City to city, camp to camp: Afghan refugees struggle to find home

For Al Jazeera English: Every Sunday, Hamdi Mohseni, his wife Serda, and their five remaining children, walk the 15km from their apartment to the paupers’ cemetery where their daughter Zahra is buried. Mohseni brings a ballpoint pen with him to trace the letters of her name in the concrete tombstone, to make sure it does not disappear among the hundreds of knee-high concrete slabs in this cemetery in Van, in the east of Turkey near the Iranian border. Most of the gravestones have no names…Continue Reading “City to city, camp to camp: Afghan refugees struggle to find home” →

As disputed Pakistan region votes, locals want share of Chinese investment boom

GAHKUCH, Pakistan (Reuters) – As night falls on a remote mountain road in northern Pakistan, Ijaz ul Haq, 22, is keeping his grocery store open longer than usual, hoping to cash in on a frenzied electoral campaign that has brought the nation’s interest upon this otherwise neglected region. Political parties are trying to sway voters in Gilgit-Baltistan, an impoverished, remote and rugged mountainous part of the larger Kashmir region that is also claimed by India. The country’s top politicians have turned up here to stump,…Continue Reading “As disputed Pakistan region votes, locals want share of Chinese investment boom” →

Attacks surge in northwest Pakistan as Afghan peace effort brings shifting sands

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Militants have stepped up attacks on security forces in northwest Pakistan raising fears of a revival of their insurgency and a return of lawlessness as brighter prospects for peace in Afghanistan herald shifting Islamist alliances. The ethnic Pashtun border region was for years a haven for militants who fled the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. But the Pakistani military cleared out the strongholds in a 2014 offensive, driving most of the fighters into Afghanistan. But since March, al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban,…Continue Reading “Attacks surge in northwest Pakistan as Afghan peace effort brings shifting sands” →

‘Holy warrior’ selfies: Pakistan teen feted for killing U.S. blasphemy suspect

ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Faisal Khan, a 15-year-old Pakistani, beams for selfies with lawyers and police. Thousands hail him in the streets as a “holy warrior.” His claim to adulation? Allegedly gunning down in open court an American accused of blasphemy, a capital crime in this Islamic republic. Khan is charged with murder, which also carries a death sentence. But while lawyers line up to defend him, the attorney for Tahir Naseem, the U.S. citizen, has gone into hiding. The teen, according to officials and…Continue Reading “‘Holy warrior’ selfies: Pakistan teen feted for killing U.S. blasphemy suspect” →

Drugs, doctors and donors: Pakistanis turn to ‘Corona Warriors’ Facebook group

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – When musician Zoraiz Riaz set up a Facebook group to help coordinate convalescent plasma donations for people fighting COVID-19 in Pakistan, he expected perhaps a few hundred responses. Within a month, however, the “Corona Recovered Warriors” group had more than 320,000 members, needing a team of 33 volunteers to manage posts from families of patients across Pakistan seeking advice. “Around 85% are looking for plasma,” Riaz, 27, told Reuters from his home in the eastern Pakistani metropolis of Lahore, one of the…Continue Reading “Drugs, doctors and donors: Pakistanis turn to ‘Corona Warriors’ Facebook group” →

Coronavirus mutes Pakistan’s TV game shows over Ramadan

April 29 (Reuters) – In normal times, Pakistanis hungry for entertainment during the fasting month of Ramadan would avidly watch television game shows as contestants, urged on by rowdy studio audiences, compete for lavish prizes. But this is not a normal time. Measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus have meant there are no studio audiences, and contestants appear by video-link on some shows, while on others they phone in their answers, or send a text message. “But it is not as if we…Continue Reading “Coronavirus mutes Pakistan’s TV game shows over Ramadan” →

‘We put everything into it.’ Modest telescope could have big impact on Turkish science

For Science Magazine: ISTANBUL — International megaprojects that cost well over $1 billion generate most of the excitement in observational astronomy today: the 39-meter Extremely Large Telescope under construction in Chile, for example, or the Thirty Meter Telescope, controversial because of its proposed location on Mauna Kea, a mountain sacred to some Native Hawaiians. But smaller telescopes still do cutting-edge science as well. And Turkish scientists are eagerly awaiting the completion of the new Eastern Anatolia Observatory (DAG), a 4-meter optical and infrared telescope expected…Continue Reading “‘We put everything into it.’ Modest telescope could have big impact on Turkish science” →

As America Shuts Its Doors, Afghan Refugees Are Stuck in Turkey

For Foreign Policy VAN, Turkey—It’s been two years since Qadir fled Kabul, but the fear that someone will kill him for having worked with U.S. troops still haunts him in the Turkish city where his family has been allowed to stay and wait in hopes of reaching the United States. He doesn’t take the same way home from the odd jobs he can find and hasn’t called his relatives in Afghanistan since leaving. “I am afraid someone there will get my phone number in Turkey….Continue Reading “As America Shuts Its Doors, Afghan Refugees Are Stuck in Turkey” →

Erdogan’s Attacks on His Old Ally Could Backfire

For Foreign Policy ISTANBUL — Parting ways with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not been easy for former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Since being forced to resign his post in 2016, Davutoglu has occasionally waded into the public sphere to offer careful criticism of Erdogan’s one-man rule that is threatening Turkey’s democracy. But over the last few months, Davutoglu has opposed Erdogan more forcefully, culminating in his public plans to form a new opposition party—an announcement that could mean a death blow to his…Continue Reading “Erdogan’s Attacks on His Old Ally Could Backfire” →

Turkey’s Crackdown on Kurdish Mayors Could Backfire

For Foreign Policy ISTANBUL — In the run-up to Turkey’s ongoing operation against Kurdish nationalist forces in northern Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presided over a sweeping crackdown on Kurdish mayors in Turkey, justified by the same impetus: connections to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. In Turkey, support for the PKK, which Ankara and Washington consider a terrorist group, has long been grounds for dismissal or imprisonment. But what exactly constitutes support is subject to the state’s discretion, and the line is by…Continue Reading “Turkey’s Crackdown on Kurdish Mayors Could Backfire” →