The Levant Files

Nearly a month after the Filo Jet disaster off Keryneia, the most exhaustive examination yet of the sunken catamaran has brought a devastating answer — but not the one the families were waiting for. Search teams have now entered and examined the wreck from end to end. None of the 13 people still missing were found inside. Meanwhile, another maritime tragedy in the Marmara Sea has left nine sailors missing after their ship sank following a collision. By the Editorial Team of TLF For thirteen families waiting for news from the sea, there was no reunion on Friday. There was not even the painful certainty of a body to bury. Instead, the latest search of the Filo Jet , resting in darkness more than half a kilometre beneath the Mediterranean, has left them facing an even harder question. If their loved ones are not inside the ship, where are they? The Wreck Has Now Been Searched Ünal Üstel, Prime Minister of the internationally unrecognized “Turkish Republic of Northern C...

Washington says neither of Sudan’s warring forces has the constitutional authority to govern. Yet ministries still operate, diplomats still represent the country, and armed groups control different parts of it. Who, then, is actually in charge? By the Editorial Team of TLF For a family trying to obtain medicine in Khartoum or cross a checkpoint in Darfur, the question of who governs Sudan has an immediate answer: the people holding power where they live. Washington’s latest statement asks a harder question. Does control of territory give those people the right to rule the country? What Washington Said On 22 September, US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said that neither the Sudanese Armed Forces nor the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), nor their leaders, represented “legitimate, constitutional governance for Sudan.” Both, he said, ruled through force of arms. Washington called for a humanitarian truce followed by an inclusive political process and a transit...

A retired police officer was taken to hospital after a suicide attempt during a pension protest in Ankara. But the few words he spoke about his finances pointed to something larger than one pension dispute: economic insecurity stretching across generations of the same family. By the Editorial Team of TLF A protest by retired civil servants outside Turkey’s Constitutional Court took a distressing turn on Friday when a retired police officer attempted to take his own life. Emergency workers took him to hospital. At the time of writing, there had been no official announcement about his condition. Before the incident, however, the retired officer had described in very simple terms what had brought him there. “I can’t make ends meet,” he told those gathered at the protest. Then he spoke about his family. His daughter-in-law was unemployed. So was his son-in-law. In a few sentences, the story ceased to be only about one pensioner demanding more money from the state. It became a pict...

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are preparing urgent talks among their military chiefs after another wave of Houthi attacks. For the first time, the Mecca defence pact appears to be moving beyond declarations of solidarity and into military planning. But there is an important line that has not yet been crossed: no joint operation has been announced. By the Editorial Team of TLF Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are preparing military consultations as the war in Yemen increasingly spills across the Saudi border. A defence pact signed in Mecca only last month is already facing its first serious test. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are arranging an urgent meeting of their chiefs of staff to examine how the three countries could support the kingdom as attacks from Yemen intensify. That does not yet mean Turkish or Pakistani forces are heading into the conflict. But it does mean that an agreement which, until now, largely existed on paper is being brought into the room where mili...

The arrest of a former central bank deputy governor has pushed Turkey’s widening investment-fund investigation uncomfortably close to the centre of the country’s financial establishment. But the scandal is unfolding against a much bigger problem: inflation remains painfully high, money is expensive and millions of Turks are still searching for somewhere — anywhere — to protect the value of their savings. By the Editorial Team of TLF Illustration: The Levant Files   1. What Happened Now? The investigation has moved another step up Turkey’s financial ladder. A court has ordered the arrest of 11 more suspects, among them Erkan Kilimci, a former deputy governor of Turkey’s central bank who later served on the board of Tera. According to T24, the latest operation brings the number of people arrested in the investigation to 45. An arrest, of course, is not a conviction, and the allegations against those detained will have to be tested through the judicial process. But Kilimci’s na...

  Benjamin Netanyahu did not surprise anyone at the United Nations. He came to defend Israel, confront its enemies and repeat arguments the world has heard many times before. What deserves closer attention is how much wider he chose to draw the circle of confrontation — taking aim not only at Iran, but at Qatar and Turkey. And there, standing increasingly close to Israel at a particularly dangerous moment, is Greece. By the Editorial Team of TLF Benjamin Netanyahu went to the UN General Assembly and, in many ways, delivered exactly the speech one would have expected from him. There was the defiance. There was the defence of Israel’s conduct in Gaza and its military campaign against Iran. And there was the familiar presentation of Israel as a country surrounded by enemies and forced to fight because, in Netanyahu’s words, “we have no other choice.” None of this was particularly surprising. What was more striking was the breadth of the confrontation Netanyahu chose to stage from the ...

  Just four years after one of Africa’s bloodiest wars was brought to a halt, guns are firing again in northern Ethiopia. The danger is no longer confined to Tigray: an anti-government alliance, tensions with Eritrea and the struggle for access to the Red Sea could turn another Ethiopian war into a crisis stretching towards the Middle East. By the Editorial Team of TLF For a region already moving from one crisis to the next, another warning light has begun flashing. Ethiopia may be sliding back towards war. The peace that stopped the devastating conflict in Tigray in 2022 was always fragile. Now, after months of political fractures, accusations and military manoeuvring, fighting has returned — and this time the confrontation is developing against an even more dangerous regional backdrop. On Wednesday, September 23, Tigrayan forces seized three airports as clashes with federal troops were reported at several locations, according to Reuters. Tigray's authorities said their forces had...

  By the Editorial Team of TLF The alarm is no longer coming only from Erdoğan’s opponents. A Yeni Şafak columnist warns that Turkey’s widening fund scandal could produce a “very major political rupture” — and, if public distrust is allowed to deepen, even open the door for an outsider to take power. There is something unusual happening in Turkey’s pro-government press. The scandal surrounding investment funds, spectacular returns, alleged market manipulation and questions over who knew what — and when — is beginning to move beyond the financial pages. It is becoming a story about power. And now one of the sharpest warnings is coming from a newspaper firmly associated with the Erdoğan era. Yeni Şafak columnist Ersin Çelik does not attack President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Quite the opposite. He begins from the premise that Turkey, under Erdoğan, is making important moves abroad at an exceptionally dangerous moment: wars surround the country, states are positioning themselves for a ch...

  بقلم فريق تحرير The Levant Files (TLF) يأتي التحذير الأميركي في توقيت بالغ الحساسية بالنسبة إلى بغداد. فالقوات الأميركية تستعد للمغادرة، وخطة نزع سلاح الفصائل النافذة تجاوزت بالفعل موعد الانسحاب، فيما تجعل الحرب مع إيران من الصعب على العراق البقاء بمنأى عن المواجهة الإقليمية. اختار وزير الخارجية الأميركي ماركو روبيو كلمة لافتة لوصف الخطر الذي يواجه العراق:  «البلقنة» . لكن تحذيره لا يعني بالضرورة أن واشنطن تتوقع تفكك العراق إلى كيانات منفصلة. فالمشكلة الأكثر إلحاحاً أكثر تعقيداً من التقسيم الجغرافي، وربما تكون أصعب على بغداد في التعامل معها. قد يبقى العراق دولة واحدة على الخريطة، فيما تتوزع على الأرض سلطة السلاح والأمن، وحتى قرار الحرب والسياسة الخارجية، بين أكثر من طرف. وهنا تكمن أهمية توقيت تحذير روبيو. من المقرر أن تغادر القوات الأميركية المتبقية العراق بحلول  30 سبتمبر/أيلول ، بموجب الاتفاق المرحلي الذي ينهي المهمة العسكرية للتحالف الدولي ضد تنظيم «داعش». وفي التوقيت نفسه تقريباً، كان يُفترض أن تكون بغداد قد أحرزت تقدماً حاسماً في إخضاع الفصائل المسلحة لسلطة الدولة....

  By the Editorial Team of TLF Washington’s warning comes at an awkward moment for Baghdad. American troops are preparing to leave, the promised disarmament of powerful militias has slipped well beyond the withdrawal date, and the war with Iran is making it increasingly difficult for Iraq to stay out of the regional confrontation. Marco Rubio chose a striking word to describe the danger facing Iraq: “Balkanisation.” But the US Secretary of State’s warning does not necessarily mean Washington expects Iraq to break apart. The more immediate concern is subtler — and, for Baghdad, perhaps more difficult to manage. Iraq could remain one country on the map while authority over guns, security and foreign policy becomes increasingly fragmented on the ground. The timing of Rubio’s intervention matters. The remaining US forces are due to leave Iraq by September 30 under the phased agreement that ends the international coalition’s military mission against ISIL. At almost exactly the same mome...