U.S.-Israeli Escalation Against Yemen and Gaza Met With Resilience, Mobilises Global Support /  Turkish Unrest Erupts After Istanbul Mayor’s Arrest, Protests Sweep Cities

 March 20, 2025

The political editor wrote

The U.S. assaults on Yemen continued, targeting its cities and residential areas, while Yemeni forces responded by launching ballistic missiles and drones at the U.S. aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman. Meanwhile, the war on Gaza entered its second day, with relentless airstrikes claiming the lives of women and children. As both Yemenis and Palestinians stood firm in resisting aggression, pro-Gaza demonstrations once again flooded the streets of major cities worldwide. Protests erupted across Europe, the U.S., and several Arab capitals, while Western governments faced growing calls to halt the war and restore the ceasefire agreement. The U.S. and Israeli media and diplomatic efforts failed to generate public support for the war or rally political backing for the governments that had sided with Israel after al-Aqsa Flood.

The most unexpected development in the region, however, was the eruption of unrest in Turkey following President Recep Erdogan’s government crackdown on the opposition, particularly the Republican People’s Party and its presidential candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu. His arrest on charges of bribery, corruption, and terrorism, along with 100 of his supporters, sparked mass protests that quickly filled the streets of Turkey’s major cities. A curfew was declared in Istanbul, along with a ban on social media, as opposition parties began coordinating large-scale demonstrations expected to take place today. The Republican People’s Party has called on its members to gather at party offices across Turkey at 10 AM to organise protests.

These events unfold against a backdrop of deep divisions stretching back to the start of the war on Gaza, with Erdoğan facing accusations of deception, providing economic support to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government while refusing to shut down the occupying entity’s embassy in Ankara. Tensions escalated further with developments in Syria, where Ankara-backed armed groups entered Damascus and assumed control, bolstering the rhetoric of extreme Ottomanism, labeled by the opposition as “neo-fascism”. The situation exploded after massacres on Syria’s coast, where Turkey’s Alevi community was outraged by the Erdogan government’s inaction. This has put Alevis in direct confrontation with the government, which they accuse of enabling sectarian cleansing. The international community is closely monitoring the situation, with the European Union issuing statements describing the developments as alarming and dangerous.

In Lebanon, optimism spread across the Bekaa Valley after the army entered the northeastern town of Housh al-Sayyid Ali, successfully repelling attacks by militant groups from across the border. The Bekaa operation had immediate reverberations in the south, where the occupying entity continues its daily assaults and maintains its hold on Lebanese territory exceeding the area of the so-called Five Hills. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to shield the occupation and push Lebanon toward political negotiations. In the south, many hope the Lebanese army will adopt a similarly firm stance, affirming its exclusive authority over armed operations south of the Litani River and exercising its right to self-defense under the ceasefire agreement.