Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had warned in late July that Ankara could strike the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) armed group inside Syria.
He also stated that the strike is “not even a matter of discussion, it is a given.”
Posted by truther
After Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced new rules of engagement, Turkey deployed missile batteries, rocket launchers, and anti-aircraft weapons close to Syria’s border.
About 30 military trucks arrived in Iskenderun. From there, they moved toward Syria’s border 30 miles away.
Armored military vehicles also headed for Sanliurfa and Reyhanli in Southern Turkey’s Hatay Province.
On June 29, Reuters headlined “Syrian tanks amass near Turkish border, FSA (Free Syrian Army) general says.”
According to General Mustafa al-Sheikh, Syria deployed around 170 tanks north of Aleppo within 19 miles of Turkey’s border. No independent confirmation was provided.
Speaking to Reuters by phone, al-Sheikh said:
Tanks from the 17th Mechanized Division “are now at the Infantry School. They’re either preparing to move to the border to counter the Turkish deployment or attack the rebellious (Syrian) towns and villages in and around the border zone north of Aleppo.”
On Thursday, Turkey belligerently sent troops and weapons close to Syria’s border. Damascus perhaps reacted defensively.
Expect no imminent attack by either side. Ankara won’t act without orders from Washington. It hasn’t come, but could given escalating violence and rhetoric.
Saber rattling suggests public opinion is being conditioned for war. On June 28, Ankara’s National Security Council (MSK) said:
“Turkey will act with determination and make use of all its rights within international law against this hostile act.”
It referred to Syria downing its aircraft. It provocatively entered its territory low and fast. Damascus was blamed for Ankara’s belligerence. Expect more provocations to follow.
Meanwhile, Mossad-connected DEBKAfile (DF) headlined “Saudi forces mass on Jordanian, Iraqi borders. Turkey, Syria reinforce strength,” saying:
“(H)eavy Saudi troop movements (headed) toward the Jordanian and Iraqi borders (with Syria) overnight and up until Friday morning….after King Abdulah put the Saudi military on high alert for joining an anti-Assad offensive….”
Units include tanks, missiles, special forces and anti-air batteries. Two units were deployed. “One will safeguard Jordan’s King Abdullah against potential Syrian or Iranian reprisals from Syria or Iraq.”
“The second will cut north through Jordan to enter southeastern Syrian, where a security zone will be established around the towns of Deraa, Deir al-Zour and Abu Kemal – all centers of the anti-Assad rebellion.”
DF said Western forces reported Jordan “on war alert.”
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and other regional states know Syria poses no threat. If confirmed, deploying Saudi troops to Syria’s border escalates tensions. It may also reflect belligerent intent.
On June 28, Assad was interviewed on Iran’s IRIB channel 4. He blamed Turkey for inciting violence. He’s hopeful military action won’t follow.
Libya’s model isn’t “a solution to be copied because it took (the country) from one situation into a much worse one. We all now see how the Libyan people are paying the price,” he said.
“The policies of the Turkish officials lead to the killing and bloodshed of the Syrian people,” he added.
He said reports about Iranian and Hezbollah forces aiding Syria are false.
“This is a joke that we hear many times in order to show that a rift has been created within the army and that therefore there is not an army.”
Pointing fingers at Washington, he said:
“The colonialist nature of the West has not changed. From the colonialist standpoint, regional countries should not move according to their national interests and if any country moves against their (Western) values and interests, they say no, like what happened in the case of Iran’s nuclear program.”
“Western states are opposed to Iran’s access to nuclear knowhow; they are more fearful of Iran’s expertise in the nuclear field than what they claim to be a nuclear bomb.”
He also called insurgents “gangs of mercenaries and criminals.” Outside forces are directing them.
For them and their sponsors, “reforms are not important, since the very forces that claimed (a lack of) reforms were the problem. They never benefited from them…all they wanted was (continued) unrest.”
He heavily criticized Arab League states. Their policies harm their own people. They supported NATO’s war on Libya.
“Syria was the only country that opposed the move and therefore we had to pay the price for this policy.”
“Consequently, immediately following our decision,” Western states “acted through the Arab League to put the attack on Syria on their agenda.”
“This has been the Arab League reality in the past, as it is at present.”
He acknowledged that Western-instigated violence ravages Syria. Thousands of ceasefire violations occurred. He has no information about planned military attacks. However, some countries “are making efforts to guide the situation toward” one.
“The West expresses support for the Annan Plan on the one hand, while on the other hand, they seek a plan to overthrow (the government).”
“This is the same double standard (approach) and political hypocrisy.”
“Westerners speak of human rights but give Israel weapons to kill Palestinians. This Western hypocrisy has not changed and will not change.”
He holds “outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist gangs” responsible for Syrian violence. He’ll continue confronting it responsibly.
On June 30, Hillary Clinton and Sergei Lavrov will discuss Syria in Geneva. Expect no breakthroughs. Washington wants regime change.
Moscow wants Syrians alone to decide who’ll lead them. Lavrov and other Russian officials have been firm opposing foreign intervention. Expect neither side to yield on Saturday.
DF sounded an ominous warning, saying:
“The failure of (US/Russian) talks “would spell a worsening of the Syrian crisis and precipitate Western-Arab military intervention, which according to military sources in the Gulf is scheduled for launch Saturday, June 30.”
Determining when DF is right or wrong isn’t easy. The above comment sounds like bluster. It’s also about conditioning public opinion for war. Events on the ground bear watching.
A Syrian minister on Wednesday was quoted as saying his country’s forces may have mistaken the Turkish plane they shot down for an Israeli one.
Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoebi told the Turkish news channel A Haber in a telephone interview that Damascus did “not want a crisis between Turkey and Syria.”
Al-Zoebi said Turkish and Israeli fighter jets were mostly US-made, which may have led the Syrian forces to mistake it for an Israeli jet.
However, military observers note that Israel retired its last F-4 Phantom jet – the type of jet shot down by Syria –- in 2004.
Turkey warned Syria on Tuesday to keep its troops away from the countries’ troubled border or risk an armed response, an angry reply to the downing of the Turkish reconnaissance plane last week.
The warning came after Turkey deployed its own forces along its Syrian frontier on Wednesday.
However, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan clearly stated on Wednesday that Ankara had no intention of attacking Syria.
The statement was a clear drawing back from bellicose rhetoric earlier in the week, wherin Erdogan clearly defined Syria as an enemy and warned of consequences over the downing of the Turkish jet.
Analysts say both nations, former allies whose relations have progressively soured as Syrias ongoing ‘Arab Spring’ revolt has drawn out, are seeking ways to reduce potentially dangerous tensions.
UN officials say Syrian president Bashar al-Assad‘s bloody crackdown on the now-16 month popular uprising against his regime has killed some 10,000 people, mostly civilians.
Diplomats, however, say the actual number is likely much higher.
Meanwhile, UN special envoy Kofi Annan has invited the five major powers – Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States – as well as Turkey, the European Union, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar to a round-table discussion on the Syria crisis.
The call came just one day after Assad told his newly sworn on cabinet that Syria was at war with its own citizens.
“When we’re in a state of war, all of our politics has to be concentrated on winning this war,” he said of the popular-uprising-turned-civil-war rocking Damascus.
The Turkish military mobilized large numbers of reinforcements from its eastern provinces to the Syrian border on Tuesday, amid rising tension with Damascus, after the downing by Syria of a Turkish Air Force jet on Friday, Turkish media reported.
Large numbers of Turkish troops — including at least 15 long-range artillery pieces and tanks – moved to the Syrian frontier from the eastern city of Diyarbakir. A video published by the Turkish Cihan News Agency showed Turkish tanks being transported by carrier trucks toward the frontier.
The mobilization followed statements by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the Turkish military will respond to any future violation of its border by Syrian military elements.
“As awe-inspiring as Turkey’s friendship is, Turkey’s wrath is equally awe-inspiring,” Erdogan told the Turkish parliament on Tuesday.
“The rules of engagement of the Turkish Armed Forces have changed,” Erdogan said. “Any military element that approaches the Turkish border from Syria posing a security risk and danger will be regarded as a threat and treated as a military target.”
Erdogan closed his remarks with an especially harsh condemnation of Syrian President Bashar Assad: “Turkey and the Turkish people will continue to provide all support until the people of Syria have been saved from this tyrannical, murderous, bloody dictator and his gang.”
Opposition sources in Syria reported at least 86 civilians were killed by Assad troops on Tuesday.
The father of one of the two missing pilots who were shot down in Friday’s incident told Turkish newspaper Hürriyet Daily News that he opposed Turkey going to war over his son.
“It is not appropriate for a country to go to war over a pilot, an airplane or 50 airplanes,” Ali Erton said. He said he was aware of the risks his son took as a military pilot, but added “what matters is that my son serves his country.”
NATO’s North Atlantic Council condemned Tuesday Syria’s downing of the Turkish jet on Friday, but did not recommend military action for the act, as Ankara has requested.
At an emergency meeting, requested by Turkey and chaired by NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the council clearly denounced Syria’s aggression “in the strongest terms,” calling the shooting down of a Turkish jet over the Mediterranean “unacceptable.”
“It is another example of the Syrian disregard for international norms, peace and security, and human life,” said the NATO chief, expressing his solidarity with Turkey, but making no mention of retaliatory action.
During the meeting, Turkey briefed the North Atlantic Council on the downing Friday of its unarmed RF-4E reconnaissance jet over the Mediterranean Sea. It crashed into the sea a mile inside international waters. The two pilots are still missing.
The discussions were held under Article 4 of NATO’s founding treaty, which allows a NATO member, in this case Turkey, to request consultations if its security has been threatened, officials and diplomats said.
Turkey had asked the meeting be held under article 5, which stipulates an attack on any member country is an attack on all of NATO.
Rasmussen said NATO was following the situation closely. “I certainly expect that such an incident will not happen again,” he said.
The secretary-general has also repeatedly said that the alliance would need a clear international mandate, and regional support, before it embarked on a mission in Syria. Last year, NATO launched air attacks on Libyan government targets only after receiving a mandate from the UN Security Council, along with backing from the Arab League.
Syria said the downing was an accident, caused by the “automatic response” of an officer commanding an anti-aircraft position who saw an unidentified jet flying at high speed and low altitude.
But Erdogan said Syria shot down the unarmed plane in international airspace in a “deliberate” and “hostile” act and without warning. He said border violations in the region were not uncommon and that Syrian helicopters violated Turkish airspace five times recently, without Turkish response.
On Monday, Turkey revealed that a search and rescue plane sent to find the downed recon jet had been shot at as well, but did not crash.
The downing of the jet has aggravated tense ties between the two neighbors. Turkey has repeatedly called on Assad to step down as 33,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey, fleeing a government crackdown on a popular uprising.
In Syria’s case, the Arab League hasn’t been able to agree on the need for military intervention. And Russia and China — both veto-wielding members of the Security Council — have consistently shielded Assad’s regime from international sanctions over its violent crackdown on protests. They have called on neighboring countries to refrain from provocative actions that could spark a wider war.
June 26, 2012 - Turkey Warns Syria Over Downed Jet: Buoyed by support from NATO allies, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured above) on Tuesday threatened a Turkish military response to any perceived threat from Syria along the troubled border following the disputed downing of a Turkish warplane.
“Every military element that approaches the Turkish border from Syria in a manner that constitutes a security risk or danger would be considered as a threat and would be treated as a military target,” he said in a speech to lawmakers attended by Arab diplomats. “From here, we warn the Syrian regime not to make any mistakes, not to test Turkey’s decisiveness and wisdom,” Mr. Erdogan said.
“We will continue to support the struggle of our Syrian brothers at all costs,” the prime minister said, referring to the armed opponents of Mr. Assad who are fighting an increasingly bloody insurgency. “We will continue to act in solidarity with our brothers until the Syrian people are freed of this cruel dictator,” he said. Follow the link below for the complete story relative to “Crisis in the Middle East.“
The Master of Disaster
Turkey Warns Syrian Forces Not to Approach Border – NYTimes.com.
Turkey says its military rules of engagement have changed after Syria shot down a Turkish plane that strayed into its territory.
PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan told parliament that if Syrian troops approached Turkey’s borders, they would be seen as a military threat.
Meanwhile Nato has expressed its condemnation of Syria’s attack as well as strong support for Turkey.
Syria insists the F-4 Phantom jet was shot down inside Syrian airspace.
The plane crashed into the eastern Mediterranean and its two pilots are missing.
Meanwhile, fierce fighting has been reported between the Syrian army and rebel forces in the suburbs of the capital Damascus.
Witnesses say it is some of the most intense violence in the area since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began more than a year ago.
In other developments on Tuesday:
Mr Erdogan spoke of Turkey’s “rage” at the decision to shoot down the F-4 Phantom on 22 June and described Syria as a “clear and present threat”.
“A short-term border violation can never be a pretext for an attack,” he said. The Turkish jet was on a training flight, testing Turkey’s radars in the eastern Mediterranean, he said.
He made it clear that Turkey was adopting a “common sense” attitude, although that “shouldn’t be perceived as a weakness”.
“Every military element approaching Turkey from the Syrian border and representing a security risk and danger will be assessed as a military threat and will be treated as a military target,” he said.
Turkey requested a meeting of the alliance’s ambassadors in Brussels after invoking Article 4 of Nato’s founding treaty, which entitles any member state to ask for consultations if it believes its security is threatened.
In a statement, the alliance’s 28 members said the shooting down of the plane was “unacceptable” and they stood together with Turkey “in the spirit of strong solidarity”.
Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: “It is another example of the Syrian authorities’ disregard for international norms. Nato allies will remain seized of developments.”
Earlier, in a letter to the UN Security Council, Turkey described the shooting down of its reconnaissance plane as a “hostile act” and “a serious threat to peace and security in the region”.
Turkey has also accused its neighbour of firing on a search and rescue plane looking for the F-4 Phantom jet, although it was not brought down.
Relations between the two countries were already highly strained before the F-4 was shot down.
Mr Erdogan has been outspoken in his condemnation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose government he accuses of brutally putting down opposition protests.
In Syria itself, opposition activists on Tuesday reported fierce fighting near Republican Guard positions in suburbs of Damascus.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP news agency that fierce fighting had broken out in Qadsaya and al-Hama, around 8km (5 miles) from the centre of the city. The UK-based organisation also said security forces had entered the Barzeh area of Damascus.
It said 10 people had been killed by shelling in Qadsaya and some 58 people had died in violence across Syria – 24 soldiers, 30 civilians and four rebels.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Nato considered the attack “unacceptable”
Syrian state TV reported that dozens of “terrorists” had been killed in al-Hama and many others taken prisoner, including some non-Syrian Arab nationals.
The Observatory and the Free Syrian Army also said there had been reports of a military helicopter being shot down in Idlib, but gave no details.
The reports cannot be verified.
Fighting was also reported in the old city of Homs where the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) last week tried unsuccessfully to arrange the evacuation of civilians. The ICRC said on Tuesday it was returning to the city for a fresh attempt.
1. F-4 Phantom takes off from Erhac airbase, Turkey, at approximately 10:28 local time (07:28 GMT), on 22 June
2. Syria says the jet enters its airspace at 11:40 (08:40 GMT)
3. Turkish military loses contact with the plane at 11:58 (08:58 GMT), while it is over Hatay province
4. Syria says its air defences engaged aircraft about 1km (0.5 nautical miles) from the coast and that it crashed into the sea 10km (5 nautical miles) west of Om al-Tuyour. Turkey says the plane was 24km (13 nautical miles) from Syria, which under international law is considered international airspace
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