Region

By Burcin Gercek
Agence France-Presse

USAKLI HOYUK, Turkey — The discovery of a 3,500-year-old paving stone, described as the “ancestor” of Mediterranean mosaics, offers illuminating details into the daily lives of the mysterious Bronze Age Hittites.

The assembly of over 3,000 stones — in natural shades of beige, red and black, and arranged in triangles and curves — was unearthed in the remains of a 15th century BC Hittite temple, 700 years before the oldest known mosaics of ancient Greece.

“It is the ancestor of the classical period of mosaics that are obviously more sophisticated. This is a sort of first attempt to do it,” says Anacleto D’Agostino, excavation director of Usakli Hoyuk, near Yozgat, in central Turkey.

At the site three hours from Turkey’s capital Ankara, first located in 2018, Turkish and Italian archaeologists painstakingly use shovels and brushes to learn more about the towns of the Hittites, one of the most powerful kingdoms in ancient Anatolia.

“For the first time, people felt the necessity to produce some geometric patterns and to do something different from a simple pavement,” D’Agostino says.

“Maybe we are dealing with a genius? Maybe not. It was maybe a man who said ‘build me a floor’ and he decided to do something weird?”

The discovery was made opposite Kerkenes Mountain and the temple where the mosaic is located was dedicated to Teshub, the storm god worshipped by the Hittites, equivalent to Zeus for the ancient Greeks.

“Probably here the priests were looking at the picture of Kerkenes Mountain for some rituals and so on,” D’Agostino adds.

Lost city’s treasures? 

The archaeologists this week also discovered ceramics and the remains of a palace, supporting the theory that Usakli Hoyuk could indeed be the lost city of Zippalanda.

A significant place of worship of the storm god and frequently mentioned in Hittite tablets, Zippalanda’s exact location has remained a mystery.

“Researchers agree that Usakli Hoyuk is one of two most likely sites. With the discovery of the palace remains alongside the luxurious ceramics and glassware, the likelihood has increased,” D’Agostino says.

“We only need the ultimate proof: A tablet carrying the name of the city.”

The treasures of Usakli Hoyuk, for which cedar trees were brought from Lebanon to build temples and palaces, were swallowed up like the rest of the Hittite world towards the end of the Bronze Age.

The reason is still not known.

But some believe a change in climate accompanied by social unrest is the cause

‘Spiritual connection’ 

Nearly 3,000 years after their disappearance, the Hittites continue to inhabit Turkish imagination.

A Hittite figure representing the sun is Ankara’s symbol. And in the 1930s, the founder of the modern Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, presented Turks as the direct descendants of the Hittites.

“I don’t know if we can find a connection between ancient Hittites and people living here now. Centuries and millenia have passed, and people moved from one place to another,” D’Agostino says.

“But I would like to imagine that some sort of spiritual connection exists.”

In an attempt to honour this connection, the excavation team recreated Hittite culinary traditions, trying ancient recipes on ceramics produced as they would have been at the time using the same technique and clay.

“We reproduced the Hittite ceramics with the clay found in the village where the site is located: We baked dates and bread with them as the Hittites used to eat,” says Valentina Orsi, co-director of the excavation.

“It was very good.”

KHARTOUM — The general who heads Sudan’s ruling transitional authority on Sunday pledged to reform the army, days after a failed coup.

“We are going to reorganise the armed forces... Partisan activities are banned in the army,” Sovereign Council chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al Burhan said at the opening of a military hospital in Khartoum.

“The armed forces are committed to holding elections on the date fixed for ending the transition” in 2023, he said.

“After that, the army will leave the political scene and its role will be limited to protecting the country.”

Sudan is led by a civilian-military administration under an August 2019 power-sharing deal signed after president Omar Bashir’s ouster by the military in April that year following mass protests against his iron-fisted rule.

Sudan’s government said it thwarted a September 21 coup attempt involving military officers and civilians linked to the regime of imprisoned Bashir. At least 11 officers were among those arrested.

During a late Sunday meeting with top military officials Burhan denied suggestions that the army was involved in the coup attempt.

This is “slander”, he said, adding: “The armed forces are those who foiled the coup.”

Civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has since called for reforms within the army, a highly sensitive issue in Sudan.

A transition to full civilian rule has remained shaky, reeling from deep fragmentation among political factions, economic woes and a receding role for civilian leaders.

Paramilitary leader and Burhan’s deputy in the Sovereign Council, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has pointed a finger of blame at politicians after the failed coup.

“Politicians are the main cause behind coups because they have neglected the average citizen... and are more concerned fighting over how they can stay in power,” Daglo said.

DAMASCUS — Hospitals in the Syrian capital Damascus and the coastal province of Latakia have reached capacity due to rising coronavirus admissions, a health official said on Sunday.

"We have started transferring COVID-19 patients from the province of Damascus to the [central] province of Homs, and from Latakia to the province of Tartus," Tawfiq Hasaba, a health ministry official, was quoted as saying by Syrian state TV.

The move came after "hospitals in these areas reached capacity because of a large spike in coronavirus cases", he added.

Syria on Saturday logged 442 new coronavirus infections, a new daily record for a conflict-hit country that has documented more than 32,580 cases, including 2,198 deaths in regime controlled territory, since the start of its outbreak last year.

"It is the first time the number of cases reaches 400" in one day, Hasaba said, adding that the number of new infections was highest in Damascus, Aleppo and Latakia.

Coronavirus cases have been on the rise across Syria since mid-August, including in the northwest and northeast, large parts of which fall beyond government control.

According to the World Health Organisation, only 2 per cent of Syria's population has been at least partially vaccinated.

Syria's conflict has since 2011 killed nearly half a million people and ravaged a healthcare sector struggling to cope with a mass outflux of professionals.

Around 70 per cent of the country's pre-war medical staff have left since the start of the war.

TUNIS — About 2,000 Tunisians rallied in the capital on Sunday to protest against President Kais Saied's recent steps to tighten his grip on power, labelling it "a coup d'etat".

Saied, who on July 25 sacked prime minister Hichem Mechichi, suspended parliament and granted himself judicial powers, on Wednesday also announced "exceptional measures" that allow him to rule by decree.

Protesters waving the Tunisian flag gathered Sunday outside the the municipal theatre in Tunis, well before the demonstration's scheduled 11:00 GMT start, and shouted slogans in defence of the 2014 national charter.

“Constitution, freedom and national dignity,” chanted the mostly male demonstrators, also demanding “national unity against populism” and calling for the “end of the Kais Saied regime”.

Security forces were deployed in large numbers along Bourguiba Avenue, which runs through the heart of the capital, with armoured cars, police vans and metal barriers set up to control access to different areas.

The president made his power grab on July 25 after months of political stalemate and in the midst of the COVID pandemic, which further aggravated the country’s economic and social difficulties.

Large crowds cheered his move at the time all over the country, but the mood was hostile at the smaller demonstration in Tunis on Sunday.

Some shouted “Get out, get out”, repeating the slogan of protests that started in December 2010 and culminated in the resignation of Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on January 14, 2011 after 24 years in power.

Around 20 global and Tunisian human rights groups on Saturday condemned Saied’s “power grab” and labelled it “a first step towards authoritarianism”.

Signatories to the statement included Amnesty International’s Tunisia section, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists, and the Tunisian Network for Transitional Justice.

BIDDU, Palestinian Territories — Israeli forces clashed with Hamas members in the West Bank on Sunday in several fierce gun battles that left five Palestinians dead and two Israelis seriously wounded, officials said.

The violence started after Israeli forces launched an overnight operation to dismantle a Hamas cell, Israeli forces said.

The raids, which Israeli forces said led to the arrests of several "terrorists", marked some of the heaviest fighting in recent weeks in the Palestinian territory that has been occupied by Israel since 1967.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed five deaths from Israeli gunfire, including two near Jenin and three more in the Biddu area, made up of several villages between Ramallah and Jerusalem.

"The sound of gunfire" rang out around 4:00 am [01:00 GMT], followed by "strong explosions", said Ayed Shamasneh, 44, a resident in the Biddu area, where an AFP photographer saw blood soaking the ground in the village of Beit Annan.

Israeli forces said that "in five simultaneous operations to apprehend the terrorists, Israeli forces responded to live fire, killing five of the terrorists in a shootout, and apprehending several others".

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett confirmed that Israeli "security forces took action overnight in Judea and Samaria against Hamas terrorists who were about to carry out terrorist attacks in real time". 

Bennett, who was en route to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly, said the Israeli forces had acted "as expected of them", suggesting that the use of deadly force was justified.

Israeli forces said during an arrest in Burqin "a close range shootout was instigated by terrorists inside a building" that left two soldiers severely injured.

"The possibility that the injuries were caused by our forces' fire is being investigated," the statement added, saying the forces received "life-saving medical treatment".

It described the operation as a joint effort by Israeli forces, special police units, intelligence agents and the Shin Bet domestic security agency.

Hamas confirmed its fighters had confronted with Israeli forces near occupied Jerusalem and Jenin and said that those killed in the Biddu area — named as Ahmad Zahran, Zakaria Badwan and Mohammed Humaidan — were members of the Islamist group.

Hamas has controlled the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip since 2007, but also has a strong presence in the West Bank, which is formally controlled by rival group Fateh.

Islamic Jihad, another Islamist group and the second strongest in Gaza, issued a statement identifying Osama Soboh as one of its “martyrs” who died in Burqin, praising his “heroism”.

Soboh was buried on Sunday but, according to the Palestinian health ministry, Israel was holding the remaining four bodies — a practice used by both sides in the conflict to gain leverage in negotiations.

The Biddu area has been relatively calm for several years but has been hit by previous unrest.

Jenin has been a flashpoint through the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Four Palestinians were killed in the Jenin refugee camp during confrontations last month.

The area was also the focus of an intense manhunt earlier this month after six Palestinians from Jenin governorate broke out of a high-security Israeli prison. All six were later recaptured.

DUBAI — A team of Omani cavers has made what is believed to be the first descent to the bottom of Yemen’s fabled Well of Barhout — a natural wonder shunned by many locals, who believe it is a prison for genies.

The forbidding “Well of Hell”, whose dark, round aperture creates a 30 metre wide hole in the desert floor of Yemen’s eastern province of Al Mahra, plunges approximately 112 metres below the surface and, according to some accounts, gives off strange odours.

Inside, the Oman Cave Exploration Team found snakes, dead animals and cave pearls — but no signs of the supernatural.

“There were snakes, but they won’t bother you unless you bother them,” Mohammed Al Kindi, a geology professor at the German University of Technology in Oman, told AFP.

Kindi was among eight experienced cavers who rappelled down last week, while two colleagues remained at the surface.

Footage provided to AFP showed cave formations and grey and lime-green cave pearls, formed by dripping water.

“Passion drove us to do this, and we felt that this is something that will reveal a new wonder and part of Yemeni history,” said Kindi, who also owns a mining and petroleum consultancy firm.

“We collected samples of water, rocks, soil and some dead animals but have yet to have them analysed,” he said, adding that a report will soon be made public.

“There were dead birds, which does create some bad odours, but there was no overwhelming bad smell.”

Yemeni officials told AFP in June that they did not know what lay in the depths of the pit, which they estimated to be “millions and millions” of years old, adding that they had never reached the bottom.

“We have gone to visit the area and entered the well, reaching more than 50-60 metres down,” Salah Babhair, director general of Mahra’s geological survey and mineral resources authority, said at the time.

“We noticed strange things inside. We also smelled something strange... It’s a mysterious situation.”

Over the centuries, stories have circulated of malign figures known as jinns or genies living in the well, which some regard as the gate of hell.

Many residents of the area are uneasy about visiting the vast pit or even talking about it, for fear of ill fortune.

Yemenis have had enough bad luck as it is.

The country has been embroiled in a devastating civil war since 2014 that has triggered what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with two-thirds of its 30 million population dependent on some form of aid.

TUNIS — Around 20 global and Tunisian human rights groups on Saturday condemned a “power grab” by Tunisia’s president and warned of a slide back towards authoritarianism.

They “strongly denounce the decisions taken unilaterally by President Kais Saied, reaffirm their unwavering attachment to democratic principles and condemn the seizure of power and the lack of any form of safeguards”.

Signatories to the statement included Amnesty International’s Tunisia section, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists, and the Tunisian Network for Transitional Justice.

Their warning followed Saied’s announcement on Wednesday of decrees that strengthen the powers of his office at the expense of those of the prime minister and parliament, in the only democracy to have emerged from the Arab spring uprisings of a decade ago.

Saied’s action is “implicitly abrogating the constitutional order in... a first step towards authoritarianism”, the rights groups said.

The new measures came almost two months after Saied sacked the government of Hichem Mechichi and suspended parliament, presenting himself as the ultimate interpreter of the constitution.

Mechichi’s government was supported by the Islamist-inspired Ennahda Party, the largest in Tunisia’s deeply fragmented legislature.

Fractious coalitions and short-lived governments that followed the North African country’s 2011 revolution have proved unable to resolve pressing social and economic crises.

Although Saied’s July measures enjoyed significant public support, civil society groups have been warning of a drift away from democracy.

The speaker of Tunisia’s parliament Rached Ghannouchi on Thursday called for “peaceful struggle” against a return to “absolute one-man rule”.

A day later the country’s powerful UGTT trade union confederation warned of threats to the country’s democracy.

In their statement, the rights groups recognised “the limits of the current political system” established by the 2014 constitution but said any reform must be done while respecting “the separation of powers and in full guarantee of fundamental freedoms and human rights”.

Such change cannot be “dictated unilaterally by the presidential power”, the groups said.

Saied will now rule and pass laws by decree, without the need for a vote in parliament, which remains suspended.

“The constitution is no longer the source of laws, and no recourse will be possible against the presidential decrees,” the statement said.

DUBAI — More than 140 rebels and pro-government troops have been killed this week as fighting intensifies for Yemen's strategic northern city of Marib, military and medical sources told AFP Friday.

At least 51 loyalists were killed in the past four days, most of them in clashes in the province of Shabwa and the neighbouring governorate of Marib, multiple military sources said.

They added that at least 93 Iran-backed Houthi rebels also died in the fighting and from air strikes by the Saudi-led military coalition backing the government.

The Houthis rarely report casualty numbers, but figures were confirmed by medical sources.

The Houthis in February escalated their efforts to seize Marib, the government’s last northern stronghold, and the fighting has killed hundreds on both sides.

Control of the oil-rich region would strengthen the Houthis’ bargaining position in peace talks.

According to the military sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Houthis have made advances and seized four districts, one in Marib and three in Shabwa.

“Three districts in Shabwa have fallen in limited clashes and within hours,” one official told AFP.

Humanitarian crisis 

Yemen’s conflict flared in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa, prompting Saudi-led intervention to prop up the internationally recognised government the following year.

This month marks seven years since the rebels took control of Sanaa, with some analysts saying the balance has tilted in favour of the insurgents against the coalition.

Earlier this week, Swedish diplomat Hans Grundberg, the United Nations’s new envoy for Yemen, was in Oman, which has played a mediating role in the Yemen conflict.

He met with Omani and Houthi officials, including top rebel negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam.

“Sustainable peace can only be achieved through a peacefully negotiated settlement,” said Grundberg, according to a statement on Tuesday.

“It is imperative that all efforts are directed towards revitalising a political process that can produce lasting solutions that meet the aspirations of Yemeni women and men.”

While the UN and Washington are pushing for an end to the war, the Houthis have demanded the reopening of Sanaa airport, closed under a Saudi blockade since 2016, before any ceasefire or negotiations.

The last talks took place in Sweden in 2018, when the opposing sides agreed to a mass prisoner swap and to spare the city of Hodeida, where the port serves as the country’s lifeline.

But despite agreeing to a ceasefire in Hodeida, violent clashes have since broken out between the rebels and pro-government troops around the strategic city.

Fighting across the country has killed tens of thousands and left about 80 per cent of Yemenis dependent on aid, in what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

UNITED NATIONS, United States — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave Israel one year to withdraw from occupied territory on Friday or he said he would no long recognize Israel based on pre-1967 borders.

In a virtual address to the United Nations General Assembly, Abbas called on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to "convene an international peace conference."

But along with that request he also issued an ultimatum.

"We must state that Israel, the occupying power, has one year to withdraw from the Palestinian territory it occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem," he said.

Abbas added that the Palestinians were ready "to work throughout the year" on solving the final status of the states of Israel and Palestine "in accordance with United Nations resolutions".

But "if this is not achieved, why maintain recognition of Israel based on the 1967 borders?" he said.

Abbas added that the Palestinians would also go to the International Court of Justice "on the issue of the legality of the occupation of the land of the Palestinian state".

The peace process to achieve a two-state solution between in the Middle East has been deadlocked for years.

Israel immediately brushed aside the Palestinian leader's demands.

Abbas "proved once again that he is no longer relevant", said the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan.

"Those who truly support peace and negotiations do not threaten delusional ultimatums from the UN platform as he did in his speech," he added.