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Category: Syria

Turkey slams Syria over rape claim in refugee camps

By IPEK YEZDANI

McClatchy Newspapers

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s worsening relations with Syria took another hit this week over a Syrian state news report about conditions in Turkish camps housing Syrian refugees.

The report, distributed Tuesday by Syria’s SANA news agency, called the camps “centers of isolation full of rape and torture.” A woman cited in the report said she’d been raped repeatedly there and that dozens of Syrian girls also had been raped.

The camps house more than 7,500 Syrians who fled the violent crackdown on dissent by the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, called the report part of a “black propaganda” campaign that Syria is now waging against Turkey. He described developments in his country’s relations with Syria as “very, very ugly.”

Erdogan once was considered a close Assad ally, but he’s distanced himself from the Syrian president in recent weeks after Assad rebuffed Turkish calls to end the crackdown on protests, which human rights groups estimate has killed more than 2,000 people since March.

Erdogan said he no longer talked to Assad, though the countries still have diplomatic relations.

“I myself have cut my contacts with the Syrian government,” he said Tuesday in New York. “We would never like to come to this point, but unfortunately the Syrian government has made us come to a point where we had to take this kind of decision. We don’t have any trust left for the current Syrian government.”

Erdogan has been pressing ahead with a diplomatic offensive intended to project Turkey as a leader in the Middle East. Last week, he visited Cairo, where he won accolades for his recent break with Israel over Israel’s refusal to apologize for the killings of nine Turks aboard a Gaza-bound boat that Israeli special forces intercepted in May 2010.

Turkish authorities said the Syrian report on the conditions in the camps in Turkey’s Hatay district, on the Syrian border, appeared to be retaliation for their country’s increasingly hostile position toward Assad’s government.

The official Syrian report quoted a woman, identified only as Fatima, who the report said had returned recently to the village of Jisr al-Shughour in Syria, which had been the subject of a crackdown by Syrian soldiers in June.

The woman said political dissidents from Jisr al-Shughour had raped her in the camp and that they threatened to rape her daughters if she tried to return to Syria. She said a Turkish soldier also had raped her and that as many as 70 Syrian girls had been raped in the camps.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry denied the claims and said it had asked Syria to allow Turkish representatives to interview the woman. The Foreign Ministry called the report “a unique example of black propaganda, lies and evil.” The ministry said it suspected that Fatima was a fictitious person.

Erdogan said he would visit the refugee camps when he returned from New York.

“I want to see the living conditions there,” he said. He left open the possibility of further action regarding the camps “after our evaluation.”

(Yezdani is a McClatchy Newspapers special correspondent.)

via Turkey slams Syria over rape claim in refugee camps – World Wires – MiamiHerald.com.

September 22, 2011
The Coming World Crisis

“Chapter 7 – The Coming World Crisis

[…]

Before the nations of the world ultimately embrace a system of global government, they must first have a reason to do so. Humanity, convinced that permenant world peace cannot be attanied without the creation of a powerful world authority capable of pretecting countries from one another, will eventually sacrifice the current world order – seeing no
alternative. Significant strides have already been made in this directionsince the turn of the century, end if history repeats itself, further “progress” will be made soon.

Two world wars have already been fought in the twentieth century. In each case, an aggresive power was used to ignite a crisis that drew in the rest of the world; and both times the aggressor was defeated. After each war, as supranational organization was established for the alleged purpose of
promoting world peace, first the League of Nations, then the United Nations. Each organization has brought us one step closer to the realization of a one world government. The United Nations today is the closest thing to world government that humanity has ever known. Unlike the incomplete League of Nations, which consisted of only 63 countries and did not include the US, the United Nations consists of 159 nations, nearly every country in the world. Its infrastructure is all-encompassing and includes the World Court, the UN peace-keeping forces, and specialized organizations ranging from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to the World HealthOrganization (WHO). It oversees dozens of additional agencies ranging from UNESCO to UNICEF, covering virtually every aspect of life. The UN lacks only the power to implement and enforce its strategies.

Could a third world war be used to finally lead mankind to accept a New World Order? If so, how might such a war begin? Who would be its main players? And what would be the outcome? To answer these important questions we must examine those areas where current events and the blueprints of the conspirators coincide with what the Bible teaches must yet take place.

A Possible Scenario

I believe that insiders will initiate a world crisis only if they feel it isnecessary to get the public to accept their New World Order. The mere threat of a major world conflict could be enough to scare the public into accepting such a change-especially when coupled with the existing problems of world hunger and global debt, and the created panic over the environment. As their campaign slogan openly proclaims, “Global Problems Demand Global Solutions!” Historically, however, wars have been effective in advancing the cause of
world government; the fact is, major changes occur more easily during times of crisis.

Unlike the previous world wars in which Germany was the main instigator, the world’s next major conflict will undoubtedly be sparked by the hotbed of tensions surrounding the Middle East. If not Iraq a second time, then perhaps Iran or Syria.

This writer believes that Syria might play a significant role in ushering in the New World Order, if not as an instigator of war, then as a middle man for negotiating peace. It is too critical a nation to remain on the sidelines for very long and, contrary to popular belief, Syria -not Iraq- is the most powerful Islamic military state in the Middle East. It therefore merits close watching.

During the past several years, Syria appears to have been laying the groundwork for its own attack against Israel. Syrian troops now hold long sought after positions in Lebanon and have been prepared for such an invasion since early 1984. According to the USA Department of Defense publication, Soviet Military Power, Syria has also become the site of the largest Soviet arms build-up in the Third World, having contrasted for 19 billion dollars in military hardware. It currently boasts the largest number of Soviet military advisors of any Third World country. (1)

The Syrian government, meanwhile, has effectively turned the tables by falsely warning its people of a coming Israeli attack on Syria, although Israel has repeatedly denied such allegations. (2) According to the Jerusalem Post during one of Syria’s propaganda campaigns several years ago it took a personal statement from Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzak Shamir, to maintain peace. Shamir voiced his “incomprehension” at Syrian “nervousness”, “which, he said, had triggered several strong Soviet warnings to Israel in recent days.” (3) I beleive the Syrian government was deliberately misleading its people in order to justify its own “pre-emptive” strike against Israel down the road. For these reasons, I have chosen to use Syria as our example in this scenario (although a similar scenario could beconstracted using Iraq, Iran, or even Libya).

If the powers-that-be were to move Syria against Israel, it would be Syria’s fatal mistake, planned this way by the conspirators in order to precipitatea world crisis. Unlike previous invasions, the Jewish state this time would have almost no time to respond. Its back would be to the wall quickly as Syrian MIGs would strike over Jerusalem within 4 minutes. Israel would be faced with a very difficult decision -either allow itself to be conquered, or else launch its nuclear arsenal against Syria and possibly Iraq. In late 1986, “London’s Sunday Times printed an article stating that Israel may havea stockpile of as many as 200 nuclear warheads.” (4) So we know that a nuclear exchange is a very real possibility.
There is an Old Testament prophesy concerning Damascus, the capital of Syria, which has yet to be fulfilled. Isaiah proclaimed: “See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins.” (Is. 17:1). As it is, Damascus is the oldest standing city in the world, never having experienced mass destruction. This prophesy must be fulfilled some time before the return of Christ.

Having lost several thousand of its military advisors in the exchange and with world opinion seemingly turned against Israel for her use of nuclear force, the Soviet Union could seize this opportunity to do what it has long desired – move against Israel. Arab pressure on the Soviets to invade Israel would add to the temptation.

If the Soviet Union came to the rescue of Syria, it would suddenly find itself on opposite sides with the United States. What could happen next is unthinkable. Mankind will have been brought to the brink of destruction.

Wicked man high places have been contemplating such a crisis for years. In a letter to the Italian revolutionary leader Giuseppe Mazzini dated 15 Agust 1871 Albert Pike, the leader of the Illuminati’s activities in the United States and the head of the Scottish Rite Freemasonry at the time, describeda distant final war, which he felt would be necessary to usher in the New World Order. (5) According to Pike, this conflict between two future superpowers would be sparked by first igniting crisis between Islam and Judaism. He went on to write:

We shall unleash the nihilists and the atheists and we shall provoke a great social cataclysm which, in all its horror, will show clearly to all nations the effect of absolute atheism, the origin of savagery and of most bloody turmoil. Then, everywhere, the people, forced to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization; and multitudes, disillusioned with Christianity whose deistic spirits will be from that moment on without direction and leadership, anxious for an ideal but without knowledge where to send its adoration, will receive the true light through the uiversal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out into public view; a manifestation which will result from a general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and Atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time. (6) (*)

Should such a crisis be permitted to occur, the amount of destruction would be staggering. Humanity would tremble with fear believing that man is about to destroy himself. For even if Soviet Union or the United States were eliminated as military powers, over 30 countries would still have nuclear capacity. It would be a time of despair and mass confusion. Add to this the resulting chaos of global financial markets, which are already on the brink of disaster; the economic turmoil would only contribute to the world’s state of panic.

(1) US Department of Defense, Soviet Military Power, 1986 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1986), 133

(2) Post Diplomatic Correspondent, “Jerusalem incomprehension at Syriannervousness,” The Jerusalem Post, (12 April 1984): 1, col. 1-2.

(3) Ibid.

(4) “Israel’s Nuclear Prowess – A Leak by Design?” US News and World Report(10 November 1986): 8.(5) Salem Kirban, Satan’s Angels Exposed (Roseville, GA: Grapevine Books, 1980), 158-161(6) Myron Fagan, The Illuminati-CFR, Emissary Publications, TP-107, 1968.
This letter between Pike and Mazzini is now catalogued in the British Museum in London (According to Salem Kirban, Satan’s Angels Exposed, 164). Parts of this letter are also quoted in “Descent Into Slavery” by Des Griffin

(*) It is a pure coincidence that the most powerful figures of the Middle East are Freemasons? Have they been destined to trigger the conflict about which Albert Pike wrote? A prominent Arab Christian leader recently informed me that according to his contacts in Lebanon, King Assad of Syria and King Hussain of Jordan are both Freemasons. If this is true, we could be closer to the New World Order than people realize. (He was uncartain about whetherSaddam Hussain belonged to the same secret society.)

A few months ago, the son of this same Arab Christian gave me a masonic document – a membership certificate – which he found in Lebanon, issued by a Phoenician Lodge located in Lebanon. However, the document notes that the Lodge is under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Jordan, which is under the authority of the Arab Supreme Council. For at least several centuries,Jordan has been a bastion of secret societies in the Middle East and has much more influence in the regions behind-the-scenes politics than most people realize. The same masonic symbol appearing on our dollar bill and found at ancient occult worship sites throughout the world, the all-seeing eye, is prominently displayed on the certificate.

Source: “En Route to Global Occupation” by Gary H. Kah, 1991, [Huntington House Publishers, Lafayette, Louisiana]

Tanrıyı Kıyamete Zorlamak – Kağan Kurt – 1.Bölüm by HoneyMedia

September 17, 2011
Erdogan pitches Turkey’s democratic model on ‘Arab Spring’ tour

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined hands with Libya’s new leaders at Friday prayers today and promised to help their revolution succeed.

By Alexander Christie-Miller, Correspondent / September 16, 2011

Istanbul, Turkey

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (l.) and Chairman of Libya's National Transitional Council Mustafa Abdel Jalil wave to people during a rally at Martyrs' Square in Tripoli on Friday, Sept. 16. Suhaib Salem/Reuters

Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (l.) and Chairman of Libya’s National Transitional Council Mustafa Abdel Jalil wave to people during a rally at Martyrs’ Square in Tripoli on Friday, Sept. 16.

Suhaib Salem/Reuters

Given the cheering throngs who greeted Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Libya and Egypt this month, one could be forgiven for thinking he was a rock star.

Few images of Turkey’s expanding influence are more powerful than of Mr. Erdogan joining hands with Libya’s new leaders for Friday prayers today.

“After we thank God, we thank our friend Mr. Erdogan, and after him all the Turkish people,” prayer leader Salem al-Sheikhi told the crowd of several thousand in Tripoli’s Martyrs’ Square. Erdogan knelt in the front row beside Mustafa Ahmed Jalil, chairman of Libya’s National Transitional Council.

“Our hands are clasped with those of the Turkish people,” said Mr. Sheikhi. “We will never forget what you did for us.”

Erdogan replied in kind afterward, turning the prayer session into a rally where Turkish flags commingled with new revolutionary ones. “Turkey will fight with you until you take all your victory,” he said. “You proved to all the world that nothing can stand in the way of what the people want.”

Indeed, the Turkish prime minister’s “Arab Spring tour” has been a hit as he makes his way across North Africa extolling Turkey as a democratic model for fellow Muslims who have cast off their dictators.

As the elected leader of a thriving Muslim democracy, Erdogan portrays himself as uniquely placed to encourage an orderly transition from autocracy to democracy – one that will rein in the more extremist Muslim groups unleashed by the Arab Spring.

But while Erdogan’s message of secular democracy may resonate with the West, the foundations of his growing prestige are worrying to US leaders. As his Islam-rooted party has increased its influence, Erdogan has taken a tougher stance against Israel, which he accuses of oppressing the Palestinian people and flouting international law.

Some say he risks a breach with the West by antagonizing Israel, but others contend he is offering a type of Muslim leadership that Europe and the US would do well to heed.

via Erdogan pitches Turkey’s democratic model on ‘Arab Spring’ tour – CSMonitor.com.

September 17, 2011
Syrian defector ‘confesses’ on state TV

By Ivan Watson, CNN

Istanbul (CNN) — Three months after he first appeared in an Internet video — in uniform, denouncing his government and calling on fellow soldiers to rebel — Lt. Col. Hussein al-Harmoush was back on television Thursday night, this time in a televised confession on Syrian state TV.

“I faced three edges of a sword,” he said, when asked why he returned from exile in Turkey to Syrian state custody. “I was a government defector and fugitive, second I left my society and family, and third, I fell out with those who coordinated with me.”

The drama gripped the country as violence played out in the streets. At least 46 people were killed across Syria on Friday in the ongoing confrontations between security forces and protesters, said the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, an opposition activist group that organizes and documents anti-government demonstrations. It said 45 of them were civilians and one was from the nation’s security forces. Twenty of the dead were in Idlib, 10 in Hama, five in Homs, five in Damascus and its surrounding area, and the rest were in Daraa and Deir Ezzor, LCC said.

Accounts of clashes inside Syria are difficult to independently confirm. The Syrian government has prevented international journalists from reporting without restraint inside the country.

The group said the body of al-Harmoush’s brother, Hassan, was found Friday; activists in Idlib posted on YouTube a video purportedly of the bloodied corpse.

Al-Harmoush also contradicted previous statements he had made as a rebel military leader, saying that “during my service in the Syrian army, nobody ordered me to fire at civilians. … I didn’t see or hear any commander in the army who gave orders to shoot at civilians.”

Al-Harmoush disappeared from a refugee camp where he had been living in Turkey on August 29. His sudden reappearance in Syrian government custody triggered a flurry of conflicting statements from Syrian opposition groups as well as from the Turkish government.

Several other men who said they had deserted from the Syrian armed forces released video statements demanding al-Harmoush’s release.

“Release him immediately and hand him to the Turkish government or we will respond harshly … by executing quick operations conducted by our brigades targeting all leadership of the military and security apparatus,” said a man who identified himself as Col. Riyad al-Asa’ad of the ‘Free Syrian Army.’

Some Syrian activists accused Turkey of handing al-Harmoush to Syrian security forces. Prominent Syrian exile activist Omar al-Muqdad first sounded the alarm about al-Harmoush’s disappearance on August 29.

“I talked to him on the morning of August 29th,” al-Muqdad said. “He said, ‘I have a meeting with a Turkish security man. When I finish I will call you.’ I waited for three days and didn’t hear from him. Then after that we discovered that the security man took him and didn’t send him back to the camp. They sent him to Syria directly. The Turks made a trick with Harmoush. They caught him in Turkey and sent him to Syria.”

The accusations prompted the Turkish foreign ministry to take the unusual step of publishing a statement denying the allegations.

“It is out of question that Syrian citizens are returned to Syria or any other country against their will,” the foreign ministry wrote, using an alternate spelling of al-Harmoush’s name. “It should be particularly emphasized that recent allegations concerning a Syrian citizen named Huseyin Harmush are totally unfounded.”

Omar Idlibi Said, a Beirut-based LCC representative, told CNN he believes al-Harmoush had been tortured and forced to make the televised statement. He also said al-Harmoush’s claims on Syrian state TV that Turkish smugglers are funneling weapons and ammunition across the border to Syrian rebels exonerated Turkey of any responsibility for the dissident officer’s capture.

“If the Turks handed him over, he would not say such a thing about Turkey. The Syrians would not let him mention that,” Said contended.

There is substantial evidence to suggest the Syrian regime carried out reprisal attacks against al-Harmoush’s family. Last week, Syrian security forces raided the village of Ibleen, killing al-Harmoush’s brother Mohammed as well as several other army deserters.

At least 2,978 people have been killed in Syria since mid-March, when demonstrations critical of the government were met with a fierce security crackdown, according to LCC.

Neighboring Turkey has become an “underground railroad” of sorts for Syrian opposition members.

Turkey has also hosted a number of Syrian opposition meetings. On Thursday, a group calling itself the Syrian National Council announced its formation at a conference in Istanbul.

Turkey’s prime minister, once one of the closest regional allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, had sharp words for the Damascus regime on Friday.

“Those who inflict repression on their own people in Syria won’t be able to survive,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told journalists during a visit to the Libyan capital. “The period of autocracy is over. Totalitarian regimes are going. People’s governments are coming now.”

As occurred in a number of other countries, Erdogan’s government went from being a close trading partner of Libyan strong-man Moammar Gadhafi to becoming a staunch supporter of the rebel National Transitional Council.

Meanwhile, the Syrian government issued a statement protesting a recent meeting between the general secretary of the League of Arab States and representatives of the Syrian opposition.

Mohamed Mamoun Al Humsi, a former Syrian parliament member living in Cairo, said he and a number of other opposition members presented a list of demands during a meeting Wednesday with the Arab League’s secretary-general, Nabil Al Araby.

Among the opposition’s requests were the suspension of Syria’s membership in the Arab League, the establishment of a “no-fly zone” over Syria to prevent shipments of weapons to the regime, and an end to alleged intervention by Hezbollah and Iran in Syrian domestic affairs.

According to Syria’s state news agency, Syria’s representative to the Arab League accused Al Araby of exceeding his mandate, calling the meeting with the Syrian opposition an “irresponsible act.”

CNN’s Hamdi Alkhshali, Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Yesim Comert

September 17, 2011
Iran-Turkey: dueling demagogues

Benny Avni

Here’s a tip for Lee Bollinger, the Columbia University president: If you want to hobnob with the most outrageous guest in town for next week’s UN extravaganza, get hip and call the Turkish mission — because Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmedinejad may no longer be your man. The up-and-comer is Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

They’re rivals in another important sense: Both non-Arab Mideasterners dream of resurrecting glorious empires of yore; both are using hostility to Israel to win regional favor — and both are jockeying for position in Syria, now the region’s weakest link.

Democratically elected and popular, since his pro-market policies have turned Turkey into an economic powerhouse — Erdogan is eclipsing Ahmadinejad — reviled for mismanagement, economic decline and cruel oppression. (But beware the declining power: Mideasterners often turn to adventurism when they’re pressured at home — and Iran is closing in on an atomic-missile capability.)

Erdogan this week launched a triumphant Mideast tour, preaching to adoring crowds in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya about the evils of Israel and the West. He also threatened a naval confrontation with Israel, scaring American, European and NATO officials, all of whom are begging Ankara to chill out a bit.

Meanwhile, the attention-starved Ahmadinejad made a grand “concession” to America, gallantly announcing that he’d free the two US hostages (Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal) long held on flimsy espionage charges — then had to lock horns with Tehran’s judiciary, which no longer fears his authority, in an effort to make good on his promise.

But the Iran-Turkey power game spreads far beyond such gestures. The most important arena of confrontation is Syria.

Iran has long propped up President Bashar al-Assad, but has started to distance itself from his rule. Tehran needs Syria too much — especially as a conduit to Hezbollah, its proxy army in Lebanon. Relying solely on the Assads is too risky a bet, so the mullahs are preparing for the morning after.

As Tehran watcher Meir Javedanfar wrote this week, if Assad falls and a civil war ensues — the now-ruling minority Allawites against the majority Sunnis — “Iran is extremely unlikely to play the part of spectator.”

Neither is Turkey. Its southern border is bustling with activity as businessmen, troops and opportunity seekers prepare for the day Syria becomes a Turkish protectorate.

Yet Erdogan after some tough recent statements against Assad, his former ally, is zigzagging again.

On his first appearance in Cairo this week, Erdogan all but ignored the Syria situation. Even worse, anti-regime Syrian activists accuse Ankara of handing over former Syrian Army Lt. Col. Hussein al-Harmoush to Damascus.

Harmoush fled Syria months ago and was making tough anti-regime statements from the relative safety of a Turk-protected refugee camp near Syria’s border. Yesterday, Syria announced his detention in Damascus. (Ankara denies sending Harmoush, or any Syrian, back “against their will.”)

Is Turkey with Assad or against him? Is it backing the pro-democracy rebels or just the Islamists? The answer is that — like Tehran — Ankara’s playing all sides against the middle.

Incidentally, so does Saudi Arabia: Riyadh is hoping to use its petrodollars to prop up a powerful political ally in post-Assad Syria. But money isn’t enough. In Syria, as in the rest of the Arab Mideast, the dominant powers are once more non-Arabs: The Persians and the Turks.

Conspicuously missing from this high-stakes Syrian poker table are America and the Europeans — still hiding behind feckless diplomacy and meaningless moralistic statements.

To his great credit, Robert Ford, the US ambassador to Syria, is constantly siding with pro-democracy forces. But that won’t buy us a seat at a table where everyone else antes up with real resources.

And the Mideast region is too volatile to leave to the graces of the increasingly dangerous Turks and Persians.

beavni@gmail.com

www.nypost.com, September 16, 2011

September 17, 2011
Angry activists say Turkey handed deserted officer to Syria
Angry activists say Turkey handed deserted officer to Syria

By Ivan Watson, CNN

September 15, 2011 — Updated 1820 GMT (0220 HKT)

Activists tried to confront the Turkish Prime Minister, pictured here with Egyptian PM Essam Sharaf, while in Egpyt.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: In his “confession,” al-Harmoush says he was not ordered to fire on civilians

Lt. Col. Hussein al-Harmoush of the Syrian army defected to Turkey

There’s no explanation from the Turkish side about his reappearance in Syria

Activists say they feel betrayed by Turkey
Istanbul (CNN) — Syrian activists are denouncing the Turkish government in the wake of the Syrian regime’s announcement that it has a deserted army officer in custody.

Lt. Col. Hussein al-Harmoush defected months ago and began broadcasting video statements denouncing the Syrian government, before eventually fleeing to neighboring Turkey.

News of his detention by Syria comes amid persistent international consternation with that country’s regime for its fierce crackdown on anti-government protesters, a six-month outpouring that has resulted in more than 2,600 deaths.

“Enough is enough,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said Thursday, urging “some coherent measures” against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Omar al-Muqdad, a prominent Syrian opposition activist who is now in exile in Turkey applying for refugee status, said the Turks handed al-Harmoush over to the Syrian secret police.

“The Turkish government is directly responsible for Harmoush’s destiny, because Harmoush was a refugee on their territory. They have to be honest about him. …under international rules, any country that receives him has to protect him,” al-Muqdad said.

Al-Harmoush had called on all Syrian soldiers to defect and mobilize against al-Assad. Eventually he fled Syria to Turkey.

Two weeks ago, al-Muqdad called CNN in a panic, saying al-Harmoush had gone missing from the refugee camp in Turkey where he’d been living. At the time, he suspected Syrian security agents had kidnapped the defecting officer.

“I talked to him on the morning of August 29th,” al-Muqdad said.

“He said ‘I have a meeting with a Turkish security man. When I finish I will call you.’ I waited for three days and didn’t hear from him. Then after that we discovered that the security man took him and didn’t send him back to the camp. They sent him to Syria directly. The Turks made a trick with Harmoush. They caught him in Turkey and sent him to Syria.”

The Syrian Arab News Agency said Syrian TV broadcast an interview or what it called a “confession from al-Harmoush” on Thursday night.

Al-Harmoush said he defected because of bloody incidents, but he was not ordered to open fire on civilians.

He said opposition members, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, contacted him while he was in Turkey. He discussed talk of weapons and money. He said he didn’t get the kind of support he was promised. The interview didn’t indicate how he returned to Syria.

Another Syrian activist, Omar Idilbi of the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, said that from what Syrian TV is showing, there are signs that al-Harmoush has been tortured.

CNN has previously asked the Turkish Foreign Ministry about al-Harmoush, but Turkish diplomats said they were not familiar with his case.

Turkish Foreign Ministry officials were accompanying Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on a tour of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.

One official who requested anonymity told CNN the government “on principle” never hands over people who came to Turkey on humanitarian grounds.

There are more than 7,600 Syrian refugees in six Turkish refugee camps and there is daily traffic back and forth across the borders.

In Egypt, the first stop on the Turkish delegation’s trip, Syrian activists tried to confront Erdgoan about al-Harmoush. When Erdogan emerged from the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo on Tuesday, a crowd of angry Syrian activists stood outside the gates chanting “Erdogan coward” and “Erdogan, where is Harmoush?”

Erdogan waved to the crowd, apparently not understanding the question. But one Syrian activist cornered a senior Turkish official next to the government motorcade and demanded to know al-Harmoush’s whereabouts.

The Turkish official had no idea what he was talking about. Turkey is critical to the Syrian opposition movement. Dissidents have fled to Turkey to escape the ongoing government crackdown in Syria and have been holding opposition meetings in Turkish cities.

On Thursday, a Syrian opposition council is announcing its creation in Istanbul, the latest in a number of groups claiming to represent the opposition in Syria and abroad.

But now, with Syria announcing it has al-Harmoush in custody, opposition activists said they feel betrayed by the Turkish government.

“I can’t trust the Turks any more. They are hypocrites,” said al-Muqdad.

“There are a lot of questions that the Syrian government and the Turkish government should answer,” said Idilbi, who is based in Beirut, Lebanon.

The importance of al-Harmoush to the Syrian regime became evident September 8, when opposition activists and residents inside Syria called CNN to report Syrian security forces had attacked the village of Ibleen, where al-Harmoush’s brother Mohammed lived.

According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a number of Syrian army defectors had taken shelter in Ibleen while awaiting the chance to smuggle themselves across the nearby border to Turkey.

Video filmed of the aftermath of the Syrian government raid showed blood-spattered houses, burned-out cars and trucks, and a ransacked home.

At least five people were killed in the raid, including al-Harmoush’s brother. His corpse was shown in another video released by opposition activists. Thousands of people attended his funeral.

Syria’s state news agency claimed responsibility for the raid on Ibleen, saying Syrian security forces had killed a number of “armed terrorists” who had been residing there.

Violence continued Thursday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces killed one person and wounded five others in the Damascus countryside. A volunteer Red Crescent medic who was wounded in the western city of Homs last week has died of his injuries at a Lebanese hospital, the group said.

Last month, al-Assad told the U.N. secretary general that military operations in the country had been halted. The regime has indicated that it wanted to end the fighting and foster stability.

“These promises have been broken promises,” Ban said said Thursday.

CNN’s Yesim Comert and Tracy Doueiry contributed to this report
September 16, 2011