs at historic lows of less than a third of capacity nationwide.

The biggest, located at Sidi Salem, a short drive from Chaouachi's farm, is filled to just 16 percent of capacity.

A wheat field parched by drought, in Medjez el-Bab, northern Tunisia.

The area has seen less than 10 centimeters (four inches) of rain since the autumn, pushing farmers either to plow withered crops back into the soil or harvest the stalks for animal feed.

Chaouachi said that in December, "we sowed wheat here, but the seeds have just died because it's too dry".

Of the 600 hectares (1,482 acres) he planted, he was able to harvest from just 70.

Last year Chaouachi managed to grow 1,000 tonnes of cereals, but this year he believes he won't break even, having spent 600,000 dinars ($198,000) on the season's cereal crop.

"This year's harvest will be catastrophic," warned Anis Kharbeche, spokesman for the farming and fishing union UTAP, predicting a fall in output of two-thirds from last year.

"We'll only be able to harvest seeds for the next season, and the country will have to import all of its needs for domestic consumption" of two types of wheat and barley, Kharbeche said.

Water levels have fallen sharply in the reservoir of the Sidi Salem dam in northern Tunisia.


'Rethink farming'

UTAP has called on the government to urgently announce a drought and state of water "emergency".

It is also demanding a "clear strategy" to boost Tunisia's water reserves, calling for new desalination plants and quotas for at least some farm irrigation.

Kharbeche pointed out that farming makes up 12 percent of the economy, but "two or three percent of farmers are leaving the sector every year".

Tunisia's water woes are reflected across the Maghreb, already one of the world's most vulnerable regions to drought.

Only two of the past 10 years have seen what experts consider to be enough rainfall.

In December, when farmers were sowing their spring cereal crops, temperatures were 3 degrees Celsius above the seasonal average.

Water and climate expert Raoudha Gafrej told AFP that climate change meant "it's absolutely vital that we rethink how farming works".

Sheep graze on failed wheat fields in Medjez el-Bab.

Tunisian farmers are bracing for a catastrophic cereal harvest as reservoirs are nearly dry and the authorities have imposed tough water restrictions.

For example, she said, the country should stop using valuable water reserves to grow dates for export.

Tunisia devotes 80 percent of its water supply to irrigating just eight percent of its farmland, leaving the remainder to rely on increasingly scarce rainfall.

"It doesn't make sense anymore," Gafrej said. "Drought means there will be no more water for rain-fed agriculture."

© 2023 AFP


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ICYMI
The EPA Wants Two-Thirds of U.S. Car Sales to Be Electric by 2032

The Environmental Protection Agency has released draft regulations that set the stage for a huge transition to electric vehicles

By Jeff Tollefson, Nature magazine on April 12, 2023

Electric cars could account for more than half of new US passenger-vehicles sales in ten years. 

Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today proposed a landmark set of pollution regulations that could spark an electric-vehicle revolution and drive down greenhouse-gas emissions.

Under the rules, electric vehicles could account for an estimated 67% of new US passenger-car sales by 2032 and additional gains for larger vehicles — a major feat for a country where transportation is the largest source of greenhouse-gas emissions.

“These actions will accelerate the ongoing transition to a clean-vehicle future, tackle the climate crisis and improve our air quality for communities across the country,” EPA administrator Michael Regan said during a press conference.

The rules, which are currently in draft form pending public comments, apply to automobiles sold between 2027 and 2032. They would reduce average emissions from new passenger vehicles by more than half compared to the existing standard. But will the proposal succeed and how would it impact climate change?

CAN THE UNITED STATES MAKE ENOUGH ELECTRIC VEHICLES IN TIME?

The country has one of the largest vehicle fleets in the world, so one question is whether it’s possible to scale up to so many more electric vehicles in just a few years. Challenges include the need to roll out charging infrastructure, ramp up manufacturing capacity for electric cars and convince people to change their habits.

However, the rules are arriving in an economy that is already primed for innovation and change, says Margo Oge, who led the development of similar vehicle regulations as head of the EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality under former president Barack Obama.

In particular, an infrastructure bill enacted by Congress in 2021 and a massive spending bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022, are funnelling federal money into charging infrastructure and tax credits for consumers and for manufacturers of automobiles or batteries that upgrade or build new facilities.

Even without the EPA’s rules, electric vehicles could account for more than 50% of new US vehicle sales by 2030, according to a January study by the International Council on Clean Transportation, a non-profit research group in Washington DC, and the consultancy Energy Innovation Policy and Technology in San Francisco, California. The EPA rules would help to eliminate lingering uncertainties about how federal incentives will play out under the Inflation Reduction Act, says Robbie Orvis, a senior director at Energy Innovation: “It cements current trends into place, and creates a much stronger investment climate.”

WHAT ABOUT SECURING RAW MATERIALS?

Lithium and cobalt are needed to manufacture modern batteries, and the Biden administration is encouraging companies to purchase these and other materials through countries that have free trade agreements with the US. The administration is also encouraging domestic manufacturing in order to secure supply chains and dial back dependence on China. Some tax credits are available only if the manufacturing of batteries and vehicles take place in the United States, or if key minerals are sourced from free-trade partners such as Chile, Australia, Canada or Mexico. But so far, there are no obvious showstoppers when it comes to supplies of crucial minerals for electric-car batteries, according to the energy consultancy BloombergNEF.

“The investments are there, and these nations can theoretically provide sufficient supplies,” says Evelina Stoikou, an energy-storage analyst at BloombergNEF in New York City. But she warns that demand from Europe and other regions will rise, so it will be important for the United States to strengthen its international partnerships.

WHAT IMPACT WOULD THE RULES HAVE ON CLIMATE CHANGE?

The EPA’s initial estimate is that the regulations would reduce carbon emissions by around ten billion tonnes over the next three decades. That is more than double the United States’ emissions last year, or more than one-quarter of the global total. “The administration is going to make history if indeed, at the end of the day, they finalized these new standards,” says Oge. “I’m really hopeful.”

COULD THE COURTS CHALLENGE THE RULES?

US courts have overturned environmental rules in the past — and the proposed rules are likely to face challenges. But one thing in their favour is that they follow procedures that the EPA has long used to control pollutants from vehicles and other sources. Rather than dictating technological change, the agency is setting pollution limits for car manufacturers. Those limits can be met with existing technologies, and it’s up to the automobile industry to decide how to comply, says Chester France, a former EPA official who is now a consultant for the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group based in New York City. “I would fully expect those standards to be legally durable.”

This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on April 12, 2023.

These bizarre deep-sea fish have the blackest skin ever seen

The fish absorb up to 99.95% of the light that hits them.

by Tibi Puiu
March 16, 2023

ZME SCIENCE

The Pacific blackdragon was the second-darkest deep-sea fish identified by the researchers. 

Credit: Karen Osborn/Smithsonian.

In the deep sea, there is no light. As a result, the water is almost freezing cold and contains very little oxygen. What’s more, at more than 200 meters below the surface of the ocean, the weight of the water above creates such enormous pressure, that it can be 1,000 times that at the surface.

But even in such an inhospitable environment, life still finds a way. These include cold-water coral reefs that form vibrant communities around outpourings from the Earth’s crust, as well as a host of alien-looking marine creatures.

However, it’s not entirely pitch black in the deep ocean. While sunlight has long faded away, blocked by layers upon layers of water, bioluminescent deep-sea creatures sometimes turn on the lights — and this can be a nuisance for others who would rather live happily in total darkness.

In a new study, a team of researchers led by Karen Osborn, a zoologist at the Smithsonian, has identified 16 new species of deep-sea fish whose skin is so black, it reflects less than 0.5% of the light that hits it.

“Transparency and mirrored surfaces—common camouflage strategies under the diffuse solar illumination of shallower waters—are conspicuous when illuminated by directed bioluminescent sources due to reflection from the body surface,” the researchers wrote in a paper published in Current Biology.

“Pigmentation allows animals to absorb light from bioluminescent sources, rendering them visually undetectable against the dark background of the deep sea,” they added.

These ultra-black fish have such a well adapted camouflage to the deep sea that the researchers could barely take pictures of them beyond their silhouettes.

ALSO READ: Earth's oldest rock was actually found on the moon and brought home by Apollo 14

Anoplogaster cornuta could barely be imaged by the researchers. 

Credit: Karen Osborn/Smithsonian.

In order to unravel how the deep-sea fish achieve their extraordinary camouflage, the researchers collected tissue samples with the aid of the Western Flyer research vessel just outside California’s Monterey Bay and examined them under the microscope. What they found was quite impressive

FANG TOOTH

Credit: Karen Osborn/Smithsonian.

The differences in human skin and hair color are owed to the content of melanin, a pigment produced by melanosomes in melanocyte cells.

In the newly identified deep-sea fish, the melanosomes are concentrated in a thin layer right at the top of the skin’s surface. Their unique distribution forms a highly effective structural light trap, stopping light from bouncing back and thus obscuring the fish.

This nifty pigment arrangement conceals the fish to the point they become virtually invisible in the deep ocean, even when pesky light-emitting creatures are in their vicinity.

These fish are so black that the researchers had to painstakingly position strobe lights just right to catch a photo of the fish, such as this striking image of the Pacific Blackdragon.

The only other vertebrates that have ultra-black features are Birds of Paradise, whose ultra-black features also absorb around 99.95% of incoming light. There are also some butterflies that have certain parts of their wings ultra-black, creating a marvelous contrast with their brightly-colored wings. Rather than camouflage, these butterflies are keen to be observed by the opposite sex.

However, no natural camouflage rivals the darkness of Vantablack, an artificial material developed at MIT. Made from carbon nanotubes, Vantablack absorbs 99.996% of light, making it the darkest material in existence by a longshot.
ALSO READ: Researchers want to use whale song for seismic imaging of the Earth's crust

Remarkably, many of the 16 deep-sea ultra-black fish are not related. According to the new study, there isn’t one common ancestor to the fish, suggesting that the light-trapping pigment structures evolved independently — what scientists call convergent evolution.

They also use the camouflage for different purposes. Some ultra-black fish rely on the camouflage to avoid being prey to predators, others use it to find prey and become more efficient predators.

One of the species, the frightening-looking threadfin dragonfish, has ultra-black camouflage only as a juvenile. After it matures, it can come out of hiding and fulfill its role as an apex predator of the deep open sea.

The ultra-black structures were also found lining the guts of some species, likely to prevent the predators from glowing like lanterns when they devour a bioluminescent creature.

That’s quite impressive — and these findings may prove to have greater implications beyond revealing intriguing new biology. The researchers are rather confident that the ultra-dark skin properties can be mimicked to produce artificial materials that may be useful in cameras, camouflage, and highly-sensitive telescopes.

Dairy foods helped ancient Tibetans thrive in one of Earth’s most inhospitable environments

Ancient proteins trapped in dental calculus reveal how people conquered the rough Tibetan hinterlands.

by Tibi Puiu
April 13, 2023
in Archaeology, News
Edited and reviewed by Zoe Gordon

Modern pastures on the highland Tibetan Plateau. 

Credit: Li Tang.

The Tibetan Plateau, also known as the “roof of the world,” is one of the most extreme environments on Earth. With an average elevation of over 4,500 meters, this inhospitable region presents significant challenges to human habitation, including a lack of arable land and limited resources.

Despite these obstacles, ancient Tibetans managed to survive and even thrive in this remote area. A new study, published in the journal Science Advances, has shed light on how they managed to accomplish this staggering feat: by consuming dairy products.

A high-altitude mystery solved

Dental calculus of the highest altitude individual investigated in the study (cal. 601-758 CE). 

Credit: Li Tang.

Although positive natural selection at several genomic loci enabled early Tibetans to better adapt to high elevations, obtaining sufficient food from the resource-poor highlands would have remained a challenge.

Li Tang of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, the lead author of the new study, has always been fascinated by the lifestyle of Tibetan nomads. Previously, she conducted research to learn more about how growing crops in the Tibetan Plateau contributed to the early occupation of the region. However, he rather quickly found out that crops didn’t help much at all as agriculture is only viable in a few rare valleys that account for less than 1% of the total area.

Yet despite these enormous challenges, the ancient Tibetans managed somehow — and it all had something to do with milk.

Tang and colleagues analyzed ancient proteins from the dental calculus of 40 individuals from 15 sites across the Tibetan Plateau and found evidence indicating that dairying was introduced onto the hinterland plateau at least 3,500 years ago.

The adoption of dairy pastoralism helped revolutionize people’s ability to occupy much of the plateau, particularly the vast areas too extreme for crop cultivation.

The study, which is the first to detect direct evidence of ancient dairying on the Tibetan Plateau, shows that dairy products were consumed by diverse populations, including females and males, adults and children, as well as individuals from both elite and non-elite burial contexts.

Tibetan highlanders made use of the dairy products of goats, sheep, and possibly cattle and yaks, with early pastoralists in western Tibet having a preference for goat milk. Even to this day, dairy products are still a huge part of the lives of modern-day Tibetans.

“Pastoralism is vital for modern Tibetans, particularly the highlanders, ruminants provide almost all the daily necessities they need, milk, meat for food, hair and wool for clothing and tents, and fuel from dung, as well as transportation,” Tang told ZME Science.

The impact of dairying on early Tibetan populations

Tibetan pastoralist in a winter pasture churning yak milk to make butter and cheese. 

Credit: Li Tang.

These findings throw a wrench in the so-called “barley hypothesis”, which suggests that agriculture was the critical adaptation that enabled the permanent occupation of the plateau. Instead, dairy seems to have played an equal role — if not more important — in this achievement.

Tang first learned about paleoproteomics, the study of ancient proteins, during her doctoral research and has been hooked ever since. This novel method allows scientists to glean intimate details about the lives of ancient people by studying proteins trapped in the calcified dental plaque from very old human teeth.

Tracing dairying in the deep past has long been a challenge for researchers. Traditionally, archaeologists analyzed the remains of animals and the interiors of food containers for evidence of dairying, however, the ability of these sources to provide direct evidence of milk consumption is often limited. This is why paleoproteomics can be so powerful.

But since the method is novel, the young researcher also experienced pushback from her supervisors and had to do some convincing work in order to receive funding. To make matters more difficult, on top of these challenges came the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The lab work started at the beginning of the lockdown. We didn’t know when we could continue the extraction as usual. The most memorable moment must be when I first got milk signs from my samples.”

“I was checking the amino acid sequence, and found it’s unique to sheep milk. I texted my collaborators and supervisors immediately: ‘IT WORKS!’. It gave me huge motivation to move forward with the testing of the samples,” Tang recounted.

The researchers were excited to observe an incredibly clear pattern: all the milk peptides came from ancient individuals in the western and northern steppes, where growing crops is extremely difficult. However, they did not detect any milk proteins from the southern-central and southeastern valleys, where more farmable land is available.

Furthermore, all the individuals with evidence of milk consumption were recovered from sites higher than 3,700 meters above sea level, with almost half recovered above 4,000 meters, and the highest at the extreme altitude of 4,654 meters.

These findings indicate that dairying was crucial in supporting early pastoralist occupation of the highlands. Ruminant animals could convert the energy locked in alpine pastures into nutritional milk and meat, fueling the expansion of human populations into some of the world’s most extreme environments.

Next, the researchers would like to use the same method in combination with ancient DNA to find out more about the oral health of ancient populations in the hinterland plateau, as well as explore dairying on the eastern plateau and other parts of China.

UAE Food Bank partners with Facebook and Carrefour to distribute 55,000 meals to blue-collar workers

UAE Food Bank officials distribute food baskets to workers in Al Quoz in Dubai.

The UAE Food Bank, which is a part of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, collaborated with Meta’s Facebook platform to distribute approximately 720 food baskets, which are equivalent to 55,000 meals, to blue-collar workers in Dubai’s Al Quoz neighbourhood.

The food baskets were generously provided by Carrefour, a brand represented by Majid Al Futtaim.

This initiative was aligned with the UAE Food Bank’s mission to encourage social responsibility among its partners and the community while simultaneously achieving its goals of managing surplus food, minimising waste, and providing food to those in need, both within and beyond the UAE.

The initiative also aimed to increase awareness about the charitable and humanitarian efforts of the Food Bank.

Dawoud Al Hajri, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the UAE Food Bank, said: "The UAE Food Bank’s endeavours reflect the generosity of the people of the UAE, embodying the principles of kindness, magnanimity, compassion, and solidarity in society. This initiative also emphasised the significance of feeding the hungry during the holy month of Ramadan.”

Al Hajri added: "The Bank strives to collaborate with partners from diverse entities and organisations to improve humanitarian, charitable, and volunteer efforts while also seeking to provide food to a large number of beneficiaries, both locally and globally. This is accomplished by planning and managing surplus food safely, minimising waste, and creating a bountiful and sustainable environment and food supply.”

Sheila Chaiban, Chief Marketing Officer at Majid Al Futtaim Retail, expressed her pride in collaborating closely with the UAE Food Bank and Meta to implement this humanitarian initiative.

"The initiative is aligned with Carrefour’s values and strong commitment to serve the community and encourage solidarity among its members. We are happy that this initiative during the holy month brought happiness to the deserving.”

Officials from UAE Food Bank and Facebook pose for a group photograph.

Moon Baz, Creator Partnerships Lead for Africa, Middle East, and Turkey at Meta, emphasised the importance of interaction, charitable work, and community harmony during the holy month of Ramadan.

"As part of Meta’s "Ramadan Al Khair” campaign this year, we aim to create more opportunities for performing good deeds and celebrating the essence of the month. The partnership with UAE Food Bank reinforces our commitment to reaching out to needy groups and offering them support through material and in-kind donations, ensuring that the community as a whole can experience the true meaning of this blessed month.”

Around 300 food baskets, containing a variety of groceries, were delivered to the UAE Food Bank headquarters for distribution among blue-collar workers while another 420 food baskets were directly delivered to their accommodations.

The UAE Food Bank has introduced various initiatives during the month of Ramadan to provide high-quality food to those in need, promoting efficient management of surplus food, and reducing food waste.

These efforts are intended to raise public awareness about the importance of minimising surplus and achieving zero food waste.

The UAE Food Bank has joined forces with food companies, kitchens, restaurants, and hotels to distribute meals daily through Iftar tents. These measures include the distribution of three million charity meals, in coordination with the UAE Red Crescent, hotels, and Iftar tents.

The Bank also launched the "Your Harees on Us” initiative, aimed at collecting traditional Harees donations from large kitchens and distributing them to those in need during Ramadan

463 people died in workplace accidents in Turkey in first quarter of year

ByTurkish Minute
April 12, 2023

At least 463 people died in workplace accidents in Turkey in the first quarter of 2023, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing a report by the Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG).

There were 130 workplace deaths in Turkey in March, 182 in February and 119 in January, the report said.

The report stated that the most common causes of work-related deaths in the first three months of the year were traffic accidents, falling from heights, earthquakes that struck Turkey in February and injury from heavy equipment.

People who died in work-related accidents in the first quarter included 37 women and 24 refugees, the İSİG report said.

According to the report, 24 percent of the deaths were people who had been temporarily in a region affected by devastating earthquakes for seminars or work-related projects and people who were in their workplaces when the earthquakes hit.

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck near the Turkish city of Gaziantep – home to around 2 million people and on the border with Syria – as people were sleeping on February 6 was followed by dozens of aftershocks, including a 7.5-magnitude temblor that jolted the region in the middle of search and rescue efforts the same day.

The majority of occupational accidents occur in Turkey’s construction, transportation, agriculture, metals and chemicals sectors, where dangerous working conditions such as long hours, intensive labor, uninsured work and many other irregularities prevail.

A yearly report by İSİG revealed that at least 1,843 workers died in occupational accidents in Turkey in 2022.

According to İSİG, at least 30,546 deaths in work-related accidents have taken place since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in November 2002.

İSİG General Coordinator Murat Çakır said the reason for the record number of fatalities in work-related accidents has to do with the policies of the AKP, which he said aim to turn Turkey into a source of cheap labor for Europe.

People have been suffering from lax work safety standards for decades in Turkey, where workplace accidents are nearly a daily occurrence.

[ANALYSIS]

How Russia brought Erdoğan government’s earthquake PSYOPS to light

By Turkish Minute
April 7, 2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the sidelines of the Sixth Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Astana on October 13, 2022. 

(Photo by Vyacheslav PROKOFYEV / SPUTNIK / AFP)

Fatih Yurtsever*

On March 30, 2023 Nezavisimia Gazeta, one of Russia’s leading newspapers, published in a supplement an analysis of how the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan effectively managed public anger and reaction after earthquakes struck the country’s south and southeast on Feb. 6. The article examines how various actors within the government coordinated psychological operations (PSYOPS) to change public sentiment. The timing of the publication, just before parliamentary and presidential elections on May 14, raises several questions: What specific statements does the analysis make about the Erdoğan government’s post-earthquake psychological operations? Given the close personal relationship between Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, what does the publication of such an article in a prominent Russian newspaper mean for the May 14 elections and possible developments following them?

A careful examination of the Republic of Turkey’s political history reveals that significant changes in the geopolitical landscape have often led to shifts in Turkey’s domestic political life. The transformation from a single-party to a multi-party political system in 1946 is a prime example, marking a significant change in the nation’s political landscape. Before this change, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) had dominated the political scene since the founding of the republic in 1923. The decision to transition to a multi-party system was largely influenced by external factors, particularly the growing threat posed by the Soviet Union in the aftermath of World War II. Similarly, the upcoming May 14 elections coincided with the world’s evolution from a unipolar to a multipolar order. As such, the polls on May 14 will not only determine who governs Turkey for the next five years but also how Turkey will be positioned within the emerging multipolar world system. For this reason, it is both standard operating practice for Russia to closely monitor the elections in Turkey and attempt to influence the outcomes and subsequent developments using all the resources and opportunities available.

What exactly is Nezavisimia Gazeta’s analysis about?

According to a claim in the analysis, Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) executed a PSYOP to enhance President Erdoğan’s popularity in the wake of the earthquakes that had revealed deficiencies in disaster preparedness and response. The operation was centered around a polarizing Islamist and nationalist narrative, a significant theme in Erdoğan’s campaign for the upcoming presidential election.

MİT agents were directed to emphasize religious themes in the government-controlled media, attributing the earthquakes’ destruction to “fate and God’s work” instead of poor construction and insufficient government oversight. These agents were also deployed to religious communities, rescue teams and the earthquake zone to underscore these themes during rescue operations. Religious slogans were chanted during live television broadcasts to provoke a critical response from the secular political opposition, ultimately benefiting President Erdoğan.

The government’s religious arm, the Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), was mobilized as well. Employing around 140,000 people, including imams who control nearly 90,000 mosques, the Diyanet increased the frequency of Salah prayers recited from minarets, breaking a longstanding tradition in Turkey. Salah is usually recited across the country only on Fridays, an hour before the central prayer, or locally on the occasion of mourning.

Concurrently, the Vatan Party launched an anti-American campaign asserting that the US was planning to invade Turkey under the pretext of providing aid, in response to a Pentagon statement saying that the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea had been ordered to sail closer to Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu commented on the situation. “We decide who can enter Turkish territorial waters. There’s no need for that. Why do we need this warship? There’s no need for a US warship to enter our territorial waters,” he told reporters. He added that Turkey would not allow an American aircraft carrier to enter Turkish waters if the US requested permission.

Amid these events, some neo-nationalist leaders, including Cihat Yaycı, a former admiral who helped President Erdoğan purge the army of most pro-NATO officers in 2016, expressed concerns about foreign intelligence infiltration in rescue teams. Yaycı advised the government to be cautious since spies could be among the foreign rescue teams arriving in Turkey. Metin Külünk, a confidant of the Turkish president, further claimed that Christian missionaries had infiltrated the rescue teams and suggested that Turkey’s Diyanet network monitor them.

Ümit Özdağ, leader of the far-right Victory (Zafer) Party, toured cities affected by the earthquakes, directing public anger at Syrian and other migrant groups. He accused migrants of looting areas impacted by the quakes and called on the government to give the order to shoot looters.

Thanks to the coordinated execution of the PSYOP, public anger and reaction were directed away from the Erdoğan administration. The developments in the aftermath of the earthquakes and the narrative that Erdoğan is currently using in his electoral campaign show that the analysis is essentially correct. Through this analysis, Russia has opened a Pandora’s box and exposed other partners of the Erdoğan regime.

Russia revealed this information likely due to the complex relationship between Putin and Erdoğan. While they maintain a close connection, Putin does not entirely trust Erdoğan. Russia relies on Turkey’s support to bypass and counter the sanctions imposed by the EU and US in response to the war of aggression against Ukraine, making Turkey indispensable. Under normal circumstances, Erdoğan might struggle to win the May 14 presidential election. However, since he has limited options, he may use all available means, including illegitimate ones, to secure victory. The PSYOPS conducted after the earthquakes indicates the potential tactics Erdoğan could employ on election night.

Erdoğan’s legitimacy in the eyes of NATO, the EU and the US is derived from his status as an elected leader. A refusal by the US or the EU to recognize a potentially fraudulent victory in the May 14 election could jeopardize this legitimacy. Russia currently suspects that Erdoğan is negotiating with the US and the EU to ensure acceptance of the election results. Turkey’s ratification of Finland’s NATO accession alarmed Russia, prompting them to remind Erdoğan of their interests in negotiations and their leverage against him before and after the elections.

In conclusion, actors seeking Turkey’s allegiance in a multipolar world are negotiating with Erdoğan, leveraging the information and documents they have against him to influence Turkey’s future.

* Fatih Yurtsever is a former naval officer in the Turkish Armed Forces. He is using a pseudonym out of security concerns.

Turkey’s Feb. 6 earthquakes were most powerful to occur on land: study

ByTurkish Minute
April 13, 2023

An aerial photo shows collapsed buildings in Antakya on February 11, 2023, after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country's southeast earlier in the week. The death toll from a massive earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria climbed to more than 20,000 on February 9, 2023, as hopes faded of finding survivors stuck under rubble in freezing weather. 

Hassan AYADI / AFP

Twin earthquakes that hit Turkey’s south on Feb. 6 causing more than 50,000 deaths were likely the most potent doublet ever to occur on land anywhere in the world, according to new research published by Chinese scientists, The Jerusalem Post reported.

A doublet is when two or more large earthquakes occur nearby a short time apart.

A 7.8-magnitude quake, which struck near the city of Gaziantep as people slept on Feb. 6, was followed by dozens of aftershocks, including a 7.5-magnitude temblor that jolted the region in the middle of search and rescue efforts the same day.

According to the research, the first mainshock happened around 4:18 a.m. local time and had a moment magnitude (Mw) of 7.95. About nine hours later, a second earthquake struck to the north, with an Mw of around 7.86.

Both estimates are higher than other published results including those of the United States Geological Survey.

“This corresponds to one of the largest tremors in more than 2,000 years of Turkish history,” said Xiaodong Song, chair of the SinoProbe Laboratory in the School of Earth and Space Sciences at Peking University, who led the research that was published this week in the journal of Earthquake Science.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit the eastern province of Erzincan in 1939 had been considered the deadliest temblor in Turkey’s modern history, leading to the death of more than 33,000 people.

Magnitude is a fundamental parameter for measuring the power of earthquakes and is of great interest to scientific research and the general public, Song said. However, there are often discrepancies when it comes to measuring earthquakes.

In the case of the February events, magnitude results have been reported with significant discrepancies. Even the difference in magnitude between the first and second quakes has appeared highly uncertain, ranging between 0.1 and 0.4.

Song’s team aimed to fill that gap using a novel and reliable long-period coda moment magnitude method to measure the size of the two events.

“The method is specially designed for large earthquakes (MW>7.5), and the results are minimally affected by source complexity and propagation effects,” the first author, Peking University Ph.D. student Xinyu Jiang, explained. “With hours of long-period coda data, the method can produce a robust moment magnitude without further corrections.”

Since completing his latest paper, Song said his research group is collaborating with other groups to determine why such powerful earthquakes occurred now and if there could be a way to predict such events in the future.

TURKIYE

Indictment of Kurdish journalists jailed for 10 months accepted by court

By Turkish Minute
April 12, 2023

A high criminal court in southeastern Turkey has accepted an indictment of 21 people, the vast majority of whom are Kurdish journalists who have been in pre-trial detention since June 2022, according to the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA).

The first hearing in the trial will be held at the Diyarbakır 4th High Criminal Court on July 11, more than a year after they were jailed on terrorism-related charges.

MLSA co-director and lawyer Veysel Ok tweeted that the delayed preparation of indictments is a way of punishing defendants. He said the journalists will have already spent one year in jail before appearing in court, adding that they should be released immediately since they’ve been unjustly deprived of their freedom for months.

Sixteen of the 21 detainees, including Serdar Altan, co-chair of the Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG), Mezopotamya news agency (MA) Editor-in-Chief Aziz Oruç and JinNews News Director Safiye Alagaş, were arrested by a court on June 16, 2022 after they had been held in custody for eight days, in a move that sparked outrage among opposition politicians, members of the press and rights activists.

The Kurdish journalists, who had been detained as part of an operation overseen by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, were arrested on charges of membership in a terrorist organization, a charge included in the indictment.

Kurdish journalists in Turkey frequently face legal harassment, stand trial and are given jail sentences for covering issues related to Kurds and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging a bloody campaign in Turkey’s southeast since 1984 and is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community.

Rights groups routinely accuse Turkey of undermining media freedom by arresting journalists and shutting down critical media outlets, especially since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan survived a failed coup in July 2016.

Turkey, which is one of the top jailers of journalists in the world, was ranked 149th among 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2022 World Press Freedom Index, released in May.

Prosecutor seeks prison sentence for journalist who returned to Turkey for election campaign

By Turkish Minute
April 10, 2023

Journalist Cengiz Çandar (L) with his lawyers

A prosecutor demanded a prison sentence for a veteran Turkish journalist the day after he returned to Turkey to run for a seat in parliament after seven years of living abroad, due to a tweet posted six years ago, according to the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA).

Cengiz Çandar, 75, appeared before an İstanbul court on Monday for a trial in which he faces charges of “praising crime and criminals” in a 2017 tweet decrying the death of a woman killed while fighting Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in northern Syria.

The journalist returned to Turkey on Sunday from the French city of Nice where he was spending the winter.

Ayşe Deniz Karacagil was killed in northern Syria in May 2017 while fighting alongside the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militant group that spearheaded the fight against the self-proclaimed ISIL caliphate. Karacagil became famous in Turkey after standing trial on terrorism charges for wearing a red neckscarf during the countrywide anti-government protests in 2013 that erupted over plans to demolish Gezi Park in the Taksim neighborhood of İstanbul.

Upon Karacagil’s death, Çandar tweeted, “The girl wearing a red scarf [Karacagil], the angel of Gezi with the most beautiful smile warming our hearts, has fallen before Raqqa and risen to the stars, once again searing our hearts.”

An investigation was launched two years after the tweet was posted, culminating in legal proceedings in July 2020. The first hearing of the trial was held in İstanbul in January 2021. Çandar did not attend since he was living abroad at the time.

The journalist left Turkey for Sweden in May 2016 upon the invitation of the Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies (SUITS) to work as a visiting scholar.

Ankara maintains that the YPG is indistinguishable from Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK); hence, Karacagil’s association with the YPG is deemed a “crime” by the country’s judiciary.

During Monday’s hearing, the prosecutor presented his final opinion and asked the court to sentence Çandar to two years in prison on charges of praising crime and criminals.

Çandar denied the charges and demanded his acquittal, saying that as a father, he was moved by a social media post about Karacagil and did not even know the woman’s name at the time.

The trial was adjourned until May 16.

Monday’s hearing was scheduled for Tuesday but was moved to Monday because Çandar will attend a meeting of the Green Left Party (YSP) on Tuesday where the party’s parliamentary candidates will be introduced.

Turkey will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14.

Çandar has been nominated by the YSP from the predominantly Kurdish province of Diyarbakır, where it is almost certain that he will be elected.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) decided to run under the banner of the YSP in the parliamentary elections in a bid to circumvent the risks that could emerge from its possible closure ahead of the elections.

Çandar is known for his work on the Kurdish issue, a term prevalent in Turkey’s public discourse that refers to the demand for equal rights by the country’s Kurdish population and their struggle for recognition. He has written several books on the Kurdish issue.

Int’l press organizations call on Turkey to stop punishing critical reporting ahead of elections

By Turkish Minute
April 13, 2023

The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom along with 19 other press freedom, freedom of expression and human rights organizations has called on Turkey’s broadcasting watchdog, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), to immediately stop fining broadcasters for their critical reporting ahead of elections on May 14.

Instead of upholding freedom of expression and media pluralism in the country, RTÜK is being weaponized by the governing parties to silence legitimate criticism and provide them with an unfair advantage in the May 2023 elections. This suppression of public debate is undermining the electoral process, said the organizations in their joint statement published on Thursday.

The statement referred to the most recent fines imposed by RTÜK earlier this month on FOX TV, Halk TV and Tele1 on the grounds that they violated the principles of broadcast journalism and failed to act with impartiality.

FOX TV was fined 3 percent of its monthly ad revenue after news anchor Gülbin Tosun criticized the government’s approach to women’s rights, saying that “the ruling alliance does not want you to work or study, but to have babies and stay at home” during a live broadcast. Tosun was targeted by members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) following her comments.

RTÜK imposed the same penalty on Halk TV for “preventing the free formation of opinion” after a presenter and her guest cited a news article claiming that Turkey’s Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) had charged survivors of February earthquakes to rent its equipment to help rescue their relatives from the rubble.

TELE1 was also fined 3 percent of its monthly ad revenue for “humiliating a municipality” after the hosts of the “18 Dakika” program criticized the AKP-run Şanlıurfa Municipality and cited allegations that the municipality had transferred funds, provided by foreign governments to Turkey, to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

These fines came on the back of a series of penalties already imposed in February on Halk TV, TELE1 and FOX TV and in March 2023 on Halk TV, TELE1, FOX TV, Show TV and Yıldız EN TV. RTÜK also imposed temporary bans on numerous programs because of their critical coverage.

In 2022 RTÜK issued 54 fines on five independent broadcasters totaling 17,335,000 Turkish lira (approximately $825.000). By contrast, pro-government channels received a total of four fines totaling TL 1,674,000 (approximately $80.000).

The government’s censorship is not limited to domestic news channels. In March the Ministry of Industry and Technology declined to renew the operating license of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle’s (DW) Turkish service after it was blocked in June 2022 at the request of RTÜK. DW is no longer able to operate in Turkey as a legal entity, forcing its reporters and editors to continue working as freelancers, deprived of stable work contracts and social security benefits.

“We view these incidents as part of the Turkish government’s systematic attempt to stifle critical reporting and to control the information flow ahead of Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14, 2023,” the organizations said.

“We call on the Turkish broadcast regulator, RTÜK, to immediately end the persecution of independent broadcasters and act according to its mandate to secure freedom of expression and media pluralism in the country.”

RTÜK is accused of contributing to increasing censorship in the country by imposing punitive and disproportionate sanctions on independent television and radio stations critical of the Turkish government.

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), 90 percent of the national media in Turkey, which was ranked 149th among 180 countries in the RSF’s 2022 World Press Freedom Index, is owned by pro-government businessmen and toe the official line.

Signed by:

Association of European Journalists

ARTICLE 19

Articolo 21

Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ)

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

Danish PEN

English PEN

European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)

European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)

Freedom House

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)

International Press Institute (IPI)

Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA)

OBC Transeuropa (OBCT)

PEN International

Platform for Independent Journalism (P24)

Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO)

Swedish PEN

World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA)