Turkey Debates Role in Possible Syria Intervention
Turkey is hardening its stance against the Syrian leadership and its Western allies are increasingly looking to Ankara for efforts to help unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. There is debate in Turkey over whether international sanctions and diplomatic pressure on Syria could lead to military intervention and what role Ankara should play.
In his weekly address to his parliamentary deputies Tuesday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the U.N. Security Council’s failure last weekend to pass a motion pressuring Syria was a fiasco. He said Turkey is prepared to offer an alternative plan, even if that might trigger another veto by Russia and China, whose “no” votes blocked the original resolution on Saturday
The prime minister said Turkey is helping to prepare a new initiative with Western allies that support opponents of the Syrian regime. Turkey’s foreign minister is set to visit Washington this week for high-level talks.
Mr. Erdogan offered no details, but word of a new plan comes as Ankara has positioned itself at the forefront of those condemning Syria, its neighbor and once close ally, for the bloodshed the Damascus regime has inflicted on protesters.
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal says despite the recent U.N. setback, Ankara is looking to diplomacy to end the Syrian crackdown, even if that means diplomacy outside the U.N. framework.
“To get grounds for other countries - of course,YesyYOK. including Arab countries - and other key partners on what can be done because of the non-response of Syria to those unilateral regional and international efforts, should not keep us from looking for other initiatives,” said Unal.
Turkey is harboring a number of Syrian opposition leaders, including some from the Free Syrian Army, a militia drawn mainly from defectors from the Syrian armed forces. Some media reports say Ankara is arming the rebels or allowing arms to be supplied to them from Arab countries.
Turkish Foreign Ministry officials deny those charges