Lebanon crisis sparks risk of new wave of Syrian refugees into Turkiye

People carry their luggage as they cross into Syria on foot, through a crater caused by Israeli airstrikes aiming to block Beirut-Damascus highway at the Masnaa crossing, in the eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon on Oct. 5. (AP)
People carry their luggage as they cross into Syria on foot, through a crater caused by Israeli airstrikes aiming to block Beirut-Damascus highway at the Masnaa crossing, in the eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon on Oct. 5. (AP)
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Updated 05 October 2024
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Lebanon crisis sparks risk of new wave of Syrian refugees into Turkiye

Lebanon crisis sparks risk of new wave of Syrian refugees into Turkiye
  • There is ‘great uncertainty’ about Turkiye’s options regarding migration management from Lebanon, analyst says 

ANKARA: A surge in the number of Syrian refugees fleeing violence in Lebanon and attempting to reach Turkish-controlled areas in northern Syria is raising concerns over how Turkiye will manage a new influx of refugees. 

Lebanon, which hosts more than 1.5 million Syrian and Palestinian refugees, is witnessing an exodus as security conditions worsen as a result of Israel’s bombing campaign.

Turkiye, which currently shelters around 3.1 million registered Syrian refugees, now faces pressure to accommodate more.

Ankara is also helping to evacuate foreign nationals from Lebanon via Turkiye, following requests from around 20 countries.

On Thursday, Deniz Yucel, spokesperson for the main opposition Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP), submitted a parliamentary question concerning the potential impact of the Israel-Lebanon war on Turkiye.

“There is growing concern that the ongoing conflict in our southeastern border could trigger a massive wave of migration,” he said in his address to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. “(This) would not only increase our population but also lead to a rise in unemployment, rent, and property prices while disrupting social order and demographic balance in a country already turned into the world’s refugee camp. The minister of interior must urgently inform the public about the possibility of a new migration wave.”  

Turkiye, Yucel continued, “is not anyone’s refugee camp. We will never allow the Turkish people to become alienated in their homeland. We will close the borders and save the country.”

Metin Corabatir, president of the Research Center on Asylum and Migration in Ankara, said that there is great uncertainty about the options ahead for Turkiye in terms of migration management from Lebanon.  

“A significant number of Lebanese and Syrian refugees are evacuating the country or are crossing into Syria,” he told Arab News. “If Lebanon becomes a battleground, there may be pressure on Turkiye.”

The Turkish government “is pursuing a policy to fight against irregular migration. If there is a new wave of migration, I don’t think Turkiye will opt for an open-border policy, because it will greatly affect domestic politics,” he added.

Some 77 percent of Turks favor closing borders to refugees — significantly more than the global average of 44 percent — according to the results of a recent survey by IPSOS and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. 

According to Corabatir, if there is a large wave of migration, the Turkish government will be expected to cooperate with the international community to develop formulas based on international humanitarian law rather than accepting offers to once again transform Turkiye into a buffer against migration waves. 

“The absorption capacity of northern Syria has reached its full capacity for hosting more refugee flow. In that case, these people can transit through Syrian soil in a controlled manner and pass to other countries via Turkiye,” he said.

Turkiye, which has a 911 km-long border with Syria, became the country hosting the most refugees in the world in 2011 when the Syrian conflict began.

However, experts do not anticipate a similar influx through the border at present because, since then, Turkiye has imposed tight controls by building a security wall.

“Considering many European countries have already closed their doors to the migration flow, Turkiye will not be expected to operate an open-door policy like it did in the past. But it will cooperate in the conditional and controlled evacuation of refugees in case a large-scale humanitarian crisis erupts,” Corabatir said. 

According to Dr. Oytun Orhan, coordinator of Levant studies at ORSAM, an Ankara-based think tank, as tensions escalate in Lebanon and Syria a new wave of migration is likely to be triggered from the latter, where airstrikes targeting Hezbollah and Iran-backed militias are increasing.  

“This could further destabilize Syria, potentially prompting a fresh migration wave from the south to the north of the country. Turkiye’s primary advantage is managing the influx in designated safe zones,” he told Arab News. 

However, these areas are already overfilled. In Idlib alone, 3.5 million people reside, while other regions house another 1.5 million, most of whom have been internally displaced within Syria.

Dr. Orhan believes Syria’s rising instability, chaotic conditions, and the risk of a new migration wave may force Turkiye to strengthen its border defenses.  

“Expanding the safe zones is one potential outcome, but that remains a last resort,” he said. 

“A military operation to close off the remaining unsecured areas of the safe zone is the worst-case scenario, particularly if the conflict in Gaza or Lebanon spills into Syria. Should this happen, Turkiye is expected to take preventive measures to address any potential border-security risks.

It remains to be seen how this new flow of refugees will affect the slow but ongoing normalization process between Ankara and Damascus.”

In July, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he might invite Syrian leader Bashar Assad to Turkiye “at any moment” to restore relations to the level of the past.

That statement came after Assad said Damascus was open to “all initiatives” to restore Turkish-Syrian ties “as long as they are based on respecting the sovereignty of the Syrian state over all its territory and fighting all forms of terrorism.” 

For Dr. Orhan, there are two options ahead. “Initially, the spread of conflict into Syria might accelerate negotiations, as Damascus faces increased pressure and Iran’s influence in the region weakens,” he said, adding that Russia would likely back such peace efforts in case of further clashes and a migration surge.

“However, if Ankara is obliged to conduct any cross-border military action to secure its borders, it could disrupt normalization talks until tensions subside,” he added.


The scent of the mummy. Research discovers ancient Egyptian remains smell nice

The scent of the mummy. Research discovers ancient Egyptian remains smell nice
Updated 16 sec ago
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The scent of the mummy. Research discovers ancient Egyptian remains smell nice

The scent of the mummy. Research discovers ancient Egyptian remains smell nice
  • “Woody,” “spicy” and “sweet” were the top descriptions
  • They studied mummies as old as 5,000 years from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo
LONDON: At first whiff, it sounds repulsive: sniff the essence of an ancient corpse.
But researchers who indulged their curiosity in the name of science found that well-preserved Egyptian mummies actually smell pretty good.
“In films and books, terrible things happen to those who smell mummified bodies,” said Cecilia Bembibre, director of research at University College London’s Institute for Sustainable Heritage. “We were surprised at the pleasantness of them.”
“Woody,” “spicy” and “sweet” were the leading descriptions from what sounded more like a wine tasting than a mummy sniffing exercise. Floral notes were also detected, which could be from pine and juniper resins used in embalming.
The study published Thursday in the Journal of the American Chemical Society used both chemical analysis and a panel of human sniffers to evaluate the odors from nine mummies as old as 5,000 years that had been either in storage or on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The researchers wanted to systematically study the smell of mummies because it has long been a subject of fascination for the public and researchers alike, said Bembibre, one of the report’s authors. Archaeologists, historians, conservators and even fiction writers have devoted pages of their work to the subject — for good reason.
Scent was an important consideration in the mummification process that used oils, waxes and balms to preserve the body and its spirit for the afterlife. The practice was largely reserved for pharaohs and nobility and pleasant smells were associated with purity and deities while bad odors were signs of corruption and decay.
Without sampling the mummies themselves, which would be invasive, researchers from UCL and the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia were able to measure whether aromas were coming from the archaeological item, pesticides or other products used to conserve the remains, or from deterioration due to mold, bacteria or microorganisms.
“We were quite worried that we might find notes or hints of decaying bodies, which wasn’t the case,” said Matija Strlič, a chemistry professor at the University of Ljubljana. “We were specifically worried that there might be indications of microbial degradation, but that was not the case, which means that the environment in this museum, is actually quite good in terms of preservation.”
Using technical instruments to measure and quantify air molecules emitted from sarcophagi to determine the state of preservation without touching the mummies was like the Holy Grail, Strlič said.
“It tells us potentially what social class a mummy was from and and therefore reveals a lot of information about the mummified body that is relevant not just to conservators, but to curators and archaeologists as well,” he said. “We believe that this approach is potentially of huge interest to other types of museum collections.”
Barbara Huber, a postdoctoral researcher at Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany who was not involved in the study, said the findings provide crucial data on compounds that could preserve or degrade mummified remains. The information could be used to better protect the ancient bodies for future generations.
“However, the research also underscores a key challenge: the smells detected today are not necessarily those from the time of mummification,” Huber said. “Over thousands of years, evaporation, oxidation, and even storage conditions have significantly altered the original scent profile.”
Huber authored a study two years ago that analyzed residue from a jar that had contained mummified organs of a noblewoman to identify embalming ingredients, their origins and what they revealed about trade routes. She then worked with a perfumer to create an interpretation of the embalming scent, known as “Scent of Eternity,” for an exhibition at the Moesgaard Museum in Denmark.
Researchers of the current study hope to do something similar, using their findings to develop “smellscapes” to artificially recreate the scents they detected and enhance the experience for future museumgoers.
“Museums have been called white cubes, where you are prompted to read, to see, to approach everything from a distance with your eyes,” Bembibre said. “Observing the mummified bodies through a glass case reduces the experience because we don’t get to smell them. We don’t get to know about the mummification process in an experiential way, which is one of the ways that we understand and engage with the world.”

Hezbollah supporters protest banning Iranian plane from landing in Beirut

Hezbollah supporters protest banning Iranian plane from landing in Beirut
Updated 14 February 2025
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Hezbollah supporters protest banning Iranian plane from landing in Beirut

Hezbollah supporters protest banning Iranian plane from landing in Beirut
  • Young men set tires on fire, leading to scuffles between angry protesters and soldiers
  • The Lebanese army had been deployed at Beirut International Airport

BEIRUT: Supporters of Iran-backed Hezbollah group blocked the Beirut airport road and burned tires on Thursday to protest a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing in the Lebanese capital, state media and an airport official said.
“Young men set tires on fire in front of the airport entrance, raising banners supporting Hezbollah’s former Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah,” Lebanon’s National News Agency said.
Some of the young men raised Hezbollah’s yellow flag and held pictures of Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike in September, as well as Iran’s slain Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, AFP footage showed.
The Lebanese army had been deployed there, the NNA said, with videos online showing scuffles between angry protesters and soldiers.
An official at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport told AFP that the Public Works and Transport ministry had asked the facility to inform Mahan Air that Lebanon could not welcome two of its Beirut-bound flights.
One flight was scheduled for Thursday and another for Friday, said the official who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
“The two flights were rescheduled to next week,” he added, without saying why.
Earlier in the day, video footage circulated online showing a Lebanese man stranded at a Tehran airport calling on his peers to block the Beirut airport road.
“We have been waiting here since this morning. We are Lebanese... no one can control us,” the man said, calling on Hezbollah-allied parliament speaker Nabih Berri to secure the return of Lebanese travelers.
A November 27 ceasefire agreement ended more than a year of Israel-Hezbollah hostilities including about two months of all-out war, but both sides regularly accuse the other violations.
Saeed Chalandri, CEO of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport, said “today’s flight to Beirut was scheduled... but the destination (country) did not issue the necessary permission,” in an interview with Mehr news agency.
A day earlier, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said Iran’s Quds Force and Hezbollah “have been exploiting... over the past few weeks the Beirut International Airport through civilian flights, to smuggle funds dedicated to arming” the group.
He added that the Israeli army was sending information to the committee tasked with ensuring ceasefire violations are identified and dealt with in order “to thwart” such attempts, though some had been successful.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of using Lebanon’s only airport to transfer weapons from Iran.
Hezbollah and Lebanese officials have denied the claims, with authorities reinforcing surveillance and inspections at the facility.
In January, an Iranian plane carrying a diplomatic delegation was subjected to inspection, sparking outrage from Hezbollah and its supporters and praise by its detractors.


France says EU working toward ‘rapid’ easing of Syria sanctions

France says EU working toward ‘rapid’ easing of Syria sanctions
Updated 13 February 2025
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France says EU working toward ‘rapid’ easing of Syria sanctions

France says EU working toward ‘rapid’ easing of Syria sanctions
  • Paris conference focused on protecting Syria from destabilizing foreign interference, coordinating aid efforts

PARIS: France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Thursday that the EU was working toward swiftly easing Syria sanctions as Paris hosted a conference on the transition in the war-torn country after President Bashar Assad’s fall.

Opposition fighters toppled Assad in December after a lightning offensive.

The new authorities, headed by interim leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa, have sought to reassure the international community that they have broken with their jihadist past and will respect the rights of minorities.

They have been lobbying the West to ease sanctions imposed against Assad to allow the country to rebuild its economy after five decades of his family’s rule and almost 14 years of civil war.

“We are working with my European counterparts toward a rapid lifting of sectorial economic sanctions,” Barrot said, after EU foreign ministers agreed last month to ease them, starting with key sectors such as energy.

Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani is in Paris for the conference, in his first such official visit to Europe for talks after he attended the World Economic Forum in Davos last month.

The French presidency said earlier that the United States, Germany, Britain, the European Union and the United Nations were also to be represented, as were several Gulf nations and Syria’s northern neighbor Turkiye.

French President Emmanuel Macron is due to address attendees.

There has been concern among Western governments over the direction the new Syrian leadership will take in particular on religious freedom, women’s rights and the status of the Kurdish minority in the northeast of Syria.

Shaibani on Wednesday said a new government would take over next month from the interim cabinet, vowing that it would represent all Syrians in their diversity.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, ahead of the Paris meeting, emphasized the need for “all actors” in Syria to be included.

“It is essential that women be represented,” she said.

Several diplomatic sources had said the conference also aimed to focus on protecting Syria from destabilizing foreign interference and coordinating aid efforts.

Turkish-backed factions launched attacks against Kurdish-held areas in northern Syria at around the same time as the offensive that overthrew Assad, and have since seized strategic areas.


Syria’s new leaders zero in on Assad’s business barons

Syria’s new leaders zero in on Assad’s business barons
Updated 13 February 2025
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Syria’s new leaders zero in on Assad’s business barons

Syria’s new leaders zero in on Assad’s business barons

DAMASCUS: Syria’s new rulers are combing through the billion-dollar corporate empires of ousted President Bashar Assad’s allies, and have held talks with some of these tycoons, in what they say is a campaign to root out corruption and illegal activity.

After seizing power in December, the new administration that now runs Syria pledged to reconstruct the country after 13 years of brutal civil war and abandon a highly-centralized and corrupt economic system where Assad’s cronies held sway.

To do so, the executive led by new President Ahmed Al-Sharaa has set up a committee tasked with dissecting the sprawling corporate interests of high-profile Assad-linked tycoons including Samer Foz and Mohammad Hamsho, three sources told Reuters. Days after taking Damascus, the new administration issued orders aimed at freezing companies and bank accounts of Assad-linked businesses and individuals, and later specifically included those on US sanctions lists, according to correspondence between the Syrian Central Bank and commercial banks reviewed by Reuters.

Hamsho and Foz, targeted by US sanctions since 2011 and 2019 respectively, returned to Syria from abroad and met with senior HTS figures in Damascus in January, according to a government official and two Syrians with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The two men, who are reviled by many ordinary Syrians for their close ties to Assad, pledged to cooperate with the new leadership’s fact-finding efforts, the three sources said.

Accused by the US Treasury of getting rich off Syria’s war, Foz’s sprawling Aman Holding conglomerate has interests in pharma, sugar refining, trading and transport.

Hamsho’s interests, grouped under the Hamsho International Group, are similarly wide-ranging, from petrochemicals and metal products to television production.

Hamsho, whom the US Treasury has accused of being a front for Assad and his brother Maher, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Foz could not be reached. The establishment of the committee, whose members are not public, and the conversations between Syria’s new government and two of the Assad government’s closest tycoons who control large parts of Syria’s economy have not been previously reported.

The new Syrian government’s approach toward powerful Assad-linked businesses, yet to be fully clarified, will be key in determining the fate of the economy as the administration struggles to convince Washington and its allies to remove sanctions, Syrian analysts and businessmen say.

Trade Minister Maher Khalil Al-Hasan and Syrian investment chief Ayman Hamawiye both confirmed to Reuters the government had been in contact with some Assad-linked businessmen, but did not identify them or provide further details.

Khaldoun Zoubi, a long-term partner of Foz, confirmed his associate had held talks with Syrian authorities but did not confirm if he had been in the country.

“Foz told them he is ready to cooperate with the new administration and provide all the support to the Syrian people and the new state,” Zoubi said from the gilded lobby of the Four Seasons hotel in central Damascus, which Foz’s group majority owns. “He is ready to do anything asked of him.”

The two Syrian sources said Foz, who holds a Turkish citizenship, had left Damascus after the talks. Reuters could not ascertain Hamsho’s whereabouts.

The US has sanctioned Foz, Hamsho and others with a prominent economic role, including Yasser Ibrahim, Assad’s most trusted adviser.

Syrian analysts say around a dozen men make up the close ring of business barons tied to the former regime. HTS-appointed government officials consider all of them to be persons of interest.

Syrian authorities have ordered companies and factories belonging or linked to the tycoons to keep working, under supervision of HTS authorities, while the committee investigates their various businesses.

“Our policy is to allow for their employees to continue working and supplying goods to the market while freezing their money movements now,” Trade Minister Hasan told Reuters in an interview early in January. “It’s a huge file. (Assad’s business allies) have the economy of a state in their hands. You can’t just tell them to leave,” he added, explaining the new government could not avoid engaging with the tycoons.

Hamsho International Group is among those put under HTS supervision, according to the sources with direct knowledge.

A Reuters visit in late January showed little work was being carried out at its modern multi-story headquarters in Damascus, where some offices had been looted in the wake of Assad’s fall.

Staff have been instructed to cooperate fully with the new Syrian administration, members of whom regularly visit the company seeking information, said one employee, who asked not to be identified by name.

Some economists say the country’s dire economic situation required major domestic corporations to continue to operate regardless of who they may be affiliated with.

The UN says 90 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line. While basic goods shortages have eased after strict trade controls dissolved in the aftermath of Assad’s fall, many Syrians still struggle to afford them.

“Syrian authorities need to be wary of a harsh crackdown on former regime cronies because this could create significant shortages (of goods),” said Karam Shaar, director of a Syria-focused economic consultancy bearing his name.

Assad’s rapid fall, culminating with his Dec. 8 escape to Russia, left many Syrian oligarchs with no time to dispose of or move their local assets that have since been frozen, giving Syria’s new rulers strong leverage in dealing with the tycoons, according to two prominent businessmen and the government official.


Vatican says Palestinians must ‘stay on their land’

Vatican says Palestinians must ‘stay on their land’
Updated 13 February 2025
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Vatican says Palestinians must ‘stay on their land’

Vatican says Palestinians must ‘stay on their land’
  • Secretary of State Pietro Parolin: ‘This is one of the fundamental points of the Holy See: no deportations’
  • Parolin: ‘The solution in our opinion is that of two states because this also means giving hope to the population’

VATICAN CITY: A top Vatican official on Thursday rejected US President Donald Trump’s proposal to move Palestinians from Gaza, saying “the Palestinian population must remain on its land.”
“This is one of the fundamental points of the Holy See: no deportations,” Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said on the sidelines of an Italy-Vatican meeting, according to the ANSA news agency.
Moving Palestinians out would cause regional tensions and “makes no sense” as neighboring countries such as Jordan are opposed, he continued.
“The solution in our opinion is that of two states because this also means giving hope to the population,” he said.
Trump has proposed taking over the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and moving its more than two million residents to Jordan or Egypt. Experts say the idea would violate international law but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called it “revolutionary.”
Pope Francis this week criticized Trump’s plans for mass deportations of undocumented migrants in the United States — drawing a sharp response.
In a letter to US bishops, the head of the Catholic Church called the deportations a “major crisis” and said sending back people who had fled their own countries in distress “damages the dignity” of the migrants.
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, responded: “I wish he’d stick to the Catholic Church and fix that and leave border enforcement to us.”