Turkey-EU Deal Makes Greece A 'Warehouse Of Souls': New Age Islam's Selection, 12 March 2016
• Decoding the Iranian strategy on Syria peace talks
By Dr. Majid Rafizadeh
• The antiquities looting crisis in the Middle East
By George Richards
• The beginning of educational transformation in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Gazette
Compiled by New Age Islam Edit Bureau
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Turkey-EU deal makes Greece a 'warehouse of souls'
By Scott Peterson
March 12, 2016
All new migrants that reach the Greek islands will be returned to Turkey, and for every Syrian sent back to Turkey, another Syrian from Turkey will be officially resettled in the EU.
After a year in which a human wave of more than one million migrants flooded Europe, leaders of Turkey and the European Union say they have outlined measures to block the flow.
But critics say those measures may be both illegal and unworkable.
At an emergency summit that finished on Tuesday, EU and Turkish leaders agreed to take "bold moves" to resolve a crisis that is tearing at the EU, where an initial welcome for migrants fleeing war in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan - has turned increasingly toward rejection.
"Do not come to Europe," the European Council President Donald Tusk warned would-be migrants last week, setting the tone for the tougher EU response. After a week of shuttle diplomacy and 12 hours of talks with Turkey, Tusk said "we have a breakthrough now."
But the refugees keep coming, some 142,000 so far this year, using dangerous smuggling routes and boat crossings, primarily to Greece via Turkey, that have cost an estimated 4,200 lives since the beginning of 2015.
"The problem is there is too much resistance in Europe at the moment to establish any legal pathway," says Mattia Toaldo, a migration expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in London. "Their idea is that you can simply pull up the drawbridge and keep everyone in Turkey."
Final approval of the tentative Turkey-EU accord is due at a two-day summit that begins March 17.
All new migrants that reach the Greek islands will be returned to Turkey, and for every Syrian sent back to Turkey, another Syrian from Turkey will be officially resettled in the EU.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutolu calls the deal a "game changer." But it is seen as high price from Europeans desperate to resolve the crisis. In exchange, Turkey wants to receive twice the amount of cash - a total of $6.6 billion for three years - that was initially agreed upon to cope with both the influx, and some 2.75 million Syrian refugees it already hosts. Turkey also wants to speed up a liberalised visa regime for its citizens, and its own EU membership process, which has lost steam in recent years amid a host of human rights and other European concerns.
"We need to break the link between getting in a boat and getting settlement in Europe," said a statement by the 28-nation EU bloc. It also declared that "irregular flows of migrants along the Western Balkans route have now come to an end."
The UN criticises what it sees as a mass expulsion of refugees from Greece as contrary to EU values, even as the union faces the largest flows of refugees on the continent since World War II.
The EU says the final deal "will respect" both. But Amnesty International said in a statement the same day that the plan is "wrought with moral and legal flaws" and "makes a mockery of the EU's obligation to provide access to asylum at its borders."
The charity Doctors Without Borders has also been scathing, saying European leaders have "completely lost track of reality" by backing a resettlement scheme that "reduces people to mere numbers, denying them humane treatment and discarding their right to seek protection."
Nato ships have stepped up patrols of the Turkish and Greek coastlines. On Wednesday Macedonia sealed its border - which has been more months a key gateway of the Balkans route. Slovenia and Bulgaria also tightened restrictions in recent days.
And yet refugees are also adept at finding new routes to Europe when old ones close down or fences are put up. Bulgaria - hardly a top destination compared with Germany, Austria, or Sweden - put up a razor wire fence and is now extending its 20-mile length by another 80 miles to block migrants. Still, 30,000 refugees got through last year.
The EU agreed last June to settle 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next two years. That was the peak rate of daily new arrivals last year, and it is just a fraction of those fleeing war and who are on the road.
Critics also say the deal gives Turkey and refugees alike little reason to stop illegal immigration, since higher numbers mean more will eventually be settled in Europe.
As borders close, more than 30,000 migrants have become stuck in Greece. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said Greece will not become a "warehouse of souls." The EU statement vows to "stand by Greece" and "do our utmost to help manage the situation."
khaleejtimes.com/editorials-columns/turkey-eu-deal-makes-greece-a-warehouse-of-souls
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Decoding the Iranian strategy on Syria peace talks
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh
11 March 2016
Emerging out of international sanctions, Iran is delighted to observe itself playing a crucial role on the world stage. The US Secretary of the State, John Kerry and Russia have invited the Islamic Republic to a broad new round of peace talks in Vienna in order to find a resolution for the Syrian civil war.
Will Iran accept one of the key conditions of the Geneva Communiqué for Syria; “Establishment of a transitional governing body with full executive powers that could include members of the government and opposition, and should be formed on the basis of mutual consent”?
IRGC strategy
From a geopolitical, ideological and strategic point of view, it is naïve to believe that Iran will diminish its hard line position on Syria. Not only are there no indications showing that the Islamic Republic will be changing its position, even slightly toward its chief ally, Assad, but Iranian leaders will be exploiting the peace talks in several ways, in order to advance their own interests.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and Quds forces have not cut down on their military, advisory, intelligence and financial assistance to Assad’s government. New evidence reveals that Iran’s domestically-fabricated drones, Shahed 129, are increasingly hitting the Syrian rebel targets in spite of Iran claims that it is adhering to the ceasefire. The ceasefire was used military cover to gain ground in Syria and weaken the oppositional groups’ position in the peace talks.
In order to come from a position of strength via other regional powers in the peace talks, this week, the Iranian state-owned television outlets announced that The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran launched a nation wide ballistic missile test. Iran’s action again defies the United Nations Security Council Resolution and is aimed at reasserting Iran’s regional power, and it’s chief ally Assad, ahead of the peace talks.
Iran, the arsonist
Iran can be characterized as an arsonist in the Syrian civil war, which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, and the worst humanitarian crisis after World War II.
Iran is playing a destructive role on three different layers in the Syrian civil war. In the first layer, the domestic one where hundreds of rebels groups are fighting with Assad, Iran has intervened militarily, added fuel to the sectarian conflict, sided with some groups against others, and financial attempted to tip the balance of power against the oppositional groups.
In the second layer, the regional one, Iran has shown that it is determined to provoke and stand against any country which has asked Assad to step aside. For that reason, Iran is also recruiting Shiite fighters across the region to create a formidable Shiite-axis. In the third layer, the international one, Iran has successfully coordinated militarily with Russia, and has push Russia for airstrikes in order to provide cover and assistance, to win some key strategic battles in Syria. One cannot ignore the fact that Iran’s destabilizing role in Syria is deep, nuanced and complicated.
New evidence reveals that Iran’s domestically-fabricated drones, Shahed 129, are increasingly hitting the Syrian rebel targets in spite of Iran claims that it is adhering to the ceasefire.
Iran’s position has been clear in the last five years: under any circumstance, the Islamic Republic will not allow the Alawite state to be dismantled. It is simply inimical to Iran’s regional hegemonic ambitions, strategic, geopolitical and ideological interests.
From the perspective of Iranian leaders, any change in Syrian political leadership will reverberate across the region damaging Iran’s national security. For Iranian leadership, even a transitional government will be detrimental to their interests, because the rebels and the religious majority (the Sunni) will be playing larger role in the government, tipping the balance of power against the Shiite and their friends, the Alawites.
In addition, Iran cannot afford losing Syria, which serves as a conduit to deliver arms to Tehran’s Shiite proxies, including Hezbollah, or to train and give birth to other Shiite militia groups in the region. Moreover, Iranian leaders define all rebels groups as terrorists. As a result, with any kind of ceasefire or peace resolutions, IRGC and Quds forces will continue to “justify” their bombardments and strikes by making the argument that they are targeting terrorists.
Iranian leaders definitely want to see a halt to the Syrian war, but on their own terms, similar to the nuclear deal. Iran’s condition is unyielding: the Alawite state stays in power.
Finally, the Islamic Republic is using the peace talks to show publicly its enhanced global legitimacy, to reassert its indispensable role on the regional and global stage, after years of isolation, and to exploit the talks got the purpose of obtaining military cover to gain ground in Syria. The arsonist, the Islamic Republic, will fight to the end to maintain the Alawite state in power.
english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2016/03/11/Decoding-the-Iranian-strategy-on-Syria-peace-talks.html
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The antiquities looting crisis in the Middle East
By George Richards
12 Mar 2016
The ease of archaeological discoveries in the Middle East is exploited by black-market dealers, criminal gangs and ISIL.
Last week, Ori, an Israeli boy, went on a field trip with friends to the archaeological site at Tel Rehov in the Jordan Valley. Wandering among the dust and the stones, he kicked away a small pebble and revealed a stone head half-buried in the ground - it turned out to be a spectacular find, a small statue of a woman, her hair elaborately styled, that may be a devotional figurine of the fertility-goddess Astarte, more than 3,000 years old. Ori handed his discovery over to the authorities.
This kind of "surface find" - albeit an unusually fine example - is not uncommon in the Middle East, where thin soils and intensive farming on land that has been tilled since antiquity regularly throw up archaeological artefacts of exquisite beauty and great value.
Israeli boy finds 4,000 year old relic in Jordan Valley
In recent years, the ease with which such discoveries can be made has been exploited by rapacious black-market antiquity dealers, criminal gangs, terrorist organisations, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS), and by the poor people whose livelihoods have been shattered by war and political turmoil.
Trade in illicit antiquities
Looters can burrow relatively shallow holes into the ground, particularly at known ancient sites, where they can be rewarded with a handful of coins, a cylinder-seal, or a statuette.
Satellite imagery, for example as recorded by Sarah Parcak, winner of the 2016 TED prize for her work in this field, shows sites in Syria and Iraq that were once marked out for future archaeological excavation now peppered with holes, more closely resembling the pock-marked surface of the Moon.
The trade in illicit antiquities continues to thrive, with many pieces from ISIL-controlled territory in Syria and Iraq reaching the black market through trading posts in Lebanon and Turkey. Some artefacts are sold directly by ISIL's directorate of natural resources, others by private individuals, on whom ISIL levies a tax.
Archeological finds at the excavation site of a large winery dating back some 1,600 years, possibly from to the Roman or Byzantine period, in Jerusalem [EPA]
Still more pieces are probably being squirrelled away in caches, where they will sit until the gaze of international scrutiny starts to wander from the antiquities trade.
Steps are being taken to combat the trade in illicit antiquities. The UN Security Council has passed a resolution banning the trade in antiquities from Syria, as has long been the case for Iraq.
And, at a conference last week at the Courtauld Institute of Art, Giovanni Boccardi of UNESCO announced a new smartphone app that allows individuals to record data on heritage destruction.
ISIL's antiquities trafficking
The United States government has extended the reach of its "rewards for justice" programme to information leading to the significant disruption in ISIL's trafficking in antiquities.
But smugglers - and attempts to fight them - are already a long way down the supply chain from the actual looting of antiquities. Nor is the calculus straightforward.
What steps can be taken to address the desperate acts of looting committed by individuals who have lost everything in the wars in Syria and Iraq, and for whom the sale of a few bronze coins, dug up in an empty field, will put food on the table?
I have written previously about the need for community engagement in cultural heritage protection, whereby people living near to ancient sites are persuaded of the economic benefits of preserving a site intact, with all its antiquities left in place.
But the immediate demands of the extreme privation suffered by many Syrians are likely to outweigh such long-term considerations.
The antiquities looting crisis in the Middle East - one aspect of the region's broader cultural heritage destruction disaster - will probably persist at least until the wars in Syria and Iraq are brought to an end.
It is a cruel irony that the richness of the cultural history of the region, and the relative ease with which material evidence of that past can be recovered, makes the Middle East a fertile land for antiquities looting.
So bleak is the picture on the ground that we can do little more than hope that others will follow little Ori's example, by holding on to any antiquities they find until they can be handed over to the authorities.
George Richards is a senior fellow at Iraq Heritage specialising in the protection of intangible cultural heritage, and has led a number of ethnographic field expeditions in the Middle East, including in Iraq and Syria, to protect and preserve the intangible cultural heritage.
aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/03/antiquities-looting-crisis-middle-east-160310093409472.html
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The beginning of educational transformation in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Gazette
Mar 12, 2016
Nermeen Alireza is an example of the contemporary Saudi woman who is determined to make a difference in her society. As a concerned mother of four children, she is passionate about providing quality education for Saudi students. She holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard Graduate School of Education and a diploma in Islamic teacher education from the University of Toronto. Since her graduation, her dream has been to establish a school that would graduate young men and women who are conscientious, have a strong sense of identity, are willing to excel and are determined to make a difference in their community and the world at large. Nermeen has been working hard for the past two years to make her dream come true. Today with the collaboration of Saudi partners and Kunskapsskolan Swedish education programmers she has founded the Nün Academy in Jeddah.
During the Jeddah Economic Forum she organized a private session on the sidelines of the forum to introduce the academy to an audience of academics and concerned parents and citizens. Representatives of Kunskapsskolan Education (KED) were among the speakers of the event who gave a briefing of the educational program and the vision of the academy.
The founder of the school eloquently gave a short presentation about Nün Academy which in partnership with KED will, at all levels, offer a Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) curriculum that has been rigorously adapted to ensure Arabic fluency and conformity with Saudi Ministry of Education guidelines for Saudi international schools.
Arabic will be taught in every grade by highly skilled teachers. The curriculum will start as a predominantly Arabic curriculum in pre-school and lower primary levels combined with English language training. Gradually, English will be introduced with the objective of reaching international exam requirements and preparing students for successful international college studies.
Listening to the speakers who outlined the school curriculum and the learning methodology was like music to my ears. They emphasized everything you could think of to ensure quality education. The audience were ecstatic to hear about the strong use of the Arabic language as a language for life. They were mesmerized listening to the Swedish academic explaining the adoption of the most advanced teaching methodologies, digital and otherwise, to enhance the learning of Arabic and its use in all areas of education. The curriculum includes regional and Islamic studies so that students can have a well-grounded sense of their own history and identity. They will learn about their Islamic values and teachings through a program that emphasizes comprehension over rote learning. There will be academic links with people, groups and organizations from different countries and diverse cultures to give students an international understanding.
Peje Emilsson, founder and majority owner of KED, gave an inspiring presentation of Nün Academy which he said will be part of the KED network connecting over 40 schools, 15,000 students and 1,500 teachers on three continents. He stressed the importance of the regular meetings of educational directors in order to continuously develop the KED program and to ensure its high quality. Teachers and students will interact and collaborate virtually and face to face through exchange programs. The integration of internationalism, bilingualism, and self-knowledge will be delivered by highly qualified teachers. The students and teachers will both be supported with learning material that is provided through the Learning Portal, a state-of-the-art online digital learning solution.
The goal of the school is to prepare students to work, excel, contribute and serve within global knowledge societies and enable them to cope with ever-changing challenges and difficult choices. Students will be introduced to the concept of social responsibility and how to serve their society; they will learn to respect the rights and beliefs of others.
KED personalized education puts the students at the center. Classes are based on each student’s individual strengths and weaknesses. They will receive support and direction from a personal tutor every week. Ordinary teaching sessions are complemented with a strict and comprehensive system for assessment, follow-up and feedback.
Education is the key to progress and prosperity. The transformation of Saudi education remains the biggest challenge that is facing our nation. We need many Nün academies and many Nermeens to help us achieve our goal of providing quality education for our aspiring youth.
saudigazette.com.sa/opinion/beginning-educational-transformation-saudi-arabia/
URL: https://newageislam.com/middle-east-press/turkey-eu-deal-makes-greece/d/106625
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