Jeffrey Sachs exposes US, Israel's role in Syrian conflict
Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Nuh Yilmaz, World Food Programme Chief Operating Officer Carl Skau, U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen and U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network President Jeffrey Sachs participate in a panel discussion titled 'Syria: Reconstructing and Reconciling the Country' at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum. Exposing the US and Israel's role in the Syrian crisis, Jeffrey Sachs said, "American interference, at the behest of Netanyahu's far-right Israel, has left the Middle East in ruins."
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Mint
8 hours ago
- Mint
A family's decade-long search for children stolen by Assad's regime
DAMASCUS—The resemblance was striking. The boy in the photograph had the family's same thick eyebrows and looked about 17, the same age Ahmed Yaseen would now be—if he was still alive. Could it be him, his aunt Naila al-Abbasi wondered? More than 12 years had passed since the boy and his five sisters had disappeared, after Syrian military intelligence detained them and their parents in the early years of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. Six months after rebels toppled the Assad regime in a seismic moment for the Middle East, many Syrians are still searching for missing relatives, including an estimated 3,700 children. An investigation by The Wall Street Journal, based on secret documents from the Assad regime and conversations with former detainees and corroborated by Syria's current government, found that at least 300 children like Ahmed were forcibly separated from their families and placed in orphanages after being detained during the country's civil war. 'He looks very similar," said al-Abbasi, who had scrolled through hundreds of photographs on Syrian orphanages' websites before finding this one. 'The nose, even the mouth." More than 112,000 Syrians arrested since the start of an uprising against Assad in 2011 remain unaccounted for, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights. That figure is comparable to the number of people who have disappeared in Mexico's drug wars, though Syria's population is only a fifth the size. Children are often used to punish or pressure opponents in war. Russia has taken thousands of children from Ukraine. Decades after Argentina's military dictatorship ended, families are still finding missing relatives seized as newborns and adopted by military couples. Dealing with this brutal legacy is a crucial challenge for the new Syria, whose government, led by an Islamist group that cut its past ties with al Qaeda, is trying to assert its control over a country riven by sectarian tensions. Syria's presidency said in May that it will set up commissions to probe crimes committed under Assad, compensate victims and trace the missing. But it is a huge and complex task for a government beset with other pressing issues, including a battered economy. Failure to address the issue of missing people 'could contribute to cycles of violence," said Kathryne Bomberger, director general of the International Commission on Missing Persons. At the time of their abduction, the Yaseen children were living in the relatively affluent Dumar neighborhood of Damascus. Their mother, Rania al-Abbasi, was a national chess champion who ran a successful dental clinic. In photographs Rania posted on social media, the children are pictured smiling alongside SpongeBob and Spider-Man performers during a trip to Syria's coast. Other pictures show Ahmed on a playground swing; wearing a cardboard crown; and with his hair gelled neatly into a crest. When the uprising against Assad began, relatives urged them to leave Syria. The family had a history with the regime: Rania's father—a prominent religious scholar—had spent 13 years in prison under Assad's father, President Hafez al-Assad, because of his oppositional views. Islamists were often considered a threat by the secular Assad regime. After Rania's father was released, the family went into exile in Saudi Arabia, where Ahmed was born. But his parents wanted to raise him and his sisters where they had roots and returned to Damascus in 2009. 'She thought she was safe," said Rania's younger sister, Naila, a doctor who remained in Saudi Arabia with much of the family. Between six children and work, Rania had no time to get involved in political activity or protests, even if she supported their demands. But she did give generously to Syrians displaced by the government's crackdown. And her father, from abroad, had voiced support for the uprising. It was enough to bring the regime's fist down on the family. On March 9, 2013, Syrian intelligence agents came for Rania's husband, Abdurrahman Yaseen. Two days later, they returned and took Ahmed and the other children, between 1 and 14 years old, along with their mother. The father's fate eventually came to light in a cache of 50,000 images smuggled out of Syria by a forensic photographer who defected in 2013. The grim catalog contained photographs of some 6,786 Syrians who had died in custody, some with their eyes gouged out. Among the images was one of Abdurrahman. Still, there was no sign of Ahmed, his siblings or Rania. The strongest lead came from another mother who had been detained with her children the year after al-Abbasi and her family. Freed in a prisoner exchange in 2017, Rasha al-Sharbaji revealed that security services had seized her five children and placed them in an orphanage run by SOS Children's Villages, an international charity with several locations in Syria. She said she recovered her children from the charity after being released. Asking around, relatives learned that four sisters with age gaps similar to four of the Yaseen girls were living in one of the centers of SOS Children's Villages. But orphanage staff were too afraid to speak, according to family members, and a lawyer appointed to ask the authorities received no answers. After the regime crumbled in December, thousands of prisoners stumbled out of fetid prison cells as Syrians celebrated in the streets. Scattered abroad, members of the extended family mobilized a fresh search, including approaching SOS Children's Villages again. In a statement, its Syria operation acknowledged it had received 139 children 'without proper documentation" between 2014 and 2018, when it demanded the authorities stop placing such cases in its care. Most of those children were returned to authorities under the former regime, SOS Children's Villages said, citing an audit into past records. The Journal couldn't determine what happened to them later. 'We regret the untenable situation we found ourselves in when receiving the children and unequivocally disapprove of such practices," it said. The group said it had taken steps to ensure it didn't happen again. The organization has since filed a claim with Damascus's public prosecutor to open an official investigation into the Yaseen children's disappearance. It said there was no record they had ever been placed in SOS Children's Villages' care. The family expanded their search to other orphanages. Baraa al-Ayoubi, director of the al-Rahma orphanage in Damascus, said Syrian security agents had placed 100 children of detainees in her care over the course of the war, but none of them belonged to Rania. The orphanage was forbidden to disclose details about the children, even to their relatives, when Assad was in power, she said. Eventually, all the children were handed back to their parents, she said. Records in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, which has authority over orphanages, confirmed the practice was official. Tucked away in bulging files were secret communiqués from Syria's intelligence services, seen by a Journal reporter, instructing the ministry to transfer detainees' children to orphanages. An investigation launched by the ministry found a document indicating that SOS Children's Villages had returned the Yaseen children to the former regime. But the family wasn't convinced the document, which wasn't on official letterhead, was real. SOS Children's Villages declined to confirm whether it was authentic. A search of the ministry's archives identified about 300 children who were transferred to four orphanages in Damascus, said spokesman Saad al-Jaberi. But many documents have likely been lost, Jaberi said, and the answers that relatives of the 3,700 missing children are seeking may lie elsewhere. 'There are many mass graves," he said. As the search foundered, the children's aunt, Naila, traveled to Damascus from Saudi Arabia, returning to her home country for the first time since before the uprising. Opening the door to her sister's apartment, it was as though time had stopped on the day the family was taken 12 years earlier. Dust-covered school books were stacked neatly on the dining-room table. The refrigerator's contents had rotted beyond recognition. In a notebook belonging to the second-eldest child, there were declarations of love for Syria. 'We'll stay in Syria until you leave, Bashar," wrote Najah Yaseen, who was 11 at the time the family was detained. A cigarette butt on a tray was the only apparent trace left by the security men. Another document, collected by civil-society groups from Syria's air force intelligence, indicated that Rania had been transferred to another branch of the security apparatus in 2014. There was no reference to the children, suggesting they might have been separated by then. The family could only assume she had been killed, but they wouldn't give up on the children. Family members studied photographs on orphanage websites and official channels of the former Syrian government. A girl in a promotional video for SOS Children's Villages strongly resembled one of the Yaseen girls, Dima, who would now be 25. SOS Children's Villages insisted she was someone else. Family members weren't sure they would recognize the children today, so a family friend used artificial intelligence to visualize what they might look like now. After seeing the boy who resembled Ahmed on the website of Lahn al-Hayat, another orphanage, the family tracked him down. His name was Omar Abdurrahman—not Ahmed Yaseen—but other children who grew up in the orphanage said their identities had been changed. Orphanage administrators declined to comment. He couldn't remember anything about his life before the orphanage. But maybe the trauma of being detained at the age of 5 had erased his memories—and the likeness was undeniable. While family members waited for a DNA test to settle any doubt, Omar began referring to the missing boy's aunts as his own. When he saw a photograph of Ahmed, he recognized himself. 'That's me when I was young," he said. Weeks went by before a laboratory finally processed the test. The result came back negative. The boy remained at the orphanage. For the Abbasi family, the search continues. Write to Isabel Coles at
India.com
18 hours ago
- India.com
This country has fought maximum wars in the world; not US, Russia, UK, Germany, it is..., India has...
(Representational image/AI generated) New Delhi: If we look back at history, it is full of armed conflicts and wars as wars would decide the survival or dominance of one side over other sides. In fact, the world has witnessed massive loss of life and infrastructure during the two World Wars. Wars have and still play an important role in a person's life and in shaping the world's politics. Wars have been fought to establish and destroy civilizations, and for the expansion of states. There have been so many wars and battles fought that many of them might not have been documented. The same applies to the number of people killed in them. Here, we are talking about a country in the world which has fought the most wars and where India ranks on this list. Many reports mention that France is the country that has fought the most wars. France has a significant colonial history, having enslaved many countries around the world during which several battles were fought. Up until now, France has fought 13 wars in the 20th century. According to a report by 247wallst, in these 13 wars, France participated in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021 as a member country of NATO. The French military has also been entangled in the struggles in Maghreb in Africa for a long time. France participated in the civil war in Ivory Coast. There has also been participation of French forces in the civil war in Chad. France has also engaged in the Somali civil war. Additionally, the French military has openly participated in battles against Boko Haram, the Libyan civil war, warfare in Mali, the Syrian civil war, and the Iraqi civil war. Where does India stand When it comes to the wars of the 20th century, India has fought wars with both Pakistan and China. The major wars include those fought in 1947, 1962, 1965, 1971, and 1999, in addition to occasional skirmishes between the Indian Army and the forces of China and Pakistan. Based on participation in wars, India is considered to hold the fifth position globally, although this number could be doubtful.
India.com
21 hours ago
- India.com
Turkey president Erdogan issues shocking order, asks Turkish people to give birth to...
President Erdogan becomes Turkey's new dictator, puts opposition leaders...., ready to change… After the 'Boycott Turkey' campaign, Erdoğan is now grappling with a new crisis. The population of Turkey is consistently decreasing, and the Turkish women's low birth rate has emerged as a huge concern for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Declining birth rates are now being perceived as a threat larger than war. To address this, the Turkish government has launched several measures to promote childbirth and has announced 2025 as the 'Year of the Family.' Last month, Erdoğan stated that the 'Decade of Family' would be starting in 2026. However, his appeal for women to have at least three children and the financial incentives offered to newlyweds may not be enough, as Turkey continues to struggle with a deepening economic crisis. According to the AFP report, Official statistics indicate that Turkey's birth rate has dropped from 2.38 children per woman in 2001 to 1.48 in 2025, which is actually below that of France, the UK, or the US. Erdoğan, a 71-year-old Islamist president and father of four himself, has described this drop as 'a disaster'. Over his 22-year period of office as Prime Minister and subsequently President of the nation of 85 million, Erdoğan has seen the fertility rate fall sharply. He has attributed this to women as well as the LGBTQ community. According to the AFP report, President Erdogan has blamed both women and LGBTQ 'perverts'. Retired academic and feminist activist Berrin Sönmez was quoted as saying by AFP,'Women and LGBTQ individuals are considered the only culprits for the declining population growth rate, with no acknowledgement of political mistakes.'
