The Washington Post - 20.08.2019

TUESDAY, AUGUST 20 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

BY KAREEM FAHIM

istanbul — A Turkish military
convoy was targeted by an air-
strike in Syria on Monday, killing
three civilians, Turkey’s Defense
Ministry said in a statement.
Syria’s government said the
convoy contained weapons
bound for insurgents, without
saying whether it was behind the
strike, which took place in Idlib
province.
The attack threatened to set off
a new round of violence between
the governments of Syria and
Turkey and imperiled the fragile
military cooperation between
Moscow and Ankara in northern
Syria, including agreements
aimed at decreasing violence
there.
While Turkey has been able to
maintain observation posts in
Idlib, its cooperation with Russia
has not prevented the govern-
ment of President Bashar
al-Assad, Russia’s ally, from pur-
suing an all-out offensive to re-
capture the province from Syrian

rebel groups.

Turkey did not say who con-

ducted the airstrike but at least

partially blamed Russia.

The Russian government had

been supplied with “advance in-

formation” about the convoy’s

route, the ministry said. The at-

tack “contradicts the existing

agreements, cooperation and dia-

logue with the Russian Federa-

tion,” it added, calling for “all

necessary measures to be taken to

prevent recurrence of such inci-

dents.”

Turkey maintained its right to

respond in self-defense, the state-

ment said. The convoy had set out

for a Turkish observation post at

5:30 a.m. Monday and was at-

tacked from the air shortly before

9 a.m. In addition to the three

fatalities, 12 civilians were

wounded.

Syria’s government said in a

statement of its own that the

convoy had been loaded with

“ammunition, weapons and ma-

terial” intended for a Syrian jiha-

dist group in Khan Sheikhoun, a

target of the government offen-

sive and one of the last major

rebel redoubts. It called the con-

voy “a stark violation of the sover-

eignty and the territorial integri-

ty of the Syrian Arab Republic.”

Syria’s Russian-backed offen-

sive in Idlib has killed hundreds

of civilians since April and dis-

placed hundreds of thousands of

people, setting off fears of an-

other refugee exodus from Syria,

according to United Nations offi-

cials. Turkish President Recep

Tayyip Erdogan, a longtime sup-

porter of the Syrian opposition,

has seemed powerless to blunt

the offensive, despite his increas-

ingly strong partnership with

Russian President Vladimir

Putin.

Those ties grew even warmer

in recent weeks, after Turkey

took delivery of an advanced

Russian air defense system, over

the Trump administration’s

objections.

But in Idlib, a series of cease-

fires have collapsed, including a

deal struck in early August. Syr-

ia’s government has accused the

rebels of failing to abide by the

terms of a deal between Turkey

and Russia aimed at de-escalat-

ing the violence in the province.

In recent days, a flurry of air-

strikes have killed dozens of civil-

ians across Idlib, according to

activists.

Turkey has previously retaliat-

ed after accusing Syria of carrying

out deadly attacks against Turk-

ish military personnel in Idlib. In

June, Turkey fired heavy weapons

into Syrian government-held ter-

ritory after a Turkish soldier was

killed in what Ankara said was a

Syrian army attack.

[email protected]

Liz Sly in Beirut contributed to this

report.

3 dead after Turkish convoy is hit by airstrike in Syria

BY KAREEM FAHIM

istanbul — Turkey’s govern-
ment said Monday that it had
indicted three popular mayors
from Kurdish-majority provinc-
es on terrorism charges and
replaced them with state offi-
cials.
The suspension came five
months after the mayors won
landslide victories in local polls.
Opposition parties criticized the
move as anti-democratic, saying
it was the latest evidence that
President Recep Tayyip Erdo-
gan’s government is intent on
marginalizing pro-Kurdish voic-
es.
The mayors — of Diyarbakir,
Mardin and Van provinces — are
members of the opposition Peo-

ples’ Democratic Party, or HDP, a

pro-Kurdish party. Between

them, they won nearly a million

votes in local elections held in

March — easily defeating candi-

dates from Erdogan’s ruling Jus-

tice and Development Party, or

AKP.

Erdogan has frequently ac-

cused the HDP of links to the

militant Kurdistan Workers’ Par-

ty, or PKK, which has fought a

decades-long insurgency against

the Turkish government. HDP

officials have denied such links.

Dozens of HDP members have

been arrested in the past three

years, including mayors who

were replaced with state ad-

ministrators.

“This is a new and clear politi-

cal coup,” the HDP said in a

statement. “It also constitutes a

clearly hostile move against the

political will of the Kurdish peo-

ple.”

The Interior Ministry said the

mayors — Ahmet Turk, Adnan

Selcuk Mizrakli and Bedia

Ozgokce Ertan — are accused of

several crimes, including form-

ing an armed terrorist organiza-

tion and spreading propaganda

for a terrorist group. The lengthy

ministry statement said the PKK

had used some Turkish munici-

palities as “logistical centers” to

procure funding and equipment

to support terrorism.

The Interior Ministry also an-

nounced that it had arrested

more than 400 people across

Turkey for purported links to the

PKK as part of the government’s

multi-front war against the mili-

tant group.

Turkey’s military has repeat-

edly attacked PKK positions in

northern Iraq and threatened an

offensive into northern Syria

against a U.S.-allied Syrian-

Kurdish force with links to the

group.

But Turkey’s leaders had other

reasons to move against opposi-

tion-party mayors at home, ana-

lysts said. The AKP suffered

humbling defeats across Turkey

in the local elections, including

the losses of mayoral seats in

Istanbul and Ankara. Some of

the newly elected mayors —

including Mizrakli, the Diyarba-

kir mayor — promised to investi-

gate the financial dealings of

ruling-party members who had

previously held the posts.

The AKP fought doggedly to

keep the mayor’s seat in Istanbul,

Turkey’s largest city and its fi-

nancial center. After initial elec-

tion results showed that Ekrem

Imamoglu, a challenger from the

opposition Republican People’s

Party, had won the seat, the

ruling party appealed the results.

Imamoglu easily won a revote

in June — a result that was hailed

as a victory for democracy and

that handed the opposition a

high-profile platform from

which to scrutinize the govern-

ment’s policies.

In a Twitter post Monday,

Imamoglu criticized the replace-

ment of the three mayors. The

move “cannot be explained by

democracy or democratic prac-

tices,” he wrote. “Ignoring the

will of the nation is unaccept-

able.”

[email protected]

Turkey suspends three popular mayors, alleging links to Kurdish militants

BY RUTH EGLASH

tel aviv — At first glance, the
stylish boutique on Tel Aviv’s
Montefiore Street looks like any
other fancy store in this swanky
part of the city. Hip denim hangs
from a single circular rail above
polished hardwood floors. Heal-
ing crystals are laid out neatly on
a shiny mirrored table.
But a closer inspection of the
shelves and the window display
suggests something else is on sale
here, and it’s something not
found anywhere else in the world:
kosher sex.
The shop is named for the
controversial, best-selling self-
help book “Kosher Sex: A Recipe
for Passion and Intimacy” pub-
lished 20 years ago by American
celebrity rabbi Shmuley Boteach.
Kosher Sex — the store — was
opened last month by Chana Bo-
teach, the rabbi’s daughter, and
sells products meant to induce a
healthy dose of sexual intimacy
and spirituality between commit-
ted couples. “People are broken
and lonelier than ever before,”
said Chana Boteach, 29. “We are
reclaiming sex and helping to
create passion and intimacy be-
tween two people.”
Not exactly what most think of
when thinking of Israel.
According to Boteach, and her
father before her, Judaism has a
unique approach to sexual inti-
macy: Sex is not meant only for
procreation but should not serve
solely as recreation. Instead, the
religion embraces anything that
encourages a close and loving
connection between two people.
Boteach, who moved to Israel
from the United States nine years
ago, said that although the store
has a clear Jewish message de-
rived from holy Jewish texts —
hence “kosher” sex — it also has
“something that everyone can re-
late to.”
Her customers, she said, come
from “all walks of life.” Religious
and secular, Jewish and not, mar-
ried and single. “They are people
who are craving to give sexuality
more meaning.”
The store itself is gleaming and
airy and open, unlike the kind of

“red-light district” shops — as

Boteach puts it — in some other

parts of Tel Aviv. Boteach added

that the inventory has been care-

fully selected to be both “elegant

and tasteful.”

Delicately handling one of the

silicone toys, she said the spongy

material is uniquely designed to

fit the contours of a woman’s

body. A gold necklace dangling on

a display can also double as a sex

prop, said Boteach: “For wives to

send a subtle message to their

husbands about fun later on.”

Some of the more high-end prod-

ucts, such as the crystal toys, cost

as much as $170.

None of what is on sale is

meant to replace a husband, Bo-

teach said. In Judaism, men are

commanded to please their wives

in the bedroom, and all the prod-

ucts are meant to assist them in

doing just that.

Writing about his daughter’s

store after it was first publicized

in the Jerusalem Post, Shmuley

Boteach said “products that res-

cue marriages from the morgue

are absolutely kosher, seeing that

they allow husbands and wives to

connect through the medium of

passion and pleasure.”

He also saluted his daughter’s

efforts to bring the core ideas of

intimacy and commitment to her

generation. “As it turns out, they

might be the ones that most need

these values,” he wrote.

Chana Boteach said her long-

term business goal is to see Ko-

sher Sex stores opening in the

United States. In the meantime,

she shares retail space with a

friend, a fashion designer reimag-

ining denim clothing much in the

same way she is reimagining sex.

The presence of clothing also

helps soften the emphasis on

products that some might find

uncomfortable or embarrassing.

On a recent day, a group of

young women browsed through a

rail of denim, then pivoted to a

Kosher Sex display. After a while,

one of them surreptitiously

popped her newly purchased

product into her eco-friendly can-

vas bag and walked out.

“I want people to come in and

not feel ashamed; now they can

look at the clothing and then turn

their attention to the sexy side of

the store,” Boteach said.

She recounted how a 79-year-

old man recently came into the

store and bought a gift for his wife

for their 50th wedding anniversa-

ry. “He said it was her first” adult

toy, Boteach recalled.

Selling sex, even the kosher

variety and even in the very liber-

al city of Tel Aviv, can provoke a

backlash, though Boteach said

the store has received mostly pos-

itive feedback.

“I understand that not every-

one is comfortable with what I am

doing here,” she said. “They think

it’s too forward, but they are the

ones who do not understand Ju-

daism and sexuality.”

There is one thing undeniably

old-school about Kosher Sex. Like

most businesses in Israel, it closes

before sundown on Fridays and

does not open at all on Saturdays

in observance of the Sabbath.

[email protected]

In Tel Aviv, a sexy new kosher store

Attack in Idlib strains

Ankara-Moscow ties

amid offensive by Assad

“It... constitutes a clearly hostile move against

the political will of the Kurdish people.”

Peoples’ Democratic Party, opposition party that includes the mayors

RUTH EGLASH/THE WASHINGTON POST

A window display at Chana Boteach’s Kosher Sex, named for the

best-selling self-help book by her father, a celebrity rabbi.

Owner aims to help

couples seeking both

intimacy and spirituality

OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Smoke billows above the town of Hish in Syria’s Idlib province. A Turkish military convoy was targeted

by an airstrike Monday in the province. In addition to three fatalities, 12 civilians were wounded.

Turkey did not say who

conducted the airstrike

but at least partially

blamed Russia.

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