Yearender: 2015 sees worst refugee crisis in Europe mainly resulted from U.S.-led military intervention(2)

U.S.-LED WESTERN MILITARY MEDDLING BLAMED

Many have said that the refugee crisis that Europe is grappling with is partly of their own making of some European countries, which have joined the United States to militarily put their noses into the internal affairs of the source countries of refugees.

"Western countries under the U.S. leadership have destabilized entire regions by making terrorist organizations possible and exploit them," said Dietmar Bartsch and Sahra Wagenknecht, parliamentary group leaders of Germany's main opposition party Die Linke, in a position paper in early September when the crisis reached a climax.

They said gangs of murderers, such as the Islamic State (IS), were indirectly supported and supplied with money and weapons by countries allied with Germany, which has brought millions of people into brutal fighting and civil wars.

German Middle East expert Michael Lueders shared a similar view, saying in an interview with Xinhua that the United States should be held responsible for the ongoing refugee crisis.

Western military intervention in countries such as Iraq, Syria and Libya, has led to chaos and anarchy, said Lueders, a board member of the German Near and Middle East Association and vice-chairman of the German Orient Foundation.

Most of the refugees fleeing to Europe came precisely from those countries that have been intervened, he added.

According to Lueders, the military intervention in the Arab world and the determination of the West to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should take the blame for all the chaos in Syria.

"They wanted to see him overthrown and then install a new, pro-Western government. However, this strategy has failed. The result is the fueling of the war," he said.

Other analysts say that Europe's refugee crisis can be attributed to the U.S.-sponsored "Color Revolution," which, under the pretext of spreading Western-style democracy, is aimed to facilitate regime changes by fanning up anti-government protests in those countries.

Saeed al-Lawendi, a political professor at Cairo University, told Xinhua that "revolutions mean change, but the change in the Arab world has destroyed the region. The United States has created a new enemy for countries in the region: terrorism and sectarianism."

Yousry al-Azabawy, a political expert with Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said the United States came to support the revolution for two reasons: one is to protect Israel, while the other is to prop up pro-Washington governments.

The U.S. government has a strong influence among the liberals in the Middle East and that has helped Washington promote its own agendas in the region, like turning the younger generation there into advocates for the Western political system, he said.

Samir Ghatas, chairman of the Middle East Forum for Political and Strategic Affairs, said that the United States also backed the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Syria and Tunisia under the table, which Washington could use as tools to facilitate the change it wants to see.

Now that the tide of the revolution has ebbed, the United States and its European partners have to deal with rampant terrorism and the tremendous number of refugees, products of their own making.

JOINT EFFORT FOR SOLUTIONS

Thousands of refugees have died off European shores after their unseaworthy boats and dinghies sank in the sea, and disturbing reports concerning arsons in their hostels and lack of necessities, among others, have been heard almost every day.

Under mounting pressure, related parties in the refugee crisis started to jointly search for solution to the problem.

Turkey, which Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said had spent some 8 billion U.S. dollars on refugees, and the EU reached a deal in November on burden sharing to stem the flow of refugees.

Due to insufficient funding, many Syrian refugees in Lebanon plan to migrate to Europe, which would create even a heavier burden on European countries and a more serious humanitarian disaster.

In October, Jordan appealed for 8.2 billion dollars in aid from the international community to provide services for Syrian refugees between 2016 and 2018.

On Dec. 9, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in Helsinki that international cooperation is needed to ease the refugee situation.

Ban stressed that the refugee problem is a global phenomenon and a world-wide contract should be signed to share the responsibilities.

European experts have also urged EU countries to show solidarity and try to find a common strategy to cope with the issue.

"The recent escalation of the refugee crisis clearly illustrated that the European Union (still) does not constitute a state," said Sabine Riedel, an expert with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

Riedel said in her working parper that important international agreements related to the refugee issue are applied very differently within the EU members, which decided their refugee and asylum policies in accordance with their respective national laws and constitutions.

In her opinion, member states should "take a step back" and first take note of the refugee and asylum policies of other countries before pushing for a "hasty" European solution, especially on the issue of refugee distribution.

The United States, to protect its own interests, has had to shoulder some responsibilities from its European allies.

On Sept. 20, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that his country would accept 85,000 refugees from around the world next year, up from 70,000.

"The United States is not an uninterested bystander in Europe's refugee crisis. If mishandled, the mounting flow of refugees will pose multiple challenges to U.S. interests and could prove a divisive element in transatlantic relations," said Ian Lesser, a political analyst from the German Marshell Fund. Enditem

Xinhua Writers Zhang Bihong and Ye Zaiqi in Beijing contributed to the story. Enditem

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