ISTANBUL — A delegation from Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish DEM party is due on Saturday to visit jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence on a prison island off Istanbul, a party source said.

“The delegation left in the morning,” the source told AFP, without elaborating how they would travel to the island for security reasons.

The visit would be the party’s first in almost 10 years.

DEM’s predecessor, the HDP party, last met Ocalan in April 2015.

On Friday, the government approved DEM’s request to visit Ocalan, who founded the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, nearly half a century ago and has languished in solitary confinement since 1999.

The PKK is regarded as a terror organization by Turkey and most of its Western allies, including the United States and European Union.

The DEM party delegation is made up of two lawmakers — Sirri Sureyya Onder and Pervin Buldan. They are not expected to make a statement after the visit, the same source told AFP.

Detained 25 years ago in a Hollywood-style operation by Turkish security forces in Kenya after years on the run, Ocalan was sentenced to death.

He escaped the gallows when Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2004 and is spending his remaining years in an isolation cell on the Imrali prison island south of Istanbul.

Saturday’s rare visit became possible after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist ally Devlet Bahceli invited Ocalan to come to parliament to renounce “terror” and to disband the militant group.

Bahceli, who heads the ultra-nationalist MHP party, is fiercely hostile to the PKK.

Erdogan backed the unprecedented appeal as a “historic window of opportunity.”

“My dear Kurdish brothers, we expect you to firmly grasp [Bahceli’s] sincerely outstretched hand,” he said in October, urging them to join in efforts to build what he called the “century of Turkey.”

Soon after Bahceli’s call, Ocalan was allowed his first family visit since March 2020, prompting DEM to make its own request to the Justice Ministry to visit the 75-year-old militant.

PKK militants subsequently claimed responsibility for an attack in October on a Turkish defense firm that killed five. That delayed the government approval of DEM’s request.

For several years up to 2015, Ocalan was engaged in talks with authorities, when then-Prime Minister Erdogan called for a solution for what is often called Turkey’s “Kurdish problem.”

The peace process and a truce collapsed in 2015, sparking the resumption of violence, especially in the Kurdish-majority southeast.

The government’s surprise olive branch to the Kurds comes after rebels in neighboring Syria overthrew strongman president Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8.

Turkey routinely targets Kurdish fighters in northern Syria and Iraq.
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Ukraine said on Saturday it had struck a storage and maintenance depot for long-range Shahed drones in Russia’s Oryol region, adding that this had “significantly reduced” Russia’s ability to launch mass drone attacks on Ukraine.

Ukraine military’s general staff said in a statement on Telegram the attack took place on Thursday and was conducted by Ukraine’s air force.

“As a result of the strike, a depot for storage, maintenance and repair of Shahed kamikaze drones, made of several protected concrete structures, was destroyed,” it said.

“This military operation has significantly reduced the enemy’s potential in terms of conducting air raids of strike drones on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.”

Moscow has not made any comment on the attack. Russia has regularly launched missile and drone attacks on Ukraine throughout its 34-month invasion.

For the past several months, Moscow has launched near-daily barrages of dozens of drones at Ukraine, hoping to damage its infrastructure and wear down air defenses leaving them less able to shoot down missiles.

Ukraine’s air force said earlier on Saturday it had downed 15 out of 16 drones launched by Russia overnight, with the other one disappearing from radar.
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VOA Russian speaks to aviation expert Konstantin Kryvolap, who takes apart Moscow’s official versions of the crash of the Russia-bound Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Kazakhstan and says a Russian missile was the only viable cause. Kryvolap says as soon as the first photos and videos from the crash site started to trickle in, this became obvious, taking into account the shrapnel damage on the plane fuselage.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
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VOA Russian spoke with U.S. officials, politicians and experts to see how U.S. relations with China and Russia could change under the incoming Donald Trump administration. Experts say Beijing may be worried about Trump’s plans for the swift end of the war in Ukraine, while North Korea’s involvement in the war could become a lightning rod in China-Russia relations.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on the founder of Georgia’s ruling political party, which has steered the country away from a pro-Western stance and toward Russia, U.S. officials said Friday.

The State and Treasury departments said they hit Georgian Dream party founder and honorary chair Bidzina Ivanishvili with penalties “for undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation,” according to a statement.

The designation of Ivanishvili is the latest in a series of sanctions the United States has slapped on Georgian politicians, lawmakers and others this year. The sanctions include freezes on assets and properties that those targeted may have in U.S. jurisdictions or that might enter U.S. jurisdictions as well as travel bans on the targets and members of their families.

“We strongly condemn Georgian Dream’s actions under Ivanishvili’s leadership, including its ongoing and violent repression of Georgian citizens, protestors, members of the media, human rights activists, and opposition figures,” the State Department said in a statement. “The United States is committed to promoting accountability for those undermining democracy and human rights in Georgia.”

Ivanishvili is a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia and served briefly as Georgia’s prime minister. In 2012, he founded Georgian Dream, the longtime ruling party.

Critics have accused Georgian Dream of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow. The party recently pushed through laws like those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights, prompting the European Union to suspend Georgia’s membership application process indefinitely.

In October, Georgian Dream won another term in a divisive parliamentary election that has led to more mass protests. Last month, the country’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, announced a four-year suspension of talks on Georgia’s bid to join the European Union, fueling further public outrage.
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BAMAKO, MALI — Nearly 70 migrants died when their boat sank as they tried to reach Spain earlier this month, Mali’s Minister for Malians Living Abroad said.

In a press release Thursday, Mossa Ag Attaher announced that a migrant boat bound for Spain sank on Dec. 19. The migrants in this boat “numbered 80 at the start, with only 11 survivors,” according to the Ministry. The Malian authorities have identified nine Malians among the survivors, and “25 young Malians have unfortunately been formally identified among the victims,” the minister added.

The Atlantic route for migrants from West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the deadliest in the world. Located nearer to Africa than mainland Spain, the archipelago is seen by most as a step toward continental Europe. Many of those making the journey come from Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, and other West African countries, seeking better job opportunities abroad or fleeing violence and political instability.

Several of the Malian victims are from the Kayes region in the west of the country, according to Doulaye Keita, adviser to the ministry, in a statement to the AP on Friday.

“Among the 25 Malians dead, there are 8 Malians from my commune,” Mamadou Siby, the mayor of the commune of Marena in the Kayes region, told The Associated Press.

“These dead young men left my commune seven months ago to work in the construction industry in Mauritania. Unfortunately, they were in contact with their friends in Europe and America, who encouraged them to come to these countries, and in most cases, they took the perilous journey without even informing their families back home.”
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Brussels — NATO will bolster its military presence in the Baltic Sea after the suspected sabotage of an undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia this week, the Western military alliance’s chief Mark Rutte said on Friday.

On Christmas Day, the Estlink 2 submarine cable that carries electricity from Finland to Estonia was disconnected from the grid, just over a month after two telecommunications cables were severed in Swedish territorial waters in the Baltic.

Finnish authorities on Thursday said they were investigating the oil tanker, Eagle S, that sailed from a Russian port, as part of a probe for “aggravated sabotage.”

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on Friday: “We’ve got the situation under control, and we have to continue to work together vigilantly to make sure that our critical infrastructure is not damaged by outsiders.”

Officials suspect the tanker is part of the Russian “shadow fleet”, which refers to ships that transport Russian crude and oil products embargoed due to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The Eagle S vessel, which flies under the flag of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, was en route to Port Said in Egypt. Police suspect that the oil tanker’s anchor might have damaged the power cable.

Rutte said he spoke to President Stubb about Finland’s probe, adding in a post on X: “I expressed my full solidarity and support. NATO will enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea.”

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur earlier on Friday said on X that the country began naval patrols to protect the undersea cable supplying electricity from Finland.

In a separate statement he said Tallinn wanted to send a clear message it was ready to protect its power connections with Finland with military and non-military means.

Rutte on Thursday promised NATO support to Estonia and Finland, and condemned attacks on critical infrastructure after speaking to Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal.

More EU sanctions

The European Union has also threatened further sanctions against Russia’s shadow fleet after this week’s incident.

The bloc’s 27 member states agreed earlier this month to blacklist around 50 more oil tankers from Russia’s shadow fleet used to circumvent Western sanctions, taking the number targeted to around 80.

Ukraine’s international backers have looked to curb funds going to the Kremlin’s war machine by imposing a price cap and restrictions on Russia’s key oil exports.

To skirt the measures, Russia has resorted to using a so-called “shadow fleet” of often ageing vessels that operate under dubious ownership or without proper insurance.

Tensions have mounted around the Baltic since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In September 2022, a series of underwater blasts ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines that carried Russian gas to Europe, the cause of which has yet to be determined.

In October 2023, an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was shut down after it was damaged by the anchor of a Chinese cargo ship.

On November 17 and 18 this year, sections of two telecom cables were cut in Swedish territorial waters. Suspicions have been directed at the Yi Peng 3, which according to ship tracking sites had sailed over the cables around the time they were cut.
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FRANKFURT, Germany — German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday ordered parliament dissolved and set new elections for Feb. 23 in the wake of the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition.  

Scholz lost a confidence vote on Dec. 16 and leads a minority government after his unpopular and notoriously rancorous three-party coalition collapsed on Nov. 6 when he fired his finance minister in a dispute over how to revitalize Germany’s stagnant economy.  

Leaders of several major parties then agreed that a parliamentary election should be held on Feb. 23, seven months earlier than originally planned. 

Since the post-World War II constitution doesn’t allow the Bundestag to dissolve itself, it was up to Steinmeier to decide whether to dissolve parliament and call an election. He had 21 days to make that decision. Once parliament is dissolved, the election must be held within 60 days. 

In practice, the campaign is already well underway. Polls show Scholz’s party trailing the conservative opposition Union bloc led by Friedrich Merz. Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck of the environmentalist Greens, the remaining partner in Scholz’s government, is also bidding for the top job — though his party is further back. If recent polls hold up, the likely next government would be led by Merz as chancellor in coalition with at least one other party.  

Key issues include immigration, how to get the sluggish economy going, and how best to aid Ukraine in its struggle against Russia.  

The populist, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which is polling strongly, has nominated Alice Weidel as its candidate for chancellor but has no chance of taking the job because other parties refuse to work with it.  

Germany’s electoral system traditionally produces coalitions, and polls show no party anywhere near an absolute majority on its own. The election is expected to be followed by weeks of negotiations to form a new government. 

It’s only the fourth time that the Bundestag has been dissolved ahead of schedule under Germany’s post-World War II constitution. It happened under Chancellor Willy Brandt in 1972, Helmut Kohl in 1982 and Gerhard Schroeder in 2005. Schroeder used the confidence vote to engineer an early election narrowly won by center-right challenger Angela Merkel.  
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CHISINAU, MOLDOVA — The parliament in ex-Soviet Moldova, controlled by pro-Western lawmakers, approved a 10-year defense strategy on Thursday calling for increased military spending as part of a plan to join the European Union.

The chamber’s pro-Russian opposition ridiculed the document as pointlessly directed against Moscow in view of Moldova’s small land mass and armed forces.

The document, presented by Defense Minister Anatolie Nosatii, aims to boost military spending by 2030 to 1% of gross domestic product, with figures showing increases already being put into place.

“The first step to implementing this was taken after the war in Ukraine started, by increasing budget resources for defense to 0.39% in 2022 and 0.55% in 2023,” the document said.

One of Europe’s poorest countries, lying between Ukraine and EU member Romania, Moldova is a candidate to join the EU, with a membership date set for 2030. It is not considering joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as the country’s neutral status is set down in its constitution.

The document says Moldova’s neutral status requires it to boost partnerships with different countries and international organizations to strengthen its national defense. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has jolted Moldova as drone fragments land on its territory and missiles aimed at Ukrainian targets pass through its airspace.

Pro-Western President Maia Sandu, reelected to a second term last month, though by a smaller margin than anticipated, has accused Russia of trying to unseat her government.

Members of the pro-Moscow Socialist Party dismissed the document as meaningless.

“If, God forbid, we are subject to an attack from the direction of the Russian Federation, how long do you think Moldova will resist such aggression?” Socialist member Adrian Albu asked the minister.

The document cites risks of the Ukraine conflict spreading, particularly around the Black Sea port of Odesa close to Moldova’s border.
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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korea’s spy agency said Friday it had confirmed that a North Korean soldier sent to back Russia’s war against Ukraine had been captured by Ukrainian forces.

Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to reinforce Russian troops, including in the Kursk border region where Ukraine mounted a shock border incursion in August.

“Through real-time information sharing with an allied country’s intelligence agency, it has been confirmed that one injured North Korean soldier has been captured,” South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said in a statement.

The soldier was captured by the Ukrainian army, an intelligence source told AFP, adding that the location where he was seized was unknown.

The first confirmation of the capture of a North Korean soldier came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that nearly 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been “killed or wounded” so far.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff also said Monday that more than 1,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded.

The JCS had also said that Pyongyang is reportedly “preparing for the rotation or additional deployment of soldiers” and supplying “240mm rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled artillery” to the Russian army.

Seoul’s military believes that North Korea was seeking to modernize its conventional warfare capabilities through combat experience gained in the Russia-Ukraine war.

North Korean state media said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a New Year’s message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying “the bilateral ties between our two countries have been elevated after our talks in June in Pyongyang.”

A landmark defense pact went into effect in December after the two sides exchanged ratification documents.

Putin hailed the deal in June as a “breakthrough document.”
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The Kremlin completed preparations to isolate the Russian segment of the internet from the rest of the World Wide Web, experts told VOA Russian. The Kremlin may implement severe internet restrictions in 2025, mirroring Iran’s experience of blocking undesirable web traffic. Experts note that YouTube speeds in Russia are 20% of the pre-war speeds, meaning that YouTube is essentially blocked in Russia.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
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Both Russia and Ukraine expanded the use of drones in 2024 as a relatively cheap means of warfare that requires an opponent to use a much more expensive air defense system. Moscow and Kyiv acquired 1.5 million drones between them in the past year, with Ukraine hitting thousands of targets inside Russia in recent months.

Click here for the full story in Russian.

 
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