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This content was published on August 28, 2021 - 21:13August 28, 2021 - 21:13

By Phoebe Fronista and Stelios Misinas

ATHENS (Reuters) - Hundreds of Afghans marched to the U.S. Embassy in Athens on Saturday, making a plea to the international community for peace and holding banners reading, "Afghanistan is bleeding" and "hands off our land."

Following the Taliban's takeover of the country earlier this month, U.S. troops have begun their withdrawal from Kabul airport, after a two-week scramble by Washington and its allies to fly out their nationals and vulnerable Afghans by a Tuesday deadline set by President Joe Biden.

As it neared the end of a 20-year military engagement in the country, the United States said it had killed two Islamic State militants planning attacks in Afghanistan, following a deadly suicide bombing outside Kabul airport on Thursday.

"We are tired of war, we are tired of violence, we are tired of seeing dead bodies. We all came here together, we want peace from the world, we want to end this war," said Omey Naziam, 24, who joined the peaceful protest in the Greek capital.

Other protesters shouted, "stop killing Afghans" and "we want justice."

Greece was the frontline of a migrant crisis in 2015 when more than a million people, most of them Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis, arrived seeking refuge. Many of them still live in Greek camps, waiting for their asylum applications to be processed.

Fearing new migrant flows from Afghanistan, Greece has completed a 40-km fence on its border with Turkey and a new surveillance system was in place to stop possible asylum seekers from trying to reach Europe.

"We are here in order to be the voice of voiceless people in Afghanistan that are trapped," said Parwan Amiri, 17, who lives at a migrant camp outside Athens and whose parents and sister are still in Afghanistan. "More than ever we are thinking that we don't have a land, we don't have a homeland."

European Union home affairs ministers will hold a special meeting on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments in Afghanistan and its consequences for security and migration in the 27-nation bloc.

(Writing by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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'We want peace from the world,' Afghans protest in Athens - swissinfo.ch

Athens is continuing to use the language of threats against Turkey, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Sunday, calling on Turkey's neighbor Greece to leave behind their provocative acts and words.

"Greece should see that it cannot get anywhere with expansionist attitudes, approaches and provocative behaviors and these policies are far from mathematical, reason and understanding, and mean nothing but chasing a vain hope," Akar said in Edirne, a northwestern province bordering Greece.

Accompanied by top army generals, Akar inspected measures taken along the Greek border.

The defense chief reiterated that Turkey favors solving problems in the Aegean Sea through good neighborly relations and dialogue and in line with international laws.

We wish and aim that both countries people live in welfare, but we have difficulty in explaining this, Akar said, referring to Athens.

Akar recalled the mutual and positive dialogue on cooperation in the fight against the forest fires that ripped through both countries last month, but he also criticized "provocations and unlawful aggressive actions" by the Greek side.

"We expect everyone, especially the administrators of our neighbor Greece, to see that having good relations with neighbors is also important for the people of neighboring countries. But unfortunately, we constantly face provocations, unlawful aggressive actions and discourse from the Greek side."

He said Athens tries to limit Ankara's movements by claiming both sea areas and airspace, adding it is not possible to get anywhere in this way and that they should see this very clearly.

Turkey will protect its rights, the minister pledged.

They make demands as if they are the sole owners of the Aegean and engage in efforts to militarize all islands. They make constant accusatory statements and provocations against Turkey, he noted.

Akar underlined that Greece has militarized 16 islands out of 23 that are under demilitarized status according to agreements. It is not possible to accept this, he said.

Relations between the two NATO members, often strained, deteriorated sharply last year, with warships facing off in the Eastern Mediterranean in a dispute over maritime boundaries and energy rights.

Turkey, the country with the longest coastline on the Eastern Mediterranean, has sent drillships with a military escort to explore for energy on its continental shelf, saying that it and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) have rights in the region.

To reduce tensions, Turkey has called for dialogue to ensure the fair sharing of the region's resources.

Earlier this year, Turkey and Greece launched the first direct exploratory talks in nearly five years to address their disputes related to sovereignty rights in the Eastern Mediterranean. The two countries have also been holding rounds of meetings on confidence-building measures as well as deconfliction mechanisms.

Addressing the refugee crisis as well, Akar said it should not be approached as a problem concerning only Turkey.

"We expect everyone, especially the European Union, to assume responsibility on this issue," he said.

It is unacceptable that Greece pushes refugees back and exposes them to inhumane practices, he added.

Turkey has recently seen an increase in refugees, particularly from Afghanistan.

Concerns have risen over a possible spike in migrants from Afghanistan due to the United States' pullout from the country after two decades.

Within the scope of fighting irregular migration, a 243-kilometer (151-mile) concrete wall, topped with barbed wire and surrounded by trenches, is being erected along Turkeys 534-kilometer frontier with Iran.

Turkey is not the only country putting up barriers; its neighbor Greece has just completed a 40-kilometer fence and surveillance system to keep out migrants who still manage to enter Turkey and try to reach the EU.

Authorities say there are 182,000 registered Afghan migrants in Turkey and up to an estimated 120,000 unregistered ones. President Recep Tayyip Erdoan urged European countries to take responsibility for any new influx, warning that Turkey had no intention of becoming "Europe's migrant storage unit."

The issue is also likely to feature in talks between Ankara and Brussels about updating a 2016 deal under which Turkey received aid for hosting migrants seeking refuge in the EU.

Akar also pointed out that Greece has been protecting many terrorists for years, including members of the Glenist Terror Group (FET), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey.

"And yet, it is not credible and moral that the Greek administrators seem to complain about the spread of terrorism, religious fanaticism and fundamentalism. This is a hypocritical attitude that does not reflect the facts," he stated.

Originally posted here:
Greece continues to use threatening language against Turkey: Akar | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah

Anyone who has followed the internal politics of the European Union over the past few years will know that the bloc, which relies on unity and mutual appreciation of rules, has struggled to stay on the same page on several important issues.

Petty spats between the leaders of the EU's political institutions have led to critics saying that those at the top of the Brussels food chain are prioritizing their own careers and personal power over the lives of European citizens.

As the Covid-19 pandemic approaches something resembling its end, and geopolitical challenges -- such as the fallout from the crisis in Afghanistan -- take hold, this open disunity presents the bloc with a series of fundamental problems to which there are no obvious solutions.

First things first: The Union itself is not facing extinction. The EU has remarkable staying power and the self-interest of its member states means there is no real chance of it falling apart any time soon.

What is in question, however, is the Union's long-term purpose and legitimacy.

Last week, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote to the president of the EU Parliament, David Sassoli, declining to act on a resolution that had been passed by a huge majority in the EU's legislative and only publicly elected body.

The Parliament believes that two member states, Hungary and Poland, have violated the EU's rule of law and as such should have central funding halted. The offenses on which this is based range from violating the independence of the judiciary to discriminating against LGBT communities -- both assaults on fundamental cornerstones of EU membership.

Parliament says that the Commission must now apply a regulation that was agreed last year, as the EU negotiated its long-term budget alongside Covid recovery funds. At the time, the regulation -- which ties EU money to obeying the rule of law -- was a priority. The tools at the EU's disposal for punishing member states had proven inadequate.

However, when push came to shove and the two delinquent nations threatened to exercise their veto rights, the regulation was watered down to such an extent that it would require iron-clad evidence that EU funds were being used to violate the rule of law, rather than a broader interpretation of violations occurring in general.

"It's fair to say that after the regulation was agreed, the parties most keen on taking action against Hungary and Poland hoped the Commission would take the political decision to take a broad interpretation," says Ronan McCrea, professor of European law at University College London. "This could be the first sign it will take a more cautious approach."

In the letter, von der Leyen said that Sassoli's letter was not "sufficiently clear and precise" on exactly what violations had taken place, resting on the narrow nature of the "complex assessments" required to enact the regulation.

Parliamentarians who have spent the past few years highlighting abuses are spitting blood at what they see as von der Leyen's complicity with violations.

"It is literally written into the treaties that the Commission is accountable to the Parliament," says Sophie in 't Veld, a Dutch liberal MEP.

She and many of her colleagues and European officials believe that von der Leyen, rather than acting as guardian of the EU's treaties, is acting in the interests of the governments of the EU nations that make up the 27-member EU Council. The more support that von der Leyen can elicit from the member states, the more power she has to ignore the calls of Parliament and work exclusively to her own agenda.

"She is in the job because Parliament gave up on electing its own candidate and rubber-stamped the member states' candidate. She owes them to a certain extent," Veld adds.

Daniel Freund, a German Green MEP, says that it's always "difficult for the commission to go against a member state because they will always need their support down the line." He adds that this might be particularly difficult for von der Leyen because she was elected with a majority that included Hungary and Poland's political leadership -- votes for which she willingly lobbied.

Politicking in Brussels is nothing new, and ardent Europhiles are sick of narrow interests at HQ overshadowing real issues facing the Union.

"So many people working at the EU level become obsessed with arguments over how the EU operates and who should have what power rather than getting on with making the Union fit for the 21st century," says Neale Richmond, an Irish lawmaker who was previously appointed to represent Ireland in Brussels.

"For years now we've been debating the future of Europe and its position on the world stage. We all want a strong, open Europe that is united in promoting liberal values and a world leader on things like climate change and geopolitics. But that won't happen if these petty inter-institutional squabbles keep getting in the way of everything," he adds.

If the EU is to be its best self, its stakeholders at the very least need to believe that all parties are acting in good faith. This has become increasingly hard as the row over the rule of law has rumbled on.

"We have repeatedly seen Hungary block resolutions in the Council on things like human rights in Hong Kong or when fighting erupted in Israel earlier this year, presumably to poke the member states agitating against its own violations in the eye," says Freund. Disunity and inaction on issues like these, of course, somewhat fly in the face of the EU's goal to be a global promoter of democratic values.

And when the stakeholders are distrustful of one another, it can have real-world consequences.

"Previously when the question of refugees fleeing war zones has come up, the 27 member states have been more comfortable dealing with and paying autocrats to host refugees than reaching a sensible deal among themselves," says Veld.

The lack of unity and painful process with which each decision is made means that the EU's woes are often dealt with on an issue-by-issue basis, despite the fact its crises tend to dovetail.

Take the question of Afghan refugees. The EU said last week that it will aid those fleeing the Taliban by supporting regional partners to host refugees. It is also hellbent against repeating the migrant crisis of 2015 when millions traveled to Europe to escape Syria's brutal civil war.

In 2016, the EU gave Turkey -- a regional partner -- cash to host Syrian refugees. Turkey was subsequently able to weaponize those refugees when it became politically convenient to do so. Why? Because member states were reluctant to welcome large numbers of migrants into their countries and in some instances took extreme measures to keep them out.

That migrant crisis played a large part in driving Euroskeptic, populist sentiment across the continent, as well as the victory of the pro-Brexit campaign in the UK in 2016.

Obviously, none of this was good for the EU, and it's far from implausible that the current short-sightedness on Afghanistan could see this repeated.

This might seem a dramatic overreaction to a row between the European Parliament and Commission over whether to act on a resolution. But, as Freund points out, the rule of law debate really does get to the fundamentals of how the EU will face the challenges hurtling towards every corner of the planet: as a united group with a common purpose or a collection of more isolationist nation states.

"The way the row over Hungary and Poland has played is putting the whole EU into question. If member states don't follow the treaties, if the Commission and Council don't punish rule breakers, then what is left of the EU," he asks.

These are questions that the bloc's leadership will need to answer in the coming year, as Europe pieces itself back together after the pandemic, elections in its two biggest countries -- France and Germany -- and attempts to navigate the geopolitical minefield that the past 18 months has left the world in.

If the EU is serious about its ambitions to be a major power on the world stage and -- in light of what's happened in the past fortnight -- step in where America might have previously, it needs all members on the same page and playing by the same rules.

The reality of this latest dilemma, however, is that keeping all 27 member states happy at the same time is a near-impossible balancing act. The longer these divisions exist, the wider the gaps in trust between stakeholders become. And at some point, that distance might become too large for anyone to bridge.

The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

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Europe's disunity and lack of trust imperils the continent's future - wlfi.com

As I heard the news out of Afghanistanthe families scrambling to get on American planes, or the thousands of requests for assistance pouring into my officeI was taken instantly back to my childhood. I remembered sitting in a refugee camp in Kenya when I was about 10 years old and overhearing my father and grandfather discuss how we were going to get out. "Only in America can you ultimately become an American," my grandfather said. "Everywhere else we will always feel like a guest."

He was right. I was lucky to become an American, not a guest, and ultimately represent my new home of Minnesota in the halls of Congress. But right now there are thousands of Afghans, many of whom risked their lives to help the United States, who are wondering if they will have that same opportunity to make new lives here.

My family escaped civil war in Somalia when I was just eight years old, but life in the refugee camp was scarcely better. Every week, someone I knew died. Relatives of minea family of sixlost both parents in the span of two weeks. My aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings all contracted malaria.

It was our family's faith in humanity that ultimately saved my life. After nearly four years of survival in a refugee camp, and over a year of intense vetting by the United Nations and the United States, we finally got a golden ticket to come to America. I wouldn't be here today, raising my children in comfort without the generosity of the Kenyan people, the tireless efforts of UN workers and the welcoming spirit of the American people who gave me and my family a second chance at life.

In this critical moment, we must draw upon the best of our history and open our arms to the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. We must, as President Joe Biden said during his presidential campaign, "never turn our backs on who we are or that which makes us uniquely and proudly American. The United States deserves an immigration policy that reflects our highest values as a nation."

For centuries, that has been the American ideal. In the early 20th century, as pogroms swept across Eastern Europe and extreme deprivation gripped the Mediterranean, the United States welcomed over 15 million immigrantslargely from Europeto our shores.

In the wake of the Vietnam War, the Ford administration immediately granted people fleeing the region permission to enter the US legally. Congress then passed and the President signed the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act in 1975providing over $450 million (that's $2.3 billion in today's dollars) to help resettle over 140,000 Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Lao refugees. As the situation remained unstable, we expanded that assistance. By 2017, over 1.3 million Vietnamese immigrants were living in the US. In my home state of Minnesota, the Hmongan ethnic group who fought alongside Americans in Vietnamhave been a vital and flourishing community since they first started coming here in 1975, eventually sending Minnesotans like Suni Lee to the Olympics to bring home a gold medal.

Of course, every new group of immigrants is met with resistance. After an initial wave of Chinese immigration in the mid-19th century, Congress shamefully passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law that wasn't repealed until 1943. After welcoming millions of European migrants at the dawn of the 20th century, nativism took hold and the Immigration Act of 1924 severely restricted immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe.

This law would disgracefully remain fully on the books until 1952, barring millions of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, and forever staining our history. In fact, in 1939 these immigration restrictions were used to justify the denial of 900 Jewish refugees who were fleeing Nazi Germany to enter the United States on the MS St. Louis. Many would later die in Hitler's death camps.

It was in the wake of the unspeakable atrocities of the Holocaust, and the failure of countries around the world to grant asylum to those fleeing violence, that the United States led the creation of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which declared, "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution." This was later codified in international law in the Geneva Convention, our own laws, and migration laws around the world.

The question we face today is whether or not we will learn from the mistakes of our past. Will we follow the example of Vietnam and recognize the suffering and needs of the Afghan people? Or will we once again fall victim to the nativism and hate that sentenced thousands of people to death in the run-up to the Holocaust?

President Biden has an opportunity to lead a global effort to confront this reality. The President deserves credit for the evacuating over 70,000 people from Kabul in the past week alone, but there are tens of thousands more who need our help. My office alone has received over 5,000 requests from people trying to get family members and colleagues out of Afghanistan just in the past two weeksrepresenting tens of thousands of individuals who are afraid for their lives. Thursday's terrorist attack on Afghans and US service members was yet another reminder of the terror the people of Afghanistan continue to face. Now is the time to redouble our evacuation efforts and do everything we can to get people out who are most at risk.

We should not let paperwork and bureaucracy be a death sentence. Much like we did in the wake of Vietnam, we must allow Afghan citizens to emigrate here immediately using national interest waivers and humanitarian parolewhich the administration has the legal authority to do. We must hold the airport in Kabul and lead an international coalition to evacuate every person who is fleeing for their lives in Afghanistan.

We need to call on our NATO allies and neighboring countries to do their part, because we know when America leads with our values, others feel emboldened to do the same. And we cannot make the deadly mistake of sanctioning the Afghan economypunishing the millions of innocent Afghans who have endured so much and making a dangerous situation even worse.

Afghanistan is not the only test. Central America, Haiti, Syria, Libya, and countries around the world are currently facing large-scale human rights crises and need our help. The climate emergency is already fueling extreme weather events, and climate migration is sure to be one of the defining political challenges of the coming century. We should be leading a global migration compact, which would provide global funding to address the migrant crisis and establish clear benchmarks for each nation to take in refugees (I have introduced a bill on just this.) I'm glad that the President allocated $500 million to help resettle Afghans, but we must do more. The reconciliation package should include funding to address this. And we must live up to our promises to increase the refugee cap.

That is the choice our country faces right now. We owe it to the Afghan who risked his life to fight alongside the United States. We owe it to the little girl huddled in a refugee camp, wondering if she will have a shot to ultimately become not just a guest, but an American. I know, because that little girl was me.

The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

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Ilhan Omar: As a refugee, I want America to open its arms to those fleeing Afghanistan - Action News Now

Record low water levels have been recorded in parts of Syria and Iraq following a sustained drought, with more than 12 million people affected.

Carsten Hansen, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, one of a group of 13 aid agencies that has issued a warning about the deteriorating situation, said the drought will soon become an unprecedented catastrophe. The total collapse of water and food production for millions of Syrians and Iraqis is imminent, he said, adding this would push more people into becoming refugees.

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This plea came amid concern of a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis following the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. In Greece, the authorities have built a border fence designed to prevent their safe and inviolable borders from possibilities for migrant flows.

Given the world is only going to get warmer, it should be obvious that in places which are already too hot and dry people will be forced to move by a lack of water. And in places where it is hot and humid, temperatures can become so high that the human body is unable to lose enough heat by sweating and going outside for long periods can prove fatal.

It may be tempting for some in this country to console themselves that, so far, the ravages of climate change have not been as bad as in other parts of the world. However, this is a false comfort because problems on such a global scale will eventually come to our door.

Greeces Trump-style strategy of building a wall is one easily defeated by the humble ladder and is not going to have much effect if millions of desperate people are forced to flee for their lives.

As this planet-wide storm continues to build, developed countries in temperate regions need to start coming up with better ways of dealing with climate refugees than simply turning them away. It is not only immoral but a policy that will, ultimately, fail.

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Climate change: Walls are no answer to looming refugee crises as millions in Syria and Iraq face 'total collapse' of water supplies Scotsman says -...