russia is blamed for an air strike which kills at least 44 people in a crowded marketplace in syria. ♪ ♪ hello there, i am barbara serra, you are watching al jazeera live from london. also coming up on the program. e.u. leaders offer cash and closer ties to turkey to stop refugees from crossing? to the european union. clashes in paris as worldwide demonstrations take place over climate change. and marking forgiveness and reconciliation, the pope opens

the holy door in the central african republic. ♪ ♪ russia is being blamed for an air strike that killed at least 44 people at a busy marketplace in northern syria. if russian war planes are behind the attack it would be one of the deadliest incidents since it began eights campaign two months ago now. the marketplace is in a town in idlib province, hashem reports from the turkey-e syrian border. >> reporter: this man is lucky to have survived. in yet another air strike in idlib province, dozens more syrianss are dead. in poorly equipped makeshift hospitals, medics struggle to deal with the high number of casualties. these images have become part of life in many rebel-held areas,

since the russian or strikes began. opposition fighters accuse russia of carrying out this attack as well. the syrian government and russia have maintained that their targets are what they call terrorists. but activists say hundreds of civilian is including children have been killed in recent weeks of intense bombardment by russian jets and the syrian air force. the town here is important for being close to the turkish border, and an entry point to idlib province. it was the last city the government lost to rebels when they took over in may. syrian officials say it was captured by the armed group al-nusra front. despite losing control of most of the country, president bashar al-assad and his allies insist he is vital to the fight against groups like isil.

but the syrian opposition, along with their western and gulf allies, don't agree. >> translator: today the syrian people have a number of priorities. number one is bashar al-assad must leave. the second is to uproot terrorism. we must take these martyrs in to consider -- matters in to consideration of pondering a diplomatic solution. >> reporter: and while the political solution appears to be limited to discussions, on the ground the assad government is finding it hard to retain control of areas from fighters in aleppo and other areas. the russian air strikes is not match for those that want to rid of president assad. the latest escalation of violence in sear was raises concerns of a wider conflict. but many say as long as countries like russia and turkey remain divided on how to solve the syrian crisis, fighting will

continue and more people are likely to die. on turkey's border with syria. >> al jazeera is there which he says is not a place where isil is active. >> translator: the timing of the raid was the early hours of the morning when the marketplace was very busy. it was hit by two missiles in one raid separated by 50 meters. it has left huge destruction and large numbers of people were killed and injured. it has been under the opposition control since may. and there is no presence of isis at all in this area. russian raids have intensified on the northern parts of syria on many front. which are revelry populated residential areas. housing all those displaced from aleppo and hama. the people here, civil defense

and military staff are outraged by the russian strikes because they targeted civilian areas. the air strikes did not target military areas. most of the targets were civilian. iraqi officials have discovered three more mass graves containing body i bodiese yazidi community in northern iraq. 113 bodies were found in a village 12-kilometers south of the town of sinjar. a total of five mass graves have now been found. one of the graves was booby trapped with explosive. kurdish fighters recaptured the town in isil fighters earlier this month. ♪ ♪ turkey has recovered the body of a russian pilot whose plane was shot down by the turkish military on the syrian border on tuesday. it was received at an airport in

a turkish town and will be thrown back to remark a. ankara has refuse today apologize saying russia violated its airspace. on saturday president putin ordered economic sanctions against turk any response. turkey's prime minister has joined e.u. leaders for a controversial summit in brussels aimed at buying turkey's help to stop refugees from crossing in the european union. so far this year it's thought that 700,000 people have made the journal friday turkey across the aegean sea in to greece. now the e.u. is offering to pay turkey $3.2 billion for it to seal its board we are greece to stop or at least slow the flow of refugees. aware of europe's desperation the turkish government is also pushing for a lifting of visa requirements for turks traveling to the e.u. according to a draft agreement that could happen by october next year. turkey also wants a resumption of the frozen e.u. membership

negotiations. the plan is for turkey to hold summit twice a year with the 28-nation block. germany has been the main country pushing for the deal with turkey as more than 950,000 refugees have entered the country this year. arriving for talks in brussels, the chancellor angela merkel said turkey had a right to request help from the e.u. to deal with the refugees crisis. >> translator: one main part of this e.u.-turkey action plan will be how we can replace illegal migration with legal pie gracious. turkey is hosting well over 2 million refugees and has received little international support. so they have the right tokes picture the european union and its member states to help with mastering this task. this means refugees will have better living conditions such as the right to work and the european ube join's financial support for schooling.

well, turkey's prime minister says his country is ready to become a fully-pledged part of europe. >> we are a european nation. the continent belong to all of us, to all of you. and for the future of european continent, turkey is ready to do everything possible, not just respond to refugees crisis, but also to respond to all the crisis or issues regarding the future of our continent. we want to be member of european family. and as a family member, we, i can assure you, turkey will be always a positive contributing family member to this family. as a success in europe. al jazeera is in brussels for us and, it was very interesting listening to the turkish prime minister there.

he sounded incredibly optimistic with language like the family and turkey being welcomed. but what is actually the latest on this deal? because as far as we know, they haven't actually signed it, have they? >> reporter: no, barbara but we do believe the talks are come to an end. we hear the final press conference with the those involved will happen shortly. we have seen the draft conclusion which talks about the e.u. aiming to finish this visa liberalization process. in other words, lifting the requirement to turkish people to have a visa if they want to travel within that free movement area in the european union by october of next year. but that phrase, finishes once road map -- once the conditions

in the road map are met, those conditions are many and they might not be easily met. there are lots and lots of ifs and buts, of course we know there are concerns about human rights in turkey, of press freedom. things like that. so although this seems to be as he was saying a historic day for relations between his country and the e.u., i think he's rather overselling it if he's trying to convince his own population that e.u. membership is suddenly coming nearer. >> because there are, as you mentioned, some stumbling blocks that perhaps i guess other issues have kind of taken precedence like obviously the refugees crisis. but looking at turkey's human rights and press freedom obvious litsch yous there. so how difficult has it been to reach a deal between the e.u. nations and turkey? >> reporter: well, it's been perhaps surprisingly easy and surprisingly quick to come up

with proposals which both sides would sit down to talk about here in brussels. this came out of the summit just 2 1/2 weeks ago. what will be more difficult is pinning down the detail. we know that the european union has promised turkey $3.2 billion to facilitate more refugees within its own boarders to allow also syrians to enter its job market and to send their children to school there. but we don't know exactly which government will be putting how much in to that pot. we don't know the time frame that we are talking about. and lastly, we don't know exactly how much pressure there will still be on those sensitive issues like press freedom. we have just had a letter sent to the e.u. in the last few days from a pair of well-known journalist who his have been arrested after publishing an article which displeased the president of turkey, they are urging the e.u. not to forget about its commitment to those.

it pushes to an end for the migration crisis. of course all the leaders here know that turk is a crucial because of the route that migrants and refugees are taking to get to the e.u. they need turkey's help desperately. how far they are prepared to let those human rights concerns slide, though, is hard to guess. >> interesting to see which ones of those points are clarified, if any of them, when we actually get the news con friend conferee e.u. leaders and the turkish prime minister. we are waiting for that any minute now. for the moment. thank you. pope francis says he hopes that next month's polls in central african republic will provide a new chapter for the conflict-torn nation. he made the comments while visiting a refugees camp which is home to some 4,000 internally displaced people. nearly a million have been forced from their homes in c.a.r. after more than two years of violence between christian

militia and muslim rebels. the pope told the camp's residents to work, pray, and do everything for peace. >> translator: because we are all brothers, i would like it very much if we all said together, we are all brothers. and in a very significant move for both the catholic faith and the c.a.r. pope francis has declared the start i've special holy year from the steps of the cathedral there. the pope was due to start his jubilee year of mercy at the vatican 10 days from now. instead he launched the year-long celebration by pushing open the doors of the cathedral in a city that he has described as the spiritual capital of the world. the pope chose to change the time-honored tradition to bring a boost to the people of the c.a.r.

>> reporter: the holy year of mercy is coming early to this land. a land that has suffered too long from war, hatred, inning comprehension and a lack of peace. much more still to come here on al jazeera. including voters in burkina faso await the results of the first elections after a year of political turmoil. also ahead, why they call this peru's wall of shame. >> we give you more perspectives >> the separatists took control a few days ago. >> and a global view. >> now everybody in this country can hear them. >> getting the story first-hand. >> they have travelled for weeks, sometimes months. >> what's your message then? >> we need help now. >> you're watching

turkey. our agreement sets out a clear plan for the timely reestablishment of order to our shared frontier. we will also step up our assistance to syrian refugees in turkey through a new refugees facility of 3 billion euros. turkey remains a key strategic parpartner for europe but also a candidate country of the e.u. we agreed that the succession process needs to be reenergized. we welcome the announcement to old inter-government conference

for opening chapter 17 on the monitor policy. while preparatory work on opening other chapters is taking place. let me stress that we are not rewriting the e.u. enlarge. policy. the framework and the conclusions don't apply, including its [ inaudible ] based nature and european respect for values and also on human rights. finally we all look forward to 2016 as a key year for the implementation of the e.u. 30 agreement that was reached today. thank you. >> thank you, and now the president of the european commission. >> yeah. i thought that the prime minister would have the floor. >> first the european union.

britain to land a first title we are meeting today was a very fruitful meeting. we discucussed, again, a very hh level and we retied our links with turkey and we agreed about a common response for the refugees crisis. the european union must resolve these problems. there is not a response which is not articulated and formulated together with turkey. so the massive arrival from turkey, particularly of syrian refugees onto the territory of the european union, this is a problem and we have made it have a joint program about this.

and we are going to present it to after the european council on the 15th of october and the turkish path on that -- we are in agreement with that convention. and we have now today found agreement on all of the elements of a common policy that we must implement. the meeting today was very serious. the questions about migration, but also our relationship with turkey. there must be part of a picture, a wider picture. we were discussion any further progress to be made in relation with the process, the commission is ready to make the necessary preparatory work in order to open new chapters. this will be done in the next coming weeks. we were discussing in a meeting before the meeting we had with

our turkish partners, the issue you of resettlement of refugees coming from turkey to european territories. the commission has been tasked to prepare all of the work needed in that relation from now to the 15th of december. this will be an open process, a voluntary process. those of our member states willing to join this taking will tell us if yes or no they would like to be part of this. and then we will proceed in an orderly way. [speaking foreign language] >> we are listening to the president of the european

commission jean claude young yo, he had been addressing this deal between the e.u. and turkey. we are still waiting to hear from the turkish prime minister. the number we heard early on the 3 billion euro figure, $3.2 billion has actually been agreed. so that money will go from the e.u. to turkey in helping turkey deal with the issue of refugees helping the refugees there and potentially the reset. of some of the refugees sayses that have a required in europe. the issue you that they will speed the you can i's talks. let's go gac back to jean claude juncker, he is now speaking english again. >> it welcome back again and again in order to narrow our

positions. but all in all, this was a fruitful meeting. and i am grateful for the turkish prime minister for having come to brussels in order to, yeah, officialize an agreement we had before. thank you. >> thank you. and now prime minister of turkey. >> thank you very much. first of all, i thank jean claude for this opportunity and i also thank to all the leaders of the european union for this opportunity. this is is a historic meeting because after 11 years, first time turkish-e.u. summit had such a meeting. and yesterday as reelected prime minister i sat with my government program to the parliament, tomorrow i will be having a lot of confidence in which i came to have this meet, this summit after 11 years. yes, this is a historic meeting.

i am very happy because the fruitful deliberations and discussions in the meeting. because as the key concept here from our agreed text and joint declaration, to reenergize our action section process, there are two dimensions here, one is turkey-e.u. process. after cushions today we agreed to have twice summit every year, and also have agreed to have a very effective mechanisms of high-level economic dialogue. high-level energy dialogue. high-level political dialogue mechanisms to deeper our relations. in that sense we will extend our cooperation and activate and accelerate the a section proce

process. this month, 14 of december, some other chapters will be on track soon. and the admission processes will be going next year. these are very important steps forward. but procedural wise opening new chapters, upgrading custom union and deepening our economic relations and studying the these twice a year. these are very important decisions i will be taking. all my colleagues in europe, they agreed that turkey and e.u., have the same destiny of the members of our continent and turkish membership will be an asset. not on the e.u. to turkey, but also to the global peace. regarding the political problems and tensions around turkey, and in the neighborhood of the e.u.

we agreed on a joint action plan and according to the joint action plan the main joint approach is that this is a common issue. this is not a turkish issue, this is not a european issue. turkey and the e.u. are not responsible for this humanitarian crisis, but at the end of the day we have to act together how to deal with refugees crisis. again, we agree that in order to solve this crisis, there is a need i've solution in the syrian crisis. otherwise, even if we have a joint action plan, the refugees continue like this, turkey and the e.u. will be facing much big problems in the future. as i said in the meeting, in fact, they are paying a price of the failure of the system not to solve the problem of the syrian crisis at the earliest -- earlier stages of the crisis.

now we have this problem, turkey has two-point -- almost 2.2 million from syria, an additional of 300,000 from iraq. we have $28 billion until for you. this is only for the camps. we have in some towns there are more syrian refugees that is turkish citizens. until now we tried to share -- to take the responsibility on us, on our own, but now we, together with the e.u., we decided to have a mechanism, a joint action plan together, how to deal with this crisis. how to prevent new waves of refugees. how to manage the existing refugees crisis and how to work together. this 3 billion euro is not even to turkey. it is given to syrian refugees. and it is the main theory here is burden sharing.

and also resettlement and other practical issues will be consulted in the future. turkey is ready to cooperate with every country individually and with the e.u. in general to solve this humanitarian issue. to help victims of war, victims of state terror by assad regime. victims of derre day herb terroy this barbaric on, and we have to fight against terrorism which killed up sent syrians in ankara, in paris, in beirut in, many other places. so today we have reenergized our ascension process we have agreed to have a strategy against all instabilities in the neighborhoods of europe and also to work shoulder shoulder regarding the refugees crisis.

i am grateful to all of our colleagues for this very fruitful meeting and we will continue to work together in all these issue says, thank you. >> thank you very much. >> and that was the turkish prime minister. speaking about that deal that has been struck between the european union and turkey. just to go over some of the main points. the figure that had been mentioned previously is 3 billion euros, $3.2 million. very interesting what i said, he said that money is not given to turkey but it will be given to syrian refugees. that is what the money will go for. we are going to have more reaction to that story, of course, throughout the next few hours here on al jazeera. poles have now closed in burkina faso where people have been choosing their first any president in three decades as well as a new parliament. the election follows a year of

political turmoil after a popular uprising toppled the longstanding leaders blaise come compaore. we are more. >> reporter: voters in burkina faso cast ballots in what has been called the first truly open election in their nation's history. crowds of voters lined up at polling stations from daybreak. patiently waiting to vote. 5 1/2 million people have registered in more than 17,000 polling stations. and for the first time in 50 years, no one can predict who the winner will be. 14 candidates are running for the presidency. he is one of the front runners. >> translator: this is an important election for our country. it's the first time in nearly 50 years our people will have a civilian president. i call on people to come out and vote. >> reporter: the election also marks the end of the transitional period of the

blaise compaore's removal from office last year. he was one of africa's longest serving presidents before stepping down after a popular uprising. the vote was to have have been held last month but was delayed by a failed coup in september led by members of the elite presidential guard. with blaise compaore dominating politics for the last three decades, past elections in burkina faso have been marked by low voter turn out and apathy. many people did not feel the need to vote in elections they already considered won. and today, many burkina people are voting for the first time in their lives. 30-year-old is one of them. >> we didn't think in the past that the vote can change anything here. we grow up and we had the same president, we are voting and voting, and i am talking about people, and thinks don't -- things don't change.