Turkey’s Parliament Approves Further Military Action Against Syria
Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Men looked at a damaged home
Thursday where five civilians were killed during a mortar attack
originating from Syria a day earlier in the southern Turkish border town
of Akcakale.
By TIM ARANGO, SEBNEM ARSU and ANNE BARNARD
Published: October 4, 2012
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The measure, which was ratified after several hours of a closed-door
session in the capital, Ankara, permits cross-border raids, although
senior officials insisted that NATO
ally Turkey did not want a war with its Arab neighbor — an escalation
that could turn Syria’s bloody civil strife into a regional conflict
with international involvement.
The motion read, in part, “The ongoing crisis in Syria affects the
stability and security in the region and now the escalating animosity
affects our national security,” according to the semiofficial Anatolian
News Agency.
The Turkish military pounded targets inside Syria on Thursday in
retaliation for the mortar attack a day earlier that killed five
civilians in Turkey.
Local news reports said Turkish shells fell inside Syria on at least 10
occasions after midnight, landing near the border town of Tel Abyad,
some six miles inside Syrian territory, across a historic fault line
where modern Turkey abuts Arab lands that once formed part of the Ottoman Empire.
State television said the shelling continued until dawn with four more
barrages until the guns fell silent around 6:45 a.m. Activist groups in
Syria said the shelling killed several Syrian government soldiers.
The exchanges sent tremors across a region fearful that the mounting
violence in Syria would spill into neighboring countries. Ibrahim Kalin,
a senior aide to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
of Turkey, wrote on Twitter feed: “Turkey does not want war with Syria.
But Turkey is capable of protecting its borders and will retaliate when
necessary.” In a separate message, he said: “Political, diplomatic
initiatives will continue.”
The assurance came as western European leaders who have joined Turkey in
supporting rebel forces in Syria sought to prevent the border clash
from flaring out of control.
Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, criticized
Syria for Wednesday’s mortar bombing, but urged restraint “on all
sides.” The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, said Turkey’s
response was “understandable, an outrageous act has taken place, Turkish
citizens have been killed inside Turkey by forces from another
country.” He added to Reuters, “So we express our strong solidarity with
Turkey, but we don’t want to see a continuing escalation of this
incident.”
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to which Turkey belongs and
whose charter calls in some cases for collective action when one of its
members is targeted militarily, met Wednesday night to discuss the
crisis
The Turkish motion was seen as addressing the threat that the clashes
would have serious consequences both militarily and in international
law, analysts said.
“Turkey’s shelling into Syria late yesterday and the parliamentary
motion drafted in emergency both aim at building pressure over
Damascus,” said Nihat Ali Ozcan, a strategy expert with the Economic
Policy Research Foundation of Turkey.
“Many felt disappointed about the government’s lack of action when Syria
shot down a Turkish warplane in June and got away with it,” he said.
Syria has intimated that it never intended to strike inside Turkey, and
its minister of information, Omran al-Zo’aby, suggested on state
television that Syria was defending against a regional threat that could
affect Turkey and Syria.
“The Syrian-Turkish border is a long one and is being used for smuggling
weapons and terrorists,” he said, adding that in response to border
episodes, neighboring countries should act “wisely and rationally and
responsibly, especially in cases of the presence of armed terrorist
groups who have their different agendas that are not targeting the
Syrian national security but the regional security.”
It was unclear if the mortar that struck Turkey was fired by government
forces or by rebels fighting to oust the government of President Bashar
al-Assad of Syria, but Turkey believed it came from a government
position, Turkish analysts said. Turkey has called in an emergency
session at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and revised its
engagement rules in a way to allow military action when its national
security is threatened. It refrained from direct military engagement in
response to the downing of its jet in international airspace. “Turkey is not a country wishing for war, but peace,” Omer Celik, a senior government official, said on Thursday in a televised statement before the parliamentary debate, but he called on all parties to support what he called a measure to protect Turkey’s sovereignty.
Enlarge This Image
George Ourfalian/Reuters
At least two explosions, most likely car bombs, struck Saadallah al-Jabiri Square in Aleppo, Syria, and killed dozens of people.
Multimedia
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Watching Syria’s War
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Syria Berates Hamas Chief, an Old Ally, on State TV (October 3, 2012)
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SANA, via Associated Press
In an image released by the Syrian state news agency, men carried a body after multiple explosions in Aleppo, Syria, on Wednesday.
While Syria has offered condolences to Turkey over the death of its civilians and has said an investigation was under way, Mr. Celik said that the “words of a regime killing its own people cannot be taken into account.”
He called the government of Mr. Assad “a massacre network” and declared: “We are not in a position to take seriously anything this massacre network says.”
In a statement carried by the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency on Wednesday, Mr. Erdogan’s office said Turkish forces used radar to identify targets to be hit after the “atrocious attack” from Syria “in accordance with rules of engagement.”
While suicide bombers killed dozens on Wednesday as violence surged in Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, it was the cross-border strike that raised the stakes in a civil war that has left tens of thousands dead and forced more than a million people from their homes. The war has defied exhaustive diplomatic efforts by the global community. The events may increase pressure for the West to take military action, something Turkey has supported. The United States and its allies have balked at engaging in another armed conflict in the Muslim world that would be far riskier than NATO’s intervention in Libya, which helped oust Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
“The conflict in Syria is spilling well over its borders,” said Andrew Tabler, a Syria analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “I don’t see how the Obama administration continues policy as usual after this.”
But in the fog of war that has settled over Syria, where allegiances and motives are uncertain and a bloody stalemate has taken hold, some observers said they could not help wondering if the episode had been orchestrated by one side or another. The rebels have implored NATO to provide a no-fly zone or havens, and Mr. Assad may feel he can rally his supporters against foreign invasion, experts said. “Various parties are trying to pull Turkey into the conflict,” Atilla Sandikli, the director of the Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies in Ankara, Turkey, said on the Turkish channel NTV.
In Washington, George Little, the Pentagon press secretary, called the Syrian attack on Turkish territory “yet another example of the depraved behavior of the Syrian regime, and why it must go.”
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was “outraged” by the mortar attack in Turkey.
After its meeting, NATO issued a statement saying the alliance continued “to stand by Turkey and demands the immediate cessation of such aggressive acts against an ally, and urges the Syrian regime to put an end to flagrant violations of international law.”
Turkey’s military strike within Syria, which represented a further deterioration of relations between the onetime allies, came after several huge explosions struck a government-held district of Aleppo. The blast killed dozens of people and filled the streets with rubble in a square near a public park, according to video, photographs and reports from the Syrian government and its opponents.
At least two explosions, which both sides said appeared to be car bombs, struck Saadallah al-Jabiri Square near an officers’ club and two government-owned hotels that residents said had housed pro-government militiamen who had essentially taken over the square. Another explosion struck near the chamber of commerce in nearby Bab Jenine, both sides reported.
Jabhet al-Nusra, an insurgent group affiliated with Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility late on Wednesday for the suicide bombings, which caused anguish for government supporters and opponents alike. The scale of Wednesday’s bombings seemed to deepen Aleppo’s sense of alarm and disgust, bringing expressions of horror and bewilderment from people on either side of the conflict.
“Oh, my God, the destruction is huge,” an accountant who works nearby, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Rami, said on his cellphone as he tried without success to approach the square, which he said was barricaded by security forces. Back in his office, listening to gunfire still echoing through the area, he wrote on Facebook: “My soul has died and my body is waiting for its turn.”
One Syrian activist, who uses the pseudonym Anonymous Syria, wrote on Twitter: “Whoever is behind those explosions is a terrorist if civilians were killed. Whether it is the regime, Al-Nusra brigade or the Free Syrian Army.”
In the square, men simply shouted obscenities and cursed “the terrorists’ fathers.” Their voices could be heard in the background as another man videotaped the bomb scene for a pro-government YouTube channel, panning over the corpses of two men in crisp camouflage uniforms who he said were would-be suicide bombers killed by security forces.
Before the retaliatory strike by Turkey, the government said in a statement that its foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, had consulted Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations and Arab League joint special envoy to Syria, as well as Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations. The prime minister’s statement said the strike was within the rules of engagement established after the Syrian military shot down a Turkish warplane in June, killing two pilots in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea. Syria had claimed the plane was flying over its own territory.
“This last incident is pretty much the final straw,” said Bulent Arinc, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, as quoted by the Anatolian News Agency. “There has been an attack on our land and our citizens lost their lives, which surely has adequate response in international law.”
“Turkey is not a country wishing for war, but peace,” Omer Celik, a senior government official, said on Thursday in a televised statement before the parliamentary debate, but he called on all parties to support what he called a measure to protect Turkey’s sovereignty.
Enlarge This Image
George Ourfalian/Reuters
At least two explosions, most likely car bombs, struck Saadallah al-Jabiri Square in Aleppo, Syria, and killed dozens of people.
Multimedia
Video Feature
Watching Syria’s War
Related
Syria Berates Hamas Chief, an Old Ally, on State TV (October 3, 2012)
World Twitter Logo.
Connect With Us on Twitter
Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines.
Twitter List: Reporters and Editors
Enlarge This Image
SANA, via Associated Press
In an image released by the Syrian state news agency, men carried a body after multiple explosions in Aleppo, Syria, on Wednesday.
While Syria has offered condolences to Turkey over the death of its civilians and has said an investigation was under way, Mr. Celik said that the “words of a regime killing its own people cannot be taken into account.”
He called the government of Mr. Assad “a massacre network” and declared: “We are not in a position to take seriously anything this massacre network says.”
In a statement carried by the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency on Wednesday, Mr. Erdogan’s office said Turkish forces used radar to identify targets to be hit after the “atrocious attack” from Syria “in accordance with rules of engagement.”
While suicide bombers killed dozens on Wednesday as violence surged in Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, it was the cross-border strike that raised the stakes in a civil war that has left tens of thousands dead and forced more than a million people from their homes. The war has defied exhaustive diplomatic efforts by the global community. The events may increase pressure for the West to take military action, something Turkey has supported. The United States and its allies have balked at engaging in another armed conflict in the Muslim world that would be far riskier than NATO’s intervention in Libya, which helped oust Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
“The conflict in Syria is spilling well over its borders,” said Andrew Tabler, a Syria analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “I don’t see how the Obama administration continues policy as usual after this.”
But in the fog of war that has settled over Syria, where allegiances and motives are uncertain and a bloody stalemate has taken hold, some observers said they could not help wondering if the episode had been orchestrated by one side or another. The rebels have implored NATO to provide a no-fly zone or havens, and Mr. Assad may feel he can rally his supporters against foreign invasion, experts said. “Various parties are trying to pull Turkey into the conflict,” Atilla Sandikli, the director of the Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies in Ankara, Turkey, said on the Turkish channel NTV.
In Washington, George Little, the Pentagon press secretary, called the Syrian attack on Turkish territory “yet another example of the depraved behavior of the Syrian regime, and why it must go.”
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was “outraged” by the mortar attack in Turkey.
After its meeting, NATO issued a statement saying the alliance continued “to stand by Turkey and demands the immediate cessation of such aggressive acts against an ally, and urges the Syrian regime to put an end to flagrant violations of international law.”
Turkey’s military strike within Syria, which represented a further deterioration of relations between the onetime allies, came after several huge explosions struck a government-held district of Aleppo. The blast killed dozens of people and filled the streets with rubble in a square near a public park, according to video, photographs and reports from the Syrian government and its opponents.
At least two explosions, which both sides said appeared to be car bombs, struck Saadallah al-Jabiri Square near an officers’ club and two government-owned hotels that residents said had housed pro-government militiamen who had essentially taken over the square. Another explosion struck near the chamber of commerce in nearby Bab Jenine, both sides reported.
Jabhet al-Nusra, an insurgent group affiliated with Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility late on Wednesday for the suicide bombings, which caused anguish for government supporters and opponents alike. The scale of Wednesday’s bombings seemed to deepen Aleppo’s sense of alarm and disgust, bringing expressions of horror and bewilderment from people on either side of the conflict.
“Oh, my God, the destruction is huge,” an accountant who works nearby, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Rami, said on his cellphone as he tried without success to approach the square, which he said was barricaded by security forces. Back in his office, listening to gunfire still echoing through the area, he wrote on Facebook: “My soul has died and my body is waiting for its turn.”
One Syrian activist, who uses the pseudonym Anonymous Syria, wrote on Twitter: “Whoever is behind those explosions is a terrorist if civilians were killed. Whether it is the regime, Al-Nusra brigade or the Free Syrian Army.”
In the square, men simply shouted obscenities and cursed “the terrorists’ fathers.” Their voices could be heard in the background as another man videotaped the bomb scene for a pro-government YouTube channel, panning over the corpses of two men in crisp camouflage uniforms who he said were would-be suicide bombers killed by security forces.
Before the retaliatory strike by Turkey, the government said in a statement that its foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, had consulted Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations and Arab League joint special envoy to Syria, as well as Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations. The prime minister’s statement said the strike was within the rules of engagement established after the Syrian military shot down a Turkish warplane in June, killing two pilots in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea. Syria had claimed the plane was flying over its own territory.
“This last incident is pretty much the final straw,” said Bulent Arinc, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, as quoted by the Anatolian News Agency. “There has been an attack on our land and our citizens lost their lives, which surely has adequate response in international law.”
“Turkey is not a country wishing for war, but peace,” Omer Celik, a senior government official, said on Thursday in a televised statement before the parliamentary debate, but he called on all parties to support what he called a measure to protect Turkey’s sovereignty.
George Ourfalian/Reuters
At least two explosions, most likely car bombs,
struck Saadallah al-Jabiri Square in Aleppo, Syria, and killed dozens of
people.
Multimedia
Related
-
Syria Berates Hamas Chief, an Old Ally, on State TV (October 3, 2012)
While Syria has offered condolences to Turkey over the death of its
civilians and has said an investigation was under way, Mr. Celik said
that the “words of a regime killing its own people cannot be taken into
account.”
He called the government of Mr. Assad “a massacre network” and declared:
“We are not in a position to take seriously anything this massacre
network says.”
In a statement carried by the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency on
Wednesday, Mr. Erdogan’s office said Turkish forces used radar to
identify targets to be hit after the “atrocious attack” from Syria “in
accordance with rules of engagement.”
While suicide bombers killed dozens on Wednesday as violence surged in
Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, it was the cross-border strike that raised
the stakes in a civil war that has left tens of thousands dead and
forced more than a million people from their homes. The war has defied
exhaustive diplomatic efforts by the global community. The events may
increase pressure for the West to take military action, something Turkey
has supported. The United States and its allies have balked at engaging
in another armed conflict in the Muslim world that would be far riskier
than NATO’s intervention in Libya, which helped oust Col. Muammar
el-Qaddafi.
“The conflict in Syria is spilling well over its borders,” said Andrew
Tabler, a Syria analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy. “I don’t see how the Obama administration continues policy as
usual after this.”
But in the fog of war that has settled over Syria, where allegiances and
motives are uncertain and a bloody stalemate has taken hold, some
observers said they could not help wondering if the episode had been
orchestrated by one side or another. The rebels have implored NATO to
provide a no-fly zone or havens, and Mr. Assad may feel he can rally his
supporters against foreign invasion, experts said. “Various parties are
trying to pull Turkey into the conflict,” Atilla Sandikli, the director
of the Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies in Ankara, Turkey, said on
the Turkish channel NTV.
In Washington, George Little, the Pentagon press secretary, called the
Syrian attack on Turkish territory “yet another example of the depraved
behavior of the Syrian regime, and why it must go.”
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was “outraged” by the mortar attack in Turkey.
After its meeting, NATO issued a statement saying the alliance continued
“to stand by Turkey and demands the immediate cessation of such
aggressive acts against an ally, and urges the Syrian regime to put an
end to flagrant violations of international law.”
Turkey’s military strike within Syria, which represented a further
deterioration of relations between the onetime allies, came after
several huge explosions struck a government-held district of Aleppo. The
blast killed dozens of people and filled the streets with rubble in a
square near a public park, according to video, photographs and reports
from the Syrian government and its opponents.
At least two explosions, which both sides said appeared to be car bombs,
struck Saadallah al-Jabiri Square near an officers’ club and two
government-owned hotels that residents said had housed pro-government
militiamen who had essentially taken over the square. Another explosion
struck near the chamber of commerce in nearby Bab Jenine, both sides
reported.
Jabhet al-Nusra, an insurgent group affiliated with Al Qaeda, claimed
responsibility late on Wednesday for the suicide bombings, which caused
anguish for government supporters and opponents alike. The scale of
Wednesday’s bombings seemed to deepen Aleppo’s sense of alarm and
disgust, bringing expressions of horror and bewilderment from people on
either side of the conflict.
“Oh, my God, the destruction is huge,” an accountant who works nearby,
who asked to be identified only by his first name, Rami, said on his
cellphone as he tried without success to approach the square, which he
said was barricaded by security forces. Back in his office, listening to
gunfire still echoing through the area, he wrote on Facebook: “My soul
has died and my body is waiting for its turn.”
One Syrian activist, who uses the pseudonym Anonymous Syria, wrote on
Twitter: “Whoever is behind those explosions is a terrorist if civilians
were killed. Whether it is the regime, Al-Nusra brigade or the Free
Syrian Army.”
In the square, men simply shouted obscenities and cursed “the
terrorists’ fathers.” Their voices could be heard in the background as
another man videotaped the bomb scene for a pro-government YouTube
channel, panning over the corpses of two men in crisp camouflage
uniforms who he said were would-be suicide bombers killed by security
forces.
Before the retaliatory strike by Turkey, the government said in a
statement that its foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, had consulted
Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations and Arab League joint special envoy
to Syria, as well as Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United
Nations. The prime minister’s statement said the strike was within the
rules of engagement established after the Syrian military shot down a
Turkish warplane in June, killing two pilots in international airspace
over the Mediterranean Sea. Syria had claimed the plane was flying over
its own territory.
“This last incident is pretty much the final straw,” said Bulent Arinc,
Turkey’s deputy prime minister, as quoted by the Anatolian News Agency.
“There has been an attack on our land and our citizens lost their lives,
which surely has adequate response in international law.”
Bulent Kilic/AFP — Getty Images
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