Top Left Link Buttons
  • English

Turkey

Category Archives

Take this Tragedy as the Opportunity to Lift All Sanctions Against Syria

By Helga Zepp-LaRouche

Feb. 6, 2023 (EIRNS)—The recent double earthquake in southern Turkey and northwestern Syria is a terrible disaster which is generating a wave of emotion and empathy from around the world. The situation will likely worsen due to forecast weather of extremely low temperatures throughout the region, resulting in the collapse of weakened buildings due to the cold and frost, not to mention the immediate consequences to children, women and men who have lost everything.

Time is of the essence. We welcome an international response; in fact there are several countries that have already offered their assistance to the populations affected by the earthquakes. This being said, it is difficult to accept that the same disaster has a very different human impact on either side of the borders of Turkey and Syria. On the Syrian side, this tragedy is affecting a population that has been hard hit by years of war and sanctions imposed by the United States with other nations.

This situation confronts us, as Western nations, with our responsibility to uphold the values we claim to embody. Are we going to continue to apply the measures that we very well know have led to the unimaginable suffering, misfortune and death of innocent people? Or are we going to finally make the decision to lift these criminal sanctions? Don’t we know, after so many years of use, that the weapon of sanctions only hurts the people?

It is time for Western leaders to regain a minimum of moral fiber, by taking this tragedy as the opportunity to definitively lift all sanctions against Syria and, from then on, to organize the reconstruction of the country with those who are determined to contribute to it.


First Ship in UN-Turkey Grain Deal Leaves Odessa with Corn for Lebanon

Aug. 1 (EIRNS)—This morning, the Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship Razoni, carrying 26,000 tons of corn (maize), left the Ukrainian port of Odessa destined for Tripoli, Lebanon. It is the first ship to leave Odessa under the auspices of the UN/Turkey-brokered deal signed with Ukraine and with Russia on July 22 by which Ukrainian grains will be shipped to world markets. Turkey’s Defense Ministry announced today’s departure, reporting that the Razoni will arrive in Istanbul on Aug. 2 where it will be inspected before passing through the Bosphorus Strait and heading for its destination. It was escorted out of Odessa by Ukrainian ships.

TASS reports that the joint grain export coordination center, based in Istanbul, will use satellites to monitor the passage of ships. According to the Associated Press, there are 16 more dry cargo ships in Odessa in line to ship out under the program. Today’s departure was welcomed by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who said he hoped this would be first of many Ukrainian ships to leave the port carrying urgently needed grains to “bring much-needed stability and relief to global food security especially in the most fragile humanitarian contexts.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed this “very positive” development. “Let’s hope that all the agreements will be implemented from all sides and that the mechanism will work effectively,” TASS reported him as saying.