25/03/2025

TUESDAY | MAR 25, 2025

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S. Korean PM reinstated as acting president

Protesters rally as defiant mayor jailed ISTANBUL: Istanbul’s embattled Ekrem Imamoglu vowed to fight on despite being suspended as mayor and jailed on Sunday, in developments that have sparked Turkiye’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Addressing vast crowds of tens of thousands of protesters who gathered outside City Hall for a fifth straight evening, Imamoglu’s wife warned the authorities they would face a reckoning. “He will defeat you! You will lose!” Dilek Kaya Imamoglu shouted from the platform. “The injustice Ekrem faced ... it struck a chord with every conscience. Everyone found something of themselves and the injustices they faced in what was done to Ekrem,” she said. Just four days after his arrest in a pre-dawn raid by hundreds of police, the powerful and popular opposition mayor was on Sunday stripped of his title and shipped off to Silivri prison on the megacity’s western outskirts. “This is not a judicial procedure, it’s a (political) execution without trial,” he wrote on X in a message through his lawyers. Although the court decided against formalising his arrest in a separate “terror” investigation, the Interior Ministry said he had been “suspended from office”. As the court process played out, the main opposition CHP party held a long-planned primary to elect Imamoglu as its candidate in the 2028 presidential election. Opening the ballot beyond its 1.7 million members to anyone who wanted to vote, they said in the end they had registered 15 million votes for Imamoglu. “Out of a total of 15 million votes, 13,211,000 (not-party members) are solidarity votes,” they added. Turkiye’s authorities issued court orders for the closure of more than 700 accounts on X, targeting “news organisations, journalists, political figures, students, and others within Turkiye”, the online platform said on Sunday. Describing the Turkish government’s move as “unlawful”, the company said it would defend the right to free speech through the courts. France’s foreign ministry on Sunday denounced Turkey’s jailing of Imamoglu as “a serious attack on democracy”. Observers say it was the looming primary that triggered the move against Imamoglu, widely seen as the only politician capable of challenging President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. – AFP OTTAWA: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sunday called early elections for April 28, pledging to defeat Donald Trump’s drive to annex the United States’ huge northern neighbour. He made it clear that the barrage of trade and sovereignty threats from the US president will be the focus of his campaign. “I’ve requested that the governor general dissolve parliament and call an election for April 28. She has agreed,” Carney said in a speech to the nation. In power for a decade, the Liberal government had slid into deep unpopularity, but Carney will be hoping to ride a wave of Canadian patriotism to a new majority. – AFP GREENLAND PM DENOUNCES U.S. ‘FOREIGN INTERFERENCE’ COPENHAGEN: Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede yesterday accused Washington of interfering in its political affairs with the visit of an American delegation this week to the Danish territory coveted by President Donald Trump. Egede said Washington had been told there would be “no talks” until a new Greenlandic government was in place after March 11 general elections that left him heading a caretaker government. Jens Frederik Nielsen, leader of the centre-right Democrats that won the election has also criticised Trump’s moves. – AFP CANADA CALLS SNAP ELECTIONS FOR APRIL 28

o Han to return to power immediately

accused him of not doing enough to thwart Yoon’s decision to declare martial law, an accusation he denied. Lee Jae-myung, head of the opposition Democratic Party, urged the Constitutional Court to swiftly make a decision on Yoon’s impeachment. Yoon also faces a separate criminal trial on charges of leading an insurrection by declaring martial law. If Yoon is removed, a new presidential election will be held within 60 days. “The court’s continued delay in ruling is fuelling concern and conflict,” said Lee, who opinion polls suggest would win an election if Yoon is removed. South Korea has seen huge, mostly peaceful, rallies both in support of Yoon and calling for his removal in recent months. Lim Ji-bong, a law professor at Sogang University, said he expects the court to remove Yoon. The justices will want to show they can be “united to make a bold decision to stop deepening national divisions,” he said. The imposition of martial law on Dec 3 and the ensuing political upheaval sent shockwaves through South Korea. – Reuters

Yoon’s martial law declaration plunged the key US military ally into its greatest political crisis in decades, and sparked a leadership vacuum amid spiralling impeachments, resignations and criminal indictments for a range of top officials. Han had initially lasted less than two

SEOUL: South Korea’s Constitutional Court reinstated Prime Minister Han Duck soo (pic) to the post of acting president yesterday, striking down his impeachment.

weeks in the post and was impeached and suspended on Dec 27 after clashing with the opposition-led parliament by refusing to appoint three more justices to the Constitutional Court. The justices on the court ruled yesterday seven to one to strike down the impeachment. Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok had assumed the position of acting president while the cases of Yoon and

The ruling returns Han to power immediately. He took over as acting leader from President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached over his imposition of martial law in December. “I believe the people are making it very clear, in one voice, that the

Han were before the Constitutional Court. Han, 75, had served in leadership positions for more than three decades under five presidents, both conservative and liberal. In a country sharply divided by partisan rhetoric, Han is a rare example of an official whose varied career transcended party lines. Still, the opposition-led parliament

extreme confrontation in politics must stop,” said Han, who thanked the court for its “wise decision” and the Cabinet for their hard work while he was suspended. “As acting president, I will do my best to maintain stable state administration, and devote all wisdom and capabilities to safeguard national interests in the trade war.”

BR I E F S

Indigenous leaders perform during a kiva , an ancestral ceremony of the pre-Columbian Anasazi culture, in Graneros, Chile. – AFPPIC

Indigenous leaders pray for nature GRANEROS: The leaders of 22 indigenous peoples from five continents held prayers for nature in Chile on Sunday at the end of a 46-day pilgrimage around the world. of Mongolia, the Noke Koi of Brazil, and the Kallawaya of Bolivia sang, danced, and prayed to the rhythm of drums, around an altar where they lit a sacred fire.

representative of the South African group Oba Umbuntu. The leaders also shared their concerns about what is happening in their own home regions. “Unfortunately, they are trying to extract uranium in Mongolia. It is an important element that is supposed to remain underground,”Tsegi Batmunkh said. In January, the French nuclear group Orano signed an agreement with Mongolia to exploit a large uranium deposit in the southwest of the country. The leader of Brazil’s Noke Koi people, Yama Nomanawa, called for an end to the “destruction of the Earth”. – AFP

The “indigenous sages” carried out an ancestral ceremony of the Anasazi people, who lived in the Chaco Canyon before European settlement in what was to become the US state of New Mexico. It was a ritual that, for the first time, brought together peoples from all over the planet – travelling together on a journey that began in Italy and passed through India, Australia, and Zimbabwe before concluding in Chile. During their closing ceremony, representatives of peoples such as the Khalkha

“The feathers represent the continents, and today, for the first time, we have the five continents,” said Heriberto Villasenor, director of Raices de la Tierra, an NGO dedicated to the preservation of indigenous cultures. At the end of the event, the leaders embraced and shared a message, urging greater care for the environment. “We are part of nature. We are not separate from it. We are at a critical moment when so much destruction has taken place, much of it at human hands,” said Rutendo Ngara, 49, a