UN urges int’l community to ‘generously’ help quake-hit Türkiye

TÜRK HALKININ YANINDA OLMALIYIZ

PKK terrorists, Armenians train together at Iranianrun Karabakh camp

Two United Nations offices have urged the world to step up humanitarian aid efforts for the survivors of the Feb. 6 earthquakes in both Türkiye and Syria as the nations grapple with the aftermath of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 tremors that left more than 54,000 dead.

“Türkiye has been a very gracious host to millions of refugees for years, and now it is time to show it the same generosity,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Sunday.

“Türkiye has been an amazing host to millions of refugees. Perhaps one of the largest refugee populations around the globe is hosted by Türkiye,” Ramesh Rajasingham, the head and representative of OCHA Geneva and director of the coordination division, told Anadolu Agency (AA) in an exclusive interview.

“Türkiye covers most of their

Former Pakistani PM Khan rallies in defiance of arrest warrants

expenses, which can reach billions and billions of dollars. So, Türkiye has been a very gracious host and has opened its borders to refugees from conflict-affected countries like Syria. And I think now it’s time for us to also show generosity toward Türkiye and the people of Türkiye as they face this disaster, this very tragic event,” said Rajasingham.

“So, I urge all donors from all over the world to contribute as generously as possible to the Türkiye appeal,” he remarked.

Reiterating that there will be a donor conference later this month in Brussels that will bring together EU member states, as well as institutions and organizations worldwide, for Türkiye and Syria, Rajasingham said the appeal launched for Türkiye requests $1 billion for the first three months of operations, which will primarily include addressing immediate needs like shelter, food and sanitation.

n Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is currently facing arrest warrants in several cases, rallied thousands of supporters in Lahore Monday. Since his ouster last April in a no-confidence vote in Parliament, Khan has routinely ignored arrest warrants and court summons in a string of cases against him, claiming they are a plot by the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, to discredit his campaign. The former cricket star turned politician has claimed that his ouster was illegal and a conspiracy by Sharif and

The U.N. Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) teams have been coordinating almost 50 urban search and rescue teams from around the world to save lives, but now things are at a stage that requires providing humanitarian assistance as hundreds of thousands of families no longer have homes, he said.

Recalling President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks that over 200,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged by the twin earthquakes, Rajasingham underlined that finding shelter for those people and getting assistance for them – whether be it food or water, health assistance or tents – are the elements of a major humanitarian operation.

“Many lives have been saved, but at the same point, we have millions of people who have been left homeless by this disaster, and they need urgent assistance,” he added.

Washington, which have denied the allegations. Khan’s critics say his flaunting of the courts is a maneuver to delay his trials on allegations of terrorism, contempt of court and graft. One of the warrants issued Monday was over charges that Khan sold state gifts and concealed assets while in office, the other was in connection with his verbal threats against a judge during a rally last year. The warrants request that Khan be brought to court for hearings scheduled on March 18 and March 29. However, it remained unclear whether the police would act on them.

Two experts have claimed that members of the PKK terrorist group and Armenians are being trained together at a military camp in Azerbaijan’s disputed region of Karabakh where Iran allegedly moved some 4,000 militants left idle following the détente in Syria, mostly propelled by the twin earthquakes that killed thousands on Feb. 6. “These Iranian militants are highly likely to be sent to not just Karabakh but also to the warzone between Russia and Ukraine,” according to professor Toğrul Ismayıl, an expert in Russian and Eurasian politics. “These allegations are 100% accurate,” said another expert, Babek Şahit of Tabriz Research Institute. As tensions boil between neighbors Azerbaijan and Iran, Tehran has declared Armenia’s border security as its redline and has been shifting militants to Karabakh, the source of the longstanding conflict between Baku and Yerevan, according to Ismayıl and Şahit. Ismayıl argued Tehran believes it’s been losing its strategic importance in the region, where Türkiye-Azerbaijan ties also make up an effective factor, hence the move of its militants to Karabakh. “PKK terrorists and Armenians too are trained together at this military camp, led by the so-called commander Vazgen Sisilyan,” Ismayıl said, adding that the said allegations “existed before as well.” Iran-Armenia relations have been very warm and close and Tehran determines its policies toward Azerbaijan and the broader region through Armenia, he explained. “The reason why is they don’t want a powerful Azerbaijani state in the north and Baku’s alliance with Türkiye in the meantime contradicts Iran’s policies,” he said. Citing the entry of “unidentified persons” entering Azerbaijan from Iran, Ismayıl said it was “an advantage for Iran for its idle militants to be used in regional clashes rather than using them within its own borders.” Iran doesn’t want the Zangezur Corridor to open either, Ismayıl went on saying, “And Tehran is doing its best to ensure it doesn’t happen at once.”