Everyone wins in Turk referendum
Watchdog says Yemen rebel land mines killed, maimed hundreds
THE Turkish nation was once again at the ballot box on April 16 to vote for a constitutional change. The turnout was high and the country was tranquil on the election day, which says a lot about the nation’s viewpoint of democracy. The entire world was watching the election from the campaign period by holding their breaths. Many in the West were evaluating the referendum as if the country was approaching an autocratic system with President Erdogan. Yet, their concern is baseless.
Why President Erdogan is not a dictator
The Turkish nation has witnessed President Erdogan’s services since he came to power in 2002 and even before then while he was the mayor of Istanbul. He has been the means to construct many highways, bridges, subways in Turkey which better facilitated transportation in many parts of Turkey. Yet, his local opponents and many in the West are accusing of him to be the “one man”. Let us not forget that it is reasonable to have one wise man to be in charge to lead a country than twenty who would ruin it by being at odds with each other. The nation has tried President Erdogan on many occasions for years and they have seen that he has not done anything wrong, but devoted himself completely to his country and brought wealth and benefits instead. During his incumbency, along with constructing new ways of transportation, not only did he beautify the cities by furnishing most of the streets with flowers and trees, but also transformed them into modern metropolitans using state of the art technologies. It is important that he liberated Turkey from being dependent on the IMF by paying off all its debt and forming a stable economy even though there was intense pressure both from inside and abroad. Most importantly, it is an unignorable fact that AK Party’s policy while setting off gave the devout people in the country a breathing space. He also proved that he is consistent in his service as he has been exposed to many difficulties but always found a way to overcome them.
Why I said “yes”
I have made a thorough investigation on the altering articles of the constitution and evaluated them in depth and spoke with experts on constitution. Those saying “no” have their own just viewpoints but it is not hard to see that Turkey is going through a very difficult phase. It is recovering from a bloody coup attempt like it has never experienced before. The tanks were driving over the civilians in cold blood and we gave many martyrs and veterans. Moreover, the government is waging a tough war on terror against the PKK in the eastern and southeastern part of Turkey. Additionally, there are conflicts on the neighboring countries such as Syria in which Turkey was involved via a cross-border operation. The same goes for Iraq where the world sees almost daily bombings and military operations leaving many casualties. Not to mention that there is an on and off clash between Ukraine and Russia. Therefore, it is as clear as day that there needs to be a ‘stable Turkey’ in the region. While Turkey was amidst such pressure both inside and out, I decided to vote ‘yes’ in order to say ‘no’ to more turmoil. It’s not right to be a hardliner in such a difficult environment and people should seek for what is right for Turkey and the Turkish nation.
A federative system is our red-line
Recently, President Erdogan had come up with other types of presidential systems which I strongly declined. It was because they were all open to a federative system that would consist of small federal states which would eventually lead to the fragmentation of Turkey, may God forbid.
AMMAN, April 20, (Agencies): The United Nations called Thursday on the Saudi-led coalition intervening in Yemen not to bomb the rebel-held port of Hodeida, a key entry point for aid to the war-torn country.
Jamie McGoldrick, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said Hodeida on the Red Sea, which is under the control of Iran-backed Houthi rebels, is a vital lifeline for Yemeni civilians threatened with starvation.
He said the coalition, which intervened in Yemen two years ago against the Shiite rebels, needed to take humanitarian concerns into account while pursuing its campaign.
“We continue to advocate to the Saudi-led coalition that the attack on the port of Hodeida and the city itself is not necessary,” McGoldrick told reporters in Jordan’s capital Amman.
“This port is the most essential, the most crucial part of our ability to feed people and get medical services” into Yemen, he said.
“The Hodeida port is the only port that we can use to serve the bulk of the population in need,” McGoldrick said.
The coalition intervened on behalf of Yemen’s internationally recognised government in March 2015 after the Houthi rebels seized control of large parts of the country, which sits on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula.
Yemen, already one of the poorest countries in the Arab world, has since suffered a downward spiral in living conditions, with the UN warning earlier this year that its population was threatened with widespread famine.
The UN has appealed for $2.1 billion in international assistance for Yemen and McGoldrick said he hoped for commitments during an aid conference in Geneva next week.
“The amount that we are asking for is for life saving, is to address the very basic needs of the Yemeni people,” he said.
Meanwhile, an international rights group on Thursday decried the use of land mines by Yemen’s Shiite rebels in the impoverished Arab country at war, saying they have killed and maimed hundreds of civilians and prevented many of the displaced from returning to their homes.
In a new report, Human Rights Watch said the rebels known as Houthis, who are allied with the forces of the country’s former president, have used land-mines in at least six provinces since March 2015, when a Saudiled coalition launched its military campaign against them.
Steve Goose, director of the Arms Division at Human Rights Watch, said the Houthis and forces of Yemen’s exPresident Ali Abdullah Saleh “have been flouting the land mine ban at the expense of Yemeni civilians.”
He added that Yemen had banned land mines two decades ago.
The Saudi-led coalition of mostly Arab Sunni countries has waged a campaign to dislodge the Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital and some other areas in 2014 and forced the internationally-recognized government to flee the country.
Kristine Beckerle, an HRW researcher, said the rights group had found two types of anti-personnel mines previously unreported in Yemen, though she said not only the Houthis and Saleh’s forces, but also the Saudi-led coalition had used banned weapons.
“It’s time to actually hold parties accountable, investigate and publicly report on what’s going on,” she said.
Beckerle spoke at a joint press conference on Yemen with Jamie McGoldrick, the UN human rights coordinator for the war-torn country. The conference was held in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
HRW also released a photo of one of a dozen claymore-type mines, which release steel balls to a distance of about 100 meters (yards) labeled in Chinese and found in areas that were held by Houthi forces.
The New York-based group cited the Landmine Monitor Initiative by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines as saying that at least 988 people were either killed or wounded by land mines in Yemen since 2015.
The war in Yemen has killed about 10,000 civilians and displaced nearly 3 million people. The Saudi-led coalition, which is backed by the United States, has also been facing accusations of war crimes after a series of bombardments of civilians.