General Chat

Indeed, facts are facts and should whenever possible be quoted correctly and in full and only when the truth of a story is known, with as much background information as possible, thus avoiding speculation.

I will repeat again though what I have said previously, unless one has lived through the situation oneself, one really cannot say what one would do in the circumstances..... however I know damn well I would try to put as much distance between IS (and Assad equally) and my family as humanly possible ( legally or otherwise)..

OK, if you read the extremist views on the www articles against migration the focus on his fleeing to Turkey and teeth. The moderate articles cite his torture and his sister's first application for his brother Mohammed.

You read whichever you are drawn towards according the the headline!

if my teeth had been extracted under torture, I think they are something I might mention if people asked why I was trying to get away

I would expect them to understand the utter horror of what I had been subjected to, and maybe even imagine having all their teeth pulled out by cruel and vicious torturers seeking to cause me as much pain as possible, in order to get whatever they wanted out of me

I really think I just would not be expecting people to hear that and then go off muttering that the only reason I was trying to get into Europe was to get a nice free set of dentures

I think we might very rightly and literally call that adding insult to injury

There was some confusion over the application made by the sister in Canada for the other brother. In her distraught state at the news of the deaths of her sister in law and nephews I don't suppose she made complete sense to the reporters at her door and things could have been misunderstood and misreported.

Liz

If the poor man and his family were not genuine refugees then he sure paid the price. My sympathy goes to him for who he has lost.

News this morning says that Turkey is on the brink of civil war.

Hungary is going to close its borders.

Sky News spent a day watching families arriving on a beach in Lesbos.

This is going to get so much worse.

So Turkey is/was not such a 'safe' option then

It never was for Kurds, Maggie. Those who have read up on the history know that.

....and when you learn that their real surname is Shenu, but Kurdi had been used in Turkey because of their ethnic background, it puts a new slant on things....

Yes, it does, rather.

Turkey was and is not a safe option, it was mentioned as such on the other thread as being ok'd for travel by the Foreign Office advice, a comment which was accurate in so much as this line applies

"Over 2,500,000 British nationals visit Turkey every year. Most visits are trouble-free
which states"

but that is not the same as saying somewhere is "safe" per se, or indeed that one would be "safe" living there if one were a refugee


"The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advise against all travel to within 10 km of the border with Syria.

The FCO advise against all but essential travel to:

the remaining areas of Sirnak, Mardin, Sanliurfa, Gaziantep, Kilis and Hatay provinces
Siirt, Tunceli, Diyarbakir and Hakkari provinces."

"There is a high risk of terrorism...

There is a high threat from terrorism. On 19 August there was an incident involving gunfire and a sound grenade in an attack on Turkish national police guards stationed outside Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul. On 10 August, 2 people opened fire outside the US Consulate-General in Istanbul. On 27 July there were reports of possible threats to public transport in Istanbul, in particular the metro stations at Yenikapi, Taksim, Osmanbey and Haciosman and stops on the Metrobus line.

Be vigilant, monitor media reports and keep up to date with this travel advice.

The terrorist group DHKP-C (Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party Front) has launched a series of attacks in Istanbul in 2015 targeting the Turkish police and judiciary. On 5 June, two people were killed and many injured by an explosion at an HDP rally in Diyarbakir. On 9 June, 4 people were killed in an attack in Diyarbakir. You should exercise caution.

Border crossings into Syria and nearby locations have also been targeted. On 20 July, a suicide bomber killed 33 people and injured over 100 others in Suruc, Sanlurfa. See Terrorism and the FCO’s travel advice for Syria"

And this his has been added since I read it the other night

"Latest update: Summary – large demonstrations have occurred in Adana and Mersin in September 2015 associated with hostilities between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Turkish security forces in south-east Turkey"

OH I wish I had not seen that. Our daughter is on holiday in turkey this week. :-(

It's a large country Ann. Get the map out to see where she is v the reported incidents.

'safe places' for European tourists to visit seem to be contracting month by month. Mind you, those of us in say London lived through various bombing outrages and in the main got on with our lives.

Sorry Ann :-( But like most tourists most places she will be safe I'm sure.

Ann, there are troubles all over the world.I was in Sri Lanka when there were bombings, in Oxford Street when the Wimpey bomb went off, family were in the vicinity of London when the July 7th bombs went off, although we were caught up in these incidents, we never saw a thing. Turkey is a big place, tourist areas are well guarded. If your daughter felt unsafe, I'm sure they would be on a plane home.

I'm also sure if you put into google "Riots in Norfolk" something will come up. We can't lock ourselves up, we need to be cautions, but we also need to live.

Don't worry Ann :-D

I know that is sensible and I am sure she will be fine but it was just a fleeting thought. She is in a tourist area on a group holiday.

We visited London quite a lot in the 70s Llynda and were there a couple of times when there were bomb scares but it didn't stop us going.

The threats from IS are meant to terrify us as were the threats from the IRA, I treat both with equal contempt.

Fine to be contemptuous from a place of safety, we can all do that, but when you live on the front line, as lots of people did, and now do, it's less easy to be so brave and very easy to be terrified.

Everyone in this world, no matter how badly behaved, deserves at least a bit of sympathy & affectionate good will.

That's why the refugees are leaving. They aren't empty threats in Syria.