The Turkish interior minister on Saturday criticized the Greek Coast Guard units for their ill-treatment of irregular migrants attempting to cross into Europe.

In a Twitter post addressing Greek Minister of Migration and Asylum Notis Mitarachi, Suleyman Soylu shared video footage showing Greek coast guard units forcing two boats carrying migrants into Turkish territorial waters.

“Your Coast Guard units are leveling up the torture and inhumane treatment everyday,” Soylu said, pointing to the footage in which some of the migrants were severely battered by the Greek authorities.

Soylu went on to say that Greek coast guard units were responsible for the "inhumane action" and pushbacks into the Turkish territorial sea and that the EU border agency Frontex was "complicit" for such acts, which were "ignored" by the EU.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Coast Guard Command issued a statement on a total of 28 migrants rescued on two separate occasions after they were pushed into the Turkish territorial waters.

According to the statement, 17 migrants, comprising women and children, were rescued on Dec. 6 from a half-sunken lifeboat after getting stuck on an island for two days.

The statement noted that the irregular migrants said they were stuck on the Bulamac Island -- some 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) southwest of Didim in Turkey’s Aydin province -- for 2 days. They were then captured on the island by Greek elements and taken on a Greek Coast Guard ship in two groups -- with women and children separately from men. While men were hit and kept on the ship, women and children were left to the Turkish territorial waters on a lifeboat and dragged, added the statement.

The statement went on to say that 11 migrants, including men who were separated from women and children in the previous incident, were rescued on Dec. 8 after they were dragged into Turkish territorial waters by the Greek elements.

It added: “It was seen that they [men] were heavily battered and there were some scars on their bodies. It was also learnt by their statements that their money, mobile phones, and other valuable possessions were taken.”/aa

Zionist forces rounded up 413 Palestinians in raids across the occupied West Bank in November, according to Palestinian NGOs on Saturday.

The highest number of the detentions were reported in Jerusalem with 157 Palestinians arrested, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)’s Detainees and Ex-Detainees Commission, the Palestinian Prisoner Society, Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association and Wadi Hilweh Information Center said in a joint statement.

The NGOs said 49 minors and 7 women were among those detained over the past month.

According to the statement, there are around 4,400 Palestinian detainees in Zionist prisons, including 41 women, 170 minors and 380 held under Zionist’s policy of administrative detention without charges of trials./aa

Turkey is helping Palestinians in Gaza who need eye removal surgeries and ocular prostheses due to severe injuries suffered in Israeli attacks. 

Badly damaged eyes have to be surgically removed and replaced with prosthetic ones, and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) is financing the procedure for 10 Palestinians, the agency said in a statement.

A Palestinian group estimates that at least 300 people in Gaza have lost their eyes due to Israeli attacks, with many unable to afford the costly enucleation and artificial implant.

Allam al-Aga, who specializes in making and implanting ocular prostheses, is leading the process at the General Service Association Hospital in Gaza, read the statement.

According to Aga, prosthetic eyes are an "urgent necessity" in Palestine due to Israel’s growing aggression.

Abdullah al-Haccar, the head of the Salamet Foundation that is leading the project with TIKA’s support, said the initiative will go a long way in easing the suffering of Palestinians injured by Israeli forces.

Rani al-Behensavi, a 15-year-old Palestinian, lost his left when he was shot by Israeli soldiers during the Great March of Return protests last year.

"My family couldn't afford to buy a prosthetic eye for me, since it costs thousands of dollars. I am very happy and grateful for this project," he said./aa

Turkey earned over $15.4 million when it exported over 4,000 tons of tea to 100 countries in the first 11 months of 2020, according to Eastern Black Sea Exporters’ Association data.

Turkey's tea export revenue increased 17% in the January-November period year-on-year, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency.

The country has exported 4,135 tons of tea during this period, which also rose 17% compared to the same period of 2019.

Belgium topped the list of countries to which Turkey exporting tea with a revenue worth over $4.8 million, followed Germany and the Netherlands, according to data.

"Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, tea export continues to increase its potential," Ahmet Hamdi Gurdogan, the vice chairman of the association, said.

Gurdogan pointed out that tea exports made a good start to 2020 and has maintained this good performance so far.

He also said the number of the countries to which tea is exported is on the rise, adding this is a leading indicator that the tea exports will reach higher figures in the coming period./aa

Washington says reports of Eritrean involvement in the Tigray conflict are credible, although both Ethiopia and Eritrea have repeatedly denied the claim.

“This is a grave development,” said a US State Department Spokesman, describing what it said were “credible reports” of Eritrean troops fighting alongside the Ethiopian army in the northern Tigray state against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

“We urge that any such troops be withdrawn immediately,” the spokesperson continued.

Though Ethiopia and Eritrea have previously denied the allegations of Eritrean involvement, with Abiy Ahmed insisting that the conflict in Tigray is an “internal affair”, the American intervention adds weight to statements previously made by the TPLF.

The TPLF accused the Ethiopian government of allowing the Eritreans to enter the conflict on ''several fronts''. Debtresion Gebremichael, ousted head of the Tigray state and TPLF chief also said his forces had captured Eritrean soldiers near Wikro, a town roughly 50km north of the Tigray capital Mekelle, though no evidence was shown.

Mesfin Hagos, a former Eritrean defence minister also claimed that Eritrea had deployed 7 infantry divisions, and 4 mechanized divisions as well as a commando unit citing sources in the Eritrean defence ministry and Eritrean opposition members.

Mohammed Omer, a former member of the Eritrean Liberation Front previously also told TRT World that “local sources from the field in Eritrea tell us that Eritrea is fully engaged in fighting.”

Refugees fleeing the fighting have also reported seeing troops in Eritrean uniforms, and UN teams have said the same. The Ethiopian government said uniforms were manufactured by the TPLF and the UN chief said he has received no proof.

Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia have also been fleeing refugee camps as reports of abductions by Eritrean troops, as well as concerns about dwindling humanitarian supplies grow.

“Over the last month we have received an overwhelming number of disturbing reports of Eritrean refugees in Tigray being killed, abducted and forcibly returned to Eritrea” Babar Baloch, a spokesperson for UNHCR tells TRT World. “If confirmed, these actions would constitute a major violation of international law.”

The UNHCR, Baloch says, hasn’t had access to border areas near Eritrea, nor the four Eritrean refugee camps inside Tigray, and cannot yet confirm the emerging reports.

“To find safety and basic means of survival, many Eritrean refugees are fleeing the camps to locations both within Tigray and other regions of Ethiopia. UNHCR has met with some who managed to reach Addis Ababa” Baloch continues.

“It is vital that Eritrean refugees be able to move to safe locations, and receive protection and assistance wherever possible, including outside of Tigray, given the traumatic events they report to have witnessed or survived.”.

TPLF-Eritrea relations

The TPLF was once the most powerful faction in Ethiopia’s now-defunct ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The EPRDF fought a brutal border war with Eritrea between 1998-2000 which killed tens of thousands until an agreement was reached to demarcate the border which wasn’t implemented.

Relations remained frosty for many years as a state of “no war, no peace” put the countries on a constant war footing, which played out domestically in both countries and in the wider region until Abiy Ahmed broke the deadlock in 2018.

“The TPLF, and the EPLF [Eritrean People’s Liberation Front], were challenging the same enemy, the Derg regime in the 80s and have feuds and problems which go back to that era but I think the bigger problem is the Ethiopia-Eritrea border dispute” says Afyare Elmi an Associate Professor of Security Studies at Qatar University. “That is the main reason Afwerki never liked the TPLF”.

The EPLF would go on to separate Eritrea from Ethiopia and form the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), Eritrea’s only legal party today, but border issues remained unsolved which left bad blood between Eritrea’s president Afwerki and the TPLF leadership.

When an independent commission which both parties accepted ruled that Badme, a key border town, should go to Eritrea, Ethiopia under TPLF leadership rejected the decision.

“What makes the situation complicated is that, because the TPLF resisted the official transfer of the control of Badme to Eritrea - and as a ‘forced transfer’ has not, as of yet, been pursued by Abiy - the optics remain unclear” Ann Fitz-Gerald, Director of the Balsillie School of International Affairs tells TRT World.

The US previously applauded Eritrea’s “restraint”, and condemned TPLF’s attempts to internationalize the conflict through rocket attacks on Eritrea’s capital Asmara. They also initially slammed the TPLF for provoking the federal government.

Tibor Nagy, the US’s top diplomat for Africa said that there is no “equivalency here”, explaining that on one side of the conflict there is a sovereign government, and on the other a regional government which “basically started a conflict against the government.”

The statements more recently however have begun taking a different tone, with the US more often calling for an immediate cessation of violence, opening of dialogue and unhindered humanitarian access.

A bipartisan resolution which passed through the US Senate also “strongly disapproved” of tensions between Addis Ababa and Mekelle, calling for negotiation and humanitarian access, fearing the regional consequences of this conflict.

“I don’t anticipate a massive swing in the US position towards the conflict” says Ann Fitz-Gerald. “The US and Ethiopia have a longstanding relationship and the US has significant security interests in the Horn of Africa region, which the Ethiopia Government has played an important role in supporting.”

Ethiopia remains a key US partner in Somalia where it has soldiers supporting the federal government against Al Shabab as part of an AMISOM peacekeeping mission, and through a bilateral agreement with Somalia.

Ethiopia also has a large presence in South Sudan where its peacekeepers have contributed to helping stabilize the country.

Reports have emerged in both Somalia and South Sudan, that Tigrayans have been disarmed due to questions about loyalty & their ethnicity.

“But like many of Ethiopia’s allies at the moment, the US is concerned with the lack of information to corroborate so many of the claims emerging in the media and from those based in the region. These details will hopefully become subject to investigation with answers forthcoming in the weeks to come.”

UMM RAKOUBA, Sudan (AP) — The only thing the survivors can agree on is that hundreds of people were slaughtered in a single Ethiopian town.

Witnesses say security forces and their allies attacked civilians in Mai-Kadra with machetes and knives or strangled them with ropes. The stench of bodies lingered for days during the early chaos of the Ethiopian government’s offensive in the defiant Tigray region last month. Several mass graves have been reported.

What happened beginning Nov. 9 in the agricultural town near the Sudanese border has become the most visible atrocity in a war largely conducted in the shadows. But even here, much remains unclear, including who killed whom.

Witnesses in Mai-Kadra told the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International that ethnic Tigrayan forces and allies attacked Amhara — one of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic groups but a minority in Tigray. In Sudan, where nearly 50,000 people have fled, one ethnic Amhara refugee gave The Associated Press a similar account.

But more than a dozen Tigrayan refugees told the AP it was the other way around: In strikingly similar stories, they said they and others were targeted by Ethiopian federal forces and allied Amhara regional troops.

It’s possible that civilians from both ethnicities were targeted in Mai-Kadra, Amnesty now says.

“Anyone they found, they would kill,” Tesfaalem Germay, an ethnic Tigrayan who fled to Sudan with his family, said of Ethiopian and Amhara forces. He said he saw hundreds of bodies, making a slicing gesture at his neck and head as he remembered the gashes.

But another refugee, Abebete Refe, told the AP that many ethnic Amhara like him who stayed behind were massacred by Tigrayan forces.

“Even the government doesn't think we're alive, they thought we all died,” he said.

The conflicting accounts are emblematic of a war about which little is truly known since Ethiopian forces entered Tigray on Nov. 4 and sealed off the region from the world, restricting access to journalists and aid workers alike. For weeks, food and other supplies have run alarmingly low. This week Ethiopia’s security forces shot at and briefly detained U.N. staffers making the first assessment of how to deliver aid, a senior Ethiopian official said.

Ethiopia's government and the Tigray one have filled the vacuum with propaganda. Each side has seized on the killings in Mai-Kadra to support its cause.

The conflict began after months of friction between the governments, which now regard each other as illegitimate. The Tigray leaders once dominated Ethiopia’s ruling coalition, but Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sidelined them when he came to power in 2018.

Long-held tensions over land in western Tigray, where Mai-Kadra is located, between Tigrayans and Amhara have added fuel to the fire.

Amnesty International said it confirmed that at least scores, and likely hundreds, of people were killed in Mai-Kadra, using geolocation to verify video and photographs of the bodies. It also remotely conducted “a limited set of interviews.”

But Mai-Kadra “is just the tip of the iceberg,” Amnesty researcher Fisseha Tekle told an event on Tuesday as fears grow about atrocities elsewhere in Tigray. “Other credible allegations are emerging ... not only in Mai-Kadra but also” in the nearby town of Humera, the town of Dansha and the Tigray capital, Mekele.

In Mai-Kadra, witnesses told the visiting Ethiopian rights commission they saw police, militia and members of a Tigray youth group attack Amhara.

“The streets were still lined with bodies yet to be buried” days later, the commission said. One man who looked at identity cards of the dead as he cleared away the bodies told Amnesty International that many of them said Amhara.

But several ethnic Tigrayans who have fled blamed Ethiopian and allied Amhara regional forces for killings in the same town at the same time, saying some asked to see identity cards before attacking.

In some cases, they said they recognized the killers as their neighbors.

Samir Beyen, a mechanic, said he was stopped and asked if he was Tigrayan, then beaten and robbed. He said he saw people being slaughtered with knives, and dozens of rotting corpses.

“It was like the end of the world,” he recalled. “We could not bury them because the soldiers were near.”

Cut off from their homes, refugees now wait in Sudan in bare concrete houses or under shelters lashed together from plastic and branches, playing checkers with Coca-Cola bottle caps or stretching out on mats to sleep, seeking a brief escape from ghastly memories.

The AP has been unable to obtain permission to travel to the Tigray region and has been unable to independently verify the reports of the massacre. Neither Amnesty International nor the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission agreed to requests to speak with witnesses they interviewed.

The Ethiopian commission, an entity created under the country’s constitution, called its findings preliminary. Its researchers were allowed by the federal government to visit Mai-Kadra, but when asked whether it was being allowed to also investigate other alleged atrocities, spokesman Aaron Maasho replied, “We’re working on it.”

The U.N. human rights office this week called for independent investigations into the conflict, but Ethiopian officials have rejected what they call interference, saying this week the government doesn't need a “babysitter.”

To assume the government can’t do such work itself “is belittling,” senior Ethiopian official Redwan Hussein told reporters on Tuesday.

The prime minister has called the killings in Mai-Kadra “the epitome of moral degeneration” and even expressed suspicion that the perpetrators may have fled to Sudan and could be hiding among the refugees. Abiy offered no evidence, only pointing to the number of young men among the refugees — though roughly half are women.

The prime minister also has rejected allegations of abuses by the Ethiopian defense force, saying it “has not killed a single person in any city” during the conflict.

But the Tigray leader, Debretsion Gebremichael, blamed the “invading” federal forces for the killings, telling the AP that “we’re not people who can commit this crime, ever.”

The ethnic frictions and profiling must stop, the U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet warned this week, saying they are “fostering divisiveness and sowing the seeds for further instability and conflict" — in a region already rife with both.