“After several months of intense negotiations, we can now present a result,” German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told newspaper FAZ, which published a joint interview on Thursday with him and his French counterpart Sébastian Lecornu.

On Friday, the two countries will sign a formal document to kick off the first development phase.

Lecornu added that a detailed contract should be finalised by “the beginning of next year”.

The new tanks will incorporate “the firepower of the next generation, electronic warfare, artificial intelligence, as well as laser and directed energy weapons”, the French minister said.

With their joint project taking shape, Lecornu said France and Germany have a lead on the US, which has “still not started to think about the future of its Abrams tank“. 

Meanwhile Russia has “experienced some failures with the successor to their tank”, he noted.

Defence partners

Expected to be ready between 2035 and 2040, the MGCS is supposed to replace France’s Leclerc and Germany’s Leopard tanks.

In March, Pistorius and Lecornu announced that they reached a “breakthrough” on how to develop the MGCS and split up tasks between the two nations.

According to the agreement, production costs will be split equally between France and Germany.

It is their second major joint arms project, alongside their ambitions to build a next-generation fighter jet known as the Future Combat Air System (FCAS).

In March, the countries also reached an agreement to allow German-French tank producer KNDS to set up a local branch in Ukraine to produce spare parts and train local workers.

KNDS is a holding structure formed by France’s Nexter and Germany’s Krauss-Maffei-Wegmann, which make the Leclerc and Leopard tanks respectively.

(with newswires)

During a keynote speech at the Sorbonne University on Thursday, Macron appealed for stronger, more integrated European defences.

He said the continent must not become a vassal of the United States, as he outlined his vision for a more assertive European Union on the global stage.

“[Europe] can die and this depends only on our choices,” Macron said, warning that Europe was “not armed against the risks we face” in a world where the rules have changed.

“Over the next decade … the risk is immense of [Europe] being weakened or even relegated,” he those attending the event, which was billed as the president’s vision for Europe’s future. 

Macron said Europe needed to emerge from a being “strategic minority” that had left it over-dependent on Russia for energy, and on the United States for security.

He described Russia’s behaviour after its invasion of Ukraine as “uninhibited”, warning that it was no longer clear where Moscow’s limits lie.

‘Existential threat’

The French head of state stressed that the sine qua non for European security was “that Russia does not win the war of aggression in Ukraine”.

Warning that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression, Macron called on the continent to adopt a “credible” defence strategy less dependent on the United States, adding Europe could not be “a vassal” of the United States.

He also sounded the alarm on what he described as disrespect of global trade rules by both Russia and China, calling on the European Union to revise its trade policy.

Macron also called for a “revision” of EU trade policy to defend European interests, accusing both China and the United States of no longer respecting the rules of global commerce. 

He returned to the same themes of his Sorbonne speech in September 2017, months after taking office. Seven years on, however, the world has been turned upside down by Brexit, Covid-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Macron said he would ask European partners for proposals over the coming weeks, and added that Europe also needed to build up its own cyberdefence and cybersecurity capacities.

Meawnhile preference should be given to European suppliers in the purchase of military equipment. Macron backed the idea of a European loan to finance this effort.

• France’s Macron urges allies not be ‘cowardly’ on Ukraine
• ‘Made in France’ champion calls for halt of sale of French nuclear firm to Americans

‘Manifesto’ on future Europe

Following Brexit and the departure from power of German chancellor Angela Merkel, the 46-year-old French president is often seen by commentators as Europe’s number one leader.

But his party is facing embarrassment in June’s European elections, ranking well behind the far-right in opinion polls and even risking coming third behind the Socialists.

The head of the governing party’s list for the elections – the little-known Valerie Hayer – is failing to make an impact in the polls, especially in the face of the high-profile 28-year-old Jordan Bardella leading the far-right National Rally and Raphael Glucksmann emerging as a new star on the left.

Macron made no reference to the EU elections in his speech, although analysts say he is clearly seeking to wade into the campaign – with his speech reading as a manifesto for the continent’s future.

The report said there were around 100 centenarians in France in 1900, a number that had doubled by 1950. By 1970, however, there were more than a thousand and, in the year 2000, more than 8,000.

As of 1 January, 2024, the number of people older than 100 years stood at more than 31,000: that’s a quadrupling of the age group in less than a quarter of a century.

The study predicts that if the trend continues, there will be more than 200,000 centenarians in France by the year in 2070.

• France’s law to ensure people ‘age well’ falls short of expectations

Supercentenarians were often people with a history of engaging in physically demanding outdoor work, coupled with a diet rich in wholesome foods, said Laurent Toussaint, a co-author of the study.

The researchers also found a concentration of centenarians in the French Caribbean – particularly in Guadeloupe and Martinique – raising questions about genetic and environmental factors that contribute to longevity.

Meanwhile France is preparing to celebrate the birthday of its oldest citizen, Marie-Rose Tessier, who will turn 114 on 21 May.

The global title of oldest living person belongs to Spanish woman Maria Branyas Morera, who is 117.

(with newswires)

Lawyers for the DRC have sent the US tech giant a formal cease-and-desist notice, seen by French news agency AFP, that effectively warns Apple it could face legal action if the alleged practice continues.

The DRC’s Paris-based lawyers accused Apple of purchasing minerals smuggled from the DRC into neighbouring Rwanda, where they are laundered and “integrated into the global supply chain”.

In response to media queries, Apple pointed to its latest annual report on conflict minerals – materials such as tin, tantalum and cobalt that are crucial for a range of high-tech products but are mined by armed groups in unstable areas, often using forced labour.

The company has been auditing its suppliers and publishing the findings for several years.

“Based on our due diligence efforts… we found no reasonable basis for concluding that any of the smelters or refiners of 3TG [tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold] determined to be in our supply chain as of 31 December 2023 directly or indirectly financed or benefitted armed groups in the DRC or an adjoining country,” the report said.

But Amsterdam & Partners, the international law firm hired by the DRC government to investigate its concerns, said Apple lacked verifiable evidence for its conclusions.

• Dark side of the mine: journalist unearths human cost of smartphones in DRC
• Women protest against fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

‘Tainted’ tech

The DRC’s mineral-rich Great Lakes region has been wracked by violence since regional wars in the 1990s. Tensions flared again in late 2021 when the rebel March 23 Movement (M23) began recapturing swathes of territory.

The DRC, the UN and Western countries accuse Rwanda of supporting rebel groups, including M23, in a bid to control the region’s vast mineral resources, an allegation Kigali denies.

“The world’s eyes are wide shut: Rwanda’s production of key 3T minerals is near zero, and yet big tech companies say their minerals are sourced in Rwanda,” Amsterdam & Partners said in a statement.

Their cease-and-desist letter claims that minerals going to Apple are sourced from sites where sexual violence, armed attacks and widespread corruption take place. 

Macs, iPhones, and other Apple products are “tainted by the blood of the Congolese people”, the DRC’s lawyers said.

(with newswires)

The mass killings took place on 25 February in the country’s northern villages of Nondin and Soro. 

Fifty-six children were among the dead, according to the report, which called on the United Nations and the African Union to investigate and to support local efforts to bring those responsible to justice.

“The massacres in Nondin and Soro villages are just the latest mass killings of civilians by the Burkina Faso military in their counterinsurgency operations,” Human Rights Watch director Tirana Hassan said in a statement.

“International assistance is critical to support a credible investigation into possible crimes against humanity.”

The once-peaceful nation has been ravaged by violence that has pitted jihadis linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group against state-backed forces.

Both sides have targeted civilians caught in the middle, displacing more than 2 million people, of which more than half are children.

Most attacks go unpunished and unreported in a nation run by a repressive leadership that silences perceived dissidents.

HRW provided a rare firsthand account of the killings by survivors amid a stark increase in civilian casualties by Burkina Faso’s security forces as the junta struggles to beat back a growing jihadi insurgency and attacks residents under the guise of counterterrorism.

• Burkina Faso prosecutor says around 170 ‘executed’ in attacks on villages

More than 20,000 people have been killed in Burkina Faso since jihadi violence first hit the West African nation nine years ago, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a USt-based non-profit.

Burkina Faso experienced two coups in 2022. Since seizing power in September 2022, the junta led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré has promised to beat back militants but violence has only worsened, analysts say.

Around half of Burkina Faso’s territory remains outside of government control.

Frustrated with a lack of progress over years of Western military assistance, the junta has severed military ties with former colonial ruler France and turned to Russian instead for security support.

(with newswires)

The anniversary of the Carnation Revolution – named after the flowers protesters placed in soldiers’ guns during the peaceful uprising – comes a month after the far-right party Chega more than quadrupled its seats in parliament, cementing its position as Portugal’s third-largest party.

The highlight of the celebrations will be a military parade through central Lisbon featuring some of the roughly 5,000 soldiers who were part of the putsch, as well as around 15 restored military vehicles used on the day.

On April 25, 1974, the oldest authoritarian regime in Western Europe at the time fell within a matter of hours, virtually without bloodshed, thanks to an uprising by non-commissioned officers that was immediately backed by the public.

The coup paved the way for the country’s first free elections based on universal suffrage on 25 April, 1975, as well as the independence of Portugal‘s remaining African colonies: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.

“The main motivation was to resolve the problem of the colonial wars” that had been going on for 13 years in Angola, and almost as long in Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, said retired colonel Vasco Lourenco.

Lourenco, one of the officers who took part in the coup, now heads the April 25 Association that represents putschist soldiers.

As a young officer, he said it took almost a year to put together the “conspiracy” to carry out “a coup d’etat aimed at opening the way to freedom, putting an end to the wars and building democracy in Portugal”, he told AFP.

As it does every year, parliament will hold a special commemorative session and there will be a parade. And this year the heads of African states that were once Portuguese colonies will join the celebrations.

• Lisbon street plaques tell story of Portugal’s forgotten slave trade
• Portugal mobilises military to fight Mozambique’s hardline Islamist militants

‘Poor, backward, illiterate’

Portugal’s dictatorship years began in 1926, consolidated under prime minister Antonio de Oliveira Salazar and continued from 1968 by his successor Marcelo Caetano.

Many Portuguese believed the country’s authoritarian past would offer it some protection from the rise of the far right, which has been seen elsewhere in Europe, but the breakthrough by Chega in a general election last month has dampened this view.

While its founder and leader Andre Ventura has criticised the dictatorship years, Chega (“Enough”) has used the slogan “God, Homeland, Family, Work” – an echo of the Salazar dictatorship‘s “God, Homeland, Family”.

Set up in 2019, Chega promises greater law and order, tougher immigration measures and chemical castration for paedophiles.

It is the first hard-right party to gain ground on Portugal’s political scene since the end of the dictatorship.

“I thought that 48 years of dictatorship would have made the country immune to this wave of populism and radical far-right movements, but the reality turned out to be different,” said Maria Inacia Rezola, a historian who is overseeing the anniversary celebrations.

During the dictatorship Portugal remained “a poor, backward, illiterate country isolated from the rest of the world”, Rezola said.

Despite the fact that the Carnation Revolution still appears widely appreciated, a sizable part of the population express a certain nostalgia for the previous regime.

A survey published last week found that half of respondents said the former regime had more negative aspects than positive — but a fifth said the opposite.

There was no risk of further collapse, Paris firefighters said. The reason for the accident was not yet known.

“Fortunately this happened after closing,” a Moulin Rouge official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

“Every week, the cabaret’s technical teams check the windmill mechanism and did not note any problems,” the source added.

It’s the first time that an accident like this has happened since the cabaret first opened its doors on 6 October, 1889.

Images on social media showed the blade unit lying on the street below, with some of the blades slightly bent from the apparent fall.

• The Moulin Rouge celebrates 125th birthday
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Concerns

The Moulin Rouge cabaret, with its distinctive red windmill blades, is located in northern Paris and is one of the most visited landmarks in the city.

Known as the birthplace of the modern dance form the cancan, it opened its doors in October 1889 at the foot of the Montmartre hill.

It quickly became a hit and a stop to look at its facade or catch a show inside is a must-do on most tourists’ lists of things to do in the French capital.

The accident will add to concerns of whether Paris, one of the most visited cities in the world, is ready to host the thousands more that will descent during July-August for the Olympic Games.

The only serious accident the Moulin Rouge has endured was a fire that erupted during works in 1915, which forced the venue to close for nine years.

(with newswires)

Ghazouani, 67, has been at the helm of the vast West African country since 2019 and provided stability in the Sahel region, which faces rising jihadism.

“I have deemed it appropriate to address you directly, dear compatriots, through this letter, to inform you of my decision to present myself to you, so that you renew your confidence in me for a new term,” he said in a statement.

Ghazouani, the current chairman of the African Union, is the clear favourite in the polls.

Last year, his El Insaf party won a landslide victory in legislative elections — taking 107 of the 176 seats in the National Assembly, well ahead of the Islamist party Tewassoul, which won 11 seats.

The well-known anti-slavery activist and opponent Biram Dah Ould Abeid, who was a runner-up in the last presidential election, also announced his candidacy on Wednesday.

• EU pledges €200m to help Mauritania clamp down on illegal migration
• Chad and Mauritania pave way to dissolve G5 anti-jihadist alliance

Concerns

Ould Abeid, whose political group is not authorised and has no legal existence, expressed his concern about the smooth running of the electoral process.

“We are moving forward, aware of the imperfection of the electoral register and the partiality and deficiencies of the CENI (Independent National Electoral Commission,” he said.

Mauritania was hit by a series of coups from 1978 to 2008, before the 2019 election marked the first transition between two elected presidents.

While jihadism has spread elsewhere in the Sahel, particularly in neighbouring Mali, Mauritania has not seen an attack since 2011.

Under the terms of a presidential decree issued this month, the electoral campaign will begin at midnight on 14 June and end at midnight on June 27.

The first round will take place on 29 June, with a possible second round on 14 July.

The police’s Alliance Union said that the French prime minister’s office and economy ministry are holding up special Olympics payments promised to police, which could amount to as much as 1,900 euros.

Warning that a first demonstration had been called for today, the union said that other actions could follow and that it not had ruled out disrupting the Olympic torch relay when it arrives in France.

Strike threats

The threat underlines the challenge for French authorities as they negotiate Olympics bonuses for public sector staff who are being asked to work over the traditional summer holiday period.

The biggest union representing staff in the civil service, the CGT, has issued a strike notice that will cover the duration of the Olympics which begin on 26 July.

The first French stage of the torch relay is set to begin in Marseille on May 8.

Meanwhile, the country’s air traffic controllers had also announced a strike for today, but it has been called off. They had previously promised an “Olympic truce” last September.

However, the French civil aviation authority has said that despite the strike’s cancellation following a last-minute deal with the biggest union, the need to finalise details with smaller unions means there will still be disruptions.

Elsewhere, workers at the national mint producing the medals for the competitors have also been on strike, demanding bonuses for what they say is highly demanding work.

Optimism

“I hope that we can welcome the whole world in the best possible conditions and that [no one] ruins the party,” chief  Olympic Games organiser Tony Estanguet said in February when asked about the risk of stoppages during July and August.

The first Olympic Games in Paris in 100 years will take place between 26 July and 11 August and will be followed by the Paralympics from 28 August to 8 September.

 (with AFP) 

The 70-year-old was sentenced in May 2022 to four years in jail, one of which could be served at home wearing a bracelet, for his part in defrauding the French state of more than a million euros. He was fined €375,000.  

Fillon’s British-born wife Penelope, then a local councillor, received a two-year suspended prison sentence, while his former deputy MP for the Sarthe department, Marc Joulaud, was given three years suspended. 

While recognising the guilt of François Fillon’s guilt, the Court of Cassation – France’s Supreme  Court – ordered a fresh trial before a court of appeal to redefine the penalties and damages. 

• French former PM Fillon gets four years jail, fine, for fake jobs scam
• Former French presidential hopeful François Fillon in court in bid to clear his name

Compliance ruling

The court had been called upon to rule on compliance with the rules of law, and not the merits of the case itself. 

Fillon, who brought the case to the court, argued that he would not have benefited from an impartial trial. 

While the court did not agree with him, it ruled that the sentences handed down against Fillon were not appropriate. 

Its decision concerning the opening of a third trial was eagerly awaited seven years after the so-called “Penelopegate” rocked the 2017 presidential campaign, during which Fillon was the candidate for the conservative Republicans party. 

On top of jail time and fines, the Fillons and Joulaud were ordered to repay more than one million euros to France’s National Assembly. 

Fillon was banned holding public office for 10 years, while his wife was banned for two. 

Robert Ménard, the independent mayor of the southern town of Beziers, on Tuesday said the curfew would be effective every night in three neighbourhoods from 11pm to 6am until 30 September. 

Children may only be outside if accompanied by an adult. 

In cases of emergency or “immediate danger to themselves or others”, minors may be either escorted home or to a police station, a decree filed with the police prefecture said.  

Parents of the children concerned may face criminal charges.

Ménard, former associate of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, said the move was needed to combat urban violence – namely the burning of a school in 2019 and riots in July 2023 – and because an increasing number of minors were being “left to themselves in the middle of the night”. 

• French PM seeks ‘jolt of authority’ in bid to tame violent teenagers
• French PM says boarding school key step in preventing juvenile violence

Youth ‘blind spot’

The curfew comes 10 years after Ménard enacted a similar decree that was later rejected by the Council of State because it failed to provide evidence to support the existence of particular risks relating to minors under 13. 

In an interview with Agence France-Presse, Ménard said the delinquency of minors under 13 was a “blind spot” in statistics because they were not brought before a court and not sentenced. 

As many as 3,000 people marched in Beziers on Tuesday against the policies of the far-right mayor. 

France last week ordered a curfew on children under 18 in its overseas territory of Guadeloupe to address a wave of crime. 

Christian Estrosi, mayor of the southern city of Nice, told BFM television he was considering reinstating a curfew for under-13s in his city of more than 300,000 people. 

Several French cities have installed nighttime curfews for children for limited periods in the past. 

(with AFP)

The report, which described the global outlook as “bleak” for this year, is produced for an international alliance bringing together UN agencies, the European Union and governmental and non-governmental bodies.

2023 was the fifth consecutive year of rises in the number of people suffering acute food insecurity – defined as when populations face food deprivation that threatens lives or livelihoods, regardless of the causes or length of time.

Extreme weather events and economic shocks also added to the number of those facing acute food insecurity, which grew by 24 million people compared with 2022, according to the latest global report on food crises from the Food Security Information Network.

Much of last year’s increase was due to report’s expanded geographic coverage, as well as deteriorating conditions in 12 countries.

More geographical areas experienced “new or intensified shocks” while there was a “marked deterioration in key food crisis contexts such as Sudan and the Gaza Strip”, said Fleur Wouterse, deputy director of the emergencies office within the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Some 700,000 people, including 600,000 in Gaza, were on the brink of starvation last year, a figure that has since climbed yet higher to over 1 million in the war-torn Palestinian enclave. 

• US warns Gaza facing ‘acute food insecurity’ as UN declares famine ‘imminent’

Children starving

Since the first report by the Global Food Crisis Network covering 2016, the number of food-insecure people has risen from 108 million to 282 million, Wouterse said. 

Meanwhile, the share of the population affected within the areas concerned has doubled 11 percent to 22 percent, she added. 

Protracted major food crises are ongoing in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Syria and Yemen.

“In a world of plenty, children are starving to death,” wrote UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the report’s foreword. 

“War, climate chaos and a cost-of-living crisis – combined with inadequate action – mean that almost 300 million people faced acute food crisis in 2023”. 

“Funding is not keeping pace with need,” he added.

This is especially true as the costs of distributing aid have risen. 

For 2024, progress will depend on the end of hostilities, said Wouterse, who stressed that aid could “rapidly alleviate” the crisis in Gaza or Sudan, for example, once humanitarian access to the areas is possible. 

• Why aid isn’t a lasting solution for millions facing famine in war-torn Sudan

Floods and droughts

Worsening conditions in Haiti were due to political instability and reduced agricultural production, “where in the breadbasket of the Artibonite Valley, armed groups have seized agricultural land and stolen crops”, Wouterse said.

The El Niño weather phenomenon could also lead to severe drought in West and Southern Africa.

According to the report, situations of conflict or insecurity have become the main cause of acute hunger in 20 countries or territories, where 135 million people have suffered. 

Extreme climatic events such as floods or droughts were the main cause of acute food insecurity for 72 million people in 18 countries, while economic shocks pushed 75 million people into this situation in 21 countries.

On a positive note, the situation improved in 17 countries in 2023, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ukraine, the report found. 

Monaco went into the clash at the Stade Louis II knowing that a stalemate would allow PSG to claim the crown after the pacesetters had thrashed Lorient 4-1 in the night’s early kick-off.

For the first hour of the game, PSG were preparing the champagne but Monaco midfielder Youssouf Fofana latched onto a loose ball at the edge of the Lille penalty area and flashed a shot past the Lille goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier.

It was the France international’s third goal of the season. Wissam Ben Yedder should have made it 2-0 for the hosts in the 69th minute when he was put through with only Chevalier to beat but the striker fluffed his attempt to dribble around the goalkeeper.

Monaco held on to secure the victory which keeps them second with 58 points. Adi Hutter’s men boast a five-point lead over Brest while Lille lie in fourth with 52 points with four games remaining.

Time

PSG’s France internationals Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé – who were both rested for last Sunday’s 4-1 romp past Lyon at the Parc des Princes – returned to the starting line-up for the trip to Lorient.

And both stars bagged a brace as their side won 4-1 for the third successive game. Dembélé opened the scoring at the Stade du Moustoir in the 19th minute and Mbappé doubled the advantage three minutes later.

Dembélé bagged his brace on the hour mark to effectively seal the game. And after Mohamed Bamba had reduced the deficit, Mbappé added the gloss with his second in the closing minutes.

PSG, who notched up a Ligue 1 record with their 22nd away game unbeaten, will claim a record 12th top flight title with victory over Le Havre on Saturday night at the Parc des Princes.

“It wasn’t straightforward to play in these circumstances because I made a lot of changes to the side that started against Lyon,”  PSG boss Luis Enrique told broadcaster Amazon Prime.

“But the whole team is working and it’s going well, so of course I’m happy.”

PSG remain on course for an unprecedented quadruple.

In January, Enrique steered the side to the French Super Cup with a 2-0 cruise past the Coupe de France winners Toulouse. PSG play Lyon in the final of the Coupe de France on 25 May and take on Borussia Dortmund in the semi-final of the Champions League.

It pointed in particular to clampdowns on protests that saw arrests and the use of force during rallies against issues such as the government’s unpopular pensions reform, plans to build “mega-basin” water reservoirs in rural France, and the war in Gaza. 

Amnesty’s 2023 annual report accuses the government of systemic racism and discrimination, as well as stifling civil liberties.  

“French authorities repeatedly imposed excessive, disproportionate, and illegitimate restrictions on the right to demonstrate,” the report said.

“In October, the Minister of the Interior sent a message to police prefects asking them to ban any demonstration organised in solidarity with Palestine, which constituted a disproportionate and discriminatory attack on the right to peaceful assembly,” the report said.

• Rights court faults France for police ‘kettling’ tactic at 2010 protest
• Thousands rally in France to protest police violence and racism

‘Racial profiling’

Restrictions on protests, it added, were taking place alongside persistent racial profiling and discrimination against religious minorities.

Muslim women and individuals perceived as black or Arab were identified as particular targets. 

Amnesty denounced what it said were aggressive policing tactics including the arbitrary confiscation of protest equipment and the dispersion of gatherings through the use of force, including indiscriminate baton charges. 

The government, it added, had failed to address racism within law enforcement agencies. 

“French authorities have failed to acknowledge the systemic nature of racial profiling, discrimination against religious minorities, and excessive use of force during protests,” said Nathalie Godard, director of action at Amnesty France. 

The report also raises concerns about the erosion of civil liberties, citing the introduction of AI-powered surveillance and vague laws on terrorism propaganda, which it said risked infringing on freedom of expression. 

“A lady, a relative of mine, escaped with her two daughters. Soon after, they were recaptured, and the two girls were carried away to slavery. Their mother died,” writes Yonan Shahbaz, a Persian Baptist minister in his harrowing, 1918 diary.

His is one of the rare eyewitness accounts of the genocide of Oriental Christians – Assyrians – by Ottoman and Kurdish troops in 1915 and the years that followed in Urmia in present-day Iran.

“A neighbor of mine was soaked in oil and burned. A minister, more than eighty years of age, had his legs and arms sawed off. Another minister was murdered in the most horrible and revolting manner while his wife was compelled to witness the foul deed from the roof of their home. She died from the shock a little later.

“My own home was looted, then burned. The intruders burned all of my books, my most valued treasure,” Shahbaz added.

Protected by an American passport, he managed to escape the onslaught unleashed on Armenians, Assyrians (Oriental Catholics and Orthodox Christians as well as Nestorians and Protestants) and Pontic Greeks, whom the Turks, fighting WW1 at the side of the Germans, suspected of being disloyal to the Ottoman government.

He got out with his wife and one of his two children. The other one disappeared in the chaos and was never heard of again.

Similar accounts – the gruesome and detailed descriptions by French Dominican father Jacques Rhétoré and the diary of then US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau – substantiate the reports. 

But memories of the mass killing of Oriental Christians, or “Seyfo” (“Sword”) as the Assyrian genocide is called, quickly faded.  

The Armenian genocide

Today, many countries around the world recognise the “Armenian genocide,” where, according to figures published by the Yerevan-based Genocide Museum/Institute Foundation, some 1,5 million people died.

France  recognised the  Armenian massacre in a law in 2001, and designated 24 April as day of yearly commemoration in 2019. 

Less, though, is known to the outside world, of the Oriental Christians who also lost some 250,000 people, or 75 percent of the total population. 

Why didn’t they speak out?

“It was fear,” Professor Efrim Yildiz, founder of the Niniveh Chair of Salamanca University, told RFI. “Assyrians in the diaspora were aware that the small part that has survived and stayed on (in Turkey) would be victimised.”

Unlike Armenia, which has its own country and a diaspora that is unified and well established in many western countries, the Assyrians don’t have their own place, and are divided in factions that don’t always go along.  

Today things are changing. According to Yildiz, there are only around 2,000 Assyrians left in Turkey, while the diaspora established the “Seyfo Center,” which raises awareness about the Assyrian genocide.

Then in 2015 Oriental Christians stepped into the limelight when reports appeared of  persecution by the Islamic State of Christian Yazidis in Iraq. Currently, France is at the forefront of pushing for an official recognition of the Assyrian genocide.

Why France?

Paris feels a special responsibility for the Oriental Christians, who are also called “Assyrians,” “Assyro-Chaldeans” or “Syriacs,” depending on which group you talk to.

By1916, the UK and France had divided the Ottoman empire between them under the then secretive Sykes-Picot agreement. The region where most of the Oriental Christians lived was under the French governorship.

After the end of WW1,  lobbying was carried out by a number of minority groups (Kurds, Assyrians, Circassians, Armenians) in an attempt to establish or expand their own territory. The Assyrians presented a map and were later promised a degree of autonomy in the Sèvres Treaty, signed in 1920.

The Sèvres Treaty stated that a combined French-English-Italian commission would travel to the region and draft a “scheme of local autonomy” containing “full safeguards for the protection of the Assyro-Chaldeans and other racial or religious minorities within these areas,” which largely fitted the demands of the Assyrian delegation. 

The treaty also provided for a large extension westwards of Armenia. Large parts of the west-coast, including Izmir were allotted to Greece, and Russia  took control of Constantinople.

But the Sèvres Treaty was never ratified after major power shifts within Turkey which brought to power Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who solidified Turkey’s present borders with the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, that nullified the Sèvres document. The Assyrians, but also the Kurds and the Armenians, were left in limbo. 

Today, France is home to some 30,000 Assyrians. The first arrived in Marseille France in the 1920s as refugees from the “Seyfo” and the town still has the largest concentration in France.

On 11 March 2015, at the request of the Association of Assyrian-Chaldeans in France (AACF), the then UMP lawmaker (and Marseille-based) Valerie Boyer and 14 others submitted a bill recognising the Assyrian genocide and asked for the 24 April to be designated as a date of commemoration – coinciding with the commemoration of the Armenian genocide which became official in 2019.

• Who gets to be remembered under France’s contentious ‘memory laws’?

“The inclusion of Assyrians shows that there is now a consciousness in France that what happened in 1915 not only concerned Armenians, but also other Pontic Greeks and Assyrians,” says Christophe Premat, a former lawmaker for France’s Socialist Party and now an Assistant Professor with Stockholm University.

“The war in Iraq had an effect on this consciousness because people saw the issue of Oriental Christians. And that’s why they wanted to enlarge the focus on the victims by naming the others. So that’s a strong step forward.

France’s “special responsibility”

The bill noted that the Syria/Iraq-based Islamic State armed group started persecuting local Christians, giving them the choice to convert to Islam, pay a special tax for non-Muslims, flee and abandon everything or “stay and be executed ‘by the sword.'”

It then digs deep into history, citing France’s “special responsibility” going back to the 1535 alliance between French Emperor François I with Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, when the Ottoman empire helped the French to fight Austria-Hungary, while protecting Christians under Ottoman rule.

Boyer’s bill demands that “France publicly recognises the Assyrian genocide perpetrated during the First World War” and that 24 April  be appointed as a day of commemoration.

In January 2023, the French Senate adopted the bill with 300 for and two votes against. One month later, MP Raphael Schellenberger (LR) presented the Assemblée Nationale with a bill, which, curiously, and unlike the first Boyer bill which cites the Lausanne Treaty, quotes the -now defunct- Sèvres treaty.

The bills are backed by -mainly right-wing- heavy weight politicians suchs as former Prime Minister François Fillon and ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Meanwhile, the discussions on the 1915 genocide repeatedly lead to frictions between Paris and Ankara. Turkey consequently talks about the “events of 1915” and rejects any criticism of the genocide as “null and void”.

After the introduction of one of the French bills, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgic remarked that the claims “lacking legal and historical basis” and that “Turkey does not need to take history lessons from anyone.”

The Spaniard will continue his comeback from injury at the Madrid Masters on Thursday where he is scheduled to play the American 16-year-old Darwin Blanch who has been given an invitation to play in the main draw at one of the most prestigious clay court competitions of the season.

Nadal, 37, who has lifted the title in Madrid five times, said: “A few weeks ago, I didn’t know if I would be able to play again on the professional tour.

“It’s not perfect, of course not perfect,” he added. “But at least I am playing and I can enjoy again, especially in the few tournaments that are so emotional for me.

“I’m able to enjoy the fact that I can say probably good-bye on court.”

Last May, Nadal said that 2024 would be his final year on the ATP circuit where he has won 92 tournaments including 22 trophies at the Grand Slam venues in Melbourne, Paris, London and New York.

He won his first Grand Slam tournament trophy in Paris in 2005 and picked up his 14th French Open in 2022. 

“If I arrive in Paris the way I feel today, I will not play. I will play Roland Garros if I feel competitive,” said Nadal.

Return

After most of 2023 on the sidelines, he returned to action at the Brisbane International in January but was injured and pulled out of the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Following a three-month lay-off, he was ousted in the second round at the Barcelona Open – the scene for 12 of his trophies.

“It’s been a good week in some respects, not so good in others,” added Nadal who trained for just over an hour to prepare for his match against Blanch.

“I don’t think I’m ready to play at 100 percent but I’m ready to take to the court for my first match. It’s important for me to be able to play for the last time here in Madrid. It means a lot to me.”

On Thursday, French Open organisers are due to unveil the latest innovations for the second Grand Slam competition of the season.

Vision

The centrepiece of the new look will be a retractable roof on the second show court Suzanne Lenglen. Four years ago centre court – Philippe Chatrier – was kitted out with a similar cover to shield players and spectators from the rain.

Nadal missed last year’s French Open due to injury and though he is no longer considered a likely candidate for the coveted Coupe des Mousquetaires, he remains a star attraction.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next three weeks,” said Nadal. “I’m going to fight and do what I think I have to do to be able to try and play in Paris.”

Brussels fears China is favouring its own suppliers when it comes to the procurement of medical devices. The EU’s official administrative journal, announcing the probe, set out ways that could be happening, including through a “Buy China” policy.

The EU also has concerns that China may have restrictions on imports as well as imposing conditions “leading to abnormally low bids that cannot be sustained by profit-oriented companies,” the notice in the journal said.

Beijing lashed out at the investigation, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying it would “damage the EU’s image”.

“All the outside world sees is it (the EU) gradually moving towards protectionism,” said the ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, calling on Brussels to “stop using any excuse to groundlessly suppress and restrict Chinese business”.

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Market worth €135bn

China’s medical devices market is the second largest after the United States, worth around €135 billion in 2022, according to a 2023 report by China-focused think tank MERICS.

The EU probe is the first under the bloc’s International Procurement Instrument which seeks to promote reciprocity in access to international public procurement markets.

“The… restrictive measures and practices put at a significant and systemic disadvantage (European) Union economic operators, goods and services as they systematically favour the procurement of domestic products to the detriment of imported ones,” the official journal said.

If the investigation finds unfair behaviour by China, the EU can limit Chinese companies’ access to the 27-nation bloc’s public procurement market.

The journal said the investigation is to conclude within nine months, although the European Commission can extend this by another extra five months.

Beijing is “invited to submit its views and to provide relevant information” and can hold consultations with the European Commission – the EU’s trade authority – “to eliminate or remedy the alleged measures and practices,” the text said.

• Germany’s Scholz presses China over Russian threat to global security

Slew of probes

Brussels has launched a wave of investigations targeting China over the past few months, looking into green tech subsidies.

The EU provoked Beijing’s ire earlier in April after announcing an investigation into Chinese wind turbine suppliers.

Other probes have focused on Chinese subsidies for solar panels, electric cars and trains as Brussels seeks to move away from excessive reliance on cheaper Chinese technology.

On Tuesday, the commission announced surprise raids were carried out in the EU offices of an unidentified company that makes and sells “security equipment” as part of a probe into foreign subsidies.

The Chinese chamber of commerce in the EU denounced the raids in the Netherlands and Poland.

EU officials have repeatedly said they want to “derisk” their economic ties to China after Moscow’s assault on Ukraine exposed the Europe’s energy dependence on Russia.

The EU has also adopted laws that often have China in their sights.

The European Parliament on Tuesday approved a ban on products made using forced labour. Supporters hope it will be used to block goods from China’s Xinjiang region where the Uyghur Muslim minority is said to endure many rights abuses.

The latest investigation was announced after German authorities arrested an aide to a far-right German MEP, Maximilian Krah, on suspicion of spying for China.

“Olympism, a Modern Creation, an Ancient Heritage” runs until 16 September in the Galerie Richelieu and gathers 120 vases, pictures, drawings, stamps and letters from the Louvre, private collections as well as the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, the British Museum and the Ecole Française in Athens.

It also parades the contributions of the artist Emile Gilliéron, who studied in Paris and roamed the Louvre galleries, and the academic Edmond Pottier, a conservationist and teacher at the museum.

It was Gilliéron – installed in Athens since 1876 as an art teacher in the court of King George I – who delved into images of ancient Greece to inspire commemorative stamps for the 1896 Games in Athens.

The roles of the Greek writer Dimitrios Vikelas, the first president of the International Olympic Committee, and the academic turned politician Spyridon Lambros, are also highlighted.

There is also a nod to the philologist Michel Bréal, whose way with words managed to charm organisers of the 1896 Games into including the marathon race.

Bréal’s specially commissioned silver cup that was awarded to marathon winner Spyridon Louis is on show for the first time in Paris courtesy of a loan from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation in Athens.

“The exhibition adds depth to our knowledge of the Games,” said Louvre chief Laurence des Cars.

“It reminds us of the origins of the modern Olympic Games and what they owe to the collections from our museum.

“Just as it is in the arts, its the same thing in sports: there’s inspiration in the galleries of the museum and that comes back to us with benefits.”

Gender injustice

Fittingly, latter-day marathon runners will pass through the Louvre’s grounds during the men’s race on 10 August and the women’s race on the final day of the Olympics on 11 August.

The exhibition also embraces the injustices of the early Olympics. No women competed in the inaugural Games in 1896, and only 22 women were involved in the 1900 Paris Games in tennis, golf, croquet, sailing and equestrianism.

They were allowed into the archery events in 1904 as well as swimming and diving in 1912.

By the London 2012 Olympics, 44 percent of the athletes were women. Those Games were anointed the “Women’s Games” to salute the first time that every participating country had female athletes in their teams.

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Twelve years on, Paris will be the first Games to have equal representation of men and women.

“It’s been a long road,” said exhibition co-curator Alexandre Farnoux, a professor of archaeology and Greek art history at the Sorbonne.

“And it’s worth pointing out that apart from the Olympics – and this is also the paradox – women were allowed to take part in international competitions even before the First World War.

“Immediately afterwards, they had international competitions, including rugby, and we are showing through a whole series of archive photos that women’s sport became established very quickly but the Olympics remained completely closed for a very long time.”

Sporting theme

The Louvre exhibition is the latest addition to a series of cultural events with a sporting theme around the French capital.

Last September, the Pompidou Centre started guided tours on Saturday afternoons of pieces from its modern and contemporary art collection which feature sports.

Since February the Musée de l’Orangerie and Musée D’Orsay have also weighed in, with dancers and musicians performing just metres from some of the world’s most celebrated paintings and sculptures.

“When we were appointed, the whole team decided to do something specific for the Olympic Games and dedicated to urban culture and sport,” said Musée d’Orsay boss Pierre-Emmanuel Lecerf.

• Olympic flame begins long journey from Greek birthplace to Paris

“We wanted to show the relationship between sport and our space – which can be the architecture or the collection.”

In ancient times that connection was a matter of life and death.

“Physical training meant getting the citizen ready to be an infantryman in the army at some point,” added Farnoux,

“Cities were defended by the citizens themselves and a citizen had to be able to carry weapons weighing between 15 and 20 kilograms and possibly have to run for a few kilometres with that load on their back.

“You just can’t do that if you don’t do sports. And so the gymnasiums that were created in the cities were to help people stay in shape for the day they might be mobilised.”

Farnoux added wryly: “Our sporting society is very much linked to spectacle.”

During an official visit to Morocco on Monday, Darmanin lauded the kingdom’s help in fighting terrorism in France as Paris prepares to host the 2024 Olympics.

The French interior minister’s visit to the capital Rabat comes amid efforts to bring the two countries closer after a series of diplomatic spats and the deterioration in France’s relations with countries across the Sahel.

“Without the Moroccan intelligence services, France would be more affected by terrorism,” Darmanin said in a meeting with Moroccan Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit. 

“We thank them greatly, particularly in anticipation of the Olympic Games,” which start in late July, Darmanin added.

Security cooperation

According to the minister, Paris and Rabat will be helping each other “during the major sporting events that we will be hosting, in particular the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer and the African Cup of Nations in Morocco in 2025″. 

France has reportedly requested the support of several dozen countries – including Morocco – in terms of security ahead of the Olympics.

“Police officers of various nationalities – including Moroccan – will be mobilised during the Games to support the work of the French security forces”, he added.

In the fight against terrorism, Darmanin also said that Paris was keeping a close eye on information provided by Morocco concerning “the threat penetrating the Sahel-Saharan strip” against a backdrop of a diplomatic collapse between France and former colonies in the Sahel.

France was forced to withdraw troops from Mali in 2022 and from Niger and Burkina Faso last year after a succession of coups saw relations nosedive, giving way to increased Russian military involvement.

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• Algeria closes airspace to all Moroccan planes as Western Sahara dispute deepens

Diplomatic drive

Gérald Darmnain is the third French minister to visit the kingdom in three months, following Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné’s stopover in mid-February, and the Minister for Foreign Trade Franck Riester’s trip at the beginning of April. 

French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau is also currently visiting Morocco until 23 April, while his Minister for the Economy Bruno Lemaire is expected back in Morocco later this week. 

According to Darmanin, the aim of these visits is to give impetus to “a profound renewal and modernisation of Franco-Moroccan relations”, who held also talks with Islamic Affairs Minister Ahmed Taoufiq later in the day.  

Tensions between Rabat and Paris flared over visa restrictions imposed by France on Moroccan nationals in 2021.

The kingdom has also been upset by French President Emmanuel Macron’s diplomatic overtures towards Algeria, Morocco’s regional rival.

“Memory laws are about recognition,” says Christophe Premat, a former MP for the French Socialist Party and now an expert in memory studies at Stockholm University.

Under a 2019 French law, 24 April is designated the official day for the yearly commemoration of the Armenian genocide.

The date marks the beginning of the arrest, deportation and execution of Armenian intellectuals by Turkish forces on the night of 24 April 1915, which over the following years would turn into a concerted campaign that Armenia says eventually cost the lives of as many as 1.5 million people.

Oriental Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Christians were also subjected to mass murder and expulsion as part of the same drive to create a nationalist Turkish state.

At the time, thousands of Armenians fled abroad and pushed the story into international media, where the genocide was widely reported.

Many went to France, which became home to Europe’s largest Armenian diaspora. Along with Russia and the United Kingdom, France condemned the events as “crimes against humanity and civilisation” as early as May 1915.

But it was only in 2001 that France officially recognised the massacres as genocide, making it the first major European power to do so. Its first national commemoration took place in 2019.

Legislating memory

The Armenian genocide and its commemoration are part of a larger debate on the role of politics in marking – or taking a stance on – historical events.

Such debates reached their zenith in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“In the beginning, it was about the Holocaust, the Second World War,” Premat told RFI.

In 1990 France passed the Gayssot Law, which made denial of the Jewish Holocaust a criminal offence.

“But then progressively new actors started promoting minority rights, tackling slavery and seeing the possibility for the recognition of past crimes,” Premat said.

Eventually the discussions resulted in parliamentary debates and proposals on the Armenian genocide, the slave trade, the Algerian war of independence and the Ottomans’ massacres of Assyrian-Chaldean Christians.

But while drafting bills that asked for recognition of crimes was fairly simple, punishing denial was more problematic.

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Backlash from historians

In 2005, a group of French historians led by Pierre Nora founded the collective Liberté pour l’Histoire (“Freedom for History”), which was critical of the idea that governments should determine the historical record.

In an appeal issued by the collective in 2008 and signed by some 750 historians from all over Europe, they expressed concern about the “retrospective moralisation of history” and “intellectual censorship”.

“History must not be a slave to contemporary politics,” they wrote. 

“In a free state, no political authority has the right to define historical truth and to restrain the freedom of the historian with the threat of penal sanctions.”

The petition led to a special parliamentary commission, which later that year advised lawmakers against any new legislation qualifying the past – while leaving existing memory laws intact. 

The effect was soon felt. In January 2012, both houses of the French parliament passed a bill outlawing the denial of all genocides officially recognised by France, including the Armenian genocide.

But the Constitutional Council followed up, and the next month ruled that punishing denial of the Armenian genocide was a “violation of the freedom of expression” and thus unconstitutional. 

Political leverage

This was repeated in 2016, when the French Parliament supported a government-sponsored bill to punish “the denial of crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity”. That proposal was struck down by the Constitutional Council one year later.

According to Nikolay Koposov, a professor of European history and author of Memory Laws, Memory Wars, this “sent a message to French politicians: only crimes against humanity defined as such by a legal tribunal could be subject to memory laws”.

As such, he says, banning denial of crimes committed in the Crusades, the slave trade and the Armenian genocide was effectively ruled out.

While there is a broad consensus of the facts of the Jewish Holocaust, researchers point out, other crimes – such as the Armenian genocide – are contested, and may be used as political tools.

“Turkey contests the notion of genocide [when] applied to what happened in 1915,” says Premat. “So that’s a source of disagreement.”

Meanwhile, Turkey recognising the Armenian genocide is being used as a pressure point for Ankara’s admission to EU membership.

Negotiations have been frozen for many years, “and France is not really promoting that decision”, Premat says. 

Drive for remembrance 

Yet victimised groups continue to push for official recognition of their suffering.

Assyrian-Chaldean Christians, part of the Oriental Orthodox Church, want France to commemorate the massacre of some 250,000 members under Ottoman rule in 1915-18.

Their supporters have proposed a new memory law that would declare the murders genocide and make 24 April a joint day of remembrance for Armenian and Assyrian-Chaldean Christian victims.

The bill was approved by the Senate in February 2023 and is currently awaiting a vote by the National Assembly. 

As the proposal only calls for recognition, not a ban on denial, it runs less risk of being judged unconstitutional.

The French government is pushing forward with efforts to upgrade and simplify access to administrative services, often bogged down by lack of technology or personnel.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal was in the Hauts-de-Seine area northwest of the capital on Tuesday to visit one of the 2,700 France Services centres.

The government has promised it will open around 300 branches of this type of ‘one-stop-shop’ for public services by 2027, many of them in regional cities.

One of the major changes in public services is access to voting by proxy, or power of attorney.

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The government wants people to be able to delegate their voting rights via a fully online process for all future elections, starting this June, Attal’s office said on Monday.

Since mid-April, it has been possible, with a new version of the French identity card to give your proxy for the European elections on 9 June online, without having to get validation from a police station or gendarmerie, as was previously the case.

This method will also be available for the next municipal elections in 2026 and the presidential election in 2027, Attal’s office indicated.

‘Albert’ to the rescue

Attal also unveiled an artificial intelligence tool, developed internally, which will help public officials answer frequently-asked questions, and save considerable time.

The French programme, called “Albert” will be used by tax agents for example, to deal with the approximately 16 million queries they receive each year.

Each response will nevertheless be validated or modified if necessary by an agent.

“The analysis of regulations will be automated, responses drastically accelerated and the work of agents made less painful and more interesting,” Attal told the press.

Likewise, 4,000 environmental projects submitted each year to regional environmental directorates will now be “pre-instructed by an AI”, such as wind farm or urban development projects.

The AI tool will also be used “from the end of the year” to automate the transcription of legal hearings, the filing of complaints or medical reports.

Audit of administrative processes

It will also be used for the detection of forest fires or the HR management of civil servants.

“The boring tasks are for AI, and the link with our fellow citizens will be for public officials,” Attal promised.

• Macron promises to boost investment in French artificial intelligence

There are other initiatives afoot to simplify everyday paperwork issues which create headaches for busy families and workers. 

Attal said an audit would be carried out “ministry by ministry, to review all online content and forms” to make administrative language “intelligible, accessible”.

In some cases, people won’t need to fill out forms at all.

At the start of the school year in September, school grants will be paid automatically to the 1.5 million beneficiaries without them having to fill out any forms.

A plan to help simplify procedures for businesses will be presented to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday.

(with newswires)

With Turkish forces continuing their build-up for a major offensive against the Kurdish rebel group the PKK, enlisting Iraq’s support is expected to top Erdogan’s agenda in Baghdad.

The PKK has for decades used Iraqi territory to wage war against the Turkish state. Erdogan’s visit is part of a new approach to Baghdad in fighting the PKK.

“Turkey wants to start a comprehensive strategy that has an economic, social, and security base,” said Murat Aslan, a senior security analyst for the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, an Ankara-based think tank.

“In the meantime, expanding the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces may make Iraq much safer, and Turkey may feel more secure.”

Breakthrough

Last month, Ankara achieved a diplomatic breakthrough when Baghdad banned the PKK.

Erdogan will have also leverage when he visits Iraq. Iraq is suffering a severe drought and Baghdad has repeatedly called on Ankara to release more water from dams controlling rivers serving Iraq.

This week, Erdogan said he is ready to consider Baghdad’s pleas.

“One of the most important agenda items of our visit is the water issue,” Erdogan told reporters.

“Baghdad has made some requests regarding water and we are working on these issues.

“We will make efforts to resolve this issue with them. They already want to resolve this matter. We will take steps in this direction.”

Bilateral trade

Deepening bilateral trade is also a key part of the Turkish leader’s visit. Ankara seeks to increase international transit through Iraq as part of a planned new trade route between China and Europe.

“The main backbone of this upcoming presidential visit to Iraq, to Baghdad and Erbil, will be the new so-called development road,” said Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat who served in Iraq.

“It will connect the port of Basra to the Turkish border, to Habur, or to a new border gate. Perhaps it will have a railroad, and then parallel to it, there will be a highway. And that will be an oil and gas pipeline.”

Erdogan also said he may visit Erbil, the capital of semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, with whom the Turkish leader has developed close ties.

However, Iran could thwart the goal of expanding Turkish influence in Iraq.

“In Baghdad, the sun does not shine without the approval of Iran, of course,” warned Selcen, who works as a foreign policy analyst for Turkey’s Medyascope news portal.

“So how will Ankara be able to align all these stars and build a capacity to cooperate with it? It’s still debatable to me, and it looks unrealistic to me.”

Balance

However, some experts say Baghdad is looking to Ankara to balance Tehran’s influence, especially as speculation grows over the withdrawal of United States forces from Iraq, one of the few checks to Iran.

“My hunch is that the Iraqi government wishes to free itself at least somewhat from the grip of Iranian influence and Turkey can be a balancer,” said Soli Ozel, who teaches international relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.

 “I think Turkey would like to be a balancer here because Turkey, just like every other country in the region, is not all that happy with the kind of power that Iran has in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.” 

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!

Facebook News: There’s a “new and improved” Facebook page for you, the RFI English Listeners Forum. 

It’s for everyone who reads and listens to us and wants to connect with others, so ask to join, and I’ll sign you up!

The RFI Listeners Club page and the RFI English Clubs page no longer exist; if you belonged to the RFI English Clubs page and not the RFI Listeners Club page, you’ll need to ask to join. I promise I won’t click “Decline” 😊 

Here’s your job: send me your photos for the banner! Send them to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write RFI English in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure and subscribe to see all our videos.

We have a new/old podcast! RFI English has revived our monthly podcast Spotlight on Africa. It’s produced and hosted by Melissa Chemam from our newsroom’s Africa desk. Every month, Melissa will take an in-depth look at one of the leading stories on the continent today, with interviews and analysis from on-the-ground specialists.

Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you!

Our website “Le Français facile avec rfi”  has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bi-lingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard.

Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level”. According to your score, you’ll be counselled to the best-suited activities for your level.

Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you’ll get it”. She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it!

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

In addition to the breaking news articles on our site with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.

There’s Paris Perspective, Spotlight on France, Spotlight on Africa, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.

As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our staff of journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with!

To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. 

Teachers, take note!  I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

Another idea for your students: Br. Gerald Muller, my beloved music teacher from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English – that’s how I worked on my French, reading books that were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it’s a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald’s free books, click here.

Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. N.B.: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

We have a new RFI Listeners Club member to welcome: Rodrigo Hunrichse from Ciudad de Concepción, Chile.

Welcome, Rodrigo! So glad you have joined us!

You too can be a member of the RFI Listeners Club – just write to me at english.service@rfi.fr and tell me you want to join, and I’ll send you a membership number. It’s that easy. When you win a Sound Kitchen quiz as an RFI Listeners Club member, you’ll receive a premium prize. 

This week’s quiz: On 9 March, I asked you a question about our article “Scaled-back opening ceremony for Paris Olympics to offer 326,000 tickets”. Earlier that week, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin gave the exact number of tickets for the Opening Ceremony: 326,000 –  which is a significant scale back from the original amount, 600,000. The scale-back is due to security issues. 

Remember, this is the very first time that an Olympics Opening Ceremony has been held outdoors and not in a sports arena. And on the water, at that!

You were to refer to our article and answer these questions: How many boats will sail in the ceremony, and on how many of those boats will there be athletes?

The answer is, to quote our article: “A total of 180 boats are set to sail around six kilometres down the Seine, of which 94 will contain athletes.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Alan Holder from the Isle of Wight, England: “Are you superstitious?  Give examples of the steps you take to avoid any bad luck.”

Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us!

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Radhakrishna Pillai from Kerala State, India. Radhakrishna is also the winner of this week’s bonus question – congratulations, Radhakrishna!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are RFI Listeners Club members Shadman Hosen Ayon from Kishoreganj, Bangladesh; Sagor Mia, also from Kishoreganj – and the president of the Let’s Go on the Right Path and Tell the Truth Radio Listener Club, as well as Hans Verner Lollike from Hedehusene, Denmark.

Last but assuredly not least, faithful RFI English listener Rafiq Khondaker from Naogaon, Bangladesh.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Chopin’s Charleston Dream” written by Alfredo Gattari, and performed by the composer and Gottlieb Wallisch; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Popurri des Boleros”, sung by Gina Leon.

Do you have a music request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read Melissa Chemam’s article “Sudan conference opens in Paris to try and fix ‘forgotten’ crisis”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 13 May to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 18 May podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

or

By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here.

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club, click here. 

This edition of Spotlight on Africa looks at the vast and diverse West Africa region, from Senegal to Benin to Niger and Mali.

It’s a big election year for Africa in general, with no fewer than 16 countries heading to the polls.

These include a complicated parliamentary vote in Togo on 19 April, general elections on South Africa on 29 May, presidential elections in Algeria in September, and presidential elections in Ghana in December.

But for Sahel nations Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, elections appear a distant dream as the military juntas in power delay processes for a return to civilian rule.

Many hope the inspiring outcome of the Senegalese election can galvanise the region.

Speaking to RFI about the polls are former Senegalese diplomat Babacar Ndiaye and Nigerien researcher Seidik Abba.

Meanwhile Yvonne Ndege, of the International Organisation for Migration, looks at the issue of migration on the continent.

And finally Azu Nwagbogu, curator of the Benin pavilion for the Venice Biennale, speaks to RFI’s Ollia Horton ahead of the event’s opening on Saturday.

Read also:

• Senegal sets March date for delayed presidential election
• Insecurity erodes chances of return to civilian rule in Niger and Mali

Episode mixed by Erwan Rome.

Spotlight on Africa is a podcast from Radio France Internationale. 

Turkish Airlines announced that it will not resume flights to Israel until March next year.

At the same time, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced sanctions on Israel after aid deliveries to Gaza were blocked by Israel.

“We have submitted our request to join this aid operation with cargo planes belonging to our air force. We learned today that our request – which had been approved by Jordanian authorities – was rejected by Israel,” Fidan told a press conference.

“There can be no excuse for Israel preventing our attempts to send aid from the air to our Gazan brothers who are fighting hunger. In response to this situation, we have decided to take a series of new measures against Israel,” he said.

Ankara has banned the export of 54 products to Israel, including aviation fuel, steel, and cement.

Fidan said the export ban would remain in force until Israel declares a ceasefire and allows aid to be delivered unhindered.

• Turkey under fire after declaring Hamas a ‘liberation’ group
• Iran leader to visit Turkey as rapprochement continues over Gaza war

‘Hypocritical stance’

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemned the Turkish sanctions, accusing Ankara of supporting Hamas, and warned of retaliation.

The trade restrictions come amidst growing criticism in Turkey of the ruling AKP party’s stance of condemning Israel’s war on Hamas but maintaining trade relations, which the opposition claims supports the Israeli military war effort.

The government’s stance had become untenable, argues Soli Ozel, a lecturer in international relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.

There is “pressure from the public over this hypocritical stance on Israel”, he says. “You have all these AKP-related businesses or AKP politicians very closely, intimately trading with Israel and stuff. They [the government] had to respond somewhat; they had to show that they were doing something.”

Suspending Turkish Airlines flights was the “best, most effective, and most visible way of doing it”, according to Ozel.

“I think there must be over 30 daily flights, and this was supposed to be one of the most profitable lines that Turkish Airlines operate.”

Electoral meltdown

Last month, President Erdogan‘s AKP suffered its worst electoral defeat to date in nationwide local elections.

The Islamist Yeniden Refah Party – led by Fatih Erbakan, son of Erdogan’s former political mentor Necmettin Erbakan – targeted the AKP’s religious base, focusing his campaign on condemning the Turkish president for continuing to trade with Israel.

“Fatih Erbakan is once again an important figure apparently,” observes Istar Gozaydin, a specialist on Turkish religion and state relations at Istanbul’s Istinye University.

“I think the sort of end is near for AKP, but I guess it will be replaced by the Yeniden Refah Party,” he adds.

Crucial relations

Protests in Turkey are continuing against relations with Israel. However, Israeli analysts say trade and travel are vital to maintain bilateral ties at times of diplomatic tension. 

“It’s unprecedented; there’s for so long no flights from Turkey to Israel and from Israel to Turkey, and that’s a damage to the relationship,” warns Gallia Lindenstrauss, an expert with the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

“Also for business relationships, it’s very important to have a regular transport route.” 

• With spy raids, Turkey warns Israel not to seek Hamas revenge on Turkish soil
• Turkey talks tough on Israel but resists calls to cut off oil

“There were things that kept the relations going, even though the political relations were in crisis,” she explains.

“And one element was the economic relations, and part of this was also the travel connections and the transport connections between Turkey and Israel, and the fact that people-to-people relations were enabled.”

All eyes on Gaza

Even when Israeli forces in 2010 killed 10 Turkish citizens delivering aid by ship to Gaza, flights and trade between the countries were unaffected.

But analysts warn given the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas, this time could be different.

“This is a goddamn massacre that’s going on for six months that people are watching live,” says international relations expert Ozel.

“People are watching live, and this is truly unconscionable; that’s why the level of protest on this particular issue of trading with Israel has increased as the devastation became even worse.”

With Israeli forces poised to launch a new offensive into Gaza, protests against ongoing Turkish trade with Israel are predicted to grow – and add further pressure on Erdogan.

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!

Facebook News: There’s a “new and improved” Facebook page for you, the RFI English Listeners Forum. 

It’s for everyone who reads and listens to us and wants to connect with others, so ask to join, and I’ll sign you up!

The RFI Listeners Club page and the RFI English Clubs page no longer exist; if you belonged to the RFI English Clubs page and not the RFI Listeners Club page, you’ll need to ask to join. I promise I won’t click “Decline” 😊 

Here’s your job: send me your photos for the banner! Send them to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write RFI English in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure and subscribe to see all our videos.

Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you!

Our website “Le Français facile avec rfi”  has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bi-lingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard.

Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level”. According to your score, you’ll be counselled to the best-suited activities for your level.

Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you’ll get it”. She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it!

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

In addition to the breaking news articles on our site with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.

There’s Paris Perspective, Spotlight on France, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.

As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our staff of journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with!

To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. 

Teachers, take note!  I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

Another idea for your students: Br. Gerald Muller, my beloved music teacher from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English – that’s how I worked on my French, reading books that were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it’s a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald’s free books, click here.

Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. N.B.: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

This week’s quiz: On 24 February, I asked you to listen to the Spotlight on France podcast 106 – Alison Hird did a story on French girls and mathematics, and how they are not doing well in the subject – in fact, they’re failing maths at an astonishing rate.

As Alison noted, the reasons for girls not doing as well in maths as boys are multitudinous, most having to do with taught gender roles – but also because there are so few role models.

She cited a recent but rare type of film about a young Frenchwoman working on her doctorate in mathematics, in a film that made it to Cannes. You were to write in with the name of that film.

The answer is: The name of the film is Marguerite’s Theorem. It’s about a brilliant young female mathematician; she’s the only girl in a class of boys. A French-Swiss film co-written and directed by Anna Novion, and starring Ella Rumpf as Marguerite Hoffmann, it was featured at the 76th Cannes Film Festival in 2023.

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Kashif Khalil from Faisalabad, Pakistan: “What human quality, or characteristic, do you think is necessary to equip you to live a full and honest life?”

Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us!

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Helmut Matt from Herbolzheim, Germany. Helmut is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Helmut!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Ferhat Bezazel, the president of the RFI Butterflies Club, Ain Kechera in West Skikda, Algeria; Hasina Zaman Hasi, a member of the RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh; RFI Listeners Club members Anju Regmi from Biratnagar, Nepal; Zenon Teles, the president of the Christian – Marxist – Leninist – Maoist Association of Listening DX-ers in Goa, India, and RFI English listener Sima Paul from West Bengal, India.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Monta Re” by Amit Trivedi and Amitabah Bhattacharya, performed by the Hamelin Instrumental Band; The minuets I and II from French Suite No. 1 in d minor, BWV 812 by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Murray Perahia; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and the traditional “El Suïcidi i el Cant”, arranged by Marta Torrella and Helena Ros, and performed by Tarta Relena. 

Do you have a music request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read Paul Myers’ article “History of Olympic gold, silver and bronze glitters in Paris museum”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 6 May to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 10 May podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

or

By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here.

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club,orform your own official RFI Club, click here. 

Turkey’s main opposition CHP (Republican People’s Party) gains in nationwide local elections are a significant reversal of the party’s fortunes after Erdogan’s resounding reelection last May.

“After the opposition’s loss in the May elections, everybody thought the opposition was in a state of despair,” explains Can Selcuki, head of Istanbul polling firm Economics Research.

“But that doesn’t seem to be the case, and it’s a turning point for the Turkish political landscape.

“It’s the first time since 1977 that CHP has managed to come out number one in the popular vote.”

Threat of authoritarianism

With much of the media under his control and the judiciary targeting dissent, critics claim Erdogan’s grip on power is tightening.

Addressing supporters on election night Ekrem Imamoglu, the re-elected CHP mayor for Istanbul who Erdogan personally tried to unseat, claimed his victory was a stand against the global threat of authoritarianism.

“Today is a pivotal moment not only for Istanbul, but for democracy itself. As we celebrate our victory, we send a message that will reverberate worldwide,” Imamoglu told thousands of jubilant supporters.

“Democracy’s decline is now ending,” continued the mayor, “Istanbul stands as a beacon of hope, a testament to the resilience of democratic values in the face of growing authoritarianism.”

• Deepfake videos used in local elections in Turkey as Erdogan battles for Istanbul
• Turkey’s embattled civil society fears worst as foreign funding dries u
• Prosecutor seeks prison terms for alleged PKK members on trial in Paris

Muted reactions

Despite this,Turkey’s Western allies’ response to the CHP’s resounding victory was muted.

“There were no congratulations extended, even to Turkey’s democracy, let alone to the opposition itself,” Sezin Oney, a commentator for Turkey’s Politikyol news portal, said.

“[This] is a big contrast compared to the May elections because right after the May elections, the Western leaders, one after the other, extended their congratulations to Erdogan.

“So there is a recognition that Erdogan is here to stay, and they don’t want to make him cross. And given that there is the Ukraine war on one side and the Gaza war on the other, they want a stable Turkey.”

Turkey’s location, bordering the Middle East and Russia, makes Ankara a critical ally for Europe and the United States in international efforts to control migration and contain Russia.

Ahead of the March polls, Erdogan had been engaged in rapprochement with his Western allies, with Washington even inviting the Turkish President for a summit in May.

However, Erdogan could still pose a headache to his Western allies as he ramps up his nationalist rhetoric in the aftermath of his defeat.

“We are determined to show that terrorism has no place in the future of Türkiye and the region,” Erdogan said Thursday. “With the recent elections, this determination has been further strengthened.”

Massive military offensive

Meanwhile, Erdogan has warned that his army is poised to launch a massive military offensive into Northern Iraq and Syria against the Kurdish group PKK, including affiliates that work with American forces in fighting the Islamic State.

A crackdown on the PKK, analysts say, will play well with conservative nationalist voters. Those voters were the ones with which the opposition scored its biggest successes in Central Turkey – a region known as Anatolia – for the first time in a generation.

“CHP has never been successful in those places before. These are places that are considered to be religiously conservative, or at least conservative,” Istar Gozaydin, a Turkish religion and state relations expert at Istanbul’s Istinye University, said.

“And that’s also valid for Central Anatolia. Central Anatolia is usually much more nationalist and much more religiously sensitive, but for the first time, they’ve been successful.”

It is not the first time Erdogan has sought to play the nationalist card. After the 2015 general election in which the president’s AK Party lost its parliamentary majority, Erdogan launched military operations against the PKK across Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish region, leveling many city centres.

Erdogan’s action resulted in his AK Party taking power in a second election later that year.

Fix the economy

“I’m sure there’s a temptation,” said analyst Can Selcuki, “but the facts on the ground do not allow it. Erdogan needs to fix the economy.”

Turkey’s near 70% inflation and 50% interest rates, were widely seen as key factors in AK Party’s defeat. But analyst Sezin Oney of Turkey’s Politikyol news portal says a new conflict could change the political rules of the game.

“The economy is a concern, but there is a war psyche, then he [Erdogan] might be propagating,” Oney added..

Some Turkish analysts say the opposition victory will be viewed privately as inconvenient by some of Turkey’s Western allies coming at a time of growing cooperation with Erdogan, with the fear now that Erdogan’s resounding defeat could make the Turkish leader unpredictable at a critical time in both the Middle East and Russia’s war with Ukraine.

Madhya Pradesh is often referred to as the Heart of India. Located right in the middle of the country, the Indian region shows everything India has to offer through its abundant diversity. The IFTM trade show, which took place in Paris at the end of September, presented the perfect opportunity for travel enthusiasts to discover the region.

Sheo Shekhar Shukla, Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh’s tourism board, sat down to explain his approach to sustainable tourism.

“Post-covid the whole world has known a shift in their approach when it comes to tourism. And all those discerning travelers want to have different kinds of experiences: something offbeat, something new, something which has not been explored before.”

Through its UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Shukla wants to showcase the deep history Madhya Pradesh has to offer.

“UNESCO is very actively supporting us and three of our sites are already World Heritage Sites. Sanchi is a very famous buddhist spiritual destination, Bhimbetka is a place where prehistoric rock shelters are still preserved, and Khajuraho is home to thousand year old temples with magnificent architecture.”

All in all, Shukla believes that there’s only one way forward for the industry: “Travelers must take sustainable tourism as a paradigm in order to take tourism to the next level.”

In partnership with Madhya Pradesh’s tourism board.

Also known as the Land of the Beautiful Islands, Malaysia’s landscape and cultural diversity is almost unmatched on the planet. Those qualities were all put on display at the Malaysian stand during the IFTM trade show.

Libra Hanif, director of Tourism Malaysia, explained the appeal of the country as well as the importance of promoting sustainable tourism today: “Sustainable travel is a major trend now, with the changes that are happening post-covid. People want to get close to nature, to get close to people. So Malaysia being a multicultural and diverse [country] with a lot of natural environments, we felt that it’s a good thing for us to promote Malaysia.”

Malaysia has also gained fame in recent years, through its numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which include Kinabalu Park and the Archaeological Heritage of the Lenggong Valley.

Green mobility has also become an integral part of tourism in Malaysia, with an increasing number of people using bikes to discover the country: “If you are a little more adventurous, we have the mountain back trails where you can cut across gazetted trails to see the natural attractions and the wildlife that we have in Malaysia,” says Hanif. “If you are not that adventurous, you’ll be looking for relaxing cycling. We also have countryside spots, where you can see all the scenery in a relaxing session.”

With more than 25,000 visitors at this IFTM trade show this year, Malaysia’s tourism board got to showcase the best the country and its people have to offer.

In partnership with Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board. For more information about Malaysia, click here.