Damaged buildings at Al Khalidieh in Homs yesterday.
GUVECCI, Turkey: Turkish President Abdullah Gul said yesterday the “worst-case scenarios” were now playing out in Syria and Turkey would do everything necessary to protect itself, as its army fired back for a sixth day after a shell from Syria flew over the border.
Gul said the violence in Turkey’s southern neighbour, where a revolt against President Bashar Al Assad has evolved into a civil war that threatens to draw in regional powers, could not go on indefinitely and Assad’s fall was inevitable.
“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,” Gul said.
“There will be a change, a transition sooner or later ... It is a must for the international community to take effective action before Syria turns into a bigger wreck and further blood is shed, that is our main wish,” he told reporters in Ankara.
Turkey’s armed forces have bolstered their presence along the 900km border with Syria in recent days and have been responding in kind to gunfire and shelling spilling across from the south, where Assad’s forces have been battling rebels who control swathes of territory.
Turkey’s Chief of Staff, General Necdet Ozel, travelled to the southern city of Adana and was due to inspect the region patrolled by Turkey’s 2nd Army, which protects the border with Syria, the military said on its website.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the escalation of the conflict along the Turkey-Syria border, as well as the impact of the crisis on Lebanon, were “extremely dangerous”.
“The situation in Syria has dramatically worsened. It is posing serious risks to the stability of Syria’s neighbours and the entire region,” he told a conference in Strasbourg, France.
Ban said UN and Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi would be heading back to the region this week.
The exchanges with Turkey mark the most serious cross-border violence in Syria’s revolt against Assad, which began in March last year with peaceful protests for reform and has evolved into a civil war with sectarian overtones.
“From now on, every attack on us will be responded to immediately. Every attack that targets our sovereignty, our security of life and property will find its response,” Turkish government spokesman Bulent Arinc said after a cabinet meeting.
“Turkey will decide itself when the situation necessitates acts mentioned in the motion the parliament passed last week. Nobody should think war will follow a parliament approval ... but we are more sensitive about our independence and sovereignty than most countries,” Arinc said.
A string of rebel bastions across Syria was rocked by regime shelling and clashes yesternday, as several army checkpoints also came under attack, with at least 61 people killed nationwide, a rights group said.
Twenty of the deaths occurred when the army launched an intensive pre-dawn assault on the town of Karak al-Sharqi in the southern province of Daraa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
In the northwest province of Idlib, five soldiers were killed and three officers, including a brigadier general, were captured during clashes with rebels at a checkpoint in the village of Zaayniyeh, the Britain-based group said.
Agencies
