The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."
The purpose of the ceremony is to honor outstanding soldiers in the IDF.
IDF expanded their military acticity in the area of Daraj
Tuffah in Gaza City to expand the security zone in the area on April
12, 2025.(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
At the annual Outstanding Soldiers Ceremony at the President's Residence
on Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said that the IDF
is preparing to deliver a "decisive blow" against Hamas and that the
military will increase the pace and intensity of the operations in Gaza
soon, if necessary.
“The
Hamas terrorists still hold fifty-nine of our brothers and sisters. But
they, too, know their safety is not forever,” Zamir said.
“Our
sovereignty and independence were not given to us as a gift. They were
bought with blood and struggle, and they require us to defend them at
all costs.”
The
purpose of the ceremony is to honor outstanding soldiers in the IDF. At
the beginning of Zamir’s speech, he defined what it means to be
outstanding. “Excellence is not measured by who is the most talented or
the most brilliant. It is granted to the one who perseveres. It is a
quiet, daily choice to act with responsibility, commitment, and
integrity — even when no one is watching,” Zamir said.
Zamir
noted that this year, the ceremony has “special significance. You are
receiving recognition during a time of war,” he said, “A long and
complex war, in multiple arenas, against numerous threats, which is
still ongoing.”
IDF
Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir speaks during an event for outstanding
soldiers as part of Israel's 77th Independence Day celebrations, at the
President's Residence in Jerusalem on May 1, 2025. (credit: YONATAN
SINDEL/FLASH90)
Zamir also highlighted the responsibility Israeli citizens have for one another.
"For
the State of Israel, this idea is essential to its existence and
resilience, and no one is exempt—not individuals, not groups, and not
tribes," Zamir said.
"We
all enlist, we all fight together, and we all sacrifice together—for
the sake of the state and for a better future. Because one shared
destiny placed us here, in this land,” he said.
Zamir highlights notable awardees
Zamir noted particular awardees, including Avigdor, an officer from a haredi family,
“who chose to enlist in the IDF despite social challenges,” and Dorian,
“who made aliyah alone just two years ago, and despite the language
barriers, excelled in his service in the Intelligence Directorate.”
He also spotlighted Oria, an observer from the Re'im base, who survived Hamas’s October 7 attack and continued to serve in the IDF, “demonstrating extraordinary inner strength,” Zamir said.
“Lea,
a soldier whose grandfather was kidnapped to Gaza and murdered there,
and from that great pain, she found the strength to persevere, rise, and
excel,” Zamir continued.
He concluded with Daria, the sister of a civilian hostage,
“who enlisted in the IDF and, even during the fierce struggle for her
sister’s return, managed to stand out and become a role model for
strength and determination,” he said.
“We,
too, together with you, are adding a new verse to the long and glorious
song of the life of the people of Israel. From this place, in the heart
of Jerusalem, our eternal capital, we send a clear message: The Israeli
hope is alive and beating, and our actions will speak.
Happy and safe Independence Day," Zamir said at the end of his speech.
After over a day of battling the flames, the wildfire in the Judean Plane is under control. Forests and fields in the area were severely damaged.
The fire in the Judean Hills Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
Israel Fire and Rescue Services Commissioner Eyal Caspi announced that the large wildfire in the Judean Plains is under control.
The
fire, which broke out on Wednesday near Tarom and quickly spread due to
the weather conditions, severely damaged forests and fields in the
area.
100 crews operated during the firefighting efforts, with the
assistance of firefighting planes and helicopters. The efforts were
concentrated on preventing the fire from spreading to nearby
communities. During the operations to fight the flames, several
firefighters suffered from smoke inhalation.
A special
investigation team, which was created at the order of the Fire
Commissioner, has begun investigating the cause of the blaze.
The
commissioner thanked all forces and authorities that assisted in the
national effort to battle the fire and ordered the gradual dismissal of
forces. Firefighters will continue operating at a lower intensity, but
will maintain a strong presence on the ground to prevent the flames from
reigniting.
21 firefighters were lightly wounded in the fire, and one fire engine was damaged. No civilians were hurt.
The
main epicenters of the blaze included the Latrun area, Burma Road,
Eshtaol, Mesilat Zion, Taoz, Park Canada, Sha'ar Hagay, Kedoshim Forest,
and Shoresh.
IDF forces and the Home
Front Command also joined the national efforts, which all worked to
create buffer lines using heavy engineering tools to protect nearby
communities.
Significant
preparations have been made for international aid to assist, with a
firefighting plane from Cyprus already operating in Israel.
According to sources on the ground, the fire consumed about 20,000 dunams of open space.
All traffic arteries have been reopened and residents of the evacuated communities have been allowed to return to their homes.
The
Fire Commissioner thanked all the forces and entities that assisted in
the efforts to extinguish the fire and has instructed that forces be
released gradually.
Huge projects were stymied early by corruption, sanctions and money problems, and the plans went spectacularly wrong with the fall of Assad.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (L) and his Iranian
counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad walk past the guard of honour in
Damascus January 19, 2006. Syria said on Thursday Iran had a right to
acquire nuclear technology for peaceful means and demanded Israel be
stripped of its suspected nuclear arsenal.(photo credit: REUTERS/KHALED AL-HARIRI)
DAMASCUS - Iran had a grand plan for Syria – taken right from the playbook of a country it considers its arch-enemy.
Just
as the United States solidified its global dominance by investing
billions in rebuilding Europe after the Second World War, Iran would do
the same in the Middle East by reconstructing a war-ravaged Syria.
The ambitious program, outlined in a 33-page official Iranian study, makes several references to “The Marshall Plan,”
America’s blueprint for resurrecting post-War Europe. The US strategy
succeeded: It made Europe “reliant on America,” a presentation
accompanying the study says, by “creating economic, political and
socio-cultural dependence.”
The
document, dated May 2022 and authored by an Iranian economic-policy
unit stationed in Syria, was found by Reuters reporters in Iran’s looted
Damascus embassy when they visited the building in December. It was
among hundreds of other papers they uncovered there and at other
locations around the capital – letters, contracts and infrastructure
plans – that reveal how Iran planned to recoup the billions it spent
saving President Bashar al-Assad during the country’s long-running civil
war . The Syria-strategy document envisions building an economic
empire, while also deepening influence over Iran’s ally.
IRANIAN President Masoud Pezeshkian; Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Commander-in-Chief, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami; and the head of the
Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani: Tehran still
maintains ways in which it can negatively influence the region, says the
writer. (credit: WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY/REUTERS)
“A $400 billion opportunity,” reads one bullet point in the study.
These imperial hopes
were crushed when rebels hostile to Iran toppled Assad in December. The
deposed dictator fled for Russia . Iran’s paramilitaries, diplomats and
companies beat their own hasty exit. Its embassy in Damascus was
ransacked by Syrians celebrating Assad’s demise.
The
building was littered with documents highlighting the challenges facing
Iranian investors. The documents and months of reporting reveal new
insight into the doomed effort to turn Syria into a lucrative satellite
state.
Reuters
interviewed a dozen Iranian and Syrian businessmen, investigated the
web of Iranian companies navigating the gray zones of sanctions , and
visited some of Iran’s abandoned investments, which included religious
sites , factories, military installations and more. Those investments
were stymied by militant attacks, local corruption, and Western
sanctions and bombing runs.
Among
the investments was a €411 million power plant in coastal Latakia being
built by an Iranian engineering firm. It stands idle. An oil extraction
project is abandoned in Syria’s eastern desert. A $26 million Euphrates
River rail bridge built by an Iranian charity linked to Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei collapsed under a US coalition airstrike years
ago, and was neither repaired nor fully paid for.
The
roughly 40 projects in the abandoned embassy files represent a fraction
of Iran’s overall investment. But in this assortment alone, Reuters
found that Syria’s outstanding debts to Iranian companies toward the end
of the war amounted to at least $178 million. Former Iranian lawmakers
have publicly estimated the total debt of Assad’s government to Iran at
more than $30 billion.
Hassan
Shakhesi, a private Iranian trader, lost €16 million in vehicle parts
he shipped to Syria’s Latakia port just before Assad fled. “I’d set up
an office and home in Syria. That’s gone,” said Shakhesi. He said he was
never paid for the goods, which disappeared. “I hope Iran’s long
history with Syria isn’t just wiped out. I’m now having to look at
business elsewhere.”
Ultimately,
Iran’s hopes to emulate the Marshall Plan and build an economic empire
encompassing Syria went more the way of America’s debacles in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Early
intervention in Syria’s civil war on the side of Assad deepened Iran’s
influence over this gateway to the Mediterranean Sea. The story of the
squandered investments reveals the financial risk that brought, and how
the mutual reliance of the pariah governments of Syria and Iran hurt
both.
Assad poster burns in Syria (credit: SCREENSHOT/X)
For
Iran’s rulers, Assad’s fall and the collapse of their Syria plans come
at a precarious time. They have been weakened by Israel’s decimation of
the Islamic Republic’s key proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in
Gaza. They are under pressure from US President Donald Trump to
negotiate a deal that could neuter Iran’s nuclear program , or face
possible military action if they balk. Iran’s regional rivals, including
Turkey and Israel , are rushing to fill the vacuum left by its
departure. The nascent Syrian government, for its part, has to contend
with multiple frozen infrastructure projects as it tries to rebuild the
war-ravaged country .
Reuters
reporters discovered an array of documents as they visited Iran’s
centers of soft power in Syria after Assad’s fall – diplomatic, economic
and cultural offices. They photographed nearly 2,000 of the records,
including trade contracts, economic plans and official cables, and left
them where found. Reporters then used artificial intelligence, including
the AI legal assistant CoCounsel owned by Thomson Reuters, to summarize
and analyze the texts.
Iran’s
foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in December he expected
the new Syrian leadership to honor the country’s obligations. But it’s
not a priority for the new government, led by a former rebel group,
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, that fought Assad and his Iranian backers.
Iranian government officials did not respond to requests for comment about the findings by Reuters.
“The
Syrian people have a wound caused by Iran, and we need a lot of time to
heal,” the new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said in an interview in
December. Neither al-Sharaa nor other officials from Syria’s new
government responded to requests for comment from Reuters about Iran’s
role in the fallen regime. Sharaa’s HTS, initially an offshoot of Al
Qaeda, severed those ties years ago and says it wants to build an
inclusive and democratic Syria. Some Syrians, especially non-Sunni
minorities, fear it retains the jihadist goal of establishing an Islamic
government.
For
most Syrians, the departure of Assad and the Iran-backed militias was
cause to celebrate. Those Syrians who worked with Iranians have mixed
feelings, however, about the exodus of Iranian business, which has left
many of them without an income.
“Iran
was here, that was just the reality, and I made a living from it for a
while,” said a Syrian engineer who worked on the idled Latakia power
plant.
The
engineer asked not to be named for fear of reprisals for working for an
Iranian company, after a spate of revenge killings last month against
Syrians associated with the old regime. He said the Latakia project was
hobbled by financial problems, Syrian corruption and underqualified
workers from Iran, but that once completed would have boosted Syria’s
struggling grid.
“The power plant was something for the future of Syria,” he said.
Iran's man in Syria
The
man tasked with executing Iran’s economic plans in Syria was a bearded
construction manager from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps named
Abbas Akbari. He was promoted with fanfare in March 2022 to lead a unit
called the Headquarters for Developing Economic Relations of Iran and
Syria. Its task was to boost trade and recoup Iran’s investment. His
team produced the study that held up the Marshall Plan as a model.
Akbari
enlisted comrades in the Revolutionary Guards, an elite branch of
Iran’s military, to help with logistics on civilian projects.
Reuters
found letters signed by Akbari in Iran’s looted embassy. The documents
include details of projects he supported and the money spent. Near the
scattered papers was a vault and a pack of C4 explosives discovered by
fighters who were guarding the building. Akbari did not respond to a
Reuters request for comment.
Iran’s
foray into Syria began long before Akbari’s arrival. Mapna Group, an
Iranian infrastructure conglomerate that hired the Syrian engineer who
worked on the Latakia project, won its first major contract in 2008 to
expand a power plant near Damascus. That was soon followed by a second
contract to build another plant near the city of Homs.
The
deals were part of a growing Iranian investment in Syria in the years
ahead of the 2011 uprising against Assad, as US sanctions shut off both
countries to the West. They were the fruit of a relationship dating back
to the Iranian revolution of 1979, which led to the overthrow of the
Shah and the establishment of the Islamic Republic.
Assad’s
father, President Hafez al-Assad, was the first Arab leader to
recognize the republic and helped arm Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s
fledgling Shi’ite Muslim theocracy in its 1980s war with Iraq. They
fought Israel during the Lebanese civil war – Iran via its Hezbollah
proxy – and later sent fighters and weapons to resist the American
occupation of Iraq after 2003.
Iran’s
political investments in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon paid off for years.
Like Iran, Iraq and Lebanon have significant populations of Shi’ite
Muslims, and Shi’ite paramilitaries nurtured by the Revolutionary Guards
dominated successive governments in Baghdad and Beirut. Syria became
the key transit route for weapons and personnel across the “Axis of
Resistance,” the name Iran gives to the armed groups and states it
supports against Israel and the West.
Syria
also held religious importance for Iran, which sent hundreds of
thousands of pilgrims each year to visit the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine, the
mausoleum of the Prophet Mohammed’s granddaughter, situated just south
of Damascus.
Economic ties took off in the mid-2000s, around the time Mapna got its first contracts.
But
then came the Syrian uprising against Assad in 2011, part of the wave
of Arab Spring uprisings. The rebellion threatened a range of Iranian
military, political, religious and, increasingly, economic interests.
Hundreds
of thousands of Syrians rose up against the Assad government, which he
ruled through an elite of the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi’ite
Islam.
His
crackdown turned the rebellion into an armed insurgency dominated by
Sunni Islamist groups. The civil war caused ethno-religious rifts,
bringing chaos to a country home to Sunnis, Muslims, Christians,
Alawites, Kurds and others, with minorities increasingly fearful of a
sectarian rebellion.
Shi’ite
Iran – along with Assad’s other main backer, Russia – came to Assad’s
aid, sending arms and manpower. Iran also sent engineers and
entrepreneurs.
‘Never left its brothers alone’
In
late December 2011, the reality of operating in wartime Syria hit
Mapna. Syrian rebels kidnapped seven Iranians working on the Jandar
power plant near Homs, Iranian state news reported. Two were killed,
according to a 2018 letter from the company to Syria’s electricity
minister seen by Reuters.
But
the strife deepened Mapna’s investment, bringing it new contracts to
repair Syria’s battle-damaged power grid, which by 2015 was producing
less than half of pre-war output. The most ambitious deal was to build
the Latakia plant.
The
projects were troubled and costly from the outset, according to letters
from the company seen by Reuters, and the Syrian engineer who worked at
Latakia.
“Latakia was supposed to take 20 months, starting around 2018,” he said. “Now it’s frozen.”
Mapna announced in November 2024, a month before Assad’s ouster, that it was about halfway through construction.
The
engineer said Syria insisted on using a subcontractor with links to the
Assad family that hired largely unqualified builders and engineers. He
said Mapna’s own staff included capable workers, and some who appeared
to have got their jobs through Iranian connections.
“There were always financial issues: delayed payments between the governments, plus currency fluctuations,” he said.
The
engineer’s account of payment issues and Syrian bureaucracy was
corroborated by letters in the embassy, which also show how Mapna's own
capital was at risk.
A
2017 letter from the company to the Iranian ambassador said that Syria
was changing the terms of finalized deals, leaving Mapna to finance the
Latakia power plant entirely, as well as another project initially
agreed with 60% Mapna financing. A year later, the company president
complained in a letter to Syria’s electricity minister that the
government had ignored an offer to ship parts for an Aleppo plant and
dragged its feet on approving other contracts with Mapna, which had
incurred tens of millions of euros in costs.
“Mapna
Group has never left its brothers alone in the Ministry of Electricity
of Syria … during seven years of civil wars while all foreign companies
left,” is how Mapna President Abbas Aliabadi, now Iran’s energy
minister, ended his frustrated 2018 letter. The Energy Ministry,
Aliabadi and Mapna employees and managers contacted by Reuters did not
respond to requests for comment.
The company has not publicly announced how much it spent in Syria or whether payments were settled.
The
company sometimes received logistical help from Akbari, the
Revolutionary Guards construction manager, internal letters show. This
included asking IRGC units to allocate fuel for Mapna.
Mapna
had partially repaired the Aleppo thermal plant by the summer of 2022.
Assad triumphantly toured the plant in a photo op. Other projects were
still in the works. The Jandar plant, damaged during fighting, operates
at reduced capacity.
The
Syrian engineer left the Latakia project in 2021 because he refused to
work for the Assad-linked Syrian subcontractor because of the
corruption, and viewed the project as doomed. “I’ve struggled to find
permanent work since then,” he said. A member of the minority Alawite
sect, he sheltered at home while the country plunged into new sectarian
violence last month.
Sanctions and debt
Mapna’s security and financial troubles were replicated across a host of other Iranian companies in Syria.
Copper
World, a private Tehran-based electrical wiring firm, won a tender to
supply a Syrian cable company just before the war. When fighting began,
the investment looked shaky.
Rebels
stole a cargo worth millions of dollars in Syria in 2012, a person with
knowledge of the contracts told Reuters. Copper World pushed ahead in
Syria because sanctions closed off other markets, the source said.
Copper World claimed damages through Syrian courts and recovered some of
the lost exports. The rest, due from the Syrian national insurance
company, was never paid.
The
source said the Syrian cable company demanded $50,000 as a condition
for awarding Copper World a new contract – while doing the same deal
with a rival Egyptian company. The two companies compared notes and
discovered what was happening. Reuters could not determine how the deal
was finalized.
On
another occasion, a Syrian money-transfer company tasked with
transmitting funds to Copper World used old rates for payments as the
Syrian pound plummeted, leaving Copper World short.
“Bank transfers and currency fluctuations killed that business,” the source said.
A
Copper World letter at the Iranian embassy sought Akbari’s help with
its financial difficulties in Syria. The letter asked him to lobby the
Syrian Central Bank and money-transfer company to pay $2.4 million due
to Copper World.
A
separate table of projects, outstanding payments and extra costs,
annotated by Iranian officials, listed dozens of delays and payment
issues for other firms.
Yet throughout the ordeals of Mapna, Copper World and others, Iran doubled down on its Syrian investment.
Iran
signed a 2011 free trade deal with Syria, days before the Mapna
kidnappings, focusing on industry, mining and agriculture. The
government in Tehran issued Damascus a credit line worth $3.6 billion in
2013, and a second worth $1 billion in 2015, the first of a series of
major loans to help the Syrian state pay for imports, including oil.
The
United Nations most recently estimated Iran to be spending $6 billion a
year in Syria by 2015. Iran has called estimates of its spending in
Syria exaggerated, but not provided an official figure.
Iran
and Syria signed a series of agreements between 2015 and 2020 aimed at
Tehran recovering its debts. They included giving Iran land for farming,
a license to become a mobile phone operator, housing projects,
phosphate mining rights and oil exploration contracts.
Reuters
reporting found that several of those projects ran into similar
difficulties related to sanctions, manpower and security with little
income to show for their troubles. None of the companies involved
responded to requests for comment.
Iran
was meanwhile losing deals to other countries. Akbari’s Headquarters
for Economic Development reported in its study that Syria’s other big
ally, Russia, had focused on “profitable sectors” in the country such as
oil and gas. And seven months after agreeing that Iran could manage the
port of Latakia, Syria renewed the lease of a French company instead.
‘Identify the Syrian mafias’
Akbari
and his bosses in Tehran were acutely aware of how little their Syria
investment had yielded by the time the Iranian government announced his
new post leading the development agency in 2022.
The
study that references the Marshall Plan was produced on Akbari’s watch.
It lists a litany of troubles Iran endured in Syria – banking and
transport problems, “lack of security” and red tape.
It
also mentions USAID, the American aid agency that Trump has been
defunding . Like the Marshall Plan, the Iranians viewed USAID as a
highly effective vehicle for establishing American economic and soft
power – a “nation building” model they wanted to adopt in Syria. It
would help Iran “achieve goals such as increasing regional security,” as
well as “neutralize” US sanctions, the study said.
Without
mentioning other countries in detail, it said Syria was on the “front
line” of Iran’s battle with Israel, and a key link with Hezbollah in
Lebanon. Iran’s regional soft power projects include charity and
construction work in Iraq and funding for seminaries in Lebanon. This
spending is an increasing source of criticism at home by Iranians
reeling from its ailing economy.
By the time Akbari started his job, Assad had largely beaten back the uprising with Iranian and Russian help.
Iran
had reaped some strategic rewards, deepening its influence in the
Syrian military, developing local militias alongside those it imported
into Syria, and deploying paramilitaries in key centers like Damascus,
Sayyeda Zeinab and Aleppo.
But
Iranian businesses were losing interest. After fighting subsided, just
11 Iran-linked companies registered annually in Syria in 2022 and 2023,
barely more than during the worst years of the civil war, according to
an analysis by the Syrian political economist Karam Shaar shared with
Reuters.
“Syrian
banks’ failure to pay Iranian companies is discouraging investment,” a
letter from Akbari’s agency to Iran’s Syria ambassador read, listing a
litany of complaints.
The
agency blamed “complicated Syrian bureaucracy.” A Powerpoint
presentation that lay next to the agency’s study at Iran’s embassy
suggested a workaround: “becoming familiar with the key stakeholders and
economic and business mafias” of Syria.
The
agency assessed that sanctions would still stop Syria from doing
business with the West, making Iran one of its few options. Others were
Arab states and Turkey, which had rekindled relations with Assad after
years backing his opposition.
Akbari
pressed on. In a photo accompanying a printout of internal meeting
minutes, he sits smiling opposite Syria’s industry minister at an Aleppo
hotel. “Mr. Akbari asked the Syrian side to identify incomplete
factories” for Iranian companies to build, the minutes read.
Iran
signed new agreements with Syria in 2023 and 2024 that included
establishing a joint bank, zero tariff trade, and a second attempt at
setting up transactions using local currencies – a move that would avoid
sanctions by cutting use of US dollars.
But time would soon run out on Akbari and his mission.
Root and branch reversal
The
scattered papers, belongings and military hardware left around the
Iranian embassy in Damascus, a hotel for Iranian engineers and workers
adjoining the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine, and a nearby cultural center, are a
mix of contracts, plans, proselytizing and military-industrial
logistics.
Next
to tomes on Islamic jurisprudence and a “knowing Shi’ism” book at the
cultural center are applications by Iranian women for membership of
Iran’s Basij paramilitary organization. Among abandoned plans for shrine
decorations, an Iranian worker at the nearby hotel was teaching himself
Arabic in his personal notebook.
Despite
the many problems, Iran was still pouring money into the upkeep of the
Sayyeda Zeinab shrine. It was providing stipends for Iranian families
who had moved to the area – according to Iranian documents seen at
Sayyeda Zeinab – and maintaining militias nearby.
The
fall of Assad last year brought down the curtain on Akbari’s Syria
plan. By then, Israel had all but crushed Iran’s Axis of Resistance,
killing the leadership of Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and key
IRGC commanders in Syria.
An
Israeli strike in April 2024 flattened the consulate building attached
to the Damascus embassy, leaving one less site for Syrians to pillage
when Iranian embassy staff fled.
Abu
Ghassan, a fighter for the new Syrian government, guarded the embassy
in the days after Assad fell. He said he and his comrades found a pack
of explosives hidden in a corridor and some empty ammunition boxes.
“Locals keep coming in looking for money or gold,” he said. “There’s nothing of value left.”
Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif called on Israel to act: "Israel must not stand idly by while this is happening in Syria."
Druze community military ceremony in Usfiya(photo credit: YOAV ETIEL)
"The eyes and hearts of the Israeli Druze community
are turned toward the suffering in Druze villages around Damascus,” the
spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Mowafaq
Tarif, said at the Druze military ceremony in Usfiya on Wednesday.
Sheikh
Mowafaq Tarif called on Israel to act, stating, “I urge the State of
Israel, the international community, and the Jewish people to act
immediately to prevent a massacre. Israel must not stand idly by while
this is happening in Syria. The responsibility to act lies with the
nation’s leaders: you must act. The time for action is now.”
The
military cemetery in Usfiya is the first of its kind established in a
Druze town and currently commemorates 435 fallen Druze soldiers from the
community, including 13 who died in the Swords of Iron War. Another 20
Circassians were also memorialized there.
For
many years, fallen Druze soldiers and security personnel have also been
buried in other Druze towns with military cemeteries. The ceremony in
Usfiya differs slightly from those held in Jewish military cemeteries:
Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif reads verses from Surah Al-Fatiha, the opening
chapter of the Quran, which is sacred to the Druze as well.
Druze community military ceremony in Usfiya (credit: YOAV ETIEL)
“I
want the country’s leaders and representatives to look into the eyes of
the bereaved families gathered here around the graves on this mountain,
which symbolizes the Druze-Jewish bond, and ask themselves, have you
done enough for the sons and grandsons of the hundreds of fallen from
the Druze community?” Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif declared in his speech.
Official representatives at the ceremony
Two
former prime ministers, Ehud Olmert and Naftali Bennett, attended the
ceremony, as well as Education Minister Yoav Kisch, who represented the
government. Former Minister Ayoub Kara was also present. Representing
the Israel Police was Deputy Border Police Commissioner Brig. Gen. Ami
Nidam, and the IDF was represented by Maj.-Gen. Ghassan Alian, head of
the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
Prior
to the ceremony, Kisch held a meeting with Sheikh Tarif, former
minister Kara, and other Druze dignitaries to assure them that the IDF
would not remain passive in the face of attacks on the Druze community
in Syria.
Later on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz announced in a joint statement that the IDF struck a gathering of an extremist group in Syria
that was reportedly preparing to continue attacks against the Druze
population in the town of As-Suweida in Syria’s Damascus Governorate.
"Israel
will not allow harm to come to the Druze community in Syria, out of a
deep commitment to our Druze brothers in Israel, who are tied by family
and historical bonds to their Druze brothers in Syria," the statement
read.
Kisch
also addressed the situation of the Druze in Syria in his opening
remarks at the ceremony, saying, “The State of Israel does not forget
its moral and ethical duty to stand by the Druze there, our blood
brothers, and will do everything in its power to ensure their safety and
well-being.”
Criticism of the state
In
addition to concern for hostages, the IDF, and security forces,
speakers also raised criticism over issues such as the Nation-State Law
and the Kaminitz Law.
“We
must repeal the Kaminitz Law,” said Rafiq Sharuf, who stood beside his
uncle’s grave at the cemetery. “It cannot be that a Druze soldier gets a
draft order and also receives an order to demolish his home at the same
time.”
Israeli Druze demonstrating against Islamist violence in Syria, April 30, 2025. (credit: ISRAEL POLICE)
This came just as dozens of members of Israel's Druze community protested
at the Kafr Yasif junction in the Western Galilee, near Acre, in
response to the sectarian clashes that took place over the past 24 hours
in the city of Jaramana, near Damascus, Syria. During the protest,
tires were set on fire and major traffic routes, including access to
military cemeteries in the area, were blocked, causing heavy traffic
congestion.
More
than a dozen people were killed in the predominantly Druze town near
the Syrian capital on Tuesday in clashes sparked by a purported
recording of a Druze man cursing the Prophet Mohammad, which angered
Sunni gunmen, rescuers and security sources said.
Half
of those killed were members of the Druze community, and the rest were
Syrian security personnel who were trying to break up the violence.
"On our 77th Day of Independence, the wonder of Israel's revival continues to thrill us," said the premier.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, April 9, 2025. Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90.
Remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in celebration of the 77th Independence Day of the State of Israel:
“My brothers and sisters, the citizens of Israel,
On our 77th Independence Day, the wonder
of Israel’s revival continues to thrill us. That wonder exists by virtue
of our dear ones—our sons and daughters—who have fallen for our sake,
and today we have embraced their families. It exists by virtue of our
wounded heroes, who implore the dedicated medical teams to allow them to
return to the battlefield.
On Independence Day one year ago, there
were still some who had doubts about the power of the State of Israel.
But this year, nobody has such doubts, because we have achieved a
dramatic turnabout: We have changed the face of the Middle East.
Our marvelous fighters, men and women, are
dealing powerful blows to our mortal enemies on the seven fronts of the
War of Redemption.
We are determined to complete the total victory—for the sake of our children and our future.
Our hostage brothers and sisters stand
before our eyes at all times. We have already returned nearly 200 of
them from Hamas captivity. We are obligated to return all of them, until
the very last one.
Through generations, the nation of Israel
has always risen above crisis situations and has grown anew. Unlike the
generations that predated our independence, today we have a state, we
have an army, we have security services.
We have brave fighters who command respect
the world over. When I get to meet them in the field—from Rafah to the
top of Mount Hermon—I am filled with immense pride.
This is the enduring spirit—the real spirit of our nation. This is a generation of lions—the generation of victory!
While our soldiers fight on the front,
you, dear citizens of Israel, you embrace them with tremendous love.
Even when there are disagreements among us, at the moment of truth we
all stand together: We stand together in mutual solidarity, in giving,
in unparalleled inner strength.
In our national anthem, we sing about the
fulfillment of the hope to be a free nation in our own land, the Land of
Zion and Jerusalem. Therefore, we will continue to do battle and ensure
our freedom. We will continue to fight and protect our homeland. We
will continue building the land—because we only have one home.
A home for the Jews and for our brothers
the Druze, the Christians, the Muslims, the Bedouin, the Circassians—all
of the citizens of Israel.
This, our 77th Independence Day, is dedicated to oz [‘strength’], two Hebrew letters that comprise ’77’.
And as it is said in the Bible [Job 12:16]: ‘With him is strength and wisdom.’
With strength, with wisdom, and with great spirit, God willing, we will complete our victory.
A joyous Independence Day to you all, citizens of the State of Israel.”
To ensure Hamas never rules again, Israel aims to separate the terror regime from Gaza's population, Israeli observers tell JNS.
Palestinian trucks parked near the Kerem Shalom Crossing in the southern
Gaza Strip after Israel stopped aid deliveries on March 2, 2025. Photo
by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.
Indicators of Israel’s longer-term
strategy for the Gaza Strip, aimed at dismantling Hamas’s terror regime
and military capabilities and making sure it never again rules the
Strip, have been emerging in recent days.
An initial pillar of the approach involves fundamentally altering the flow of humanitarian assistance to bypass Hamas.
Hamas has been systematically stealing the
aid and using it to maintain its political regime, exploiting resources
meant for civilians, while feeding and fueling its terror operatives.
Diverting the aid
away from Hamas is only the first step, according to Brig. Gen. (res.)
Hanan Gefen, former commander of signals intelligence Unit 8200 in the
Israel Defense Forces’ Intelligence Directorate.
Gefen told JNS that a new approach had
been under consideration in Israel for months. He explained that while
Hamas anticipates a ceasefire that would allow it to regroup, Israel
envisions a drastically different future for Gaza.
“Israel sees a completely different
picture. Israel does not see Hamas in power. Hamas still doesn’t
understand what this means from Israel’s perspective. It means something
very similar to the situation in southern Lebanon, where Hamas will not
be able to carry out any action without an Israeli response,” said
Gefen.
To help achieve this, Israel is focusing
on the separation of Hamas from the Gazan populace, beginning with aid,
and moving on to the entire economic situation, which Hamas will not be
allowed to be a part of, said Gefen.
“The Israeli government, together with
regional partners headed by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab
Emirates, as well as the United States, want to cause all of these
issues—the construction, and humanitarian aid, and medical aid, and then
continuous fuel and water assistance, to be carried out using different
mechanisms—away from Hamas. And importantly, to do this for years. This
is not a three to four-month operation,” he added.
This vision also includes the possibility
of facilitating the departure of Gazans who wish to leave, said Gefen,
though he expressed doubt that it would happen at the scale envisioned
by US President Donald Trump.
“One of the things Israel is doing, and
will increasingly do, is to open its borders via Ramon Airport. Another
way is to enable Gazans to leave. Those who want to leave can leave.
This is part of the pressure [on Hamas],” he stated.
A key component of this revised approach
involves utilizing international private companies to distribute aid.
Gefen described a process where Israel would securely deliver aid to a
certain point, from which a civilian company, equipped for self-defense,
would manage distribution to local Gazans.
Prof. Uzi Rabi, senior researcher and the
head of the program for Regional Cooperation at the Moshe Dayan Center
for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, told JNS
that the idea of involving private companies “is a solution that removes
direct responsibility for distribution from the IDF—something that
reduces direct friction with the Palestinian population, and indicates
that Israel allows the flow of aid while avoiding direct involvement.”
However, this specific tactic was a point
of disagreement between the IDF General Staff and the Security Cabinet.
According to a report by Mako News on April 23, 2025, IDF
Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir expressed concerns in cabinet
discussions about the IDF directly handling aid distribution, a position
also held by his predecessor, Lt. Gen. (res.) Herzi Halevi.
The Mako report indicated that
defense officials, including the Defense Minister, Israel Katz,
preferred alternatives like international companies for aid
distribution. Zamir is reportedly concerned about avoiding making
soldiers targets “as they carry sacks of rice for the residents of
Gaza.”
Regarding the chief of staff’s stance,
Rabi said his “public opposition stems from the concern that IDF
soldiers will become a ‘stationary target’ during aid distribution. This
is a tactical disagreement, not one of principle.”
Rabi added, “Hopefully this is a [passing] episode because if not, it could indicate a rift. The future will tell.”
Beyond the aid, Israel’s fundamental
security doctrine is undergoing a dramatic shift, said Gefen. He
highlighted a move away under Zamir from the approach championed by his
predecessor, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, of defensive combat.
“The Israeli policy along all the borders is changing completely,” Gefen said on April 30.
“The Minister of Defense said yesterday
that the army will be a buffer between the threats and the Israeli
population so that a similar situation [to Oct. 7, 2023] does not
happen, and therefore we will see an offensive campaign, not a defensive
one,” Gefen stated.
“It’s not about standing with
fortifications and waiting to be attacked. Rather, every threat—in the
Strip, in Judea, in Judea and Samaria, in Lebanon and in Syria is
attacked all the time.”
Gefen argued that Gaza’s longer-term
possibilities include massive reconstruction efforts after Hamas is
removed from power, which could be led by regional powers such as Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, with American involvement.
Yaakov Lappin is an Israel-based military affairs correspondent and analyst. He is
the in-house analyst at the Miryam Institute; a research associate at
the Alma Research and Education Center; and a research associate at the
Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University. He is a
frequent guest commentator on international television news networks,
including Sky News and i24 News. Lappin is the author of Virtual Caliphate: Exposing the Islamist State on the Internet. Follow him at: www.patreon.com/yaakovlappin.
Trump’s counterrevolution presses on—quietly, methodically, and morally—while a flailing opposition offers only chaos, debt, and deflection in response.
Despite the media hysteria, Trump’s counterrevolution remains on course.
Its ultimate fate will probably rest with the state of the economy by
the November 2026 midterm elections. But its success also hinges on
accomplishing what is right and long overdue—and then making such
reforms quietly, compassionately, and methodically.
No country can long endure without sovereignty and security—or with
10 to 12 million illegal immigrants crossing the border and half a
million criminal foreign nationals roaming freely.
The prior administration found that it was easy to destroy the border
and welcome the influx. But it is far harder for its successor to
restore security, find those who broke the law, and insist on legal-only
immigration. Trump is on the right side of all these issues and making
substantial progress.
Everyone knew that a $2 trillion budget deficit, a $37 trillion
national debt, and a $1.2 trillion trade deficit in goods were
ultimately unsustainable.
Yet all prior politicians of the 21st century winced at the mere
thought of reducing debts and deficits, given that it proved much easier
just to print and spread around federal money. As long as the Trump
administration dutifully cuts the budget, sends its regrets to displaced
federal employees, seeks to expand private sector reemployment, and
quietly presses ahead, it retains the moral high ground.
The elite universities have long hidden things from the American people that otherwise would have lost them all public support.
They deliberately sought to neuter Supreme Court rulings banning
race-based preferences by stealthily continuing their often-segregated
policies on campuses, from admissions and hiring to dorms and
graduations.
They have taken billions of dollars from autocracies, such as
communist China and Qatar. And they have partnered abroad with their
foreign illiberal institutions and then disguised their quid pro quo
subservience.
These supposedly prestigious universities have previously made no
real effort either to stop or even hide their own campus epidemics of
anti-Semitism.
They have spiked their tuition and costs higher than the annual rate
of inflation, assured that the tottering $1.7 trillion guaranteed
student loan portfolio would always send them guaranteed cash flows.
They have gouged taxpayers by charging exorbitant surcharges on
federal grants from 40 to 60 percent. And they make no effort to offer
students intellectual, ideological, or political diversity.
So, even our most prestigious universities seem to have no real moral
compass. Accordingly, as long as Trump retains the high ground, the
public, too, will demand either reform in higher education or a
cessation of federal support to it.
The economy remains strong, but its ultimate health depends on
reaching a trade deal with a handful of nations that account for our
$1.2 trillion trade deficit in goods: China, the EU, Canada, Mexico, the
Southeast Asian trade bloc, and Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.
These nations all know that their tariffs are not symmetrical. But
our trade partners will not willingly change. They apparently, but
wrongly, believe that the U.S. either welcomes its trade deficits,
naively thinks they’re irrelevant, or is too wedded to libertarian trade
ideology to demand accountability.
So, too, on trade, the Trump administration is in the right.
Its only challenge is to avoid envisioning tariffs as a new, get-rich
source of massive revenue. Data does not support the idea of such large
tariff incomes.
The American people signed on for symmetry, fairness, and reciprocity
in trade, not tariffing those who run deficits with us or seeing high
tariffs as a cash cow to fund our out-of-control government.
Enraged Democrats still offer no substantial alternatives to the Trump agenda.
There are no shadow-government Democratic leaders with new policy
initiatives. They flee from the Biden record on the border, the prior
massive deficits and inflation, the disaster in Afghanistan, two
theater-wide wars that broke out on Biden’s watch, and the shameless
conspiracy to hide the prior president’s increasing dementia.
Instead, the Left has descended into thinly veiled threats of
organized disruption in the streets. It embraces potty-mouth public
profanity, profane and unhinged videos, nihilistic filibusters,
congressional outbursts, and increasingly dangerous threats to the
persons of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
All that frenzy is not a sign that the Trump counterrevolution is
failing. It is good evidence that it is advancing forward, and its
ethically bankrupt opposition has no idea how, or whether even, to stop
it.
Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness and the
Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover
Institution. He is an American military historian, columnist, a former
classics professor, and scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a
visiting professor at Hillsdale College since 2004, and is the 2023
Giles O'Malley Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Public
Policy, Pepperdine University. Hanson was awarded the National
Humanities Medal in 2007 by President George W. Bush, and the Bradley
Prize in 2008. Hanson is also a farmer (growing almonds on a family farm
in Selma, California) and a critic of social trends related to farming
and agrarianism.
He is the author of the just released New York Times best seller, The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation, published by Basic Books on May 7, 2024, as well as the recent The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won, The Case for Trump, and The Dying Citizen.
"We’re doing everything we can to thwart the fire and rehabilitate what was destroyed,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Israeli police arrested 18 arson
suspects following the spread of wildfires near Jerusalem, Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday.
The wildfires, which started on Wednesday, destroyed 5,000 acres of
land near Jerusalem, causing several communities to be evacuated and the
main highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv closed. Some areas were
still ablaze on Thursday, The Times of Israel reported.
The fire “is not a simple thing, there is harm to nature and also
harm to people, and we’re holding 18 people at the moment who are
suspected of arson, one of whom was caught in the act,” Netanyahu said
at the annual Bible Contest in Jerusalem on Thursday.
He also said he is “sure that we will succeeded [sic] in dealing with
this challenge as well. We’re doing everything we can to thwart the
fire and rehabilitate what was destroyed.”
The Fire and Rescue Services has said thus far that the cause of the
fires, which began on Israel's annual independence day, remains unclear.
It seems that Turkey is not abiding by the most fundamental tenets of the Rule of Law.
On March 19, just days before
the March 23 primaries of Turkey's main opposition party, the
Republican People's Party (CHP), Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu -- the
CHP's leading candidate who was thought by many possibly to win the next
presidential election against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- was
arrested on contested charges of "corruption and terrorism."
A day earlier, on March 18, Imamoglu's university degree was
revoked, "citing 'nullity' and 'clear error' as grounds for
cancellation... The decision affects Imamoglu and 27 other individuals
whose academic credentials have now been invalidated...."
"All of the detainees, absolutely all of them, were tortured
terribly while being detained. They were tortured terribly in the
detention vehicle, while being taken to Gayrettepe [police station].
There are young people among them who are in really bad shape. What is
terrible is that there is nothing [as evidence against them] in their
investigation files, not even a photo against them. ..... [T]hese are
revenge trials. The prosecutors who took testimonies of detainees
yesterday, today do not talk with the lawyers, in any way... This is not
a [proper] judiciary." — Sezgin Tanrıkulu, MP from the CHP opposition
party, March 27, 2025.
Meanwhile, Erdogan's regime has arrested many dissident
journalists and continues to apply financial and judicial pressure on
media outlets that refuse to operate as mouthpieces for the regime.
"There was no chance for a defense.... The decision appears
prepared beforehand." — Elif Taşdöğen, attorney, medyanews.net, January
22, 2025.
Meanwhile, the government continues to pardon and release imprisoned Turkish Hizbullah terrorists.
The Erdogan regime's support for Islamic terror groups such as Hamas and ISIS (Islamic State) is also well-documented.....
Meanwhile, do Europeans really want the possibility of up to 87 million more Turkish citizens flooding Europe?
On March 19, the regime of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan arrested Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdogan's main rival
in the next presidential election, on contested charges of "corruption
and terrorism." Meanwhile, Erdogan's regime has arrested many dissident
journalists and continues to apply financial and judicial pressure on
media outlets that refuse to operate as mouthpieces for the regime.
Pictured: Erdogan addresses a meeting of his party in Ankara, on
February 23, 2025. (Photo by Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images)
On March 19,
just days before the March 23 primaries of Turkey's main opposition
party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem
Imamoglu -- the CHP's leading candidate who was thought by many possibly
to win the next presidential election against President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan -- was arrested on contested charges of "corruption and
terrorism."
A day earlier, on March 18, Imamoglu's university degree was revoked,
"citing 'nullity' and 'clear error' as grounds for cancellation... The
decision affects Imamoglu and 27 other individuals whose academic
credentials have now been invalidated...." according to Turkiye Today.
Imamoglu's detention sparked one of the biggest street demonstrations
against Erdogan since he was first elected as national leader in 2002.
On March 29, hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Istanbul for a mass rally called by the CHP to oppose the jailing of Imamoglu.
On March 23, Beylikdüzü Mayor Mehmet Murat Çalık and Şişli Mayor
Resul Emrah Şahan were also jailed. The same day, both Imamoglu and
Çalık were suspended from office.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced
on March 27 that 1,879 people had been detained, 260 arrested, and
judicial control decisions were issued for 468 of those detained and
arrested, while 489 were released. The legal procedures for 662 people
are currently under review.
Sezgin Tanrıkulu, a CHP Member of Parliament reported on March 27:
"We spoke with lawyers... All of the detainees,
absolutely all of them, were tortured terribly while being detained.
They were tortured terribly in the detention vehicle, while being taken
to Gayrettepe [police station]. There are young people among them who
are in really bad shape. What is terrible is that there is nothing [as
evidence against them] in their investigation files, not even a photo
against them.... these are revenge trials. The prosecutors who took
testimonies of detainees yesterday, today do not talk with the lawyers,
in any way."
Tanrıkulu told Sözcü TV:
"We were at Çağlayan Courthouse for the last two days,
with lawyers and our MP friends. We witnessed it in person, not just
heard from lawyers. We spoke to those who were brought from police
custody and taken to the judgeship, we listened to their statements....
They [the police] kicked young girls between the legs and made them
bleed. I have never heard anything like this before.... The prosecutor
decided to arrest them without taking their testimonies."
The lawyers, Tanrıkulu added, wanted to explain the situation of the
detainees with a petition to the prosecutors, but an investigating
prosecutor said he would not take petitions from lawyers and a judge
told the lawyers in the courtroom to "Get out, I have arrested them
all."
"This is not a [proper] judiciary," Tanrıkulu said.
Turkish authorities have, in the meantime, continued to crack down on
media coverage of the protest movement. On March 29, Swedish journalist
Joakim Medin was arrested
on charges of "membership of an armed terrorist organisation" and
"insulting the president." Andreas Gustavsson, editor-in-chief of Dagens
ETC newspaper, disclosed that Medin, who was in Turkey to cover the
ongoing protests against the arrest of Imamoglu, had not been heard from
for two days.
Thirteen Turkish journalists covering the protests were also arrested, although 11 were freed on March 27, including AFP photographer Yasin Akgul.
Turkish authorities also deported
BBC correspondent Mark Lowen after holding him for 17 hours on the
grounds that he posed "a threat to public order." Erdogan's regime has
additionally incarcerated many opposition mayors, members of parliament,
politicians, and party members.
In past decade alone, Erdogan's regime has arrested
hundreds of Kurdish mayors, politicians and political activists over
"terrorism" charges -- a standard accusation against anyone critical of
the Turkish government or members
of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). Several HDP members
of parliament, including the party's co-heads Selahattin Demirtaş and
Figen Yüksekdağ, were jailed after finding their immunity lifted.
Democratically elected Kurdish mayors, deputy mayors, municipal
council- and staff-members of the HDP and its sister party, DBP
(Democratic Regions Party), have also been suspended, dismissed or
arrested for alleged terrorism-related offenses, later replaced by
government-appointed trustees. Turkey's Constitutional Court is
currently in the process of deciding whether to close the HDP party.[1]
The extremely broad, vague terrorism-related articles in the Turkish Anti-Terror Law and the Turkish Penal Code have long been criticized by international human rights organizations, The World Organization Against Torture stated in a briefing on June 13, 2022:
"Turkey has been employing counter-terrorism and national
security legislation to restrict rights and freedoms and silence the
voices of human rights defenders... In the last three months of 2021
alone, no less than 1,220 human rights defenders suffered judicial
harassment or reprisals..."
In 2024, Erdogan's regime continued arbitrarily to arrest opposition mayors. Turkey's Foundation of Human Rights (TIHV) reported:
"In 2024, many members and executives of political
parties, mayors, and municipal council members were detained and
arrested, and pressure was exerted on them through lawsuits filed
against them. Trustees were appointed to the municipalities. Summaries
of proceedings against members of parliament were sent to the Turkish
parliament and there were attacks on members of political parties and
their buildings."
According to the findings of the TIHV, in just the first 11 months of 2024:
"8 people elected to municipalities, including 3 mayors
or co-mayors and 5 municipal council members, were detained by police,
and 3 people were arrested.
"43 journalists were detained. 11 journalists were jailed. 1
journalist was prevented from entering the country. At least 3
journalists were attacked, because of which at least 1 journalist was
injured. 14 journalists were threatened. Investigations were launched
against 42 journalists. 253 cases opened against 534 press workers
continued to be heard."
On October 30, 2024, the Mayor of Esenyurt Municipality in Istanbul, Ahmet Özer, a CHP member, was detained
"within the scope of the investigations carried out to identify the
members and activities of the PKK/KCK [Kurdistan Workers' Party]
terrorist organization", was removed from office, and a trustee was
appointed in his place.
On November 4, 2024, Mardin Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ahmet
Türk, Batman Mayor Gülistan Sönük and Mayor Mehmet Karayılan of Halfeti
(in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey) were dismissed from office over "terrorism" charges. Türk's dismissal was based on his 10-year prison sentence in the Kobani case and the ongoing cases and investigations against him.[2]
Meanwhile, Erdogan's regime has arrested many dissident journalists
and continues to apply financial and judicial pressure on media outlets
that refuse to operate as mouthpieces for the regime.
On January 29, Halk TV's editor-in-chief Suat Toktaş, program coordinator Kürşad Oğuz, and journalist Barış Pehlivan were detained for broadcasting a recorded phone conversation with an expert witness. While Pehlivan and Oğuz were released under judicial control measures, Toktaş was arrested.
Pehlivan and Oğuz have been banned from leaving the country. Halk TV is
one of Turkey's largest private TV channels that is critical of
Erdogan's government.
According to the International Press Institute (IPI),
in January 2025 alone, at least nine journalists were arrested, six
sentenced to prison, five detained, 23 faced investigations and one
encountered police obstruction.
On February 5, a coalition of international press freedom organizations, led by the IPI, called on Turkish authorities to halt what they describe as an escalating crackdown on independent journalism.
"The frequent use of arbitrary arrests, detentions,
judicial control measures, and convictions poses an existential threat
to independent media, democratic discourse, and fundamental human rights
in the country.
"Turkey must ensure that its practices align with international
standards for the protection of freedom of expression and press
freedom."
Among the most alarming cases cited by IPI and its partners is the
January 17 detention of six Kurdish journalists — Reyhan Hacıoğlu, Necla
Demir, Rahime Karvar, Vedat Örüç, Velat Ekin and Ahmet Güneş, who,
after a series of coordinated police raids in Istanbul, Diyarbakır, Van
and Mersin, were held
without access to legal representation. Five journalists were jailed;
Güneş was released on February 4. The journalists are accused of "terror
organization membership" over their professional activities.
Their lawyer, Elif Taşdöğen, criticized the judicial process as "a
predetermined ruling that disregarded fundamental rights," adding:
"There was no chance for a defense. The court's approach,
dismissing the need for proper questioning and forwarding the case
directly to a ruling, exposes the state of our legal system. The
decision appears prepared beforehand."
IPI and its partners presented in their statement a timeline
documenting an acceleration of violations of press freedoms over just
the last month:
On January 2, authorities launched an investigation
against journalist Aslıhan Gençay for her reporting on corruption in
Hatay. They blocked access to her article and charged her with multiple
offenses, including violations of the "disinformation law" -- an
apparent attempt to suppress investigative journalism.
On January 7, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation
against 21 journalists who covered the Kobani trial's final hearing.
The journalists face potential fines for alleged unauthorized
photography -- a move that effectively criminalizes routine court
reporting.
On January 21, Rudaw TV correspondent Rawin Sterk Yıldız faced police interference
while documenting a detention in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district. Despite
clearly identifying himself as a journalist, he was prevented from
documenting the public incident.
On January 23, a troubling verdict resulted in five journalists –
Yakup Çetin, Ahmet Memiş, Cemal Azmi Kalyoncu, Ünal Tanık, Yetkin
Yıldız, Gökçe Fırat Çulhaoğlu – receiving harsh sentences—ranging from 25 months to over six years in prison -- in a "terrorism"-related case, despite the absence of credible evidence.
On January 24, the arrest of journalist Eylem Babayiğit once again demonstrated the arbitrary use of "membership of an organization" charges.
On January 28, the launch of an investigation
into T24 columnist Şirin Payzın for alleged "terror propaganda" over
social media posts indicates a concerning expansion of surveillance and
criminalization of online expression.
On January 28, the conviction of journalist Safiye Alagaş, former news editor for the pro-Kurdish JINNEWS, resulted in a six years and three months prison sentence. Alagaş has already spent a year in pretrial detention and is currently free while awaiting appeal.
The IPI statement also highlights how Turkey's broadcast regulator's decisions threaten press freedom:
"Turkey's broadcast regulator RTÜK has demonstrated a
concerning pattern of targeting critical media outlets. Just before the
journalists' detention over broadcasting a recorded phone conversation,
the RTÜK Chair Ebubekir Şahin, signaling the impending crackdown, warned
of potential consequences for media outlets and journalists regarding
the broadcast. signaling the impending crackdown. In his statement, he
criticized Halk TV for recording and broadcasting a phone conversation
with an expert witness without permission and allegedly attempting to
influence ongoing legal proceedings.
"This incident reflects a broader pattern of regulatory pressure on critical media. In 2024, RTÜK imposed
24 broadcast bans resulting in fines totaling 81.5 million Turkish lira
(approximately €2.2 million or $2.3 million), with the majority
targeting media critical of the government....
"In a recent example, following the devastating hotel fire in Bolu that erupted in the early morning hours of January 20, 2025, claiming 78 lives, the RTÜK Chair directed
media outlets to report solely on information from official sources.
Shortly after this directive, the Bolu 2nd Criminal Court of Peace imposed a broadcasting ban on coverage of the disaster at the request of the Bolu Chief Public Prosecutor's Office."
The statement called Turkey's judicial control measures against journalists "a new tool for censorship".
"While there appears to be a decrease in the number of journalists in prison, this masks a troubling shift toward using judicial control measures—such
as travel bans, regular check-ins at police stations, and house
arrest—as alternative means of restricting press freedom. This trend
represents an equally antidemocratic practice aimed at controlling
journalists' freedom of movement and expression. The systematic
implementation of these measures, combined with increasing online
censorship, appears to be replacing traditional detention as a method of
silencing independent journalism....
'[T]he arbitrary imposition of travel bans, house arrests
and other restrictions continues to impede their ability to perform
their professional duties effectively. These measures, originally
intended as exceptional remedies to ensure judicial proceedings, are
increasingly being weaponized to create a chilling effect on press
freedom."
Meanwhile, Turkey also appears to be targeting journalists outside
its borders. Kurdish journalists Nazım Daştan, 32, and Cihan Bilgin, 29,
who had Turkish citizenship, were murdered
in a Turkish drone strike on December 19, 2024 in northern Syria, while
covering clashes between Turkey-backed jihadist forces and US-allied
Kurdish forces.
After the murders of the two journalists, the Istanbul Bar Association, on its official X account, called on Turkey to "adhere to international humanitarian law."
The president of the Istanbul Bar Association, Ibrahim Kaboglu, and
10 board members now face criminal charges carrying prison sentences of
up to 12 years, for their statements regarding those murders: for
allegedly "disseminating the propaganda of a terrorist organization" and
"publicly disseminating misleading information through the press."
Journalists' organizations in Turkey -- including the Dicle Fırat
Journalists Association, the Mezopotamya Women Journalists Association
and the Press Workers Union -- organized a protest in Istanbul to
condemn the murder of the two journalists. Fourteen people, including
seven journalists, are now facing "terrorism"-related charges for participating in the protest.
Turkey has been in the top ten list of the worst jailers of
journalists, prepared by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and
has taken first place five times in recent years (2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, and 2018).
Although dozens of journalists have been freed since 2022, most are still under investigation or awaiting trial, placing a stranglehold on the country's critical media, CPJ's research shows.
"Even if there were zero journalists in prison today, 200 journalists may be arrested tomorrow," said
Barış Altıntaş, co-director of the Media and Law Studies Association.
"The government determines the number of arrested journalists, even when
it is low."
As Özgür Öğret, CPJ's Turkey representative, asks:
"Why is Turkey—a NATO member with close ties to the
West—frequently ranked alongside authoritarian states like Iran and
Egypt in CPJ's prison census?"
On March 27, Turkey's Radio and Television Supreme Council (TRUK) imposed
penalties on TV channels -- such as Sozcu TV, Halk TV, Tele 1 and NOW
TV -- that refused to toe the line for Erdogan's regime in their
broadcasts of the nationwide protests, starting with the detention of
Imamoglu. Sozcu TV, TRUK announced, would be taken off the air for 10
days.
Fines and program-suspension penalties were imposed on Halk TV, Tele 1
and NOW TV on the grounds that they were "inciting the public to hatred
and hostility" during their coverage of the protests, including a
speech delivered by the head of the CHP party.
Meanwhile, the government continues to pardon and release imprisoned Turkish Hizbullah terrorists. On March 29, Erdogan pardoned
the sentences of Şehmus Alpsoy and Hamit Çöklü, who were sentenced to
aggravated life imprisonment in a Hizbullah case, on the grounds that
"they have chronic illnesses". Turkish Hizbullah is also responsible for
the torture and murders of hundreds of civilians in the 1990s.
The Erdogan regime's support for Islamic terror groups such as Hamas and ISIS (Islamic State) is also well-documented. His regime reportedly participated
in the oil business with ISIS, dispatched arms to jihadists, and
allowed ISIS members to pass through Turkey on their way to fight in
Syria and Iraq. In August 2014, an ISIS commander told the Washington Post: "Most of the fighters who joined us at the beginning of the war came via Turkey, as did our equipment and supplies."
Erdogan's regime also allowed Hamas to engage in money laundering, granted Hamas terrorists Turkish passports, let them open bank accounts and run offices in Turkey.
"It seems that Hamas has chosen to manage its secret
investment portfolio in Turkey because of the weak financial system in
Turkey, which enables Hamas to hide its money laundering activity and
tax violations from the regulatory bodies."
The late journalist Burak Bekdil reported in 2014:
"Erdogan has never hidden that he is ideologically a next
of kin to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Hamas's overseas command
center happens to be based in Turkey. Erdogan has been Hamas's
staunchest (non-Hamas) cheerleader in the last decade, and the
Brotherhood's key regional ally. Press reports say that Turkey has
recently welcomed in the Brotherhood's top brass, who were expelled on
Sept. 13 from their five-million-star hotels in Qatar. Ankara has not
denied that it is offering a safe haven to the leaders of the Islamist
organization."
Israel's police and the Shin Bet internal security service announced on April 10 that they had uncovered a terror financing network linked to Hamas members in Turkey.
Meanwhile, in a ten-day offensive in Syria in December 2024, the
al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS),
conquered Damascus and toppled the Assad regime in Syria.
Ties between Turkey and HTS run deep: Turkey and HTS both been have been occupying and exploiting parts of northwest Syria since at least 2017.
Erdogan reportedly provided assistance to the HTS during its December advance to Damascus, in the form of arms and by allowing the terror group to run a key border crossing in northwest Syria. Since HTS took over Syria, jihadist massacres against the members of the Alawite minority, and the persecution of Syrian Christians, have skyrocketed.
In 1999, Turkey was granted
"candidate status" by the European Union and in 2005, began
negotiations for EU accession. Will the EU executive take action to help
secure the release of detained and abused mayors, politicians,
dissenters and journalists in Turkey, so they can carry out their
professional work without unwarranted governmental pressure, violations
and censorship? How, otherwise, can the EU seriously consider Turkey's
candidacy? Meanwhile, do Europeans really want the possibility of up to 87 million more Turkish citizens flooding Europe?
Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
[1] The names of the democratically elected HDP mayors imprisoned in Turkey, as released by the press office of HDP, include
Hakkari Municipality Co-Mayor, Mehmet Sıddık Akış, Co-Mayors of Akdeniz
Municipality, Hoşyar Sarıyıldız and Nuriye Arslan, Former Diyarbakir
Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor, Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı, Former
Hakkari Municipality Co-Mayor, Cihan Karaman, Former Karayazi
Municipality Co-Mayor of Erzurum, Melike Goksu, Former Co-Mayor of
Yüksekova, Remziye Yasar, Former Co-Mayor of Iğdır, Yasar Akkus, Former
Halfeli Municipality Co-Mayor of Iğdır, Hasan Safa, Former Van
Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor, Bekir Kaya, Former Co-Mayor of Siirt
Eruh Municipality, Huseyin Kilic, Former Co-Mayor of Bitlis Yolalan
Municipality, Felemez Aydın, Former Bozova Municipality Co-Mayor of
Urfa, Zeynel Taş, Former Co-Mayor of Muş Malazgirt Municipality, Halis
Coskun and Former Co-Mayor of Adıyaman Coal Municipality, Hüseyin Yuka.
Officials who have been imprisoned due to trumped-up, terrorism
related charges include, Leyla Güven, HDP Members of Parliament for
Hakkari, Semra Güzel, an MP from Diyarbakir, Dilek Yağlı, HDP Women's
Assembly member, Pervin Oduncu, member of the HDP Central Executive
Board, Ali Ürküt, a member of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and
Democracy Party (DEM), Nazmi Gür, former HDP MP from Van, Alp Altınörs,
the Deputy Co-Chairman of the HDP and a member of the Central Executive
Board, and Günay Kubilay, HDP's Deputy Co-Chair for Economy, Agriculture
and Social Policies and Party Spokesperson, among others.
[2] According to a 2017 public statement
by the HDP party, since July 2016, 1,478 Kurdish politicians --
including 78 democratically-elected mayors – have been arrested.
According to a 2019 report
prepared by the HDP, since 2015, 530 people have been detained in
police operations targeting the party and its components, and 6,000
people, including 750 members and executives of the party, jailed. In
addition, 89 provincial co-chairs, 193 district co-chairs and a town's
co-chair of the HDP were arrested since. The report noted:
"Following the March 31 [2019] elections, 17 of our
co-mayors were arrested and trustees were appointed to 28 of our
municipalities. Since July 2015, 16 of our MPs, 7 Central Executive
Board members, 21 Party Assembly members, and over 750 provincial and
district administrators have been arrested, along with our Co-Chairs.
Currently, 7 of our MPs are under arrest. In addition, 11 MPs have had
their MP status revoked. 93 municipality co-mayors, including deputy
mayors, have been arrested and trustees have been appointed to 84
municipalities. As a result of the political genocide operations
conducted since February 2017, a total of 5,098 people have been
detained. 14 natural, 62 elected, and a total of 76 of our delegates
have been arrested. Currently, 26th Term Deputies Figen Yüksekdağ,
Selahattin Demirtaş, Çağlar Demirel, İdris Baluken, Gülser Yıldırım,
Selma Irmak, Abdullah Zeydan are being held hostage [as prisoners]."
