15/08/2012 Washing away the blood in #Syria

With the acrid stench of disinfectant in the air, a woman, expressionless and intent on finishing this daily task as quickly as possible, sluices the last puddle of diluted blood off the hospital steps and onto the sidewalk.

For her this is routine. The pale faces of medical staff who for the past hour had been grimacing with intense concentration and inner frustration were close behind her.

“You cannot show our faces on television - you can’t reveal what we are doing here,” one doctor told me.

Two children under five years of age were dead and another - barely alive - had been sent to Turkey in a battered old car. Seven adults were seriously wounded. The hysteria of wailing relatives and children was now gone. The uncomfortable silence was deafening.

The stark reality echoing now in my mind as I write this a week later is that it was nothing unusual - it just happened to be caught on our camera.

Daily trauma

For months we have known about the medics wanting their work to be kept secret for fear they will be targeted in the same way that a rebel fighter could expect.

It had been one snapshot in the chain of daily trauma, the aftermath of what we all hear referred to as “indiscriminate shelling”. The shells from long-range artillery had landed on a village near al-Atarib this time.

A two-year-old boy was lying lifeless on one of two beds in the tiny, ill-equipped emergency room.

The doctors had moved on to another patient after at least ten minutes of CPR, the hand pumped respirator now at work elsewhere.

The toddler’s mother was being restrained in the other bed as a nurse applied bandages to her face. On the floor were injured men and women being checked over in some sort of triage process. And outside this claustrophobic mayhem on the reception room floor, another young child took his final breath.

I have no doubt that no one crammed into those 60 minutes of excruciating attempts to save lives could be described as a revolutionary. They were all civilians. And nobody wanted to talk about freedom or human rights.

There was just a question barked in my direction: “Where is the help that the outside world keeps promising?” Or words to that effect.

‘Guns, not medicine’

Earlier that day, the same question was put to me by a brigadier-general who defected five months ago from his post as head of intelligence for a region that included Aleppo city.

But the question was aimed in a different direction. He wanted more guns, bigger ones. And much more ammunition.

No mention of humanitarian assistance.

Was he a true revolutionary? Well, he says he is now. But a year ago, he was actively at work trying to crush the uprising.

Where do the civilians stand in all of this?

Certainly the majority of the masses who have fled Aleppo and many of those who remain there would not candidly have numbered themselves as actively supporting the uprising months ago.

Top of wish list

Guns, heavier weaponry, bullets, shells and rockets are at the top of the wish list for those fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. Second comes medical personnel, field hospitals, medicine and equipment.

Some of the latter we know have been getting into Syria, mostly through the smuggling routes on Syria’s borders.

Primarily, those routes run through Turkey. It’s a trickle of support, not a surge, though.

My line of thought fast forwards to Istanbul, and coverage of Hillary Clinton’s Saturday visit that packed in separate talks with the Turkish foreign minister, the prime minister, the president, a selection of refugees, activists, prominent opposition members in exile and the Syrian National Council.

One headline to emerge from those meetings was that Turkey and the US had “agreed to accelerate preparations for the fall of the Syrian president”.

Meaning?

The setting up of a bilateral team to help the opposition while trying to work out which part of a splintered political spread of people could be onside. Or, better still, have some semblance of unity.

Also, providing aid to fleeing refugees and planning contingencies for worst-case scenarios that include a chemical weapons attack.

No-fly zone

Questions put at the obligatory joint news conference raised the idea of a no-fly zone - not for the first time.

It wasn’t ruled out by Clinton, who more than made up for any perceived differences with her NATO ally by repeated gushing thanks for Turkey’s costly operation to provide an undeclared safe haven for more than 55,000 registered refugees and the Free Syrian Army.

Plus an assurance that the US would stand by Turkey in its fight with the PKK, the Kurdish Workers’ Party, to ensure it would get no foothold in Northern Syria.

And there was, of course, the announcement of another $5.5 million in humanitarian aid.

Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, also said a no-fly zone was still on the table, despite the knowledge that Russia and China would be likely to veto any such move.

Clinton said it was going to require more in-depth analysis by the joint working group. It being an election year in the United States, it is unlikely that any unilateral action will be taken. ”Contingency”, “operational planning” and “co-ordination” were the buzz words on  Sunday.

Before leaving Istanbul to the surreal feeling of London in Olympic euphoria, my mind went back to the hospital. Political reality is hard to describe to those bereaved or maimed by a war for which initially they had no vested interest.

Daily trauma

I called it a snapshot in a chain of daily trauma. It’s probably more aptly described as a perpetual horror story that, for now, has no end. And it’s playing out every day all over Syria, much of it unseen by media.

The images of the doctors’ pale faces and the children who died take an indelible place in a collage of memory from war zones I have worked in over the past three decades.

Usually, that recurring universal question, where is the help from outside, is eventually answered by meaningful humanitarian aid, with or without military intervention.

For Syria, it’s much more complicated.

And I’m pretty sure that when I return there again soon, I will still stumble to placate or calm the next questioner even more than the last time.

The UN is unable to make a move as long as Russian and Chinese objections continue to exist, and the states that want Assad out of power are engaged in talk of an endgame that doesn’t appear to have been worked out.

And the cleaner in the hospital will still be going through her daily routine of washing away the bloodshed.

Follow Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmon’s on Twitter @SimmJazeera.

09/08/12

Political tensions between Ankara and Tehran are growing over the conflict in Syria, with Turkey warning Iran to cease blaming Ankara for the Arab republic’s violence while also calling on the Islamic republic to stand against Damascus’ alleged killings.

Recent remarks by Iranian officials could “harm not only the rooted relations of Iran and Turkey, but the diplomacy Iran conducts in the international arena,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told reporters yesterday before departing for a visit to Myanmar. 

His statement came one day after holding talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, to whom Davutoğlu conveyed Ankara’s unease over Iranian Chief of Staff Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi’s suggestion that Turkey was involved in the bloodshed in Syria and accusation that Ankara, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, was assisting the “war-waging goals of America.” 

The Iranian general’s comments had come as Salehi flew to Turkey on Aug. 7 to solicit Turkish help to effect the release of 48 Iranian pilgrims kidnapped in Syria over the weekend. 

Although the comments were not made by Iran’s leaders, they were made by individuals holding official posts, Davutoğlu said. “We would expect these officials, both in Turkey and Iran, to think a few times before making any comments. Our position on the issue was explained to Mr. Salehi in a frank and friendly manner,” Davutoğlu said.

“The Syrian regime bears the whole responsibility” for the tension between Iran and Turkey, Davutoğlu said, adding that Tehran should not try to pin responsibility for Syria’s violence on other countries. “It is our right to expect Iran to assume a constructive attitude in the face of Muslim blood being spilled in Syria during the holy month of Ramadan.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also issued a warning after Firouzabadi’s statement, saying it was “worrying and regrettable” while reminding Iran that Turkey had supported it in the international arena with regard to its ongoing nuclear program.

“When no one else was by its side, Turkey was the country that stood by Iran in spite of everything. Turkey was also the country that defended [Iran’s right to] nuclear energy,” Erdoğan said, addressing members of his party at a fast-breaking iftar dinner Aug. 7.

Salehi, meanwhile, said that although Turkey and Iran had different views on some issues, Iran’s government wanted to promote relations with Ankara. 

The differences between the two countries are not having a negative impact on relations, Salehi told Iranian state TV channel IRINN on Aug. 8 while asking some Iranian officials to consider different aspects of the issue in the interests of maintaining an environment of international friendship.

Ultimately, political issues are different from humanitarian issues, Davutoğlu said, noting that Turkey was making efforts toward the release of the abducted Iranian pilgrims in Syria.

Salehi also said some “retired” members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and army were among the 48 Iranians taken hostage in Syria by rebels over the weekend. The foreign minister, however, denied rebels’ allegations that the Iranians had been on a military mission, saying the former military personnel had been exclusively on a religious pilgrimage to Damascus when they were seized Aug. 4.
 
“A number of the [hostages] are retired members of the guards and the army. Some others were from other ministries,” Salehi was quoted as saying to reporters as he flew back from Turkey.

AFP PHOTO/ADEM ALTANADEM ALTAN/AFP/GettyImages

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi (L) and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu pose for a photo before a meeting in Ankara, on August 7, 2012. Turkey can play a “major role” in freeing 48 Iranian pilgrims abducted in Syria because of its links with the Syrian opposition, Iran’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.

08/08/2012

Turkey warned Iran “in a frank and friendly manner” against blaming Ankara for violence in Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Wednesday, a day after holding talks with his Iranian counterpart.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi flew to neighbouring Turkey on Tuesday seeking to mend a relationship sorely strained by the Syrian uprising and to secure Turkish help for 48 Iranians kidnapped in Syria on Saturday.

Turkey was incensed by comments this week by Iran’s top general Hassan Firouzabadi, in which he blamed Turkey for the bloodshed in Syria and accused Ankara, alongside Saudi Arabia and Qatar, of helping the “war-raging goals of America.”

“Such statements have the potential to harm Iran as well,” Davutoglu told reporters at Ankara airport before departing on a visit to Myanmar.

Although the comments were not made by Iran’s leaders, they were made by individuals holding official posts, he said.

“We would expect these officials, both in Turkey and Iran, to think a few times before making any comments. Our position on the issue was explained to Mr Salehi in a frank and friendly manner,” Davutoglu added.

Blaming Turkey or others would be of no benefit for any country, he said.

The once close ties between the Middle East’s two non-Arab powers have been ravaged by events in Syria. Turkey has demanded President Bashar al-Assad quit, but Iran supports his suppression of an uprising Tehran says is backed by regional and Western enemies.

Davutoglu told Salehi Turkey would try to help free the 48 Iranians seized by rebels on the road from Damascus airport on Saturday.

As Syrian crisis deepens, Turkey is confronted with the risk of a PKK-controlled Kurdish state in Turkey’s immediate neighborhood. Ankara’s fear is not a Greater Kurdistan, but a PKK controlled semi-state, analysts say.

Ankara’s support for a regime change in Syria has started to backfire, threatening Turkey’s own national security, with Syrian Kurdish groups forming a de facto state in the north of Syria.

Turkish media reported last week that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), with its alleged Syrian branch the Democratic Union Party (PYD), took control of several provinces on Turkey’s border. Several reports published photos of Kurdish flags and posters of the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan flying from buildings in northern Syria towns.

“We will not allow the formation of a terrorist structuring near our border,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Turkish media on Sunday. “We reserve every right…. No matter if it is al-Qaeda or PKK we would consider it a matter of national security and take every measure,” said Davutoglu.

Alarm bells ringing

The PKK’s growing influence in Syria border has alarmed Turkey, prompting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to convene a security summit with senior government and security officials. Following the meeting, he accused the Syrian regime of allowing the PKK a free hand in the north of the country and warned that Ankara would not hesitate to strike.

“Recent developments have come as an unpleasant surprise to Turkish officials,” Deniz Zeyrek, foreign policy columnist of the liberal left daily newspaper Radikal, told DW. “When Syrian Kurdish groups distanced themselves from the Assad regime, Turkey welcomed this development. But Ankara did not expect these Kurdish groups would soon unite around the PKK-affiliated political groups,” he said.

Turkey has been fighting against the PKK since 1984, and the conflict has so far claimed some 45,000 lives. The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Ankara and by much of the international community, enjoyed the support of Damascus during the 80’s and 90’s. Since early 2000, the PKK has been effectively using its bases in the mountainous region of northern Iraq. With its growing influence and strength in Syria’s Kurdish populated regions, the PKK is now seen working toward an autonomous administration, or even an independent “Western Kurdistan” in Syrian territories.

Autonomy in Turkey

The recent developments have also sparked stronger demands by Turkish Kurds from Ankara and further increased tension in Turkey’s southeast region.

Diyarbakir Major Osman Baydemir, an influential Kurdish politician in Turkey, recently called for a new political and administrative status for Kurd. “The only way ahead is the creation of autonomous Kurdistan regions in Turkey,www.ekurd.net in Syria and in Iran, just as the one in Iraq,” Baydemir said. “For sure there will soon be an autonomous Kurdistan in Syria,” he stressed, suggesting the abolition of borders among these entities, the creation of a customs union, and a new political partnership with the regional countries, including Turkey.

Syria is home to some 2 million Kurds. In Iraq, the Kurdish population is around 5 million and in Iran, 5.5 million. Turkey has the largest Kurdish population, estimated to be around 15 million.

For years, Turkey’s Kurds were deprived of their basic political and cultural rights. In the course of its EU membership process, particularly in the last decade, Turkey has expanded political and cultural rights for its Kurdish citizens. But Ankara strictly opposes demands for Kurdish autonomy. Turkish public opinion is highly suspicious of Kurdish movements in the region and see them as a threat to Turkey’s territorial integrity.

Deployment on the border

As concerns grow in Turkey about a PKK-controlled Kurdish state in Syria, the Turkish military has stepped up its deployment on the border.

Despite Turkey’s moves, analysts do not foresee an immediate military cross-border operation which would further complicate the crisis. Ankara’s first option is to use all diplomatic and political channels to isolate the PKK and the affiliated PYD group in Syria.

According to some Turkish analysts, the growing concern of Turkish officials is not so much the prospect of a Greater Kurdistan, which they see as unlikely, but the PKK’s increasing role and strength in Syria.

“Turkish officials are saying that they will not remain silent about a Kurdish administration in Syria under the control of the PKK,” columnist Zeyrek said. “But they say that Turkey will establish a dialogue with a possible new Kurdish entity in Syria, resembling the regional government in Iraq.”

For years Turkey has feared the creation of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq and has tried to prevent Kurdish groups there from forming an autonomous regional government. But soon after the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) was established and gained international acknowledgement after it democratically adopted the Iraqi constitution, the Turkish government changed its policy.

Today, the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, is an important political ally for Turkey, not only with his efforts to eliminate the threat by the PKK but also on the Syria crisis.

‘Dead-end street’

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will visit Erbil on Wednesday and meet Barzani, where he is expected to ask the Iraqi Kurdish leader to use his influence on Syrian Kurds and persuade them not to cooperate with the PKK.

According to Cengiz Candar, a senior foreign policy analyst, Turkey’s efforts are like “a journey in a dead-end street.”

“Turkey is trying to solve its own Kurdish problem, as well the Syrian Kurdish problem, with the help of Massoud Barzani. This is mission impossible,” Candar wrote in his column in Turkey’s Hurriyet daily. “The Turkish state is deceiving itself and public opinion.”

According to Candar, Kurds will have a “new status” with the formation of a new state in the post-Assad era and there are suggestions that Barzani will come to an implicit agreement with the PKK in order to maintain his influence in the region.

“This process of change in Syria is inevitable,” Candar said. “And if the Turkish government wants to turn this change into an advantage for itself, it should first take genuine steps to solving its own Kurdish problem.”

Author: Ayhan Simsek, Editor: Rob Mudge

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos

9 March 2012 –

Rescued journalist tells of being abandoned in tunnel as China urges government and rebel to end all acts of violence

guardian.co.uk, Saturday 3 March 2012 22.09 GMT

Cemetery workers prepare graves for three Free Syrian Army fighters at Idlib in northern Syria. Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/AP

has called the violence in Syria “a crime against humanity” on the scale of the 1990s bloodshed in the Balkans, as a Red Cross convoy was once again barred from entering the Homs suburb of Baba Amr.

The comment by Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu follows similar remarks from the EU on Friday, which called for the documentation of war crimes in Syria.

“No government, no authority, under no circumstances, can endorse such a total massacre of its own people,” Davutoglu said. “The international community must speak louder. The lack of international consensus is giving Syria the courage to continue.”

The criticism came at the end of a week in which the UK and France closed their embassies in Syria, and China and Russia appeared to shift position in calling for President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to admit UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos.

“The situation in the field seems to resemble Sarajevo or Srebrenica. This seems to be the way we are heading,” Davutoglu said at a joint news conference with Giulio Terzi, Italy’s foreign minister. “We believe that diplomatic pressure on the Assad regime must be increased. We say this not only from the point of view of the EU. We believe all international institutions must do this.”

China urged the government and the rebels to immediately end all acts of violence, especially against civilians. A foreign ministry statement urged both sides to “launch an inclusive political dialogue with no preconditions” under the mediation of former UN secretary- eneral Kofi Annan, the newly appointed UN-Arab League envoy on the Syria crisis, .

On Friday, current UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said he had received “grisly reports” that Assad’s troops were executing, imprisoning and torturing people in Homs. Syrian forces continued to pound the battered city and authorities handed over the bodies of two journalists killed in Baba Amr last month – including Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times – to diplomats in Damascus.

Meanwhile, the wounded French journalist Edith Bouvier described for the first time how she feared her attempt to escape from Homs had ended inside a dark, three-kilometre tunnel that rebels were using to supply the besieged district of Baba Amr when the Syrian army bombarded its exit.

Bouvier was abandoned, taped to a stretcher with a broken leg, as rebels and dozens of wounded headed back to the neighbourhood. “One of them placed his Kalashnikov on me. He put his hand on my head and said a prayer. It wasn’t very reassuring. Then he left,” Bouvier told Le Figaro newspaper, for which she was working in Syria. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. Was the exit blocked? Were Syrian soldiers going to enter? I wanted to run away, before remembering that I was taped to a stretcher.” Bouvier and French photographer William Daniels, who stayed with her, were finally rescued by a rebel who drove down the tunnel on a motorbike.

Concern was mounting for civilians in freezing conditions in battered Baba Amr, where trucks from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were still blocked from entering. “The ICRC and Syrian Red Crescent are not yet in Baba Amr today. We are still in negotiations with authorities. It is important that we enter today,” ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan said.

Anti-government activists said they feared troops were keeping out the ICRC to prevent aid workers witnessing a massacre. UN chief Ban blamed Damascus for the fate of civilians. “The brutal fighting has trapped civilians in their homes, without food, heat or electricity or medical care; without any chance of evacuating the wounded or burying the dead. People have been reduced to melting snow for drinking water. This atrocious assault is all the more appalling for having been waged by the government itself, systematically attacking its own people.”

Bashar Ja’afari, Syria’s UN ambassador, said Ban’s remarks included “extremely virulent rhetoric which confines itself to slandering a government based on reports, opinions or hearsay”.

Elsewhere in the country, Syrian state news agency Sana said a suicide car bomber in the town of Deraa, near the border with Jordan, had killed two people and wounded 20. Residents claimed seven people had been killed, and anti-Assad activists denied the attack was a suicide bombing. Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said anti-Assad fighters had earlier killed six soldiers and wounded nine in al-Herak.

The referendum takes place amid regular anti-Assad demonstrations

The Syrian government is holding a national referendum on a new constitution, amid continuing violent unrest and a boycott by the opposition.

The new constitution calls for a multi-party parliamentary election within three months.

The opposition has dismissed Sunday’s vote as a farce and demands President Bashar al-Assad stand down.

The vote comes amid ongoing violence, with activists saying more than 89 people died across Syria on Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, said at least two people were killed in fresh fighting on Sunday.

‘Laughable’

The government has pressed ahead with organising the referendum despite the unrest, setting up more than 13,000 polling stations for 14.6m voters.

Voting began at 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT) and polling stations are due to stay open for 12 hours.

State television has been holding discussions about the new document, which allows for more opposition to Mr Assad’s Baath Party, and telling people how they can vote.

However, the constitution has been rejected out of hand by the opposition.

One group described the new constitution as fraudulent and the referendum as a farce.

It pointed out that the regime had never respected the old constitution, which enshrines freedom of speech and peaceful demonstrations and bans torture.

The BBC’s Jim Muir in neighbouring Beirut says how the vote can plausibly be held in the current situation remains to be seen.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu echoed this view at a news conference in Istanbul, asking: “On one hand you say you are holding a referendum and on the other you are attacking with tank fire on civilian areas.

“You still think the people will go to a referendum the next day in the same city?”

The US has dismissed the referendum as “laughable”.

Friends of Syria

The Observatory said Saturday’s deaths included 24 civilians in the embattled city of Homs and that 23 government soldiers were killed in clashes with rebel groups across the country.

The Red Cross has been trying to evacuate more people trapped in Homs’s Baba Amr suburb but admitted it had made no progress on Saturday.

Among those it is trying to help are two injured Western journalists, Edith Bouvier and Paul Conroy. It also wants to retrieve the bodies of another two journalists, Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik, who were killed last week.

Hundreds of armed rebels from the Free Syrian Army are holding out in the suburb.

Meanwhile, international pressure is mounting on Mr Assad to end his government’s 11-month crackdown on opponents.

Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general who has been appointed the UN and Arab League’s envoy to Syria, called for all parties to co-operate in finding a peaceful solution to the crisis.

On Friday, a meeting of the “Friends of Syria” group was held in the Tunisian capital, Tunis.

Delegates from 70 countries issued a declaration calling on the Damascus government to end violence immediately, allow humanitarian access, and permit the delivery of relief supplies.

The UN estimated in January that 5,400 people had been killed in the conflict. Activists say the death toll now is more than 7,300.

The Syrian regime restricts access to foreign journalists and casualty figures cannot be verified.

Speaking on the sidelines of a conference on Somalia in London, he said at the talks in Tunis, “the international community will say with a loud voice that this oppression has to stop…”

“Our aim is for the international community to raise its voice against the violence in Syria which is now not only directed against the innocent people but the Syrians have turned their guns against journalists.”

He said there was general agreement that a follow-up meeting should be held in Istanbul but that this would be decided for sure in Tunis. He gave no date.

Western and Arab countries meeting in Tunis are expected to demand that Syrian forces implement an immediate ceasefire to allow relief supplies to reach desperate civilians in bombarded cities such as Homs. (Reporting by Jon Hemming; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

Intense gunfire rings out at Syria-Turkey frontier as Damascus moves to root out opposition in Syrian border village.

Uprising turns into armed conflict

Clashes near the Syria-Turkey border that killed over a dozen is straining their already tense relationship.

Syrian army defectors killed seven government forces on Tuesday in retaliation an attack that killed 11 civilians, according to activist groups and media reports.

Government forces killed at least two people during a funeral procession in the city of Idlib where thousands of people participated in honoring 11 killed earlier in the day.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime combed through villages near the Turkish border and open fired “indiscriminately,” the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, killing a near dozen. Separate attacks throughout country were reported on the same day.

While the Associated Press reported 28 dead in multiple attacks throughout the region, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria placed the number at 34. The activist group said 20 people died in Idlib, eight in Hama, four in Homs and two in Daraa.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said the civilian and defector death toll in Syria have surpassed 5,000 as of Monday, a figure the Syrian ambassador to the UN has rejected.

The Free Syrian Army military defectors have found refuge in Turkey, in addition to thousands of Syrian refugees who have crossed the border, the AP reported:

“Military defectors known as the Free Syrian Army have found shelter alongside thousands of Syrian refugees on the Turkish side, making use of mountainous terrain, local smuggling networks and support among villagers on the Syrian side to stage cross-border attacks.”

Relations between Turkey and Syria have become strained since Assad’s brutal crackdown against protesters and hit new lows this week when Turkey announced it would reroute trade routes to bypass Syria.

Syria’s state news agency accused Turkey of harboring rebels who orchestrated an attack across the border and preparing a Western-led intervention, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Turkey took a more aggressive stance against Assad in recent weeks and announced Ankara would be ready for possible military intervention if violence continues.

“We hope that a military intervention will never be necessary,” Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in an interview with television broadcaster Kanal 24. “However, the Syrian regime has to find a way of making peace with its own people to eliminate this option. If the oppression continues, Turkey is ready for any scenario.”

Turkey joined members of the international community in recent months in condemning the violent crackdowns and imposed sanctions alongside the European Union, US and the Arab League. 

“No regime can survive by killing or jailing,” Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in November. “No one can build a future over the blood of the oppressed.”

TURKEY has frozen financial assets and cut strategic links with Damascus to ratchet up pressure on the regime of Bashar al-Assad to end its violence against protesters, following the Arab League’s decision to impose sanctions on Sunday.

The Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said Turkey would also suspend loans, block the delivery of weapons and military equipment and suspend co-operation with Syria until a new government is in place.

Turkey had drawn closer to Syria in recent years, but lost patience after encouraging reform rather than repression in response to this year’s Arab Spring uprising, which has killed at least 3500 in Syria, according to the United Nations.

”We will always support the Syrian people and until recently we opposed the attempts to isolate the regime,” Mr Davutoglu said. ”But regrettably Syria has now become a problem for the region and there is no exit from this crisis.” It was the ”end of the road” for Mr Assad’s government.

”Every bullet fired, every bombed mosque, has eliminated the legitimacy of the Syrian leadership and has widened the gap between us,” he said.

The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, last week became the second regional leader to publicly urge Mr Assad to step down, after Jordan’s King Abdullah, reminding him of the fate of Hitler and Muammar Gaddafi.

Other sanctions include a ban on transactions with Syria’s government and central bank and measures against prominent businessmen who support the regime. But Turkey would not do anything to harm ordinary Syrians, Mr Davutoglu said.

Syria is reliant on Turkey for trade and Turkey is Syria’s second largest export market. Turkey has hinted at a buffer zone on its border with Syria in the event of a refugee crisis, but does not appear to be considering military action.

1 December 2011 WASHINGTON — The United States on Wednesday praised Turkey for its leadership on Syria after Ankara said it would impose sanctions on the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

“The leadership shown by Turkey in response to the brutality and violation of the fundamental rights of the Syrian people will isolate the Assad regime,” said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.

The move, by one of Syria’s main trading partners, will “send a strong message to Assad and his circle that their actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” Vietor said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had announced an immediate ban on transactions with the Syrian government and its central bank as well a freeze on Syrian government assets in Turkey.

Similar measures would also be taken against “some well-known businessmen who are strong advocates of the Syrian regime,” he added.

Ankara’s measures come after Arab foreign ministers agreed on Sunday a list of sweeping sanctions designed to cripple the Assad regime, which has so far defied international pressure to halt a bloody crackdown on protests.

“The measures announced by the Turkish government today will undoubtedly increase the pressure on the Syrian regime,” said Vietor.

“We continue to call on other governments to join the chorus of condemnation and pressure against the Assad regime so that the peaceful and democratic aspirations of the Syrian people can be realized.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week urged Assad, his one-time ally, to step down, becoming the second regional leader to do so after Jordan’s King Abdullah.