Turkish Forum

Tag: Solidarity

  • Only Turkey is showing solidarity with Somalia’s people

    Only Turkey is showing solidarity with Somalia’s people

    EU and American delegates to a conference on Somalia’s future could learn from Turkey’s direct assistance to those in need

    Osman Jama Ali and Mohamed Sharif Mohamud

    guardian.co.uk

    Somali Famine Refugees 007

    Thousands of Somalis have ended up in camps because of famine, piracy and the influence of insurgents like al-Shabab. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

    The British government is holding a conference on the future of Somalia next month. In the last 20 years the east African country has suffered enormously – in the collapse of law and order, natural and human-made calamities, the displacements of its citizens, the rise of piracy and the spread of insurgent movements and seditious militias. These have not only threatened the survival of the nation but also dampened the morale of the people and their sense of national pride.

    Today, Somalia is enduring the region’s worst famine and drought for 60 years, threatening 750,000 lives. This human tragedy has spurred the conscience of the world and there has been an influx of international aid agencies, especially those of the United Nations, despite huge obstacles including harassment by the al-Shabab insurgent movement.

    This intervention has saved many lives. But long-term, foreign-sponsored formulas for solving crises have ended in failure, largely because they deliberately ignore the main aspirations of the Somali people, for national sovereignty, territorial integrity and their right to self-determination.

    Alongside this, one country, Turkey, has responded in a unique manner, demonstrating solidarity with the people of Somalia in their hour of distress. Last August, amid a tense security situation, prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accompanied by his wife and children and a large delegation of ministers and civil servants, landed in the capital Mogadishu. He was the first foreign head of government to have visited the city in 20 years.

    The Somali people wholeheartedly appreciate this act of bravery and nobility. This can be gauged from the hundreds of boys born after the visit who have been named “Erdogan”, and girls who have been named “Istanbul”. His example inspired so many across the region, and high-level delegations followed, such as the visit of Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal of Saudi Arabia and the foreign minister of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi.

    Two days before his visit, the Turkish prime minister had called a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (representing 40 countries), in Istanbul. He persuaded them to allocate $500m to famine relief in Somalia. This was in addition to approximately $280m donated by the Turkish people. Subsequently he used his speech to the UN general assembly last September to draw attention to the trauma that has been suffered by the Somalis, and appealed to their sense of humanity and responsibility.

    In the Turkish magazine Foreign Policy, Erdogan commented that Somalia had been abandoned by the international community, and that this did not serve the cause of peace and stability. He outlined how Turkey would contribute towards the rehabilitation of Somalia and appealed for UN agencies serving our country, currently located in Nairobi, to be transferred to Mogadishu.

    It was the right call at the right time, because there is now no security problem in Mogadishu, since the insurgents have been expelled from the capital by the Africa Union troops with the support of the Somali people. To prove the point, the Turkish embassy has been opened and a large community of Turkish experts and technicians are living in Mogadishu.

    In the capital, they are constructing government and parliament buildings and a new 400-bed hospital, asphalting the road between Mogadishu airport and the city centre and providing garbage trucks and a waste-disposal facility. They are also contributing to agricultural and livestock development, and constructing wells, vital to the eradication of drought and famine. Turkey’s deputy prime minister, Beşir Atalay, flew in recently to inaugurate the expansion of Mogadishu airport.

    American and EU aid to Somalia is primarily focused on financing the African Union forces, as well as covering the essential running costs of the government and transitional institutions. So far, nothing has been provided for initiatives to satisfy the basic needs of the people and bolster its governance. Their current strategy, which mainly concentrates on the war against terrorism and piracy – such as this week’s US raid to free western hostages – does not enable the population to reap the dividends of peace.

    What can be learned from the Turkish initiative is that when you provide sincere assistance directly and immediately to those who are most in need, you gain the hearts and minds of the people. Next month’s London conference on Somalia should strongly support both the efforts to deal with terrorism and piracy and the urgent humanitarian and development programmes needed to restore peace and stability in Somalia and the Horn of Africa.

    via Only Turkey is showing solidarity with Somalia’s people | Osman Jama Ali and Mohamed Sharif Mohamud | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

  • Wall Street protests go global

    Wall Street protests go global

    Occupy wallDemonstrators worldwide shouted their rage on Saturday against bankers and politicians they accuse of ruining economies and condemning millions to hardship through greed and bad government.

    Galvanized by the Occupy Wall Street movement, the protests began in New Zealand, rippled round the world to Europe and were expected to return to their starting point in New York.

    Most rallies were however small and barely held up traffic. The biggest anticipated was in Rome, where organizers said they believed 100,000 would take part.

    “At the global level, we can’t carry on any more with public debt that wasn’t created by us but by thieving governments, corrupt banks and speculators who don’t give a damn about us,” said Nicla Crippa, 49, who wore a T-shirt saying “enough” as she arrived at the Rome protest.

    “They caused this international crisis and are still profiting from it, they should pay for it.”

    The Rome protesters, including the unemployed, students and pensioners, planned to march through the center, past the Colosseum and finish in Piazza San Giovanni.

    Some 2,000 police were on hand to keep the Rome demonstrators, who call themselves “the indignant ones,” peaceful and to avoid a repeat of the violence last year when students protesting over education policy clashed with police.

    “YES WE CAMP”

    As some 750 buses bearing protesters converged on the capital, students at Rome university warmed up with their own mini-demo on Saturday morning.

    The carried signs reading “Your Money is Our Money,” and “Yes We Camp,” an echo of the slogan “Yes We Can” used by U.S. President Barack Obama.

    In imitation of the occupation of Zuccotti Park near Wall Street in Manhattan, some protesters have been camped out across the street from the headquarters of the Bank of Italy for several days.

    The worldwide protests were a response in part to calls by the New York demonstrators for more people to join them. Their example has prompted calls for similar occupations in dozens of U.S. cities from Saturday.

    Demonstrators in Italy were united in their criticism of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and angry at his victory in a vote of confidence in parliament on Friday.

    The government has passed a 60 billion-euro austerity package that has raised taxes and will make public health care more expensive.

    On Friday students stormed Goldman Sachs’s offices in Milan and daubed red graffiti. Others hurled eggs at the headquarters of UniCredit, Italy’s biggest bank.

    New Zealand and Australia got the ball rolling on Saturday. Several hundred people marched up the main street in Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city, joining a rally at which 3,000 chanted and banged drums, denouncing corporate greed.

    About 200 gathered in the capital Wellington and 50 in a park in the earthquake-hit southern city of Christchurch.

    In Sydney, about 2,000 people, including representatives of Aboriginal groups, communists and trade unionists, protested outside the central Reserve Bank of Australia.

    “REAL DEMOCRACY”

    “I think people want real democracy,” said Nick Carson, a spokesman for OccupyMelbourne.Org, as about 1,000 gathered in the Australian city.

    “They don’t want corporate influence over their politicians. They want their politicians to be accountable.”

    Hundreds marched in Tokyo, including anti-nuclear protesters. In Manila, capital of the Philippines, a few dozen marched on the U.S. embassy waving banners reading: “Down with U.S. imperialism” and “Philippines not for sale.”

    More than 100 people gathered at the Taipei stock exchange, chanting “we are Taiwan’s 99 percent,” and saying economic growth had only benefited companies while middle-class salaries barely covered soaring housing, education and healthcare costs.

    They found support from a top businessman, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC) Chairman Morris Chang.

    “I’ve been against the gap between rich and poor,” Chang said in the northern city of Hsinchu. “The wealth of the top one percent has increased very fast in the past 20 or 30 years. ‘Occupy Wall Street’ is a reaction to that.”

    Demonstrators aimed to converge on the City of London under the banner “Occupy the Stock Exchange.”

    “We have people from all walks of life joining us every day,” said Spyro, one of those behind a Facebook page in London which has drawn some 12,000 followers.

    The 28-year-old, who said he had a well-paid job and did not want to give his full name, said the target of the protests as “the financial system.”

    Angry at taxpayer bailouts of banks since 2008 and at big bonuses still paid to some who work in them while unemployment blights the lives of many young Britons, he said: “People all over the world, we are saying: ‘Enough is enough’.”

    Greek protesters called an anti-austerity rally for Saturday in Athens’ Syntagma Square.

    “What is happening in Greece now is the nightmare awaiting other countries in the future. Solidarity is the people’s weapon,” the Real Democracy group said in a statement calling on people to join the protest.

    In Paris protests were expected to coincide with the G20 finance chiefs’ meeting there. In Madrid, seven marches were planned to unite in Cibeles square at 1600 GMT (12 p.m. EDT) and then march to the central Puerta de Sol.

    In Germany, where sympathy for southern Europe’s debt troubles is patchy, the financial center of Frankfurt and the European Central Bank in particular are expected to be a focus of marches called by the Real Democracy Now movement.

    Reuters