US citizen George Glezmann freed by Taliban in Qatar-mediated deal

Taliban authorities have freed US citizen George Glezmann after he spent more than two years in detention in Afghanistan, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday. Glezmann, 66, was released after weeks of negotiations led by Qatari and US mediators and is on his way back to the United States.


Issued on: 20/03/2025 - 17:11Modified: 20/03/2025 - 17:09
2 min

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This photo released by Qatar's foreign ministry shows US citizen George Glezmann (C) with US official Adam Boehler (C-L), former US envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad (C-R) and Qatari diplomats in Kabul, before heading for Doha 

© - / QATARI MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS/AFP


George Glezmann spent more than two years in detention in Afghanistan. He is now on his way to the United States, said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he was released by the Taliban.

The release was announced after the Taliban government's foreign minister hosted US hostage envoy Adam Boehler and other US officials in the Afghan capital.

"Today, after two and a half years of captivity in Afghanistan, Delta Airlines mechanic George Glezmann is on his way to be reunited with his wife, Aleksandra," Rubio said in a statement.

"George's release is a positive and constructive step. It is also a reminder that other Americans are still detained in Afghanistan," he added.


Read more Two US citizens, Afghan fighter exchanged in prisoner swap, Taliban says

Glezmann was en route to Qatar, a source with knowledge of the release told AFP.

Ahead of the announcement, Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi hosted Boehler, who was accompanied by Washington's former envoy to Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad, the ministry said.

"Today is a good day," Khalilzad said on X.


The Taliban authorities decided to free Glezmann on "humanitarian grounds" and as a "goodwill gesture".

The prisoner release reflects "Afghanistan's readiness to genuinely engaging all sides, particularly the United States of America, on the basis of mutual respect and interests", a foreign ministry statement said.

The US delegation was the first from Washington since US President Donald Trump took office in January, foreign ministry spokesman Hafiz Zia Ahmad told AFP.

Contacts between the two sides since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 has usually taken place in third countries.
'New chapter'

Taliban authorities announced late last month the arrest of a Chinese-American woman on February 1 in the province of Bamiyan, a tourist attraction west of Kabul known for its giant Buddhas until they were destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban.

Officials have refused to detail the reasons for her arrest.

At least one other American, Mahmood Habibi, is detained in Afghanistan.

In July, Kabul announced it was in discussions with Washington over a prisoner exchange.

The talks took place in Qatar during an international conference that brought together UN representatives, Taliban authorities, and envoys for Afghanistan -- generally those based in neighbouring countries or within the region.

In January, two Americans detained in Afghanistan -- Ryan Corbett and William McKenty -- were freed in exchange for an Afghan fighter, Khan Mohammed, who was convicted of narco-terrorism in the United States.

Two weeks later, a Canadian former soldier, David Lavery, was released after more than two months held in Afghanistan, in a deal brokered by Qatar.

Trump signed a peace deal with the Taliban authorities during his first term in office and, following his re-election, the Kabul government expressed hopes for a "new chapter" with Washington.

The government in Kabul is not recognised by any country, but several including Russia, China and Turkey have kept their embassies open in the Afghan capital.

Delegations from these countries, both diplomatic and economic, make frequent visits to Kabul.

The Taliban government also reports less frequent visits from Western officials, notably British and Norwegian.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Trump's assault on knowledge: Department of Education closure follows attacks on science

04:24 min
From the show

TECH 24 © FRANCE 24
Issued on: 21/03/2025 - 

US President Donald Trump’s announced shuttering of the Department of Education comes amid a broader attack on knowledge and research. Since Trump returned to the presidency in January, US science has suffered budget cuts, layoffs and censorship, with global implications. In a column published by French media on Thursday, 2,000 academics from the Stand Up for Science movement called for investment to help set up safe places for American researchers to continue their work. We take a closer look.

By: Peter O'BRIEN

 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for KNOW NOTHINGS

French survival guide: Preparing for war?

ENTRE NOUS © FRANCE 24
Issued on: 20/03/2025 

The French government is preparing a survival guide for French households to prepare them for an emergency such as an armed conflict. We take a look at what's in the pamphlet and what other European nations are doing to prepare their citizens for worst-case scenarios. Finally, we explain how this guidebook is far from the only one that's part of French life.


A programme produced by Amanda Alexander, Marina Pajovic and Georgina Robertson.
By: Solange MOUGIN

06:06 min
From the show

France pushes shift to ‘wartime economy’ as US turns its back on Ukraine

Analysis


Washington’s abrupt decision to freeze military aid to Ukraine has piled pressure on Kyiv’s European allies to take up the slack, giving new urgency to French calls for Europe to invest in a self-sufficient defence.


Issued on: 04/03/2025 -
By: Benjamin DODMAN

French President Emmanuel Macron reviews the troops during a military ceremony in Cesson-Sevigne, western France, on January 20, 2025. © Stephane Mahe, AP


When President Emmanuel Macron first announced that France had shifted to a “wartime economy”, just months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, his martial rhetoric elicited widespread scepticism.

Back then, in June 2022, the European Union’s only nuclear power was still spending less than 2 percent of its GDP on defence – shy of a target set by NATO a decade earlier.

France was also facing uncomfortable questions about its small share of arms deliveries to Ukraine compared to other Western nations, which in turn exposed shortages in its own military stocks.

Almost two years on, talk of a “wartime economy” is once again making headlines now that US President Donald Trump has turned his back on Ukraine, raising doubts about Washington’s commitment to NATO and the defence of Europe.


Read more'We should have woken up earlier': Europe races to rearm as old alliances falter

“We’re not there yet, but we need to be heading towards (a wartime economy),” French Finance Minister Eric Lombard told Le Parisien at the weekend, promising to unveil new budgetary measures to boost defence spending in the coming weeks.

“We must go faster and harder,” Lombard added in a separate interview with Franceinfo on Tuesday. “We will have to make greater efforts to protect ourselves, to build an economy in that protects peace, and to strengthen our defence within a European framework.”

Peace dividend

Like other European democracies, France slashed its defence budget and downsized its army in the decades following the end of the Cold War, reaping a “peace dividend” as it redirected resources to tackle structural problems including high unemployment and sluggish growth.

While French defence spending finally passed the 2 percent mark last year, it remains a far cry from the 5.4 percent spent in 1960 and the 2.8 percent it was still spending in 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed.

And while French military firms are among the world’s leading exporters, the sector employs just over 200,000 people across the country.

“A wartime economy implies the mobilisation of the state apparatus and the majority of a country’s industries in support of a war effort, which is clearly not the case of France and other European countries,” said Alain De Neve, a researcher at the Royal Higher Institute for Defence in Brussels.

“In fact, we are still a long way from a war economy – which is not to say that nothing has been done to bolster Europe’s defences,” he added.

45:28

US critics have long accused their NATO allies in Europe of “free-riding” while Washington extends its nuclear umbrella and deploys tens of thousands of troops to protect the continent.

Speaking to US media last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio singled out France and Germany among the “big, powerful economies” that rely on the US for their security so they “can instead spend their money" on an “enormous social safety net”.

The comments prompted a response from the French Foreign Ministry, which played up the “operational capabilities” of France’s armed forces and their ability to “conceive and conduct large-scale operations abroad”.

The ministry also noted that France is now in line with NATO spending targets and on course to double its defence budget by 2030 – though even that target has been made inadequate by Washington’s abrupt U-turn on Ukraine.

As De Neve observed, “The dramatic events of recent weeks mean France’s current defence spending plans are based on forecasts that are effectively obsolete.”
Targets revisited

As he returned from an emergency Ukraine summit in London on Sunday, France’s Macron acknowledged that his government would have to “review and increase” its current seven-year military spending plan in light of Washington’s changing priorities.

The French president called on Europeans to dramatically increase their defence spending to over 3 percent of GDP – a figure previously advocated only by Baltic nations long alarmed by the threat from Russia.

“For the past three years, the Russians have been spending 10 percent of their GDP on defence. We need to prepare what comes next, with an objective of 3 to 3.5 percent of GDP,” Macron said in an interview with French daily Le Figaro.

That will mean proposing a new defence budget in the French parliament despite lacking a majority to pass it, and at a time when France is already under pressure to reduce its ballooning deficit.

The government can expect little support from opposition parties on the far right and hard left, including nationalists, pacifists and critics of NATO who feel France should never have aligned with the US in the first place.

Marine Le Pen, whose far-right National Rally party has long harboured Russian sympathies, supports France's rearmament but to serve French interests only. Her camp voiced outrage after Macron suggested extending France’s nuclear umbrella to protect its European allies.

01:24

French government debates extending France's 'nuclear umbrella' to all Europe 

© France 24

The moderate Socialist opposition, a staunch supporter of Ukraine, has been more open to boosting military spending in coordination with EU partners – provided France’s cherished safety nets are spared.

“There can be no question of sacrificing our social model,” former president François Hollande warned in an interview with Le Monde on Friday, cautioning that such a move would be a gift to the “populists” and “appeasers” who would rather abandon Ukraine.

Seeking to allay such fears, Finance Minister Lombard said Tuesday that maintaining France’s social protections was “absolutely essential”. He called on the private sector to step in, urging “banks and French investors to play their part in developing our defence’s industrial and technological base”.
Rearming Europe

Mobilising private capital is also at the heart of a plan to bolster Europe’s defence industry and increase its military capability that EU chief Ursula von der Leyen unveiled on Tuesday, just hours after Trump froze US aid to Ukraine, confirming Washington’s pivot away from Kyiv and Europe.

Presenting the “ReArm Europe” package in Brussels, von der Leyen said the plan could raise nearly €800 billion for European defence while also providing “immediate” military support for Ukraine.

“Europe faces a clear and present danger on a scale that none of us has seen in our adult lifetime,” the European Commission president said in a letter to EU leaders. “We are ready to step up.”
French President Emmanuel Macron visits a repair warehouse for Puma military helicopters in Bourges, south of Paris, on October 27, 2022. © Lewis Joly, AP

Key to the proposals, which will be discussed at an EU summit on Thursday, are steps to spur defence investments by the bloc’s 27 member states by easing its strict budget rules, as well as a new €150 billion loan facility.

In a sign of the changing times, the proposal was warmly greeted by Germany, traditionally the guardian of EU budgetary orthodoxy, with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock hailing “an important first step” towards the “quantum leap to strengthen our EU defence”.

Guntram Wolff of Brussels-based think tank Bruegel said the measures went in the “right direction” but were “not a game changer”, telling AFP that he hoped for a more ambitious debate on joint borrowing once Germany's new government is in place.

Describing von der Leyen’s plan as a “substantial step” in support Europe’s defence industry, De Neve cautioned against focusing exclusively on budgetary measures – to the detriment of coordination between national defence industries.

“Europe’s problems are not merely a matter of budgets and numbers, but also of coordination,” he explained. “It is imperative that each country’s military planning fits into a wider and more coherent vision for Europe.”
Pledges into orders

Coordinating European procurement would not necessarily contradict France’s historic aim to preserve a sovereign production capability, De Neve added, noting that the priority should be to reduce each national defence industry’s reliance on the US.

“If we can encourage European countries to buy European materiel, and thereby reduce our dependence on American components, that would already be a huge step forward,” he said.

05:59  Focus 

© France 24

With several major armaments manufacturers such as Thales and MBDA and a host of smaller defence firms, France is poised to play a prominent role in Europe’s rearmament.

On Tuesday, the industry’s major players said they were ready and willing to fill the gap left by Trump’s Ukraine aid freeze. But they cautioned that getting there would take time and depend on how fast political pledges turn into contracts.

Defence manufacturers have long complained that targets do not translate into orders, or that contracts end up going to US rivals.

“Does Europe have the necessary technology to produce the full spectrum of defence equipment that it needs? The answer is yes,” Thales CEO Patrice Caine told reporters as the French firm’s share hit a record high.

"It is more a question for buyers, governments and armies,” he added. “When the contracts come, we will be ready, but there is no point in being ready too far in advance.”

'Assassin's Creed' controversy: Dive into the debate surrounding the latest instalment

arts24 © FRANCE 24
Issued on: 20/03/2025 

Join us as we explore the heated discussions around the newest "Assassin's Creed" video game, praised for its beauty but sparking debates over character choices and historical accuracy. Plus, discover the incredible rescue of 18th-century French masterpieces from Los Angeles wildfires, now on display near Paris. Finally, don't miss the groundbreaking exhibition at the Pompidou Centre honouring Black artists, before the museum closes for a five-year renovation.

By:
Eve JACKSONFollow
Laura DI BIASIO
Magali FAURE
Clémence DELFAURE
Clémence LEBOUCHER

Play (12:08 min)

From the show

Explainer

For military staff across Europe, wargaming is all the rage

Once dismissed as frivolous, wargames have emerged as crucial strategic tools amid rising global tensions. A recent simulation at Paris's École Militaire, where 500 participants played out high-intensity conflict scenarios, reflects a growing international trend toward gamified military preparedness.

26/02/2025 
By:Lara BULLENS

Participants consult the wargame board during the February 11 event at the École Militaire in Paris. © Alexandre Colby, Les Jeunes IHEDN


Every person in the packed conference hall stands up as two French soldiers greet each other onstage with a military salute. Major General Bruno Baratz approaches the lectern and speaks into the microphones. “We are running five minutes behind schedule,” he says with a grin. “There was a queue to get in.”

On the podium from which he speaks are the words “Jeu de guerre” (Wargame), with the theme of the day written below. It is the year 2035 and France is on the brink of war.

A handful of young participants sit at a table in the middle of the stage. A map of central and eastern Europe is splayed across the top, littered with green and red markers. Sliding scales at the bottom of the map represent France’s economic, diplomatic, military power and political stability.

Then, a fictional news bulletin plays on the projector overhead, upping the stakes. Russian troops have reached the borders of Poland and the Baltic States. China is about to invade Taiwan. And while Europe holds its breath, France enters defence stage three – two steps below full-blown war.

A wargame simulation gathered more than 500 people at the École Militaire military training base in Paris on February 11. While two teams engaged in high-intensity conflict on stage, the audience took part in each step of the decision-making process.


The event – organised by Future Combat Command (CCF), a branch of the French Armed Forces tasked with responding to new military threats, alongside two youth organisations – was a hit.

Outside the four walls of the conference hall, Paris remained at peace. Yet with war on Europe’s doorstep, the scenarios explored during the day-long wargame were not entirely implausible. Organisers stressed that the exercise was not meant to predict the future but the growing use of wargames among military personnel in France and beyond underscores an increasingly sharp focus on preparedness.
Wargames in vogue

France has only recently embraced the use of wargames as a serious military tool.

“The concept of gameplay was seen as light-hearted for a long time in French culture and therefore not suited to prepare for serious situations,” explained Laurent Ferrier, who sits on the steering committee of Les Jeunes IHEDN, a youth organisation sponsored by the armed forces ministry that helped organise the February 11 event.

But wargames are now widely being used in military facilities across the country, including the École de Guerre, a training establishment for senior officers. The head of the French agency for defence innovation, Emmanuel Chiva, even created a programme called the “Red Team” – an experiment in which screenwriters and science fiction writers imagine future scenarios to anticipate strategic surprises. And the armed forces ministry has had its own wargaming service provider since May 2022.

Their popularity has been on the rise worldwide. Each year since at least 2022, Germany, Italy and France have joined forces to organise a wargaming initiative for NATO. The United States accounted for 92 percent of global spending on the gamification of defence in 2022 – approximately $25 billion, according to GlobalData.

And the advent of AI has meant that wargames have become more accessible to lower-ranking strategists and analysts.

Read moreTwenty-four hours in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, where life goes on despite the war

“Wargaming has now been woven into the overall planning of many militaries,” said David Banks, a senior lecturer in wargaming at King’s College in London. “I have two hypotheses as to why that is. First, we have a strategic international environment which is extremely complicated … There is so much uncertainty that I think [militaries] are embracing everything. Any tool for forecasting gives them some sense of the future,” he explained.

“We also have a generation of people who grew up playing games. Those people have now entered leadership positions.”

“It’s funny, because some of the people I spoke to at NATO say they often have to be careful when trying to convince their superiors of the utility of wargames because the word ‘game’ turns them off,” Banks said, underlining a similar culture shift to the one Ferrier described in France. “But everyone is getting more involved than they were five years ago.”

A tool to prepare, not predict

Wargames are undeniably becoming more ingrained in military strategy and widely accepted as tools to test strategic responses, refine decision-making and anticipate potential threats. But Banks warns that many in the defence sector requesting wargames are hoping for “a crystal ball” to be able to predict the future – certainty that they are incapable of providing.

Wargames are adversarial simulations that use rules, data and procedures to model military conflicts. The scenarios they use are often based on real-life issues or possibilities – as was the case with the arrival of Russian forces on Baltic borders for the Paris wargame, for example. Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia are already ramping up real-life military preparations amid fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s imperialist ambitions will eventually extend from Ukraine elsewhere into Europe.

“You can invent any given situation and see how your stakeholders will respond,” Ferrier said of wargames scenarios. “The results and data you gather at the end are in no way reliable. There is no way [that it] could predict [the future]. But it does provide food for thought and create plausible situations to help military staff think about how the army could react.”

The origins of wargaming stretch all the way back to ancient civilisations. Its earliest forms include the Latrones, a two-person strategy board game played throughout the Roman Empire, and Chaturanga, an Indian board game that is believed to be the precursor of chess. It was only in the 19th century that wargames gained widespread recognition as military training tools. The Prussian Army’s Kriegsspiel revolutionised military exercises, laying the groundwork for modern tactical simulations like the ones we see today.

And although wargames have predicted global events like the Covid-19 pandemic, it is also believed that they may have mislead the US Navy to draw incorrect conclusions on Japan’s intentions during World War II.

“Making a wargame is all about asking the question, ‘What if?’” said Félix Rolland, who leads crisis simulations at the Panthéon-Sorbonne University youth defence group and helped organise the Paris wargame. “Asking that question allows us to overcome any intellectual hang-ups we may have about a real-life possibility.”

For Banks, wargames are most efficient when they ask questions about the physical, material world. “Questions about whether a long-range weapon will be able to penetrate defence screens of opponents, or power through a city, for example. Our existing scientific models of things like weapons, explosives or aerodynamics are … not that difficult to convert into smaller models for a game,” he explained. “It gets much harder to do that when you start to leave the material world.”

And there is also the human element to consider. Morale and solidarity play a huge role in wartime.

“In a tactical military game, one of the key factors to determine the outcome of the war in Ukraine is its national will. You cannot make a universal model of what national will looks like and how it operates. The same goes for imagining how democracies will respond to populist challenges in the future. None of those are empirical facts. They are all conceptual,” Banks added. “Participants haven’t experienced the actual phenomenon, so they are just guessing.”

While the École Militaire returned to normal after the February 11 wargame concluded, the questions it raised lingered in the minds of participants and observers alike. Wargames may not predict the future but they offer invaluable tools to test assumptions and stimulate critical thinking. At a time when geopolitical tensions are high, perhaps the way best to prepare for the unexpected is indeed to ask, “What if?”

French fishermen 'talk' to dolphins to save them

05:26  DOWN TO EARTH © FRANCE 24
Issued on: 11/03/2025


For the first time ever, fishermen in the Bay of Biscay are testing new high tech fishing gear that "speak dolphin language" to warn them of danger. The aim : reduce bycatch, after tens of thousands of dolphins drowned in fishing nets in recent years. Could ultrasound beacons save marine life and support the fishing industry ? FRANCE 24’s Aurore Cloé Dupuis and Alexandra Renard explain.

By:
Aurore Cloé DUPUISFollow
Alexandra RENARD
Johan BODIN
Joël PROCOPE
Carlotta POIRIER

05:26 min
From the show

From fast fashion to fair fashion: The denim revolution

DOWN TO EARTH © FRANCE 24
Issued on: 21/03/2025 - 

Jeans are the most popular trousers in the world. Every year, over 2 billion pairs are made. But most travel one and a half times around the planet before reaching your wardrobe. With toxic dyes, chemical pollution and massive water waste, denim’s carbon footprint is anything but small. But change is happening. From cutting-edge tech to natural dyes, ancient weaving to local production, innovators are rethinking jeans for a more sustainable future. The Down to Earth team takes a closer look

05:11 min
From the show

US State Department confirms program tracking abducted Ukrainian children halted


Issued on: 19/03/2025 - 


President Donald Trump promised Wednesday to help Ukraine get back thousands of children allegedly abducted to Russia. But Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab, which has been tracking the missing children, lost crucial funding from the US government as Trump made sweeping cuts into foreign aid. The Humanitarian Research Lab -- which is seeking donations to keep going -- says more than 19,000 children have been deported to Russia, with only 1,236 returned.

Video by: Florent MARCHAIS

A ‘50-50’ minerals deal with US suits Ukrainians in a graphite mining village


US President Donald Trump has said he expects a minerals deal with Ukraine to be signed “very shortly”, without providing details. The US is reported to be seeking more favourable return on investment terms in the country’s valuable minerals sector. In Zavallia, a central Ukrainian village near an open-air graphite mine, residents and mine officials say they welcome a deal, but it should benefit Ukraine, not just the US.


Issued on: 22/03/2025 - 
FRANCE23/AFP

By: Catherine NORRIS TRENT
Dmytro KOVALCHUK
James ANDRE
James ANDRÉ
Tarek KAI

Video by: Catherine NORRIS TRENT

03:00

The open-air Zavaliv mine in central Ukraine is rich in graphite. 

© Screengrab, FRANCE 24

Ihor Valeriiovych, the director of the open air Zavaliv mine in central Ukraine, points to a thick grey layer in the exposed rock and notes that it's “almost pure graphite”.

“It’s the only mine like it in Ukraine, the only one in Europe, and possibly the world, because this quarry contains three types of mineral resources,” Valeriiovych says.

Foremost among them: graphite, used in electric car batteries and the nuclear and defence sectors.

The details of any mineral deal brokered by Ukraine and the US are still being hammered out but Valeriiovych says he hopes this plant could be part of it.


“Personally, I would like it to be included in the deal because we need investment. Our equipment and facilities are outdated. However, any agreement should benefit Ukraine and our company, not just the United States.”

05:07

BUSINESS © FRANCE 24

Graphite extraction at the mine has slowed almost to a standstill due to the war and soaring electricity costs. Valeriiovych and his colleagues are trying to modernise and attract investors.

“Pure graphite is the future because it’s big money,” he says.

Ukraine’s vast mineral wealth includes around one-fifth of the world’s proven resources of graphite, a mineral classified as critical by the EU, and among those at the heart of the minerals deal drawn up by the US.

The nearby village of Zavallia is a portrait of industrial decline.

Locals, among them former miners, hope American money could inject new life.

A group of elderly residents say they're upbeat about the prospects of US investment in the local mine. “If there’s a good owner and good salaries, then people will stop leaving. Prices are rising, but the plant is standing still, nothing is working. Everything is idle. And there’s nothing for the youth,” says one man.

A woman adds: “If they take our resources but give us nothing in return, I am against it. If it’s a 50-50 deal, then I wouldn’t mind.”

Click on video player above to watch the report.

 

 

International report

Turkey braces for 

more protests 

over Istanbul

 mayor's arrest

Issued on: 22/03/2025 -  RFI                     PODCASTCLICK LEFT

Anger is mounting over the arrest of Istanbul's popular mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on corruption and terror charges. Seen as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's main political rival, Imamoglu was arrested on Wednesday, just days before he was due to be named as the candidate for the main opposition CHP party in the 2028 presidential election.

Supporters of the mayor of Istanbul demonstrate against his detention in Istanbul, 19 March, 2025. AFP - YASIN AKGUL

Imamoglu's opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has denounced the detention as a "coup" and vowed to keep up the demonstrations, which by Thursday night had spread to at least 32 of Turkey's 81 provinces, according to a count by French news agency AFP.

Opposition leader Ozgur Ozel told supporters: "This is not the time for politics in rooms and halls but on the streets and squares."

Imamoglu was arrested in a pre-dawn raid on Wednesday, on corruption and terror charges, ahead of his expected election on Sunday as the CHP's candidate for Turkey's presidential elections in 2028. 

According to political analyst Mesut Yegen of the Reform Institute, an Istanbul-based think tank, Imamoglu is more than just a mayor. 

"Imamoglu is now [Erdogan's] main rival, it's obvious," Yegen told RFI, adding that as Istanbul's mayor he has a unique opportunity. "Istanbul is important for the resources it has, it's the biggest municipality. Here in Turkey, municipalities are important to finance politics."

Popular appeal

Opinion polls give Imamoglu – who defeated Erdogan's AK party three times in mayoral elections – a double-digit lead over Erdogan. This is because he is widely seen as reaching beyond his secular political base to religious voters, nationalists and Turkey's large Kurdish constituency. 

Some observers see Imamoglu's arrest as a sign that Erdogan is reluctant to confront the mayor in presidential elections.

"If Erdogan could beat him politically with regular rules, he would love that. But he cannot be doing that. Erdogan wants to take him out of the political sphere one way or the other," explained Sezin Oney, a commentator on Turkey's independent Politikyol news outlet. 

"The competitive side has started to be too much of a headache for the presidency, so they want to get rid of the competitive side and emphasise the authoritarian side, with Imamoglu as the prime target," she said.

Erdogan’s local election defeat reshapes Turkey’s political landscape

Turkey's justice minister Yilmaz Tunc has angrily rejected claims that Imamoglu's prosecution is politically motivated, insisting the judiciary is independent. 

Erdogan sought to play down the protests, saying on Friday that Turkey "will not surrender to street terror" and discouraged any further demonstrations.

"We, as a party and individuals, have no time to waste on the opposition's theatrics. We are focused on our work and our goals," Erdogan declared. 

Imamoglu's arrest comes as Turkey's crisis-ridden economy took another hit, with significant falls on the stock market and its currency falling by more than 10 percent as international investors fled the Turkish market.

'Out of sight, out of mind'

However, Oney suggests Erdogan will be banking on a combination of fear and apathy eventually leading to the protests dissipating, and that Imamoglu, like other imprisoned political figures in Turkey, will be marginalised.

"The government is counting on the possibility that once Imamoglu is out of sight, [he will be] out of mind," she predicts. "So he will just be forgotten, and the presidency will have its way [more easily]."

Turkey is no stranger to jailing politicians, even leaders of political parties. However, Oney warns that with Imamoglu facing a long prison sentence if convicted, the significance of such a move should not be underestimated.

"It's going to be extremely detrimental to Turkish democracy. You have jailing of politicians, but someone on the scale of Imamoglu will be unique," she said.

Despite Imamoglu's detention, the CHP vowed it would press ahead with its primary on Sunday, at which it would formally nominate him as its candidate for the 2028 race.

The party said it would open the process to anyone who wanted to vote, not just party members, saying: "Come to the ballot box and say 'no' to the coup attempt!"

Observers said the government could seek to block the primary, to prevent a further show of support for Imamgolu.

By:Dorian Jones

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu's arrest sparks mass protests

Issued on: 22/03/2025 - 

After his third night in custody, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was to appear before prosecutors Saturday, just hours after hundreds of thousands hit the streets across Turkey in a massive show of defiance. It was the third straight night that protesters had rallied against the arrest of Imamoglu – the biggest political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose arrest early Wednesday sparked Turkey's biggest street protests in more than a decade.

Video by: FRANCE 24

Turkey arrests protesters as detained Istanbul mayor faces second day of questioning

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya on Saturday said 343 people were arrested following a third night of protests against the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoglu, a major opposition politician.


Issued on: 22/03/2025 
By: FRANCE 24

01:34

Protesters clash with Turkish anti riot police during a demonstration following the arrest of Istanbul's mayor in Ankara on March 21, 2025. © Adem Altan, AFP

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu appeared before police for questioning on terror-related charges on Saturday, a day after his interrogation over corruption allegations. His arrest this week has sparked widespread protests across Turkey, with demonstrators rallying in multiple cities to voice their opposition.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya posted on social media that 343 suspects had been detained in protests in major cities on Friday night, adding “There will be no tolerance for those who seek to violate societal order, threaten the people’s peace and security, and pursue chaos and provocation.” The cities listed included Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Çanakkale, Eskişehir, Konya and Edirne.

The mayor, who is a popular opposition figure and seen as a top challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was detained on Wednesday following a dawn raid on his residence over allegations of financial crimes and links to Kurdish militants. Dozens of other prominent figures, including two district mayors, were also detained.

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Many view the arrest as a politically driven attempt to remove a popular opposition figure and key challenger to Erdogan in the next presidential race, currently scheduled for 2028. Government officials reject accusations that legal actions against opposition figures are politically motivated and insist that Turkey’s courts operate independently.


On Friday, police questioned Imamoglu for four hours over the corruption accusations, during which he denied all of the charges, Cumhuriyet newspaper and other media reported. He was expected to be transferred to a courthouse later on Saturday for questioning by prosecutors and to face possible charges.

His arrest has ignited protests that have steadily increased in intensity.

On Friday, police in Istanbul used pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets to push back hundreds of protesters who tried to break through a barricade in front of the city’s historic aqueduct while hurling flares, stones and other objects at officers. Police also dispersed groups that had rallied outside of the city hall for a third night running, after the opposition Republican People’s Party leader, Ozgur Ozel, delivered a speech in support of the mayor.

Simultaneously, police broke up demonstrations in Ankara, the capital, as well as in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, resorting to forceful measures at times, according to television images. Thousands marched in several other cities calling on the government to resign.

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Earlier, Erdogan said the government would not tolerate street protests and accused the opposition party of links to corruption and terror organizations. Authorities in Ankara and Izmir meanwhile, announced a five-day ban on demonstrations, following a similar measure imposed earlier in Istanbul.

“An anti-corruption operation in Istanbul is being used as an excuse to stir unrest in our streets. I want it to be known that we will not allow a handful of opportunists to bring unrest to Turkey just to protect their plundering schemes,” Erdogan said.

Imamoglu’s arrest came just days before he was expected to be nominated as the opposition Republican People’s Party’s presidential candidate in a primary on Sunday. Ozel has said that the primary, where around 1.5 million delegates can vote, will go ahead as planned.

The opposition party has also urged citizens to participate in a symbolic election on Sunday — through improvised ballot boxes to be set up across Turkey — to show solidarity with Imamoglu.

In a message posted on his social media account Saturday, Imamoglu described his arrest as a “coup” and accused the government of exploiting the judiciary and worsening the country’s troubled economy.

“With your support, we will first defeat this coup, and then we will send packing those who caused this,” he wrote on the social media platform X.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)

Thousands protest for second night over Istanbul mayor's arrest


Issued on: 20/03/2025 - 


Turkish riot police fired teargas and rubber bullets on Thursday, as demonstrators protested for a second night outside Istanbul City Hall over the shock arrest of the Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in a graft and terror probe. 

Riots break out at Ankara university campus after Erdogan rival detained

FRANCE24
Issued on: 20/03/2025 - 


Riots broke out at the campus of Ankara's Middle East Technical University as students protested against the detention of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. Thousands have been protesting in major Turkish cities for a second night in a row as Imamoglu, President Erdogan's main political rival, called for judges to take a stand against the Turkish government's misuse of the courts. FRANCE 24's Jasper Mortimer

  

Erdogan could use Imamoglu detention to extend the term limit to presidency, analyst says

Issued on: 19/03/2025 - 

FRANCE24

 Video by: Yinka OYETADE

Anger has erupted on the streets of Istanbul, with thousands of people rallying in the cold in front of the city hall on Wednesday evening, yelling: "Erdogan, dictator!" and "Imamoglu, you are not alone!", after the city's mayor and Erdogan's main political rival was detained. Şebnem Gümüşçü, Ass. Professor of Political Science at Middlebury College and Sabancı University, says that Erdogan could use the detention as leverage 'to negotiate opposition support for a third or fourth term'.

 

'Erdogan trying to play a bigger role internationally but he's not reliable, nor is he predictable'

Expert Analysis
Issued on: 20/03/2025 

FRANCE24

Turkish police detained Istanbul's powerful mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, Wednesday over graft and terrorism allegations, prompting outrage from the opposition which slammed it as a politically-motivated "coup". For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective, FRANCE 24's Mark Owen welcomes Dr. İlhan Uzgel, Professor of International Relations and Turkey's opposition CHP Deputy Chairperson.

Video by:Mark OWEN

 

From Lebanon refuge, trauma scars Syria's minority Alawites

Masaoudiyeh (Lebanon) (AFP) – When he arrived in the town of Masaoudiyeh in northern Lebanon earlier this month, fleeing massacres on Syria's Mediterranean coast, Dhulfiqar Ali had escaped death not once but twice.


Issued on: 22/03/2025 - 
FRANCE24

Syrians from the Alawite minority take shelter at a school in Lebanon's Masaoudiyeh village, after mass killings in their homeland © ANWAR AMRO / AFP


He is among thousands of Syrians who have fled across the border after armed groups descended on the Syrian coastal heartland of ousted president Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority and killed hundreds of civilians, mostly Alawites.

"They didn't even speak Arabic... they knew only: 'Alawites, pigs, kill them'," Ali said of the gunmen.

A mobile phone shop owner who lived in an Alawite neighbourhood of Homs, Ali had already been attacked before, soon after Assad was toppled in a lightning offensive by Islamist-led rebels in December.

"They shot and killed my two brothers in front of me and they shot me and thought I was dead," said the 47-year-old father of two, who now lives with his family at a school in Masaoudiyeh.

He escaped to the mountains near Latakia in January to receive treatment, only to be forced to flee again, this time across the border.

Lebanon says nearly 16,000 Syrians have arrived since early March -- adding to the already substantial population of 1.5 million Syrians who sought refuge in the country during the nearly 14-year civil war.

Most are now in predominantly Alawite villages and towns in Lebanon's northern region of Akkar, including nearly 2,500 in Masaoudiyeh.

Masaoudiyeh Mayor Ali Ahmed al-Ali said the town was "above capacity".
'Extermination'

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, security forces and allied groups in Syria killed at least 1,614 civilians, the vast majority of them Alawites, during the violence that erupted on March 6.

Still using a crutch to walk because of his gunshot injury, Ali said those who had descended on the coastal areas were "not Syrians".

The group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad is an offshoot of the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, and is still proscribed as a terrorist organisation by countries including the United States.

Lebanon says nearly 16,000 Syrians have arrived since early March -- many of them, like these men, are sheltering in predominantly Alawite villages © ANWAR AMRO / AFP

After the massacres in Syria, a fact-finding committee was formed to investigate.

But Ali and many others told AFP the violence began well before March.

Samir Hussein Ismail, a 53-year-old farmer from Hama province, said his small village of Arzeh was attacked in late January, and nine people were killed.

He fled alone first, and only after the coastal killings did his family follow.

The armed groups "came to my village again on Friday morning, on March 7", Ismail told AFP.

"They exterminated everything," he said, adding that more than 30 men from Arzeh were killed.

Among them were six of his cousins, he said in the modest schoolroom with a tall pile of mattresses in a corner.

Like most now living in the school, he was among 10 people, or two families, sharing the space.

"We have to distinguish between massacres -- the massacres are still ongoing in Syria -- but everything that happened after March 7 is extermination, and not a massacre," Ismail said.
'No one dared leave'

Many people AFP spoke to described men being lined up and shot dead.

Almost unanimously, they called for "international protection" so they could return home.

Masaoudiyeh Mayor Ali Ahmed al-Ali said his Lebanese town, hosting nearly 2,500 Syrians, was 'above capacity' © ANWAR AMRO / AFP

Among those was Ammar Saqqouf, who said his cousin was taken by Syria's new security forces and found dead days later.

He said security forces began a sweep of his town. "Five or six days later, we found his body, decapitated."

One woman, who gave her name only as Mariam, arrived in Lebanon last week with her son after her husband, a conscripted soldier, was killed.

She fled her home town of Al-Qabu in Homs on foot, crossing the border by wading through the Al-Kabir River that divides it, like many others.

"They attacked us in Al-Qabu," she said from where she now lives alongside scores of others at a mosque in Masaoudiyeh.

"People began fleeing and my husband told me and my son, 'I will flee like those people.'"

He fled, she said, "so they killed him".

Mariam described living in fear before they finally left.

"No one dared leave to get a piece of bread. They surrounded the whole town.

"We don't even dare say we're Alawites any more."

Ismail, the farmer from Arzeh, said he felt "deprived of his humanity".

"What future do we have ahead of us?" he asked.

"We fled from hell."

Exclusive: Syria's Latakia province reels after massacre of Alawites

Issued on: 21/03/2025 - 

06:03 min
From the show

Our Syria correspondents travelled to the country's western coastal province of Latakia, which was the scene of the shocking massacre of civilians from the Alawite minority between March 7 and 9. They bring us this exclusive report.

On March 6 in Syria, factions loyal to the ousted regime of Bashar al-Assad launched an offensive against the new Islamist government's security forces. This led to several days of brutal violence, during which many Alawite civilians were targeted and summarily executed. Over 1,000 people were killed, according to NGOs. Bodies piled up and morgues were overwhelmed.

The region is now living in fear of a new cycle of violence. FRANCE 24's Dana Alboz and Yousef Gharibi bring us this exclusive report, with Lauren Bain.

By:
Dana ALBOZ
Lauren BAIN
Video by:
Dana ALBOZ
Lauren BAIN