Latest news with #Diyarbakir
The Independent
3 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Is your journey really medically advisable? My plan to cut the number of flight diversions
'We're sincerely sorry for the disruption experienced by flight VS358 customers due to the urgent medical diversion followed by technical inspections of the aircraft.' So said Virgin Atlantic after a recent London Heathrow to Mumbai flight spent two nights on the ground at a small, remote airport. As always when medical emergencies happen in flight, the crew are entirely focused on what is best for the unwell passenger. On this occasion they landed as soon as they could, at Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey – about 80 miles (128km) north of the Syrian border. Touching down heavily with enough fuel for five more hours of flight meant engineers had to be summoned to check the Airbus A350 could safely fly again. More than 250 passengers – as well as airline staff – endured a miserable 40 hours before they finally reached Mumbai. Diversions on compassionate grounds are essential, but expensive and disruptive. We need a debate on the right of a passenger to travel regardless of the impact on fellow travellers. Medical diversions are becoming more frequent, for three reasons. Average aircraft size is increasing. The more passengers, the higher the chance one of them will need medical attention. Flights are getting longer, giving more time for the stresses of flying to manifest themselves on a vulnerable passenger. People are living longer and travelling into their eighties and nineties, with a commensurate increased risk of inflight complications. A former senior executive for a highly rated long-haul airline told me how medical diversions unfold. 'Not all airlines are equal – you get what you pay for. You are paying for experience and operational preparedness. 'Good airlines will likely have arrangements for remote medical support, so that the crew – and possibly a doctor, if one is on board – can liaise with health specialists. 'There might be a medical advantage to 'pressing on', or turning back. Some airlines have contracts with ground providers all around the world – not at every airport, but enough to give them good back-up coverage. That will impact how fast they can be en route again, as the providers can guarantee to the airport that costs will be settled. 'The horror scenario is if the crew run out of hours. There's always some buffer room for regular operational reasons but it might not be sufficient if a medical diversion eats it away.' There is one simple message my source wants to put out: 'If you are in doubt, don't fly.' Travel insurance is relevant here. If you have an imminent booking for a flight that cost many hundreds or thousands of pounds, you might feel impelled to step aboard rather than wasting the money. Good insurance should remove that pressure. Should passengers be obliged to complete a health declaration before flying, I asked on X (formerly Twitter)? And, if so, should that apply only to travellers over a certain age. Of more than 1,100 responses, 36 per cent said everyone should make a declaration. That was slightly ahead of the one in three who said no one should need to provide health information in advance. Older travellers be warned: they could be coming for you. One in seven respondents said everyone over 70 should be compelled to complete a form; one in six recommended the age divide should be 80. There are many reasonable objections to any controls being imposed. Surely everyone should have the right to fly? Wouldn't banning alcohol be a less-discriminatory way to reduce diversions, because drunk and aggressive passengers trigger diversions too? One possible solution: make it mandatory for everyone boarding a long-haul plane to have travel insurance in place that will cover the losses for the airline (in the case of Virgin Atlantic incident, probably around £500,000) if the passenger falls ill and the pilots divert. The market will see to it that those who pose the highest risk will face painfully high premiums that may price them out of flying. Cruel, but possibly also kind: medical standards vary widely across the world, and a passenger who suddenly needs healthcare may not get the best possible treatment in a random foreign hospital. Let me know your thoughts, by email to s@ Simon Calder, also known as The Man Who Pays His Way, has been writing about travel for The Independent since 1994. In his weekly opinion column, he explores a key travel issue – and what it means for you.
Arab News
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Turkiye, PKK must both change for peace: former militant
DIYARBAKIR, Turkiye: 'When you try and explain peace to people, there is a very serious lack of trust,' said Yuksel Genc, a former fighter with the PKK, which recently ended its decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state. Talking over a glass of tea in a square in Diyarbakir, the biggest city in Turkiye's Kurdish-dominated southeast, this 50-year-old former fighter with long auburn curls is worried about how the nascent rapprochement between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) will play out. 'The guerillas are sincere, but they don't think the state is,' said Genc, her words briefly interrupted by the roar of a fighter jet flying overhead. 'They think the government does not trust them.' For years, she was a fighter with the Kurdish rebel group, which on May 12 said it would disarm and disband, ending a four-decade armed struggle against the Turkish state that cost more than 40,000 lives. The historic move came in response to an appeal by its jailed founder Abdullah Ocalan, arrested in 1999 and serving life in solitary ever since on a prison island near Istanbul. Genc herself joined the militants in 1995 when she was a 20-year-old university student in Istanbul. 'At that time, many Kurdish villages were being burnt down, and we were constantly hearing about villages being evacuated, people being displaced and unsolved murders,' she said. She described it as 'a time of terrible repression.' 'You felt trapped, as if there was no other way than to join the guerrillas,' she said. Four years later, after years in exile, Ocalan was snatched by Turkish commandos in a Hollywood-style operation in Nairobi. 'Ocalan's capture provoked a deep sense of rage among the guerrillas, who feared it would mean the Kurdish cause would be destroyed,' she said. But it was Ocalan himself who called for calm and insisted it was time for the Kurdish question to be resolved democratically. He urged his followers to go to Turkiye, hand over their weapons and seek dialogue. 'He thought our arrival would symbolize (the PKK's) goodwill, and persuade the state to negotiate.' Genc was part of the first so-called 'groups for peace and a democratic solution' — a group of three women and five men who arrived in Turkiye on October 1, 1999 on what they knew would be a 'sacrificial' mission. After a long march through the mountains, they arrived in the southeastern village of Semdinli under the watchful eye of 'thousands' of Turkish soldiers huddled behind rocks. Handing over their weapons, they were transferred to the city of Van 200 kilometers (140 miles) to the north where they were arrested. Genc spent the next nearly six years behind bars. 'For us, these peace groups were a mission,' she said. 'The solution had to come through dialogue.' After getting out, she continued to struggle for Kurdish rights, swapping her gun for a pen to become a journalist and researcher for the Sosyo Politik think tank. Even so, her writing earned her another three-and-a-half years behind bars. 'Working for peace in Turkiye has a cost,' she said with a shrug. When Recep Tayyip Erdogan became prime minister in 2003, there was hope for a new breakthrough. But several attempts to reach an agreement went nowhere — until now. 'Like in 1999, the PKK is moving toward a non-violent struggle,' she said. 'But laying down arms is not the end of the story. It is preparing to become a political organization.' Resolving the decades-long conflict requires a change on both sides however, said Genc. 'It essentially involves a mutual transformation,' she argued. 'It is impossible for the state to stick with its old ways without transforming, while trying to resolve a problem as old and divisive as the Kurdish question.' Despite the recent opening, Genc does not speak of hope. 'Life has taught us to be realistic: years of experience have generated an ocean of insecurity,' she said. '(PKK fighters) have shown their courage by saying they will lay down their weapons without being defeated. But they haven't seen any concrete results.' So far, the government, which initiated the process last autumn, has not taken any steps nor made any promises, she pointed out. 'Why haven't the sick prisoners been released? And those who have served their sentences — why aren't they benefiting from the climate of peace?' And Ocalan, she said, was still being held in solitary despite promises of a change in his situation. The number of people jailed for being PKK members or close to the group has never been revealed by the Turkish authorities. 'The fact that Ocalan is still not in a position to be able to lead this process toward a democratic solution is a major drawback from the militants' point of view,' she said. 'Even our daily life remains totally shaped by security constraints across the region with the presence of the army, the roadblocks — all that has to change.'
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Old Turkey crash image falsely linked to South Asia conflict
"First photo of Pakistani fighter pilot captured by India," says an X post on May 9, 2025, which features a night time picture of a group of people standing in a field. "He was caught in Lathi near Jaisalmer. He is injured," the post adds, referring to a village in the northwestern Indian city. Around 70 people were killed during four days of intense fighting in May between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan, sparked by a deadly attack on tourists by gunmen in Indian-administered Kashmir. New Delhi blamed Islamabad for the assault, which Pakistan denies (archived link). A May 10 ceasefire ended the intense tit-for-tat drone, missile, aerial combat and artillery exchanges, and both sides have agreed to withdraw their troops back to peacetime positions by the end of the month. Similar claims appeared on X and Instagram, while several Indian news media articles featured the same image. However, there have been no official reports that a Pakistani military pilot was captured in Jaisalmer as of May 22. A reverse image search on Google found the picture published by photo agency Getty Images on December 12, 2016, credited to AFP (archived link). The photo's caption in AFP's archives reads: "Turkish military personnel arrive near a Turkish F16 war plane which crashed in Diyarbakir on December 12, 2016" (archived link). The country's military said the fighter jet crashed near an airport in the south-eastern city of Diyarbakir, but the pilot ejected safely, the caption also states. "The cause of the crash was not immediately known but the government said an investigation had been launched." The incident was also reported by Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency, which said the jet crashed during a training session (archived link). Pakistani media organisation Geo Fact Check debunked similar claims about the photo (archived link). AFP's fact-checks of misinformation triggered by the recent conflict between Pakistan and India can be found here.
Reuters
21-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Estimated 6 billion barrel shale oil reserve in southeast Turkey, minister says
SIRNAK, Turkey, May 21 (Reuters) - U.S. oil producer Continental Resources estimates there is a shale oil reserve of 6.1 billion barrels in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir Basin, the Turkish energy minister said. Continental Resources and Turkish national oil company TPAO signed a joint venture agreement in March to develop shale fields in the basin. "Turkey's current annual (crude) oil import amounts to 365 million barrels. So a 6.1 billion barrel reserve is a great figure," Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told reporters during a visit to southeast Turkey this week. The minister previously heralded the March agreement as "a new era in local crude oil exploration" with Turkey viewing shale oil and gas discoveries as a key development. It is aiming to produce shale gas from the northwestern Thrace region, Bayraktar said. "Shale oil and shale gas could be a game changer," he said. Continental Resources did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Turkey is not a major oil and gas producer and currently imports more than 90% of its energy needs. The government is looking to cut its import bill and boost supply security by developing domestic resources and expanding international partnerships in oil and gas exploration. President Tayyip Erdogan recently announced that Turkey had discovered a new reserve of 75 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas during drilling works in the Black Sea.
Jordan Times
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Jordan Times
Pro-Kurd party seeks 'confidence-building measures' from Ankara as PKK disbands
Men watch the announcement of PKK's dissolution on the News on a television screen inside a traditional Turkish tea house, in Diyarbakir, on May 12, 2025 (AFP photo) ANKARA — Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM party said Tuesday that it wanted to see "confidence-building measures" from the government a day after the Kurdish militant PKK announced the end of four decades of armed struggle. Tuncer Bakirhan, co-chair of DEM, which played a key role in facilitating contacts with the PKK, urged the government to take concrete steps before the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha which starts on June 6 in Turkey."Making some humane, concrete and confidence-building steps without postponing them until after the holiday is the right way for Turkey to move forward," he told reporters."We expect the government to fulfil its duties and responsibilities in this regard."His remarks came a day after the PKK said it was disbanding following seven months of shuttle diplomacy in which DEM passed messages between jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan and Turkey's political far, it is not clear how the PKK's declaration will benefit the Kurds who make up about 20 percent of Turkey's 85 million population, nor what DEM will get in exchange for facilitating the observers are expecting the government to show a new openness to the are hoping the move will result in political prisoners being freed, Bakirhan said."The demands we hear most are about releasing sick prisoners before Eid al-Adha... that would turn it into a double holiday," he said."It would be reasonable to expect some steps, even symbolic ones, from the government," Adnan Celik, an expert at the Paris School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences [EHESS], told AFP. "Freeing [Selahattin] Demirtas would be a strong gesture likely to speed up implementation of this historic decision," he said, referring to the former leader of the first pro-Kurdish party to hold seats in Turkey's parliament.
