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CPDM Crime Syndicate: Report the Ambazonia conflict and perish

31, May 2023

CPDM Crime Syndicate: Report the Ambazonia conflict and perish 0

In Cameroon’s capital city Yaoundé lives a baker like no other. He did not want to be a baker, but circumstances forced him to become one to remain alive.

Lambert Kehven did not dream of becoming a baker, but a journalist. He started working as a journalist in Kumbo in the Bui division in the restive northwest region of Cameroon for a local media house, Canal 2 International. When the Anglophone conflict spiked in 2017, he found himself caught between state security forces and non-state armed groups who all wanted him to report their own sides of the story. They wanted to read his reports before they were published.

Kehven was arrested in December 2019, accused of working with non-state actors, and released on January 10, 2020, when he fled the conflict zone for his life and safety.

Samuel Ajiekah Abuwe, popularly called Samuel Wazizi who reported the Anglophone conflict for Chillen Media TV, was not as fortunate. He was arrested on August 2, 2019, supposedly because he allowed his farm to be used by armed groups and allegedly filmed military atrocities, the footage of which he supplied to the international media, the Cameroon police told journalists.

Samuel Wazizi died in custody; his death was reported by Equinoxe TV during their prime time news on June 2, 2019. His family has no clue where his remains could be. The military said he died of sepsis, no independent investigation has opened, and journalists dare not ask questions or investigate for fear of being killed.

As Cameroonian journalists were still processing Wazizi’s case, another journalist Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka was arrested on May 15, 2020, in connection with his reports and Facebook posts on the Anglophone conflict, for allegedly sourcing his information by “sponsoring” terrorists in the region. Njoka was kept incommunicado for weeks. The military court later charged him with acts of terrorism, and he has been awaiting trial for about two years.

The most recent is the murder Martinez Zogo, a radio journalist investigating corruption who disappeared and whose mutilated remains were found along the Soa road on the outskirts of Yaoundé on January 22. Reporters Without Borders describes this as a “state crime.”

The scenarios painted above depict how journalists who are critical in their reports on the Anglophone conflict, both online and offline, are either jailed or forced to desert the conflict zones and journalism or die in the process. These also demonstrate how far the state can go to silence dissent and suppress critical reporting.

The Anglophone conflict

The Anglophone conflict is deeply rooted in the history of the partition of Africa where Cameroon was partitioned between France and Britain, with the former having a greater share. French Cameroons got independence first. The English side had to achieve independence by either joining French Cameroons or Nigeria. They chose to join French Cameroons to form a two-state federation, but the terms of the federation eroded, and as the English side was marginalized, which metamorphosed into a crisis and later a conflict.

In 1972, a new constitution revoked the autonomy of the English-speaking parts of the country, giving more power to the president, leading to friction with the leaders of the erstwhile autonomous Anglophone region of Southern Cameroons. Neglect, marginalisation and the erosion of the terms of the federation are the root causes of the ongoing Anglophone conflict in Cameroon, with devastating effects.

The Anglophone conflict reached its peak in 2016 when teachers and lawyers took to the streets with peace plants to denounce the diluting of the Anglo Saxon systems of education and law. The state responded with force, arresting and jailing the leaders. Separatist tendencies took over, and non-state armed groups took arms against the state security forces.

Seven years later, the conflict is ongoing, and the government is not tolerant of critical views on its handling of the conflict.

Four thousand civilians have been killed by both state security agents and non-state armed groups, with 87,000 refugees in Nigeria, and people 628,000 internally displaced as of December 2022. Arrests related to the conflict took place under the penal code punishing alleged acts of secession and terrorism, felony, and territorial integrity. The government does not define who a terrorist is, but the anti-terrorism law seems to trap more journalists than terrorists in its net. Arrested journalists are not given the right to a fair trial before an independent and impartial court, but are tried at the military court.

Freedom of the press

Freedom of the press is enshrined in the preamble of the Cameroon constitution. “The freedom of communication, of expression, of the press, assembly, association, and trade unionism, as well as the right to strike, shall be guaranteed under conditions fixed by the law.” Yet, Cameroon is described as the third worst jailer of journalists by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The Cameroon Association of English-Speaking Journalists (CAMASEJ) said about 80 journalists had fled the two regions, and a total of nine journalists were arrested in 2022.

The government has been criticized for limiting the freedom of the press and cracking down on journalists and media outlets that are critical of the government. According to the 2021 World Press Freedom Index, Cameroon ranks 135th out of 180 countries, which is a decline from its 2020 ranking of 134th. The report notes that journalists in Cameroon face harassment, intimidation, and physical attacks, and that the government has suspended or shut down media outlets that report on sensitive topics or criticize government officials. Additionally, the government has been accused of using the December 2014 anti-terrorism law to silence dissent and restrict freedom of expression.

In 2022, CPJ joined Amnesty International and 29 other civil society organizations, local and international in a letter demanded that President Biya free persons arrested for exercising their right to freedom of expression, among them journalists Tsi Conrad, Mancho Bibixy, Thomas Awah, and Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka.

CPJ argues that journalists are not terrorists, but the government brandishes territorial integrity, public peace, and security to justify its actions. Government spokesperson Communication Minister Rene Sadi tacitly warned journalists against tarnishing the image of the country, saying that “incitement to violence and hostility against the homeland is not tolerable in the rule of law and in a society of freedom and responsibility.

Journalists have not been silent. World Press Freedom Day 2022 provided an avenue for CAMASEJ to register discontent with the treatment of journalists and call on both state security forces and non-state armed groups to stop attacks on journalists. It made little difference.

Culled from advox.globalvoices.org

Criticizing Biya or the CPDM online or offline calls for trouble

31, May 2023

Criticizing Biya or the CPDM online or offline calls for trouble 0

The plantation town of Mbanga in the Littoral region, 310 km from the capital Yaoundé, is known for its banana plantations. But that’s not why it was in the spotlight on June 10, 2020. A video with plantation worker Clement Ytembe Bonda had gone viral, and it was going to haunt him forever.

It all started when news spread about how government ministries had mismanaged COVID-19 funds to the tune of XCF 180 billion (USD 226 million). When the pandemic hit in 2020, the IMF gave Cameroon this money to help deal with the pandemic.

In June 2020, civil society organizations, opposition party members sounded an alert on the mismanagement of the COVID-19 fund. Jean Michel Nintcheu, opposition Member of Parliament from the Social Democratic Front (SDF) party, observed that there were no beds and toilets in one of the COVID-19 treatment centres in the Littoral region of Cameroon, even though XCF 100 million (about USD 165,000) was earmarked to hire mobile toilets. On orders from the presidency, the Audit Bench of the Supreme Court investigated the management of the funds later released a summary of investigation.

The summary indicated that the Ministry of Scientific Research had been importing hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin, labeling them as their products instead of producing chloroquine. The XCF 15 million (about USD 25,000) meant for renovating the production unit was therefore allegedly not spent. The Ministry of Public Health was involved in overbilling and the mismanagement of funds.

In 2021, Cameroon was ranked 144/188 on the Transparency International corruption index. A report from the National Anti-corruption Commission highlights the most corrupt entities in Cameroon, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of State Property and Land Tenure, and the police and gendarmerie. Former Health Minister Urbain Olanguena Awono is in jail for the mismanagement of HIV/AIDS funds. This is why rights groups and opposition sounded an alert over the alleged embezzlement.

Clement Ytembe Bonda could not digest the news of the mismanagement of COVID-19 funds. On that fateful morning he took his phone and asked his friends Wameni André Boris and Flavy Kamou Wouwe to film him as he poured out his anger. “We have to get up at 4:00 am for XCF 32,000, while another [the ministers] will wake up at 8:00 am, and go to an air-conditioned office to steal XCF 180,000 billion. See bananas everywhere but you cannot touch even one.” Bonda used explicit language to talk about the head of state and government ministers responsible for the alleged embezzlement.

Through the video, Bonda exposed the employment situation in Cameroon, where a university graduate, for the lack of employment, is forced to work in a plantation. He also revealed the living conditions of plantation workers in Cameroon who toil the whole day without food to produce bananas for the owners. The minimum wage in Cameroon in 2022 is XAF  36,270, (USD 60.05) but Bonda and his friends were paid XAF 32,000 (USD 52.94), which is less than the minimum wage.

The video went viral on social media and Bonda soon became a wanted man, because speaking this way about the president and ministers provokes a strong response in Cameroon. The police accused him of insulting president Biya. He was tracked down and arrested, with his friends Andre Boris Wameni and  Flavy Kamou Wouwe, at the Plantation des Haut Penja, an affiliate of a French agro-industrial company.

Arrested on June 11, 2021, Bonda and his friends first appeared in court on June 14, 2021. On June 17, 2021, they were tried at the Njombe Court for outrage against the head of state and for spreading false information on social media under article 78 of the cybercrime law. It states that “Whoever uses electronic communications or an information system to design, to publish or propagate a piece of information without being able to attest its veracity or prove that the said piece of information was true shall be punished with imprisonment for from 06 (six) months to 02 (two) years or a fine of from 5,000,000 (five million) to 10,000,000 (ten million) CFA francs or both of such fine and imprisonment.”

Article 113 of the Criminal Procedure Code punishes with imprisonment from three months to three years anyone who issues or spreads false news when such news is likely to harm the public authorities or national cohesion.

A year later, Andre Boris Wameni and  Flavy Kamou Wouwe were freed, but Bonda remained in jail.

There were divergent opinions as some have argued that the young man deserves to be jailed because it is impolite to insult President Biya using vulgar language. Some have linked the arrest with the state of freedom of expression in the country — Cameroonians are free as long as they don’t criticize president Biya on or offline.

This is not the only case of cracking down on free expression. In 2009, journalist Jean Bosco Talla was jailed for insulting President Biya, but he said he had only published passages from a book in his newspaper.

The case of a TV program presenter Serge Alain Ottou and his guest Engelbert Le Bon Datchoua, a member of the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CRM party on Equinoxe TV, a local online broadcast channel, is also still fresh in the minds of Cameroonians. The guest said President Biya “is the worst thing that happened to Cameroon,” and the Minister of Territorial Administration ordered an interrogation. The Ottou and Datchoua were questioned at the Littoral regional delegation of police. The Communication Council summoned the proprietor of Equinoxe TV and the presenter Ottou in November 2022 for questioning. The issue has not been mentioned again.

Freedom after expression

The 1996 Cameroon constitution guarantees freedom of expression. “The freedom of communication, of expression, of the press, of assembly, of association and of trade unionism as well as the right to strike shall be guaranteed under conditions fixed by the law.”

But it is an open secret that criticizing the head of state and his government online or offline calls for trouble. The police, armed forces, the ministries of territorial administration, and communication, and the courts are state apparatuses used to keep firm control on the people to prevent criticism and dissent. The state brandishes its traditional role of safeguarding public security and peace but tramples on freedom of expression.

Culled from advox.globalvoices.org

Ambazonia Vice President in South Africa, highlights the comradeship between PAC and IG

30, May 2023

Ambazonia Vice President in South Africa, highlights the comradeship between PAC and IG 0

For the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima and the leadership of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania in the Republic of South Africa, the people of Southern Cameroons and the people of South Africa are comrades in arms.

Yerima was in Polokwane Limpopo, the birth place of the President of the Pan Africanist Congress on May 27, 2023.

The comradeship between the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and people of South Africa was highlighted by the exiled Ambazonian leader.

During the rally held in Polokwane Limpopo, Yerima embraced Marius Moloto and Moloto intend reiterated PAC support for the Ambazonia Interim Government and the Southern Cameroons struggle telling the sell-out crowd that Dabney Yerima was fighting against a very dangerous form of colonialism and needed the support of the people of South Africa.

Comrade Marius Moloto told Yerima and his delegation that PAC identifies with Southern Cameroonians because the members of PAC do not believe it is right for the French Cameroun government to suppress basic human rights in Southern Cameroons under a primitive and cheap design scheme known as special status.

The leadership of PAC went on to tell the South African media that the party did not consider the Ambazonia Interim Government a terrorist group, stating.  “If one has to refer to any of the parties involved in the conflict in Southern Cameroons as a terrorist, one might refer to the French speaking government in Yaoundé, because they are the people who are slaughtering defenseless and innocent Southern Cameroonians in their homeland, and we think this is completely unacceptable.”

For his part, Vice President Dabney Yerima said it is important for South Africans all over the world to add their voices to the universal call for Southern Cameroons self-determination and statehood.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in Polokwane Limpopo, South Africa

French Cameroun:  Boko Haram kills 4 in the Far North

30, May 2023

French Cameroun:  Boko Haram kills 4 in the Far North 0

The attack has not been claimed, but authorities in the Far North region believe the assailants to be fighters from the Boko Haram terrorist group.

Heavily armed and unidentified individuals attacked a mixed checkpoint at the entrance to the town of Mora and killed four Cameroon servicemen.

The Senior Divisional Officer for Mayo Sava Division Ngbwa Ludovic Etienne contacted by Cameroon Concord News confirmed the attack and added that two customs officers, a policeman and a soldier were among the casualties.

The assailants made away with two weapons according to the Mayo Sava gendarmerie company commander.

By Fung Achuo in Maroua

Southern Cameroons Crisis: “Victims of genocide and perpetrators cannot live together”

30, May 2023

Southern Cameroons Crisis: “Victims of genocide and perpetrators cannot live together” 0

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government has said that the Biya French Cameroun regime is the promoter and justifier of genocide throughout Southern Cameroons territory.

Dabney Yerima made the comment during a press briefing in Holland on Monday observing that Ambazonians as victims of the Biya imposed war, cannot sit together with its perpetrators.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader was reacting to a statement from Yaoundé that the Biya Francophone regime was already implementing the so-called special status for the people of Southern Cameroons.

Comrade Dabney Yerima furthered that the leader of the Ambazonia resistance President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe wants no Southern Cameroonian citizen to be a victim of La Republique du Cameroun’s terror acts. “Every Southern Cameroonian has to fight French Cameroun agents as one, if we remain separate, we will continue to be victims of their occupying military.”

The Biya Francophone regime regularly attributes Ambazonia attacks against the Francophone dominated Cameroon government army to suspected separatists.

By Chi Prudence Asong with additional editing from Isong Asu

Franco-Cameroun relations: No Frenchman has won a Grand Slam title since Yannick Noah in 1983

30, May 2023

Franco-Cameroun relations: No Frenchman has won a Grand Slam title since Yannick Noah in 1983 0

With no Frenchmen seeded in singles at Roland Garros this year, the home country is unlikely to see its first male champion since Yannick Noah’s lone win back in 1983. But as one generation of nearly-men bows out, there are signs a new one is readying to take up the challenge.

No Frenchman has won a Grand Slam title since Yannick Noah’s French Open triumph in 1983.

It’s been 40 years since a Frenchman last won a singles Grand Slam title – and marking the anniversary of Noah’s famous win has become a nostalgic ritual for a nation starved of success.

The former tennis-champ-turned-pop-star was back on the French Open stage at the weekend for a celebration of his 1983 title, this time holding a mic instead of a racket. He strode barefoot on the famous red clay of Court Philippe Chatrier and performed a dozen songs – joined on stage by his opponent from 40 years ago, Matts Wilander.

Asked why no other Frenchman had emulated his success since then, he joked: “Because I’m not coaching anymore.”

Noah, who captained France to victory in both the Davis Cup and Fed Cup, later had a stark piece of advice for French youngsters hoping for a breakthrough: to pack their bags and travel abroad.

“You have to go and nourish yourself elsewhere, because we’re used to losing at all levels,” he told reporters. “All coaches have lost. None of them have won. So you’re surrounded by people who have all lost.”

‘As if Real Madrid had won nothing’

Look abroad is precisely what the French Tennis Federation (FFT) has done, tapping Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic, the former player and coach who was credited with improving Roger Federer’s game in his twilight years, guiding the Swiss to three more Grand Slam titles.

A former world number three, Ljubicic was put in charge of a programme dubbed Ambition 2024, aimed at improving French tennis and nurturing a new generation of champions. As he took on the job in December, the towering Croat expressed bafflement at the dearth of tennis success in France.

“Non-French people are always puzzled by tennis in your country,” he told French reporters. “It’s as if Real Madrid had won nothing for a long time.”

Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka, the 2015 French Open champion, made blunter comments at a tournament in Marseille earlier this year, saying it was “sad” not to see better players in a country “with a Grand Slam tournament and ample resources to invest in the future of tennis”.

 Self-flagellation has been a recurrent theme at the French Open, particularly on anniversary years. In 2018, as organisers marked 30 years since the last time a Frenchman – Henri Leconte – reached the final, the 1988 runner-up blasted the players’ lack of dedication and mental toughness.

“They don’t train on clay as much as we used to,” said the flamboyant Leconte. “They are afraid to play at the French Open. They are always coming with an excuse, saying, ‘Oh, I have a bad back or elbow’.”

The harsh assessment was shared by some fans at Roland Garros, who flagged the home players’ inability to cope with expectations.

“The French have great courts and great players, but at this level in tennis it’s the mental strength that makes the difference,” said Marcus from Denmark, sheltering from the sun that has blessed the tournament’s opening days. He drew a parallel with the former world number one Andy Murray, who finally ended Britain’s decades-long wait for a male Grand Slam title “despite facing even greater pressure at Wimbledon”.

Murray, who lost eight of his 11 Grand Slam finals, all of them against either Djokovic or Federer, would certainly have seen more success had he not landed in the era of the “Big Three”. It’s a point Marion Bartoli, the last French player to win a major in 2013, also raised in the run-up to the French Open, stressing that the likes of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gaël Monfils were equally unfortunate to have faced such formidable opponents throughout their careers.

Culled from France 24

Nigeria’s political ‘godfather’ Bola Tinubu sworn in as president

29, May 2023

Nigeria’s political ‘godfather’ Bola Tinubu sworn in as president 0

The 71-year-old southerner took over from a 80-year-old northerner as Africa’s most populous nation faces a sea of economic troubles and security challenges.

“As president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria I will discharge my duties and perform my functions honestly to the best of my ability, faithfully and in accordance with the constitution,” Tinubu said in a live broadcast from the capital Abuja’s Eagle Square.

Foreign leaders and representatives present at the ceremony included presidents Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana as well as delegations from the US, Britain and China.

Kashim Shettima was sworn in as vice president, taking over from Yemi Osinbajo.

The ruling party duo were declared winners of the February 25 election, gaining the highest number of votes — 8.8 million — and picking up the required number of ballots across two-thirds of Nigeria’s states.

But Tinubu only garnered just over a third of the total vote, leaving him with a weak mandate, some analysts say.

The poor showing reflects “widespread disenchantment with his party’s record… along with misgivings about his personal eligibility for the office,” the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank said in a note.

Dubbed a political “godfather,” Tinubu campaigned on the slogan “it’s my turn” to govern the country, Africa’s biggest economy.

He has touted his experience as Lagos governor from 1999 to 2007 — a period that, supporters say, modernised Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub.

But the new president also faces corruption allegations, which he denies, and questions over his health.

Opposition leaders Atiku Abubakar, who came second, and Peter Obi, who was third, are contesting election results in court, claiming fraud.

The electoral commission acknowledged “glitches” during the vote but dismissed claims that the process was not free and fair.

Continuation

Buhari had promised to tackle graft and insecurity but disappointed many.

He bequeaths his successor mounting debt and inflation, as well as deepening concern over attacks and kidnappings by armed groups.

His presidency showed “it is possible for an individual believed by many to be personally incorruptible to preside over an administration that is nonetheless defined by corruption and rank incompetence,” said Ebenezer Obadare of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington-based think tank.

“Nigerians will soon find out whether a leader widely seen as corrupt can preside over a relatively malfeasance-free and reasonably competent administration,” Obadare wrote in a blog.

 Buhari is expected to leave Abuja on Monday to spend time at his farm in Daura, in Katsina State, near the border with Niger.

The two men might be different in style and reputation, but they also have key similarities.

They both adhere to Islam and are of an advanced age, in a country divided between Christians and Muslims and where the median age is 18.

Buhari made repeated medical trips to the UK when he was president, while Tinubu spent time abroad during the campaign and between the election and inauguration.

Speculation about Tinubu’s health is widespread, prompting attention to turn to his deputy Shettima, a 56-year-old former governor of the northern state of Borno.

Debt, insecurity

The new government faces a mountain of urgent work, starting with the economy.

One of the main challenges for oil-rich Nigeria is that it swaps crude worth billions of dollars for gasoline that it then subsidises for its domestic market.

This has caused a huge drain on revenue and foreign exchange, contributing to ballooning debt.

More than 80 million of the country’s estimated 210 million people live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank, and the UN has warned that over of a quarter of those are facing acute hunger this year.

Despite thriving tech and entertainment sectors, many middle-class Nigerians are moving abroad hoping for a brighter future.

 Another priority for the incoming government will be to address insecurity, which has spread like wildfire in recent years.

Troops are battling gangs of heavily armed criminals and kidnappers in central and northwestern states, oil thieves, pirates and separatists in the southeast, and a 14-year-old jihadist insurgency in the northeast.

Complicating matters, national assembly elections produced greater political plurality this year, with seven parties represented in the incoming senate and eight in the next house of representatives.

“The next administration will need to work overtime to garner consensus on the legislative agenda,” said Afolabi Adekaiyaoja in a report for the Abuja-based Centre for Democracy and Development.

Governors, who also wield substantial power in Nigeria, were also being sworn in on Monday.

Source: AFP with additional reporting by Engelis Okesack Besong

Russia fires missiles on Kyiv in rare daytime attack

29, May 2023

Russia fires missiles on Kyiv in rare daytime attack 0

A series of explosions rang out in Kyiv on Monday as Russia targeted the city for the second time in 24 hours.

The latest barrages hit the pro-Western country as the Ukrainian capital was still recovering from an overnight Saturday drone attack, the biggest since Russia’s invasion began in February last year.

AFP journalists heard at least 10 explosions from around 11:10 am local time (0810 GMT) in Kyiv, starting just a few minutes after an air raid warning sounded.

Authorities later said Ukrainian air defences had downed all the Russian missiles launched against the Kyiv region.

One injured man was hospitalised, they said.

“A total of 11 missiles were fired: ‘Iskander-M’ and ‘Iskander-K’ from a northerly direction,” Ukraine’s armed forces chief Valery Zaluzhny said.

“All the targets were destroyed by air defences.”

Sergiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s city administration, said that Russians struck in the morning when “most residents were at work and on the streets”.

Source: AFP

Turkey: Identity politics, media crackdown help propel Erdogan to victory

29, May 2023

Turkey: Identity politics, media crackdown help propel Erdogan to victory 0

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defeated opposition challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu in Sunday’s Turkish presidential election runoff – a victory analysts ascribe to Erdogan’s focus on identity issues and use of the government’s resources, as well as Kilicdaroglu’s tepid leadership of a precarious coalition.

The first round was a shock to many Western observers who thought they might finally see the back of Erdogan. But after the Turkish president came within a whisker of re-election in that ballot, his second-round victory surprised no one. He defeated opposition challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu with 52.1 percent of the vote.

“I will be here until I’m in the grave,” Erdogan said as he addressed jubilant supporters from an open-top bus in Istanbul.

These polls belied the Western cliché that elections are about “the economy, stupid”. Along with his much-criticised response to February’s devastating earthquakes, Turkey’s economic woes looked like a big weakness for Erdogan at the outset of the campaign.

While growth remains robust, five years of an inflation and currency crisis has seen the cost of living soar for many Turks – a major reversal after the abundant economic gains after Erdogan first took power in 2003. Experts blame this crisis on Erdogan’s unorthodox belief that cutting interest rates helps reduce inflation while all mainstream economic theories hold that higher interest rates are required to calm rampant inflation in an economy.

Identity politics

But culture war has been at the heart of Turkish politics ever since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk made the country a modern nation-state in 1923, introducing strict secularism as he transformed Turkey along Westernising lines. Erdogan’s traditional constituency of socially conservative Muslim voters in the Anatolian heartland have always seen him as their champion in this culture war. A gifted orator and political strategist, Erdogan has already gone down in history as the leader who smashed secular Kemalism’s long hegemony over Turkish politics.

“Erdogan won primarily because he was once again able to shift the focus from socio-economic issues to identity issues,” said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director of the German Marshall Fund’s Ankara bureau.

Erdogan also instrumentalised Turkey’s long fight against Kurdish militant group the PKK, which has waged a guerrilla war against the Turkish state punctuated by ceasefires since 1984 and is classified as a terrorist group by the EU and the US as well as Turkey.

Kilicdaroglu won the support of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). Erdogan then accused the opposition of having links to terrorism, saying opposition leaders went into “dark rooms to sit and bargain” with militants.

“He was particularly successful in directing the anger of Turkish society towards the PKK [against] the opposition,” Unluhisarcikli noted.

Meanwhile, Kilicdaroglu’s big-tent approach was always going to be a tremendous challenge. The opposition contender had to juggle the Nation Alliance – the heterogenous six-party coalition behind his candidacy, which included the nationalist Good Party – with the HDP’s endorsement of his candidacy.

After Kilicdaroglu’s disappointing first-round performance, he won the support of the nationalist Victory Party’s Umit Ozdag and adopted his hard line on the Kurdish issue – which evidently risked alienating the millions of Kurdish voters Kilicdaroglu needed.

“The diversity of the opposition alliance was both an advantage and a disadvantage,” Unluhisarcikli observed. “It was an advantage because it made it possible for Kilicdaroglu to address a wider audience. It was a disadvantage because it led to an image of dysfunctionality. Moreover, while most voters could find an element they could identify with in the opposition alliance, they could also find one that they could not tolerate.”

When he was performing well in opinion polls ahead of the first round, Kilicdaroglu’s unassuming, professorial demeanour looked like a potential boon after two decades of Erdogan’s often mercurial style. But in reality Kilicdaroglu’s image was that of a “lacklustre candidate” backed by a “wobbly coalition”, said Howard Eissenstat, a Turkey specialist at St. Lawrence University and the Middle East Institute in Washington DC.

‘Authoritarian reasons’

Beyond the issues and personalities, Erdogan was able to mobilise resources surpassing the typical advantages of incumbency. He made lavish offers to voters using the state’s largesse, notably promising discounted gas bills for a year. Erdogan’s presidential power was helpful to his campaign in other ways, as the government controls 90% of the national media and has effectively curtailed the power of the independent press, seeing Turkey fall to 165 out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index.

Highlighting restrictions on press freedom, observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe found during the campaign that the polls were “marked by an unlevel playing field” even if they were “still competitive”.

“There are electoral reasons why Erdogan won and there are authoritarian reasons why he won,” Eissenstat said, emphasising that both sides of this equation are crucial.

“Given Erdogan’s gross mismanagement of the economy, his electoral skills would mean little without the authoritarian components: his control of 90% of the media, his use of the courts to limit the opposition, his use of government resources to support his own campaign,” Eissenstat continued. “As the saying goes, ‘only amateurs try to steal elections on election day’: Erdogan is no amateur. Election day had some irregularities, but nothing wildly out of the ordinary. Erdogan controlled every aspect of how the election was [run] and that is the key explanation for why he won.”

All that said, Kilicdaroglu came closer to defeating Erdogan than any previous opposition standard-bearer. In the 2018 presidential elections many Western observers thought Muharrem Ince had a decent chance of winning. But Erdogan clinched re-election in the first round, despite a lively campaign from the candidate representing Kilicdaroglu’s Republican People’s Party.

“The second round was closer than I thought it would be,” Eissenstat said. “The opposition did very well given the limits it was working under, and the voter turnout was higher than I expected.”

“I am in Turkey right now and my sense from conversations before the run-off [was] that opposition voters were demoralised and that many would stay home,” Eissenstat continued. “In the event, the Turkish electorate’s belief in the moral importance of voting trumped their hopelessness. The exception was the Kurdish vote, which clearly was dampened by Kilicdaroglu’s swerve to the right in the second round.”

Potential successors?

But there is no mistaking the sense of jubilation among Erdogan and his supporters as he enters his third decade in power. This year is symbolic, too, as Turkey is marking a century since Ataturk made it a nation-state.

Beneath the congratulations pouring in from Washington to Moscow, there is a clear divide between the perspectives of Western governments and those of Turkey’s geopolitical partners, pre-eminently Russia. After the Western commentariat hailed Erdogan as a reformer in the 2000s, their attitudes soured during the following decade, as he ramped up an assertive foreign policy amid his turn towards illiberal democracy at home.

How the West, Russia see Turkey’s presidential elections

Russia will “celebrate” Erdogan’s victory as Moscow sees his “transactionalism as convenient” – while “for the West, he will continue to be a challenge, but they will try to make the best of it”, Eissenstat said. “They won’t be happy, but in the end, they want to work with Turkey and Erdogan is its president.”

On foreign and domestic policy alike, Eissenstat expects Erdogan is unlikely to make any major changes during this new presidential term.

“He will likely make some half-hearted nods at a reset with some Western powers and with the markets to try to help stabilise the economy, but I think the general trajectory of his rule is set,” Eissenstat said. “I don’t expect him to become wildly more repressive and I certainly don’t expect him to liberalise.”  

Nevertheless, both analysts foresee one key difference in the 69-year-old Erdogan’s third term: he’s likely to hand-pick his political successor.

Source: AFP

King Salman Humanitarian Aid: Over 500 patients examined in voluntary surgical program in Cameroon

29, May 2023

King Salman Humanitarian Aid: Over 500 patients examined in voluntary surgical program in Cameroon 0

The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) continued to implement a voluntary surgical program in Cameroon, which has so far examined more than 500 cases in different clinics.

The campaign runs from May 20 to May 31, 2023, in cooperation with Al-Baslam International Organization. Since the start of the campaign, the volunteer medical team of the KSrelief has examined 532 cases in different clinics.

KSrelief also hosted in Riyadh on Sunday the European Union Special Representative for the Horn of Africa, Annette Weber, and her accompanying delegation.

During the meeting they discussed concerns related to humanitarian and relief affairs. They also discussed ways to support humanitarian work in the Horn of Africa region.

Elsewhere, KSrelief continued implementing a project to enhance health care services for Syrian refugees and the host communities in Akkar Governorate, Lebanon.

During April 2023, 822 patients were received, and 1,464 services were provided across various clinics.

In Tajikistan, shelter aid, including blankets, heating coal and water heaters in the districts of Temurmalik, Baljuvon, Khatlon and Tojikopod, benefiting 330 individuals from the neediest groups.

Source: Arab News

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