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Todays regional roundup: Turkey in a tizzy over NATO plans; Albania opens probe into deadly earthquake; Kazakhs and China; long-lived Azeris; and the Putin-Zelenskiy summit.10 December 2019

Ankara Threatens to Block NATOs Eastern Defense Plan

Poland will not stand for Turkey walking back its support for NATOs defense plan for Poland and the Baltics, an aide to President Andrzej Duda said yesterday. There is no going back from the decision made at the NATO summit last week, Krzysztof Szczerski told Reuters. After the summit, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Turkey had withdrawn its objections to the plan, although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey expected support from the alliance in its fight against Syrian Kurdish forces it considers to be terrorists. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu then escalated the rhetoric, saying, Ankara will block the plan until it receives a proposal for a defense plan for Turkey, which must be in line with the Turkish viewpoint on YPG, Euractiv quotes him as saying. The Syrian Kurdish YPG force is a main fighting arm of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, Reuters writes. Duda and Baltic defense ministers appeared to be more optimistic for a solution on the matter during the London summit, although Eastern European officials were cautious about the prospects for compromise, Euractiv writes.

Albania Counts the Toll of Deadly November Quake

The earthquake that hit Albania last month totally destroyed at least 261 buildings, Prime Minister Edi Rama said yesterday. Durres, the countrys second city, was worst hit by the 6.4-magnitude quake that struck in the early morning of 26 November. In Durres, 438 buildings are so badly damaged they must be demolished, Rama said. The quake claimed 51 lives, Xinhua reports. Some 500 engineers, along with experts from 11 countries, are inspecting the affected areas, Rama said. Last week, newly appointed Albanian Prosecutor General Olsian Cela said prosecutors in Durres had opened an investigation into who should be held responsible for the damage, Radio Tirana International reported. There are people who have violated the law and many have lost their lives. Responsibility will fall either [on] the builder or [on] the official. There will be no hesitation in any case, Cela said. The minister of state for relations with parliament, Elisa Spiropali, who is also the governments spokeswoman, said new neighborhoods will be built to replace damaged housing, RTI reports today. She also chided the media for spreading the lie that the state has no money for civil emergencies.

Two Ethnic Kazakhs Fight Deportation to China

Two ethnic Kazakhs from Chinas Xinjiang region are facing deportation from Kazakhstan in spite of warnings they could be tortured if returned to China. The men, Murager Alimuly and Qaster Musakhanuly, crossed into Kazakhstan illegally on 1 October and were given asylum seeker status at the end of the month, The Diplomat reported. But as RFE/RL writes, the deputy chief of Kazakhstans National Security Committee said last week that the pair, currently being held in pre-trial detention, will be deported. Three Kazakh opposition activists, Zhanbolat Mamai, Yrysbek Toqtasyn, and Tolegen Zhukeev, told the media yesterday the men will definitely face torture and possible death back in China. China is holding, by some estimates, a million or more Muslims in re-education camps in the predominantly Muslim Xinjiang region. Beijing has long accused the majority Uighur community in Xinjiang of Islamist and separatist tendencies. The few officials who have acknowledged the existence of the camp system say they are aimed at instilling loyalty to the regime, and deny reports that Muslims in the region are subject to persecution. Kazakhs are the second-largest Turkic-speaking community in Xinjiang, RFE writes.

Ukraine Summit Brings Scant Progress

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rammed home his no-compromise position on autonomy for Russian-backed separatists in the aftermath of yesterdays meeting with the Russian, French, and German leaders. There were no new ideas on resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine, although Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed another ceasefire in the contested Donbas region, the Financial Times writes. They made no progress on the question that has dogged peacemaking efforts throughout the nearly six years of conflict that of a special dispensation for separatist areas in the Donbas. Before elections can be held in those regions, Kyiv must regain control of their borders, Zelenskiy said at a briefing after yesterdays Paris summit, Ukraines broadcaster 112 reports. "For Ukraine, the border is a security issue; for Russia, it is a policy, he said, adding that he and Putin finally agreed on the need to talk further. The four leaders also agreed on removing all minefields, further exchanges of prisoners, and military disengagement from three areas by next March, according to the FT.

Visit Lerik, Where the Living is Easy

Azerbaijani researchers recently conducted a study of the countrys centenarians, hoping to shed light on the legendary longevity of people in some isolated areas. There are certain generations of long-living people, Sevinj Huseynova, lead researcher at the Azerbaijani Institute of Physiologys longevity laboratory, told Trend last spring, as cited by Baku-based Caspian News. If the ecological environment is good, the gene is not lost and is inherited. Inhabitants of three districts in the south, along with Nagorno-Karabakh, are longer-lived than those in and around Baku, the study found. People living in the Talysh Mountains in the southern Lerik district are famous for exceptionally long lives and Lerik town boasts the worlds only Museum of Longevity, according to CNN. This two-room exhibition was built in 1991 and renovated in 2010. Some exhibits claim to document the incredible 168-year life of shepherd Shirali Muslumov. His 95-year-old daughter, Halima Qambarova, said while she might not match his record, she at least hopes to live to the age of 150, like her grandfather, or 130, like her aunt, CNN writes. Lifespans also run long among indigenous groups in Russias North Caucasus republics, where the Ingush often live to 80, Russia Beyond has reported. On the western flank of the region, the Abkhaz are also famed for their healthful diet and long lives.

Compiled by Ky Krauthamer

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Around the Bloc - 10 December - Transitions Online

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