ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday accused Myanmar of “genocide” against the Rohingya Muslim minority, who have fled in the tens of thousands across the border into Bangladesh to escape ethnic violence.
“There is a genocide there,” Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul during the Islamic Eid Al-Adha feast, which commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son.
“Those who close their eyes to this genocide perpetuated under the cover of democracy are its collaborators.”
Around 400 people — most of them Rohingya Muslims — have died in violence searing through Myanmar’s northwestern Rakhine state, the army chief’s office said Friday.
Reports of massacres and the systematic torching of villages by security forces — as well as by militants — have further amplified tensions, raising fears that communal violence in Rakhine is spinning out of control.
To escape the violence, about 20,000 Rohingya have massed along the Bangladeshi frontier, barred from entering the South Asian country, while scores of desperate people have drowned attempting to cross the Naf, a border river, in makeshift boats.
Erdogan said he would bring up the issue at the next UN General Assembly in New York later this month, adding that he had already talked to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other Muslim leaders.
According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Bangladeshi authorities to “open your doors,” adding that the country would cover the costs associated with letting in more Rohingya.
Bangladesh already hosts 400,000 Rohingya and does not want more.
“We have called upon the Organization of Islamic Cooperation,” Cavusoglu said. “We will organize a summit this year” on the issue. “We have to find a definitive solution to this problem.”
The UN Security Council met behind closed doors on Wednesday to discuss the violence, but there was no formal statement on the crisis.
On Friday, Guterres said he was “deeply concerned” by the situation in Myanmar and called for “restraint and calm to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe.”
The Rohingya are reviled in Myanmar, where the roughly one million-strong community are accused of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Erdogan accuses Myanmar of ‘genocide’ against Rohingya
Erdogan accuses Myanmar of ‘genocide’ against Rohingya
Israel’s hostage forum releases AI-generated video of last Gaza captive
- The Gaza ceasefire, which came into effect in October, remains fragile with both sides alleging violations, and mediators fearing that Israel and Hamas alike are stalling
JERUSALEM: An Israeli group representing the families of Gaza hostages released on Tuesday an AI-generated video of Ran Gvili, the last captive whose body is still being held in the Palestinian territory.
The one-minute clip, created whole cloth using artificial intelligence, purports to depict Gvili as he sits in a Gaza tunnel and appeals to US President Donald Trump to help bring his body back to Israel.
“Mr President, I’m asking you to see this through: Please bring me home. My family deserves this. I deserve the right to be buried with honor in the land I fought for,” says the AI-generated image of Gvili.
Gvili was 24 at the time of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
He was an officer in Israel’s Yasam elite police unit and was on medical leave when he learnt of the attack.
He decided to leave his home and brought his gun to counter the Hamas militants.
He was shot in the fighting at the Alumim kibbutz before he was taken to Gaza.
Israeli authorities told Gvili’s parents in January 2024 that he had not survived his injuries.
The AI clip was released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing those taken captive to Gaza.
The Forum said it was published with the approval of Gvili’s family.
“Seeing and hearing Rani speak in his own voice is both moving and heartbreaking. I would give anything to hear, see and hold him again,” Gvili’s mother Talik said, quoted by the Forum.
“But all I can do now is plead that they don’t move to the next phase of the agreement before bringing Rani home — because we don’t leave heroes behind.”
The Gaza ceasefire, which came into effect in October, remains fragile with both sides alleging violations, and mediators fearing that Israel and Hamas alike are stalling.
In the first stage, Palestinian militants were expected to return all of the remaining 48 living and dead hostages held in Gaza.
Since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, militants have released 47 hostages.
In the next stages of the truce, Israel is supposed to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, an interim authority is to govern the Palestinian territory instead of Hamas, and an international stabilization force is to be deployed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet Trump in Florida later this month to discuss the second phase of the deal.
