ISTANBUL

Turkish first lady Emine Erdogan visited on Friday a recycling bazaar organized by a Turkish NGO in order to raise funds for Palestinian children living in East Jerusalem under Israeli occupation.

The event, which was organized by Social Development Center Education and Social Solidarity Association (TOGEM-DER) in Baglarbasi Congress and Culture Center in Istanbul, aimed at "utilizing unused items to support Zero Waste Project."

Thousands of products donated by philanthropists, varying from toys to clothing, furniture to antiques, were offered for sale in the bazaar.

The first lady bought products made by students with special needs.
Erdogan said Turkey will be in solidarity with the Palestinian people, who have suffered from the Israeli onslaught in recent days, and will never leave them to their own fate.

She urged everyone to visit the bazaar in order to support Palestinian children.

An Egyptian-brokered cease-fire between Palestinian resistance groups and Israel took effect last Friday, putting an end to 11 days of the worst cycle of fighting in years.

Since April 13, clashes erupted across the occupied territories because of Israeli attacks and restrictions on Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and an Israeli court's decision to evict 12 Palestinian families from their homes in favor of Israeli settlers.

Tensions moved to Gaza on May 10, leading to a military confrontation between Israeli forces and Palestinian resistance groups where Israeli warplanes caused an unprecedented scale of destruction in the occupied territory.

The death toll from Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank now stands at 288, including 69 children and 40 women, with more than 8,900 others injured, according to official Palestinian figures./aa

Turkish gendarmerie forces seized two improvised explosives belonging to the PKK terror group in the eastern Bingol province, a local authority said on Friday.

The gendarmerie teams received the intelligence that explosives are buried in the rural areas of Yayladere village, a statement by the governor’s office said.

During the ground survey conducted in the region as part of the Eren-4 anti-terror operation, two explosives were seized.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children and infants./aa

Bulgarian Turks, who were persecuted in 1984-1989 on the grounds that they opposed an assimilation campaign against them in the country, cannot forget the suffering they endured.

Cemil Birtane, 73, and Kiymet Birtane, 70, migrated from Bulgaria to Turkey at the end of 1989 after Cemil spent four years and six months in prison and exile for opposing assimilation.

"We were tortured and beaten for one year and four months in the Belene Prison. Later, I was sent to another prison with 80 friends. After a year there, I was exiled to different villages in Bulgaria. I was released after four years and six months," said Cemil, recalling those years.

"They sent my clothes home and told my wife I was dead. She was told not to search for me anymore. Thank God I was released after these four years and six months and Bulgaria deported me," he added.

Cemil recounted that despite pressure from authorities, they continued to oppose the assimilation campaign in prison and went on hunger strikes with their companions, adding they also removed the Bulgarian names they were given from their bedside and wanted to keep their Turkish names.

Bulgarian authorities wanted to send Cemil and his family to Austria or Sweden, but he refused. He took refuge in the Turkish embassy in Belgrade, then in Yugoslavia.

"The Turkish Embassy sent us to a refugee camp for a week. I'm very happy we came to Turkey. We're very happy that we're were freed from persecution and pressures."

We did not give up on being Turkish whatever they said

Sukru Korkmaz, who came to Turkey 32 years ago and lives in the northwestern province of Edirne, could not hold back tears while retelling his story of migration.

Korkmaz said everyone who did not give up on being a "Turk" in Bulgaria was forced to migrate and were subjected to physical and psychological violence.

He said the most difficult time in his and his family's life was in Bulgaria, especially in the Belene Camp, adding that he could not forget his experiences there.

"We didn't give up on being Turkish, whatever they said. They told me: 'You’re blonde. You speak Bulgarian very well. You're Bulgarian. Ottomans forced you to be a Turk.' I and hundreds of others like me did not accept this," said Korkmaz.

"They sent us to the Belene camp. I stayed there for a year and a half. They locked us somewhere in the camp and never let us out.

"We couldn't change our clothes for months. We got lice, we smelled. We were under psychological and verbal abuse for months. They let me see my family after every six months. We could only see [each other] through glass. Thank God, we left that all behind."/aa

DHAKA, Bangladesh

A UK-based Rohingya rights defender, the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK (BROUK), in a new report claimed “the genocide against Rohingya shows no sign of abating in Myanmar” despite the order of the UN's highest court to the Myanmar authorities for protecting the minority community.

“Since the start of 2021, at least 15 Rohingya -- including nine infants and young children -- have died as a direct result of onerous and illegal travel restrictions preventing access to medical care,” the report released on Monday said.

The release has also coincided with Myanmar’s duty to report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), on how it is preventing genocidal acts against the minority Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.

Myanmar is supposed to submit its periodical report to the ICJ by May 23 as the court in January 2020 imposed a legal injunction ordering the authorities of the Buddhist-majority Southeast Asian country to “prevent and halt genocidal acts against the Rohingya” as part of “provisional measures” and submit follow up reports in a genocide case brought by Gambia.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces while more than 34,000 thrown into fires, over 114,000 others beaten, as many as 18,000 women and girls raped and at least 115,000 homes burned down, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency.

But uncertainty has loomed around the case due to the Feb. 1 military coup in Myanmar, toppling down the democratically elected government.

Myanmar’s agent in the ICJ case, former State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, has been placed under house arrest by the military regime, and faces up to 26 years in prison on a range of charges.

Underling the prevailing crisis in Myanmar, BROUK called on the international community “to redouble efforts to hold the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) to account for atrocity crimes.”

The rights defender also urged the National Unity Government, an anti-coup new platform mostly comprising ousted lawmakers in Myanmar, “to throw its full weight behind the international justice efforts, and submit its own report to the ICJ spelling out how it will end persecution against the Rohingya.”

“The military’s brutal crackdown in Myanmar since the coup has again highlighted how crucial justice is for our country. The same generals who led the killings of thousands of Rohingya in Rakhine State are now gunning down peaceful protesters in the streets,” said BROUK's head Tun Khin.

Referring to the long-prevailed negligence to Rohingya under both civilian and military regimes, the report claimed that “laws and policies (were) keeping Rohingya in an open-air prison in Rakhine State -- where they are denied citizenship and freedom of movement.”

It added: “The pre-coup civilian government took no meaningful steps to change this situation.”

“The ICJ must take steps to strengthen the provisional measures against Myanmar to ensure that they do not end up being a paper promise. The international community must lend the Court its full support -- politically and practically -- to ensure that this happens,” the report recommends./aa

The remains of 215 children have been found buried at a Canadian residential school, an Indigenous band confirmed Thursday.

The bodies – the discovery was called “unthinkable” by the chief of the First Nations Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc band – were found with the aid of a ground-penetrating radar specialist, reported Global News.

The area has been closed while the search continues for more bodies.

Chief Roseanne Casimir said the band had a “knowing” there were children – some as young as three-years-old – buried at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in the Canadian province of British Columbia.

“We sought out a way to confirm that knowing out of deepest respect and love for those lost children and their families, understanding that Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc is the final resting place of these children,” said Casimir in a news release.

“With access to the latest technology, the true accounting of the missing students will hopefully bring some peace and closure to those lives lost and their home communities.”

It is not yet known how the children died.

The Kamloops facility was one of the largest of 130 residential schools in Canada.

The schools began in the 1830s and as many as 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their parents – sometimes by force – and sent to the schools in a bid to eradicate their culture.

The schools were run by various religious bodies, including Roman Catholic and Anglican, and later taken over by the Canadian government.

It is well documented that many of the children were sexually and physically abused, including being seated in electric chairs and forced to eat their own vomit, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

The last school was closed in 1997.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established in 2008 and toured the country hearing testimony from residential school survivors and families.

The commission labelled the schools as a form of culture genocide, a term Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed with. More than 3 billion Canadian dollars has been paid to victims by the government./aa

President Joe Biden's Defense Department requested on Friday over $500 million to aid groups, including the YPG/PKK, the US is partnering with in Iraq and Syria to defeat Daesh/ISIS.

In all, the Pentagon's is seeking $522 million from Congress to fund the groups for the fiscal year that begins in October, including $345 million to aid Iraqi security forces and an additional $177 million to assist what the Pentagon is referring to as "Vetted Syrian Groups and Individuals."

It does not break down how much of the nearly $180 million is going to be allocated to the YPG-led SDF, the US's main partner in Syria in the anti-Daesh/ISIS fight, but it would presumably be the lion's share. The US also works with Syrian opposition groups in Homs governorate at a garrison in at-Tanf near the Iraqi border.

US support for the YPG-led SDF in Syria has been a major strain on bilateral relations with Turkey. The YPG is the Syrian affiliate of the PKK, a designated terrorist group in the US, Turkey and EU.

The funding levels for Iraqi and Syrian groups represent reductions from levels requested for the current fiscal year under former President Donald Trump. The Defense Department requested $645 million to aid partners in Iraq, and $200 million to assist the Syrian groups for fiscal year 2021./aa

As tens of thousands of people flee amid fears of another volcanic eruption in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, more children risk being separated from their families, an NGO said late Thursday.   

Save the Children said at least 243 children are still separated from their parents, with most of them in temporary family housing and transit centers following the deadly eruption of Mount Nyiragongo on May 22. 

"We can see the situation in Goma district is getting worse. Earthquakes are continuing in the region, which is already reeling from destroyed homes, schools and infrastructure. Half a million people are without water, which raises the risk of a cholera outbreak," said Edouard Niyonzima, a humanitarian worker for Save the Children in Goma.  

Part of the city of Goma has been evacuated since early Thursday. 

According to the military governor of North Kivu province, Lieut. Gen. Constant Ndima Kongba, scientists are warning of further volcanic eruptions on land and under Lake Kivu. 

"Our primary focus is the protection of all children, particularly through family tracing and reunification. Mental health and psychological support is a key component to offer to affected communities and children," said Amavi Akpamagbo, Save the Children's country director in the DRC.

The death toll from the latest volcano eruption in the DRC is at least 32, with the majority of people calcined by lava and asphyxiated by smoke. ​​​​​​​ 

At least 250 people were killed when Mount Nyiragongo erupted in 2002, while over 120,000 residents were left homeless as lava flowed into Goma./aa