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Saturday Sunny 23°CWEATHER / ANKARASaturday, September 30, 2017

Turkey eyes eventual reduction of Syrian refugees in camps

Schools in N. Syria to open, thanks to Turkey

US accuses Myanmar of ethnic cleansing

Yemen cholera outbreak ‘worst in history’: Oxfam

By Canberk Yuksel

NEW YORK - Violence against the Muslim Rohingya minority in Myanmar appears to be ethnic cleansing, the U.S. envoy to the UN said Thursday.“We cannot be afraid to call the actions of the Burmese authorities what they appear to be: a brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority,” Nikki Haley told the Security Council during its first open meeting on Myanmar in eight years.Haley said the Naypyidaw government must allow media and humanitarian access to Rakhine state, home to the Rohingya, if its claim of fighting terrorists is true.The ongoing violence “should shame senior Burmese leaders who have sacrificed so much for an open democratic Burma”... MORE DETAILS

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Turkey’s exports climb above $100B in Jan-Aug

Konyaspor gets first win in UEFA Europa League

Fifth Turkish film festival opensin South Africa

Culture and Art>>Turkey>> Sport>>

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AZAZ - Schools in northern Syria that were cleared of terrorist elements thanks to Turkey’s Operation Euphrates Shield -- and later repaired with the support of the Turkish government and Turkish aid agencies -- are set to open their doors on Sunday. In coordination with a handful of Turkish aid agencies, Turkey’s National Education Ministry has recently finished repairing 450 schools damaged by earlier attacks by the Daesh terrorist group and the Syrian regime.Schools in Aleppo’s Azaz and Mara districts are now being run by local councils affiliated with the Syrian opposition’s transitional government and education directorate.

Ali Riza Altunel, a senior Turkish National Education Ministry official, told Anadolu Agency that some 5,200 teachers would provide local youth with education this year at 450 schools in the affected areas.“Turkey has provided Syrian teachers with the training needed to raise the overall quality of education,” Altunel said.“Teachers were subjected to intensive testing and only those who were qualified were granted employment,” he added.He went on to stress that the curriculums to be used at these schools were in accordance with Syria’s education system, adding that all the necessary supplies...

By Kemal Karadag

ANKARA - Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag said on Friday it would be necessary to eventually reduce the number of Syrian refugees living in camps across the country.“We are not considering increasing the number of people living in the camps. It may even be necessary to reduce their numbers over time,” Akdag told Anadolu Agency.“We want and expect them to return to their own country after political stability is established in Syria. But we do not know how long this will take. Therefore, it is necessary to

harmonize [the refugees] with our society,” Akdag added.Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests.Since then, more than 250,000 people have been killed and in excess of 10 million displaced, according to the UN.Akdag said Turkey was hosting four million refugees, 3.2 million of who were Syrian citizens.Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) hosts 250,000 Syrian refugees alone, he added.

By Ali Owaida

MAARIB - Yemen’s ongoing cholera epidemic is “the worst in history” with more than 750,000 cases registered since April, according to international charity organization Oxfam.The number of cholera-related deaths in Yemen has now surpassed 2,100, while a whopping 755,000 suspected cases have been registered since April 27, making the epidemic “the worst in history”, the charity said in a statement issued late Thursday.It went on to warn that the number of cases of cholera -- a bacterial infection of the small intestine -- could exceed 1,000,000 by November.The same statement quoted Oxfam Humanitarian Director Nigel Timmins as saying that impoverished Yemen was now facing “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world”.

The organization went on to point out that the country’s ongoing armed conflict, which has just entered its fourth year, had created “ideal conditions” for the spread of the disease.On Thursday, the UN, too, warned that Yemen was now home to the “world’s largest humanitarian crisis”, with nearly 70 percent of the country’s population in need of aid.“Some 7.3 million people [in Yemen] are on the brink of famine,” Kate Gilmore, UN deputy high commissioner for human rights, told the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva.According to Gilmore, almost 19 million of Yemen’s total population of 27.4 million “are in need of humanitarian assistance, including 10.3 million in acute need”.Since April, Gilmore said, over three million people had been forced to flee their homes as a direct result of the ongoing conflict...

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Myanmar violence highlights dubious Israel arms sales

Israeli human rights campaigners step up fight against weapons sales to Myanmar