Tag: Turkey-Syria

Russia helps U.S., Syria establish contact, Turkey in shock

With a little bit of help from Russia, the Americans and the Syrians have established contact with each other, sending shockwaves in Turkey, which has blamed Moscow and Beijing for the continuation of strife in Syria.

AP In this September 28, 2012 photo, Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia, addresses U.N. General Assembly. He has said that Moscow had helped American experts to establish contact with Syria on the subject of chemical weapons.

Addressing the American media on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov dropped a bombshell. He said that Moscow had helped the American experts to establish contact with the Syrians on the subject of chemical weapons. “I hope I won’t disclose any big secret, but we have helped American experts establish contact with the Syrians on this issue, and we have received explanations and assurances that the Syrian government is guarding these facilities in the best possible way,” said Mr. Lavrov, as reported by Russia Today.

He also added that Russia was not considering granting asylum to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, in case he decided to quit office.

“No, we won’t grant him asylum,” Mr. Lavrov said, pointing out that the Syrian President “was a friend of other countries northwest of Syria.”

Lebanon’s Al Manar television website quoted its Arab sources in France as confirming that the U.S. delegation at the U.N. General Assembly annual session wanted to discuss with Syria, the issue of chemical weapons. The Syrian side pledged “with a Russian guarantee” that it would not use these weapons “inside Syria during the conflict between the government and the militant opposition”. However, the Syrian delegation was emphatic in stating that in case Syria was subjected to a foreign attack, in that case countries involved in inciting and participating in that attack would be legitimate targets “for the Syrian rockets… loaded with chemical warheads, including countries neighbouring Syria”.

Coinciding with the Mr. Lavrov’s announcement of opening a U.S.-Syria dialogue track on chemical weapons, Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan went uncharacteristically ballistic—blaming both Russia and China of siding with Syria. His outburst against Moscow and Beijing was aired live on NTV, a leading Turkish television station.

“The main source of disappointment is Russia. Let alone raising its voice against Syria, it stands by the massacre,” said Mr. Erdogan as reported by Reuters.

“China stands by Russia, and although [Chinese President] Hu Jintao had told me they wouldn’t veto the plan [for a safe zone] for a third time, they did at the U.N. vote.” Mr. Erdogan described the position of Iran, a staunch Syria ally, as “impossible to understand”.

Turkey has emerged as a frontline state against the Assad government, with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United States as allies.

The bitter acrimony that this has caused between one time allies — Turkey and Syria — is climbing to new heights. Syria is now seriously considering arming Kurdish fighters for combat against

Turkey, Al Manar said. Citing its “Kurdish sources,” close to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party in Syria, the website said that the Assad government “had sent a letter to Turkey saying that the Turkish interference in Syria would prompt Damascus to arm every Kurdish man in both Turkey and Syria”.

The Syrian government is apparently considering supplying the Kurds advanced weaponry including the anti-tank Kornet rockets, as it considers playing its “Kurdish card”.

Adding psychological warfare to its arsenal, the Syrian army has been sending cellphone text messages nationwide to the armed opposition stating: “Game Over”. These messages have also said that the countdown to evict the foreign fighters from Syria had begun, Associated Press reported.

Keywords: Syria uprising, Bashar Assad regime, U.S.-Syria contact, chemical weapons, Turkey-Syria ties

via The Hindu : News / International : Russia helps U.S., Syria establish contact, Turkey in shock.

September 30, 2012
Turkey facing questions on Syria policy…washingtonpost

View Photo Gallery — Syrian refugees flock to Turkey and Jordan: Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have spilled across the border into Turkey and Jordan since the 17-month uprising in their homeland began.

By Karin Brulliard, Published: September 7

ANTAKYA, Turkey — Turkey, a rising heavyweight in the Muslim world, has led the international campaign to oust the regime in next-door Syria. But as the fighting drags on, Turkey is complaining that the United States and others have left it abandoned on the front line of a conflict that is bleeding across its border.With its calls for an international haven for refugees in Syria going nowhere, Turkey is rushing to shelter an influx of about 80,000 Syrians. In the east, Kurdish militants who Turkey alleges are aided by Syria are intensifying deadly attacks. And in this Alawite-heavy border region, a rest and resupply hub for the mainly Sunni Syrian rebels, worries are growing that Syria’s sectarian strife might infect Turkey.

Turkish officials stand behind their Syria policy, and the problems have posed little threat to the moderately Islamist government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan or to Turkey’s carefully cultivated popularity in the region. But as opinion polls indicate declining domestic support for the government’s stance, Turkey is finding it has limited room to manage fallout that analysts say it did not anticipate when it turned against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last year.“Ankara now realizes that it doesn’t have the power to rearrange — forget it in the region, but also not in Syria,” said Gokhan Bacik, director of the Middle East Strategic Research Center at Turkey’s Zirve University. “So Ankara desperately needs American support. But American supportis not coming.”When a U.S. delegation visited late last month, the Turks made the case they had made two weeks earlier to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a senior administration official said: They were overwhelmed with Syrians, and they wanted the United States and others to establish safe areas, protected by a no-fly zone, for them inside Syria. Their limit, the Turks warned, was 100,000 refugees.Clinton, confronted with emotional Turkish pleas, said that a no-fly zone would require major outside military intervention and that the United States did not believe it would help, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations. But rather than dismiss Turkey’s concerns outright, Clinton called for further bilateral discussions and an “operation and command” structure for the two governments to coordinate their responses to the crisis.Turkey’s posture toward Assad is the result of an about-face. Before the uprising, Syria was the centerpiece of Turkey’s “zero problems with neighbors” foreign policy, and trade and travel between the countries flourished.Now Turkey hosts the opposition Syrian National Council and provides a havento the rebel Free Syrian Army and hundreds of defected Syrian soldiers. On Wednesday, Erdogan called Syria a “terrorist state.” The stance has boosted Turkey’s credibility in the Arab world but complicated its relations with Iran and Russia, which support Assad.Turkey has constructed a string of 11 refugee camps along its border and is building more for newcomers, who the government says enter at a rate of 4,000 a day. Thousands are packed into public schools and dormitories, and hundreds of Syrians are being treated in Turkish hospitals.

Turkey backtracked on a recent statement that it would close its doors at 100,000 refugees. But Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who is facing growing criticism at home, suggested regret last week over the open-door policy.“There is an increasing sense in Turkey that, through making such a sacrifice and tackling an enormous issue all by itself, we are leading the international community to complacency and inaction,” he said at the United Nations.

The refugee crisisis swelling as Turkish headlines are dominated by deadly battles in the alpine southeast between security forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a separatist insurgency for 28 years. Turkish officials accuse Syria of arming the guerrillas and empowering a PKK offshoot in sections of northeastern Syria along the Turkish border. Last month, Turkish officials blamed the PKK for a bombing that killed nine civilians in the city of Gaziantep.Turkey is particularly concerned that Syrian missiles could fall into the hands of the PKK, enabling it to attack the helicopters Turkey relies on to fight the insurgents, Bacik said.Yet even as Turkey condemns Assad, frets about a growing power vacuum in Syria and pleads for international intervention, officials and analysts say the country has no appetite for deploying its military unilaterally to confront Assad or secure a refugee zone.There is widespread public opposition in Turkey to military action, and analysts say Turkey is wary of jeopardizing its popularity in a region where the legacy of Ottoman rule remains fresh. The Turkish military is ill-prepared for what could be a prolonged, Iraq-style sectarian war, said Henri Barkey, a Turkey expert at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.“They realize this is a Pandora’s box, that you go in and God knows how you’re going to come out,” Barkey said.Barkey said Turkey’s 566-mile border with Syria made the conflict “a no-win situation for the Turks from the beginning.” Turkish commentators and opposition politicians have seized on the issue as a policy failure, and some analysts and U.S. officials said Turkey exacerbated its woes by limiting U.N. involvement in the camps and allowing Sunni rebels and refugees to concentrate in the largely Alawite province of Hatay.

“The government is facing a crisis for which it has no answers, and a public at home that is growing increasingly uneasy over this,” Semih Idiz, a foreign policy analyst, wrote in the Hurriyet Daily News, an English-language newspaper in Turkey. “If this is not a debacle, then what is?”

That unease is palpable in Antakya, less than an hour from the border. Many residents of this scenic town and surrounding Hatay province are members of the Alawite minority Shiite sect that dominates the Syrian regime. Syria and Turkey are majority Sunni.

Antakya had been a shopping destination for Syrians. Since the rebellion, it has become a base for Syrian refugees and rebels, including thickly bearded men who stand out in a town where sundresses and shorts are common. Cross-border trade has slowed, and apartment prices have spiked.Here, support for Assad remains strong, and there is simmering anxiety that Erdogan, the prime minister, is supporting the Syrian rebellion to cement Sunni supremacy in the region. Those fears have been stoked by Turkey’s main opposition party, which has accused the government of training radical Islamists in a nearby camp for defectors. The government denies that and says it has not armed rebels.

“They’re shaping some new religious fighters. What is the guarantee those fighters would not fight back against Turkey someday?” said Refik Eryilmaz, an opposition member of parliament from Hatay, which hosts five refugee camps.

Ismail Kimyeci, the Hatay chairman of Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, said critics are overstating the presence of fighters in Antakya. He dismissed the concerns as propaganda meant to stir division. “The Syrian people are demanding a new, free country,” Kimyeci said. Of the Syrians in Hatay, he said: “We don’t really see which religion they are. The Turkish policy is to help everyone.”But tensions are festering. In interviews, Antakyans complained about Syrian rebels ditching restaurant tabs or robbing women of their jewelry, though none could cite personal experience. Last weekend, several thousand people protested Turkey’s participation in what was described as an imperialist plot against Syria. Some said all rebels must leave Turkey.“They are saying, ‘After we finish in Syria, we will cut your throats here,’ ” said Ali Zafer, 33, a teacher who said he supports Assad, describing one common rumor about the rebels. Turkey, he said, “especially brought them to Antakya, to kill Alawites.”Syrians interviewed said they generally feel welcome but know that might wear off. At a rebel safe house in Reyhanli, where the Alawite population is smaller, occupants said Turks stop by with supplies and encouragement.“We are trying our best to obey the rules of a foreign country,” said a rebel commander who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Hashim.

But he also contended that the controversy should motivate Turkey to speed an end to the war. “It’s better for the Turkish government to send us weapons,” he said, “so they can avoid this fuss here.”

Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.

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Comments

djfeiger

1:04 AM EDT

The question is how to blame this all on Israel. When Obama establishing his Middle East policy only leftists Jews willing to abandon their self esteem, history, religion, humanity and right to life one can only say, ” So what is new”? As Hitler stated so many times who want’s the Jews? No One. He ased” who mentions the Armenian Genocide , today?”. Once again if we only go rid of Israel and the Jews all would be right. Middle East Peace? Sunni and Shia ending 2000 years of bloody massacres. In 2009 Pres. Obama gave a speech in Cairo, abandoning US commitment to the rule of law and embracing a myth contradicted by the historical record, signed treaties, Israel-Trans Jordan Armistice under US and UN co signs, Res 242 and 338 and a reluctance to embrace anti American dictators. Insisting 10 members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood attend his Cairo speech insulting Egypt’s hosting government, their assasination of Anwar Sadat, destruction of Israel, creation of a Pan Arab Sunni, Islamist theocracy After Obama’s speech demanding more sacrifice from Israel’s 6,000,000 Jews on 7,000 sq miles of land rather then flying there a 250 mi flight he instead flew to a Nazi Death Camp. US commentator’s are to ignorant to see the symbolism on the genocidal Arab world. Btw the MB as were the Arab Pals were Allies with the facists as Hitler told the Haj Amin al Husseini, ” Germany and the Arabs are naturual allies united in our hatred and desire to exterminate the Jews. So Obama favoring dead Jews over living, Israel’s and US enemies who call for war not peace, his inability to see PA intransigence, terror, infighting, mutual slaughter, creating a death cult santifying slaughter of innocents similar to Japan’s Kamikazes except slaughter of military. When Iran butchered it’s dissidence Obama was silent while legitimizing Tehran’s Tyrants. Perhaps if Iran wished to build Jews homes Obama, Biden, Dempsey and Clinton would mobilize. But. just vaporizing 6,000,000 Jews isn’t worth raising a sweat. Appeasement of our enemies and back stabbing our allies has brought chaos to an entire region. Iran is supporting Assad against the West while using a rudderless US to exacerbate US Israeli divisions, embarressing Turkey which abandoned Israel for Iran only to be betrayed. Since Dempsey designated any Israel self defense as a criminal conspiracy what does Israel have to loose? Why hold back when as the US did in WWII use Nukes to save lives. If 2 bombs were worth 400,000 GI then what number of bombs to save 6,000,000 Jews?That’s what happens when you pull the rug out from under an ally. Turkey fears Iran and what if it were nuclear? Egypt? Saudi Arabia? Bahrain? And the media and anti-Semites are bladed by hate to see how this Pres is subverting our world. It’s 1914 and everyone is enjoying the summer season.

spamsux1

9/8/2012 3:40 PM EDT

As far as setting up no-fly zones, the US could easily provide AWACS support for Turkey’s air force to create a large zone along the border and if Iraq agreed the same could be done along that border.The wealthy countries in the area could easily pay for it.Highly unlikely Obama will do anything beyond his months of finger-wagging and scolding.He has more important matters to attend to…

nick212

9/8/2012 4:44 PM EDT

Do you have any idea what it would cost to set up a no fly zone – which would probably have to last until boots on the ground secured the country – a long time ….

September 9, 2012
İYİ ŞEKER BAYRAMLAR!!!! FROM THE APES AND SWINE OF TURKEY

Suriye’ye kamyon kamyon nitrat gübresi götürülüyor
Trucks bringing nitrate fertilizer bomb-making material to Syria (from Turkey)

Hatay’dan Suriye’ye kamyon kamyon nitrat gübresi götürüldüğü ortaya çıktı. Bölge kaynakları, nitrat gübresinin, bomba yapımında kullanılmak için götürüldüğünü vurguladı. Bölgede kullanımı yaygın olmadığı halde özellikle Reyhanlı’da nitrat gübresinin bayilerden çekildiği belirtiliyor. Ziraat odasında bir yetkili “Bu gübreler, tarımda kullanmak üzere stoklanıyor olabilir mi?” sorusunu, “Nitrat gübresi stoklanmaz. Beklediğinde niteliğinde kaybeder. Çiftçi zarar eder” diye yanıtladı. Esad yönetimine karşı eylemler gerçekleştiren paralı askerlerin ve muhaliflerin nitrat gübresini, Suriye’de bomba yapmakta kullandıkları bildirildi.

Aydinlik Gazetesi, 19 Ağüstos 2012

____________________________________________________________________

Note to the Turkish Government:

On the holiest day of the year you are deliberately killing your fellow Muslim believers. May Allah damn you to hell. In fact, Allah already has! Read your holy Koran you religious mongering merchants of murder!

— It is unlawful for a believer to kill another believer. Koran, 4:92.

— He that kills a believer by design shall burn in Hell forever. He shall incur the wrath of God, who will lay His curse upon him and prepare for him a mighty scourge. Koran, 4:93

— Shall I tell you who will receive a worse reward from God? Those whom God has cursed and with whom He has been angry, transforming them into apes and swine, and those who serve the devil. Koran, 5:60

READ YOUR KORAN, TURKISH APES AND SWINE.

READ AND RECITE!

Cem Ryan

Istanbul

8/19/2012

_________________________________________________________________________________

August 20, 2012
AMERICA’S WAR-HORSE HARLOTS (by Cem Ryan)

AMERICA’S WAR-HORSE HARLOTS

Stoop, Romans, Stoop,
And let us bathe our hands in Caesar’s blood
Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords; Then walk we forth, even to the market-place,
And waving our red weapons o’er our heads, Let’s all cry, “Peace, freedom, and liberty !”
Julius Caesar, Act III, i

According to experts if you really, really want to get rid of a neighbor—“bump off” is the professional term—call the mafia. But if you’re a down-at-the-heels fast fading super power, broke and bewildered, and need to continue the Arab Spring fairy tale about having the Arabs choose America-friendly democracies that sprout like orange groves throughout the Middle East, these same experts unanimously suggest you call Turkey. Just dial 011-90-ALLAHSBOYS. Oerators are standing by to answer your calls.

ALLAH’S BOYS specialize in duplicity: double-talking, double-dealing, and double-facing. Once upon a time not so very long ago “peace at home, peace in the world” was a national motto in Turkey. Now, thanks to ALLAH’S BOYS, there is no peace anywhere. And even more recently, ALLAH’S BOYS declared a foreign policy aphorism: “zero problems with our neighbors.” Now Turkey has nothing but problems and zero genuine neighbors, despite the weak-knee scribbling of the government-controlled propaganda press.

So since America needs to oust the leadership of Syria, Turkey is their international gangster of choice. Need to secure the oil pipeline forever? Want to protect Israel’s borders, even though expansionist Israel has never declared them? Call Turkey. This amnesiac country can forget the “van minit” fiasco at Davos in approximately one minute, if the price is right. It’s so terribly easy. All it takes is money.

Yes, ALLAH’S BOYS will do the sneaky, dirty work, especially on their brother Muslims, very democratic, these boys. After all, ALLAH’S BOYS are CIA creatures. Remember the “our boys did it!” exclamation from the 1980 CIA-induced Turkish military coup? ALLAH’S BOYS are the bad seed Islamo-fascist children of that catastrophe. True masters of disaster who have raped their own country through privatization, just like the juntas did in South America. Inside Turkey environmental disaster prevails. Forests are destroyed, rivers contaminated by stupid self-serving plans. “No river shall run in vain,” says the head ALLAH’S BOY, meaning that all running waterways will somehow, somewhere generate electricity. Forget nature. Turkey’s once thriving agriculture is nearly barren, its seed imported from Israel. The uneducated voting base of ALLAH’S BOYS remains bedazzled and uneducated. With no economic plan for the future, ALLAH’S BOYS encourages them to have at least 3-5 children. It needs the votes. The once proud Turkish Army has been purged, its senior ranks now stuffed with government toadies. The recent military disasters related to America’s drone-fiascos attest to its incompetence; it has yet to explain or otherwise account for the grievous loss of Turkish lives. Hundreds, thousands—one loses count—of democratic dissenters are in jails throughout the land. Everyone is wire-tapped. Public-space cameras abound. Fascist style police control the streets. Every public assembly of citizens turns into a police riot. Democratic constitutional protections no longer exist. The judicial system is thoroughly politicized. Art, music, cinema, theater, writing, all is subject to censure or fine or destruction. And political thievery an institutional art form.

All this and more is what America’s favorite adopted sons, ALLAH’S BOYS, have brought to their own country. ALLAH’S BOYS knows how to do two things very well, destroy and make money. And America truly loves what this motley crew has done for now the US is paying them big war-bucks for a new, disastrous adventure in the name so-called democracy. Now the Arab world is experiencing democracy a la Turka, as prepared in America, as delivered by ALLAH’S BOYS and their CIA handlers.

It all happened so quickly, like love at first sight. Only two years ago the capo of ALLAH’S BOYS wondered out loud about “what business does NATO have in Libya?” This was shortly after he had accepted the Muammar Gaddafi Human Rights Award. But then a breeze blew past his bristled upper lip bringing the smell of cordite, carrion, and chaos, followed by a little bird carrying a wad of large denomination American dollars. Twitter. Twitter. And ALLAH’S BOYS suddenly learned how to make money from war. And suddenly Muammar became a big-time loser and the Turks were bombing Libya along with the rest of NATO. And for the last 15 months ALLAH’S BOYS have been provoking Syria. In collusion with the CIA, automatic weapons, tanks, rockets, all the toys of war, have been given to the so-called Friends of Syria mercenaries. These unsavory characters bear a painful resemblance to the US-financed gangsters who toppled Saddam’s statue in Firdos Square in 2003 and, to Hillary Clinton’s great glee, sodomized and disemboweled Gaddafi last year. And now the murderers from the infamous Blackwater gang are in southern Turkey. Such is the way ALLAH’S BOYS (and the CIA) operate. Money. Money. Money.

But now they have provoked Syria too much. A Turkish jet, violating Syrian air space, coming in low and fast, got dropped into the sea. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin fiasco? The concocted incident that “validated” America’s disastrous war in Viet Nam? This is the same lying subterfuge played on the world stage, courtesy of the CIA and America’s puppet show provided by ALLAH’S BOYS. And now ALLAH’S BOYS cry murder most foul their own self-provoked crisis. And of course their American handlers echo the outrage. Make no mistake about this: they, ALLAH’S BOYS and America, are the real murderers of the two downed Turkish pilots. Along with the incompetent military commanders who approved this mission of provocation. But indeed they all found out that, Yes, Syria does indeed have an air defense capability. How stupidly negligent can one be? Ah, but the money is good.

As they used to say about Mexico and America, can be said about Syria: “Poor Syria. So far from God. So close to Turkey.” And to think Bashar Assad, a physician trained in England and president of Syria, and his stylish wife, Esma, British and college-educated, were feted in Ankara not too long ago. His wife dazzled in comparison to the fashion-retard covered wives of ALLAH’S BOYS. Then, Turkey and Syria were on great terms. The border was open. No visas or passports necessary. Trade was booming between Hatay in southern Turkey and Syria. But then that same little bird flew in the window at Ankara. And suddenly the room was full of money. And suddenly it became War! War! War! And American war bucks galore filled the Turkish air. And the ever capacious, ever open pockets of the Turkish government became happy pockets indeed.

The Turkish media lackeys bang their pathetic war drums. ALLAH’S BOYS cry wah-wah-wah to NATO, the UN and any other agency who cares to listen. It’s known as the alibi-cover up scam, also known as “protesting too much.” But the BOYS have America’s melodramatic outrage to revel in, and “endless support” according to the hapless American ambassador. So now Turkey can add its bloody hand to the millions of its Muslim “brothers and sisters” killed and displaced in Iraq and Afghanistan. What a bloody bunch! What a collection of phonies! What a dishonorable gang!

There is no honor in war. Just examine the photographs of the destroyed Iraqi children. Where are your children, ALLAH’S BOYS? There surely is no honor in America’s endless, hopeless, murderous wars. And there is nothing but treachery and greed among America’s War-Horse whores, these dogs of war who wave their red weapons over their heads crying “PEACE! FREEDOM! LIBERTY!” when they really mean MONEY! MONEY! MONEY! Killers all.

And all this carnage under the aegis of the Nobel Peace Prize winning American president.

The shame is boundless, the rape obscene.

Cem Ryan
13 July 2012

PS: See the websites of West Point Graduates Against The War and Service Academy Graduates Against The War for further details about America’s war crimes and its war criminals.

http://www.brighteningglance.org/americarsquos-war-horse-harlots-29-june-2012.html

Money makes the world go around…

Joel Grey, CABARET

Money, money, money, money

Money, money, money, money

Money, money, money, money, money

_____________________________________________________

THE DESTROYED CHILDREN OF IRAQ

WAR IS A CRIME!

STOP THE WAR CRIMINALS!

July 13, 2012
Turkey’s Erdogan Continues Provocations Against Syria in Service of Gulf Monarchies; Advice to Turkish Government: “Vaziyeti Kurtaran Bahane” – Find a Face-Saving Way Out; Geneva Conference on Syria Saturday June 30

Turkey’s Erdogan Continues Provocations Against Syria in Service of Gulf Monarchies; Advice to Turkish Government: “Vaziyeti Kurtaran Bahane” – Find a Face-Saving Way Out; Geneva Conference on Syria Saturday June 30

Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D.
PressTV
June 27, 2012

A political analyst says a Turkish fighter jet that recently violated Syrian airspace and was downed by Damascus was a ploy to provoke the country.

The comment comes as Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his government would retaliate against Damascus over the downing of the Turkish fighter jet by the Syrian army.

Syria on Friday said that a Turkish warplane, a F-4 Phantom, was shot down in Syrian territorial waters west of the village of Om al-Tuyour in Lattakia Province, 10 kilometers from the beach.

Syrian military stressed on Friday that it had engaged the jet in the Syrian airspace “according to the laws that govern such situations.”

Erdogan said Turkey’s military jet violated the Syrian airspace for a short time and “by mistake” and it was shot down by Syria “without a single warning.”

Meanwhile, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has condemned the downing of the Turkish plane as ‘unacceptable,’ and promised full support for Ankara. Turkey had called for a meeting of the alliance to discuss the incident.

Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi on Monday warned NATO against forging any anti-Syria conspiracy on the downing of the Turkish fighter jet.

Press TV has conducted an interview with author and historian, Webster Griffin Tarpley, to further discuss the issue.

The show also offers the opinions of two additional guests: political analyst, Taleb Ibrahim and Press TV correspondent, Natalie Carney.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview:

Press TV: Dr. Tarpley, let’s have your view on this as well some people were saying that this is not about starting a foreign military intervention that has already started, this could be about taking it to the next level. Now do you think this is what this war plane issue is all about? Or do you think that as Natalie was saying observers believing that this is just a war of words?

Tarpley: I think it’s a preparation for escalation and it represents an escalation. The information I have is that this Turkish war plane which is an F4 phantom configured as a reconnaissance aircraft was repeatedly flying into Syrian airspace then out over the Mediterranean then back into Syrian airspace, a kind of game of cat and mouse with the goal of provoking these Syrian radars to light up, to go into action so that all of that could be monitored and the nature of the Syrian response could be determined. It is perfectly possible also that it might have been seen as a cruise missile coming from the Mediterranean by the Syrian side.

What it shows is that the Syrian air defense is capable, it’s on alert and it will not allow any funny business going on. So I think that will have to be a sobering message to NATO that if you attempt to attack Syria, you could expect rather heavy losses from the air defense.

Now the further political ramifications Erdogan I think has acted with breath-taking irresponsibility and folly. He has gotten himself locked into this confrontation and where does it lead? It seems to lead towards escalation; there was all this irresponsible talk about article 5 of NATO that the entire block has to mobilize for Turkey over one aircraft. This is simply foolish and even inside Turkey we have the Republican party of a guy called [Kemal] Kilicdaroglu who calls on the government to stop needless provocations of Syria. In other words back off and I think that would be a good message to Erdogan. He is making a fool of himself.

Press TV: With NATO saying in response to that request by Turkey that we want to discuss this in a meeting, NATO has come out clearly saying that we support Ankara in that what Syria has done is unacceptable but has NATO got a plan, a clear plan to intervene directly or get involved militarily in Syria yet?

Tarpley: Well, of course secretary Panetta of the Pentagon has been quoted in the last couple of weeks saying “of course we have a plan for that” and General Dempsey has also said the same thing.

I would like to point out if Erdogan wants to be the new regional hegemon, he is doing it in the wrong way because he is not looking like a powerful leader, he is looking like a puppet of Saudi Arabia and Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and this is a rather pathetic thing.

They are goating him towards a war in which they will not be involved but he will be. He’ll be left holding the bag and they will continue to send money and troops. I think the most dangerous thing that Erdogan has done in his speech depending on how it was translated he seems to say: if Syria approaches the Turkish border with military forces then the Turkish forces will respond with gunfire and so forth.

Now what does that mean? It sounds like he is thinking in terms of a buffer zone or humanitarian corridor or something like this. That is a recipe obviously for a wider conflict. We have to remember President Putin of Russia has just been in the Middle East.

And he laid down once again the Russian opposition’s very firm rejection of this military solution and there is always that question if you provoke Russia, what will they do? How will they respond and this is an area now that with President Putin back in power it’s not so easy to predict what Russia might do?

I’m sure that Turkey is aware that they may be more powerful than Syria but then to the North of them there is somebody else who is more powerful still. So this has to play obviously a role. The best thing I would say to Erdogan, the Turkish expression is “vaziyeti kurtaran bahane” that is find a face saving solution and butt out of this, it leads nowhere.

Press TV: Mr. Tarpley, I’d just like to give you the comments made by the White House spokesman lately about the situation in Syria, he said that I’m quoting here, “high level defections, fighting closer to Damascus and the downing of the Turkish jet are all signs that Assad’s regime is losing control and that our view is transition cannot include Assad. Now what do you think that means? Would you agree with it and what does that say about the US stance?

Tarpley: It shows that Obama is every bit as bad as Bush ever was in terms of arrogance and hypocrisy and interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states. It’s also a lot of wishful thinking I think.

We got to keep this in perspective; Erdogan has essentially turned Southern Turkey into a base for al Qaida. We have reports of tourists who go to the Eskandaru area and come back saying I had some pretty rough looking characters in the hotel next door.

So this is a bad idea. Now looking forward to this conference of course Iran must attend- it’s got to be all interested parties, you can’t exclude anybody that would be absolutely unacceptable.

It seems to me though the missing ingredient is a clear denunciation of what the Obama administration has done. In other words providing material support to terrorism with these CIA officers in southern Turkey, sending weapons into Syria and we even have reports- I can’t verify them from Israeli sources that say once again British and other special forces from NATO are operating from time to time at least on the Syrian side of the border, in that northern area that MI6…

June 28, 2012
Syria mines Turkish border

By ROY GUTMAN

McClatchy Newspapers

ON THE TURKISH-SYRIAN BORDER — The Syrian military in the past month planted a band of anti-personnel mines along stretches of the border with Turkey, where last year more than 10,000 Syrian refugees fled the Assad regime’s crackdown on the “Arab Spring” uprising, Syrian witnesses said.

After a family of five reportedly died in a new minefield last month, Syrian civilians, operating with primitive means – an ax, a rope and the guidance of a volunteer who’d had mine-clearing training in military service – unearthed hundreds of those mines and reopened the way to safety, volunteers said.

The mines were Russian made PMN-2 pressure mines. They consist of a green plastic casing and a black X-like pressure plate, which detonates the charge inside. They were laid about a foot apart in two bands that were set about two feet apart, just three or four yards from the fence that marks the border with Turkey, according to the volunteer who directed the mine-clearing operation.

Tall and slight of frame, the volunteer, 28, who called himself Rajol al Hadidi, (“Iron Man”), left Syria one week ago carrying more than a dozen mines. He crossed into Turkey to seek the advice of military defectors in the Free Syrian Army on how to defuse the mines.

“I know 10 sorts of mines – anti-personnel mines and anti-tank mines, but not this one,” he said. “We didn’t know what explosive material was contained in it, but we thought it would create a crater of 3 or 4 meters,” he said.

But they were not able to advise him. In a meeting about a half mile from the Syrian border, Hadidi allowed a McClatchy reporter to photograph one mine – still fused – that he had removed from the new minefield.

Some mine experts consulted by McClatchy said there is no way to defuse the PMN-2 other than to detonate it with a small explosive charge.

Mines are usually deployed as defensive barriers. “Usually you can see them, especially if you know what you’re looking for, as they’re dug in shallow,” said Andy Smith, a British mine expert. “Most of the time, I don’t recommend trying to defuse them, because they’re not made to be defused.”

Hadidi said he removed the first mine, using a technique he had learned in the military – placing the blade of an ax in front of the mine, attaching a 70-foot rope, and tugging at the ax to ease the mine out of the ground. When he saw that moving the mine did not detonate it, he trained four other civilian volunteers in mine removal, and together they lifted an estimated 300 mines, he said.

The Syrian military had planted the mines in early to mid-February in olive groves for more than a mile along the border near Jisr al Shughur, Hadidi said. It was through this area that at least 10,000 residents of the town fled to Turkey last year, fearing an all-out onslaught by the government of President Bashar al Assad.

Mines were also planted about 12 miles to the north, in Guvecci, according to Syrian army defector Tamar Fizo, who witnessed the mine-laying. This was a secondary crossing point for refugees fleeing Assad’s Syria into Turkey, but is no more.

“We saw soldiers getting off trucks or armored cars and planting mines 20 meters (70 feet) from the border,” he said. The night after the minefield was laid, a wild boar detonated one and died, he said.

In 1980, Hafez al Assad, father of the current president, targeted Jisr al Shughur and the better-known city of Hama, for a devastating crackdown to demonstrate that that the secular Baath party, which has ruled Syria for decades, would not tolerate a political role for the Muslim Brotherhood. That’s according to Ghawzan Issa, one of the elected representatives of the Jisr diaspora now housed in Turkish government refugee camps.

Syria and Turkey mined their common border during the Cold War, but starting several years ago both began to remove mines as part of a drive by Turkey to improve relations with its neighbors. There were reports in November of the Syrian army laying mines along the Turkish and Lebanese borders, and injuries have been reported among refugees fleeing to Lebanon.

Several months ago, the Associated Press quoted an unidentified Syrian official as saying the aim of the mines being laid then was to prevent armed insurgents from crossing into Syria.

Mustafa Haid, a Syrian anti-government activist familiar with the mining issue, said the mines were intended to prevent refugees from escaping. The drive to flee Syria has taken on new drama after the military’s destruction last week of a section of Homs, where armed insurgents had taken control, and a new drive against villages near Jebel Al Zawieh, in the vicinity of Idlib, in northern Syria, which began on Saturday.

In Guvecci and many other towns along the border, bombing of the villages around Idlib could be heard from about midnight until 10 a.m. Sunday morning, Fizo and other villagers said. “This was clearly done in advance of the Idlib operation in order to try and prevent Syrians from fleeing to Turkey,” Haid said.

Although 235 Syrians escaped into Turkey Thursday night and early Friday, relatively few managed to cross the border Friday or Saturday night, anti-government activists said.

Hadidi said that the military informed those residents of Jisr who hadn’t already fled that if they needed to go to the border area to tend their fields, they should approach the military first. He said it was the report of the deaths of a family of five, from the village of Salma, near Latakia, about two weeks ago, that led him to volunteer to remove the mines. They died trying to cross near the village of Al Hamboushieh, near Bdaama, according to locals..

“You could see the disturbed earth. They were somewhat exposed,” Hadidi said.

(Special correspondents Gul Tuysuz and Rami Suleiman in Antakya, Turkey, and David Enders in Beirut contributed to this report.)

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March 12, 2012