DIYARBAKIR, Turkey: Actor Kemal Ulusoy and the rest of his Kurdish theater group lost their jobs along with thousands of others in southeast Turkey after the state seized control of about 100 town councils won by the main pro-Kurdish party at the last local elections.
Voters go to the polls again on Sunday but Ulusoy says the municipal elections are just another performance staged by authorities, after President Tayyip Erdogan warned that the elected officials may again be replaced by state appointees.
“What we are seeing is not democracy,” said Ulusoy, who has performed plays in Kurdish for nearly 30 years. “An election is only held as a formality, to give him the appearance of legitimacy. He can still do what he wants.”
Kurds make up about a fifth of Turkey’s 82 million population. The southeast, mainly Kurdish, has borne the brunt of a three-decades-old conflict between the state and autonomy-seeking PKK militants that has killed more than 40,000 people.
Erdogan, who has been in power for 16 years, says the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has ties with the outlawed militant group. The HDP denies links to the PKK.
The HDP, which has strong support in the southeast, hopes to regain control of municipalities seized by the state in 2016, about two years after the last local elections in 2014. State officials known as kayyums were appointed to run the councils.
But Erdogan has said kayyums may be appointed again if new mayors, like their predecessors, are deemed to have ties to the militants.
The 31 actors in the municipal theater in the city of Diyarbakir are among 15,000 council workers who the HDP says lost their jobs after kayyums were appointed.
“This led to spectacular destruction, injustice and oppression in Diyarbakir in art and culture, as it did in every area of society,” said Ulusoy, who has set up a new theater with colleagues.
His bleak outlook was shared by HDP supporters among tens of thousands of people marking the Kurdish Newroz spring celebration in Diyarbakir who were fiercely critical of state security measures and Erdogan’s election campaigning.
“The president uses very divisive language. Anyone who doesn’t support him is painted as a traitor,” said Geylani Alpay, 63, complaining about his vehicle being searched three times on his journey to the Newroz celebrations.
Nearby, thousands of young people linked hands and danced to Kurdish music blaring from loudspeakers, while others waved red, yellow and green HDP flags.
State boosts investment
The pro-Kurdish party has won the last three parliamentary elections since 2015 comfortably in Diyarbakir and much of the southeast, and Erdogan’s AK Party is their only serious rival in the region.
AK Party supporters say the last two years in Diyarbakir under state-appointed mayor Cumali Atilla has brought greater security and improved services after 1.25 billion lira ($224 million) of investments in roads and parks.
“We can sit in the park in the evenings with our wives. We couldn’t do that in the past because it was too dangerous,” said Yilmaz Polat, 37, a cotton farmer.
The PKK, or Kurdistan Workers’ Party, took up arms in 1984 and is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union. An explosion of violence after a two-year peace process collapsed in 2015 has killed 4,280 people, according to International Crisis Group data.
Diyarbakir’s historic Sur district was devastated in the fighting but concrete buildings are now rising in the area and militant violence has dwindled after sustained military operations.
Extensive building of highways, apartment blocks and shopping malls has transformed the appearance of the city.
Cevdet Nasiranli, the AK Party candidate for the city’s Kayapinar district, said the situation could deteriorate if the HDP wins. “It is a vote on peace and confidence,” he said.
HDP mayoral candidate Selcuk Mizrakli, a former surgeon, said all the state-run municipality had done was carry out HDP projects for which financing had previously been withheld.
He said his party’s campaign was hampered by a lack of coverage by an overwhelmingly pro-government media and by security forces which he said harassed HDP campaigners.
“There is a society of fear in Turkey,” he said. “The state is behind concrete walls and in armored vehicles.”
Nearly 100 mayors and thousands of party members have been jailed in a crackdown after a 2016 attempted coup which Ankara blames on a US-based Islamic cleric. The United States and European Union have voiced concern about the crackdown.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said 178 current election candidates are being investigated over alleged PKK links. It was not clear where these candidates were running for office.
Hunger strike
The election has also focused attention on a hunger strike by HDP lawmaker Leyla Guven. She is demanding an end to the isolation of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who had a key role in the peace process and is revered by many Kurdish voters.
Guven has refused food for more than four months, surviving on sugar, water and vitamins and losing 15 kg during her protest, her daughter said.
Guven faces up to 31 years in jail on terrorism-related charges over her criticism of Turkey’s incursion into Syria’s Afrin region.
“We are prepared to face death,” Guven told Reuters, speaking in discomfort and with her eyes closed as she lay in bed at her Diyarbakir home.
The HDP has called on the government to respond to what it says are thousands of people, mostly prison inmates, who are on hunger strike along with Guven, also calling for an end to Ocalan’s isolation. In the protest, four people have committed suicide in Turkish jails, it said.
The party also highlighted recent measures targeting Kurdish culture, citing closures of Kurdish associations, broadcasters and the destruction of HDP-erected statues.
Authorities in the city of Adana last month banned a theater festival in which Ulusoy’s Amed City Theatre group — set up in 2017 by those who lost their council theater jobs — was to take part.
The theater’s repertoire includes world classics, from writers such as Moliere, as well Kurdish plays. Ulusoy said its focus was more on comedy, steering clear of the serious themes that have shaped the southeast’s recent history.
“Rather than making people face pain, tragedy and drama, society wants to relax, laugh — a sort of rehabilitation.”
Ousted party seeks to reclaim Kurdish heartlands in Turkish vote
Ousted party seeks to reclaim Kurdish heartlands in Turkish vote
- The Conflict between Turkish government and PKK killed more than 40,000 people
- Kurds make up one fifth of Turkey’s population
Netanyahu approves new Gaza ceasefire talks
Since the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Monday demanding an “immediate ceasefire,” Hamas and Israel have traded blame for their failure to agree a deal.
Mediator Qatar said Tuesday that talks between Hamas and Israel on a Gaza truce and hostage release were continuing, but the warring sides and mediators have offered little information since.
Netanyahu’s office said the premier spoke to Mossad chief David Barnea about the talks, but declined elaborate on whether Barnea would be traveling to Doha or Cairo for the negotiations.
The war began when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel that resulted in about 1,160 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s military has waged a retaliatory offensive against Hamas that has killed 32,623 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Palestinian militants seized about 250 Israeli and foreign hostages during the October 7 attack on Israel, but dozens were released during a week-long truce in November.
Israel believes about 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 who are presumed dead — eight soldiers and 25 civilians.
Israel kills dozens in airstrikes across the Gaza Strip
- Palestinian health officials said two Israeli strikes on the Al-Shejaia suburb in eastern Gaza City killed 17 people
- Gaza’s Hamas-run government media office said at least 10 policemen, tasked with securing aid to the displaced in northern Gaza, were among those killed in Al-Shejaia
CAIRO: Israel sustained its aerial and ground bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing dozens of Palestinians, as fighting raged around Gaza City’s main Al Shifa hospital, Palestinian officials and the Israeli military said.
Palestinian health officials said two Israeli strikes on the Al-Shejaia suburb in eastern Gaza City killed 17 people, while an Israeli air strike on a house in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip killed eight people.
Gaza’s Hamas-run government media office said at least 10 policemen, tasked with securing aid to the displaced in northern Gaza, were among those killed in Al-Shejaia.
The Israeli military said its forces continued operations in around Gaza City’s Al Shifa complex “while mitigating harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment,” adding that over the past day it killed a number of gunmen and located weapons and military infrastructure.
Al Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital before the war, had been one of the few health care facilities even partially operational in north Gaza before the latest fighting. It had also been housing displaced civilians.
The Israeli statement said its forces conducted raids in central and southern areas including Khan Younis and Al-Karara, where troops exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen before they killed them and located weapons and rockets.
The armed wing of Hamas said their fighters targeted Israeli forces near to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, one of the city’s two hospitals blockaded by Israeli soldiers for several days.
In the far south of the Strip, Israel continued its bombardment in Rafah, the Palestinians’ last refuge where over half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people were sheltering. An air strike on a house killed 12 Palestinians late on Thursday. More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, with 71 killed in the last 24 hours, according to health authorities in the territory.
Thousands more dead are believed to be buried under rubble and more than 80 percent of Gazans have been displaced, many at risk of famine.
The war erupted after Hamas militants broke through the border and rampaged through communities in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
In the northern Gaza Strip, where the United Nations has warned famine is imminent as early as May, an elderly man died of malnutrition and lack of medication, Palestinian media said. On Thursday, the World Court unanimously ordered Israel to take all necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies to Gaza’s population and halt spreading famine.
“The renewed binding order from the @ICJ (International Court of Justice) yesterday is a stark reminder that the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is man made and worsening. It can however still be reversed,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, said on X.
“(This) means that Israel must reverse its decision and allow @UNRWA to reach northern Gaza with food and nutrition convoys on a daily basis and to open additional land crossings,” he added. Earlier this week, UNRWA said Israel told it that it would no longer approve its food convoys to north Gaza. Four such requests were denied since March 21, it added.
Israel says Lebanon strike kills a Hezbollah rocket unit commander
- Strike killed Ali Abdel Hassan Naim, deputy head of Hezbollah’s rocket unit
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: An Israeli army air strike in Lebanon killed the deputy head of Hezbollah’s rocket unit on Friday, the army said, the latest deadly cross-border violence since the Israel-Hamas war erupted.
The strike in south Lebanon’s Bazuriyeh killed Ali Abdel Hassan Naim, “one of the leaders for heavy-warhead rocket fire and responsible for conducting and planning attacks against Israeli civilian,” the Israeli military said.
Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas, has exchanged near-daily fire with the Israeli army since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 triggering war in Gaza.
The hostilities have raised fears of all-out conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which fought a devastating war in 2006.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said “a raid by an enemy drone targeted a car” in Bazuriyeh in south Lebanon’s Tyre district, reporting at least one dead.
AN army security source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the person killed was “a Hezbollah official.”
Hezbollah did not immediately comment on the strike, but announced it had carried out attacks on Israeli positions on Friday.
An AFP correspondent reported the targeted vehicle was destroyed and debris scattered nearby, and said authorities had cordoned off the area.
The Iran-backed group says it is acting in support of Hamas with its attacks. Israel has targeted Hezbollah and Hamas officials inside Lebanon in response.
Recent days have seen an uptick in deadly hostilities, and the White House on Thursday called on Israel and Lebanon to put a high priority on restoring calm.
The United Nations said this week it was “deeply disturbed” by attacks on health care facilities, after several strikes blamed on Israel killed rescue workers in southern Lebanon.
Cross-border fire since October has killed at least 347 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters, but also including at least 68 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people in southern Lebanon and in northern Israel, where the military says 10 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed.
Israeli strikes kill 42 in Syria’s Aleppo province
- Strikes have increased since Israel’s war with Hamas began on October 7
- Israel targeted ‘a rockets depot belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah’ close to Aleppo airport
BEIRUT: A war monitor said Israeli air strikes Friday on Syria’s Aleppo province killed at least 42 including 36 Syrian soldiers, the deadliest toll for the army since the Israel-Hamas war began.
Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since civil war there broke out in 2011, targeting army positions as well as Iran-backed forces including Hezbollah, an ally of Damascus and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The strikes have increased since Israel’s war with Hamas began on October 7, and Friday’s was the second such attack in 24 hours.
“Israeli strikes” targeted “a rockets depot belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah” close to Aleppo airport, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of sources inside Syria.
It reported “42 killed, including six from Lebanon’s Hezbollah group” and “36 soldiers,” the highest Syrian army toll in Israeli strikes since the Israel-Hamas war began.
State news agency SANA, quoting a military source, reported that “at approximately 1:45 am, the Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction of Athriya, southeast of Aleppo,” adding that “civilians and military personnel” were killed and wounded.
Contacted by AFP from Jerusalem, the Israeli military said it would “not comment on reports in the foreign media.”
The Observatory also reported strikes targeting “defense factories” controlled by pro-Iran groups elsewhere in Aleppo province.
The attack came just hours after a reported Israeli strike in the Damascus countryside.
Syrian state media said “two civilians” were killed in an “Israeli air attack that targeted a residential building” on Thursday, also reporting material damage.
The Observatory said the Sayyida Zeinab area, a stronghold of pro-Iran armed groups including Hezbollah south of the capital, was targeted.
Israeli raids in Syria also seek to cut off Hezbollah supply routes to neighboring Lebanon.
The Israel-Hamas war began with the Gaza-based Palestinian militants’ unprecedented attacks that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,623 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.
Israel has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon since the Gaza war began, sparking fears of a major regional conflagration.
In Lebanon, cross-border fire since October has killed at least 346 people, mostly Hezbollah fighters, but also including at least 68 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people in southern Lebanon and in northern Israel, where the military says 10 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed.
Hezbollah has fought alongside ally Damascus in Syria’s civil war since at least 2013, and continues to operate in the country.
The Syrian government’s brutal suppression of a 2011 uprising triggered a conflict that has killed more than half a million people and drawn in foreign armies and jihadists.
On Tuesday, strikes on eastern Syria’s Deir Ezzor province killed 19 people, mostly pro-Iran fighters including two advisers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the Observatory said.
The World Health Organization reported one of its workers was killed in the strikes, which the Observatory blamed on Israel, after initially not saying who carried them out.
A US defense official said the United States “did not conduct any airstrikes” at the time.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria, but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in Syria.
Israel has not received everything it has asked for, top US general says
- Some Democrats and Arab American groups have criticized the Biden administration’s steadfast support of Israel, which they say provides it with a sense of impunity
WASHINGTON: The United States’ top general said on Thursday that Israel had not received every weapon it has asked for, in part because some of it could affect the US military’s readiness and there were capacity limitations.
Washington gives $3.8 billion in annual military assistance to Israel, its longtime ally. The United States has been rushing air defenses and munitions to Israel, but some Democrats and Arab American groups have criticized the Biden administration’s steadfast support of Israel, which they say provides it with a sense of impunity.
“Although we’ve been supporting them with capability, they’ve not received everything they’ve asked for,” said General Charles Q. Brown, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Some of that is because they’ve asked for stuff that we either don’t have the capacity to provide or not willing to provide, not right now,” Brown added, while speaking at an event hosted by the Defense Writers Group.
A spokesperson for Brown later on Thursday said his comments were in reference to “a standard practice before providing military aid to any of our allies and partners.”
“We assess US stockpiles and any possible impact on our own readiness to determine our ability to provide the requested aid,” Navy Captain Jereal Dorsey said in a statement.
“There is no change in US policy. The United States continues to provide security assistance to our ally Israel as they defend themselves from Hamas,” Dorsey added.
More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israel’s devastating offensive, according to health authorities in the territory.
Israel retaliated following an attack by militant group Hamas on southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli offensive prompted opposition from within Biden’s Democratic Party, leading thousands to vote “uncommitted” for him in recent party presidential primaries.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Washington earlier this week and the Pentagon said security assistance to Israel was discussed.
“It is a constant dialogue,” Brown said.