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European Parliament Scolds Nicaragua Over ‘Democratic Crisis’ 

A European Parliament delegation on Saturday urged Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to release political prisoners, permit the return of banned human rights groups and restart dialogue with the opposition to end a 

months-long political crisis. 

The delegation led by European Member of Parliament (MEP) Ramon Jauregui, a Socialist from Spain, told a news conference it would ask the European Parliament to issue a new resolution on the crisis. 

For months, Nicaragua has been convulsed by some of its worst political tension since a civil war in the 1980s. An initial standoff between protesters and the government in April over planned welfare cuts quickly descended into deadly clashes. 

By the time the Ortega administration had clamped down on the protesters, more than 300 people had been killed and over 500 incarcerated, according to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, a group the government has blacklisted. 

Ortega sees coup attempt

Rights groups say four radio stations and one TV station have closed, and dozens of journalists have been beaten. The Ortega government says there is freedom of expression and has accused the opposition of seeking to mount a coup to oust him. 

“We don’t believe the government’s story of a coup d’etat,” Javier Nart, a Spanish Liberal MEP who as a journalist covered the Nicaraguan revolution that led to the 1979 ouster of dictator Anastasio Somoza by Ortega’s Sandinistas, said at the news conference.

“The repression of protests was excessive. The population is demanding more freedom and democracy. Nicaragua is going through a major crisis of democracy and the rule of law,” he added. 

The Nicaraguan government did not respond to a request from Reuters on the allegations made by the delegation. 

The European Parliament members said the Ortega government allowed them to hold meetings with all sectors of society, including political prisoners. But they noted that several opposition leaders suffered persecution after they had taken part in the meetings. 
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France’s Macron Heads to Egypt Amid Defense, Rights Concerns

French President Emmanuel Macron leaves a France roiled by ongoing yellow vest protests for another tumultuous region — the Middle East — and talks with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on regional politics and weapons sales, shadowed by the looming U.S. troop pullout from Syria.

Macron’s three-day Egypt visit, his first official trip there since taking office in 2017, underscores that country’s role as vital ally in the fight against terror and hub of stability in a restive region.

Crucially, too, Cairo is a big-spending client for French weapons manufacturers, buying warships and fighter planes, with more potential sales in the pipeline.

​Human rights pressure

But the French president is facing heavy pressure to speak out against allegations of widespread human rights violations in Egypt, including those reportedly using equipment purchased from France. Adding to the pressure is a letter written to Macron by the family of a French teacher killed in police custody in 2013, calling for the “truth” behind his death.

“I imagine that President Macron is going to attempt to walk a fine line,” between raising rights concerns and prioritizing regional stability and security, said Dana Stroul, senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Macron’s first task on his arrival Sunday is less controversial: visiting the temples of Abu Simbel in Upper Egypt with his wife, Brigitte. Talks later with Sisi are expected to range from reinforcing economic cooperation, to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to Libya and Syria.

​Place on world stage

Since taking office in 2017, the 41-year-old Macron has pushed for greater French clout on the world stage. He has hosted summits on climate change, peace, the Sahel and Libya. He criticized the Trump administration’s decision to pull out of Syria, saying “an ally must be dependable,” and that France would remain militarily involved in the region.

But Paris is no substitute for Washington, experts note, and French troops are already stretched in the Sahel. Still, Stroul believes France can partially help fill the U.S. withdrawal gap in other ways.

“What the French and the Europeans can do is play a much more robust diplomatic role in insisting the U.N. process be used for a political transition in Syria, and more robustly using sanctions and the potential to contribute to reconstruction as a leverage,” Stroul said.

Those measures, she added, will help ensure “the U.S. withdrawal does not just leave a vacuum for Russia, Iran and other adversaries to fill.”

​Weapons deals

Potential weapons deals are also expected to headline Macron’s Egypt talks. One of the world’s top arms exporters, France has supplied Egypt with warships and cruise missiles over the years, and Cairo was the first client to buy French Rafale fighter jets, says Paris-based defense expert Pierre Tran.

“Egypt is a very important arms client for France,” Tran said. “It effectively bailed out France by buying two Mistral helicopter ships that France had to buy back from Russia” because of a canceled deal.

France’s La Tribune newspaper speculated Egypt would agree to buy dozen more Rafale fighter jets during Macron’s visit, but the French presidential palace has reportedly said there will be no announcements during this visit. Discussions over the Egyptian purchase of two more French corvette warships, on top of four already bought, are also at “an advanced stage,” France’s Le Monde newspaper reported.

Activists detained, tortured

More certain is pressure at home for the president to speak out about rights abuses, including those tangling French weapons sales. Human rights advocates blame Egypt for detaining and torturing scores of activists over the years since the 2013 coup, among other repressive measures.

An October report by rights group Amnesty International claims French military and security equipment was used by Egyptian security forces in “brutal repression.”

And a recent report by nongovernmental group Front Line Defenders described worker abuse at an Alexandria shipyard building corvettes in partnership with the French company Naval Group, a practice that reportedly flouts France’s laws requiring French firms to establish mechanisms to prevent right abuses.

“France has been nurturing the dictatorship by equipping it with weapons and surveillance equipment, which has allowed the regime to go after the population and human rights activists,” said Antoine Madelin, international advocacy director at the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights, or FIDH.

During talks with Sissi in Paris in 2017, Macon gave the Egyptian president a list of Egyptian prisoners of whom he demanded the release, and the government says rights remain a priority for the French president.

“We engage in open and regular dialogue with Egypt on the issue of human rights,” a French foreign ministry spokeswoman told reporters ahead of Macron’s trip, saying such talks would continue including on individual rights cases.

But rights groups say Macron’s government has not done enough.

“The French government is facing a moral failure for not putting human rights in front of its economic interests,” Madelin of FIDH said.

Adding to the pressure is a recent letter to Macron by the family of slain French teacher Eric Lang, who had been living in Cairo for 20 years. In 2013, he was allegedly beaten to death while being detained in an Egyptian prison. Six Egyptians were jailed for his killing, but the family has blamed Egyptian police.

“We don’t understand why our country abandoned a French citizen and didn’t put all its political weight to shed light on his death,” wrote Lang’s sister and mother.

Still Egypt’s role as a key stabilizer and regional, if waning powerhouse, is key for France and other western countries. Both countries are concerned by the turmoil in Libya, migration, and other sources of regional instability, including terrorism.

On Libya, French efforts to increase its influence in the North African country’s politics has led to a power rivalry with Italy that some analysts believe undermines U.N. peace efforts. Both European countries hosted summits last year on Libya’s future. December 2018 elections in Libya, agreed to during the French summit, have been postponed amid ongoing fighting by rival militias, among other roadblocks.
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5 Killed in Collision of Helicopter, Plane Over Italy

Five people were killed Friday when a helicopter and a small tourist airplane collided near the border between France and Italy.  

Italy’s mountain rescue service said rescue workers found two people injured at the crash site and evacuated them. 

Officials said the helicopter was carrying skiers to a glacier in the northwestern Italian region of Val d’Aosta when it collided with the tourist airplane about 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) over the Rutor glacier.  

It was not immediately clear how the crash happened. The identities and nationalities of the victims had not yet been released.

Italy’s Val d’Aosta region is popular with skiers. A website for the region says skiers frequently access the area by helicopter during winter.
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Russia to Help Cubana Get Fleet Back in Air This Year

Russia will help Cuba repair state-run airline Cubana’s mostly grounded fleet, likely by year’s end, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov was quoted as saying by Cuban news agency Prensa Latina on Friday.

Cubana had to cancel most domestic flights last year due to a lack of flightworthy planes and lease aircraft from other companies. The carrier uses mainly Russian and Ukrainian-made Ilyushins, Tupolevs and Antonovs partly because U.S. sanctions prevent it from buying planes with a certain share of U.S. components. Cuba’s cash crunch restricts it from paying for expensive repairs and spare parts.

After a high-level Russian-Cuban intergovernmental commission meeting in Moscow, Borisov said both sides had checked the repairs needed and had written contracts, without giving details on costs.

“Everything has passed to the practical stage and I consider that the Cuban fleet will be re-established in 2019,” he said after meeting with Cuban Vice President Ricardo Cabrisas.

“We agreed in the future to work on creating a services center in Cuba dedicated to the aviation fleet in order to avoid a repetition of a negative situation.”

One of the aircraft Cubana leased, a 39-year-old Boeing 737, crashed in May killing all but one of the 113 onboard. An investigation is underway.

Plans for Russia to upgrade Cuba’s rail network are also advancing, Borisov was cited as saying.

In 2017, state-owned monopoly Russian Railways (RZD) said it was negotiating to upgrade more than 1,000 km (621.37 miles) of Cuban railroads and install a high-speed link between Havana and the beach resort of Varadero, in what would be Cuba’s biggest infrastructure project in decades.

An RZD executive told Reuters in November 2017 the deal would be worth nearly 2 billion euros and signed by the end of the year. Since then, however, the deal’s completion has not been announced.

“We agreed to divide it into stages and optimize the necessary credits in order to carry out this project,” Borisov was cited as saying. “I expect it to be put into practise in a near future.”

 
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Sources: EU Adds Saudi Arabia to Draft Terrorism Financing List

The European Commission has added Saudi Arabia to an EU draft list of countries that pose a threat to the bloc because of lax controls against terrorism financing and money laundering, two sources told Reuters on Friday.

The move comes amid heightened international pressure on Saudi Arabia after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate on October 2.

The EU’s list currently consists of 16 countries, including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and North Korea, and is mostly based on criteria used by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global body composed by wealthy nations meant to combat money laundering and terrorism financing.

But the list has been updated this week, using new criteria developed by the EU Commission since 2017. Saudi Arabia is one of the countries added to the updated list which is still confidential, one EU source and one Saudi source told Reuters.

Saudi authorities did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The move is a setback for Riyadh at a time when it is striving to bolster its international reputation in order to encourage foreign investors to participate in a huge transformation plan and improve financial ties for its banks.

Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post and a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed and dismembered by Saudi agents at its Istanbul consulate on Oct 2, provoking widespread revulsion and damaging the kingdom’s image.

Apart from reputational damages, the inclusion in the list complicates financial relations with the EU. The bloc’s banks will have to carry out additional checks on payments involving entities from listed jurisdictions.

The provisional decision needs to be endorsed by the 28 EU states before being formally adopted next week. Company ownership

A second EU official said other countries are likely to be added to the final list but declined to elaborate as the information is still confidential and subject to changes.

An EU commission spokesman said he had no comment on the content of the list as it had not been finalized yet.

Countries are blacklisted if they “have strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regimes that pose significant threats to the financial system of the Union,” the existing EU list says.

Under the new EU methodology, jurisdictions could also be blacklisted if they do not provide sufficient information on ownership of companies or if their rules on reporting suspicious transactions or monitoring financial customers are considered too lax.

Saudi Arabia missed out on gaining full FATF membership in September after it was determined to fall short in combating money laundering and terror financing.

The government has taken steps to beef up its efforts to tackle graft and abuse of power, but FATF said in September Riyadh was not effectively investigating and prosecuting individuals involved in larger scale money laundering activity or confiscating the proceeds of crime at home or abroad.

The EU has reviewed 47 jurisdictions, including the United States, Russia and Switzerland, before updating its list. EU countries were not screened.
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Turkey’s Erdogan Stands Firm With Venezuela’s Maduro

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is telling his embattled Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, to “stand tall” in the face of national and international calls to step down amid a political crisis.

Maduro’s opponents accuse him of undermining democracy. He has presided over skyrocketing inflation, a collapsing economy and widespread shortages of basic goods.

Erdogan said Thursday he was shocked at U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the interim president.

In response to the announcement, Maduro said Wednesday he was ending diplomatic relations with the United States and ordered U.S. diplomats to leave within 72 hours. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Maduro no longer has the authority to do so.

Erdogan maintained that Maduro will prevail “If he continues to stand strong in the path he believes in.”

“Maduro, brother, stand tall. Turkey stands with you,” Erdogan told Maduro by telephone, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin tweeted Thursday.

“I thank Russia, China, Turkey, and other governments and people of the world for their strong support of the legitimately established government of Venezuela,” Maduro said in a Twitter post. “Venezuela is not alone!” he added.

Despite the religiously conservative Erdogan and the left-wing Maduro coming from opposite ends of the political spectrum, the two leaders have built a strong relationship.

Maduro is a regular visitor to Turkey. He attended the Turkish president’s inauguration, while Erdogan visited Venezuela last year. Maduro provoked widespread condemnation after images of him dining at a famous Istanbul steak house went viral. Many Venezuelans are struggling to find enough to eat due to widespread food shortages.

“The support of Erdogan is vital for Maduro,” said Esra Akgemci of Turkey’s Selcuk University.

“It is clear that Maduro sees Turkey as a strategic alliance and wants to build deeper relations,” she added. “The support of Erdogan is more discursive. Erdogan himself had also suffered from a coup attempt [in 2016] and could not find the support he was seeking from the EU and USA, so supporting Maduro against a probable coup would strengthen his position both in internal and international politics.”

During the visit to Caracas, Erdogan pledged that Turkish companies would invest over $4.5 billion in Venezuela. Turkey has an agreement to process tons of Venezuelan gold; a move interpreted as a possible way to circumvent future U.S. sanctions. Turkish Airlines continues daily flights to Caracas, while many other international carriers have stopped service.

Turkish media are also strongly backing Maduro, accusing Washington of seeking to bring down a democratically elected president. “U.S.-backed coup attempt, this time in Venezuela,” read one headline.

“Massive U.S. pressure on any country could devastate its economy, finances, and politics easily. President Maduro’s principled resistance against these international pressures is exemplary,” wrote columnist Hakki Ocal in the pro-government Sabah newspaper.

Murat Yetkin, a well-known liberal journalist tweeted, “U.S.’s post-modern coup attempt in Venezuela cannot be accepted. The suffering of the people who live in the country with the richest oil reserves under the Maduro administration doesn’t change that. The decision cannot be taken by the U.S. or Trump. Next, there might be an occupation, by the U.S. or its collaborators.”

Drawing parallels

Turkish media have drawn parallels between Turkey and Venezuela, after Trump, in a tweet this month, threatened to “devastate” the Turkish economy if Ankara attacked U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish rebels.

In Turkey;’s deeply politically polarized society there is a rare consensus in support of Maduro.

“Most of the people here who can’t find Venezuela let alone Caracas on the map, are all fully behind Maduro,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, “because they think the U.S. again is behind a coup or military intervention, as they did previously in Libya as they did in Egypt, as they did in Iraq. From the most hard core Islamist to the most hard core leftist today in Turkey, there is anti-Americanism. It is deep. It is fervent.”

The social media hashtag #WeAreMaduro, became one of the leading trending topics in Turkey, with many Turks posting images and comments in support for Maduro. The picture of Maduro holding an ancient Turkic flag is widely circulated.

Turkey and Latin America share similar histories of coups throughout the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. Many in Turkey accuse the U.S. of being involved in the military takeovers. Turkish ministers openly accused the U.S. of being involved in the 2016 coup attempt, a charge Washington has denied.

Erdogan’s support for Maduro is expected to continue. Analysts point out standing up to what is deemed as “American imperialism” plays well in Turkey, and critical local elections are due to March; however, former diplomat Selcen suggests such support will remain mostly empty words.

“It’s mainly rhetoric,” said Selcen.”There are some rumors that if things go south for Maduro, he can perhaps find refuge in Turkey. But I believe it’s just about pleasing the crowd. When it comes to Venezuela, Turkey does not have the capacity to extend support to Venezuela. It’s out of area.”
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German Rescue Ship Allowed in Italian Waters Due to Weather

Italy pressured the Netherlands on Friday to accept 47 migrants who have spent seven days at sea aboard a humanitarian rescue ship that has been allowed to enter Italian territorial waters due to bad weather conditions.

The German aid group Sea-Watch said Friday on Twitter that it has received no response to multiple requests for the Dutch-flagged Sea Watch-3 vessel carrying people rescued off Libya on Saturday to access a port. The boat was permitted to enter Italian waters Friday due to deteriorating weather conditions, and the Italian coast guard said it was about one to two miles off Syracuse, Sicily, flanked by coast guard and financial police boats.

Italy and Malta, the closest EU nations, have both refused to allow entry to rescue vessels operated by humanitarian groups in what they say is a bid to discourage smuggler boats from departing Libya by diminishing the prospect of rescue.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini told reporters in Rome that he sent a letter to the government in the Netherlands officially requesting that they organize landings for the migrants “aboard this vessel that waves a Dutch flag.”

There was no immediate comment from the Dutch government.

EU Commission President Jean Claude Juncker’s spokesman said that the commission is in touch with member states, and is watching the events closely.

“Our position is clear: The safety of the people on board must be our first concern and priority. What is urgently needed in the Mediterranean are predictable arrangements to ensure disembarkations of rescued persons can take place safely,” said spokesman Margaritis Schinas.

A similar impasse was resolved last month when Malta allowed 49 migrants to disembark two NGO-operated vessels, including Sea-Watch 3, after the EU brokered a deal to distribute the migrants among eight EU nations.
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Bosnian Muslims Anger Serbs With Name Change Plan

A Muslim party said it would launch a legal bid to change the name of Bosnia’s Serb region, enraging all Serbian parties in the volatile country and 

prompting calls for calm from the European Union. 

The largest Bosnian Muslim party, SDA, said Wednesday that the name Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) discriminated against 

Bosniaks and Croats there, and that it would challenge it in the 

constitutional court.

Under the 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, the country is split into two highly autonomous regions, the Serb-dominated Serb Republic and the federation dominated by Muslim Bosniaks and Croats, linked via a weak central government.

SDA leader Bakir Izetbegovic said the legal challenge was a response to “intensified attacks on Bosnia and its integrity” by Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik. 

Dodik, who heads the Serb SNSD party, said the initiative was anti-constitutional and that Serbs will halt their work in the central government.

“If the appeal is accepted, we will call a special session of the Republika Srpska National Assembly at which we will 

decide about the future status of the RS [Serb Republic],” Dodik said after meeting other Serb politicians. He currently chairs Bosnia’s inter-ethnic three-man presidency as its Serb member.

‘Polarizing’ actions

The EU delegation in Bosnia issued a statement saying: “We call on all political parties to refrain from political maneuvers aimed at distracting attention from the real issues facing Bosnia.

“Polarizing statements and actions … will not facilitate the formation of new authorities at a crucial moment for the country’s EU path,” the delegation added. 

Bosnia is hoping to become an EU candidate this year. 

Bosnia’s international peace overseer, Valentin Inzko, said the name challenge “in the midst of discussions on government formation is irresponsible and counterproductive, and further undermines the trust between constituent peoples and their political representatives.”

Following parliamentary and presidential elections in October, a dispute between Serb, Croat and Bosniak presidency members over Bosnia’s integration into NATO has delayed the formation of the central government.

The Bosniak and Croat pro-NATO presidency members refuse to approve Dodik’s candidate for the job of prime minister unless 

he pledges support for NATO integration. But pro-Russian Dodik is strongly against it.
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Spanish Miners Start Risky Tunneling to Reach Missing Boy

The search for a two-year-old Spanish boy who fell into a narrow well Jan. 13 entered its riskiest phase Thursday as miners went down a new 60-meter (197-foot) parallel shaft to start digging across to the well.

There have been no signs of life since the boy, Julen, fell into the borehole as his family walked through a private estate in Totalan in southern Spain. Rescuers found the well was blocked with earth, raising fears soil had collapsed onto the child.

“Members of the Mines Rescue Brigade sent from Asturias [region] have just accessed the vertical well to start excavation … in the search for Julen,” said regional government representative Alfonso Celis at the site.

Miners working in rotating shifts will dig a 4-meter passage with picks and pneumatic hammers from the bottom of the shaft toward the borehole, which is 100 meters (300 feet) deep and just 25 cm wide.

Children and families have been holding candlelight vigils across Spain in support of the missing boy and of the massive rescue operation, even as hopes of finding him alive have faded with each passing day.

Engineers and miners have worked for 10 days in a row but have run into various technical problems while drilling a shaft parallel to the well.

“No miner is left in a mine, and Julen is now considered a miner,” Juan Lopez Escobar, one of the engineers in charge of the rescue operation, was quoted as saying by EFE news agency. “Whatever may have happened, a miner is always pulled out.”

He told reporters earlier that digging the horizontal passage would be the most dangerous part of the effort.

El Pais reported that Julen’s parents suffered another tragedy in 2017 when their three-year-old son died suddenly after suffering a cardiac arrest while walking along a beach.
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No-deal Brexit Would Cost Ford Up to $1 Billion

Ford Motor Co said on Thursday it faces a bill of up to $1 billion if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal, comprising World Trade Organization tariffs and the impact of a weaker pound.

The impact of Brexit on Ford, based on internal calculations, would be in the range of $500 million to $1 billion depending on a variety of factors, Ford said in a statement.

Sky News earlier on Thursday reported the hit could be $800 million.

Car makers and other manufacturers, including Airbus earlier on Thursday, have warned about the toll a no-deal Brexit could impose, including higher tariffs, disruption to supply chains and threats to jobs.

Countdown to Brexit

Britain is due to leave the European Union in 64 days, and with Prime Minister Theresa May failing to win support for her negotiated deal, companies are increasingly worried about the possibility of a chaotic Brexit.

Ford Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks on Wednesday declined to say what the financial impact of a no-deal exit could be, but said Ford was already planning for it.

“We clearly have already started to work on the eventuality of there being a hard Brexit,” he told reporters at the No. 2 U.S. automaker’s headquarters outside Detroit. “We’re certainly hoping that does not happen, but we can’t wait.”

“We’re actually incurring costs, doing things now to prepare for that, so there will be an impact. It’s a material impact,” he added.

Last week, Shanks said a no-deal exit was unlikely, but if it occurred it would be “catastrophic.”

Ford estimated last March that a hard Brexit, which would see WTO tariffs of 10 percent on imports and exports and lower levels on components, would cost it up to $1 billion per year.

Top-selling auto brand

Ford, the top-selling automotive brand in Britain, operates two engine plants in Britain, its third-largest market, and the destination for roughly one in three cars made at its German Cologne plant.

On Jan. 10, Ford, which employs 53,000 people in Europe, said it would cut thousands of jobs and look at plant closures in Europe as part of its plan to return to profit in the region.

The automaker employs about 13,000 people in Britain.
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Fight for Gender Equality at U.N. Faces Resistance, Report Says

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has inched up slightly in the eyes of women’s groups who said on Wednesday he has delivered on some promises to make the global organization a feminist institution but faces a major backlash and resistance.

The Feminist U.N. Campaign, a coalition of women’s rights groups, advocates and U.N. staff, gave him a grade of B-, up from the C+ it gave him a year ago.

The coalition launched its report card after the secretary-general said he would be a feminist leader when he took office two years ago.

Global movement

In that time, the #MeToo campaign against sexual harassment and assault has become a global movement.

Guterres has promoted women’s rights and equality publicly, sought gender parity in leadership and rolled out efforts against sexual harassment and gender-based violence, the report said.

But an internal backlash and bureaucracy threaten his progress. His efforts to make structural changes have met “considerable resistance” from staff and member states that resist women’s rights, it said.

Lyric Thompson, an author of the report and a director at the Washington-based International Center for Research on Women, said she thinks Guterres has “a genuine intent and interest in being a champion” of women’s rights.

“The question is can he do everything in his power to be a feminist leader who enables that transformation and who makes it the new normal?” she said to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The U.N. is “years away” from being a feminist institution, and attitudes of immunity and privilege operate to scuttle equality efforts, she said.

Just last week, a U.N. survey showed one third of its staff and contractors experienced sexual harassment in the past two years.

More than 30,000 people answered the survey, complaining of offensive jokes, remarks and sexual stories and of being touched in ways that made them uncomfortable.

The U.N. has tried to increase transparency and strengthen how it deals with such accusations over the past few years after a string of sexual exploitation and abuse accusations against U.N. peacekeepers in Africa.

The head of the U.N. agency for HIV and AIDS is stepping down in June, six months before his term ends, after an independent panel said his “defective leadership” tolerated “a culture of harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying, and abuse of power.”

‘Considerable progress’

The secretary-general’s office said it was pleased that the women’s groups saw improvement in Guterres’ handling of gender issues and agreed that more needs to be dome.

“At the same time, we believe the secretary-general has achieved considerable progress within the complex U.N. system at achieving real reforms to make the U.N. a better workplace for women and men alike,” his office said.

Guterres, the former prime minister of Portugal, was sworn in December 2016 after a campaign in which many countries urged selection of a woman. The U.N. has not been headed by a woman since its creation in 1945.
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Turkey’s Erdogan Lays Out Plans for Syria Security Zone

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in his latest effort to build support for a Turkish-controlled military security zone in Syria.

“The U.S. has already expressed a positive stance. Neither do we have problems [concerning the safe zone] with Russia,” said Erdogan at a joint press conference in Moscow.

Erdogan is proposing a 250-kilometer-long and 32-kilometer-deep zone in northeast Syria to protect the Turkish border from the Syrian YPG Kurdish militia. Ankara accuses the YPG of links to Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.

​However, the Turkish president envisages the zone not only providing security, but also an opportunity to ease Turkey’s refugee burden and growing economic difficulties.

At the Moscow press conference, Erdogan said the safe zone will allow Syrian refugees in Turkey to return.

The Turkish president said around 300,000 Syrians out of the 4 million that have sought refuge in Turkey have returned to two other regions in Syria captured from the YPG by Turkish forces in the past year.

“There is a huge amount of discontent in Turkey about Syrians,” said political analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. “The average, poor AKP [Erdogan’s party] voter, they see Syrian refugees as a competitor for limited public resources. It’s a huge problem for Erdogan.”

Ankara claims the cost of hosting Syrian refugees is over $30 billion.

The deteriorating economic situation exacerbates the Turkish public’s discontent over the refugees. Many economists predict Turkey will go into recession this year. Recent opinion polls indicate Erdogan’s AKP party’s commanding lead over its rivals is rapidly eroding, just ahead of critical local elections in March.

Housing projects

With a possible eye to kick-starting the economy, Erdogan earlier this month unveiled plans for major housing projects for returning Syrians in the proposed buffer zone in Syria.

“My plan would be to build two-story houses with gardens of 500-square meters so the inhabitants could begin a new life,” Erdogan said, adding that a buffer zone “would also block migration completely.”

Former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen believes Ankara is looking to the EU to fund the construction project.

“For reconstruction of Syria, it will not be the U.S. because the U.S. say they will not take part in the construction as long as Assad stays,” Selcen said.

“The EU seems to be quite willing to play that role because they fear a new influx of refugees emanating from Syria. And Erdogan saw that clearly when dealing with the EU,” he added.

Turkey’s construction industry has been among the hardest hit by the country’s economic slowdown.

“More or less, the private construction industry is coming to a complete standstill,” Yesilada said. “It accounts for 10 percent of the GDP. In terms of employment, it’s hugely important, as it’s a labor-intensive industry. The entire construction industry is one of the pillars of economic growth.”

A senior economist for an international bank, speaking anonymously, claims Turkey’s construction sector could be in doldrums for a decade, due to the sector’s heavy debts and excessive unsold inventories.

Economic boost

International relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University said projects in Syria may well be able to boost Turkey’s beleaguered construction industry.

“There is no doubt Syria has to be rebuilt, and the Turkish contribution is going to be immense,” Bagci said. “We have been doing this in the good old times of 2008, 9, and 10. Turkey was building [in Syria] hotels, streets, train stations, many things. Why not start again? Reconciliation with Syria in economic terms would be perfect for Turkey.”

Bagci said, however, that any major reconstruction projects would require Ankara’s reopen diplomatic relations with Damascus. Erdogan steadfastly refuses to normalize ties until Syrian President Bashar al-Assad relinquishes power.

Analysts suggest Europe would also likely balk at providing significant financial support for projects in Turkey’s proposed safe zone without the Syrian intervention receiving international validation from the United Nations.

Syrian projects may not be enough to boost Turkey’s construction sector very much.

“It’s feasible TOKI [Turkish State constructor] can build satellite cities in Syria,” Yesilada said, “but turkey is a country where 600,000 new units are sold annually. In Syria, you are going to get a tenth of that a year. So, it’s going to help, but it’s not a lifesaver.”

Selcen also questions the number of Syrians who are ready to return.

“There are not significant numbers of Syrians returning,” he said. “The Syrians that are 3 million or so in Turkey. They are here to stay for the foreseeable future. And if you were in their shoes, would you want to leave a place like Istanbul for a destroyed country like Syria?”
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