Tag: Turkey-Syria

Istanbul Symphony Orchestra plays to draw attention to Syria

ISTANBUL – Anatolia News Agency

Istanbul’s CRR hosted on March 25 a concert to benefit Syria. The Istanbul Symphony Orchestra played under the baton of Bosnian Emir Nuhanovic

Syrian violinist Ali Moraly made an appearance as a soloist. AA photo

The Istanbul Symphony Orchestra performed March 25 under the baton of famous Bosnian orchestra conductor Emir Nuhanovic. The concert at Istanbul’s Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall (CRR) was organized to draw attention to the human tragedy in Syria and hosted Syrian violinist Ali Moraly as a soloist.

Culture and Tourism Minister Ömer Çelik, who made a speech before the concert, said that while optimism was in the air all around the world in the 1990s, the people of Sarajevo faced a wild massacre. He said he had been a student at the time.

“We students were organized to find out what we could do for Sarajevo. Although Turkey mobilized its all options, we did not have today’s opportunities and all of us felt the pain and sorrow of our helplessness for Sarajevo. In the middle of the tragedy, the late Alija Izetbegovic called for the master conductor Nuhanovic and asked him to make their voice be heard all around the world. The modern world, which had nothing to say for Sarajevo, began to speak again.”

Tragedy before the whole world

Çelik said Syria was currently experiencing a tragedy before the whole world and the concert was held to draw attention to this drama. “There are 70,000 martyrs and 250,000 missing. There are millions of refugees outside the country, and there are millions of people who had to leave their place in Syria. Now, in order to make a call for all human beings, art will make its voice heard for Syria under the leadership of a great master. What should be asked here is how those who remain silent against the events in Syria could do it. We will give the most meaningful answer to this tonight in this venue,” he said.

The minister said the question of what art is would find the most meaningful answer that night as well.

“Rather than watching the tragedy in Bosnia in the 1990s, Turkey did its best. It is trying to do the same for Syria today. But there is a difference today, and everybody feels what this difference is. Today we are all around the world not only with our people but also with all organs of the state. We do not stand by those who slaughter and oppress. We are not following a policy of lack of conscience.”

Çelik said it was not an ordinary night but rather the 70,000 martyrs and hundreds of thousands of missing were together with them.

“We will be the tongue of millions of refugees tonight. This is art. The losses of Bosnia will meet the losses of Syria, and Istanbul will bring brotherhood to Aleppo, Damascus and Sarajevo once again.”

‘Mothers bury their own children in Syria’

At the opening of the concert, Nuhanovic addressed the audience, saying Europe and most of the world did nothing for the incidents in Sarajevo and only Turkey had made efforts against this tragedy at the United Nations.

He said that to draw attention to the events, they gave a concert with conductor Zubin Mehta in 1994 under hard circumstances upon the order of Izetbegovic. “The tear of a child is worth the wealth of the world. Mothers bury their own children now in Syria.”

Following the speeches Tomaso Albinoni’s Adagio in G-Minor, Maurice Jarre’s “The Message” and Beethoven’s 5th Symphony were performed at the concert.

March/27/2013

via MUSIC – Istanbul Symphony Orchestra plays to draw attention to Syria.

March 27, 2013
U.S. troops arrive in Turkey to help protect border with Syria, prompting some skepticism

By Jenna Johnson, Published: January 7

ANTAKYA, Turkey — As U.S. troops arrive in Turkey and prepare to man Patriot antimissile batteries along the Syrian border, some of the people who will be under such protection say that the extra line of defense is not needed and that the presence of foreign forces could pull their country into the war next door.

“We don’t need this thing between us and our neighbors,” said Ali Yilmaz, 49, who works in a cellphone shop in this town, whose population is heavily Alawite, members of the same religious sect as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “It’s wrong. It’s only going to cause problems.”

Other Turks expect the missile-blasting defense system — organized and overseen by NATO after a request from the Turkish government last year — to protect them from projectiles that occasionally stray across the border or from a direct attack. But they question why the same level of protection isn’t being extended to those living inside Syria.

“A lot of children and women are getting killed,” said Mehmet Kamil Dervisoglu, 37, who works at a hotel in Reyhanli, a heavily Sunni town that is closer to the border and has become a “Little Syria” in recent months. “If we got involved, it would be an army against an army. But an army against women and children? What did these women and children do wrong?”

For now, about 400 U.S. troops are being airlifted from Oklahoma to Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey. The first wave of troops and supplies arrived Friday, with more scheduled to come in the following days, according to the U.S. European Command.

Eventually, the troops will man two Patriot batteries in Gaziantep, a Turkish town about 30 miles from the border. Germany and the Netherlands also will supply two batteries each, to be stationed in other towns along the border.

The batteries are designed to spot and intercept incoming missiles. Once in place this month, all six will operate under NATO command. The mission is “defensive only” and aims to deter threats to Turkey and de-escalate the fighting along the border, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said last month. It is not known how long the batteries will remain.

‘It’s a strong shield’

For Turks living close to the border, the sounds of war have become part of life. Those living in Hacipasa — a village of about 3,000 people that shares its olive-grove-dotted valley with Syria — frequently hear the heavy whirl of aircraft and whiz of mortar shells and missiles. Sometimes they feel the faint reverberations from the impacts. After heavy attacks, some residents venture to the river along the border to help wounded Syrians escaping to Turkey for medical treatment.

One morning in October, a stray missile landed in a field where villagers had just finished picking cotton, said Abdulaziz Olmez, a grocery shop owner with a bushy mustache who has lived here his whole life.

“We are afraid that they might come closer,” he said. “You might have a pilot who doesn’t know where he’s going or a strong wind.”

Olmez, 46, said he has become more relaxed since hearing that the Patriot batteries were on their way. He said he hopes their presence will result in fewer attacks on Syrian towns just across the river.

“It’s a strong shield,” he said.

Business has dried up since the uprising began nearly 22 months ago, Olmez said, and hundreds of longtime residents were forced to move. They were replaced by hundreds of Syrian refugees in need of shelter, winter clothing and food.

Two Syrian men who moved to Hacipasa two months ago stopped by Olmez’s shop on Saturday afternoon to buy flour and olive oil. The potential danger in Turkey is nothing compared with what Syrians face, they said.

“The Americans, by doing this, they are protecting the Turkish villages,” said one of the men, who did not want to be identified. “But for the Syrian villages, they are doing nothing.”

‘I don’t see a need for it’

Farther from the border, in Antakya, there is widespread criticism of the Patriot batteries. The town has a large Alawite population, and there are frequent rallies in support of the Syrian government. On Sunday afternoon, many residents said they wanted peace and stability in Syria, not a revolution. Some worry that planting foreign troops on the border is a step toward a broader war, and they question why the Turkish military needs help.

“They’re claiming it’s for defense reasons, but I don’t see a need for it,” said Cemil Yuce, 60, at his restaurant. “I don’t think anything will happen, that any missiles will come over from Syria. Nothing will happen.”

Ihsan Birim, who owns a shop that sells CDs, said the economic consequences of the Syrian uprising have hurt Turkey more than stray missiles. His business is half what it was before the revolt began in 2011, he said. Money is tight, especially with two sons in college, and the family eats chicken instead of red meat. Birim, 53, said he wants this to be over.

As for the Patriot batteries, he said: “If it’s for defense purposes, that’s okay. But if it is to attack Syria, we don’t want it. We don’t want war. People are very afraid of war.”

January 8, 2013
For third day in row, Syrian jets bomb near Turkey

Syrian Air Force bombers leave behind billowlng smoke in the Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn, as seen from the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar, Tuesday

THE NEW YORK TIMES

PARIS — Syrian authorities ordered airstrikes for a third consecutive day close to the tense Turkish border today, and said a French decision to recognize and consider arming a newly formed Syrian rebel coalition was an “immoral” act “encouraging the destruction of Syria.”

The French move was depicted by analysts as an attempt to inject momentum into a broad Western and Arab effort to build a viable and effective opposition to hasten the end of a stalemated civil war which has further destabilized the Middle East.

For its part, the United States today signaled a reluctance to go beyond its characterization of the rebel alliance as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people, rather than as their sole representative.

Speaking in Perth, Australia, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington first wanted to see the coalition influencing events on the ground.

“As the Syrian opposition takes these steps and demonstrates its effectiveness in advancing the cause of a unified, democratic, pluralistic Syria, we will be prepared to work with them to deliver assistance to the Syrian people,” news reports quoted her saying.

At the same time, she announced $30 million in American humanitarian aid to feed people affected by the civil war, bringing the total American assistance to almost $200 million.

The airstrikes today underscored the urgency of the diplomatic maneuvers. Journalists along the 550-mile border between Turkey and Syria near the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar said they witnessed a Syrian airstrike in the adjacent Syrian town of Ras al-Ain, where rebels say they have ousted troops loyal to Mr. Assad. It was the third such strike there in as many days.

In response, Reuters reported, Turkey scrambled fighter jets to its southeastern border with Syria, recalling Turkey’s insistence that it will not refrain from a tougher reaction against Syria.

The official SANA news agency in Syria made no direct reference to the Western moves. But the deputy foreign minister, Faisal Muqdad, told the Agence France-Presse news agency that the establishment of the opposition coalition in Doha, Qatar, was a “ declaration of war.” “We read the Doha document and they reject any dialogue with the government.”

Referring to the French recognition of the alliance, he said: “Allow me to use the word, this is an immoral position. They are supporting killers, terrorists and they are encouraging the destruction of Syria.”The announcement by President François Hollande on Tuesday made France the first Western country to fully embrace the new coalition, which came together this past weekend under Western pressure after days of difficult negotiations in Doha, Qatar.

The six Arab countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, including key opposition supporters Qatar and Saudi Arabia, recognized the rebel coalition on Monday as the legitimate Syrian government. Political analysts called Mr. Hollande’s announcement an important moment in the Syrian conflict, which began as a peaceful Arab Spring uprising in March 2011. It was harshly suppressed by Mr. Assad, turned into a civil war and has left nearly 40,000 Syrians dead, displaced about 2.5 million and forced more than 400,000 to flee to neighboring countries, according to international relief agencies.

“It’s certainly another page of the story,” Augustus Richard Norton, a professor of international relations at Boston University and an expert on Middle East political history, said of the French announcement. “I think it’s important. But it will be much more important if other countries follow suit. I don’t think we’re quite there yet.”

Andrew J. Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that the new coalition would have to create a secure zone in Syria to be successful, and that such a step would require support from the United States, which was instrumental in the negotiations that led to the group’s creation but has not yet committed to giving it full recognition.

What the French have done, Mr. Tabler said, is significant because they have started the process of broader recognition, putting pressure on the group to succeed. “They’ve decided to back this umbrella organization and hope that it has some kind of political legitimacy and keep it from going to extremists,” he said. “It’s a gamble. The gamble is that it will stiffen the backs of the opposition.”

France’s statement also was a clear reflection of frustration with the growing death toll and military stalemate in Syria. It came a week after the re-election of President Obama, who had clearly been unwilling to consider any military policy that could hurt his prospects.

Mr. Hollande’s announcement came as the rebel coalition’s newly chosen leader, Sheik Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, a former imam of the historic Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and a respected figure in Syria, made a broad appeal to Western and Arab countries for recognition and military aid. Foreign ministers of the Arab League, while approving the new group as the “legitimate representative of the Syrian opposition,” have not agreed on recognizing it as a provisional government to replace Mr. Assad.

France, the former colonial power in Syria, has been pressing for a more committed international effort to help the anti-Assad movement.

via For third day in row, Syrian jets bomb near Turkey – Worcester Telegram & Gazette – telegram.com.

November 15, 2012
Archaeologists Explore Site on Syria-Turkey Border

By Christopher Torchia

November 11, 2012 8:54AM

Despite the Syrian war, archaeologists are hard at work at the site of an ancient city called Karkemish. The strategic city’s historical importance is long known to scholars because of references in ancient texts. Despite the dangers, archaeologists say they felt secure during a 10-week season of excavation on the Turkish side of Karkemish.

Few archaeological sites seem as entwined with conflict, ancient and modern, as the city of Karkemish. The scene of a battle mentioned in the Bible, it lies smack on the border between Turkey and Syria, where civil war rages today. Twenty-first century Turkish sentries occupy an acropolis dating back more than 5,000 years, and the ruins were recently demined. Visible from crumbling, earthen ramparts, a Syrian rebel flag flies in a town that regime forces fled just months ago.

A Turkish-Italian team is conducting the most extensive excavations there in nearly a century, building on the work of British Museum teams that included T.E. Lawrence, the adventurer known as Lawrence of Arabia. The plan is to open the site along the Euphrates river to tourists in late 2014.

The strategic city, its importance long known to scholars because of references in ancient texts, was under the sway of Hittites and other imperial rulers and independent kings. However, archaeological investigation there was halted by World War I, and then by hostilities between Turkish nationalists and French colonizers from Syria who built machine gun nests in its ramparts. Part of the frontier was mined in the 1950s, and in later years, creating deadly obstacles to archaeological inquiry at a site symbolic of modern strife and intrigue.

via Archaeologists Explore Site on Syria-Turkey Border | Sci-Tech Today.

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November 12, 2012
Turkey in the Syrian Crisis: What Next?

Turkey in the Syrian Crisis: What Next?

by Veli Sirin
October 26, 2012 at 3:15 am

But Erdogan is, to many, no more than an impotent, tantrum-prone, and dangerous demagogue – which the Obama administration and other “concerned powers” will not admit. Presumptions that he can act consequently to rescue the Syrian people are mistaken.

Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad treats Turkish military reprisals as pin-pricks. Nonetheless, while massacres continue inside Syria, confrontations and counterblows proliferate along the country’s border with Turkey, including exchanges of mortar-shell fire. But how long will this stalemate continue?

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in his public comments, is addicted to candor, if not bluster. He condemns the weakness of the United Nations in the face of the Syrian bloodletting, yet is even more dismayed, it seems, to realize that Turkey cannot wage war on the Al-Assad regime. Turkey cannot save Syria; it cannot march to Damascus; it cannot remove the Al-Assad state apparatus, and it cannot reconstruct Syria as a Turkish protectorate.

The Syrian Army is a significant military force, and would respond with a wholesale offensive, devastating poor Turkish villages. The Syrian war is spreading into Lebanon; its extension northward could produce a general conflagration in the area.

For these reasons, and not out of sympathy for the Syrian tyrant, the overwhelming majority of Turks oppose a military campaign against Damascus. The Turkish political opposition calls on Erdogan to renounce his bellicose rhetoric. Turkey will, it is hoped, avoid a war with Syria, even as Erdogan postures as a great military figure and proposes a “vision” for resolution of the crisis.

Erdogan tours the Middle East and in many places is applauded. This, of course, increases his popularity at home. Arab sympathy for Erdogan most likely reflects his adoption of an anti-Israeli stance. He has also called for Islamic unity. “Brotherhood” and “community” are the pillars on which Erdogan has constructed his project for a Muslim-dominated Mediterranean.

Turkish “neo-Ottomanism,” combining Islamist supremacy with patriotic fervor, is not limited to Ankara’s initiatives in foreign policy. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has made Ottoman nostalgia a central feature of Turkish cultural life.

Examples of this attitude are plentiful. With an AKP municipal government, Istanbul every year now celebrates May 29, commemorating the conquest of the city by Sultan Mehmed II in 1453. In 2010, Istanbul considered itself the “European Capital of Culture,” and the budget for the program emphasized renovation of Ottoman architectural sites. Istanbul no longer projects itself only as a bridge between east and west, but as the center of Ottoman civilization. None of these developments is reassuring.

NATO, in an urgent meeting on the Syrian disaster in June, declared clear support for Turkey. The hurriedly-assembled NATO ambassadors described Syrian attacks on the Turkish frontier as a breach of international law and a menace to regional security. But NATO concluded diffidently, “As indicated on June 26, the alliance is monitoring closely the Syrian situation.”

The U.S. promised to support Turkey. Tommy Vietor, National Security Council spokesperson, said late last year, “We continue to call on other governments to join the chorus of condemnation and pressure against the Assad regime so that the peaceful and democratic aspirations of the Syrian people can be realized. President Obama has coordinated closely with Prime Minister Erdogan throughout the crisis in Syria and will continue to do so going forward.” The U.S. appealed to Al-Assad to step down from power, agree to an armistice in the fighting, and initiate a political transition.

After Turkey forced a Syrian passenger aircraft to land in Ankara on October 10, German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle visited his Turkish counterpart, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, in Istanbul. Westerwelle placed his country unambiguously on the side of Turkey. The German representative declared, “Under international law, Turkey must not tolerate transport through their airspace of weapons or military supplies to Syria.” In a similar case, with a violation of German airspace, said his government would have done the same thing. “Turkey is our partner,” Westerwelle added, “and they can count on our solidarity.”

The German foreign minister, however, distanced Germany from Erdogan’s harsh criticism of the UN Security Council, which Erdogan has said should be reformed, as at present two permanent members, Russia and China, possess veto power over any action on Syria.

Erdogan repeats to the world that a humanitarian disaster is taking place in Syria. “If we wait for one or two of the [UN Security Council’s] permanent members… then the future of Syria will be in danger,” he insists. But his opinion is not supported by most of the rest of the world. Erdogan, in an October 13 speech in Istanbul, invoked the Balkan tragedy that occurred two decades ago. “How sad is,” he said, “that the UN is as helpless today as it was 20 years ago, when it watched the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people in the Balkans.”

No one can predict where all this oratory will end up. It is only certain that there are victims on both sides of the Turkish-Syrian border, and in the conflict inside Syria. Since the beginning of October, the Turkish army has directed fire at 87 locations inside Syria, and has killed at least 12 Syrian soldiers, according to a report based on Turkish military sources, and published in the Turkish daily Milliyet on October 20. The paper stated that Syria had launched mortar rounds or other shells across the border 27 times, and that in the Turkish response, five Syrian tanks, three armored vehicles, one mortar, one ammunition transporter and two anti-aircraft guns were destroyed, with many more military vehicles damaged.

The Europeans tend to their own affairs, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council negotiate among themselves, Turkey claims it is considering unilateral action against Syria. But Erdogan is, to many, no more than an impotent, tantrum-prone, and dangerous demagogue – which the Obama administration and other “concerned powers” will not publicly admit. Some say that notwithstanding a possible Erdogan strategy for the establishment of Syria as a Sunni Islamist ally – or vassal – of an AKP-led Turkey, he and his party are needed for any positive action by NATO against Al-Assad. But presumptions that he can act consequently to rescue the Syrian people are mistaken. And the rest of us can only wait and hope for the best.

October 27, 2012
US supports Turkey’s military response against Syria

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, JPOST CORRESPONDENT

10/06/2012 01:10

White House spokesman says “US stands behind Turkey as they take action because we believe that action is appropriate.”

Photo: REUTERS/Larry Downing

WASHINGTON – The United States expressed strong support for Turkey Friday as it took military action to respond to Syrian attacks on its border.

“We do certainly stand behind Turkey as they take that action because we believe that action is appropriate,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said when asked about the recent flare-up between the two countries.

Related:

‘Several Syrian soldiers killed in Turkish bombardment’

UN reaches consensus on text condemning Syria

Turkey returned fire Friday after a mortar fired from Syria landed in the southern part of the country. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Turkish army bombarded Syrian military targets after five civilians were killed by a Syrian shelling earlier in the week.

The Turkish parliament has authorized the military to engage in cross-border action should there be further Syrian attacks.

The violence is threatening to turn the internal Syrian conflict into a regional war.

Earnest also said that the United States “condemns the violence and the aggressive actions of the Syrians.”

NATO has passed a resolution condemning the violence, as did the UN Security Council. But UN Security Council permanent member and Syria ally Russia has called for restraint on the part of Turkey, as has Iran.

Earnest referred to Turkey’s actions as “designed to ensure that their sovereignty is no longer violated by Syrian aggression.”

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned on Friday his country was “not far” from war with Syria following the cross-border attacks.

In a belligerent speech to a crowd in Istanbul, Erdogan warned the Assad government it would be making a fatal mistake if it picked a fight with Turkey.

“We are not interested in war, but we’re not far from it either,” Erdogan said in his speech. “Those who attempt to test Turkey’s deterrence, its decisiveness, its capacity, I say here they are making a fatal mistake.”

The cross-border violence was the most serious so far in the conflict, now in its 19th month, and underscored how it could flare across the region.

Turkey, once an Assad ally and now a leading voice in calls for him to quit, shelters more than 90,000 Syrian refugees in camps on its territory and has allowed rebel army leaders sanctuary.

Violence has also spilled over into Lebanon.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in the revolt against Assad, which began with peaceful street protests but is now a full-scale civil war also fought on sectarian lines.

Reuters contributed to this report.

via US supports Turkey’s military response aga… JPost – Middle East.

October 6, 2012