Syrian civil war (12 Viewers)

Turk_Bianconero

Juventino
#2,101
Jul 2, 2006
19,449
#2,101
Erdoğan on jet crisis: Turkey's wrath as strong as its friendship

26 June 2012 / TODAYSZAMAN.COM ,
Everyone should know that Turkey's wrath is as strong as its friendship, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, commenting on the downing of a Turkish jet by Syria last Friday.

“However valuable Turkey's friendship is, its wrath is just as strong. Don't take our common sense and cautious approach as a sign of passivity,” Erdoğan said on Tuesday during his Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) parliamentary group meeting.

Bringing tensions with Syria to a whole new level, Turkey said on Sunday that its military jet was shot down outside of Syrian territorial waters and dismissed the country's statements that it was not a hostile act.

Stating that Turkey is totally in the right over “the downing of an unarmed reconnaissance jet in international airspace,” Erdoğan underlined that the Turkish jet was targeted in international waters but fell in Syrian waters. “There are some circles both inside and outside Turkey who are trying to distort this fact,” he said.

He added that the Turkish jet violated Syria's airspace mistakenly and briefly, but had been warned by Turkish radio operators and shortly left Syrian airspace. “Radar findings are all clear. They downed a reconnaissance jet that was on a solo test flight,” he said. “This is a hostile act.”

Stating that the downing of the jet by Syria has nothing to do with a violation of Syria's airspace, Erdoğan said Turkey's airspace has been violated by other countries 114 times since January 1 of this year. “Syrian helicopters also violated our air space five times recently. We warned them to leave. Syria's position is also clear evidence that our jet was hit in a hostile act. Syria attacked the second rescue plane with harassing fire and this is proof that the act was deliberate,” he added.

“The plane that was downed was not the plane of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or the AK Party. But it was Turkey's plane shot down in international airspace,” an angry Erdoğan said. He urged Turkish political parties to avoid seeking excuses for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's administration and to side with the government on this “national issue.”

Erdoğan also lashed out at the Syrian administration and reiterated support for the Syrian opposition. “The Syrian administration is tyrannical and not just,” he said. “Turkey will be in solidarity with our brothers in Syria until a new regime is in place.”

“Turkey will be in solidarity with our brothers in Syria until a new regime arrives,” he added. “We will offer all the possible support to liberate the Syrians from dictatorship,” Erdoğan said.

Stating and the jet attack opened a new phase in the Turkish and Syrian relations, saying “it is now clear that Assad regime has become a threat to Turkey's security.”

Noting that from now on Turkey will not tolerate to any menacing threat from the Syrian side anymore, he said any approaching military offensive from the Syrian side will be regarded as a threatening target for Turkish army. He noted that the Turkish army will be put on alert regarding any threat from the Syrian side and that all targets will be considered as such.
 

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Azzurri7

Azzurri7

Pinturicchio
Moderator
#2,103
Dec 16, 2003
72,692
#2,103
RAMI¹⁰;3733754 said:
This thread is funny to say the least...
Click to expand...
There's a story I thought I would share with you Rami..

There's a Syrian girl I know (a good friend of my sister), she's christian and got married around 5years ago to a Syrian professor teaching at a University 30km away from Homs. She moved 4years ago there until 4-5months ago when her husband got shot and killed in-front of her eyes and his 2years old boy who was seated back in the car because apparently his younger brother is wanted for organizing several demonstrations since a year now.. The wife was asked to say/declare that her husband was killed by the rebellions if she wants to bury her husband.

She managed to escape and run away back to Bucharest, just one week ago we met her and you don't want to hear the things she has witnessed and the lies this regime is spreading, she has showed my sister some footage's few days later of her dead husband and the amount of bullets that were used to kill him in-front of his wife and little boy. She left today to Jordan because she got some relatives there and she will no longer be able to return back to her home until this regime is down. She was one of the pro-regime supporters before all this mess started.
 
RAMI-N

RAMI-N

★ ★ ★
#2,104
Aug 22, 2006
21,473
#2,104
The point Rab that no one wants to understand and I was saying this from the beginning...the truth lies in between...
It's not all the regime's responsibility nor the rebels'...
Both parties are guilty in this bloody situation in Syria.
I tried to explain that at the beginning of the unrest a year ago, but people here like Syrians in Syria don't want to accept it.
It's either you are a pro regime or an opposition...

I also can give you stories from people in Syria that will tell you otherwise and others that will tell you a similar story to yours.

In reality, no one knows the truth anymore...even the Syrians themselves...
 
Brandmon

Brandmon

Juventuz irregular
#2,105
Aug 13, 2008
1,406
#2,105
RAMI¹⁰;3733815 said:
The point Rab that no one wants to understand and I was saying this from the beginning...the truth lies in between...
It's not all the regime's responsibility nor the rebels'...
Both parties are guilty in this bloody situation in Syria.
I tried to explain that at the beginning of the unrest a year ago, but people here like Syrians in Syria don't want to accept it.
It's either you are a pro regime or an opposition...

I also can give you stories from people in Syria that will tell you otherwise and others that will tell you a similar story to yours.

In reality, no one knows the truth anymore...even the Syrians themselves...
Click to expand...
This cannot be stressed enough, mostly because most people will simply not accept it even if Chuck Norris tells us so - out of a mixture of the binary logic established in human society (if you are not with me then you are against me, if there is a side then there must be an opposition, etc) and even the lack of an easy solution, thus accepting a version of events and rejecting the other out of hope that in reality it is as simple as we wish it to be, rather than how complicated it actually is.
 

Turk_Bianconero

Juventino
#2,110
Jul 2, 2006
19,449
#2,110
85 Syrian soldiers, including general, defect to Turkey

2 July 2012 / TODAYSZAMAN.COM,
A Syrian general from an artillery division and seven officers were among dozens of soldiers, mostly serving in Homs province, who defected and fled to Turkey on Monday.

A total of 85 Syrian military officers, including a general, a colonel, a lieutenant colonel, four majors, seven captains and one lieutenant defected and fled to Turkey with their families on Monday night. In total, 293 Syrians have crossed the border into Turkey from Syria through the Reyhanlı and Yayladağı districts in the southern Turkish province of Hatay.

Most of the Syrians fleeing into Turkey are women and children who have been sent to Şanlıurfa province, while military officers and their families are being sent to Apaydın camp in Hatay. Turkey is currently hosting to more than 34,000 Syrians who have fled 16 months of violence in their home country.
 

Turk_Bianconero

Juventino
#2,113
Jul 2, 2006
19,449
#2,113
Over 200 massacred in Syrian govt forces attack

13 July 2012 / REUTERS, AMMAN/BEIRUT
More than 200 Syrians, mostly civilians, were massacred in a village in the rebellious Hama region when it was bombarded by helicopter gunships and tanks and then stormed by militiamen, opposition activists said.

If confirmed, it would be the worst single incident of violence in 16 months of conflict in which rebels are fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad and diplomacy to halt the bloodshed has been stymied by jostling between world powers.

The Revolution Leadership Council of Hama told Reuters the Sunni Muslim village of Taramseh was subjected on Thursday to a barrage of heavy weapons fire before pro-government Alawite militiamen swept in and killed victims one by one.

"More than 220 people fell today in Taramseh. They died from bombardment by tanks and helicopters, artillery shelling and summary executions," the regional opposition group said in a statement on Thursday evening.

Syrian state television said three security personnel had been killed in fighting in Taramseh and it accused "armed terrorist groups" of committing a massacre there.

Fadi Sameh, an opposition activist from Taramseh, said he had left the town before the reported killing spree but was in touch with residents. "It appears that Alawite militiamen from surrounding villages descended on Taramseh after its rebel defenders pulled out, and started killing the people. Whole houses have been destroyed and burned from the shelling.

"Every family in the town seems to have members killed. We have names of men, women and children from countless families," he said, adding many of the bodies were taken to a local mosque.

Ahmed, another local activist, told Reuters: "So far, we have 20 victims recorded with names and 60 bodies at a mosque. There are more bodies in the fields, bodies in the rivers and in houses ... People were trying to flee from the time the shelling started and whole families were killed trying to escape."

The reports could not be independently confirmed. Syrian authorities severely limit access for independent journalists.

Seventy-eight people were shot or stabbed dead or burned alive in the village of Mazraat al-Qubeir, a Sunni hamlet, by fighters of Assad's Alawite sect on June 6, and 108 men, women and children were massacred in the town of Houla on May 25.

Most of Assad's political and military establishment are minority Alawites, who form a branch of Shi'ite Islam. The revolt and the fighters behind it, and the street protesters who launched the revolt in March 2011, are mostly Sunni Muslims.

While the insurgents have been unable to match the Syrian army's firepower, they have established footholds in towns, cities and villages across Syria, often prompting Assad's forces to respond fiercely with helicopter gunships and artillery.

Earlier on Thursday, the first ambassador to abandon Assad called on the army to "turn your guns on the criminals" of the government as troops backed by tanks swarmed into a suburb of Damascus on Thursday to flush out rebels.

Nawaf al-Fares, a Sunni Muslim who has close ties to the security services, was Syria's ambassador to its neighbour Iraq, one of its few friends in the region.

Coming just days after the desertion of Manaf Tlas, a Sunni brigadier general in the elite Republican Guard who grew up with the president, his defection gave the anti-Assad uprising one of its biggest political lifts.

But Assad's strongest strategic ally, Russia, stuck by him on Thursday with a clear warning to his Western and Arab enemies that it would not even consider calls for a tough new resolution by the U.N. Security Council in New York.

Britain circulated a draft on Wednesday, backed by the United States, France and Germany, that would make compliance with a transition plan drafted by international envoy Kofi Annan enforceable under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

This would allow the council to authorise actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention.

British U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant raised the fact that another massacre had reportedly taken place during Security Council negotiations on a resolution on Thursday.

"It goes to show that business as usual for the Security Council is not an option. The Security Council, as requested by Kofi Annan, now needs to apply joint and sustained pressure on the parties, with serious consequences for non-compliance," Lyall Grant said in a statement to Reuters.

But as council members began negotiating a resolution to renew the U.N. Syria monitoring mission, Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Alexander Pankin warned it would use its veto if it had to. "We are definitely against Chapter 7," he said. "Anything can be negotiated, but we do not negotiate this, this is a red line."

Annan himself asked the 15-member council to agree on "clear consequences" if the Syrian government or opposition failed to comply with his plan, which has produced neither a ceasefire nor political dialogue since it was agreed in April.

The British draft threatens the Syrian government with sanctions unless it stops using heavy weapons and withdraws its troops from towns and cities within 10 days.
 

Turk_Bianconero

Juventino
#2,114
Jul 2, 2006
19,449
#2,114
World appalled as over 200 massacred on war-torn Syria’s ‘bloodiest day’

13 July 2012 / AP / REUTERS, BEIRUT
Anti-regime activists in Syria said Friday that government gunners rained shells on a poor, farming village before armed thugs moved in, leaving scores of people dead in what rebels claim could be one of the worst single days of bloodshed in the uprising against Bashar Assad's regime.

The accounts - some of which claim more than 200 people were killed in the violence Thursday -- could not be independently confirmed, but would mark the latest in a string of brutal offensives by Syrian forces attempting to crush the rebellion. The head of the UN monitoring mission in singled out government forces forces for blame, saying they attacked from the air and ground in "continuous violence." Yet much remains unclear about what happened in Tremseh in central Syria such as what prompted the attack or whether the all dead are civilians. Also questions remains about why Assad's troops moved against the isolated village. One activist group said dozens of the dead were rebel fighters. Amateur videos showed the bodies of 17 people said to have been killed. Local activists, who gave the high death toll, could not provide lists of names, saying they were still being compiled.

One clip showed a young man wailing over the body of an elderly grey-haired man wrapped in a blanket and lying in the street. "Come on, Dad. For the sake of God, get up," the man sobs. A boom is heard in the background. Activist claims and videos could not be independently verified. But the violence was certain to raise questions about whether the international community's diplomatic efforts to end the crisis remain relevant. Kofi Annan, the international envoy whose peace plan for Syria has been largely ignored by all sides, said he was "shocked and appalled" by the reports of the attack.

As did Mood, he singled out the government for using heavy weaponry in populated areas, something it was supposed to have stopped doing three months ago. Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, head of UN mission sent monitor to the truce, told reporters in Damascus that a group of observers about five kilometers (three miles) away during the violence confirmed the use of heavy weaponry and attack helicopters. He said his team was ready to investigate if a cease-fire is reached. The nearly 300 observers in Syria have largely stopped moving around because of continued violence. Government forces have also prevented them from visiting sites of past massacres. Syria’s violence has grown increasingly chaotic in recent months and the protests calling for political change that began in March 2011 have largely been overshadowed by the scores of rebel groups now waging an armed insurgency against the government. Rebel groups operate independently of each other, and a string of large suicide bombings has raised suspicions that al-Qaida fighters are operating in Syria.

Activists often blame attacks on shabiha, or pro-government thugs who do not directly answer to any military structure - allowing the government to deny responsibility for their actions.

Independent investigation is nearly impossible in Syria, which has one of the most authoritarian governments in the Middle East and bars most journalists from working in the country. Still, a picture of violence in Tremseh began to emerge Friday. One amateur video posted online late Thursday showed the dead bodies of 15 men lined up on a floor. Some are covered in blood and have wounds to their heads and chests. A second video shows a man’s body lying on a hospital gurney. For its part, the Syrian government said more than 50 people were killed when Syrian forces clashed with “armed gangs” that were terrorizing village residents. The regime has referred to those seeking its overthrow as terrorists throughout the 16-month uprising. The killings in Tremseh, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) northwest of the central city of Hama, reflect the difficulty of getting reliable information on events inside Syria, a country of 22 million people that is about the size of North Dakota. The killings will also likely fuel further debates between world powers that remain sharply divided on what to try next to stop Syria’s violence. All previous efforts, including Annan’s plan, have failed to quell the bloodshed. Two activists reached Friday via Skype who said they were in villages near Tremseh gave similar accounts of the previous day’s events. Bassel Darwish said the army surrounded the village early Thursday to prevent people from fleeing and pounded it until early afternoon with artillery and tank shells and missiles from a combat helicopter. “We saw the events,” he said, adding that he was a few kilometers (miles) from the village. “Lots of people tried to get the families out but they weren’t able to.”

After the shelling, the army entered with pro-government thugs, known as shabiha, who gunned down and stabbed residents in the streets, he said. Darwish said activists had compiled the names of about 200 dead, but he did not share the list. He said chaos reigned in the area as residents searched for the dead and missing. Another activist, Abu Ghazi al-Hamwi, said local rebels, often called the Free Syrian Army, tried to fight off the army but couldn’t. “They kept shelling the city and the weapons that the Free Army had were not enough to keep them out,” he said. “So they started trying to get out the wounded and the families by clashing in one place to open a way out.” He, too, put the dead at more than 200, but did not provide a list of names. He said many of the dead were killed when a shell collapsed the roof of a mosque where they had sought shelter. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday that more than 160 people had been killed in Hama province, most of them in Tremseh, though it had the names of about 40 of them. It said dozens of the dead were rebel fighters and that the bodies of about 30 were totally burned. Others were stabbed. Another video showed a tank in the street while large booms and gunfire are heard in the background. Thursday’s killing recalled a massacre in late May in the area of Houla, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) south of Tremseh, where more than 100 people were killed. Activists then also blamed the army and pro-government thugs. A UN investigation said forces loyal to the government “may have been responsible” for many of the deaths. Assad has denied that, saying “terrorists” who were trying to frame the government carried out the attacks.

The Syrian government gave a very different story of the Tremseh killing, with the state news agency saying that dozens of members of “armed terrorist groups” had raided the village and were randomly firing on residents. Security forces clashed with the armed men, killing and capturing many of them, the report said. It said three soldiers and some 50 residents were killed. The agency provided no photos or videos. Assad’s regime considers the country’s uprising to be the work of terrorists and extremists, not people seeking reform. Activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed in the uprising, most of them civilians. The government says more than 4,000 members of the security forces have been killed. It does not provide numbers of civilian dead.

China says it will “seriously” study UN draft on Syria

China said on Friday it would “seriously” study a new UN draft resolution on Syria after Syrian opposition activists said more than 200 people, mostly civilians, were massacred in a village by forces loyal to the Syrian government. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told a daily news briefing that China was “looking seriously” at the draft resolution, and that members should seek consensus. Britain circulated a draft on Wednesday, backed by the United States, France and Germany, that would make compliance with a transition plan drafted by international envoy Kofi Annan enforceable under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.
 

Turk_Bianconero

Juventino
#2,115
Jul 2, 2006
19,449
#2,115
Syrian defense minister killed in Damascus blast

18 July 2012 / TODAYSZAMAN.COM WITH AP, REUTERS, BEIRUT
A suicide bomber struck the National Security building in the Syrian capital Wednesday, killing the defense minister and wounding the interior minister in a brazen attack on the seat of government power, state-run TV said.

Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, 65, a former army general, is the most senior government official to be killed in the Syrian civil war as rebels battle to oust President Bashar Assad. Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar was in stable condition, state-run TV said.

Two groups claimed responsibility for the attack. Liwa al-Islam, an Islamist rebel group whose name means "The Brigade of Islam", said in a statement on its Facebook page that it "targeted the cell called the crisis control room in the capital of Damascus."

A spokesman for the group confirmed the claim by telephone.

The Free Syrian Army also claimed responsibility for the attack, according to spokesman Qassim Saadedine. "This is the volcano we talked about, we have just started," he said.

The capital also has seen four straight days of clashes pitting government troops against rebels - an unprecedented challenge to government rule in the tightly controlled capital.

Rajha was the most senior Christian government official in Syria. Assad appointed him to the post last year. His death will resonate with Syria's minority Christian population, who make up about 10 percent of Syria's population and have generally stood by the regime.

Christians say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence sweeping the country of 22 million people, and they are fearful that Syria will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Muslim groups.

Wednesday's attack struck the National Security building in Damascus during a meeting of Cabinet ministers and senior security officials. State-run TV said some of the officials were seriously wounded.

Damascus-based activist Omar al-Dimashki said Republican Guard troops surrounded the nearby al-Shami Hospital where some officials were taken for treatment.

The blast came on the same day the U.N. Security Council was scheduled to vote on a new resolution aimed at pressuring the Syrian regime to comply with a peace plan.

But Russia remained at loggerheads with the U.S. and its European allies over any mention of sanctions and Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter, which could eventually allow the use of force to end the conflict in Syria.

Besides a government crackdown, rebel fighters are launching increasingly deadly attacks on regime targets, and several massive suicide attacks this year suggest al-Qaida or other extremists are joining the fray.

Activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011.

The state-run news agency SANA reported that Wednesday's blast was aimed at the National Security building, a headquarters for one of Syria's intelligence branches and less than 500 meters (yards) from the U.S. Embassy.

Police had cordoned off the area, and journalists were banned from approaching the site.

Earlier Wednesday, SANA said soldiers were chasing rebels in the Midan neighborhood, causing "great losses among them." The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said army helicopters attacked the neighborhoods of Qaboun and Barzeh.

Diplomacy so far has failed to stop the bloodshed, and there appeared to be little hope that the U.N.'s most powerful body would unite behind a plan.

The key stumbling block is the Western demand for a resolution threatening non-military sanctions and tied to Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter, which could eventually allow the use of force to end the conflict in Syria.

Russia is adamantly opposed to any mention of sanctions or Chapter 7. After Security Council consultations late Tuesday on a revised draft resolution pushed by Moscow, Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Alexander Pankin said these remain "red lines."
 
delrey

delrey

Senior Member
#2,118
Jan 5, 2009
1,121
#2,118
DID YOU KNOW?

Did you know that Syrian "activists" have 600 dolars per day. Many people all over the world want to become Syrian activist.
Stay tuned!
 
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