August 21, 2015

Professor Meliha Altunisik, an international relations and social sciences specialist at The Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey’s most prestigious university, spoke to around 50 people about Turkey’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East since the Arab uprisings.

She spoke of Turkey’s journey from a policy of “zero problems with its many neighbours to zero neighbours without problems!” She explained the rise of the Justice Development Party, the AKP, their improvement of relations with all neighbours, the growth of trade and a strong economy, their investment in much infrastructure, and then the dissolution of all this following the Arab Uprisings.

AKP chose to support the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, they failed to persuade Al Assad to step down and then moved to support the opposition in Syria. Now they have around two million Syrian refugees scattered throughout the country and it costs more than $5 billion just to maintain the refugee camps. This has huge implications for Turkey’s economy, for her relationship with all her neighbours, with the Kurds and with her dealings with ISIS. AKP is being urged to take more action against ISIS, but Turkey’s border is very porous and ISIS members move in and out of the country.

When her address came to an end, Meliha answered question after question and displayed her deep understanding of a multitude of Middle Eastern affairs.

August 1, 2015

Queenstowner Lucia Dore’s documentary “Stepping Up” formed the springboard of the night’s investigation of New Zealand’s policy and treatment of refugees.

New Zealand’s quota of 750 refugees a year, unchanged in 25 years, puts us at 90th on the world league table. We are one of only 26 countries worldwide that has signed the UN Refugee Resettlement Programme, giving a clear pathway from arrival to settlement.

Afghan refugee Gul Agha Alizadah, son of one of the hundreds of Tampa refugees accepted by New Zealand, gave his family’s story “of hope and fear”. As a Hazari, he was part of an ethnic minority that had suffered “relentless discrimination” in Afghanistan since the 1800s.

Gul can still remember his dad, threatened by the Taliban, “disappearing” when he was eight years old. His shipload was spurned by Australian PM John Howard, sent to the Nauru detention camp and finally accepted by Prime Minister Helen Clark. Three years later, his father was able to sponsor his family to New Zealand.

Gul described how many of the children of Tampa refugees were now active members of the New Zealand community – helping with the Christchurch rebuild, setting up companies, nursing, being selected for the Youth Parliament and running community events.

His message? “We were given hope, a future and refuge by New Zealand when no one else wanted us and we are now determined to make a future for ourselves and give back to our community and give that hope that was given to us.”

Amnesty International NZ campaign manager Mo Farrell said they were calling for a doubling of the refugee quota. “The problem is global and it’s huge.” Lebanon had accepted 1 million Syrian refugees and Norway 2000 – two countries with similar populations to New Zealand.

She pointed out family reunification was not funded by the government, refugees had to pay for it themselves, and that numbers accepted under this had dropped. Mangere Resettlement Centre had been upgraded, so could accept more refugees.

Gul’s sister Nida said one way New Zealand could improve its refugees experience once in New Zealand was to provide more interpreters for the health system “where largely the problems are dismissed” through lack of understanding.