With the Turkish Health Ministry leading the way, Turkiye has lent a helping hand to 160 countries since the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic in early 2020.

According to information compiled by Anadolu Agency from ministry data, a helping hand was extended to many countries to contribute to global health and aid fellow countries since the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic.

In this context, Turkiye supported 160 countries and 14 international organizations with medical equipment and in-kind aid in the fight against the epidemic.

Turkiye extended help via the Turkish Health Ministry, National Defense Ministry, Interior Ministry, Foreign Ministry, Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), Turkish Red Crescent, and various associations to 131 countries including the US, Germany, China, the UK, Italy, Spain, Russia, Norway, Nigeria, Mexico, and Somalia.

The international organizations supported by the ministry during the epidemic process are as follows:

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UNICEF, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Central American Integration System (SICA), NATO, East Africa’s Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the World Health Organization (WHO), Pacific Islands Forum (PAF), OSCE, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), African Union, and World Bank.

The aid included medical equipment and device donations (protective equipment, diagnostic kits, medicines, respirators), cash aid, and purchase/export permits.

Among the donations is a 100-bed epidemic hospital in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), whose construction was undertaken by Turkiye and opened by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in November 2020.

In addition, at Erdogan’s instructions, the Turkiye-Albania Fier Friendship Hospital was opened in Albania last April, and started to provide health services.

Phase 3 studies of Turkovac vaccine

The ministry also continues its negotiations with nine countries to carry out Phase 3 studies of the national vaccine Turkovac.

Meanwhile, Turkiye's Health Ministry is working with 50 countries on mutual recognition of vaccination cards.

While processes with 17 of these countries has been completed, work for the mutual recognition of vaccination cards continues with 33 others.

Vaccine donations

Turkiye also donated hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 vaccine doses worldwide, including 543,330 doses to the TRNC, 160,800 doses to Kyrgyzstan, 200,000 doses to Uzbekistan, 150,000 doses each to Libya and Turkmenistan, 100,000 doses to Montenegro, 70,000 doses to Moldova, 50,000 doses to Tunisia and Senegal, 40,000 doses to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 30,000 doses to North Macedonia.

Other countries and regions requesting the vaccine are as follows: Albania, Kosovo, Syria, Palestine, Mauritania, the Maldives, Namibia, Mongolia, Georgia, Lesotho, Iraq (Kurdistan Regional Government), Nepal, and Madagascar./aa

A ceremony was held at the Turkish capital on Wednesday to mark the arrival of the first Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul (ITI) train carrying goods from Pakistan to Turkiye, via Iran after the resumption of its operations.

The ITI cargo train started its journey from Islamabad on Dec. 21, 2021, and arrived in Ankara in around 13 days. Turkey's Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoglu, Member of Pakistan National Assembly Makhdoom Zain Hussain Qureshi, and Iranian Ambassador to Turkiye Mohammad Farazmand attended the ceremony.

Departing from the Margalla station in Islamabad, the train took a route of 5,981 kilometers (3,666 miles) in 12 days and 21 hours. The cargo train aims to boost trade between Pakistan, Iran, and Turkiye. It comprises eight loaded wagons, 20 feet each with a capacity of 22 tons.

Karaismailoglu in his speech said the new railway will offer new options to the industrialists and businesspeople on the Pakistan-Iran-Turkiye route.

"It will save time and cost compared to sea transportation between Pakistan and Turkiye, which takes 35 days, and will lead to the development of trade between the two countries," he said.

"Thus, with the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul train, a new railway corridor will be provided to our exporters in the south of Asia -- having the highest population density globally -- reaching Pakistan, neighboring India, China, Afghanistan, and Iran. In this way, our country will be one step closer to its goals of becoming a bridge and logistics base between Asia and Europe," Karaismailoglu added.

Speaking at the ceremony, Qureshi highlighted that the ITI train would play an important role in enhancing regional connectivity and promotion of economic and commercial activities in the ECO (Economic Cooperation Organization) region. Iran, Pakistan, and Turkiye established the Regional Cooperation for Development organization in 1964 and renamed it ECO in 1985.

Qureshi added that the train would offer Pakistan an opportunity to further increase its exports and strengthen its connectivity with international markets, including in Europe.

"The current government in Pakistan believes in regional connectivity and we feel that to play a role at the national stage we need to be economically reliable. In order to do that, we need to not only have peace in our region but also increase the trade within our neighborhood and this ITI project will become a friendship project.

"We get access to the European markets and Turkey gets access to the central Asian states so it is a mutually beneficial arrangement and I hope it will be sustainable and we can grow from it further," Qureshi told Anadolu Agency in an interview.

Ambassador Farazmand in his speech said the ITI railway project was first launched in 2009 under the economic cooperation organization but remained suspended due to technical issues and restarted after 10 years.

He emphasized that the three countries also plan to launch a passenger train to the same route in the near future.

The first train from Islamabad to Istanbul was inaugurated on Aug. 14, 2009. Since then, eight trains have been dispatched from Pakistan to /Turkiye. Turkiye has also dispatched six trains to Pakistan, but the train service was discontinued due to floods in Pakistan in 2009./aa

Ayesha Bilal, a seven-year-old girl in the Indian-administered Kashmir, is assembling her books and toys at her home in Heff village.

The village is 16 kilometers (9.94 miles) from the main town in the southern Shopian district.

Ayesha, a first-grade student, lives with her grandparents and uncle after she lost her mother and father to the vicious cycle of conflict that has been raging in the region for over three decades.

Ahead of World Day for War Orphans which is observed on Jan. 6 annually, Anadolu Agency revisited the case of Ayesha.

"She often asks about her parents and insists to take her to them," her grandfather Mohammad Yousuf Mohand told Anadolu Agency.

"But we make up other stories to turn her attention towards some other things."

Tragedy

Ayesha was just one year old when her father Bilal Ahmad Mohand joined the militancy in Kashmir in 2016.

Before joining, he was working as a daily wager in the region's public health engineering department.

Ahmad's family said that prior to his joining the militancy, he was first booked under the public safety law for allegedly helping the militants, which according to them he did not.

"He was very sober and God-fearing, but the continuous harassment led him to join the militancy," said his father.

On May 6, 2018, Ahmad was killed along with four associates, including top commander Saddam Padder.

Over the years, however, his wife, Shaheena Akhter, who was taking care of their two daughters in the absence of their father, developed severe health conditions.

A year later on May 16, 2019, Shaheena died from a brain tumor.

At the time, Ayesha was just five years old, while her elder sister was 14.

Cost of conflict

Ayesha collects her toys in a box and plays with them in a corner of a room at her home.

In conversations, she often talks about her father, but she is yet to understand that he has gone far away.

"She insists sometimes that we make her understand why her father is not here. We don't have answers," said her uncle Adil Ahmad.

A 2014 study conducted by Save the Children, a London-based humanitarian organization, said the estimated number of orphans in Jammu and Kashmir due to the conflict and natural deaths of parents is around 214,000, with 15% of them living in orphanages across the region.

The report said that 37% of the orphans lost one or both parents due to the conflict while 55% were orphaned due to natural deaths of their parents, and the remaining 8% owing to other reasons.

For a child to lose their parents is the biggest psychological setback, according to child experts.

Isha Malik, who deals with cases of children of conflict, said there are various issues that children face after losing their parents.

"From economic hardship to loss of education and different kinds of traumas, these children find themselves very helpless," Malik said.

A study conducted by Kashmir's renowned sociologist Bashir Ahmad Dabla, who surveyed 300 orphans, found that 48% of these orphaned children faced economic hardships after the death of their fathers.

"More than 13% have reported denial of love and affection while 22% of them have faced psychological setbacks," the report said.

Ayesha and her elder sister are trying to get over the pain of separation from their parents, but the little sister is yet to understand the reality that her parents are no more there.

"We are trying to be their support system, but they do miss their parents," said their grandfather./aa

A Palestinian prisoner in “Israel” has suspended his open-ended hunger strike after reaching a deal for his release.

Hisham Abu Hawwash had staged a hunger strike for over 141 days to protest his arrest without trial under [Israel’s] policy of administrative detention.

His lawyer Jawad Boulos said the prisoner agreed to suspend his strike after “Israel” agreed to release him on February 26.
“Abu Hawwash will remain at the hospital until he recovers,” he added in a statement.

Hassan Abd Rabbo, spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)'s committee for prisoners' affairs, said the prisoner will be released after the end of his current detention order on February 26.

The news of Abu Hawwash’s release has sparked celebrations in his hometown of Dura, west of Hebron city in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh congratulated Abu Hawwash and his family for his release and thanked countries that piled pressure on Israel to release the prisoner.

Abu Hawwash was detained by “Israeli” forces on October 27, 2020 and placed under administrative detention, a policy that allows Israel to detain anyone for six months without charge or trial.

According to Palestinian NGOs, there are around 4,650 Palestinian detainees in “Israeli” jails, including at least 500 held without charge or trial./aa

Global oil prices fell on Wednesday as US gasoline stockpiles showed an increase of 7.1 million barrels for the week of Dec. 31, according to the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday.

The rise in stockpiles signaled a drop in demand in the US. Investors are now looking to crude oil supply data from the US Energy Information Administration due later in the day.

International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $79.94 per barrel at 0615 GMT, down 0.08% from the previous session's close of $80.

The American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $76.92 per barrel at the same time for a 0.09% loss from the previous session's trade closure of $76.99 per barrel.

Brent had surpassed the $80 per barrel threshold by the time the 23-members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known as OPEC+, ended their meeting on Tuesday.

OPEC+ decided to extend the current plan to increase output by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) through February./aa

A camp in the vicinity of Baghdad International Airport has been hit by a rocket attack, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

"A Katyusha rocket landed on the Al-Nasr camp in the vicinity of Baghdad International Airport in the capital," the ministry said in a statement.

No casualties were reported.

Al-Nasr (Victory) camp is one of the military sites where advisers to the US-led international coalition against the Daesh/ISIS terror group are located.

Wednesday’s attack was the fourth against US-led coalition bases in Iraq within a week, which came amid tension over the presence of US-led forces in Iraq.

On Dec. 9, both Iraq and the international coalition announced the official end of the combat mission of coalition forces in the country.

On July 26, Baghdad and Washington agreed to withdraw all US combat forces from Iraq by the end of 2021, while retaining US advisers and trainers to assist Iraqi security forces.

Since 2014, Washington has led an international coalition against Daesh/ISIS terrorist group./aa

In an ideal world, Albino Gore, 15, should have been under the care of his parents. But the teenaged boy lost both his parents to the lingering civil war in South Sudan.

Gore fled Kajo Keji, which became a ghost town in 2016 after fighting in the capital Juba spread to other cities. The result was a mass exodus from the city to refugee camps in neighboring Uganda.

Gore fled to Juba with his mother, who he says later abandoned him. His father died in the war.

On World Day for War Orphans which is observed on Jan. 6 every year, Gore told Anadolu Agency he begs, steals, and does odd jobs to fend for himself.

“I survive by begging and sometimes do manual work to get food. I am not even thinking of going to school because nobody is going to support me and what I get can’t afford school fees,” Gore said.

Thousands of children across the country have been separated from their parents during the devastating crisis which began in December 2013 and the long civil war with Sudan, according to the UN.

Some were left orphaned, while others had to separate with them while fleeing violence.

South Sudan fought a 22-year civil war for independence from Sudan, leaving much of the country shattered. The Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement took power at independence in 2011 but slid into crisis when President Salva Kiir sacked Riek Machar as vice president in December 2013 on suspicion of plotting a coup, followed by a protracted civil war that claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced 4 million people to flee their homes.

The 2018 agreement which ended the war has been bedeviled by bickering between rival parties, and key provisions of the deal are yet to be implemented.

On their own

Meanwhile, the sight of very young children hustling in Juba, just like Gore is many and heart-wrenching.

Some simply cannot contemplate what life has in store for them back home. Others fear returning to memories of the war.

Mayen John, 32, who lost his father in 1991, left school to become the breadwinner for his family after he lost his father to the civil war with Sudan.

"I have been on my own ever since. My father became a victim of a senseless war," he said.

“The war in South Sudan both the liberation war and the 2013 and 2016 wars come with a lot of problems, most of the families or say many of the people, I know, have lost at least a relative and friend, others have got amputated arms or legs. Some have lost their support system.”

Ter Manyang Gatwech, executive director of the Juba-based Center for Peace and Advocacy, called upon the government to build a rehabilitation center for war orphans instead of leaving them on the street.

“There is a big impact, including trauma, which can cause mental health issues for the war orphans. The government should build a center for the orphans and provide them with basic care."/aa