Turkey watching dev’ts in Syria

By NICOLAS CHEVIRON

July 1, 2011, 4:18am

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Turkey’s relationship with Syria’s embattled regime grows frostier each day and Ankara may withdraw support for President Bashar al-Assad if his crackdown on protests continues, analysts said.

In public, top Turkish officials insist that policy towards their southern neighbour – of maintaining cordial relations while nudging Damascus toward democratic reform – remains unchanged, despite the intensifying unrest.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu recently gave Assad lukewarm support, telling journalists his recent speech ”contained positive elements and indications in terms of reform,” according to the Anatolia new agency. But at a press conference last Friday, Davutoglu added, ”it is very important that concrete steps be made” in implementing some of the demands fuelling the protests.

Analysts say that Ankara’s goodwill for Assad has been pushed almost to breaking point now that some 12,000 Syrian refugees have fled into Turkey after Assad’s troops cracked down on protests in their home areas.

”Turkey cannot guarantee its support for the Syrian regime,” said Sedat Laciner of the University of Canakkale. ”If it loses all legitimacy, Turkey cannot continue to support it.”

Osman Bahadir Dincer of the strategic research institute USAK argued that Turkey gave Assad the space to reform at his own pace, but now that conditions in Syria have deteriorated so dramatically, Ankara is basically fed up.

”We have arrived at a point where the (Turkish) government is going to tell the Syrian government ‘the time has expired, we have given you time and you have done nothing,”’ Dincer said.

He further argued that if a Libya-type scenario unfolds, and ”international actors decide something” regarding the situation in Syria, Turkey may side with the majority.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has, since coming to power in 2002, improved relations with Syria, and encouraged Assad to reform, but without success, according to Dincer.

via Turkey watching dev’ts in Syria | The Manila Bulletin Newspaper Online.