Al Jazeera Correspondent

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci’s election in 2015 reinvigorated hopes for a solution to the Cyprus problem. Campaigning on a promise to restart stalled negotiations with the Greek Cypriot government, Akinci seemed primed to breathe new life into attempts to resolve the decades-long dispute on the Mediterranean island. Soon after the election, Akinci and Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades entered into reunification negotiations with the support of the United Nations (UN) at Crans-Montana, Switzerland. Three years later, the talks are almost a distant memory, having fallen apart in July 2017, and tensions are running high over the issue of gas exploration off Cyprus. Akinci says that the responsibility for the lack of progress lies with the Greek Cypriot government. "They are always ready for talks, but they are not ready for taking decisions," he says. "Of course, if we want to solve the problem, we need to talk but, at some point, we need to take decisions." "I need to see some indication that the mentality has changed ... in addition to that we need to have negotiations at some point, but not business as usual, not to go around the issues all the time without any results, it has to be result-orientated." Effectively divided along ethnic lines since 1974, when the Turkish military intervened in response to an Athens-inspired coup, the Republic of Cyprus is recognised by the international community and became a member of the European Union (EU) in 2004. The majority of the island is controlled by a Greek Cypriot government under the recently-reelected Anastasiades, who discussed reunification and the current gas dispute with Al Jazeera earlier this month. The northern part of the island, however, is ruled by the government of the self-declared Northern Cyprus under Akinci, which is recognised by Turkey and guarded by its armed forces. On the recent controversy surrounding gas exploration around Cyprus, Akinci is positive about the shared benefits drilling could bring, but cautions that, with so many actors involved in the gas exploration - US energy giant ExxonMobil has been given permission by Greek Cypriots to begin explorations and Akinci confirmed to having agreements with Turkish firms - there is strong potential for an accidental confrontation. "I cannot say that everything is fine and everything will be under control, sometimes certain things happen unwillingly and accidentally ... I see a big opportunity there, if treated properly, handled properly, without any fear of accidents [ourselves] and the others we can get mutual benefit out of it ... If not handled properly, you may expect accidents at any time." While still insisting on his commitment to finding a mutually-satisfactory resolution to the Cyprus problem, the Turkish Cypriot leader, who, at 70 is part of the last generation that remembers living in an undivided Cyprus, acknowledges that it's not an easy task. "It's getting more and more difficult and more and more complex. There is a nice [phrase] 'hope dies last', but you have to work hard and you have to work to keep it alive because otherwise, just letting time pass, you kill it". More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Just three days into his administration, US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnernship (TPP), calling it a "ridiculous trade deal". Most assume the deal, wgucg established common trade, communications, and legal standards between 12 countries in the Pacific Rim, is now dead without the support of the United States, but challenging US global leadership, the 11 remaining countries - led by Japan - are forging ahead regardless. As Trump heightens fears of a trade war by imposing steel and aluminium tariffs, a revamped version of the TPP is signed in Santiago, Chile, sending a powerful message that free trade can go ahead without the US. The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnernship - or TPP+11 for short - includes Canada, Mexico, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, Peru, New Zealand, Chile, Brunai, Singapore and Vietnam in a deal that will dramatically lower tariffs and trade barriers between the signatories. Together, they cover 500 million people in the most dynamic region of the world economy, which includes more than 13 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP), worth more than 10 trillion dollars. With the US, it would have been 40 percent, but the new TPP is already attracting potential new members, like South Korea, Indonsia, the Philippines, Thailand and possibly even a post-Brexit United Kingdom. A free trade deal once viewed by Washington and Japan as a counter weight to China’s growing economic might, is now being hailed as an antidote to U.S. protectionism. Four of the signatories of the new deal talk to Al Jazeera about free trade, Trump, and their hopes for the future. More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Marie Elias Ziade, or May, was a key Lebanese-Palestinian figure in the Arab literary scene in the early 20th century who firmly established herself as a vibrant female voice in what was clearly a man's world at the time. She was a journalist but also wrote fiction with strong female characters, poetry, political and cultural books and magazine articles, often on the condition of Arab women. She questioned the social norms and cultural values of the period; in trying to tackle Arab patriarchy wrote: "We chant beautiful words in vain...words of freedom and liberty. If you, men of the East, keep the core of slavery in your homes, represented by your wives and daughters, will the children of slaves be free?" "Women's education was rare, if non-existent," explains Lebanese poet Henry Zugheib. "When she joined this literary circle, she was highly cultured, not just from what she learned at school but also from the books she read. That's why educating women was an obsession for her, as she herself was very cultured. That was a first sign of her rebellion against ignorance and her demands to educate girls at an early age." May played a pioneering role in "introducing feminism into Arab culture," according to writer and critic Hossam Aql, who credits her as being "the first to use the term 'the women's cause'... She was the first professional writer to take a critical approach to women's stories or novels written by Arab women." With a command of nine languages, "May Ziade was unrivalled during that period of Arabic literature, which was characterised by writing and translating," says Zugheib. "She translated novels from German, French and Italian. She injected a new flavour, unknown to Arabic literature at the time." She arrived in Egypt with her family around 1907 and held popular weekly salons for the predominantly male Egyptian literary elite and intellectuals, like Mahmoud Abbas al-Aqad, Taha Hussein, Antoine Gemayel, Mustapha Sadeq al-Rifae, Hafid Ibrahim and Khalil Moutran. "The salons were famous for bringing opposites together, people from contradictory intellectual trends," explains Mahmoud al-Dabaa, an academic and critic. "It was the first salon to gather different intellectual trends and discuss profound intellectual issues relating to Arab culture and literature. May had the ability to host all those contrasts." A romantic and idealist from an early age, Ziade exuded depth, femininity and charm - and so naturally won many admirers, both professional and amorous. "She fitted the perception of the ideal woman for those writers and thinkers," notes art critic Essam Zakaria. However, she did not entertain any of these suitors because she was only in love with one man, the Lebanese poet and one of the Arab literary greats, Gibran Khalil Gibran. The relationship between May and Gibran lasted for 19 years until Gibran's death in 1931. Extraordinarily, the two never met - but their relationship enriched Arabic epistolary literature with the most beautiful correspondence. "Gibran was not only a creative man of literature but also a painter and musician," contends Dr Hussein Hammouda, a literature teacher at Cairo University. "May also had experience in music and singing, so they had a lot in common. There's a profound Sufi sense in both Gibran's and May's experience." Between 1930 and 1932, May suffered a series of personal losses - the death of her parents and above all, her beloved Gibran. She fell into a deep depression and returned to Lebanon where her relatives placed her in a psychiatric hospital to gain control over her estate. A deeply shocked and heartbroken May painfully describes her torment: "In the name of life, my relatives put me in a madhouse to fade away gradually, and die slowly... a death of which no one could bear hearing the description. Nevertheless, on their rare visits, my relatives listened to me with pleasure as I described my sufferings and misery, begging them in vain to pity me and get me out of the mental asylum." A press campaign instigated by the Lebanese-American writer Amin al-Rihani proved crucial in freeing May from the mental institution. She was eventually able to leave thanks to a medical report asserting she was of sound mind. She returned to Cairo where she died on October 17, 1941. More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Cyprus has been embroiled in an ethnic dispute since 1974, when Turkish troops seized the northern tip of the island in response to an Athens-inspired Greek Cypriot coup, aimed at uniting Cyprus with Greece. The actions left the Mediterranean island divided along ethnic lines. The Republic of Cyprus, controlled by Greek Cypriots, is recognised by the international community and became a member of the European Union (EU) in 2004. The northern part of the island is ruled by the government of the self-declared Northern Cyprus, which is recognised by Turkey and guarded by its armed forces. Several UN-mediated efforts to reunify the island have broken down. Most recently, in July 2017, peace talks in the Swiss town of Crans Montana failed to reach a solution to the 'Cyprus problem'. Speaking to Al Jazeera at the presidential palace in Cyprus' capital Nicosia, Anastasiades says he'd be ready to jump out of the interview and begin peace talks immediately if the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mustafa Akinci called him. "I'm always ready to continue the deliberations from the stage they have been left during the Crans Montana conference," he says. "There is only one plan, Plan A, and Plan A means the reunification of the island, and most importantly, to build up a viable, lasting solution. A functioning state ... a real European state, this is what we are looking [for], without privileges to the one community or the other". The recently-reelected president acknowledged that 40 years of division and uncertainty has taken its toll on Cypriots on both sides of the divide. "Every time we are failing to reach a settlement, the disappointment of the people and the distrust are increasing," he says. The dispute escalated last month, when the Turkish Navy blocked access to an Italian drillship. The vessel was part of efforts to explore recently-discovered gas fields on the southeastern tip of the island. The heads of the EU backed Anastasiades, with the European Commission's President Jean-Claude Junker saying he was "strictly against the behaviour of Turkey". In response, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a warning to Cyprus and foreign companies, asking them not to infringe on Turkey's sovereignty. Anastasiades claims a "convergence" has been reached for the exploitation of Cyprus' natural resources, and accuses Turkey of "using excuses in order to intervene", calling indications that the government of the self-declared Northern Cyprus plan to begin drilling in waters they consider their own as a "threat". "For four years now we have been negotiating to find a solution and the hydrocarbon issue has never been on the table, because it has been agreed, and therefore we took steps to prove that we mean business. "Natural resources are belonging to the state and to all legitimate people of Cyprus, either these are Greek or Turkish Cypriots." He confirms that US energy giant Exxon Mobil will shortly begin explorations, but would not confirm or deny having asked the United States for military support to ensure the success of the venture. "Be sure that we have done whatever it is necessary to be done in order to succeed to the energy programme of the Republic." Anastasiades says the exploration process may take several years and that a solution for the Cyprus problem can be "easily" found in that time if there is a "good will". But good will may prove illusive with a raft of contentious issues to be settled. "We are not the ones who is occupying the properties of the other community," says Anastasiades. "We haven't done anything against the Turk Cypriots. We don't what to get advantage of what they are entitled to." He also said the Turkish Cypriot leaders were "always welcome" to participate in the Greek Cypriot government. Under the 1960 constitution, Cyprus' two main communities agreed to divide power, with the executive branch governed by a Greek Cypriot president and a Turkish Cypriot vice president. The vice president was granted the right to veto fundamental laws, but the position has been vacant since 1963, when the Turkish-Cypriot community withdrew from the government. More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Filmmakers: Hisham al-Zaouqi and Maher Jamous In March 2011, a popular uprising began in Syria against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The protests were violently opposed by the Syrian army, leading to the seven-year war which, according to UNHCR figures, has seen nearly 500,000 people killed and over 11 million displaced. The war in Syria has, among other things, destroyed the most precious aspects of people's lives - their families, their homes, their dreams and ambitions. Some areas and cities have suffered destruction on an enormous scale. In the Ruins of a Dream features five Syrians who've been internally displaced or sought refuge in Europe. They reflect on the devastation wrought on their homes, some of which took years to build. "Syrians go through a lot to build a house, especially because of the economic situation like the high cost of construction materials," says Shahoud al-Jadou, from the town of Kafr Zita. His father built the family home but was killed by the Syrian air force, so Shahoud and his family were forced to leave. "When the revolution started, we took part in the protests," says Ahmed Dabbis, from the small town of Kafrnbodeh. "We thought it would succeed quickly, like in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. During this time, the regime was absent in our areas. So we started to build the house and homeland." But eventually, bombing reduced Ahmed's home in Kafrnbodeh to a pile of rubble littered with broken toys and furniture. "It's where my wife and I felt safe and comfortable and where we started our family, had our kids and planned for the future," says Ahmed, as he looks at his destroyed home. "I wasn't enraged by the destruction because I was grateful for my family's and my own safety." Muhammad al-Obaid is a singer who performed songs for the protesters during the 2011 revolution. He used to live and work in Beirut, doing manual jobs, to save enough money to build a family home over the course of 12 years in al-Lataminah. One day he rushed home and found his house levelled after a helicopter had dropped two barrel bombs. "It had been completely demolished. Nothing was left, not a single brick. My heart was broken. It had taken me years to build it," says Muhammad. Human rights activist Mohammed al-Abdo's Idlib home was commandeered by the army who then burned it down. "I became targeted by the regime because of our intensive activities". Sifting through the rubble and old stacks of papers, he says "I wasn't upset by the destruction of the house. I just felt sad for my books. It took me about 25 years to collect them all. I had some very rare books." While those who actively took part in the 2011 anti-government protests were targeted, others like Um Hisham became victims simply because their homes were in the wrong place. "A large military patrol was always deployed in our neighbourhood. They stayed in the shop next to my house," says the 70-year-old widow from al-Kadam area of Damascus. When the military action increased, she says, "I went to my daughter's house in al-Yarmouk refugee camp, and it was the same there. So we went back home." Um Hisham now lives with her daughter in a tiny apartment in Worms, Germany, after her Damascus home was burned and robbed. The monumental loss of her family home is still very painful and has worsened her heart condition. "My house is always on my mind... It's very difficult to see your own house burned...All the trees in my house were burned. We went inside the house, and everything was burned. You could even see the iron girders in the ceiling. I hope no one ever sees what I saw," says Um Hisham. "I told my daughter I'd just like to see our home in Syria one more time, to see our family. Unfortunately, there's no one left there. All my neighbours have died." After seven years of war, the conflict shows no signs of abating. A World Bank report issued in July 2017 estimated that the Syrian civil war has damaged or destroyed about a third of housing and half of medical and education facilities; and led to significant economic loss. The destruction of physical infrastructure, though, does not capture the full human impact of the war. The World Bank report called the visible impacts only "the tip of the iceberg." More than three million homes have been destroyed, and millions of lives have been disrupted. More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

In January, Israel approved a plan that asked asylum seekers to choose between indefinite detention in an Israeli prison, or deportation to a third country in Africa. Rwanda and Uganda are reported to be the countries accepting those deported from Israel, despite denials from both governments. According to the scheme, asylum seekers will be given a plane ticket and up to $3,500 for leaving, however, many are choosing to stay in Israel, rather than risk returning to Africa. Many of the asylum seekers come from war-ravaged Eritrea and Sudan, however, Israel does not recognise the majority as refugees, claiming that they are economic migrants or "illegal infiltrators". Teklit Michael and Eden Tesfamariam have lived in the Israeli capital Tel Aviv for around 10 years, both of them say they fled Eritrea to escape the military. They talk to Al Jazeera about the situation in Eritrea, life in Israel and their hopes for the future. More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

As part of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, Greece and Turkey agreed to uproot two million people in a massive population exchange, the lasting effects of which are still felt by some in both countries today. Only since the 1990s has it been possible for the 'exchangees' caught up in the upheaval and their families to visit what they see as their ancestral villages in Greece and Turkey. Huseyin Selvi was forced out of Greece when he was five, but at the age of 97 he was able to travel in a group from Turkey to the village where he was born. The exchangees had to travel on foot, by train and by sea and many of the ships involved in this mammoth operation were full to overflowing. The elderly and the young especially suffered from the shocking travel conditions. "My mother had to throw my younger sister, who was three or four, into the sea. I don't remember it but that's what my mother told me", says Huseyin. Numan Toker, a second generation exchangee, also travelled to the village in Greece his late mother was forced out of. "It was my mother's last wish. Now I'll bring water from there, to her grave. I'll bring soil...She was longing to see it [village] again but never had the chance. I asked her if I could take her. She replied, "Yes son, please. Would you really take me there?" Of course, I said I would but it wasn't meant to be. We couldn't make it in the end," says a tearful Numan. His ancestors had lived in Greece for 400-500 years, until the population exchange. Recalling his mother's stories, Numan says "She cried, laughed and talked about what they used to do. The day they were called back to Turkey and were leaving, they left 500 sheep and their farmland behind. She even left dinner cooking on the stove. They left everything behind." Population shifts occurred in the early twentieth century as old empires disintegrated and new nation states emerged. But these changes often raised complex questions of identity for the ordinary people caught up in them. Greek Orthodox Christians and Muslims had lived together under Ottoman rule for centuries, though not always entirely peacefully. The Greek war of independence from the Ottomans was fought between 1821 and 1832 and the new state of Greece founded. This created tension which increased after the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. Muslims remaining in Greece and the Balkans suffered discrimination and persecution, while Greek Orthodox Christians were expelled by the Ottomans from the Aegean region. After the Ottoman defeat in World War One, the victorious allies maneuvered to divide up their former empire. This was resisted by the Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kamal Attaturk who fought the Turkish War of Independence between 1919 and 1923. At Lausanne in Switzerland, all the parties sat round the conference table in 1922-23. Part of the resulting Treaty of Lausanne involved an agreement between Greece and Turkey to forcibly exchange around 1.5 million Greek Orthodox Christians and a lower number of Muslims in the largest population displacement of modern times. When the exchangees arrived at their destinations, they often faced serious problems integrating into their new communities – and some of their social, housing and education problems have persisted. Language was an immediate problem and exchangees like Nuriye Can who left Greece in 1923 for Turkey were all Greek-speakers. It was hard for the first generation to learn Turkish after having grown up with Greek as their native language. "I couldn't speak any Turkish when I got married", says Nuriye. "My mother-in-law used to ask me why I spoke the language of an 'non-believer'. She asked, "Why don't you speak your father's language?" I did eventually learn Turkish." There are now reciprocal visits by both Greek and Turks, as part of a cultural project supported by the European Union and the Foundation of Lausanne Treaty Emigrants. "I thought it was a debt of honour, a moral obligation to come and kiss the ground where my grandfathers were born," says Evangelia Kiortci who found her grandparents' village. "They didn't make it, nor did my parents but I'm a third generation refugee, and I've come...They left for Greece and they've always had this sorrow. They had never had the chance to come back and walk on the same ground. I'm deeply moved." For Dimitris Dayioglu, a visit to the Turkish village his grandmother was expelled from, was an equally emotional experience. "My grandmother wanted very much to g Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

Rokhaya Diallo is a French activist, feminist, filmmaker and writer. A long-time anti-racism campaigner, she has found herself at the centre of a debate about racism and free speech in France. Last year, she was forced to step down from the government's Digital Council - an incident that only served to reinforce her belief that France has a problem with state-sponsored racism. "The government was asked by people who disagree with my views to evict me from the council," Diallo says. "The fact that I was tackling racism, state-sponsored racism, that I was supporting Muslim women who wanted to wear the hijab..., basically it was those views and the way I frame my views on racism in France [which led to the removal]." Diallo has been very vocal about police profiling and the fact that not all French citizens are treated equally by the state. "The state doesn't even deny the fact that the police is over-controlling black people and Arab people and Muslim men. So to me that means there is nothing that is done to prevent that.... France isn't doing anything to protect its citizens of colour from police brutality and police profiling," she says. "When I say there is racism from the French institutions, I am not saying that all the French people are racist, I am just saying that the state should implement measures to stop that." Despite her dismissal from the Digital Council, Diallo still believes French President Emmanuel Macron could affect positive change in the country. "I think that he does have a more inclusive vision of France because he belongs to a different generation, compared to the former presidents, so the way he sees France is actually very different because he is used to see[ing] France with a more diverse face," Diallo says. As a Muslim and the daughter of Senegalese and Gambian parents, Diallo says that her prominence as an activist and journalist, frequently featured on French television, has been an exception to the norm in France. "If you watch French TV, you don't see that many faces looking like mine, and today I really consider that a privilege and I try to use that privilege to tackle racism because I know that many of my fellow French citizens who are not white are not as lucky as I am and don't have the means to be vocal and make public the statements [that I do]." Speaking out has brought Diallo considerable backlash, particularly when discussing controversial issues such as religion. While she supports France's hallowed separation of church and state as "a very, very good principle", Diallo has been vocal in saying that the country's strict laws prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols in public are problematic, particularly when they concern schools, where, as of 2004, children are not allowed to wear religious symbols such as crucifixes or headscarves. "To me school is a place where you can learn about diversity and it's important that the teacher shows neutrality, but the students don't have to be bound by such measures because they are not in contract with the state. "It places the heads of schools in a very, very strange place because they have to guess the religion of certain students because if a black student wears a headscarf, is it religious? Is it cultural?" Diallo has also spoken out against France's controversial ban on face-covering veils, which came into force in 2011. "To me it's a very patronising way of seeing women to say 'ok, to us, freedom means being dressed in [a certain] way and we will help you Muslim women to understand that freedom is uncovering, and we will even force you to uncover to make you understand that all feminism is like that. It's very ethnocentric and very post-colonial feminism to me." Asked about the #MeToo campaign against sexual harassment, she says it's major progress, "even a turning point.... because [for] women to say and to be vocal about the harassment that they are exposed to every day.... it was not something that was very public, it was something women used to speak about behind closed doors, but it was not public." Despite her criticisms of the state of affairs in France today, Diallo remains positive about the future. "I really think that there is hope," she says. "If I was not hopeful, I would not be an activist and I would not try to work on those issues. "There is hope, there is a new generation that is coming who are starting to be vocal, to raise awareness on issues that didn't used to be mentioned before, so that fact that we are speaking ... about France and race, me as a black woman in the More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

The Venezuelan people struggle to cope with the toxic effects of hyperinflation, severe debt and chronic food and medicine shortages, as Venezuela - once the wealthiest country in the region - is mired in the worst economic crisis in its history. "Venezuelans today cannot eat. You see people eating from the garbage," says Professor Margarita Lopez Maya, Central University of Venezuela. So how does a country boasting the world's largest oil reserves find itself on the brink of economic ruin? It's the country's very history that sheds light on what has gone so drastically wrong in Venezuela today. When Hugo Chavez was elected president in December 1998, he promised to tackle corruption and poverty. He used Venezuela's rapidly growing oil wealth to set up social programmes, known as the Misiones, with the aim of eradicating poverty and reducing inequality. It was, many claimed, a much-needed intervention in the entrenched disparity between Venezuela's rich and poor. As Chavez strived to transform the nation with what he called 21st century socialism, his populist policies began to take a more radical turn. He nationalised industries and bloated state bureaucracy at great national expense, all funded by high oil prices and unchecked borrowing. Venezuela became saddled with record-high levels of debt. By the time of his death in March 2013, Chavez handed over both the reins of power to his handpicked successor, Nicolas Maduro, as well as the poisoned chalice of an economy about to implode. "Maduro has inherited a legacy of oil dependence at a period when Venezuela has gone bust, and at a time where the oil price has gone bust," says Professor Julia Buxton, author of The Failure of Political Reform in Venezuela, adding that Maduro "has simply not addressed any of the problems or the legacy that he inherited from President Chavez." "The collapse of economic activity makes this period, from 2013 onwards, the largest recession in Western Hemisphere history - significantly larger, almost twice as large as the Great Depression of the US," says Ricardo Hausmann, former Venezuelan minister for planning. The IMF predicts that in 2018, the Venezuelan economy will contract by 15 percent, and inflation will reach 13,000 percent. But will those now tasked with governing a struggling nation learn any lessons from its troubled past? - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

For more than four-and-a-half years, Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani has been in limbo on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (PNG). He was sent there by Australia in 2013, after he tried to reach its shores by boat. As a journalist in Iran, Boochani published stories that promoted the Kurdish language and culture. He co-founded a Kurdish magazine, but after its offices were raided and several of his colleagues were arrested and accused of undermining the Iranian state, Boochani fled, fearing for his safety. "I fell into trouble with the government ... I hid myself for more than a month in Tehran in a friend's house," says Boochani. "After that I received some information that they [were] going to arrest me too and they [had] some plan ... I decided to leave Iran." He travelled through south-east Asia and then by boat from Indonesia to the Australian territory of Christmas Island. But while his boat was at sea, the Australian government announced a new radical immigration policy - denying settlement to all asylum seekers arriving "illegally" by boat. Soon after his arrival on Christmas Island, Boochani was deported to Australia's new offshore 'processing centre' on Manus Island. It was part of a deal in which PNG - in exchange for billions of dollars - would accommodate asylum seekers who tried to reach Australia until their claims to be refugees were decided. "When we arrived they put us in a temporary place and they didn't allow us to call our family....I thought I arrived in Australia as a free country, [but] after 20 days, they said 'we are going to exile you to Manus Island and you must live there forever or you go back to your country'," recalls Boochani. Australia's detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru have been criticised for its poor conditions by human rights groups including Amnesty International, who recently published a report criticising Australia's immigration policy as one of 'cruelty and neglect'. "For us, it's a prison, [it's] even worse than a prison," he says, describing his experience as "systematic torture". "Six people already died under this policy in this prison camp.... Their policy was to create hate... They were happy for people in Manus prison to hate Australia, to forget Australia." Following a ruling by the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea in October 2017, the camp was closed. Medical and support staff left, power and water supplies were disconnected. But most refugees refused to leave. For three weeks, they lived in the former prison, surviving on rainwater and food smuggled in by locals. "It was like a war zone," says Boochani. "But in some ways we were happy because we were out of the systematic torture. The officers were not there... We were controlling our lives." The following month, those remaining were forcibly evicted by police. Some were hit with sticks and dragged onto buses to be relocated elsewhere on the island. Ever since he was sent to Manus, and especially during the siege and the eviction, Boochani has used his journalism to draw attention to the conditions refugees and migrants face on Manus Island, where media access is tightly controlled. He has written for international and Australian media, and, in 2017, shot a film on his mobile phone, which showed the reality of daily life in the detention centre. "I don't think of myself as a journalist or a refugee," he says. "I feel that I am a human, I am fighting for humanity, for [refugees]. I know their suffering, I know them ... I know their stories, so it is important to me. "It is my duty as a journalist, it is my mission ... to work on this issue and to tell people. Also the important this is that I am working to record this policy and history of this prison camp for the next generation." More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

Geopolitically placed between the East and the West, Turkey plays a hugely important and strategic role in many of the region's crises and conflicts, including the ongoing Syrian war. On January 20, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch, an air and ground offensive against Afrin in northwestern Syria. The region is controlled by the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) which Turkey considers a "terrorist group". "There have been YPG / PKK terrorists in Afrin region and they were sending harassment fires and rockets to Turkey... It became a serious threat to our security and to our borders," Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Al Jazeera. "We warned them. We warned the countries who have been engaged with them. Nevertheless, they increased the harassment fires. That's why we launched this operation ..." Asked about US-made weapons that were captured from Kurdish fighters and the United States' open support for Kurdish fighters, Cavusoglu said: "Those weapons have been given by the United States to YPG. We have asked the US not to give them weapons, but they did. We asked them to stop and President Trump promised Erdogan that they will stop giving weapons to this organisation. In the last phone conversation between the two presidents, President Trump told Erdogan that they stopped ... giving weapons to this organisation." The US Department of State, however, has stated that it still considers the YPG as an ally in the fight against ISIL. "It's called [a] double standard. Particularly in our fight against terrorism we see this double standard everywhere ... The US ... are fighting all sorts of terrorist organisations in the world, but in Syria, they are collaborating with a terrorist organisation," the Turkish FM told Al Jazeera. US-Turkish relations have been strained in the past few years, especially since the attempted coup in July 2016. In 2017, the US imposed travel restrictions on Turks and Turkey reciprocated with similar measures for Americans. "Normally, we don't have any problems with any allies ... But ... if they take any action against Turkey, it will be reciprocated by Turkey. Turkey has changed," said Cavusoglu. He explained that in recent years US-Turkish relations have not been easy, because of "their support of YPG ... which is a terrorist organisation and posing a direct threat to Turkey. Secondly, after the attempted coup, we asked the US to extradite Fethullah Gulen ... So far, they haven't." "These two issues have fuelled anti-American emotions and sentiments in Turkey. And overall, there is a lack of trust," he added. "First, we need to rebuild this trust." 'Why are you trying to divide the Muslim world?' When in, June 2017, neighbouring countries imposed an air, sea and land blockade on Qatar, the Turkish foreign minister travelled the region in an attempt to broker an end to the GCC crisis. From the start of the crisis, Ankara has played a pivotal role in assisting Qatar to weather the blockade. "The decision against Qatar was not fair ... It has been a very unfortunate situation. We don't want to see such a division in the GCC or in the Muslim world. Stability in the GCC is so important for all of us," Cavusoglu told Al Jazeera. "There are some claims and accusations, but so far, not even a single evidence has been shared. And each time I see someone from Kuwait leadership, I ask them if they have a received any evidence about these accusations, and they say 'No' ..." He believes that "it was a very much political decision, and unfortunately, it didn't serve the interest of any countries in the region. I hope they will overcome this situation soon, and we still believe that Saudi Arabia can lead the process to overcome this situation." More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/

Filmmaker: Sawsan Qaoud The Palestine National Orchestra was first set up in 1936 but was disbanded when Israel was founded in 1948. In 1993, a group of musicians started a Palestinian national music school in Ramallah which has developed into the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music. It now also has branches in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nablus and Gaza. In 2010, the Conservatory decided to revive the national orchestra by bringing musicians together from all around the world. "It took us a year to collect all the names, make calls and get the names and numbers...we created a network and they came from all over the world," explains Mohammed Fadel, musician and co-founder of PNO. "People from abroad helped us. So did others from the Arab world. They trained our members on how an orchestra works. It was the birth of the first Palestinian orchestra and gathering of musicians." The musicians are all from different backgrounds but equally proud of their Palestinian origins. They’re thrilled to be invited to join the orchestra and moved by the shared experience of bringing quality western classical and traditional Arab music to their target audience in Israel and the Occupied West Bank. Charlie Bisharat is a professional violinist in California whose Palestinian father and uncles emigrated to the US in 1950. Being part of the orchestra "is a dream for me," he says. "I had never had the opportunity to come to Palestine. Until Tim Pottier and Mohammad Fadel contacted me, I really didn’t know when I would ever have that opportunity. So it was really a great chance to come out and meet people of my heritage and play music with them and it is a very not political situation so it’s really nice because we’re here to spread the word of Palestinian culture and the good side of the culture. " For car mechanic turned musician, Ramadan Khattab, performing in Palestine with other musicians is visceral. "When I perform in Palestine, I have a special feeling that I never have when I perform anywhere else...I believe all the other orchestra members feel the same. If you look at the performers’ faces, you see something that you don’t see somewhere else," says Khattab. "When we perform together, our hearts don’t beat out of fear, but out of love. And this is different from the others." Similarly, Mariam Tamari, a Palestinian-Japanese classical singer who studied in US and is now based in Paris, shares Ramadan’s feelings. "Singing with the Palestine National Orchestra is quite different because it brings together two of my passions; my identity as a Palestinian and also my identity as a musician,". Her father was forced into exile as a young man but through his connection to Palestine, Tamari was able to retain her link with her father's homeland. "All of us feel this sense of very strong identity as a Palestinian and we have something very specific and very passionate and important to communicate to the world and this makes the experience unlike any other because already from the first rehearsal, despite the fact that we’ve come from all over the world, we bond immediately like that. We’ve become like family from the first day of rehearsal and there is an incredible sense of unity and just togetherness that I feel with the Palestine National Orchestra that I think it’s something quite rare," says Tamari. Meanwhile, Mohammed Fadel's efforts have borne fruit. The Palestine National Orchestra has continued to bring Palestinian musicians together to express their love of music and show its power as a unifying force, especially for the Palestinian community. More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

For decades, people have looked to the United Nations (UN) to resolve conflicts and alleviate suffering around the world. As war stretches on in Yemen and Syria and the number of refugees worldwide continues to rise, whether the UN can now fulfil the lofty ambitions on which it was founded is in doubt. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Miroslav Lajcak, the president of the UN General Assembly, says that the UN is still the best option for world peace, but that reform is necessary, particularly in the Security Council. Veto powers held by its five permanent members - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States - create an uneven balance of power. "There is a general understanding that the composition of the Security Council as it stands now does not represent the realities of the 21st century, these are the realities of 1945. The [reform] process is happening.... It's a process and we can only go as far and as fast as the member states are willing to. But in the General Assembly, there is no veto, in the General Assembly everybody's equal," Lajcak says. The power of veto has drawn criticism from many, most recently when the US vetoed a draft resolution rejecting US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. One-hundred-and-twenty-eight member states voted in favour of the draft, with nine against and 35 abstentions. While it was described as a "pointless exercise" by some Palestinian activists, Lajcak says the session, which he led, sent a strong message. "This session showed that we cannot take multilateralism for granted and therefore we all have to stand up for it," he says. "We have to stand up for a strong role of the United Nations because the General Assembly is our global conscience, it's the only platform where 193 member states are presented and have equal rights and equal say.... Sometimes this moral message is more powerful than a legally-binding one." Despite the US decision and subsequent stalemate in peace negotiations, Lajcak echoed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' statement that there is no plan B to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "The two-state solution is the only solution we support…no one has ever presented any other solution and no one has ever proved that any other solution would be better," says Lajcak. Shortly before the interview with Al Jazeera, Lajcak had visited Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates to discuss the ongoing GCC crisis. Lajcak is confident a diplomatic solution can be reached and has "a lot of trust" in Kuwaiti mediation efforts. "The Gulf is definitely a very powerful voice and this voice is missing right now because of this internal situation in the region and that's why I believe it's in the interest of every country that belongs to this region to find a solution.... The international community is worried but also believes that there will be a solution, there will be a negotiated solution, which will be regionally led," he says. His advice to all parties involved is to "stay calm to avoid any provocations and, of course, to resort to dialogue." In his interview with Al Jazeera Lajcak also discusses the UN's role in the ongoing refugee crisis; why the US should not pull out of the Iran nuclear deal; Myanmar's Rohingya crisis; and the North Korea nuclear threat. More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/

Aljazeera’s Investigative Unit unravels a high-stakes international plot hatched by powerful Eastern European oligarchs to make millions of dollars from a crooked deal. According to one Ukrainian analyst: “It sounds like an agreement between criminal bosses. You can sign it with your blood.” The scheme involves using a web of offshore companies and international lawyers to raid US$160 million dollars under the noses of the authorities. The money is effectively being stolen for a second time… the funds were initially frozen by Ukraine’s courts after its former president, Viktor Yanukovych, was discovered to have emptied the country’s treasury. The Oligarchs include an exiled gas billionaire guarded by Russian special forces, a Moscow property magnate and an Olympic show jumper on the run from Ukrainian authorities. The investigation shines light on the ever shifting battle between the oligarchs and global financial regulators.