Day: June 28, 2021

1. ISTANBUL – Leaders of Turkey and France are pledging to ease tensions after months of trading insults, but tensions between them remain over their competing interests in Africa.

   French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian declared Turkey and France are in what he described as  “recovery period” after the French and Turkish President met on the sidelines of the NATO summit earlier this month and pledged to resolve their differences.

   French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan had engaged in a war of words as the two leaders competed for international influence. Sinan Ulgen of the Istanbul-based Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies says there has been a diplomatic breakthrough but he voices caution.

   “We can talk about a reset with France, but it’s a question about how deep that reset will go. This is part of a broader reset that Turkey has been trying in terms of its foreign relations with the West. However, none of the areas of disagreement with France have been resolved,” said Ulgen.

   Libya remains a crucial point of tension. France and Turkey backed rival sides in the Libyan civil war, and Paris is at the forefront of an international call for the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the north African country. Last year, Turkish and French warships almost clashed off the shores of Libya over French claims that Turkey was violating a Libyan arms embargo. But Ulgen says both sides now recognize the need for diplomacy.

   “There is realization both Ankara and Paris that some progress can be achieved, if the two are less confrontational and work diplomatically towards some sort of negotiated formula,” says Ulgen.

   A Turkish presidential advisor has suggested France and Turkey could extend cooperation beyond Libya to the rest of Africa to contain China’s growing influence.

   Ankara is building up its presence on the continent, especially in the Sahel region. But Turkish moves to develop ties with former French colonies like Niger and Mali is causing alarm in Paris, says  Jalel Harchouai, a senior fellow at the Geneva-based Glob

   Harchaoui says the Sahel could become an increasing point of tension rather than cooperation.

   “There is a real rivalry,” he said. “There is an actual competition in the Sahel. Because Turkey wants to be present militarily, it is already very present diplomatically, and it’s very ambitious commercially. We are talking about a time horizon of fifteen years or thirty years. So if France sees an adversary in that, I think that France [is] correct because there is not enough room for both former colonizers of the area.”

   For now, both French and Turkish Presidents appear interested in downplaying their differences. But that could change with next year’s French presidential elections, where the role of Islam in French society is a campaign issue.

   Erdogan portrays himself as a defender of global Muslim rights and has in the past accused Macron of Islamophobia — an issue Erdogan also uses for leverage in majority-Muslim African countries, much to Paris’ unease.

    

    

   Source: Voice of America

Ethiopia’s government has declared a unilateral cease-fire in its Tigray region as its former governing party and troops entered the regional capital, Mekelle, prompting cheers from residents.

The Ethiopian government made the announcement on state media late Monday, saying the cease-fire would take effect immediately. It follows nearly eight months of conflict in the region.

VOA journalists in Mekelle said they have not seen government soldiers in the city since Sunday.

Rebel troops from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which previously governed the region, announced on the party radio that their forces have entered Mekelle. Reports from the region say residents celebrated in the streets.

“The capital of Tigray, Mekelle, is under our control,” Getachew Reda, a TPLF spokesperson, told Reuters by satellite phone Monday night.

The Ethiopian prime minister’s spokesperson and the military’s spokesperson did not respond to phone calls and messages from Reuters seeking comment.

Agence France-Presse reports the TPLF launched a major offensive last week and cited an interim government official Monday who said the fighters were closing in on the city when government troops left.

There was no immediate comment on the cease-fire from neighboring Eritrea, and it was unclear if Eritrean troops were still in the region. Tigray residents have accused Eritrean troops of carrying out atrocities in the region.

Monday’s developments come after the Tigray interim administration, appointed by the federal government, called for a cease-fire to allow aid to be delivered to thousands of people facing famine in the region.

A government statement carried by state media said the cease-fire would allow farmers to till their land and aid groups to operate without the presence of military troops. It said the cease-fire would last until the end of the farming season but did not give a specific date. The country’s main planting season lasts through September.

The United Nations says the nearly 8-month-old conflict in Tigray has pushed 350,000 people to the brink of famine, calling it the world’s worst famine crisis in a decade.

Three nations, the U.S., Ireland and Britain, called late Monday for an emergency, public meeting of the U.N. Security Council. The session could be held Friday, but the date and time are up to France, which holds the security council presidency. Other countries could vote to nullify the meeting, however.

On Monday, the United Nations children’s agency said Ethiopian soldiers entered its office in Mekelle and dismantled satellite communications equipment.

UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement, “This act violates U.N. privileges and immunities. … We are not, and should never be, a target.”

Violence in the Tigray region had intensified last week after a military airstrike on a town north of Mekelle killed more than 60 people.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus accused Ethiopian authorities of blocking ambulances from reaching victims of the strike.

An Ethiopian military spokesman said only combatants, not civilians, were hit in the strike.

Fighting between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF broke out in November, leaving thousands of civilians dead and forcing more than 2 million people from their homes. Troops from Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbor to the north, and Amhara, a neighboring region to the south of Tigray, also entered the conflict in support of the Ethiopian government.

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America