The Week USA - 13.03.2020

Best columns: International^ NEWS^15

INDIA

CANADA

Three days of anti-Muslim rioting left more than

40 people dead in northeast New Delhi last week,

said TheWire.in, and the blame for those deaths

lies with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The sec-

tarian bloodshed began when Kapil Mishra, a local

leader of Modi’s Hindu supremacist Bharatiya

Janata Party, warned Indian Muslims protesting

a discriminatory new citizenship law to clear the

streets or face “dire consequences.” Armed Hindu

mobs quickly went on the rampage, beating and

shooting Muslims and burning their stores while

police stood on the sidelines. It’s true that Mishra

was the lead instigator of the violence, but it is

Modi’s poisonous ideology that allowed a riot to

turn into a massacre. His Hindu supremacism has

permeated the capital’s police, and it’s now a habit

of the Delhi force to stand by and watch pro-BJP

mobs “run amok.” We’re seeing a repeat of 2002,

when Modi was governor of Gujarat state, and po-

lice there did nothing to halt weeks of anti-Muslim

riots that left some 800 Muslims dead. BJP leaders

at all levels call those protesting the citizenship law

traitors, and openly incite anti-Muslim hatred. At

the cabinet level, the home minister doesn’t criticize

the police or the officials but rather the press, for

reporting on the violence. This deliberate effort

“to polarize the country on religious grounds” will

surely claim more lives.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is gleefully trying to

start political fights by being “pointlessly annoy-

ing,” said Heather Mallick. Ford’s Progressive Con-

servatives recently forced through a rule change

that requires all state lawmakers to sing “God Save

the Queen” in the legislature on the first Monday

of each month. The rule took effect this week, and

several indigenous members refused to sing along.

New Democrat Sol Mamakwa said the revival

of the British national anthem was an attempt to

glorify “a hurtful and violent colonial past,” an era

that “sought the destruction of cultures, languages,

and communities.” Ford, of course, was delighted

by the refusal, because it gave him and his cronies
an excuse to huff, “Oooh, look, he’s insulting our
queen.” But in fact most Ontarians agree with
Mamakwa that the anthem, indeed the entire royal
family, is “an anachronism, a reminder of an era
long past its Best Before date.” When the queen
dies, the song will become “God Save the King”
and refer to the “absurd Prince Charles.” Are Ca-
nadians really expected to sing that we hope Chuck
will long reign over us? Who among us could man-
age that “without laughing”? Requiring obeisance
to the crown is a ridiculous gesture—and Ford has
AP made himself ridiculous by insisting.

Bloody riots

inevitable

under Modi

Editorial

TheWire.in

This isn’t

Merrie Olde

England

Heather Mallick

Toronto Star

The humanitarian catastrophe unfolding

in northwestern Syria “is fast becoming a

geopolitical one as well,” said Jonathan

Marcus in BBC.com. In a brutal attempt

to end the country’s nine-year-old civil

war, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad

has been battling to retake Idlib, the last

rebel-held province. Two years ago, it

seemed as if Russia and Iran (Assad’s

main supporters) and Turkey (the main

supporter of the rebels) had come to an

understanding in the province, with all

parties observing a cease-fire while keep-

ing troops deployed in the area. Assad

blew up that pact late last year, launch-

ing an offensive “backed by Russian air power and Iranian prox-

ies” that has sent some 950,000 people fleeing toward the Turk-

ish border. An alarmed Turkey took immediate action to halt the

slaughter, adding thousands of reinforcements to its military con-

tingent in Idlib. At least 33 of those soldiers were killed last week

in a devastating airstrike on a Turkish convoy. “The Turks have

been at pains to blame the Syrian Air Force,” but many suspect

Russian jets were responsible. Turkey has responded by shooting

down two Syrian warplanes and carrying out hundreds of drone

strikes on Assad-allied forces. “The scene is set for a full-scale

confrontation between Turkey and Syria.”

Ankara has found itself entirely alone with a crisis of its own

making, said Ahmad Haj Ali in Argumenti Nedeli (Russia).

Moscow showed goodwill after the airstrike, temporarily pulling

back Russian forces so that the Turks “could bring out their dead

and wounded.” Yet Turkish President

Recep Tayyip Erdogan used that lull

in fighting to go on the offensive and

“create new martyrs” among the Syr-

ian military. Erdogan has no friends

who will join him in this fight. He

has infuriated the European Union

by opening his country’s western

borders, sending tens of thousands

of Syrian refugees streaming toward

Greece and Bulgaria, where they

were greeted this week by barbed-

wire fences and massed troops. And

the U.S. is still mad at its NATO ally

Turkey for buying an anti-aircraft

missile system from Russia instead of the more expensive U.S.

Patriot system. Without allies, Erdogan will have no choice but to

abandon his Syrian misadventure.

It’s outrageous that NATO has refused to help us, said Hakki

Ocal in Daily Sabah (Turkey). We’ve accepted nearly 4 million

Syrian refugees over the past decade, while the EU has taken in

a paltry 1 million and the U.S. has shut its doors altogether. To

prevent another influx, we tried to create a safe zone in Idlib—

an act of “gallantry” that has put our brave soldiers in the line of

fire. Unless he wants to get into a hot war with Russia, Erdogan

will have to strike a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin,

said Hannah Lucinda Smith in The Times (U.K.). A new agree-

ment creating a smaller safe zone in Idlib might allow Erdogan to

claim a victory. “But Putin holds all the bargaining chips and will

be certain to demand huge payback from Turkey in return.”

Middle East: Turkey and Russia clash in Syria

Civilians flee the fighting in Idlib.