Tag: Syrian Opposition

Ten high-ranking military officers from Syria, including four brigadier-generals, have defected and crossed into Turkey to join the Free Syrian Army.

The news comes after Syrian government forces pressed on with deadly assaults on Friday, killing around 50 civilians, monitors said.

The official Turkish news agency Anatolia said 10 officers from Damascus, Homs and Latakia crossed the border into Turkey’s southern province of Hatay.

The Syrian deputy oil minister joined the opposition only one day earlier.

A spokesman for the Syrian opposition group, the Higher Revolutionary Council, said a total of six brigadier generals, four colonels and a lieutenant colonel had changed sides in the past 48 hours.

The newsagency said that Turkish authorities were establishing a container city near Hatay in preparation for an expected influx of Syrians fleeing the fighting in Idlib across the border.

Village stormed

Regime troops stormed a village in Idlib and attacked other districts there, reflecting growing fears that the north-western province will meet the same fate as the battered rebel stronghold of Baba Amr in the city of Homs.

“Troops attacked the village of Ain Larose and opened fire killing 13 civilians,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights in Beirut.

They were among nearly 50 people killed in the assaults in Idlib and elsewhere across the country by regime forces, including the rebel province of Homs where rocket and mortar attacks claimed 10 lives.

Tens of thousands of people have demonstrated against the regime across the country, with huge rallies taking place in the second city Aleppo.

Meanwhile, UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan will meet Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Saturday on a peace mission to the troubled state, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said.

Mr Ban told reporters in New York that he held a conference call with Mr Annan and Arab League secretary-general Nabil Araby earlier on Friday.

He said Mr Annan planned to leave Damascus on Sunday to visit other countries in the region.

ABC/wires

via Syrian generals flee to Turkey as dozens more killed – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

Turkey has been keenly watching events unfold in Syria, fearing its near-neighbor’s violence could spill over the border. However, there are fears that Turkish government may not be getting an accurate picture of what is really happening in Syria.

­As soon as Syria’s president promised to completely revamp the constitution in an attempt to resolve the crisis in the country, Turkey expressed support for a humanitarian intervention, saying it must do all it can to prevent a civil war.

With the bloody status quo in the Syrian crisis having been maintained for months, there is a danger that violence may start spreading beyond the country’s borders.

And its close neighbor Turkey – once a close friend too – is now a harsh critic of Damascus.

“Syria’s first priority should be to listen to its people and meet their demands, not to denounce others; instead of massacring its people, it should listen to them,” says Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Faruk Logoglu, the deputy chairman of the Republican People’s Party in Turkey, is a harsh critic himself, but he is critical of the Turkish government.

Ankara is on the side of the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian National Council – a military and diplomatic force aimed at overthrowing the regime of Bashar al-Assad. It supports a “buffer zone” and a “humanitarian corridor” – which some fear could bring Turkish troops to Syrian soil.

“What does that mean according to international law? It means aggression against a country, it means war,” Faruk Logoglu says.

But any intervention would be different from the one in Libya – since Russia and China have made it clear: no more no-fly zone resolutions. It means the role of regional players like Turkey increases dramatically.

But Faruk claims Ankara’s behavior is irresponsible and risky.

“It is the larger implications beyond the bilateral context of Turkey and Syria as such. The situation in Syria must be handled with great care by all powers. And unfortunately I do not see that care, especially from the Turkish government,” he says.

Oytun Orhan works for the Middle East Strategic Studies Center, based in Ankara.

It is sponsored by the Turkish Foreign Ministry to help shape policy. And its opinion on Syria is clear.

“The regime of Syria is killing its own people,” says Oytun Orhan, Middle East analyst the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM).

Or not always that clear.

“Nobody has objective information as to what is going on in Syria,” says Oytun Orhan.

The center’s specialists have not been to Syria for over a year.

It means the picture they paint for officials in Ankara is unlikely to be an accurate one.

The sources of some videos are often questionable, so it is easy to be misled or get a false picture of what is really happening.

Although that does not stop researchers from coming to firm conclusions.

“The military option, this is the last option Turkey does not want to see. But this is an option,” says Oytun Orhan.

Turkey may have declared it does not welcome a military solution to the Syrian crisis, but it has not ruled it out either, playing an “if” game: if there is massive migration from its troubled neighbor Turkey says it will have to protect its own people.

And while officially Ankara insists it wants peace and stability in the region, its troops are ready just kilometers from the border with Syria.

via Turkey’s ‘Syrian intervention’ scenario — RT.

Turkey’s foreign minister condemned Syrian soldiers for attacking a town close to the Turkish border, on Wednesday.

Al Jazeera met with some activists in Turkey who are trying to help coordinate the opposition movement.

Zeina Khodr reports from Hatay in south-east Turkey.