Turkey’s official coronavirus infections rose to more than 86,000 with 2,000 deaths on Monday, making it among the worst affected countries in the region. Iran, which hid its number of cases in February, now has 82,000 and more than 5,000 deaths. Because much of the Middle East is dominated by authoritarian regimes or countries in the midst of conflict, the official counts for the virus in most places are either unclear or likely higher than governments admit.
Turkey’s media, which is almost entirely pro-government with many dissident journalists in prison, has sought to praise the leadership’s handling of the pandemic. In early March Daily Sabah claimed the country was virus-free and a model to the world in fighting the virus. Then Turkey pivoted to sending aid abroad to a dozen countries, even as Turkey continued to stoke crises with its neighbors, carrying out airstrikes in Iraq, pushing refugees to enter Greece and fueling extremists in northern Syria. The coronavirus crisis has momentarily taken Turkey’s government eyes off of Syria, where it fought a brief conflict with the Syrian regime in late February.
Full Story (The Jerusalem Post)
