LYON: Some 1,000 people rallied in the French city of Lyon on Sunday in support of unprecedented anti-regime protests in Iran, AFP journalists saw.
The protesters walked through the streets of the eastern city carrying a banner that read “Woman, life, freedom” and chanting the words, which have become the slogan of the protests.
Demonstrations in Iran began after the September 16 death in custody of Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini, 22. She had been arrested by morality police who enforce a strict dress code which requires women to wear a scarf-like covering over their hair and neck.
The protests have escalated into calls for an end to the Islamic regime, posing the biggest challenge for the clerics since the 1979 revolution deposed the shah.
Authorities have responded with deadly violence that has left hundreds dead.
Thousands have been arrested and 14 detainees sentenced to death, many for killing or attacking security force members, according to the judiciary. Four have been executed, the latest two on Saturday.
Many of Sunday’s protesters in France had a personal connection to the country.
“I am here to demand freedom in Iran,” Sholeh Golrokhi, 49, said. “When I was little, they arrested all of my family.”
“We are here to ask Western countries to be the voice of our people” and “expel Iranian ambassadors,” said Samane Ramezanpanah, 35.
In late December a 38-year-old Iranian man drowned in the Rhone river that flows through Lyon, saying on social media that he was going to kill himself to draw attention to the crackdown of the protests in Iran.
Hundreds rally in French city in support of Iran protests
https://arab.news/z2fqs
Hundreds rally in French city in support of Iran protests
- The protesters walked through the streets of the eastern city carrying a banner that read “Woman, life, freedom”
- Many of Sunday’s protesters in France had a personal connection to the country
Turkiye seals preliminary deals for largest foreign-funded railway project
- The funding will support the 125 km (78 mile) long Northern Ring Railway Project, which will carry passengers and freight from Gebze to Halkali via the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge connecting Istanbul’s two main airports
ISTANBUL: Turkiye has reached preliminary agreements with six international lenders to secure $6.75 billion for a new railway line across the Bosphorus in what would be Turkiye’s largest foreign-financed railway project, Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said on Tuesday.
Once completed, the line that will pass through north Istanbul is expected to carry 33 million passengers and 30 million tons of freight annually, he said, adding that it will open “a new era in logistics” by boosting the country’s rail capacity between Asia and Europe.
The funding will support the 125 km (78 mile) long Northern Ring Railway Project, which will carry passengers and freight from Gebze to Halkali via the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge connecting Istanbul’s two main airports.
Preliminary deals were reached with the World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, OPEC Fund for International Development and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the minister said.
“We aim to complete the tender process and hand over the site this year so that (construction) work can start,” Uraloglu said.
An uninterrupted rail freight across the Bosphorus Strait is currently possible through the Marmaray railway tunnel and only during limited hours daily. According to the ministry’s website, a total of just 1.7 million tons of cargo were transported through Marmaray between 2020 and October 2025.
