Pope Francis condemns Israeli strikes, calling them 'beyond morality'

WILL HE BE ACCUSED OF ANTISEMITISM

Pope Francis suggested Sunday that Israel's attacks in Gaza and Lebanon have been “immoral” and disproportionate, saying its military domination has gone beyond

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
29 September, 2024

Pope Francis arrives in Popemobile for a Holy Mass in the King Baudouin Stadium on September 28, 2024 in Brussels, Belgium. [Getty]

Pope Francis, asked on Sunday about Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon that killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as well as non-combatants, criticised military attacks that he said go "beyond morality".

On the flight back to Rome from Belgium, the pontiff said countries cannot go "over the top" in using their military forces.

"Even in war there is a morality to safeguard," he said. "War is immoral. But the rules of war give it some morality."

Responding to a question during an in-flight press conference about Israel's latest strikes, the 87-year-old pope said: "Defence must always be proportionate to the attack. When there is something disproportionate, you see a tendency to dominate that goes beyond morality."

Francis, as leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, often makes calls for an end to violent conflicts, but is usually cautious about appearing to determine the aggressors.

He has spoken more openly in recent weeks about Israel's military actions in its nearly year-long war on the devastated Palestinian territory.

Last week, the pope said Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon were "unacceptable" and urged the international community to do everything possible to halt the fighting.

In a Sept. 28 press conference, he decried the deaths of Palestinian children in Israeli strikes in Gaza.

Francis said on Sunday he speaks on the phone with members of a Catholic parish in Gaza "every day". He said the parishioners tell him about conditions on the ground, and "also the cruelty that is happening there".

Pope criticized for giving ‘reductive’ view on women’s role in society

A Catholic university took the rare step of criticizing Pope Francis, saying that he called women “a fertile welcome, care, vital devotion.”


By Anthony Faiola and Stefano Pitrelli
September 29, 2024 
The Washington Post

ROME — A Catholic university in Belgium took the rare step of criticizing Pope Francis, saying he gave a “reductive” view on the role of women in society during a visit there this weekend.

During a Saturday visit to the University of Louvain, Francis said: “The woman is more important than the man, but it’s bad when the woman wants to be a man,” according to Vatican News, the official news outlet of the Holy See.

Francis also said that “a woman within the People of God is a daughter, a sister, a mother.”

After his address to the university, which had largely delved into warnings about climate change and war, UCLouvain issued a statement thanking Francis for his remarks while asserting “its incomprehension and disapproval of the position expressed by Pope Francis regarding the role of women in the Church and in society.”

The university said it disagreed with his “deterministic and reductive position,” citing comments from Francis that women were “a fertile welcome, care, vital devotion.”

A Vatican spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Seen by some as a progressive modernizer, Francis, 87, has nevertheless held firm on the church’s ban on women serving as priests or deacons. In an interview with “60 Minutes” that aired in May, he said that “women are of great service as women, not as ministers.”

He has sought to exalt women’s role in the church and society while rarely straying far from traditional Catholic teaching on gender. Catholic teachings state that women are “equal” to men but limit their role as clerics and place emphasis on motherhood, the traditional family and protecting “the dignity” of the “daughter, of the wife, of the mother.”

Some of Francis’s comments came after a letter from students was read aloud to him. “Women have been made invisible,” the letter said, according to the Associated Press. “Invisible in their lives, women have also been invisible in their intellectual contributions. What, then, is the place of women in the church?”

Lucetta Scaraffia, a church historian and former editor of Vatican women’s magazine Women Church World, said of Francis’s comments: “I wasn’t surprised at all. Especially on women, I’ve always thought he was quite the traditionalist.”

Francis is in Belgium largely to commemorate the 600th anniversary of two Catholic universities, UCLouvain and KU Leuven.

During his UCLouvain speech, Francis did not detail any plans for change in women’s roles in the church. Francis has previously created two commissions to examine the role of women as deacons and has also referred the issue to a study group, which is set to discuss the topic through next summer. The global Catholic church, meanwhile, remains split on the issue. The second of two major church summits held over two years — which opens in Rome next month — is not expected to deliver any resolution.

Andrea Grillo, professor of sacramental theology at the Anselmianum, a pontifical university in Rome, said that Francis’s statements sounded “as if a woman can only be a mother, wife, daughter or sister — roles that are always beholden to man. Whereas men are free to be what they will. … It’s a very old kind of ‘wisdom’ that the contemporary world has walked past.”

During his trip to Belgium, Francis — who met privately with 17 Belgian victims of clerical abuse on Friday — also faced unusually strong words from King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on the handling of such cases.

“Words alone are not enough,” Philippe said of the church’s response in his speech welcoming Francis.




By Anthony FaiolaAnthony Faiola is Rome Bureau Chief for The Washington Post. Since joining the paper in 1994, he has served as bureau chief in Miami, Berlin, London, Tokyo, Buenos Aires and New York and additionally worked as roving correspondent at large. follow on X @Anthony_Faiola

By Stefano PitrelliStefano Pitrelli is a reporter in the Rome bureau for The Washington Post.follow on X @StefanoPitrelli

Far right in Austria projected to win election race

Paul Kirby
BBC News
Bethany Bell
BBC Vienna correspondent

Getty ImagesVictory does not mean Kickl's Freedom Party will automatically be able to form a government

Austria's far-right Freedom Party is heading for an unprecedented general election victory under leader Herbert Kickl, projections say.

The projections, based on initial results, give Kickl's party 29.1% - almost three points ahead of the conservative People's Party on 26.2%, but far short of a majority.

The Freedom Party (FPÖ) has been in coalition before, but the second-placed conservative People's Party has refused to take part in a government led by him.

Kickl's main rival, incumbent Chancellor Karl Nehammer of the People Party (ÖVP), has said it's “impossible to form a government with someone who adores conspiracy theories”.

Some 6.3 million Austrians were eligible to vote in a race dominated by the twin issues of migration and asylum, as well as inflation and the war in Ukraine.

Freedom Party general secretary Michael Schnedlitz was delighted with the initial projections, declaring that "the men and women of Austria have made history today". He refused to say what kind of coalition his party would try to build.

They are on course to secure about 57 seats in the 183-seat parliament, with the conservatives on 51 and the Social Democrats on 41.

Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl has promised Austrians to build "Fortress Austria", to restore their security, prosperity and peace.

He has also spoken of becoming Volkskanzler (people's chancellor) which for some Austrians carries echoes of the term used to describe Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

FORMER AUSTRIAN CITIZEN 

COMPLETLY BALMY

Boris Johnson: UK considered military raid to seize Dutch Covid jabs

The plan was ultimately abandoned because invading a NATO ally would be “nuts,” former prime minister says in excerpt of memoirs.

The plan was ultimately abandoned because invading a NATO ally would be “nuts,” Johnson explains in his memoirs. | Carl Court/Getty Images

September 28, 2024 

By Max Griera

Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson considered sending troops to the Netherlands to seize a supply of five million doses of Covid vaccines held in Leiden, according to an excerpt of his forthcoming memoirs published in the Daily Mail.

In the spring of 2021, the EU and U.K. were wrestling over the production of Covid-19 vaccines in a factory located in Leiden, near the Dutch coast. The factory was run by Halix and supplied AstraZeneca vaccines contracted by both Britain and the EU.

Amid scarce supplies of vaccine doses, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had threatened to cut off vaccine exports to countries with higher vaccination rates than the EU as well as for countries that refused to share their own vaccine supplies with the bloc —  both of which criteria applied to the U.K. at the time.

In his memoirs, titled "Unleashed," Johnson explains how after two “futile” months of negotiations with the EU to release the doses he demanded the British armed forces to devise a plan to extract them by force. Senior army officials offered sending soldiers to cross the English Channel clandestinely to seize the vaccines, according to Johnson.

The plan was ultimately abandoned because invading a NATO ally would be “nuts,” Johnson explains in his memoirs.  

Why progress against HIV/AIDS has stalled among Hispanic and Latino Americans

Hispanic Americans accounted for 33% of estimated new HIV infections in 2022.

By Mary Kekatos

ABC
September 29, 2024



While the United States has made considerable progress fighting the HIV/AIDS crisis since its peak in the 1980s, headway has not been equal among racial/ethnic groups.

Overall, HIV rates have declined in the U.S. and the number of new infections over the last five years has dropped among Black Americans and white Americans. However, Hispanic and Latino Americans have not seen the same gains.

Between 2018 and 2022, estimated HIV infections among gay and bisexual men fell 16% for Black Americans and 20% for white Americans, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, Hispanic Americans saw rates held steady, the CDC said.

There may be several reasons for the lack of decline, including Hispanic Americans facing health care discrimination, experts told ABC News. Some may also face the stigma that prevents patients from accessing services or makes them feel ashamed to do so. There is also a lack of material that is available in their native language or is culturally congruent, experts said.

"Where we are in the HIV epidemic is that we have better tools than ever for both treatment and for prevention, and we have seen a modest slowing in the rate of new infections, but we have seen a relative increase in the rate of new infections among Latino individuals, particularly Latino men who have sex with men," Dr. Kenneth Mayer, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and medical research director at Fenway Health in Boston, told ABC News.

"So, the trends are subtle, but they're concerning because it does speak to increased health disparities in that population," he continued.


Declines in estimated HIV infections, 2018-2022
CDC
Hispanic Americans make up more cases and more deaths

Although Hispanic and Latino Americans make up 18% of the U.S. population, they accounted for 33% of estimated new HIV infections in 2022, according to HIV.gov, a website run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This is in comparison with white Americans, who make up 61% of the U.S. population but just 23% of HIV infections.

Hispanic and Latino gay men currently represent the highest number of new HIV cases in the U.S.

What's more, Hispanic males were four times likely to have HIV or AIDS compared to white males in 2022 and Hispanic females were about three times more likely than white females to have HIV over the same period, according to the federal Office of Minority Health (OMH).

Additionally, Hispanics males were nearly twice as likely to die of HIV Infection as white males and Hispanic females to die of HIV Infection in 2022, the OMH said.



MORE: People with HIV at higher risk of COVID reinfection: CDC





Erick Suarez, a nurse practitioner and chief medical officer of Pineapple Healthcare, a primary care and HIV/AIDS specialist located in Orlando, Florida, told ABC News that watching the lack of progress made in the HIV/AIDS crisis for the Hispanic and Latino population is like "traveling back in time."

"When I say traveling back in time for the Hispanic/Latino population with HIV, I mean [it's like] they are living before 2000," he said, "Their understanding of treatment and how to access it is in that pre-2000 world. … The state of HIV and AIDS in the Hispanic/Latino population in the United States right now is a few steps back from the general American population."

He said many Hispanic/Latino HIV patients come to the United States unaware of their HIV status. If they are aware of their status, they come from countries where prevention and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is hard to find or doesn't exist.


Estimated new HIV infections by race and ethnicity in U.S., 2022
CDC

When they get to the United States, they be afraid or unsure of where or how to access health care. Even Hispanic/Latino Americans whose families have been here for generations, have trouble accessing health care due to racial and ethnic disparities, Suarez said.

Previous research has shown Hispanic/Latino Americans with HIV reported experiencing health care discrimination, which could be a barrier to accessing care.
Facing discrimination, stigma

Hispanic and Latino patients with HIV report facing discrimination in health care, experts told ABC News. A CDC report published in 2022 found between 2018 and 2020, nearly 1 in 4 Hispanic patients with HIV said they experienced health care discrimination.

Hispanic men were more likely to face discrimination than Hispanic women and Black or African American Hispanic patients were more likely than white Hispanic patients to face discrimination, according to the report.

There may also be stigma -- both within the general population and within their own communities -- associated with HIV infection that could prevent patients from accessing services, according to the experts.

Suarez said one of his most recent patients, who is Cuban, traveled two hours to a clinic outside of their city to make sure no one in their familial and social circles would know their status.


Prevalence of HIV health care discrimination reported by Hispanic and Latino adults in U.S.
CDC

"The interesting part is that even though I speak with them like, 'You understand that everything that happens within these walls is federally protected, that it is private information. No one will ever know your information, and our goal is for you to get access healthcare. You can do this in your own city,'" Suarez said.

"Now, because of the stigma, they will travel long distances to avoid contact with anyone and make sure that no one knows their status. So, stigma is a huge factor," he continued.

Rodriguez said this stigma and mistrust has led to many Hispanic and Latino Americans to not seek medical care unless something is seriously wrong, which may result in missed HIV diagnoses or a missed opportunity to receive post-exposure prophylaxis, which can reduce the risk of HIV when taken within 72 hours after a possible HIV exposure.
Making resources 'available, attainable and achievable'

Experts said one way to lower rates is to make information on how to reduce risk as well as how to get tested and treated available in other languages, such as Spanish, and making sure it is culturally congruent.

However, Rodriguez says translating documents is not enough. In the early 2010s, when the CDC was disseminating its national strategy to reduce HIV infection, the agency began to circulate materials on how to reduce HIV incidence, reducing stigma and increasing use of condoms for sex, Rodriguez said.

He said that of a compendium of 30 interventions, maybe one was in Spanish. When he took the materials back to his native Puerto Rico, many were having trouble understanding the materials because it has been translated by someone who is of Mexican heritage.

Secondly, rather than the materials being written in Spanish, they had been translated from English to Spanish, which doesn't always translate well, Rodriguez said.

"When we talk about Hispanics, we have to talk about, first of all, the culture. Our culture is very complex. Not one Spanish language can speak to all of the Hispanic communities," he said. "And then we also have to look at the generations of Hispanics. Are you first generation, second generation, third generation? "

He added that the key is making resources "available, attainable and achievable."

This month, the White House convened a summit to discuss raising awareness of HIV among Hispanic and Latino Americans and to discuss strengthening efforts to address HIV in Hispanic and Latino communities.

Mayer said it's also important to make sure information is disseminated on social media that is culturally tailored for Hispanic and Latino experiences.

"It's important for social media to seem culturally relevant, to make sure that they understand that HIV is not just a disease of old white guys, and that they may have a substantial risk," he said. "Make sure that they're educated by what they can do to protect themselves since we have highly effective pre-exposure prophylaxis, and we have ways to decrease STIs with a doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis.

The experts added that having more Hispanics and Latinos represented in medicine, research and public health may encourage more Hispanic and Latino Americans with HIV or at risk of HIV to seek care or treatment.

"Seeing and being able to recognize that your healthcare provider looks like you, sounds like you, in some way it represents you, is a key aspect of getting people on treatment and access,' Suarez said. "And not only that, but keeping them in treatment and having them come back and stay and keep that going, that's a key issue."

Forensic probe begins into Tata's iPhone plant after fire incident

The fire incident affects Apple's India suppliers

By Akash Pandey
Sep 29, 2024


What's the story

A forensic investigation is now underway into the fire, that broke out at Tata Electronics' Hosur factory in Tamil Nadu on Saturday.

The factory, which makes components for Apple iPhones, was badly hit by the fire.

Reports suggest the blaze started close to a building in the Tata complex, which is all set to kick off full-scale iPhone production in the coming months.


Operations paused

Production halt and investigation status

The factory usually takes a breather on Sundays, and it's still a toss-up whether the state authorities will give the green light for production to kick off again by Monday.As of now, neither Tata Electronics nor Apple has replied to the questions about what went down.The root of the fire is still being probed, but Tata Electronics has promised to do everything it can to keep its employees and stakeholders safe.

Supply disruption

Fire's impact on Apple's supply chain

The fire at the Hosur factory is a big blow for Apple's suppliers in India, especially since the tech giant is trying to move its supply chain out of China.A fire official said the blaze began in a chemical storage area.This incident comes on the heels of the massive fire at Foxlink, another Apple supplier, last year, which led to production being halted after part of their Andhra Pradesh assembly facility collapsed.

Aftermath

Fire extinguished, workers hospitalized

According to K.M. Sarayu, a district administrative official, the fire at Tata Electronics' Hosur plant has been "completely put out," and the fumes have stopped.Two workers from the plant who were hospitalized have been discharged today.Sarayu also confirmed that a forensic team from Chennai has been dispatched to the location for further investigation.


Facility details

Impact on surrounding buildings and workers

We still don't know if the fire has impacted nearby buildings, including one that was supposed to kick off iPhone assembly by year-end.Police on the scene confirmed that there were no casualties or injuries from the incident.However, around 11 workers who were close to the accident site experienced suffocation and were taken to the Government General Hospital.

“He began to complain of sharp pain in the stomach”

Official documents obtained by The Insider confirm Navalny was poisoned in prison

Roman Dobrokhotov

THE INSIDER
29 September 2024




The Insider has obtained access to hundreds of official documents related to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's death in the Polar Wolf penal colony in the Russian Far North on Feb. 16, 2024. Officially, Navalny’s death was attributed to natural causes, and Russia’s Investigative Committee stated in July that the case “does not have a criminal nature.” However, the contents of the documents in The Insider’s possession demonstrate that Russian authorities consistently removed references to symptoms Navalny was documented to have been suffering — symptoms that did not fit with the Russian state’s official cause of death. As medical experts confirm, these symptoms clearly indicate that Navalny was poisoned.


RU

A collection of files at The Insider's disposal contains two versions of a document signed by Russian investigator Alexander Varapaev. The document in question concerns the Russian Investigative Committee’s decision not to open a criminal case in connection with the Feb. 16, 2024 death of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison in the Russian Far North. An early version of Varapaev’s decision describes Navalny's symptoms as follows:

“On 16.02.2024, convict A.A. Navalny felt a sharp deterioration of his health condition while in exercise yard No. 2 of the EPKT [unified cell-type housing unit], about which he informed the duty officer of the institution, who took the latter out of the premises of the exercise yard to the premises of section No. 4 of the EPKT.

“There, convict A.A. Navalny lay down on the floor and began to complain of sharp pain in the abdominal area; he started reflexive ejection of his stomach contents, had convulsions, and lost consciousness, which was immediately reported to the medical staff of the correctional facility.”

The first version of the decision

The redacted version of the decision







The symptoms described by Varapaev are consistent with those that would have been expected had Navalny been poisoned. However, in a later (and final) version of the same decision, all mention of abdominal pain, vomiting, and convulsions had been removed.

The Insider has another important document at its disposal — an inventory of “seized objects” taken from the scene of Navalny’s death. The list includes “samples of vomit,” which the document indicates were submitted for examination. However, neither the fact of the examination nor Navalny’s vomiting were ever officially reported.




The list of seized objects


The documents confirm the words of Yulia Navalnaya, who stated that “in the last minutes before his death, [Alexei] complained of acute pain in his stomach.” Nevertheless, the official conclusion reached by Russian authorities claimed that Navalny had died of natural causes, and that the incident “does not have a criminal nature.”

Feb. 16, 2024, was not the first time Navalny suffered a medical emergency as the result of the Russian state’s deliberate attempts to murder him — and it is not the first time that the official explanation given by Russian officials has diverged from established medical facts. In August 2020, Russian FSB agents poisoned Navalny using a variant of the Novichok nerve agent, which took effect while the opposition politician was aboard a flight from Tomsk back to Moscow. His symptoms were so severe that the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, where medical professionals likely saved Navalny’s life by treating him with the chemical nerve agent antidote Atropine. However, the official version put out to explain the onset of Navalny’s symptoms on the airplane was that the patient had simply been suffering from the results of “low blood-sugar” levels.

According to ER doctor Alexander Polupan, who treated Navalny in Omsk City Hospital No. 1 after the Novichok poisoning in 2020, the symptoms observed by medical professionals in the case of Navalny’s death in prison in 2024 do not fit with the officially declared diagnosis:
“The official cause of death — a heart rhythm disorder — would in no way explain the symptoms described in the resolution: sharp abdominal pain, vomiting, or seizures. These symptoms can hardly be explained by anything other than poisoning. The short interval between the abdominal pain and the convulsions suggests the possibility of exposure to an organophosphorus agent, for instance — the same class of substances as Novichok, but in this case it may have been applied internally rather than topically.”

Other doctors of various types interviewed by The Insider agree with Polupan's conclusions.

Further evidence, albeit indirect, of the use of a poisonous substance can be observed in the authorities’ reluctance to release Navalny's body for several days following his death, along with their refusal to allow for an independent examination of biological samples. While suspicion surrounding the true cause of Navalny’s death arose almost immediately after it was announced, it was not until now that the fact of Navalny's poisoning has been confirmed by official documents.

Egypt refuses to free jailed activist Alaa Abdel Fattah: sister

Alaa Abdel Fattah spent most of the past decade behind bars and his detention has become a symbol of Egypt’s return to autocratic rule under President el-Sisi.

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
29 September, 2024

Protesters hold placards during a demonstration in support of jailed British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah outside the Foreign Office in London on July 3, 2023. [Getty]


Egyptian authorities have refused to release dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah despite serving out his five-year sentence, his sister said Sunday.

Abdel Fattah, 42, was arrested on September 29, 2019.

Just over two years later, he was handed a five-year sentence for "spreading false news" by sharing a Facebook post about police brutality.

His family on Thursday urged the government of Britain, where Abdel Fattah holds citizenship, to ensure his release this weekend.

But on Sunday his sister Mona Seif said in a video posted to social media that the authorities "refused a request" to consider the two years of pre-trial detention as time served towards his sentence.

She said the authorities are instead counting his sentence as having started from the date that it was ratified, and has thereby set the date of his release for January 2027.

Seif had told reporters in London on Thursday that "if he is not out by September 29, it is an open-ended sentence".

A writer and computer programmer, Abdel Fattah has spent the better part of more than a decade behind bars, having been jailed repeatedly under successive presidents since Egypt's 2011 uprising.

He was granted UK citizenship through his British-born mother in 2022 while he was in prison.

Rights groups say there are tens of thousands of political prisoners in Egypt, held under poor conditions and subject to ill treatment and abuses by the authorities.

On Thursday, more than 59 Egyptian and international rights groups signed the appeal, expressing concern at Abdel-Fattah could not be released for years into the future.

In the statement, the groups "expressed their deep alarm at news, shared by his lawyer, that the Egyptian authorities do not plan to release Alaa until January 2027."

The statement did not say how the lawyer obtained this information.

They warned that not releasing Abdel-Fattah on Sunday would violate the country's penal code, which deducts time spent in detention before trial from the total sentence.

Abdel-Fattah and his family have campaigned for his release for years.


In 2022, he intensified a hunger strike in prison and halted all calories and water to coincide with the start of the UN climate conference, known as COP27, in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Concerns for his health intensified as the family was barred from seeing him .

They stepped up their campaign to draw attention to his case and those of other political prisoners in Egypt.

He stopped the strike after a matter of days, after he collapsed and fell unconscious, describing it later in a letter to his family.

The hunger strike drew attention to Egypt’s heavy suppression of speech and political activity.

Since 2013, el-Sissi’s government has cracked down on dissidents and critics, jailing thousands, virtually banning protests and monitoring social media.

Human Rights Watch estimated in 2019 that as many as 60,000 political prisoners are incarcerated in Egyptian prisons.

“Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan”

‘All Kurds should unite and speak out against isolation and injustice’

Mothers at the Justice Vigil continue their ‘Give voice to freedom’ protests demanding an end to isolation. Afife Kartal called for participation in the rally in Amed on 13 October and appealed to all Kurds: “We must raise our voices against isolation."


ANF
AMED
Sunday, 29 September 2024

Mothers of the Justice Vigil continue their ‘Give voice to freedom’ protests demanding an end to the isolation of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan and the rights violations against political prisoners. The mothers come together every fortnight on Mondays and make press statements.

Afife Kartal, mother of prisoner Muhammed Kartal, called for participation in the central rally to be held in Amed (Diyarbakır) on 13 October and said, “The aim of our action is the end of isolation and the physical freedom of Mr Öcalan. We are calling out to the whole world to stand against isolation.”

Speaking to ANF, Afife Kartal emphasised that they are following the cause of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan and said, “Our children sacrificed their lives in his footsteps. He is the leader of 50 million Kurds. Let the isolation be lifted; let the Kurdish people come together with their Leader. If Mr Öcalan speaks, our young people will not die, our nature will not be slaughtered, crises and wars will end. This state is killing our people, nature and animals. It ignores our culture and language. We want an honourable peace.”

Afife Kartal called on all Kurds to participate in the rally against isolation to be held in Amed on 13 October, saying “We must raise our voices against isolation. Every Kurd with dignity should stand against isolation and raise their voice.”

Stating that the condition of sick prisoners has also worsened, Kartal said, “Sick prisoners should be released as soon as possible. The prisoners whose sentence is over should be released. They bear hostility towards Kurds in every way. I underwent angiography twice. My toes are broken due to diabetes, and I can't walk anymore, but that doesn’t stop me going to demonstrations even in this state. If we don't raise a voice today, no one will tomorrow. All Kurds should unite and speak out against isolation and injustice. Kurds should stand up for their struggle. No one should fall into the tricks and traps of AKP and MHP. Let us starve but not give up our honour. On 13 October there will be a rally against isolation in Amed. Everyone should attend this rally, and we should raise our voices for the physical freedom of Mr Öcalan. We want an honourable peace to come to our Kurdistan. Our hearts should not bleed anymore. I don't want money, I don't want worldly goods, but we want Mr Öcalan to be among us, 4 parts of Kurdistan to be united, peace to come, our children to be released from prisons. We will raise our voices for this at the rally.”

TJA activists gathered in Amed and called on people to attend the “Freedom Rally” on 13 October.


ANF
AMED
Sunday, 29 September 2024

The Free Women’s Movement (Tevgera Jinên Azad-TJA) gathered at the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Amed Provincial Organization on Saturday to discuss the difficulties experienced in the past two years. The meeting ended with a call to everyone to attend the “Freedom Rally” to be held in Amed on 13 October.

Adalet Kaya, Amed MP for the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), said that they discussed the problems experienced and the deficiencies in organization. Addressing all women’s movements in Amed, Kaya said: “In the territory we live in, we are faced with a central administration that does not recognize its own constitution and increasingly escalates war policies. Poverty, deprivation, femicides, child abuse and all the social problems we experience are connected to the war being waged in the country. We must raise our voices and reject war and isolation at the rally we will hold in Amed on 13 October. We must defend honorable peace against war and freedom against conspiracies in Amed. We must also call for the freedom of Mr. Abdullah Öcalan and protest isolation. Because the freedom of Mr. Abdullah Öcalan means the solution tothe Kurdish question.”

TJA activist Havva Can said: “The entire Kurdish people are under isolation in the person of Mr. Abdullah Öcalan. In order to break this isolation, we as Kurdish women, will be on the streets on 13 October.”

TJA activist Adle Fidan said: “We call on everyone to raise their voices from Amed on 13 October with the philosophy of Jin jiyan azadî.”

Central rally in Amed on 13 October to demand “Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan”

The Platform of Democratic Institutions announced that a central rally will be held in Amed (Diyarbakır) on 13 October to demand the freedom of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan.


ANF
AMED
Friday, 13 September 2024

The global campaign for an end to the absolute isolation of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan, for his physical freedom and for the solution of the Kurdish question continues. As the 26th anniversary of the 9 October Conspiracy, which marked the beginning of the international conspiracy against the Kurdish People's Leader, approaches, mass actions and events will be organised across the world, mainly in Kurdistan and Turkey.

The Platform of Democratic Institutions made a statement at the Association of Southeastern Journalists (GGC) in Amed (Diyarbakır) on Thursday. The Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Co-Chair Keskin Bayındır and representatives of the organisations taking part in the platform attended the meeting.

The platform announced that the campaign for ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a political solution to the Kurdish question’ has reached a new stage. According to the platform's statement titled ‘We Resist Against the Conspiracy, We Meet in Amed for Freedom!’ the final of the actions and activities that will continue until 13 October will take place in Amed. On 13 October, a central rally will be held in Amed.

The press statement, the Turkish version of which was read by DBP PM (Party Assembly) member Elif Turan and the Kurdish version by Ferhat Ertaş from Ma Music, said the following:

“It has been 44 years since the military coup of 12 September 1980, which has taken its place in the black pages of history with its violations of the right to life and inhumane practices. The 12 September coup deeply transformed the official ideology, state-society and state-democracy relations in Turkey and reinforced the monist, denialist and assimilationist system. The 1982 Constitution, which was the product of the coup d'état, and the constitutional amendments that took place in the following period strengthened the political and social designs of the coup plotters.

On the anniversary of the 12 September military coup, the shirt of nation and belief based on monism is being tried to be put on diversities, local democracy is being denied through an over-centralised state formation, the field of democratic politics is being poisoned with fascist delusions and subjects, all kinds of tyranny against women is being put into practice through the male-dominated ideology, ecological destruction is deepening day by day through an obedience to capitalism and capital at the level of faith, and hunger runs rampant throughout the country. In other words, the political design of 12 September still hangs over the peoples of Turkey and Kurdistan like a nightmare in the forty-four years that have passed.

All kinds of democratic rights struggles, especially a democratic solution to the Kurdish question, and objections against the state in defence of society, nature and life, are being tried to be disrupted. The AKP-MHP fascism, the heir of 12 September, is expanding its areas of domination and developing comprehensive attacks against society's windpipes. The military attacks that deepen the deadlock in the Kurdish question and spill over the borders, the suppression of the demands for democracy by means of force, the oppression of the civilian sphere by all kinds of lawlessness, the systematic and ideological attacks on women, the deprivation of future for the youth, the injustice in the distribution of income, the horrible levels of income inequality and the desire to transfer the burden of the economic crisis to the workers and the poor have become the summary of the current picture in Turkey.

In Turkey, almost everyone shares a common fate under the regime's oppression, whether they demand recognition for their identity, want to protect nature or struggle for a future. We, who are the addressees of the multifaceted attacks of the AKP-MHP fascism, share a common destiny with our identities, beliefs, lives and nature. The way to say no to this common fate drawn by the rulers and to build a new life is to increase the common struggle.

The strategy of depriving the society of breath and shattering the opposition groups, which was initiated with the absolute isolation of Mr Abdullah Öcalan and the state of incommunicado, has brought nothing but violence, death, hunger and instability to the peoples of Turkey since 2015. The Kurdish question, which has been driven into a deadlock by absolute isolation, has become the cause of multiple crises in Turkey. On the other hand, with the policy of absolute isolation and non-communication, even the crumbs of democracy were wanted to be swept away, deep poverty spread to wide social segments, and no space was left for the search for rights.

At the stage we have reached, the AKP-MHP alliance's strategy of suffocating the society and shattering the social opposition is no longer holding together thanks to the stubborn and strong resistance of peoples, beliefs, women and different social segments. The AKP-MHP alliance has largely lost its social support. Despite the law enforcement and judicial power at its disposal, a large media apparatus and all kinds of material resources, the AKP-MHP alliance has decayed.

We believe that we can make the strongest breakthrough to increase the common struggle of the peoples and the oppressed against this rotten power bloc by ensuring the success of the ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question’ campaign. Because we know that the AKP-MHP fascist alliance generates itself from the denial of the Kurdish people's reality and the criminalisation of the Kurdish political movement, especially Mr Abdullah Öcalan, and its objection. Therefore, taking our struggle against the fascist power to the next level will open the doors to the construction of a democratic life.

The state of absolute isolation and incommunicado imposed on Mr Öcalan, which is practiced as a management strategy of the current regime, is no longer limited to Kurdistan, but has spread all over Turkey, deepening the deadlock in the Kurdish question, which is the litmus paper of democracy and peace, and creating a political knot. Without untying this political knot, it is not possible to get rid of multiple crises. We must increase our struggle to untie this political knot that has been tied to democracy and peace in Turkey. By saying ‘peace against war, freedom against isolation’, we can write together the prescription to save Turkey from the multiple crises it is in.

On the anniversary of the fascist coup, we would like to state once again that the defeat of the AKP-MHP fascist alliance means the defeat of the 12 September regime. It means the opening of the doors to a democratic order by getting rid of the coup mechanism. It means ensuring that the construction of a democratic life will flourish again in the hands of oppressed peoples and beliefs. Based on the fate-determining character of the struggle against the regime of absolute incommunicado in İmralı, we say ‘Let's break the isolation together and march to freedom’.

In October, the global campaign ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question’ will complete its first year. This struggle, which was initiated by world-renowned intellectuals, writers, artists, ecologists, politicians and lawyers, has spread to all parts of the world, especially Kurdistan, with the support of Turkish intellectuals in Istanbul. On 18 November, the Gemlik Freedom March reached its goal despite all obstacles, and a message of insistence on freedom was sent from Gemlik to the whole world.

The initiatives and applications by artists and lawyers made the isolation more visible; between 01-15 February, the cities of Northern Kurdistan were illuminated with the torch of the ‘Freedom Walkers’, and on 8 March and 21 March the determination for freedom reached its peak with the witnessing of millions. The resistance of the prisoners against isolation, who participated in every moment of the campaign with great sacrifices, was enlarged with the ‘Give voice to freedom’ actions in front of the prisons, the ‘End the isolation’ actions in front of the AKP buildings, and the ‘Ensure justice, implement law’ actions in front of the Ministry of Justice. The ‘Freedom Readings’ led by women and youth have been held in hundreds of neighbourhoods, streets and villages throughout the summer.

As of today, we are bringing a new stage to the ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question’ campaign. Our Freedom March, which focuses on achieving results in the struggle of the Kurdish people to ‘protect their existence and ensure their freedom’, will be further expanded with the campaign ‘We Resist Against the Conspiracy, We Meet in Amed for Freedom!’, which we will carry out from 12 September to 13 October. In this context, we invite all democratic forces in Kurdistan and Turkey to the campaign of our Freedom March, which we have started to defeat the 9 October International conspiracy and the conspirators, to shatter the İmralı Torture system and to achieve a democratic solution to the Kurdish question, which will last until 13 October.

Let's fight for our democratic future and freedom side by side. With this belief, determination and stubbornness, we call on all democratic, revolutionary forces and social opposition of the geography to our campaign, which we have launched with the slogan ‘We Resist Against the Conspiracy, We Meet in Amed for Freedom!’ and which we will conclude with a big rally to be held in Amed on 13 October. On the 26th anniversary of the International Conspiracy, we will carry the struggle for solution and freedom to every time and place where life flows. With our campaign that we will continue for a month, we will once again shout freedom against the slavery impositions of the conspirators and say ‘Never without freedom! Let victory be our promise: The putschists, conspirators and those who insist on isolation will lose, and freedom will win!”

TURKISH KURDISTAN

Bakırhan: We struggle against a government that is hostile to forests, rivers and mountains

Speaking at an ecology conference in Balıkesir, DEM Party Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan said, “Let's get rid of this government that is dragging us into the abyss and bringing Turkey to the brink of destruction.”


ANF
BALIKESİR
Sunday, 29 September 2024, 15:12


The Peoples' Democracy and Equality Party (DEM Party) Balıkesir Provincial Organisation is holding a conference on ecological destruction.

The ‘Balıkesir Ecology Conference’ is taking place at Reha Yurdakul Cultural Centre in Burhaniye district with the participation of DEM Party Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan, many residents from Balıkesir as well as neighbouring provinces.

The conference opened with the screening of Hakan Tosun's documentary on ecological destruction. Speaking at the opening, DEM Party Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan started his speech by commemorating Reşit Kibar, who was murdered on 3 September in Borçka, Artvin while trying to protect the forests.

Reacting to the pro-rent logic of the government and capital, Tuncer Bakırhan drew attention to the ‘Bread and Justice Meetings’ they have been organising for a few months and said: “Wheat producers in Nusaybin, sunflower producers in Tekirdağ, shopkeepers, fishermen, women, youth, those who seek justice and law are all revealing the reality of the government everywhere.”

Bakırhan continued: “In addition to the struggle waged by the friends of the Kurds in the quest for democracy, the struggle waged in the Aegean region, Balıkesir and Kazdağları against ecocide is very important and valuable. The struggle in this field is at least as valuable as the struggle for democracy. I would like to thank all my friends who are fighting this struggle for their efforts.”

Criticizing the fact that the government is making it even easier to commit ecocide with omnibus bills, Bakırhan said, “The government relies on its numerical majority, it relies on its partners who think like itself. It trusts the opposition, which is not strong and serious. Since they are faced with an opposition that makes their work easier, they can do everything more easily.”

Pointing out that the government has amended the forest law 32 times in 22 years, Bakırhan said that they are struggling against a government that is hostile to forests, green, rivers, mountains, resisting Kurds and women.

Bakırhan stated: “I am saying it here for the first time. They are preparing a new law proposal for mining companies, which are constantly trying to propose new laws to the government in order to have easier access, to obtain licences more easily and to obtain more rent. They want there to be no administrative obstacles in front of them. They are already overcoming the obstacles in some way, but they want to eliminate them altogether. Our job is difficult, but 80 percent of Turkey thinks like us. We have only one shortcoming. We are unable to organise, to come together, to build a strong ground against this savage capital, the palace, the ecocidal power that works for war.”

Remarking that 155 mining companies in Balıkesir received 279 mining exploration-operation licences, Bakırhan concluded as follows: “Therefore, all the districts of Balıkesir are in the same situation and Kazdağları has become a centre of gold mining. There are several foreign and local companies. Whether goreign or domestic, the aim of the companies is rent. These companies are so reckless that they work to obtain the highest rent at the lowest cost, just like the capitalist system does. Where should those people who are engaged in animal husbandry, agriculture, fruit and vegetables go? No one cares about this, the government does not care at all. Then we should not care about this government either. Let's get rid of this government that is dragging us into the abyss and bringing Turkey to the brink of destruction.”

‘Isolation and political solution in the Middle East’ conference at the Labour University of Geneva

A conference in Geneva discussed the absolute isolation of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan and a political solution in the Middle East with a focus on Kurdistan and Palestine.


ANF
GENEVA
Sunday, 29 September 2024, 14:30

As the total isolation imposed on Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan enters its fourth year, the "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question" initiative launched by the friends of Kurds worldwide on 10 October 2023, continues with various events.

As part of the events to be held in October, a conference on Kurdistan, the situation of Kurdish women and isolation was held in Geneva on Saturday.

The conference ‘For a political solution in the Middle East: Palestine, Kurdistan - Intifada, Serhildan‘, organised by the Geneva Democratic Kurdish Community Centre (NCDK-Ge) and the Swiss Kurdish Women's Union (YJK-S), was held at the Amphitheatre of the Labour University of Geneva (Université ouvrière de Genève).


The conference, which was supported by the Communist Revolutionary Party (PCR) and the internationalist Serhildan (Uprising) Network, was attended by HDP MP Ayşe Acar Başaran, PCR representative Luc Rolli, activist Nadina from the Solidarity Committee for Rojava and a representative from the Solidarity Network for Palestine.

The conference started with a minute of silence in memory of the martyrs of the world revolution.

Ayşe Acar Başaran, who made the first speech at the conference, referred to the international conspiracy against Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan, which started on 9 October 1998, and made a presentation on the system of absolute isolation and torture that has been going on in İmralı High Security Prison, where Öcalan is held, for 25 years.

Ayşe Acar Başaran stated that the torture of isolation in İmralı under the supervision of international states has spread to the whole country. She said: “The occupation of Kurdistan and the genocidal attacks against the Kurdish people are continued today with attacks against Kurdish politics, Kurdish language, nature, women and children.”

Referring to the ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question’ campaign, which was launched globally by the friends of the Kurdish people on 10 October 2023 against all these attacks carried out on the basis of isolation, occupation and genocide, Ayşe Acar Başaran said, “At this stage, internationalist solidarity must be increased. Every support from the friends of the Kurdish people will make this campaign a success.”

The conference continued with a presentation by Luc Rolli, representative of the PCR (Communist Revolutionary Party).

Luc Rolli said that the capitalist system and especially NATO, which acts under the control of the USA, sends peoples to war in order to expand its sphere of influence.

Rolli stated that the genocidal attacks carried out by the Turkish and Israeli governments for decades are the Third World War waged by the capitalist powers against the peoples of the world and especially the Middle East.

Emphasising that the Rojava Revolution created by the Kurdish Freedom Struggle and the struggle of the Palestinian people have created a spirit of resistance against the capitalist system, Rolli added the following: “These struggles will secure the right to self-determination of the peoples in the Middle East and pave the way for democratic and social confederalism that will lead to the liberation of the peoples of the Middle East and the whole world.”

Luc Rolli's presentation was followed by the second part of the conference, where presentations were made by the activists of the Committee for Solidarity with Rojava and the Network for Solidarity with Palestine.

After the question and answer session, posters of Abdullah Öcalan were raised by the participants as part of the ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question’ campaign and the conference was concluded.

Culture and Art Campaign for the Freedom of Abdullah Öcalan initiative in Cologne

"We are launching a Culture and Art Campaign for the Freedom of Abdullah Öcalan," said TEV-ÇAND and Kevana Zêrîn adding that they will hold a big event at the Cologne Dom Cathedral.


ANF
COLOGNE


TEV-ÇAND and Kevana Zêrîn will hold a big event for Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan in Cologne, tomorrow.

Performers, painters, theater actors and folk dance actors will participate in the event titled "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan". The event will be held in front of the Dom Cathedral between 1 and 5 pm.

Speaking to ANF, Hozan Şemdîn said: "Singers and musicians will attend the event with their own instruments. We will all wear national clothes. Our painters will exhibit their paintings. We invite all our people to this event."

Hozan Şemdîn also said that hundreds of TEV-ÇAND members from all branches of art will be present at the event.

During the four-hour program, songs about Abdullah Öcalan and Kurdistan will be sung, and the dance groups will perform folkloric dances. In addition, information will be given about the condition of Abdullah Öcalan.

'Culture and art campaign for Abdullah Öcalan's freedom'

TEV-ÇAND and Kevana Zêrîn published a joint written statement to present the event saying: "We support the Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, Political Solution to the Kurdish Question campaign."

The statement also drew attention to 10 December, the day on which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted at the United Nations in 1948.

"The 75th anniversary of this declaration will be on 10 December 2023. The Turkish state accepted this declaration in 1949. However, the inalienable human rights of the Kurds have been systematically violated by the Turkish state every day for 75 years."

The statement also underlined that Abdullah Öcalan was the theorist and philosophical leader of the Kurdish Freedom Movement and that he had been kept under heavy isolation for 24 years. "The isolation imposed on Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] is essentially an isolation imposed on his political ideas and his proposal and work to have a successful peace process. Isolation is illegal and is a form of torture. In order to break the isolation, we are launching the 'Culture and Art Campaign for the Freedom of Abdullah Öcalan'."

The statement pointed out that Kurdish literature, history, music and art are denied and banned by the Turkish state and said: "This is cultural genocide. All kinds of oppressive violence are applied to the Kurdish people and unlimited assimilation policies are implemented. All of these are crimes. We reject this cultural genocide. We are fighting for it to end."

The joint statement ended as follows: "As Kurdistan artists, we do not accept the isolation imposed on Rêber Apo. We declare that we will participate with our art in the events organized to break the isolation and achieve Rêber Apo's physical freedom."