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ANKARA: Turkey Starts Military Drill At Syrian Border

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  • ANKARA: Turkey Starts Military Drill At Syrian Border

    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
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