ON BOARD THE TCG SANCAKTAR: Eyup Sabri Kirgiz gathered up his loved ones — both family and pets — and with a heavy heart left his beloved city of Beirut behind, after two weeks of deadly airstrikes that had traumatized his family.
The 50-year old Turkish engineer who moved to the Lebanese capital 21 years ago, was living in the Ein Rummaneh neighborhood, close to Beirut’s southern suburbs, an area known as Dahiyeh that has been the target of heavy Israeli airstrikes amid an escalation of the war in the Middle East, this time between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
“For the last two weeks or so, we had been feeling all those bombs as if they were exploding in the house,” said Kirgiz, who along with his Lebanese wife, two children and his mother-in-law was among hundreds of people who were evacuated from Lebanon on Thursday aboard two Turkish navy ships.
“There was no sleep or anything. We would just sit until the morning. You can only sleep when the drones go away. It is impossible to sleep with that drone sound anyway,” Kirgiz told The Associated Press on board the TCG Sancaktar. The AP was the only nongovernment media that was invited aboard the vessels to cover the evacuation operation.
It’s been a year of war. Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel from Lebanon on Oct. 8, 2023, one day after the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel that led to the Israeli offensive in Gaza, and Israel and Hezbollah have been trading attacks since then. But since the fighting escalated in mid-September, more than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon and over a million displaced.
The almost 1,000 evacuees — mostly Turkish citizens and their foreign-born spouses — on board the TCG Sancaktar, and its sister landing vessel, the TCG Bayraktar, napped or sat on camp beds surrounded by the few belongings they could bring. Aid workers on board the vessels distributed sandwiches and refreshments during the 12-hour crossing to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Mersin.
Previous Turkish government figures put the number of people to be evacuated at close to 2,000. A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government rules, said some people who had expressed interest in leaving did not show up.
Kirgiz spent much of the journey tending to his dogs, Bella and Ammun — as well as their pet turtle, Coco, which he kept in a shoe-box — to ensure that they did not disturb slumbering fellow passengers.
The air was stuffy, making the journey uncomfortable at times.
A 75-year-old passenger on board the ship was evacuated by helicopter to northern Cyprus after he suffered a heart attack during the voyage. He later died in the hospital, the security official said.
Kirgiz, who describes himself as “the lover of Beirut” said he hopes to return there soon.
“I’ll see what the situation is like in a week or 10 days. I’ll wait for things to calm down a bit. After that, if I think it’s no longer dangerous, I’ll go back. Because I love this place so much. And after, (the plan) is to bring back the family and children,” Kirgiz said.
Turkish-born Dilber Taleb and her Lebanese-born husband Ahmad, who live in Australia, were on holiday in Lebanon when the conflict escalated. They were spending time with Ahmad’s parents so that they could get to know their infant grandson, Khaldun.
Although their neighborhood was not targeted by the Israeli strikes, the couple grabbed the opportunity to leave Lebanon.
“You’re anxious every day. When you are under stress, you worry whether something will happen, whether they will block the road or bomb something. That’s why he wanted to leave Lebanon as soon as possible,” said Dilber Taleb.
Her husband sounded tormented at having to leave his parents behind.
“My parents, they are only Lebanese (nationals), they’re not Turkish citizens or Australian citizens like us,” he said. “But I wish in the future I can take them with us, maybe to Turkiye or to Australia. Because we can’t stay living under this stress.”
Among other passengers on board the vessel was Goncagul Udigwe, her Nigerian husband Callistos and their 7-month-old daughter, Hilda. They had moved to Lebanon, where he ran his own business, just five months ago.
The family decided to leave Lebanon because they feared it would turn into “another Gaza,” she said as the family waited to board the ship in Beirut. Speaking again to AP journalists as she disembarked in Mersin, she felt a rush of relief.
“Right now I am extremely happy that we are reunited (with Turkiye) safe and sound. I am in my own land, I feel safe, I feel at peace.”
Udigwe continued: “But of course, I feel very sorry for those who have to stay there (in Lebanon) because they are not in a good situation at all. They sleep on the sidewalks, in cars. So it’s very difficult. I’ve never seen anything like this before. I’ve never experienced anything like this in my own country.”
The ships arrived back in Turkiye late Thursday and early Friday. The exhausted passengers were bused to another area of the port to pass through immigration checks.
The two ships were part of a convoy of six-vessels that departed Mersin on Wednesday, carrying some 300 tons of humanitarian aid to Lebanon, including food, tents and blankets. AP journalists on board the Sancaktar could hear the sound of drones flying above the ships, while the aid was being unloaded and the evacuees were boarding.
Turkish citizens fleeing Lebanon mourn the homes and family left behind
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Turkish citizens fleeing Lebanon mourn the homes and family left behind
- The almost 1,000 evacuees napped or sat on camp beds surrounded by the few belongings they could bring
- Aid workers on board the vessels distributed sandwiches and refreshments during the 12-hour crossing to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Mersin
Dozens of arrests follow Turkish unseating of mayors
- Ankara and its Western allies have branded the PKK a “terrorist” organization. The group has waged a bloody guerrilla war since 1984 that has left more than 40,000 dead.
ISTANBUL: More than 30 people have been charged in Turkiye after protests against the removal of three mayors in the Kurdish-majority southeast, who were then replaced by government-appointed trustees, the interior ministry said Sunday.
Those detained, after the authorities sacked the mayors on “terrorism” charges, include a journalist from news website 10Haber.
His lawyer said the reporter was arrested late Saturday following a series of articles on the removal of a mayor in a district of Istanbul.
Authorities have alleged the mayor is linked to the banned Workers Party of Kurdistan (PKK).
More than 250 people have also been detained for participating in protest rallies in mainly-Kurdish southeastern Turkiye against the mayors’ removal.
The ministry said 33 of those detained had been charged, while 37 have been placed under judicial surveillance, while three others face house arrest.
Monday’s replacement of the mayors sparked widespread anger and brought a rebuke from Europe’s top rights body, the Council of Europe, which said the move undermined local democracy.”
The trio all are from the main pro-Kurdish party DEM. They were elected in March when opposition candidates won in many areas, including Istanbul.
Authorities banned rallies in several Kurdish majority provinces after the move.
Images filmed mid-week in Batman showed police officers targeted by firecrackers and dispersing demonstrators with armored vehicles equipped with water cannons.
Ankara and its Western allies have branded the PKK a “terrorist” organization. The group has waged a bloody guerrilla war since 1984 that has left more than 40,000 dead.
Iran calls to expel Israel from UN after Syria strike
- Iran's foreign ministry also called for “an arms embargo” against Israel
TEHRAN: Iran’s foreign ministry called Sunday for an arms embargo on Israel and the expulsion of its arch-foe from the United Nations, following a deadly strike in Syria.
Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran “strongly condemned the aggressive attack carried out today by the Zionist regime against a residential building” in the Damascus area.
The strike on an apartment belonging to the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, killed nine people including a Hezbollah commander, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.
Baghaei called for measures against Israel, including “an arms embargo” and its “expulsion from the United Nations.”
Regional tensions have soared since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, triggered by the Palestinian Hamas militant group’s unprecedented attack on Israel.
The conflict has drawn in Tehran-aligned militants in the region, and included rare direct attacks between Iran and Israel.
Since Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting army positions and fighters including from Hezbollah.
Israeli authorities rarely comment on the strikes, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria.
Five killed in Turkish drone strikes on PKK members in northern Iraq
- Turkiye regularly carries out airstrikes on PKK militants in northern Iraq and has dozens of outposts in the Iraqi territory
BAGHDAD: Turkish drone strikes killed five members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service and security sources said on Sunday.
The first Turkish strike targeted a vehicle in a mountain area near Iraq’s northern province Dohuk late on Saturday, killing three, including one person identified by the Iraqi Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service statement as a “senior PKK official,” the statement added.
Another drone strike on Sunday targeted a vehicle, killing two fighters from the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), a militia affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), two security sources and a local official in the district of Sinjar told Reuters.
Turkiye regularly carries out airstrikes on PKK militants in northern Iraq and has dozens of outposts in the Iraqi territory.
The PKK launched an insurgency against Ankara in 1984 with the initial aim of creating an independent Kurdish state. It subsequently moderated its goals to seeking greater Kurdish rights and limited autonomy in southeast Turkiye.
Egypt hosts 1.2 million Sudanese, with ‘hundreds’ arriving daily: UN
- Egypt currently hosts 546,746 Sudanese refugees who are officially registered with the United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR
CAIRO: Hundreds of people fleeing war-torn Sudan arrive in neighboring Egypt every day, a UN official said Sunday, adding to more than 1.2 million who have found refuge there, according to official figures.
The war between rival Sudanese generals since April 2023 has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 11 million, with 3.1 million of them seeking shelter beyond the country’s borders, according to the UN.
Egypt currently hosts 546,746 Sudanese refugees who are officially registered with the United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR, as well as others who are awaiting registration, said Christine Bishay, associate external relations officer at UNHCR Egypt.
A UNHCR report issued on Friday said that “recent data from the government of Egypt indicates that more than 1.2 million Sudanese have sought international protection in Egypt.”
This has made the North African country the largest host of Sudanese refugees despite imposing stricter entry requirements during the war in Sudan, which shares a long border with Egypt.
Sudanese nationals “now make up two-thirds of the country’s total registered refugee population” of 827,644 people representing 95 nationalities, including Syria, South Sudan and Eritrea, she said.
“Initially, at the very beginning of the conflict, thousands of Sudanese arrived in Egypt on a daily basis, before stabilising to a few hundreds per day,” Bishay added.
Cairo had initially waived visa requirements for Sudanese women, children and men over 50 at the start of the war.
But a month after the conflict erupted, the Egyptian government introduced visa entry requirements for all Sudanese, leaving many to resort to irregular crossings.
In September this year, Egypt further tightened entry requirements, obliging people entering from Sudan to obtain “prior security clearance” alongside a consular visa, according to Egypt’s interior ministry.
Raga Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a 27-year-old Sudanese woman who crossed into Egypt illegally in August, told AFP she had paid about 500,000 Sudanese pounds ($830) to travel in a pick-up truck with 16 others.
The desert journey, which took a gruelling day and a half, was “exhausting and terrifying,” Abdel Rahman said.
“We were constantly afraid of being stopped by RSF forces,” she added, referring to the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces who have been battling the regular army.
Hundreds of thousands of others who fled Sudan have sought refuge primarily in neighboring countries, including Chad, South Sudan and Libya.
In the report published on Friday, UNHCR Egypt warned that the humanitarian crisis caused by Sudan’s war has placed “immense pressure on Egypt’s resources and infrastructure.”
Hanan Hamdan, UNHCR representative to Egypt’s government and the Arab League, said that “the burden on Egypt is unsustainable and requires immediate and substantial international assistance to ensure the protection and well-being of those affected by the conflict.”
UNHCR also noted that so far, just over half of the funding needed for an aid scheme for Sudanese refugees has been secured.
The Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan 2024 “has received $1.52 billion in funding, which is 56.3 percent of the required $2.7 billion,” the UN agency said.
“Despite this significant contribution, the funding gap remains substantial.”
Five Iranian security forces killed in attack in Sistan-Baluchistan province
- Iranian forces launched a major operation in the area after an attack on October 26 killed 10 police officers
TEHRAN: At least five members of Iran’s security forces were killed Sunday in a “terror attack” in the restive southeast, where authorities have been conducting operations against rebels, local media reported.
The Fars news agency reported that in a “terror attack in Saravan county, in the south of the Sistan-Baluchistan province, five members of the security forces were killed.”
Sistan-Baluchistan borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is one of Iran’s most impoverished provinces. It is one of the few mainly Sunni Muslim provinces in Shiite-dominated Iran.
For years it has faced unrest involving drug-smuggling gangs, rebels from the Baluchi minority and extremists.
Fars said that after the attack in Saravan, “units stationed in the region were quickly deployed to pursue the criminals.”
Iranian forces launched a major operation in the area after an attack on October 26 killed 10 police officers.
That attack was later claimed by the Pakistan-based Sunni jihadist group Jaish Al-Adl (Arabic for Army of Justice).
Local media reported that those behind the October attack have been killed in the current security operation.
Some 15 militants have been reported killed in Sistan-Baluchistan province since the October attack, including three on Sunday, state television said.
It also said more than 30 suspects have been arrested.
Formed in 2012 by Baluch separatists, Jaish Al-Adl is designated a terrorist organization by both Iran and the United States.