A Turkish armoured personnel carrier drives out of a military border post on the Turkish-Syrian border near the village of Hacipasa in Hatay province, southern Turkey October 9, 2012. [Credit: Reuters/Osman Orsal]
Posted on 10/09/2012 4:42:34 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
NATO said it had drawn up plans to defend Turkey if necessary should the war in Syria spill over their border again as dozens of people were killed across the Arab nation on Tuesday.
Fighting between Syrian rebels and government forces could be heard from this Turkish border town following on from several days of clashes in the past week. One Syrian villager said a rebel push on the town of Azmarin was expected soon.
In Damascus, rebel suicide bombers struck at an Air Force Intelligence compound used as an interrogation centre - the latest attack to bring the conflict close to President Bashar al-Assad's power base.
"Assad...is only able to stand up with crutches," Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling AK Party. "He will be finished when the crutches fall away."
Erdogan, reacting to six consecutive days when shells fired from Syrian soil have landed on Turkish territory, has warned Ankara will not shrink from war if forced to act.
But his government has also stressed it would be reluctant to mount any big operation on Syrian soil and then only with international support.
It was not clear whether the shells hitting Turkish territory were aimed to strike there or were due to Syrian troops overshooting as they attacked rebels to their north.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in Brussels the 28-member military alliance hoped a way could be found to stop tensions escalating on the border.
"We have all necessary plans in place to protect and defend Turkey if necessary," he said.
Elsewhere in Syria, rebels took control of the town of Maarat al-Nuaman, which lies on the main north-south highway in the northern province of Idlib, after a 48-hour battle with soldiers, according to rebels and activists.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
A Turkish armoured personnel carrier drives out of a military border post on the Turkish-Syrian border near the village of Hacipasa in Hatay province, southern Turkey October 9, 2012. [Credit: Reuters/Osman Orsal]
Considering how badly the 1973-era Syrian army squandered their huge advantage in surprise, numbers, armor, SAMs, and other firepower, it should come as no surprise to Iran or Russia that the regime is losing its grip.
Nato backs Turkey in standoff with Syria
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/09/nato-turkey-syria
Will NATO attack Syria?
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2012/1009/Will-NATO-attack-Syria
And you know something is going on behind the scenes.
I smell a wagging of dog.
Obama is down in the polls and suddenly NATO finally feels the urge to use force against Syria in “defense” of Turkey, which has reportedly been giving sanctuary and other support to the Syrian rebels (who I suspect are very likely to be Islamists).
I smell a wagging of dog.
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Me too. I think it highly likely that his Syrian “aggression” (a stray mortar round or two hitting an open field near the border) is being done by the Syrian “opposition” as a provocation to try to bring in more support from Turkey.
The Turks likely don’t give a damn about the Syrians but are likely very concerned with the amount of autonomy that the Syrian Kurds are achieving. If they could get away with it, the Turks would conduct genocide against the Kurds just as they did against the Armenians in an earlier era.
Turkey should be neither in NATO nor should they be admitted to the European Union—unless the EU wants to speed up its slow suicide.
It’s on. :’) The Syrian shelling of Turkey may be just a devil-may-care semicompetence of the Syrian gunners as they try to hit rebel forces. Ultimately, the Turkish reaction has to be, ‘what’s the difference?’ Turkey outguns and far outmans the remaining overstretched overstressed fragments of the Syrian army. And when the Turks come in, most Syrians will be glad to see them, and at that point everyone will turn on the Hizzies and Iranian thugs who are in-country.
I smell a wagging of dog
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Isn’t this tantamount to ANZUS or SEATO saying they were backing Finland in a border dispute with Norway?
This is a very interesting article, it is long but in summary Russia has thousands of troops in Syria. Please read the whole article. Big wag the dog with the bear.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/50087
I smell a set-up, with Hillary Clinton’s fingerprints all over this latest NATO scheme to meddle in an Arab civil war..
Another nice diversion though.
Will NATO attack Syria?
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2012/1009/Will-NATO-attack-Syria
You mean, will the US attack Syria, don’t you? NATO, without the US, is as toothless as an old hag giving gumjobs in an ally behind a bar that specializes in serving drunk hobos.
My hope is that we promise Turkey the moon in support. Turkey then makes all their plans counting on that support. Then, when they’re deep into their advance and truly desperate for that support, we say “remember the 4th ID?” and give them the finger.
Good points. And Arabs hate to see Turks coming over the border at them. They made up their minds on that point, long ago. It is like Poles with Russians. In fact, this ‘intervention’ is something from the Communist playbook, where Russian troops used to go into places like Hungary and Poland, in order to ‘defend’ the people against tyranny ... oh yeah ... that was the motive.
It is ironic that the Armenian population of Aleppo, who fled so long ago, are now fearing to be under Turkish power again.
:’) Nice touch.
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