Middle East Press on: Genocide, Syria, Israel, Palestine, Movement: New Age Islam's Selection, 31 December 2024
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
31 December 2024
NYT ‘Investigates’ Genocide, Uncovers Nothing But ‘Loosened Standards’
Jimmy Carter: The Father Of Arab-Israeli Normalisation
Türkiye And Syria, A Joint Future?
The Year Israel Began To Live In Infamy
Türkiye's Energy Outlook For 2024: Strategies, Scenarios, Risks
Palestine And The Power Of The Boycott Movement
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NYT ‘Investigates’ Genocide, Uncovers Nothing But ‘Loosened Standards’
30 Dec 2024
On Thursday, The New York Times ran a bazillion-word would-be expose on the ongoing United States-backed Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip titled Israel Loosened Its Rules to Bomb Hamas Fighters, Killing Many More Civilians. It can also be listened to on the newspaper’s website – if you happen to have 28 minutes and 27 seconds to kill.
The word “genocide” appears exactly once in the article – and only as an allegation that Israel denies: “Israel, which has been accused of genocide in a case before the International Court of Justice, says it complies with international law by taking all feasible precautions to minimize civilian casualties.”
And yet as the article itself demonstrates, any such pretence of precaution was essentially thrown to the wind on October 7, 2023, when the Israeli military issued an order that gave mid-ranking officers unprecedented leeway in authorising attacks on Gaza. In previous conflicts with Hamas, according to the Times, “many Israeli strikes were approved only after officers concluded that no civilians would be hurt” – which would certainly be news to the thousands of Palestinians in Gaza slaughtered by Israel in the past 20 years alone.
The new order gave officers the “authority to risk killing up to 20 civilians” with each strike and meant that the military could “target rank-and-file militants as they were at home surrounded by relatives and neighbors, instead of only when they were alone outside”. One wonders how the Israeli military nonetheless managed to pulverise entire apartment buildings in Gaza in every war leading up to this by only targeting militants “when they were alone outside”.
Patting themselves on the back for their scoop, the article’s authors stress that the October 7 order had not been previously reported – as though the fact that Israeli officers were authorised to risk killing civilians is somehow surprising in a genocide. But rather than report genocide as fact, the Western corporate media instead obscure the big picture by concerning themselves with things like extensive investigations into Israel’s bureaucratic manoeuvres to “loosen” the rules of war.
More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023 although the true death toll is undoubtedly significantly higher. As per Article II of the Genocide Convention, genocide means “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”, including by “killing members of the group” or “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group”.
But the corporate media refuse to take even the Israeli leadership’s own word for it and the flaunting of genocidal intent day in and day out for nearly 15 months. Deputy Knesset Speaker Nissim Vaturi, for example, took to the platform X at the outset of the war to proclaim: “Now we all have one common goal – erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the Earth.” Shortly thereafter, Israeli President Isaac Herzog chimed in with the suggestion that civilians in Gaza were absolutely legitimate targets: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.”
While the Times report includes damning details regarding Israel’s behaviour, at the end of the day it’s always the fault of Hamas – and Israel is always permitted to remain in the self-appointed club of ethical and “civilised” nations. This enables the United States newspaper of record to project a veneer of fair-minded criticism without fundamentally condemning Israel’s current mass extermination campaign.
So it is that the Times informs us that “unlike Hamas, which fires rockets indiscriminately at civilian areas, Israel and all Western armies operate under a multilayered oversight system that assesses the legality of planned strikes.” Never mind that much of the Israeli military activity described in the article itself would appear to qualify as indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas.
After the October 7 order, another order issued on October 8, 2023, permitted the military to “cumulatively endanger up to 500 civilians a day” in strikes. The article continues: “In any case, the limit was removed two days later – allowing officers to sign off on as many strikes as they believed were legal.”
Other findings from the Times investigation also imply blatant indiscrimination, such as that the Israelis “often relied on a crude statistical model to assess the risk of civilian harm, and sometimes launched strikes on targets several hours after last locating them, increasing the risk of error”. Plus, the military “struck at a pace that made it harder to confirm it was hitting legitimate targets” while also adopting an “unproven system for finding new targets that used artificial intelligence at a vast scale”.
But this, after all, is what happens in genocide. If Times journalists weren’t so committed to parroting the US establishment line on Israel and disappearing the G-word, perhaps they would have been less shocked to find that “on a few occasions, senior [Israeli] commanders approved strikes on Hamas leaders that they knew would each endanger more than 100 non-combatants – crossing an extraordinary threshold for a contemporary Western military.”
Meanwhile, as the Times gets bogged down with the particulars of Israeli military orders, Israel carries on with its goal of “erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the Earth” with the help of extraordinary quantities of US money and weaponry. And unfortunately, media complicity in letting Israel get away with genocide is hardly extraordinary at all.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/12/30/nyt-investigates-genocide-uncovers-nothing-but-loosened-standards
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Jimmy Carter: The Father Of Arab-Israeli Normalisation
30 Dec 2024
On December 29, former President Jimmy Carter passed away at the age of 100. As the 39th president of the United States and as a private citizen, Carter was an advocate for peace between nations, democracy and various humanitarian and environmental causes. But in the Middle East, he is going to be remembered as the father of Arab-Israeli normalisation.
Sworn in as president in 1977, Carter was given the opportunity by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to be the architect of the first normalisation deal between an Arab country and the Zionist state. He helped Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin conclude the 1978 Camp David Accords and negotiate the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty that formally ended the conflict between the two countries.
As developments in the past four decades have shown, neither the accords nor the treaty led to peace and justice in the Middle East. Israel continues its occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and has launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip; the Palestinians still do not have an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital; and an overwhelming majority of the Arab public refuses to recognise Israel or agree to normalising relations with it.
Looking back at the accords Carter brokered, it is clear that they were the beginning of the slow and gradual, although not publicly acknowledged, abandonment of the Palestinian cause by Arab officialdom, and a US campaign to bury Palestinian national aspirations.
The legacy of Camp David
The Camp David Accords were first and foremost a roadmap towards a full Egyptian-Israeli peace, full recognition of Israel by Egypt, and an end to Egypt’s participation in the Arab economic boycott of Israel. To be sure, the accords were a mere framework for negotiations between the two countries that would lead a few months later to the signing of a peace treaty.
But they also included provisions related to the Palestinian people, whose wording was indicative of the ultimate purpose of the accords. The document spoke of a plan to provide “autonomy” to the “inhabitants” of the occupied territory, as if the Palestinians were aliens squatting in the West Bank and Gaza.
At the time, the US had not yet recognised the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Thus, the accords called for electing a “self-governing authority” for the occupied territory. But that autonomy and the elected authority were to be supervised by Israel, Egypt, and Jordan, in obvious violation of the Palestinians’ right to constitute an independent, national government.
Throughout the 1980s, and because of US-supported Israeli objections, the Palestinians were absent and prevented from playing a role in devising peace plans for the Arab-Israeli and Palestine-Israel conflict. But the eruption of the first Intifada in December of 1987 and Jordan’s 1988 relinquishing of its claim to the West Bank made it clear that the Palestinians could no longer be ignored in peace negotiations.
Still, in 1991, the Palestinians participating in the Madrid Conference were only present as part of a Jordanian delegation, once again denying their nationhood.
Like other iterations of the US-led and sponsored “peace process”, the Madrid path led to a stalemate, as Israel continued to ignore the Palestinians’ national rights and reject any talk of ending its occupation. Following the Israeli elections in 1992 that brought the Labor Party to power, the US shepherded the Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel that created the Palestinian National Authority (PA). As a constituted government for the Palestinians, the PA was required to recognise Israel’s right to exist before securing official Israeli acknowledgement of Palestinian grievances and national aspirations.
Jordan, for its part, had to sign a peace treaty with Israel, becoming the second Arab state after Egypt to recognise the Zionist state. All Amman was able to preserve from its relationship with Palestine was its custodianship of religious sites in Jerusalem, a status that is constantly challenged by the Israeli authorities today.
The Abraham Accords
Throughout the so-called “peace process” that the Camp David Accords set in motion, the US was keen to encourage Arab states to consider their interests separately from those of the Palestinians. This encouragement became a full-fledged campaign during the presidency of Donald Trump who, along with his administration lieutenants, evinced more than the usual American bias in favour of the Zionist state.
In 2020, Trump presided over the signing of the so-called Abraham Accords that normalised relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco. Sudan joined the following year.
While all Arab states involved insisted that the normalisation of relations with Israel would help improve the lives of Palestinians and should not be seen as abandoning them, the truth was they all got something in return for recognising Israel with no regard for Palestinian interests.
The UAE’s normalisation with Israel appears to be the fastest and deepest. The two countries have quickly developed and expanded military and economic relations. Bahrain aimed to use its relations with Israel as a hedge against an aggressive Iran. Morocco received a much-desired US recognition of its sovereignty over the Western Sahara. And Sudan was able to get itself removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.
To be sure, the Abraham Accords were no more than transactions that advanced the signers’ interests at the expense of the Palestinian cause, thus allowing Israel to deepen its apartheid policies and entrench its occupation of Palestinian land.
And it is not difficult to see a strong desire in the upcoming Trump administration for an expanded map of Arab normalisation with Israel, one that includes Saudi Arabia, for example. As was the case with earlier normalisation deals, the Palestinians will be the last to count on any dividends from more Arab openness on Israel.
A welcome change of heart
After the end of his presidential term, Carter continued to pursue efforts for peace between Palestinians and Israelis. But the more he observed the situation on the ground, the more he became convinced that the US policy of steadfast support for Israel was wrong and counterproductive.
Thus in 2007, he published a book titled Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid in which he declared that Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territories amounted to the crime of apartheid. This was a welcome change of heart from a long-held conviction among many US politicians and opinion-makers. Carter remains the only prominent US politician brave enough to call Israeli policies and practices by their proper name.
As Americans mourn his death and remember his legacy, it is important to reflect on the disastrous US policies in Palestine. Over the past four decades, Israel’s occupation has grown more and more violent thanks in large part to unconditional US support.
It is time for Washington to revise its stance on Israel-Palestine. A reversal in US policy on Palestine – one that recognises Palestinian rights and holds Israel accountable for its crimes – is something Jimmy Carter likely would have wanted to see in his lifetime.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/12/30/jimmy-carter-the-father-of-arab-israeli-normalisation
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Türkiye And Syria, A Joint Future?
By Haitham Al-Haddad
DEC 31, 2024
Ties between Türkiye and Syria have for centuries been brotherly. Despite the tensions brought about by the behavior of the tyrannical Assad dynasty, links between the two countries go far beyond the brutal excesses of a single family.
The pair were in the same country for over 400 years during the Ottoman period. But the roots go deeper still. In fact, it was Damascus’ historic Umayyad Mosque that inspired the architecture of both the Diyarbakır Grand Mosque and that of Izmir’s Isa Bey Mosque as well.
How fitting, then, that Türkiye's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) chief Ibrahim Kalın prayed at that sacred site on his recent trip to the Syrian capital for talks with the caretaker Prime Minister Mohammad al-Bashir. Indeed, Mr. Kalın’s arrival heralded the hope that these two countries will complement their shared past with a shared future.
The relations reset with the new government appear to be off to a strong start. Türkiye's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s trip to Damascus on Dec. 22, together with the reopening of Ankara’s embassy in Syria after 12 years, suggest that there is a high level of intimacy already established between the two partners, or at the very least, the ambition to build such a relationship.
All this is paving the road for close cooperation going forward. This is essential for the prosperity of both nations; after all, who makes a better customer than a wealthy neighbor? There are ample opportunities for enhanced economic, cultural and security cooperation. Vibrant trade and investment, strengthened bonds through tourism and education and more are all within reach.
Rebuilding Syria together
Türkiye could play an important role, for instance, in rebuilding Syria’s industrial infrastructure so savagely devastated by the Assad regime. Not only that, but Ankara’s diplomatic gravitas could also be at the core of the revival of Syria’s oil and gas sector, a critical pillar of the country’s economy.
Regrettably, sanctions placed on the Assad regime remain in force despite the change in government. In fact, Syria is still one of the world’s most sanctioned countries and its fuel industries are no exception. Ankara must exert pressure on the international community to ensure all sanctions are lifted and it is encouraging that Foreign Minister Fidan has already started making calls for this. To do so could allow the fledgling authorities to generate much-needed income for the reconstruction of the country and the benefit of the Syrian people. Türkiye would doubtless benefit from such efforts and could improve its own fuel security from this neighboring market. It is not only the revival of the sector that is on the table, either.
New opportunities could come to the fore as well. The Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has already expressed hopes that a planned gas pipeline linking Qatar to Türkiye via Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria – once scuppered by the previous regime – could be taken off the shelf and implemented. Such a pipeline would bring Qatari gas directly to Europe and cut the need for costly liquified natural gas shipments, making a huge difference to regional dynamics and putting both countries – one at the heart of the Muslim-majority world and the other steadily linking Europe and Asia – in a more influential position geopolitically.
The two partners stand to make similar gains in the maritime sphere. Since the departure of Bashar Assad, Syria’s shipping sector has become a no-go zone, with reports surfacing on Dec. 9 that no commercial vessels are moored in Syrian ports. This state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue. Ankara and Damascus must explore possible avenues to create a win-win in the eastern Mediterranean that enables these ports to return to their former use and ensures that Turkish ports, as well as those of other regional countries, can benefit too in the long run. I am confident that Ankara has the skills to build such a situation. Let’s not forget that it was under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s leadership that Türkiye played a key role in brokering a maritime deal that ended a dispute between Ethiopia and Somalia not too long ago.
Returning home with bonds
Who could be the torchbearers of visions like these at the important grassroots level? While government buy-in is essential, we must never forget the role of individuals themselves. A successful person understands that where there is calamity, there is also opportunity. Over the course of the Syrian conflict, Türkiye nobly took in millions of refugees, as well as other Syrian nationals. Many of these people are now optimistically waiting to return to their ancestral homeland to permanently rebuild their lives. I am not in any doubt that many of these people will be able to spearhead and solidify the strengthening of ties between Türkiye and free Syria in a way that allows both societies to flourish.
Why shouldn’t they? Many of these individuals have been well-exposed to Turkish culture. They have a strong command of the Turkish language as well as Arabic, while some, having been born and raised in Türkiye and experienced its education system, have native-level proficiency. There are Syrians who have family ties through marriage to Turkish citizens and others who are Turkish nationals themselves. Moreover, the majority of Turkish and Syrian people share a common faith in Islam. These shared values are key to this partnership’s success and longevity; as the Prophet Muhammad reminds us, "A believer to another believer is like a building whose different parts enforce each other."
And, what could be a better reminder to both parties of their obligations to one another than the Quranic verse: “And cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression.”
I am confident that in the coming decades, these people can realize their potential as the ones who will help build a brighter future for the two countries that are so dear to them, inshallah. The opportunities are on the horizon; better seize them.
https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/turkiye-and-syria-a-joint-future
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The Year Israel Began To Live In Infamy
By Hakki Öcal
DEC 30, 2024
Iam not composing this farewell message to the Year 2024 out of spite. I carry feelings of hurt, jealousy and the desire to lash out, as it has been a year of genocide. A genocide, something we thought was buried in the heap of ashes of history in Europe 80 years ago and in Rwanda and Bosnia 30 years ago, raised its ugly head in 2024 yet again. What makes it even more hurtful is the fact that its perpetrators, this time, are the people of its first victims. What is even more upsetting than that, is that we could have known the recent genocide that is happening would occur.
Humanity’s shameful legacy of “destroying, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” began with Jewish people as its first victims in Europe, and ironically, Israelis have become the sole perpetrators of the last genocide in Palestine. We should not blame all Jewish people for this crime against humanity – neither Judaism nor its sincere faithful are the slaughterers of tens of thousands of Palestinians. But Zionism and its adherents in Israel, the United States and Europe were (and still are) at the helm of this deplorable atrocity.
Simply check out those internet sites dedicated to “Torah Judaism,” which refers to schools of thought in Judaism that are perceived to be most adherent to the Torah and other commandments. Orthodox Jewish groups often use the term to refer to their own system of beliefs. They are anti-Zionists; they do not serve in the Israeli army. They believe that the only enemies of the Jews are Zionism and Israel. This is not a joke: there really are religious Jews all over the world who work and pray for Zionism and Israel to disappear as soon as possible. They consider Zionism “a perverted ideology” and Israel “as an irreligious state.” You have to see Rabbi Cohen’s short history lessons on their social media sites.
Accordingly, Zionists are liars, thieves and frauds; they distort, desecrate and pervert traditional Jewish teachings. Judaism, like all religions, is the opposite of nationalism. However, the Zionism that began running rampant in the 1860s in Europe was not a religious but a nationalist ideology. The pioneering work on creating a “Jewish homeland in Jerusalem” was written in 1860 by Moses Hess, a German philosopher, and early communist whose theories led to disagreements with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, under the title of “Rome and Jerusalem: The Last National Question.”
The homeland the “Communist Rabbi” proposed was a socialist country that would redeem Jews through agriculture. The idea of migrating all Jews out of Europe was so popular among the adherents of Zionism that one of its leaders, Theodor Herzl, appealed to the Ottoman state for a Jewish country. It was not exactly the idea of redemption through the land but the ample opportunity of real-estate deals in his mind. Herzl came to Istanbul in 1896 with a deal he thought the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II couldn't turn down. The Ottoman state was then under an accumulated debt burden; Herzl offered to pay $2.2 billion in today's currency for the Ottoman Sultan to issue a charter for Jews to colonize Palestine. Herzl, through his interlocutors with the Ottoman Sultan, Philip de Newlinski and Arminius Vambery, exclaimed that without the help of Zionists, the Ottoman economy would not stand a chance of recovery, but the Sultan refused the offer outright.
However, the story didn’t end there. Many non-Jews and even anti-Semites supported the idea of European Jews' migration to a place as a means of ridding what Europe called its “Jewish problem.” If they wanted to go to their Biblical homes and the Ottomans were not acceding, no problem: the Great Powers of Europe would dismember the Ottoman Empire and open the land for them.
Those Biblical times had passed a long, long time ago, like 3,000 years ago, and now those lands have been inhabited by several people. Yet the hospitable owners of these lands, the Christians, Muslims and Jews, who had migrated to the Holy Lands themselves, not as part of a massive migration, in a word, the Palestinians, opened their homes and villages to these new neighbors. However, there was a minor problem: the newcomers wanted the land, not the people on it.
As Chaim Weizmann wrote in 1914 in one of his letters: “There is a country which happens to be called Palestine, a country without a people, and, on the other hand, there exist the Jewish people, and it has no country. What else is necessary than to fit the gem into the ring to unite these people with this country? The owners of the country must, therefore, be persuaded and convinced that this marriage is advantageous, not only for the (Jewish) people and for the country, but also for themselves.”
The Zionists called this migration “a marriage;" they wanted the land for themselves. They were not interested in coexisting with the locals. The existence of the Palestinian population and identity, therefore, needed to be removed from the map and from historical memories. In this “marriage,” the Zionists only wanted the dowry and not the bride.
The Zionist hordes were so ruthless that they descended on the land like a catastrophe. The local Arabs, Christians and non-Zionist Jews, called the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians through their violent displacement and dispossession of land, property and belongings the Nakba (“the catastrophe”).
From day one, the Zionists wanted to destroy Palestinian society, and they suppressed their culture, identity, political rights and national aspirations. Thus, the concept of Jewish nationality transformed into Jewish superiority and, later, to Jewish supremacy.
Israel has become the dominant military force in the region. If we read our history books, not those by the Hesses and Herzles, but the recent ones, like the stories of 43 Israeli massacres since 1967, we would have known that Zionists learned everything the racist Nazis had done to the Jews in the first genocide. If we read, for instance, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book, "The Message," we’d know that Americans and Europeans' favorite democracy in the Arabian desert was actually fascist killing fields:
“Having vanquished its Arab foes and established itself as a state, Israel began the process of securing as much land as possible for its new state while keeping as many Palestinians as possible beyond that state’s borders. This ethnocratic approach to state-building had deep roots in Zionism, which held that majority status within a strong Jewish state was the only true bulwark against antisemitism. Implanting this majority presented an obvious problem – the Palestinians. There is only one thing the Zionists want... for that is the way by which the Jews would gradually become the majority, and then a Jewish Government would follow automatically, and the future of the Arab minority would depend on the goodwill of the Jews.”
As we say, an example is better than a hundred precepts. Since Oct. 7, 2023, we have lived 450 hateful days, and we learned that Israel is no longer part of the modern family of nations. Like the perpetrators of the Nazi, Rwanda and Bosnia genocides, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his collaborators, domestic and international, will have their own day of reckoning.
https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/columns/the-year-israel-began-to-live-in-infamy
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Türkiye's Energy Outlook For 2024: Strategies, Scenarios, Risks
By Elif Selin Çalik
DEC 31, 2024
Türkiye in 2024 is strategically placed in a pivotal moment in the international energy market by virtue of its geographic proximity and expanding status as an energy hub.
Türkiye designated 2024 as its "Renewable Energy Year," as an important step in becoming energy sustainable. Solar capacity topped 10,000 megawatts (MW), which exemplified the nation’s interest in expanding its renewable energy resources. The achievement represents Türkiye’s commitment to lowering carbon emissions and diversifying its energy mix.
Powered by projects such as the Energy Exchange Istanbul (EPIAŞ), active participation in the World Energy Council (WEC) and significant advancements in the field of natural gas exploration, Türkiye has emerged as a major player in the energy industry. But that stature has inherent risks associated with volatility in global markets and geopolitics.
3 scenarios for 2050
With 2024 as Türkiye’s energy success story, the prospects for 2050 reflect opportunities and risks.
The first scenario is based on high renewable adoption. In 2050, Türkiye aims to provide 75% of its electricity production from renewable sources with a solar capacity of over 50,000 MW and wind capacity of over 30,000 MW. E-storage and smart grid investments are vital to the integration of large amounts of renewables. It’s a scenario that complies with global decarbonization targets and places Türkiye at the forefront of green energy exports. U.K. Export Finance (UKEF) and Poland's export credit agency, KUKE, jointly guaranteed a 249 million euro loan ($260 million) being arranged by Standard Chartered Bank for Turkish renewable energy investment company Kalyon Enerji, enabling the construction of Türkiye's second-largest solar project to date. Relatedly, this act shows that Türkiye will focus on more renewable – mainly solar – investments.
If that does not come to fruition, Türkiye may also adopt a balanced energy policy. According to this scenario, although the focus is on renewable energy, Türkiye follows a balanced energy mix with renewables supplemented by natural gas and nuclear power. Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), which is expected to be operational by the late 2020s, will ensure stable, low-carbon electricity generation and a 30% reduction in gas imports via increased domestic production and regional pipeline infrastructure.
The final scenario involves weak growth in renewable energy penetration through financing and regulatory obstacles. The dependence on fossil fuels is continuing to increase, leaving Türkiye vulnerable to volatile global energy prices. This situation would pose threats to Türkiye’s energy and climate targets.
ESG for energy companies
"Today’s decisions will determine the future of Türkiye’s energy," said Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar at a recent forum. "To secure a stable energy system, we need to focus on sustainability and innovation."
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations have become a driving force in Türkiye’s energy policy. Turkish companies are introducing ESG structures in order to reach international benchmarks and attract foreign investment. This trend can be seen in the renewable energy sector, where transparency, local involvement and sustainability have taken on new importance. Istanbul Stock Exchange’s ESG Index, launched to promote sustainable investment, highlights the role of ESG for energy companies.
Minister Bayraktar has underlined the importance of ESG in promoting responsible growth: "ESG is more than a must; it’s a roadmap for building a sustainable and equal energy future.
Heart of Türkiye’s energy policy
The Energy Exchange Istanbul (EPIAŞ) has become an integral part of Türkiye’s efforts to improve market transparency and liquidity in the energy sector. As a cross-European and cross-Asian transportation platform, EPIAŞ is enabling energy transactions and price fixings in electricity and natural gas. The robust platform has gained worldwide traction and many regard it as a beacon for other markets within the region.
"EPA is crucial for preserving market stability and facilitating foreign investments," added Bayraktar. EPA has under his leadership developed new technologies and policies to enhance its offerings, from blockchain for trading to AI-based forecasts of demand.
Debut of EVs
Electric vehicle adoption is also rising in Türkiye due to incentives by the governments and rising awareness from consumers. Turkish domestic EV manufacturing, including its flagship Togg brand, has established Türkiye as a regional market leader in this emerging market. In 2024, EV sales in Türkiye grew by 40% to illustrate the transition toward green transportation. In support of this growth, Türkiye has developed EV infrastructure including a nationwide fast-charging network. These developments are compatible with the nation’s decarbonization targets and its goal to minimize its dependence on foreign oil. "EV revolution is a key component of Türkiye’s energy change," a WEC official told me at a recent conference.
HVAC energy efficiency
The energy efficiency of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) is becoming an increasingly important issue in Türkiye’s urban and industrial landscape. Buildings are a major source of Türkiye’s energy consumption, and HVAC upgrades are a great cost-effective way to minimize energy usage. In 2024, the Turkish government also set higher standards of HVAC performance, requiring sophisticated technologies such as smart thermostats and energy recovery ventilation. Public education initiatives and incentives to upgrade legacy systems have also been initiated.
"By upgrading HVAC units, Türkiye can cut up to 15% of its annual energy use," the Gas Research Institute (GRI) said in a recent report. This HVAC energy efficiency initiative complements Türkiye’s overall sustainability initiatives and helps to ease the burden on its energy system during periods of high demand.
Natural gas exploration
Türkiye’s discovery of black sea gas proved transformative for the country’s energy-independence plans. Sakarya gas field, with an estimated 710 billion cubic meters of reserves, commenced operations in 2023 and increased the scale in 2024. This accomplishment represents a Turkish hope to reduce dependence on energy imports from Russia and Iran.
"The Black Sea reserves inaugurate a new era for Türkiye’s energy stability," Bayraktar noted during a recent press conference. It is in line with the government’s intent to incorporate these reserves into the national grid as part of its overall drive to diversify the sources of energy and lower the prices for consumers.
GRI recognized the strategic significance of these findings, commenting: "The discovery of Turkish Black Sea gas further consolidates Türkiye’s national energy independence and bolsters its role in regional energy geopolitics.”
Despite these advancements, challenges persist. The high cost of offshore drilling, along with the technology required, requires collaborations with international companies. Moreover, regional disagreements in the Eastern Mediterranean over territorial claims could spill into the Black Sea and further complicate matters.
Geopolitical, market risks
In 2024, the global energy situation is extremely uncertain. Geopolitical uncertainty, including Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine crisis and instability in the Middle East, has disrupted supply chains and driven up energy prices. These risks represent both a promise and a danger for Türkiye, which hopes to become a hub for pipelines such as TANAP (Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline) and TurkStream.
Türkiye’s approach is also influenced by the European Union’s emphasis on renewable energy and decarbonization. While compliance with the EU Green Deal will facilitate investment, it will mean making major changes to Türkiye’s energy portfolio. This dual approach of fostering fossil fuels and promoting renewables is nuanced but necessary.
"It’s not just economics – it’s diplomacy and security," said one energy practitioner at the World Energy Council’s (WEC) Istanbul summit.
Türkiye’s position as a mediator in the process of engaging key energy producers and consumers reflects its leadership.
WEC, global engagement
Türkiye’s presence in the World Energy Council (WEC) is testimony to its dedication to global energy governance. During its membership, Türkiye has also voiced its views on energy resilience, sustainability and innovation. WEC’s Istanbul Summit 2024 highlighted Türkiye’s smart grid achievements and plans to deploy hydrogen into its portfolio.
Minister Bayraktar’s summit address captured Türkiye’s vision: "We want to combine energy security and sustainability in one, guaranteeing a consistent supply and climate targets." His speech struck a chord with international investors who consider Türkiye an energy-transition paradigm in the developing world.
Balancing act
Türkiye’s renewable energy reserves have also increased significantly, with wind and solar being its chief drivers. By 2024, renewables represent 54% of Türkiye’s total installed capacity through incentives for domestic and foreign investment. Initiatives such as the Karapınar Solar Power Plant and offshore wind farms also highlight Türkiye’s determination to be a global clean-energy leader. Yet the integration of renewables is challenging in many aspects, including grid stability and storage. Those challenges will take massive investment and policy innovation.
In pursuing the energy policy, Türkiye will need to maintain an equilibrium between domestic priorities and international imperatives. Its geographical role as a borderland between the East and the West presents its own unique advantages but also geopolitical threats. Türkiye must overcome these challenges by increasing regional cooperation via initiatives such as the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum; extending its energy portfolio by embracing renewables, increasing energy diplomacy to lower geopolitical risks and lastly combining green energy and AI smart technologies to maintain market competitiveness.
Türkiye’s 2024 energy market, in sum, demonstrates its strategic foresight and flexibility. By providing strong institutions such as EPA, game-changing natural gas and renewables projects and engaging the world through WEC, Türkiye is shaping energy for the turbulent future. But it is a challenge to realize such an opportunity that will involve geopolitical issues and the use of sustainable methods – a challenge that Türkiye under visionary leadership looks likely to overcome.
https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/turkiyes-energy-outlook-for-2024-strategies-scenarios-risks
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Palestine And The Power Of The Boycott Movement
By Dr Omar Suleiman
December 30, 2024
At home, my Palestinian-American children, who have never set foot in Palestine, often ask each other whenever they see a brand: “Is this on the boycott list?” It’s a question that has become second nature to them, a reminder that the struggle for justice in Palestine is as much about principles as it is about action. This next generation, shaped by movements like Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), is proof that the Palestine cause remains transcendent and unsurpassable. The growing boycott movement is not just a tool for resistance, but also a moral imperative and the most powerful form of structural popular resistance in the world. This year showed us just how far this movement has come and how much further it can go.
The boycott movement gained extraordinary momentum in 2024, fuelled by global outrage over Israel’s escalating violence against Palestinians. Public protests turned into sustained economic resistance, with consumers disengaging actively from corporations complicit in Israel’s apartheid policies. Starbucks is one example of a global brand that felt the economic pressure. Reports indicate that the coffee giant lost millions in revenue due to targeted boycott campaigns and protests in multiple cities. Activists pointed to the company’s ties to pro-Israel lobbying groups, making it a symbol of consumer pushback against complicity. This financial hit illustrates the boycott’s growing power, forcing even the largest corporations to reckon with their associations. Yet, the boycott’s significance is not merely economic. It is Israel’s fear of this movement that tells the real story. Laws have been passed across the United States attempting to suppress boycotts against Israel, exposing the fragility of a state that relies on global complicity to maintain its occupation.
In my home state of Texas, a Palestinian schoolteacher was fired for refusing to sign an oath promising that she wouldn’t boycott Israel. Her principled stand sparked outrage and inspired the 2021 documentary Boycott, which highlighted how these laws violate basic constitutional rights. Americans across the political spectrum, who otherwise might not have engaged with the Palestine cause, have started to question why they are being told they cannot boycott a foreign nation, especially one which receives billions of US tax dollars while our own communities in America struggle to make ends meet.
The boycott movement is not new, of course. Its roots lie in the anti-apartheid struggles of South Africa, where the strategy of economic isolation played a pivotal role in dismantling institutionalised racism.
The BDS movement, launched by Palestinian civil society in 2005, draws on this legacy, linking the fight for Palestinian liberation to broader struggles against injustice.
This connection has found particular resonance in the Global South. Nations with histories of anti-colonial resistance see the Palestinian cause as part of their own unfinished fights for dignity and sovereignty. By mobilising these governments and their people, the boycott movement has the potential to amplify its impact, as it did in South Africa. The Global South’s support reinforces a key truth: boycotts are not simply about consumer choices; they are about collective power.
Unlike armed resistance, boycotts target the economic and political infrastructure that sustains the Israeli occupation of Palestine, forcing accountability from governments and corporations alike. The movement is effective, decentralised and rooted in grassroots activism. This is precisely why Israel fears the boycott movement. It doesn’t rely on political elites, but instead mobilises ordinary people — consumers, workers, students — around the world.
Israel’s overreach in suppressing the movement, however, is backfiring. Laws criminalising boycotts and targeting activists only draw more attention to the cause. They also raise serious questions for Americans who resent being told that they cannot exercise their constitutional right to protest, especially against a foreign government. This overreach is inspiring, not just in terms of Palestinian solidarity, but also a broader movement for free speech and justice.
To build on the successes of 2024, the boycott movement must focus on coordination, inclusion and innovation. There are a number of things that can be done.
For example, platforms like the Boycott App are powerful examples of how technology can be harnessed to streamline activism.
This makes participation accessible and informed. Investing in such tools can bring the movement to new heights.
Moreover, just as the anti-apartheid movement did, BDS must continue to link the Palestinian struggle to global movements for justice. Whether through alliances with indigenous rights activists, climate justice advocates, or labour unions, these connections strengthen the moral and political case for Palestine.
At its core, the boycott is about people. Sharing the stories of Palestinians — displaced families, farmers denied access to their land, children imprisoned — humanises the movement and reminds the world that the struggle is not just about abstract politics, but also lives and futures.
The boycott movement has proven to be one of the most powerful tools of resistance against apartheid and oppression. It transcends borders and ideologies, uniting people in a common demand for justice. In 2024, it showed us its strength; in 2025, it must show us its resilience. For Palestinians and their allies, the fight is far from over. And as my children remind me every time they ask about the boycott list, the next generation of activists is already rising. They are learning that justice is not a moment; it is a movement. And it is one that will not be silenced.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241230-palestine-and-the-power-of-the-boycott-movement/
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/middle-east-press/genocide-syria-israel-palestine-movement/d/134193
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