Refugees
Relatively few have fled Iran so far, but experts warn that could change if things worsen
KAPIKOY BORDER CROSSING, Turkey (AP) — After bombs exploded near her home in the eastern Iranian city of Golestan, hairdresser Merve Pourkaz decided to leave.
Pourkaz, 32, said she traveled nearly 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) to an alpine border crossing in the hopes of reaching the safety of the nearby Turkish city of Van.
“If they let me, I will stay in Van until the war ends,” she told The Associated Press recently while waiting at the crossing. “If the war doesn’t end, maybe I’ll go back and die.”
Pourkaz is one of the 3.2 million people in Iran who the U.N. refugee agency estimates have been displaced since the war began between Israel and the United States, and Iran. While some are seeking shelter in safer parts of Iran or one of its neighboring countries, others are returning from abroad, heading toward the fighting to protect their families and homes.
So far, relatively few people have chosen to leave: The U.N. estimates that only about 1,300 Iranians have fled via Turkey each day since the war started, and on some days, more people return to Iran than depart. But Iran’s neighbors and Europe are growing increasingly concerned about a possible migration crisis should the war drag on and are making contingency plans.
As Pourkaz was entering Turkey, Leila Rabetnezhadfard was headed the other way.
Rabetnezhadfard, 45, was in Istanbul preparing to marry a German university professor when the fighting started. She postponed the ceremony and left for home in Shiraz, in southern Iran.
“How can I feel safe in Istanbul when my family is living in Iran during the war?” said Rabetnezhadfard, explaining that bringing her family to Istanbul wasn’t an option because her apartment is small, her brother needs medical care, and life there is expensive.
“I will not leave Iran until the war ends,” she said.
Fleeing the fighting
The U.N. has warned that continued fighting will likely push more Iranians to flee their homes.
As in the 12-day conflict last year, many Iranians are now sheltering in place, without money to flee or perhaps because of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Feb. 28 warning.
“Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere,” he said.
Although large numbers of Iranians haven’t fled the country yet, people have been leaving major cities for the relative safety of the countryside bordering the Caspian Sea north of the capital, Tehran, according to the International Organization for Migration.
“Movement out of Iran appears limited mainly because people are prioritizing staying with their families, as well as the safety of their families and property, and due to security conditions and logistical constraints,” said Salvador Gutierrez, chief of the IOM’s mission in Iran.
If Iran’s critical infrastructure is destroyed, that could lead to waves of people trying to cross into one of Iran’s neighbors: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey and Iraq.
“If Tehran, a city of 10 million people, doesn’t have water, they’re going to go somewhere,” said Alex Vatanka, a fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington.
Iran is already grappling with one of the world’s largest refugee populations: roughly 2.5 million forcibly displaced people mostly from Afghanistan and Iraq.
Neighbors brace for impact
If the crisis deepens, aid groups say the most likely destinations for refugees are Iran’s borders with Iraq and Turkey, which stretch roughly 2,200 kilometers (1,367 miles) through rough alpine terrain that is home to many Kurdish communities and are difficult to police.
Turkey had a so-called open-door policy that allowed millions of Syrian refugees to enter the country during their country’s long civil war. But it has abandoned that approach for various reasons.
Instead, it has prepared plans to shelter Iranian refugees in “buffer zones” along the border, or in tent cities or temporary housing inside Turkey, the country’s Hurriyet newspaper quoted Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci as saying.
Iranians who have fled the war will likely not seek refugee status in Turkey because asylum claims might take years to process, if at all, said Sara Karakoyun, an aid worker at the independent Human Resource Development Foundation based near the border.
“They don’t want to wait in limbo for years for a refugee status they might not get,” she said.
Turkey’s defense ministry said in January that Turkey had hardened its border with Iran by adding 380 kilometers of concrete walls, 203 optical towers and 43 observation posts.
Turkey will likely send troops to secure its border and tightly control the flow of people into the country while seeking European Union funds to help deal with refugees, said Riccardo Gasco, an analyst at the IstanPol Institute.
Europe taps network to prepare for the worst
The relationship between the EU and Turkey was redefined by the Syrian refugee crisis a decade ago. Nearly two-thirds of the 4.5 million Syrians fleeing the civil war ended up in Turkey. Many then made their way to Europe via small boats.
In 2016, Brussels and Ankara forged a migration deal where the EU offered Turkey incentives and up to 6 billion euros ($7.1 billion) in aid for Syrian refugees on its territory to persuade Ankara to stop tens of thousands of migrants from setting out for Greece.
Aid groups said that deal created open-air prisons with squalid conditions. But for the EU leadership, the deal saved people, kept many migrants from reaching EU territory, and bettered the lives of refugees in Turkey.
Renewal of that deal is up this year, but Turkish citizens have soured on Syrian refugees and anti-immigrant right-wing parties have surged in popularity in parts of Europe.
And another refugee crisis is already underway even closer to Europe, with fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah displacing more than 800,000 people so far.
“We’ve got a situation (in the Middle East) that could have grave humanitarian consequences right at a time where humanitarian funding has been completely slashed,” said Ninette Kelley, chair of the World Refugee & Migration Council, pointing to the Trump administration’s gutting of USAID. “Is the world ready for another humanitarian disaster?”
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McNeil reported from Brussels. Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Fay Abuelgasim in Cairo, and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A volunteer firefighter died on Wednesday in Turkey after helping local emergency services tackle a large wildfire in the Mediterranean coastal province of Antalya, an official said.
The fire broke out on Monday in Antalya’s Aksu district and, fanned by strong winds, quickly spread into the neighboring Kepez district, forcing hundreds of residents from their homes. The cause of the wildfire is not known.
Hasan Kahya, an Aksu resident who was helping firefighters tackle the blaze, suffered a heart attack after being affected by the smoke and later died in hospital, the district’s mayor, Isa Yildirim, said.
Two people were hospitalized with burns to their legs on Tuesday, while six others were treated for smoke inhalation. More than 100 dogs were evacuated from an animal shelter in Aksu.
Turkey’s forestry directorate said efforts to bring the blaze under control were continuing on Wednesday, adding that the fire’s intensity had been “reduced.” At least three firefighting planes, nine helicopters, 169 fire extinguishing trucks and more than 1,000 firefighters were deployed, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Separately, firefighters were also tackling a wildfire in the district of Kozan, in the southern Adana province, where hundreds of residents have been evacuated, the forestry directorate said.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Firefighters on Tuesday battled a wildfire in Turkey’s Mediterranean coastal province of Antalya that forced hundreds of people from their homes and injured at least two people, the state-run news agency reported.
The fire broke out Monday evening in Antalya’s Aksu district and, fueled by strong winds, quickly spread into the neighboring Kepez district, Anadolu Agency reported.
Two people were hospitalized with injuries to their legs while six others affected by smoke were treated on site, the report said.
Authorities evacuated people from at least 254 homes in Aksu and Kepez and temporarily closed a highway between Antalya and the city of Isparta, located some 130 kilometers (80 miles) north.
As flames and heavy smoke threatened the area, more than 100 dogs were evacuated from an animal shelter in Aksu and taken to safety, Antalya Municipality said. Video footage showed veterinarians treating a dog affected by the smoke.
More than 2,000 homes in the region were affected by power outages, Anadolu reported.
The agency said at least five firefighting aircraft, 10 helicopters, 110 fire extinguishing trucks and 600 personnel were deployed to battle the blaze.
Firefighters were also battling wildfires in the nearby provinces of Adana and Mersin.
BERLIN (AP) — Emma Meesseman led Belgium to the quarterfinals of women’s FIBA World Cup and Puerto Rico finished strongly to eliminate Turkey in their final group games on Monday.
Meesseman had 22 points and 10 rebounds to help Belgium top Australia 80-68 for first place in Group C.
The European champions are now off until Thursday. Australia faces a qualifying playoff on Wednesday against the loser of the Italy-China matchup that takes place later Monday.
Belgium had a five-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, before using a 11-2 run to start the period and gain a double-digit advantage. The Opals couldn’t recover.
The pro-Belgian crowd cheered on their team, waving flags in support.
Puerto Rico celebrates
Arella Guirantes led Puerto Rico with 21 points for a 75-71 win over Turkey.
Puerto Rico was trailing by seven points going into the final quarter, but Imani McGee-Stafford scored and Pamela Rosado followed with two 3-pointers to take a 59-58 lead.
Turkey power forward Elif Bayram went off early in the final quarter with what looked a left leg injury.
Turkey fans outnumbered their counterparts at Berlin’s Max-Schmeling-Halle and they tried to put off Guirantes but couldn’t stop her from securing the win with two free throws.
Puerto Rico next plays the winner between Italy-China on Wednesday.
Assist queen Allemand
Belgium’s Julie Allemand became the all-time women’s FIBA World Cup assist leader in the game. She got the record-breaking assist when Meesseman hit two free throws with 1:58 left in the first half against Australia.
FIBA gives an assist out when a player is fouled and makes the free throws. Allemand passed Laia Palau of Spain, who had 108 assists in her career.
Allemand started the tournament in eighth place all-time with 87, but had 17 assists in her first two games to get within striking distance of the record.
She finished the game with seven assists to give her 111 in World Cup play.
Decisive day
The four group winners progress directly to Thursday’s quarterfinals, while the teams that finish second and third face playoffs Tuesday or Wednesday to determine which join the group winners already through to the final eight. The bottom teams are eliminated.
Host Germany (1-1) faces Mali (1-1), and Spain (1-1) plays Japan (1-1) later with all scenarios open in Group A. Any one of the four teams can win the group and progress to the quarterfinals or finish bottom and be eliminated.
France (2-0), already through to the quarterfinals, plays already eliminated Nigeria (0-2) later, with Hungary and South Korea (both 1-1) contesting second place in Group B.
Italy (1-1), after coming close to upsetting the United States Sunday night, faces China (1-1) to decide second place in Group D. The U.S. (2-0) has already advanced to the quarterfinals before its final group game against the Czech Republic, which was eliminated after two losses.
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See AP’s full WNBA coverage here
BERLIN (AP) — China needed overtime to edge the Czech Republic 74-70 in a thrilling game at the Women’s Basketball World Cup on Sunday.
Han Xu scored 22 points and drew China level at 53-53 in the final quarter after her team had trailed for most of the game.
Eliška Joklová put the Czechs 64-59 up with 27 seconds left only for Luo Xinyu to respond with a 3-pointer and Yang Shuyu to level at 64-64 with 3 seconds to go – after Joklová missed two free throws. There was still time for Joklová to miss another chance to clinch the win.
Yang also completed the scoring in overtime for China, which failed to get the most from 7-foot-3 Zhang Ziyu. The 19-year-old sensation could only score three points in her second game after 13 on her World Cup debut against the United States on Friday.
“She has very great talent and we need to fix how we play together,” Yang said of the teenager’s performance. “Today everybody could see that we did not play so well with her, and we have to fix it.”
China (1-1) next faces Italy on Monday in a game that will likely decide second place in Group D. The Czech Republic (0-2) faces elimination after two losses before its final group game against the United States (2-0).
The U.S. was playing Italy (0-1) later Sunday with Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers bidding to stretch the Americans’ winning run to 32 games. The U.S. hasn’t lost a game at the World Cup since the semifinal game of the 2006 tournament.
Belgium advances
Emma Meesseman completed the scoring as European champion Belgium (2-0) booked its place in the final phase with a comfortable 76-64 win over Puerto Rico (0-2).
Imani McGee-Stafford finished with 25 points for Puerto Rico, which lost against Belgium for the third time at a World Cup.
Maxuella Lisowa Mbaka was top scorer for the Belgians with 16 points, followed by Julie Vanloo with 15. Meesseman finished with 6.
Australia makes it 2 from 2
Ezi Magbegor scored 21 points as Australia reached the final phase with a physical 87-71 win over Turkey earlier.
Turkey, led by Sevgi Uzun with 24 points, was down 8-0 at the start but fought back after a timeout to lead 15-14. That was brief, however, as the Opals rallied to end the first quarter 21-15 up and did not relinquish the lead for the rest of the game.
Turkey’s Goksen Fitik went off with what appeared to be a right-ankle injury in the third quarter but she returned in the fourth.
The Australian team features seven World Cup debutants. Team captain Sami Whitcomb of the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury had to withdraw before the tournament with a lingering knee injury.
Australia (2-0) next faces Belgium on Monday for a showdown that will decide which team progresses directly to the quarterfinals as group winner. Australia, after two wins, is already assured of at least a playoff place in the final phase of the competition.
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See AP’s full WNBA coverage here
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece will press ahead with its strategic defense cooperation with Israel but also wants to deepen relations with other states in the Middle East, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Sunday.
Greece-Israeli ties and defense, security and energy cooperation have become increasingly close over the past decade and Mitsotakis enjoys a friendly rapport with his counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu. Shared concerns about Turkey have helped boost ties. The two countries signed a 3-billion-euro ($3.5 billion) deal on Aug. 31 for Israel to build an air defense shield in Greece.
Mitsotakis told reporters in Thessaloniki that Greece is only one of five NATO countries spending at least 3.5% of its GDP on core defense.
Greece’s traditionally high spending has been fueled by almost constant tensions with Turkey, and its questioning of Greek sovereignty over parts of the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. Greece recognizes only the demarcation of the two countries’ respective maritime zones as an issue to be negotiated or sent to international arbitration.
Asked about U.S. President Donald Trump’s expressed desire to sell the advanced F-35 multirole combat aircraft to Turkey, Mitsotakis replied that he will not tell the U.S. what to do, but noted that legal obstacles remain as Turkey was sanctioned for buying the S-400 air defense system from Russia.
Greece will take delivery of its first 20 F-35s in late 2028, with an option to buy 20 more.
Mitsotakis also said he planned to visit Saudi Arabia soon, and that the recently concluded Mecca Joint Defense Agreement among Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey changes nothing in Greece’s relations with Riyadh.
Greece has maintained an air defense battery in Saudi Arabia since 2021, and has used its Patriot missiles four times since July to down drones and ballistic missiles, allegedly from Yemen, aimed at the kingdom’s oil refineries.
Mitsotakis will visit Cairo on Tuesday for talks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi.
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Associated Press writer Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki, Greece, contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration announced Friday that it has imposed sanctions on a Turkish financial institution as part of its latest effort to sever “critical financial lifelines” for the Iranian government.
The actions against Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi come after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week launched “Operation Economic Outcast, ” Washington’s new effort to isolate already heavily sanctioned Iran from its remaining trading partners to try to get it to capitulate to U.S. demands after more than six months of war.
The Treasury Department accused the Turkish bank and its entities of being established to enable Iran’s efforts to transfer oil revenues from China to Turkey, where they could then be converted to cash and gold. It also said the institution “knowingly offered” banking services to Iranian financial entities, including those already sanctioned by the U.S. government in 2022 for funneling Tehran’s oil sales.
Bessent, who had told The Associated Press earlier this week that another bank would face economic penalties, said financial institutions with ties to Iran will “continue to find out the hard way that we are serious about Operation Economic Outcast.”
“While we hope no more banks will need to be sanctioned, that ultimately depends on how quickly the international community comes to its senses and ceases support of the murderous Iranian regime,” he said in a press release Friday. “We know who you are, we know where you are, and we will continue to take action together with our allies and partners until we have buried the head of the Iranian snake.”
But so far, the goal to force those that still do business with Iran to cut off financial ties or face U.S. retaliation has fallen flat, with promises of an “economic D-Day” for a group of countries that could include China and India quickly turning into warnings and negotiations with Iran’s trading partners.
Bessent had previously told reporters that he wanted countries to have an opportunity to shift away from Iran before it was too late in a bid to avoid upending the global financial system.
The Trump administration’s reluctance to penalize major trading partners that still do business with Iran was on display last week when the U.S. took steps to limit an Egyptian bank’s operations in the United Arab Emirates but stopped short of imposing sanctions.
The U.S. also has resumed military strikes in recent days, prompting Iranian retaliation in the region. It’s unclear what the outcome of the two-pronged strategy will be for President Donald Trump, who has struggled to end an unpopular war with an intransigent Iranian government as energy prices rise and pose problems for Republicans before November’s midterm congressional elections.
Targeted in the latest U.S. sanctions is Golden Global Investment Bank, which was founded in 2019 as Turkey’s first investment bank to offer “banking services and alternative financing methods” to foreign companies, according to its website.
The Istanbul-based bank, which is largely unfamiliar to most Turks, says it aims to increase Turkey’s foreign trade through target markets in neighboring countries.
The Treasury announcement came a day after Turkey’s state-run Halkbank declared it had reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department in a nine-year case focused on violating sanctions with Iran.
In that case, senior officials at Halkbank were said to have illegally moved about $20 billion worth of Iranian oil revenues. U.S. prosecutors claimed high-ranking Turkish government officials received millions of dollars in bribes to protect the scheme.
The Halkbank case caused a rift in U.S.-Turkey relations, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally lobbying the White House to have the case dropped.
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Wilks reported from Istanbul.
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