Sweden has reaffirmed its decision to distance itself from Kurdish militant groups in its bid to join NATO, as it attempts to secure Turkiye's approval to join the military alliance. Earlier this year, Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the potential threat it would pose to them. While that bid was approved by 28 of the alliance's 30 member states, […]
Germany and Finland say they have repatriated 23 of their nationals, women and children from Syria, some of whom were under criminal investigation for allegedly belonging to the ISIL (ISIS) group. “I am very relieved that we were able to repatriate another 12 children and three mothers from camps in northeastern Syria yesterday,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement on Sunday. Maas said the repatriations were “humanitarian […]
The main Syrian Kurdish political party said on Sunday that one of its leaders had been arrested in Prague at the behest of Turkey, where a court has charged him with sedition. Saleh Muslim, a top Kurdish politician, has “full citizenship rights” as a Syrian national and was visiting Europe in an official capacity, the PYD party said. In a statement, the party accused the Turkish state of “demanding the […]
US-backed forces in Syria are resuming an offensive against ISIL fighters at a major hydroelectric dam, saying it is in no danger of collapsing amid conflicting claims over its integrity. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces' (SDF) offensive was briefly suspended on Monday, a day after a senior Syrian government official warned that the Tabqa dam had been damaged by US-led air raids and cited an increasing risk of catastrophic flooding. […]
While the late human rights lawyer Judge Essa Moosa will be remembered for his unwavering commitment to the anti-Apartheid struggle, very few people know that the jurist had also focused his life’s work on the self-determination of the Kurdish people of Turkey. Tributes continue to stream in for the judge who passed away on Sunday – a man known to have spent his life in the service of humanity. Known […]
The two co-chairpeople of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were among 12 members arrested in the early hours of Friday as part of a "terrorism probe" of the political group. Selahattin Demirtas said on Twitter early on Friday that police had arrived at his house in Diyarbakir to arrest him. Social media websites, including Twitter and Facebook, were blocked in Turkey soon after. Demirtas was taken to court later […]
VOC became the first Muslim radio station in South Africa when a special events license was granted to the station in Ramadan/January 1995. Subsequent temporary broadcast licenses were granted, permitting the station to broadcast for 24 hours.
