Turkish army may act if Syrian chaos spills over
Friday, October 7, 2011
ANKARA Hürriyet Daily News
Turkish FM Davutoğlu says that if the situation in Syria spills over and poses a risk to Turkeys stability, Turkey may be forced to resort to military measures but adds that Ankara has no plan to set up a buffer zone
Turkish FM Davutoğlu (R) talks with Syrian President Assad in this file photo. AFP photo
Turkey may be forced to resort to military measures if the turmoil in Syria spills over and poses a risk to stability in Turkey, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said.
Turkey could resort to military action if a security problem emerges for us. When Saddam [Hussein] cracked down on the Kurds, 500,000 people flocked overnight to the Turkish border. All necessary measures, including military ones, will be taken to control that region if it becomes a security problem, Davutoğlu said on the 32.Gün television program on Oct. 6.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, meanwhile, postponed a trip to Syrian refugee camps in the southern province of Hatay planned for Oct. 9, after his mother passed away. Erdoğan has said he will announce sanctions against the Syrian regime after he visits the camps. In further remarks, Davutoğlu said Turkey would continue to shelter Syrians fleeing repression in their country, but added that Ankara did not consider setting up a buffer zone at the frontier. There is currently no country in the region more important than Syria, Davutoğlu said, adding that its internal crisis had a bearing on the whole region. The suppression anti-regime demonstrators had reached an unacceptable level, the minister said, but refused to speculate on when President Bashar al-Assad would go.
Eight Syrians were killed on Friday as thousands of people rallied against al-Assad and in support of a newly formed opposition front, activists said.
Russia: Reform or resign
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev meanwhile told Bashar al-Assad on Oct. 7 to either reform or resign while warning that Russia would resist outside attempts to force him from power. As much as the other countries, Russia wants Syria to end the bloodshed and demands the Syrian leadership conduct the necessary reforms, Medvedev said on a televised broadcast.
If the Syrian leadership is unable to undertake these reforms, it will have to go. But this is something that has to be decided not by NATO or individual European countries but by the people and the leadership of Syria, he said.
Medvedev defended Russias decision to veto a European-backed U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria, and said it would have opened the door to possible military action.
Additional AFP and AP stories from Moscow and Nicosia were used in this story.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Turkish army may act if Syrian chaos spills over - Hurriyet Daily News