Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (file photo)
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on
his nation to be prepared for a possible war with the neighboring Syria if need
be.
"You have to be ready at every moment to go to war if it is necessary. If
you are not ready for this, you are not a state, if you are not ready for this,
you are not a nation,” Erdogan said in a speech on Sunday.
The prime minister reiterated that Turkey does not want war, but warned Syria
not to test its resolve.
"Nobody should attempt to test Turkey's decisiveness and sensibility,”
stated the Turkish prime minister whose country is accused of being a key
member of an international coalition attempting to destabilize Syria.
Tensions have been running high between Syria and Turkey,
with Damascus accusing Ankara - along with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, France, and the
United States - of backing a deadly insurgency that has claimed the lives of
many Syrians, including security and army personnel.
“Nobody should ask… but what will happen if a war were to begin and bring us to
that point. You should be ready for it and have the memorandum in hand. What is
necessary will be done if it becomes necessary," he stated.
Erdogan’s remarks came amid days of military strikes between the two countries.
On Sunday, Turkey's military fired an artillery shell into Syria shortly after
a mortar round fired from Syria hit the southeastern Turkish border town of
Akcakale.
On Saturday, the Turkish military fired mortar shells into Syria for the fourth
day in a row after a number of projectiles slammed into the southern border
province of Hatay.
Saturday’s exchange came three days after mortar shells from the Syrian side of
the border killed five civilians in the town of Akcakale, which is located in
Sanliurfa province in southeastern Turkey.
On October 5, Erdogan said that Turkey was not far from war with Syria due to
the cross-border attacks.
"We are not interested in war, but we're not far from it either,"
Erdogan told a crowd in Istanbul.
On October 4, the Turkish parliament authorized cross-border military action
against Syria “when deemed right.”
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Turkey retaliates at Syria for sixth consecutive day
A Turkish army armoured personnel carrier is dug in on the border with Syria near Akcakale on October 7, 2012 (AFP Photo
Turkey has returned fire after mortar from Syria landed in Turkey’s Hatay province, Reuters reports. It's the sixth day of retaliation, as Syrian fighting continues to spill across the border.
The round from Syria landed 150-200 meters within Turkey's border in the district of Hacipasa, according to a local official.
The retaliatory fire comes just two days after Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned that the country would respond forcefully to every Syrian shell that lands on Turkish soil.
Turkish soldiers were deployed along the border near Akcakale earlier on Monday.
Some residents in the town have abandoned their homes and students have been asked to stay home.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned of the consequences that the Syria-Turkey conflict could bring to the region.
“The escalation of the conflict along the Syrian-Turkish border and the impact of the crisis on Lebanon are extremely dangerous,” Ban said at the opening of the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg, France.
Just yesterday, a mortar from Syria hit near a plant belonging to the Turkish Grain board, several hundred meters from the center of Akcakale.
A short time later, at least six mortars could be heard fired from Turkey. The mayor of the town, Abdulhakim Ayhan, confirmed that Turkish artillery immediately had returned fire.
No casualties resulted from Sunday’s exchange.
The crisis between the two countries began on Wednesday, when Syrian mortar shells killed a woman and four children from the same family in Akcakale. The shells also wounded at least 13 people. The incident prompted artillery strikes from neighboring Turkey.
The recent exchanges of fire have stoked fears that Syria’s conflict will escalate into regional instability.
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Misfire NATO mortar gift from Turkey to Syrian rebels – newspaper
People gather on October 4, 2012, in front of the house where five people were killed after a mortar fired from Syria crashed inside the Turkish border town of Akcakale on October 3, killing five civilians, including a mother and her three children.(AFP Photo / Miguel Medina)
The mortar used to attack the Turkish town of Akcakale is a design specific to NATO and was given to Syrian rebels by Ankara, according to Turkey’s Yurt newspaper. The mortar killed one adult and four children from the same family on Wednesday.
An article by the paper’s Editor-in-Chief, Merdan Yanardag, states that the newspaper received information from a reliable source, which claimed that Turkey itself sent the mortars to rebels in the so-called "free army."
“Turkey is a longtime member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and they’re going to act in conjunction with other NATO powers, so it’s unsurprising that this has happened,” editor of the Pan-African news wire, Abayomi Azikiwe, told RT.
NATO has so far shunned any military involvement in the conflict, but Azikiwe says the alliance is deeply involved in every decision that Turkey makes.
“Ankara isn’t taking any military actions or contemplating any type of military strategy without being in full cooperation with NATO forces,” he said.
Turkey retaliated at Syria for a sixth consecutive day on Monday, after a mortar from Syria landed in Turkey’s Hatay province.
And as Turkey fights to defend its border towns, the country’s president says the country’s military will take any action necessary.
"The worst-case scenarios are taking place right now in Syria … Our government is in constant consultation with the Turkish military. Whatever is needed is being done immediately as you see, and it will continue to be done," President Abdullah Gul said in a statement on Monday.
But it’s not only leaders within Turkey that are stating their opinions on the conflict.
Earlier on Monday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned of the consequences that the conflict could bring to the region.
“The escalation of the conflict along the Syrian-Turkish border and the impact of the crisis on Lebanon are extremely dangerous,” Ban said at the opening of the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg, France.
The exchange of fire began last Wednesday, when Syrian mortar shells killed a woman and four children from the same family in Akcakale.
Many fear the situation will lead to regional instability.
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Syria, Turkey tensions orchestrated by US, Israel: Analyst
Source: Press TV
The West, particularly the United States and the Israeli regime, to which Turkey is subservient, orchestrated the tension between Syria and Turkey, an analyst tells Press TV.
The comment comes as tensions between Ankara and Damascus escalated after a mortar shell fired from Syria killed five people in the southeastern Turkish town of Akcakale in Sanliurfa province on Wednesday.
Syria said it had started an investigation into the cause of the mortar attack on the Turkish territory.
However on Thursday, several Syrian soldiers were reportedly killed in a retaliatory attack by Turkish forces on a military post near Syria’s border town of Tel Abyad.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that Turkey does not plan to wage a war against Syria after the Turkish parliament gave the nod for military operations outside the country.
“We have no intention of starting a war with Syria,” Erdogan said in a joint press conference with the visiting Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi in Ankara.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Scott Richard, former American Intelligence Linguist, from Orlando to further discuss the issue.
The program also offers the opinion of two additional guests: Moufid Jaber with the Middle East Center for Studies and Research from Beirut and Chicago-based political analyst Joe Iosbaker.
What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: What about that Scott Richard is it because Ankara is saying on the one hand that it does not want war with Damascus but what we see is an intensification, is Ankara basically listening to the orders of Washington DC or is it something else behind what seems to be motivated to have war with Syria?
Richard: Well, Joe is absolutely correct, Turkey is doing the bidding for NATO. NATO has been very clear about wanting to go to war with Syria. If you look at what they’ve been doing, they’ve been going to the UN over and over again and thank God for China and Russia keeping US out of Syria. There is no doubt that you got western powers here who are on a mission and they’re trying to take out Syria and doing the bidding for NATO right now is Turkey.
Now that being said we’re talking about a few mortars that were launched out of Syria and probably less than a few dozen or less than a dozen or so mortars that were launched back into Syria from Turkey. So it’s a very small event. There is a lot of activity going on around Homs; there is a lot of activity going on around the Bekaa Valley, [in Syrian-controlled eastern Lebanon] and also a lot of activity going on very near Aleppo where they’ve taken out some of the commander positions in Aleppo.
Right now Syria is being very successful in putting down the Western intervention. So the West is becoming desperate. They’re using their relationships with NATO and with Turkey to escalate the war and try to justify it but absolutely Syria is not attacking Turkey and this is something that is being orchestrated by the West.
Press TV: Many political analysts are saying that this is the strategy of the United States basically to let Muslim countries fight it out with each other and wait for the smoke to clear and take care of the rest, how do you see the situation? Is it that the United States really wants Turkey to get in a direct confrontation with Syria?
Richard: Well, Turkey getting into a direct confrontation with Syria is really not the case. They were hoping to use intervention early on and get NATO support coming in at the bid of the UN and Turkey now has to step up and really provide an avenue for them to make even more excuses.
Just as Joe was saying this is a systemic problem with the United States warfare that we’ve conducted across the world and this is something that’s not new. This is something that’s been going on for some time, that’s happened in Libya just recently. They wanted to repeat what they did in Libya and by taking down the organizations it makes them easier to control the countries.
They can use the enemies within the country to fight the wars for them just as Joe described it’s an old strategy, it’s worked for centuries and what they try to do is break down the existing government and they go to the factions within and then weaken the country and by weakening the country it makes it a far less opponent against the Western objectives.
And the Western objectives are clear here, they’re to control the resources and to financially fix their failed banking system. The US is involved in a an incredible banking failure, Europe’s involved in a banking failure and countries like Iran and Libya and other countries that have not depended on the petrodollar [system] are doing just fine.
Press TV: Mr. Richard, what needs to be done in order to deescalate these tensions cause as we’re speaking now there is a military buildup right now on the border with Syria and Turkey by Turkish military. So now what needs to be done to deescalate?
Richard: Well, unfortunately what needs to be done is in the United States, the problem is rooted in the United States, Britain and France and the only country that can actually stop it would be the United States. What you have in Turkey is clearly described here as a nation of people that do not want war. Unfortunately you have a government that’s heavily aligned with the NATO forces and aligned with Israel.
You have to look at Turkish relationships with Israel. There is a lot of trade, military trade and petroleum trade between Israel and Turkey. So the interest from the economic perspective between Israel and Turkey is very strong and also you have to look at the national security advisers in the United States.
We’re talking in the United States the National Security adviser behind Mitt Romney is a guy named Dov Zakheim, Dov Zakheim is an extreme Zionist and also under Obama you have Rich [Richard] Verma; Rich Verma is also another extreme Zionist. So we have a very pro-Israel, a very pro-Zionist and a super control over Turkey where I have to agree with Joe, Turkey is becoming more of a puppet, where in the past they’ve been very closely aligned with Syria.
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Turkey pounds targets inside Syria for the fourth day
Turkish soldiers stand guard in the southeastern town of Akcakale, near the Syrian border. (file photo)
The Turkish military has fired mortar shells into Syria for the fourth day in a row after a number of projectiles slammed into the southern border province of Hatay.
"A mortar landed today (Saturday) at 7:00 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) about 50 meters inside Turkish territory in an open space about 700 meters from the village of Guvecci and about 300 meters from a police station," the office of the Hatay governor said in a statement, AFP reported.
According to the statement, there were no reports of casualties in the incident.
It added that the Turkish army responded by firing four rounds of mortars. The statement also noted that the Syrian mortars had been fired by government forces that were attacking insurgents near the Syrian-Turkish border.
The latest exchange came three days after mortar shells from the Syrian side of the border killed five civilians in the town of Akcakale, which is located in Sanliurfa province in southeastern Turkey.
On October 5, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey was not far from war with Syria due to the cross-border attacks.
"We are not interested in war, but we're not far from it either," Erdogan told a crowd in Istanbul.
"Those who attempt to test Turkey's deterrence, its decisiveness, its capacity; I say here they are making a fatal mistake," he warned.
On October 4, the Turkish parliament authorized cross-border military action against Syria “when deemed right.”
Tensions have been running high between Syria and Turkey, with Damascus accusing Turkey -- along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar -- of backing a deadly insurgency that has claimed the lives of many Syrians, including security and army personnel.
In an interview with the Turkish daily
Cumhuriyet in July, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Ankara “has supplied all logistic support to the terrorists who have killed our people.”
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