smokeppb [he/him]

  • 12 Posts
  • 99 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 18th, 2023

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  • Al Jazeera: Protests and arrests as anti-Syrian riots rock Turkey

    CW: SA, Xenophobia, Watermelon Seller

    More than 470 people have been taken into custody after crowds attacked Syrian shops and cars in central Turkey.

    Riots erupted after Turkish authorities arrested a Syrian man for allegedly sexually abusing a seven-year-old Syrian girl in the central city of Kayseri.

    Weird that Al Jazeera calls them protests in the title of the article then calls them riots here.

    Turkish residents, infuriated by online reports of the crime, flipped over cars in Kayseri and set Syrian-run shops alight on Sunday night, demanding that Syrians be kicked out of the country.

    The violence spread to the southern province of Hatay, where protesters set a Syrian grocery store ablaze.

    The riots “damaged houses, workplaces, and vehicles belonging to Syrian nationals”, said Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, who accused those responsible of acting “illegally in an attitude that does not suit our human values”.

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the violence, which he blamed opposition parties for stoking.

    “It is unacceptable to burn houses, vandalise and set streets on fire,” he said on Monday of the violence. “Nothing can be achieved by fuelling xenophobia and hatred of refugees in society.”

    More than 3.5 million Syrians live in Turkey, the highest number in the region, who were initially welcomed as refugees when the civil war erupted in Syria in 2011.

    Umit Ozdag, the leader of Turkey’s anti-migration Victory Party, blamed the violence on the government’s allegedly “privileged” treatment of Syrian refugees.

    soviet-hmm

    IDK bro, that’s a ton of refugees. I hope nothing bad is happening in the country they came from that could be causing this. Sounds like peace in that home country could go a long way to fixing this crisis you’re having, is that going anywhere?

    Al Jazeera’s Koseoglu said another reason for the riots was the recent, separate announcements by Erdogan and al-Assad to restore ties.

    Tensions have been rising in Syrian opposition-held areas over moves towards rapprochement between the two countries, including plans to open a crossing between government-held areas and those held by Turkish-backed opposition forces in Aleppo.

    Hopefully this event speeds up the peace process instead of derailing it. It’s crazy how most of the world knows how immigration works and that you stop mass immigration waves by not having bloodbaths in the home countries (still took Turkey 10+ years to figure this out) but in the US how migrant waves appear is just they grew from the ground. The zombie hoarde from over there I guess.





  • Turkish goods shipped to Israel via Greece despite official ban

    Statistics indicate Turkish companies use Greek ports to re-export goods to Israel following Ankara’s decision to halt trade

    TIM data indicate that Turkey’s exports to Greece surged to $375m in May, up 71 percent from $219m in the same month last year.

    A second Turkish businessman explained that Turkish exports, although passing through Greece, are still recorded as imports from Turkey in Israeli statistics because they remain Turkish products.

    I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise. But there seem to still be impacts on Israel because they are looking for alternative suppliers in Egypt, Spain, and Italy:

    “This parallel trade might continue for a few more months, but Israeli companies are quickly aligning themselves with alternative suppliers in other countries like Egypt, Spain, and Italy,” the second businessman said.

    Not to mention the exports surge to Greece doesn’t come close to matching the total figure of exports to Israel: ~$4.788 billion:

    The trade volume between the two countries was $6.3bn in 2023, with 76 percent being Turkish exports, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute. Turkey had been a key supplier of affordable products to Israel.

    And there are of course porkies whining about muh free trade and all that

    “Instead, we punished all the businesses trading with Israel without even a grace period. Some goods are stuck at customs, resulting in hundreds of thousands in losses for the companies.”

    So am I crazy to think that the Turkish embargo is working as expected despite this seemingly bad news? I would go as far to say it’s good news that there are attempts to circumvent the embargo because if there wasn’t then it would be a sign that it isn’t a very effective embargo. It could obviously be more effective if these companies were punished by Erdogan, or if other countries joined the embargo, but leaking $155 million out of $4.788 billion ain’t so bad.


  • https://www.mintpressnews.com/gaza-aid-leader-melanie-ward-labour-party/287603/#

    A CEO of a pro-Palestine charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) is running for an election under the anti-Palestinian Labour party. This will leave the charity without leadership and volunteers are upset and are asking her to resign.

    Melanie Ward, CEO of the Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) charity, faces major backlash from volunteers and workers after deciding to run as a Labour Party candidate in Scotland. Some 2,250 healthcare workers, medical volunteers, supporters, and donors signed a letter expressing concern.

    On June 5, a protest letter was filed by workers and volunteers at MAP, expressing their dismay to the board over Ward’s candidacy with the UK Labour Party. To run for the position of MP in Scotland’s Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency, Ward has taken a leave of absence but has not stepped down from her position.

    And you bet she hates long-corbyn

    Ward also supported the anti-Semitism “witch hunt” during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, which purged much of Labour’s pro-Palestinian base, including many Jewish anti-Zionists. She tweeted, “Farewell to Jeremy Corbyn, who really was a truly terrible Labour Party Leader. He will be missed not one little bit by those of us who want to see Labour in government again.”

    In 2016, she signed a letter calling for Corbyn’s resignation, shared an article urging the public not to vote for him and tweeted the former Labour leader in 2015, “Corbyn unable to think of situation where he’d commit Forces to military action. Should think a bit harder if he wants to be PM,” in response to his anti-war stance.

    I’ve always been worried about the leadership behind some of these charities since they take in a ton of money these days and they seem to be based in Western countries. Now my worries have been justified.

    Edit: read more here: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-elections-2024-palestinian-charity-ceo-standing-labour-candidate-faces-calls-resign








  • it’s clear that the US has discredited its claim as the upholder of the “rules-based international order”.

    I’m just interested in who the subject is in this article. Who arbitrates the holding of the title for the so-called “upholder of the rules-based international order”? The US made that title up and foisted it onto itself. And even if it didn’t want that title anymore it could just make up another one.

    “World power” is already a flimsily-made Top 5 fave-ass social status for a nation, and if you want to define things like the US hegemony as the US being “the world’s only superpower” then that’s kind of already been busted. There are vast swaths of the world right now that don’t recognize US hegemony - most of Asia, the Sahel states now, parts South America and now even some parts of Europe. US had to blow the stomach out of the Fico guy in Slovakia to stop the bleeding. If friggin Slovakia doesn’t care for your shit it’s over, son. Somebody is going to fill those voids, and of course it doesn’t have to be just one country.