Page 9 - ARUBA TODAY
P. 9
WORLD NEWS A9
Friday 29 December 2017
Ukrainian authorities and Erdogan seeks to mend ties with EU
rebels swap prisoners: AP
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) —
By INNA VARENYTSIA sides, to return home be- Turkish President Recep Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waves as he arrives
Associated Press fore the New Year and Or- Tayyip Erdogan has sig-
HORLIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — thodox Christmas is a very naled he wants to mend at the Presidential Palace in Carthage, outside Tunis, Tunisia,
Ukrainian authorities and welcome development,” fences with the govern-
Russian-backed separat- said Austrian Foreign Min- ments of several European Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017. Syria’s peace efforts cannot include
ist rebels on Wednesday ister Karin Kneissl, the OSCE nations he’s quarreled with
conducted the biggest ex- chairman. “Today’s ex- this year, saying Turkey must President Bashar Assad, Turkey’s leader said Wednesday,
change of prisoners since change is not only a hu- “decrease the number
the start of an armed con- manitarian act but also a of enemies and increase calling him a “terrorist.”
flict in the country’s east helpful step in confidence- friends.”
and a sign of progress in building.” In comments published (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi)
the implementation of a Ukraine was supposed Thursday in Turkey’s Hurriyet
2015 peace deal. to release 306 people, newspaper, Erdogan de- Erdogan told journalists on in power there are my old
Rebels from the self-pro- but dozens chose to stay scribed the leaders of Ger-
claimed separatist repub- in Ukraine or had been many, the Netherlands and his return from a trip to Af- friends. They have wronged
lics in the Luhansk and freed earlier, said Viktor Belgium as “old friends,”
Donetsk regions handed Medvedchuk, who moni- called recent contacts with rica. me, but that’s another
over 74 captives, while tored the exchange on them “quite good” and
Ukraine’s government de- the Ukrainian side. Many noted that they, like Turkey, “On the contrary, those matter.”q
livered 233. Some had of the captives were not oppose a controversial U.S.
been held for more than combatants. Some were decision to recognize Jeru-
a year. Larisa Sargan, a activists and bloggers who salem as Israel’s capital.
spokeswoman for the Ukrai- were charged with spying “We have no problems
nian prosecutor general’s or treason. Anatoly Slo- with Germany, or with the
office, said on Facebook bodyanik, one of the pris- Netherlands or Belgium,”
that one of the 74 prisoners oners traded by Ukraine,
released by the separatists said he didn’t want to go
indicated she would stay in to the rebel side and would
Donetsk. return to his home town of
Carrying their belonging, Odessa. “I’m not guilty of
the prisoners were turned anything and I don’t want
exchanged in the town of to go to the other side,” he
Horlivka and the village of said. Ukrainian President
Zaitseve, in an area divid- Petro Poroshenko praised
ing the separatist regions the Ukrainian prisoners held
and Ukraine. One held a by the rebels for their en-
cat. “I’m out of hell. I have durance.
survived,” said Yevhen “I’m grateful to all those
Chudentsov, who served who remained loyal to
with one of Ukraine’s volun- Ukraine in those unbear-
teer battalions in the east able conditions,” Poroshen-
and was taken prisoner in ko said while greeting the
February 2015. free captives. “They have
Chudentsov said he faced shown their adherence to
threats and beatings while the principles of freedom
in rebel custody, and his and independence.”
front teeth were knocked The Ukrainian leader also
out. He was initially sen- hailed German Chancellor
tenced to capital pun- Angela Merkel and French
ishment, which was later President Emmanuel Ma-
changed to 30 years in pris- cron for helping organize
on. He said after his release the exchange.
in Horlivka that he would Merkel and Macron wel-
join the Ukrainian military comed the swap, saying in
again. a joint statement that they
The exchange was super- “encourage the parties
vised by observers from to the conflict also to en-
the Organization for Se- able the exchange of the
curity and Cooperation in remaining prisoners, grant
Europe, a trans-Atlantic se- the International Commit-
curity and rights group that tee of the Red Cross full
has deployed monitors to access and support the
eastern Ukraine. ICRC’s search for missing
The OSCE welcomed the people.”
swap and urged the two The simmering conflict be-
sides to build on the mo- tween the separatists and
mentum from it. government troops in east-
“Allowing such a significant ern Ukraine has killed more
number of people, who than 10,000 people since
have been held on both 2014.q
