Anti Authoritarians Rise in Turkey

June 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The news of civil unrest is not diminishing.

Violent protests against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan engulfed Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, on Saturday and spread to other cities, including the capital, Ankara, as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in a second day of civil unrest and faced the tear gas and water cannons of a harsh police crackdown.

 …the protesters presented a long list of grievances against Mr. Erdogan, including opposition to his policy of supporting Syria’s rebels against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, his crackdown on dissent and intimidation of the news media, and unchecked development in Istanbul.

As we all know, nothing is certain once a well ordered train leaves the rails.  As the article points out, the demonstrations have been spontaneous, with nothing like an organizing force emerging.  Energies will certainly drain from the exuberation of the first manifestations; repression may rise or, if the government is as smart as it has been up to now, co-option will begin.  Promises to stop the development at Taksim Square would be an obvious first step.

The stakes are high, of course, with Syria imploding next door, and sectarian religious violence beginning to heat all over the area.

On Turkey

On Sectarian Violence

Filed under Citizen Action, Civil Strife, Middle East Tagged with , , , ,

Turkey Joins France in Recognizing Syrian Rebel Coalition

November 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Ahh, politics does make strange bedfellows.  Not so long ago Turkey fiercely disputed France for its assertion that, in fact, Ottoman troops in Turkey during WW I, committed deliberate extermination of the “alien” Armenians.  Diplomatic relations were barely breathing.

Now, France and Turkey are among the first countries to recognize the newly formed “National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.”  France is the first, and so far only, non Muslim country to do so.  The others are: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.

In announcing its support Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, cited some of the raw facts of the on-going civil war in Syria

…more than 39,000 people had been killed, 2.5 million people had been displaced within Syria, and hundreds of thousands of refugees had fled to neighboring countries, including Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.

In Turkey alone, he said, 120,000 Syrians are residing in camps, and nearly 70,000 others are living elsewhere in the country.

NY Times: Sednem Arsu

for more on Turkey by Sednem Arsu go here.

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For absolutely chilling news about Assad’s chemical weapon stockpile, Nor Korean missile techs in Syria, Hezbollah training camps near chemical stores and anti-Assad contingency planning see  Sanger and Schmitt in the times.

Filed under Middle East, War Tagged with , , , ,

Israel Fires on Syria, Second Day

November 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The not-going-very-well situation in Syria is veering further off the once narrow road of hope.  Assad and his army is not giving in.  The opposition, having long ago given up massive non-violent struggle, is riven with separate claims and ideologies and only under threat of losing weapons support from the outside has it come up with a joint command and leader.  Turkey has already returned fire across its border and is staggering under the influx of refugees.  Now Israel, having been fired at in the annexed Golan Heights is joining the fray.  Why the current Syrian government would want to add another foe to its troubles isn’t immediately clear, though it would allow them to play the anti Jewish card to rally wavering supporters behind them.

Or why Israel would return non-lethal fire with its own direct hit on mobile artillery units, likely to be lethal to those in them, is open to question as well.  In the three dimensional chess game called war any number of things could be supposed, and known.  All manner of theories of human behavior taken as Torah Truth.  It is even possible that shooting into Syria is a proxy warning to Hamas which has recently fired into Israel from Gaza.

Whatever the reasons and emotions on all sides, the debris flow already in motion is picking up speed and mass.  It will likely spill across borders and engulf many more lives before it runs out of the blood and certainties that power it.

 Israeli tanks made a direct hit on Syrian artillery units on Monday, the army said, responding to mortar fire that fell near an army post in the Israeli-held Golan Heights.

It was the second consecutive day thatIsrael confronted fire along its border with Syria. On Sunday, a mortar shell crashed in from Syria, prompting Israel to respond with what its military described as “a warning shot” at a Syrian position across the frontier for the first time in 39 years.

NY Times

Filed under Israel, Middle East, War Tagged with , , ,

Turkey’s Syrian Woes Double

September 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

As Assad’s Alawite regime in predominantly Sunni Syria continues its war against its citizens, neighboring Turkey is getting pushed and squeezed in every way conceivable.

  • Something like 100,000 refugees have fled across the border into Turkey, into 11 refugee camps,  creating almost insuperable problems of shelter, food, water and security.  Food riots against Turkish police have taken place.
  • The mostly Sunni refugees have been settled in a predominantly Alawite area of Turkey, leading to resentments and suspicions, added to the above.
  • Turkey after  initially saying it would handle the refugees without international help, now needs it badly.
  • The United States has twice turned down please by Turkey to begin setting up a no-fly zone over XXXX
  • Turkey’s ruling party, led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has publicly called for the replacement of Assad in Syria.  Assad, therefore , is thought to be arming Kurdish rebels in south east Turkey.  Attacks against the Turkish army have increased and fears are growing that Syrian missels could fall into PKK hands.
  • Public support for Erdogan in Turkey, re-elected in a landslide several years ago, is falling over his handling of  ‘the Syrian problem.’

Syrian Camp in Turkey

Karin Bruillard at Washington Post

And what would Mr Romney do if he gets his dream job?  With no one to criticize he’d have to do something — which is probably, as one analyst  points out, exactly that which he has criticized.

What would ‘President Romney’ do about Syria?

The same thing President Obama has been doing. Contrary to his condemnations of Obama’s foreign policy, handling of the Syria crisis, and stance toward Bashar al-Assad, Romney would effectively have the same policy on Syria as Obama

AND, Top Senators Can’t Explain Romney’s Syria Policy

e.g. Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ), who admitted last week that he didn’t know what Romney’s Afghanistan policy was, couldn’t name any specifics of Romney’s Syria policy Tuesday and instead launched into a monologue about America’s role in the world.

Filed under War Tagged with , ,

Syria Shaken

July 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

If this report from Turkey’s Today’s Zaman turns out to be correct, it would be a major escalation of desertions from the Assad regime.

Syria’s ambassador to Iraq has defected and urged the army to “turn your guns on the criminals” of President Bashar al-Assad’s government, giving the anti-Assad uprising one of its biggest boosts in 16 months of bloodshed.

Nawaf al-Fares, who has close ties to the Syrian security services, was the first senior diplomat to desert Assad, following hard on the heels of Manaf Tlas, a brigadier general in the elite Republican Guard and a close friend of Assad.

I say “if it turns out to be correct” because another reported defection of several days ago now seems unproven. 

 Nearly one week after the commander of one ofSyria’s elite Republican Guard units defected, he has not been seen in public or tried to contact the opposition, raising questions about his motives and intentions, senior officials and opposition members said.

Of course whether it’s two, or one, the individual defections aren’t as important as what they indicate about the rumors, talk, and morale of those still wearing Assad’s uniforms.  Is a tipping point near at hand or will one not be reached? Resources are being poured in from both sides to prove their own prophecies

Filed under Middle East, War Tagged with , ,

Turkey Expells Syrian Diplomats

May 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

“Turkey expelled Syria’s charge d’affaires and other diplomats on Wednesday, joining an international campaign to isolate President Bashar al-Assad’s regime after a weekend massacre of more than a hundred people in a Syrian village.

“Ankara, one of the most outspoken critics of the Syrian regime, also signaled new, unspecified sanctions to be added to existing ones. “The sanctions we put into effect earlier may take on a different form. We are working on them. We will make them public once they are decided upon,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters in Ankara. Erdoğan said the decision to expel the Syrian diplomats was a response to the massacre of 110 people, including dozens of children, in Houla. “We could not remain silent in the face of this,” he said. “Remaining silent in the face of oppression, tolerating oppression, amounts to oppression itself.”

Today’s Zaman

Filed under Asia, Terrorism, War Tagged with , ,

News from Turkey

April 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In Istanbul the weather is cold and rain-swept.  After a lunch of delectable meze on the waterfront on the island of Buyukada we are sheltering in the 1908 Hotel Splendid, which despite it off-season emptiness is providing us with warm rooms and wireless internet.

Ankara is being reported as warning Syria that “steps will be taken” if the assault on civilians, especially along the Turkish border do not cease.

Turkey is putting the squeeze on its southern neighbor with strong indications that Ankara is finalizing plans to set up a humanitarian corridor and possibly a buffer zone inside Syria in order to contain the burgeoning refugee crisis and border skirmishes.

Today’s Zaman

More warnings were issued after shells from the Syrian army landed in a refugee camp in Turkey

The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned today the shooting of six people in a Turkish refugee camp by Syrian forces firing across the border.

Warnings Issued

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