Turkey
Turkey suspends trial of Saudi suspects in Khashoggi killing
A Turkish court ruled Thursday to suspend the trial in absentia of 26 Saudis accused in the gruesome killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and for the case to be transferred to Saudi Arabia.
Kaghoggi, a United States resident who wrote critically about Saudi Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed on Oct. 2, 2018, at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. He had gone into the consulate for an appointment to collect documents required for him to marry his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. He never emerged from the building.
Turkish officials alleged that Khashoggi was killed and then dismembered with a bone saw inside the consulate by a team of Saudi agents sent to Istanbul. The group included a forensic doctor, intelligence and security officers and individuals who worked for the crown prince’s office. His remains have not been found.
The Istanbul court's decision comes despite warnings from human rights groups that turning the case over to the kingdom would lead to a cover up of the killing, which has cast suspicion on the crown prince.
Also read: Saudi suspect in Khashoggi killing arrested in France
It also comes as Turkey, which is in the throes of a deep economic downturn, has been trying to repair its troubled relationship with Saudi Arabia and an array of other countries in its region. Some media reports have claimed that Riyadh has made improved relations conditional on Turkey dropping the case, which had inflamed tensions between two countries.
The move would pave the way to a resolution of disputes between the two regional heavyweights since the 2011 Arab Spring, including Turkey’s support for Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood, which Riyadh considers a terrorist group. Turkey also sided with Qatar in a diplomatic dispute that saw Doha boycotted by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Last week, the prosecutor in the case recommended that it be transferred to the kingdom, arguing that the trial in Turkey would remain inconclusive. Turkey’s justice minister supported the recommendation, adding that the trial in Turkey would resume if the Turkish court is not satisfied with the outcome of proceedings in the kingdom. It was not clear, however, if Saudi Arabia, which has already put some of the defendants on trial behind closed doors, would open a new trial.
During Thursday's hearing, lawyers representing Cengiz asked the court not to move proceedings to Saudi Arabia, the private DHA news agency reported.
“Let’s not entrust the lamb to the wolf,” the agency quoted lawyer Ali Ceylan as telling the court, using a Turkish saying. “Let’s protect the honor and dignity of the Turkish nation.”
The court however, ruled to halt the trial in line with the Justice Ministry's “positive opinion,” DHA reported. It also decided to lift arrest warrants issued against the defendants and gave the sides seven days in which to lodge any opposition to the court’s decisions.
Human rights advocates had also urged Turkey not to transfer the case to Saudi Arabia, arguing that justice for Khashoggi would not be delivered by Saudi courts.
“It's a scandalous decision,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, the Turkey director for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, asserting that the court had "rubber stamped" a political decision that would allow the government to repair its ties with Saudi Arabia.
“In the interest of realpolitik, Turkey is ready to sacrifice justice for an egregious crime on its own soil,” she told The Associated Press. “(The decision) opens the way for other countries to commit assassinations on Turkish territory and get away with it.”
Cengiz said she would continue to seek justice.
Also read:Jamal Khashoggi killing: Rights group files complaint against Saudi crown prince
“We will continue this (judicial) process with all the power given to me, as a Turkish citizen,” she told reporters outside the courthouse.
“The two countries may be making an agreement, the two countries may be opening a new chapter ... but the crime is still the same crime,” she said. “The people who committed the crime haven't changed. Governments and states must have a principled stance.”
At the time of the crime, Turkey apparently had the Saudi Consulate bugged and shared audio of the killing with the CIA, among others.
The slaying sparked international outrage and condemnation. Western intelligence agencies, as well as the U.S. Congress, have said that an operation of such magnitude could not have happened without knowledge of the prince.
Turkey, which had vowed to shed light on the brutal killing, began prosecuting the defendants in absentia in 2020 after Saudi Arabia rejected requests for their extradition. The defendants included two former aides of the prince.
Some of the men were put on trial in Riyadh behind closed doors. A Saudi court issued a final verdict in 2020 that sentenced five mid-level officials and operatives to 20-year jail terms. The court had originally ordered the death penalty, but reduced the punishment after Khashoggi’s son Salah, who lives in Saudi Arabia, announced that he forgave the defendants. Three others were sentenced to lesser jail terms.
Turkey offers to host more Ukraine talks
Turkey’s top diplomat says Ankara is working to bring the Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers together again for talks.
In an interview with Turkey’s A Haber channel, Mevlut Cavusoglu said the meeting could happen within two weeks.
His comments came days after Turkey hosted Ukrainian and Russian negotiators for face-to-face talks in Istanbul. Cavusoglu said decisions taken during the talks had not fully been put into effect on the ground.
Also read: Putin misled by advisers on Ukraine, US intel determines
“After this meeting some decisions were taken, especially concerning the reduction of tensions,” Cavusoglu said. “But we do not see these decisions being reflected on the field - for example, the removal of Russian soldiers from some areas.”
Asked about the presence of sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in the negotiations, Cavusoglu said the businessman was engaged in “useful” efforts to end the fighting.
Also read: Russian pledge to scale back in Ukraine draws skepticism
“Abramovich has been sincerely making efforts to end the fighting since the first day of the war,” he said.
During the talks in Istanbul Tuesday, Ukraine set out a detailed framework for a peace deal under which the country would remain neutral but its security would be guaranteed by a group of third countries, including the U.S., Britain, France, Turkey, China and Poland.
Ukraine, Russia hold new talks aimed at ending the fighting
The first face-to-face talks in two weeks between Russia and Ukraine began Tuesday in Turkey, raising flickering hopes of progress to end to a war that has ground into a bloody campaign of attrition.
Ahead of the talks in Istanbul, the Ukrainian president said his country is prepared to declare its neutrality, as Moscow has demanded, and is open to compromise over the contested eastern region of Donbas — comments that might lend momentum to negotiations. But he warned the “ruthless war” continued and that Ukrainians were paying with their lives for the West's hesitancy on imposing tougher sanctions on Moscow.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the two sides gathered for talks that they had a “historic responsibility” to stop the fighting.
“We believe that there will be no losers in a just peace. Prolonging the conflict is not in anyone’s interest,” Erdogan said, as he greeted the two delegations seated on opposite sides of a long table. Also in the room was Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club and a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who has been playing an unspecified mediating role.
Read:New round of talks aims to stop the fighting in Ukraine
Putin’s aim of a quick military victory has been thwarted by stiff Ukrainian resistance — but still hopes were not high for a breakthrough. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, reflecting skepticism among Ukraine's Western allies, said she thought the Russian president was “not serious about talks.”
In fighting that has devolved into a back-and-forth stalemate, Ukrainian forces retook Irpin, a key suburb northwest of the capital, Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday. But he warned that Russian troops were regrouping to take the area back.
“We still have to fight, we have to endure,” Zelenskyy said in his nighttime video address to the nation. “This is a ruthless war against our nation, against our people, against our children.”
Earlier talks between the sides, held in person in Belarus or by video, failed to make progress on ending the more than month-long war that has killed thousands and driven more than 10 million Ukrainians from their homes — including almost 4 million from their country.
Russia has long demanded that Ukraine drop any hope of joining NATO, which Moscow sees as a threat. Zelenskyy indicated over the weekend he was open to that, saying Ukraine was ready to declare its neutrality, but he has stressed that the country needs security guarantees of its own as part of any deal.
As well as Irpin, Ukrainian forces also seized back control of Trostyanets, south of Sumy in the northeast, after weeks of Russian occupation that has left a landscape devastated by war.
Arriving in the town Monday shortly afterward, The Associated Press saw the bodies of two Russian soldiers lay abandoned in the woods and Russian tanks lay burned and twisted. A red “Z” marked a Russian truck, its windshield fractured, near stacked boxes of ammunition. Ukrainian forces piled atop a tank flashed victory signs. Dazed residents lined up amid charred buildings seeking aid.
It was unclear where the Russian troops went, under what circumstances they fled and whether the town will remain free of them. In his overnight address, Zelenskyy emphasized the situation remains tense in Ukraine’s northeast around Kharkiv, the nearest large city, and other areas, as he pressed Western countries to do more to support Ukraine, including levying harsher sanctions on Russia and providing more weapons.
“If someone is afraid of Russia, if he or she is afraid to make the necessary decisions that are important to us, in particular for us to get planes, tanks, necessary artillery, shells, it makes these people responsible for the catastrophe created by Russian troops in our cities, too,” he said. “Fear always makes you an accomplice.”
But the returned presence of Ukrainian forces in Trostyanets was a relief for a country hoping that Russian forces are pulling back as they encounter fierce resistance.
Read:UN chief wants Ukraine humanitarian cease-fire
Putin’s ground forces have become bogged down because of the stronger-than-expected Ukrainian resistance, combined with what Western officials say are Russian tactical missteps, poor morale, shortages of food, fuel and cold weather gear, and other problems.
In response, Russia appeared to be concentrating more on the Donbas, the predominantly Russian-speaking region where Moscow-backed rebels have been waging a separatist war for eight years, the official said.
While that raised a possible face-saving exit strategy for Putin, it has also raised Ukrainian fears the Kremlin aims to split the country, forcing it to surrender a swath of its territory. Still, Zelenskyy's comments that he was open to compromise on the region indicated a possible path for negotiations.
In other developments:
— Russia has destroyed more than 60 religious buildings across the country in just over a month of war, with most of the damage concentrated near Kyiv and in the east, Ukraine’s military said in a post Tuesday. It said the Orthodox church – the country’s majority religion – was the most affected but that mosques, synagogues, Protestant churches and religious schools were also destroyed.
— Bloomberg News said it has suspended its operations in Russia and Belarus. Customers in both countries won't be able to access any Bloomberg financial products and trading functions for Russian securities were disabled in line with international sanctions, it said. Bloomberg Philanthropies pledged $40 million, meanwhile, in support for Ukrainians and refugees.
— U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched an effort to achieve a humanitarian cease-fire that would allow aid to be brought in and people to move around safely.
In the besieged southern port of Mariupol, the mayor said half the pre-war population of more than 400,000 has fled, often under fire, during weeks of shooting and shelling.
Alina Beskrovna, who escaped the city in a convoy of cars and made it to Poland, said desperate people are melting snow for water and cooking on open fires despite the risk of bombardment, "because if you don’t, you will have nothing to eat.”
“A lot of people are just, I think, starving to death in their apartments right now with no help," she said. "It’s a mass murder that’s happening at the hands of the Russians.”
Russia, Ukraine officials open talks in Turkey
The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine have begun meeting at a Turkish Mediterranean resort for the first high-level talks between the two countries since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The meeting between Russia’s Sergey Lavrov and Dmotry Kuleba of Ukraine is taking place on the sidelines of a diplomacy forum near the city of Antalya on Thursday. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is also participating in the meeting.
Cavusoglu has said the aim of the meeting is to pave the way for a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents that would be facilitated by Turkey’s president. Kuleba has also said that he would propose direct talks between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents when he meets Lavrov.
Also read: Maternity hospital among 18 Ukraine medical centers hit: WHO
NATO-member Turkey, which has cultivated close ties with both Russia and Ukraine, is trying to balance relations with both nations. It has positioned itself as a neutral party, seeking to facilitate negotiations between the warring sides.
Turkey has criticized Russia’s military actions in Ukraine as “unlawful” and “unacceptable” but it has also said Ankara would not give up on either Russia or Ukraine.
Also read: Ukraine war at 2-week mark: Russians slowed but not stopped
Turkey detains at least 113 suspects over failed coup in 2016
Turkey on Tuesday detained at least 113 suspects over their alleged links to a network accused of orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016.
A detention warrant was issued for 185 suspects across 40 cities as part of an investigation into the Gulen Movement's influence on the Turkish armed forces, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Read: Qatar detains Kenyan guard who wrote on laborers struggles
The suspects were accused of infiltrating into the state bureaucracy and then attempting a coup on July 15, 2016.
Ankara has accused U.S.-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the attempted coup, in which at least 250 people were killed.
Read: Myanmar Navy detains 22 Bangladeshi fishermen on four trawlers
Turkey requested Gulen's extradition, but Washington has been reluctant to do so, saying that Ankara has not presented sufficient evidence.
The Turkish government has launched a massive crackdown on suspects with connection to the network after the coup attempt.
Dhaka, Ankara sign deal on security cooperation, counterterrorism
Bangladesh and Turkey have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on security cooperation, counterterrorism and tackling drug trafficking.
The deal was inked during Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu's Bangladesh visit Saturday, his Bangladeshi counterpart Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said.
"We talked about training, intelligence sharing, and ways to fight cybercrime. Also, following the signing of the agreement, the Turkish interior minister said they would extend their cooperation with us," he added.
Turkey to continue efforts to repatriate Rohingya: Enamur
State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Dr Md. Enamur Rahman said Turkey is working for the repatriation of Rohingyas and it will talk to different countries so that they can be returned to Myanmar with dignity.
The minister said this to reporters after a meeting with Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu at a hotel in the city on Saturday.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has reaffirmed his country’s continued support to Rohingyas and their host community in Bangladesh, the minister added.
The Turkish Minister praised Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for providing shelter and humanitarian assistance to about 1.1 million Rohingya in the country. He expressed hope for any kind of cooperation from his government and said that the ongoing cooperation would continue.
The Turkish Minister expressed willingness to share experience about disaster management between the two countries and we agreed, the state minister said.
As a result, “we will be able to cooperate with each other in dealing with disasters in the future”, he added.
He also appealed to the Afad organization, Turkey's disaster and emergency management authority which has a branch in Cox's Bazar, to continue their cooperation in Bhasan Char and gave the responsibility to the head of Afad.
State minister Enamur also said that a memorandum of understanding would be signed between the two countries in this regard.
Secretary of Disaster Management and Relief Md. Mohsin and Hasan Sarwar, head (joint secretary) of the refugee cell of the relief ministry were present at the meeting.
Bangladesh, Turkey looking to a “brighter future” with wider collaboration: Ambassador Turan
Turkish Ambassador to Bangladesh Mustafa Osman Turan has said Bangladesh and Turkey are looking to a “brighter future” with vast areas of cooperation and there is a room for the two countries to make their own influence for the betterment of international relations.
While delivering his keynote speech at Cosmos Dialogue held virtually, the Turkish envoy said they are actually collaborating with all the great powers that are pursuing certain policies but they have no attachment to any of the sides.
“So, I think that provides us with a neutral position and a reliable partnership possibility with Bangladesh. And I’m particularly pleased to see the benefits of this position in our defence cooperation,” said Ambassador Turan.
Also read: Bangabandhu’s bust unveiled in Ankara as Bangladesh-Turkey ties deepen
Cosmos Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Cosmos Group, hosted the dialogue titled “Bangladesh-Turkey Relations: Prognosis for the Future” as part of its ongoing Ambassadors' Lecture Series.
The opening remarks were delivered by Cosmos Foundation Chairman Enayetullah Khan. The session was chaired by Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, a renowned scholar-diplomat and former Advisor on Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh Caretaker Government.
Bangabandhu’s bust unveiled in Ankara as Bangladesh-Turkey ties deepen
A bust of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was unveiled on Monday at Bangabandhu Boulevard named after the father of the nation at one of the most renowned roads of Turkish capital, Ankara.
"This is an absolute honour and privilege for me to be here today to witness a historic moment in the ever-expanding friendship between Bangladesh and Turkey," said Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen at the unveiling ceremony.
READ: Bury differences for national unity to build Bangabandhu’s Sonar Bangla: President Hamid
Vasip Şahin, Governor of Ankara, Mansur Yavaş, Mayor of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and Md. Atiqul Islam, Mayor of Dhaka North City Corporation also spoke.
IGP leaves for Turkey to attend Interpol general assembly
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Benazir Ahmed left for Turkey on Saturday to attend the 89th Interpol General Assembly.
He will lead a five-member delegation to the 3-day conference that will be held in Turkey on November 23-25, said AIG (Media) of the Police headquarters Md Kamruzzaman.
The International Criminal Police Organization, commonly known as Interpol, is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime control.
Also read: Cyber bullying against women is increasing: IGP
At the conference, police representatives from 194 member countries of Interpol will formulate various policies on the current global security situation, international and inter-state crime, violence, fundamentalism and terrorism, money laundering, organized crime, cybercrime, pornography, abuse of women and children, sexual harassment and data management of miscellaneous crimes, and will take plan adoption and determine implementation strategy in this regards.
Besides, the conference will focus on mutual cooperation in inter-state crime detection and suppression strategies, enhancing the capacity of the police and various issues related to current and future crimes and what needs to be done to resolve the crisis, he said.
The IGP of Bangladesh will have a courtesy meeting with the Secretary General of Interpol, the police chiefs of friendly countries including their representatives from ASEANPOL and their delegations and discuss matters of mutual interest, the AIG (media) added.
Also read: Tourist police ensure safe tourism: IGP
ASEANAPOL is the National Police organisation for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
The delegation is expected to return to the country on November 27 after attending the 89th Interpol General Assembly.