Terrorism Watch

Turkey granted citizenship to eight members of the Islamic State (ISIS), whose assets have been seized over terror links , Ankara Gazetesi  news site reported on Wednesday. The eight are among 86 people whose assets were seized by the interior and treasury and finance ministries over membership in the jihadist organisation, following a decision published in  the Official Gazette on Tuesday. The assets of a total of 377 legal persons and entities were frozen over links to groups Turkey deems as terrorist organisations - including Fethullah Gülen, accused of orchestrating the 2016 coup attempt and Cemil Bayık, the second top leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the decision signed off by the ministers Süleyman Soylu and Lütfi Elvan. The citizenship granted to the ISIS members raises questions about the quality of security checks conducted ahead of the move, Ankara Gazetesi said. Turkey was one of the principal routes for foreign fighters trying to join ISIS at the hei

  Siem Reap’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau forces together with Chi Kreng district police and CMAC destroy 126 UXOs.  Police Although Siem Reap has been cleared of more than 1,400 square kilometres of landmines with nearly four million pieces of unexploded ordnance destroyed over the past 25 years, it still remains a landmine threat with more areas to be cleared. On Tuesday, the National Explosive Ordnance Disposal Office in collaboration with the Chi Kreng district police and the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC)’s specialised units who were clearing another 2,000 square kilometres of landmines in the province stumbled onto more UXO. CMAC  collected 126 unexploded ordnance from Banteay Ampil and Soutr Nikum districts and other areas in Siem Reap province and destroyed them in Prey Pros village in Chi Kreng district’s Sangvoeuy commune. More ammunition recovered from other districts in the province were also destroyed at the O’Anchanh disposal site where it is said to be the sa

We salute our demining partners and the courageous frontline workers who carry out this dangerous work at great personal sacrifice. By  Brian A. Nichols and  Niculin Jaeger Lying dormant until triggered by a victim and intended to incapacitate, landmines maim civilians and render vast tracks of land unusable.  Mines and unexploded ordnance leave a terrible legacy of war, long after the guns have fallen silent.  Hidden from sight, they continue to kill and injure innocent civilians going about their daily lives, especially children.  Their very presence hinders development and prevents families and communities from being able to return to their land and rebuild.  Zimbabwe knows the long-lasting suffering that mines cause. Today marks the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.  Signing on to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, also known as the Ottawa Convention,

  Representative Image Athens [Greece], April 9 (ANI): Pakistan is helping Turkey to develop nuclear weapons and control Afghanistan by expanding Recep Tyyip Erdogan's Caliphate expedition to the country. As per an article by Paul Antonopoulos in Greek City Times, Pakistan's Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), General Nadeem Raza, visited Turkey from March 27th to April 2nd. Turkey's Chief of General Staff, General Yasar Guler, hosted Raza at the Turkish General Staff Headquarters on March 30th, where both sides discussed collaborations on several military projects and existing geopolitical issues. Guler also conferred Turkey's top military award 'Legion of Merit' to Raza for his "services for promotion of Pakistan-Turkey defence ties" during the meet. Antonopoulos said that the biggest agenda of the visit was furthering the mutual interests of Turkey and Pakistan in Afghanistan. Pakistan also wants Turkish forces to replace NATO and A

Turkey has the highest incarceration rate in the Council of Europe,  according  to a report released by the international body on Thursday. The report by Council of Europe’s Annual Penal Statistics (SPACE I) found Turkey had 297,019 prisoners as of January 2020, equating to 357.2 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants, more than three times the European median rate of 103.2.   Russia, Georgia, Lithuania and Azerbaijan were the continents other top jailers, the Council of Europe said. The number of prisoners in Turkey  increased  dramatically in the aftermath of 2016 failed coup. A subsequent crackdown by authorities has seen hundreds of thousands of people detained.  Turkey’s massive prison population included the highest number of children incarcerated alongside their mothers at 803. The figure was less than 100 in most other applicable countries. Russia had the second-highest total with 423.  Turkish prisons also ranked top in Europe for density, with 127.4 prisoners per 100 places, the Cou

Erkin Tursun is seen speaking on a video shown at a news conference on Xinjiang-related issues, in Beijing By Cate Cadell BEIJING (Reuters) - At a crowded press event on Friday in Beijing, Chinese officials aired a video of a thin Uighur man with a shaved head, wearing an oversized uniform and speaking directly to the camera. "I will try my best to change myself and receive the leniency of the party and the government," says the man, Erkin Tursun, a former TV producer who, the officials said, is serving a 20-year sentence in Xinjiang on charges of "inciting ethnic hatred, ethnic discrimination and covering up crimes". Tursun, almost unrecognisable from photos shared online before his 2018 arrest, is addressing his son, who now lives abroad and has publicly advocated against Tursun's detention, which he says is arbitrary. It was one of over half a dozen such segments showing Uighurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority in the western region, pleading with relatives a

Greece harbours terrorist organisations, including the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that operates attacks and suicide bombings against Turkey, Turkish Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said. “It’s time to end Greece’s impunity,” Altun said on Friday, via social media. Fahrettin Altun shared a video prepared by the Communications Directorate that says some foreign countries assist organisations like the ISIS, the PKK and the Gülen Movement that Ankara blames for the failed coup of July 2016. One country that stays as a heaven for these groups is Greece, according to the video. Athens played a crucial role in helping the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in late 1990’s, avoiding Turkish authorities, the video said, “Today it continues to be a heaven for PKK with its so-called Lavrio refugee camp.” Athens has also openly backed the Gülen Movement, many members of the organisation fled Turkey to Greece after the coup failed and despite Ankara’s extradition requests, t

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A plane carrying Pakistan’s parliament speaker and a delegation of lawmakers was turned back on Thursday as it was about to land in Kabul after explosives, apparently years old, were found near the airport building, a senior Afghan military official said. According to Gen. Reyaz Arian, the commander of Kabul's international airport, the decision to turn back Assad Qaisar and the Pakistani parliament delegation's plane was made after the explosives were discovered placed under a building nearby. Later, Arian said NATO forces had discovered the explosives, said to have been placed near the runway during construction work years ago. It was not immediately clear who the explosives belonged to. The Afghan general added that the Kabul airport was shut down for several hours Thursday following the announcement, delaying all flights in and out of the Afghan capital. There was no official comment from NATO. According to a statement from Abdul Qadir Zazai, secre

 One of Myanmar's most popular celebrities has been arrested by the military as part of a growing crackdown on artists and actors. Paing Takhon, a model and actor with millions of fans in Myanmar and Thailand, had been active in both online protests and in-person rallies. Takhon's Instagram - with more than a million followers - has been taken down along with his Facebook account. The military seized power in a coup on 1 February, sparking weeks of protests. Around 600 civilians have been killed as forces respond to the demonstrations with increasing levels of violence. What happened on Thursday? According to a Facebook post by Takhon's sister Thi Thi Lwin, around 50 soldiers with eight military trucks came to arrest him at around 05:00 local time (22:30 GMT Wednesday) on Thursday. A close acquaintance of his, who did not wish to be named, told the BBC he was taken from his mother's home in North Dagon, a township in Yangon. Myanmar coup: What is happening and why? Stre

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats in Congress are trying to pass the first major gun control legislation in more than two decades with the support of President Joe Biden, who said Thursday that it is “long past time” to do so. But they are confronting a potentially insurmountable question over what rules should govern private sales and transfers, including those between friends and extended family, as they seek Republican votes. A bipartisan Senate compromise that was narrowly defeated eight years ago was focused on expanding checks to sales at gun shows and on the internet. But many Democrats and gun control advocates now want almost all sales and transfers to face a mandatory review, alienating Republicans who say extending the requirements would trample Second Amendment rights. The dispute has been one of several hurdles in the renewed push for gun-control legislation, despite wide support for extending the checks. A small group of senators have engaged in tentative talks in the wake of r

The Afghan intelligence service believes the insurgents have mastered the technique of planting roadside IEDs KABUL: Afghanistan  remains littered with explosive remnants of war from decades of unrest, including military-grade anti-vehicle landmines, varieties of improvised anti-personnel landmines, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). As the world marked the International Mine Awareness Day on April 4, the war-ravaged country remained far behind from clearing the thousands of deadly mines planted during the raging conflict since the invasion by Soviet forces back in the 1970s. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokesperson Roya Msawi told Anadolu Agency that around 400-500 Afghans lost their limbs and came to the ICRC Physical Rehab Program over the last decade. "Approximately 85% of them are adult males, 5% adult women, 10% children.” Since the beginning of our operations in 1988, there have been 29,838 mine victims registered with the ICRC as of Feb. 28 of thi

ABUJA (Reuters) - One army officer and 10 soldiers were killed in Nigeria's Benue state in what a spokesman said was an unprovoked attack on Thursday. The army said in a statement that it would "fish out and deal decisively with these bad elements." Civilians, in fear of soldiers looking to root out the perpetrators, were fleeing the Konshisha local government where one local leader's house had been burnt to the ground, sources told Reuters. The violence in the restive Middle Belt region marked the latest bout of instability in Nigeria, Africa's most-populous nation. On Monday, heavily armed gunman freed more than 1,800 prisoners in the southeast, while armed gangs have kidnapped hundreds of school children in the northwest in recent months and Islamist militants in the northeast have waged a decade-long insurgency. Troops patrol in the Middle Belt due in part to clashes between farmers and nomadic cattle herders that have killed thousands and displaced half a mil

  And why it might be abolished Let the Lord Sort Them The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty By Maurice Chammah  Crown  Buy from Bookshop.org After decades of debate, US society still has not made up its mind about the death penalty. The popularity of the punishment has plummeted, with support dropping well below 50 percent from a high in the 80s in 1994. But deep ambivalence about it and its implications remains a key aspect of American culture, and the most serious problems associated with it have not been resolved. Thus journalist Maurice Chammah’s book comes at an important time. When members of the Trump administration undertook to kill as many prisoners on federal death row as they could in the short time before they left office, they inadvertently highlighted the arbitrariness and capriciousness of the criminal justice system’s approach. This has coincided with public questioning about whether the government can ever be trusted to make life-and-death decisions, whether our crim

Beijing [China], April 8 (ANI): Amid international condemnation over numerous human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, several China researchers are facing abuse and sanctions as Beijing is amping up its efforts to silence and intimidate critics. According to Washington Post, Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, a 26-year-old analyst based in Australia, was labelled a traitor and a 'female demon' on social media, while people have called her family to be tracked down and ordered to apologise for raising such a daughter. This happened after he co-wrote an Australian Strategic Policy Institute report on Uyghur labour in supply chains. "As someone who analyzes propaganda activities for a job I can see it's clearly a coordinated attack... At this point, the Chinese government has made it abundantly clear that if you want to keep talking about Xinjiang, the Chinese state would not treat you nicely," she said. In recent weeks, China has imposed sanctions on scholars and th