TURKEY STARTS MILITARY DRILL AT SYRIAN BORDER
Hurriyet
Oct 4 2011
Turkey
The Turkish military stages an exercise near the Syrian border as
Prime Minister Erdogan signals sanctions are on the way against Syria
Turkey will lay out new sanctions against Syria soon, visiting Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says in the South Africa. AFP photo
Turkey will consider more sanctions against Syria as it cannot stand
idly by while Damascus shoots demonstrators, the country’s prime
minister said Tuesday, the same day the Turkish military announced
plans to conduct exercises near its southern border.
There can be no justification for killing defenseless people, Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday in Pretoria at a joint
press conference with Deputy South African President Kgalema Motlanthe.
Stepping up pressure on embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,
Erdogan said he would lay out Turkey’s plans for sanctions against
Damascus after he visits a Syrian refugee camp near the two countries’
common border in the coming days.
“Regarding sanctions, we will make an assessment and announce our road
map after the visit to [the southern province of] Hatay, setting out
the steps,” Erdogan told reporters, adding that he expected to visit
the region on the weekend or at the start of next week.
The prime minister is expected to announce new sanctions during
the trip.
Turkey has begun partially implementing some sanctions, the prime
minister said, but added that it had chosen not to announce them
officially because of the urgency of the matter.
The plan for more sanctions heralds a further deterioration in the
previously friendly relations between Ankara and Damascus since the
start of al-Assad’s crackdown on protesters. More than 7,500 Syrians
have taken refuge in camps established in Hatay, having fled the
violence at home.
Erdogan said they had an advanced friendship with al-Assad but added
that the Syrian president had betrayed the principles underlying
the friendship.
“What is important to us is the Syrian people. The freedoms [in Syria]
are disregarded [by the government],” said Erdogan, adding that
al-Assad was repeating his father Hafez al-Assad’s violent campaign
against Hama and Homs.
“We never expected that,” said Erdogan.
Military exercises on Syrian border
Turkey’s military exercises are likely to coincide with Erdogan
planned visit to Hatay. The military said in a statement on its website
Tuesday that the maneuvers would take place in the southern province
between Oct. 5 and 13. Turkey has earlier said it had stopped two
ships carrying arms to Syria.
The aim of the exercises is to test “the mobilization and the
communication between the ministries, public institutions and Turkish
army in case of a war,” said the military.
At least 2,700 have been killed in the crackdown in Syria, according
to the United Nations. Demonstrators have begun to demand some form
of international protection that stops short of Libya-style Western
military intervention. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen
recently told daily Hurriyet that the conditions in the country were
not sufficient to warrant an international intervention.
Compiled from AP, Reuters and AA stories by the Daily News staff.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress