Lauren Williams
The Daily Star
Erdogan addresses lawmakers in Ankara
BEIRUT: Gunmen opened fire on a convoy of Turkish buses inside Syria, injuring at least two Turks returning from the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia early Monday, further straining Syrian-Turkish relations.
The incident came as Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Syrian President Bashar Assad his days were numbered and that he could not stay in power indefinitely through the use of military power.
Activists said at least 12 people had died in separate violence throughout Syria Monday.
A Turkish Embassy official told The Daily Star Monday it was still unclear who had fired on the convoy, but that passengers said that gunmen wearing Syrian army uniforms had opened fire on the group after they learned of their Turkish nationality, between the central cities of Homs and Hama.
After proceeding past a checkpoint, the official said, the embassy received a distress call to say the convoy had come under attack.
Roughly 5-10 minutes later, he said, the embassy received a second phone call to say the convoy had come under fire again.
“They asked which way to go, and we told them to proceed to Aleppo,” the official said.
“Then after five to 10 minutes they appear to have come under fire again.”
The official said the passengers on the bus later told them the gunmen were Syrian soldiers, but that claim was still being investigated.
“They told us they were soldiers and that they had fired after they told them they were Turkish but it is still not clear.”
“They were meant to go to Aleppo to meet consular officials. Instead they went straight to Turkey and crossed the border.”
He said one driver was seriously wounded in the abdomen and was receiving treatment along with two other injured passengers in Antakya.
Speaking to Associated Press by telephone from a Turkish hospital, another of the drivers, Erhan Surmeli said that the bus had been carrying 25 butchers back to Turkey from Saudi Arabia when they had been stopped at a checkpoint.
“Syrian soldiers emerged from behind sandbags and cursed Recep Tayyip Erdogan when we told them we were Turks. Then they suddenly opened fire at the bus,” Surmeli said.
Passengers interviewed by private news agency Dogan said they had been told to get off their bus by up to eight men in Syrian army uniforms.
Dogan showed television images of a bus with one of its windows smashed, after it had crossed back into Turkey.
The official would not comment on diplomatic measures being taken, other than to say all relevant Syrian authorities had been notified.
“The Syrian authorities have been very cooperative,” he said, adding that checkpoints around Hama were being investigated, but so far had turned up no other witnesses.
Following the reports of the bus attack, Erdogan said his one-time ally’s defiant refusal to end a bloody crackdown on protesters had increased the prospects of foreign intervention. “You can remain in power with tanks and cannons only up to a certain point. The day will come when you’ll also leave,” he told a meeting in Istanbul. “Someone shows up and says ‘I’ll fight and die. Against whom will you fight? Will you fight against your Muslim brothers you rule in your country?” the Turkish prime minister asked.
Erdogan was referring to an interview with Assad published in London’s Sunday Times in which the Syrian leader vowed to fight and die if faced with foreign intervention. “Why do you open the way for outside interference?” asked Erdogan. “Why don’t you handle your own problems within yourself, without opening the way for any outside interference?”
Turkey has been increasingly vocal in condemning Assad’s crackdown on unrest, which has killed, by U.N. estimates, upward of 3,500 people. Thousands of Syrian refugees, including army deserters, have taken refuge in Turkey and last week Turkey’s diplomatic missions came under attack by pro-government demonstrators in several Syrian cities after Ankara voiced support for an Arab League suspension of Syrian participation in meetings.
Turkey demanded a formal apology from Syria and advised its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Syria.
Arab diplomats told The Daily Star over the weekend that Turkey was mulling safety zones inside Syrian territory to protect civilians from Assad’s security forces.
Saudi Arabia also pressed Assad Monday to conform fully with the Arab League initiative to halt the bloodshed. A statement after a Cabinet meeting chaired by Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz urged Damascus to “hold fully to its commitments” in accepting a League plan.
League foreign ministers will hold crisis talks on Syria in Cairo Thursday to discuss the next steps after the bloc rejected Damascus-proposed amendments to a plan to send a 500-strong delegation to Syria to monitor the violence.
Under a Nov. 2 deal, Syria was given 15 days to pull troops from the streets, release detainees, allow free movement for observers and media, and negotiate with the opposition. But a renewed deadline to implement the plan or face sanctions expired Saturday, with no compliance from Syria.
Long-time Syrian ally Russia also criticized the plan, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov complaining of mixed messages from the Arab League which had called for a halt to violence, while Western capitals had been telling the opposition to refrain from dialogue with Assad.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague, meanwhile met representatives of Syria’s opposition for the first time Monday, although he said it was too early for London to formally recognize them and urged disparate opposition groups to unite.
“I think the Assad regime will find that more and more governments around the world are willing to work with the opposition,” Hague said after the meeting.
Also Monday U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford would not return to Damascus this week as previously planned but is expected to go back there by the end of the year.
Violence showed no signs of abating Monday, at least 12 Syrians were shot dead in raids by security forces in the provinces of Homs and Hama, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Nov-22/154845-turkish-nationals-come-under-attack-in-syria.ashx#ixzz1eOYTaZYL
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
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