Turquia x Síria

[marcelo l.]

Enquanto um cresce, o outro está em guerra civil.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... ter_turkey

Construção de uma melhor Turquia
Anatolia está crescendo, mas alguns turcos estão descobrindo que seu condado novo modelo para a prosperidade é fraudada.

Even by Turkish standards, Antepia is a show stopper. Once finished, the 125-acre housing development growing 10 miles south of the city of Gaziantep will boast 19 high-rise apartment buildings, dozens of five-story mansions, 23 waterfront villas, and a manmade lake covering an area of 14 football fields.

Fatih Ozhelvalci, one of the project's main architects, ticks off one amenity after another: a shopping mall, hotel, nursery, tennis courts, swimming pools, bowling center, and paintball field. "With all this," he says, beaming beneath a white hardhat, in front of the vast construction area, "you can go a year without having to go to Gaziantep."

If it's the antiquities you miss -- Gaziantep, an hour's drive from the border with Syria, is one of the world's oldest cities -- Antepia tries to compensate with plenty of knowing winks to the past. The extravagant waterfront villas, known in Antepia parlance as yalis, take their name from the posh, near-extinct 19th century houses that dot the shores of the Bosphorus straits in Istanbul. The complex's main meeting place, within a stone's throw of the mosque, is called the Agora. Just to the west of it sits the main entertainment venue, a vast amphitheater.

Asked if he is afraid for the project's future should the Turkish housing bubble eventually burst, Fatih responds with a chuckle. Whatever happens, he says, Antepia is too splendid to fail. "Here, you're not only buying an apartment, but a lifestyle," he quips.

Business is booming. Inside Antepia's administrative center -- which features elevator music, brightly-colored faux Ottoman furniture, an elaborate fountain, footbridges, and an abundance of plants -- Antepia's sales team receives an average of 150 potential buyers per week. Most of the first flats and villas scheduled for use by summer 2012 have already sold. As an employee helpfully points out, if the only thing that stands between you and the yali of your dreams is a loan, "there are bank branches upstairs."

cont

[marcelo l.]

http://www.postwesternworld.com/

Turkey may not be part of the BRICS, but it is widely regarded as one of the world's most important and promising emerging powers. The Economist regularly refers to it as "Europe's BRIC". Reflecting this consensus, in his recent article in The National interest, Stephen Walt describes Turkey as a "key regional power", putting it into one group with India and Brazil, and arguing that Turkey is bound to have significant geopolitical influence and the capacity to shape the international agenda.

EVERYBODY'S DARLING

What is more, Turkey's rise is generally seen as a positive phenomenon - after all, it is a stable democracy. In a world where an increasing number of national leaders look to China as an economic and political model to copy, Turkey provides a powerful counterexample that political freedom is no obstacle to economic growth. The fact that democratic Turkey is part of the Muslim world makes it, in the eyes of the West, a shining example for the rest of the troubled region, and proof that Islam and democracy are not mutually exclusive.

herefore, many were content to see Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan emerge as the most admired leader by far in the Arab World, according to the 2011 edition of the annual "Arab Public Opinion Survey" conducted by Shibley Telhami of the Brookings Institution. The survey shows that when Egyptians were asked to pick who in a list of foreign leaders they would like the next Egyptian president to look like, 38% cited Erdogan, against only 11% for Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and 8% for Saudi King Abdullah (see full article here).

Turkey's soft power has reached quite astonishing levels. Nowadays, everybody seeks closer ties with Turkey, and in the debate about Turkey's EU accession the main question increasingly seems not whether Europe wants Turkey, but whether dynamic Turkey is still interested in joining a faltering European Union. Turkey is one of the so-called "emerging donors" that is increasingly active in Africa, and Turkey's government is busy establishing cultural centers around the world. In an op-ed in Today's Zaman (a Turkish newspaper), I argued in late 2010 that Brazil and Turkey were destined to build a strong partnership, and I even suggested including Turkey into IBSA, underlining its democratic credentials. Brazil and Turkey have a lot in common regarding their willingness to assume more international leadership and their desire to reform global governance.

cont.

[rodrigo]

Turkey raises Syria military option; Russia urges caution

Turkish FM says Ankara reluctatant to use force, but preparing itself for 'any scenario'; Russian FM says ban on all weapons would be 'dishonest'.

Turkey on Tuesday raised the option of military intervention in neighboring Syria while Russia rejected even an arms embargo as Damascus tries to stifle anti-government protests.

Highlighting divisions among foreign powers on how to deal with the bloodshed in Syria, Turkey's foreign minister said Ankara was reluctant to take a military option but was ready for "any scenario".

Russia's foreign minister for his part said it was time to stop issuing ultimatums to Damascus.Syria is facing increased economic sanctions and condemnation from many governments over what the United Nations calls "gross human rights violations" but President Bashar Assad shows no sign of buckling under pressure to end his military crackdown on protesters calling for his overthrow.

Western powers have long ruled out any Libyan-style military intervention in Syria to halt the crackdown, in which more than 3,500 people are believed have been killed in eight months.

But Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu suggested military force remained an option, albeit apparently a remote one, if Assad did not heed calls to halt the violence.

"If the oppression continues, Turkey is ready for any scenario. We hope that a military intervention will never be necessary. The Syrian regime has to find a way of making peace with its own people," he told Kanal 24 TV.

Davutoglu also raised the possibility of a buffer zone if the violence provoked a flood of refugees, an idea used by Ankara inside northern Iraq during the first Gulf War in 1991.
While NATO bombing of Libya was crucial in helping rebels to oust Muammar Gadhafi, Western countries are more cautious about Syria, which lies at the heart of Middle East conflicts, borders Israel and Lebanon and maintains close ties with Iran.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected calls at the United Nations for an arms embargo against Syria, saying that a similar move against Libya had proved one-sided, helping rebels to topple Gadhafi in August.

"We know how that worked in Libya when the arms embargo only applied to the Libyan army. The opposition received weapons, and countries like France and Qatar publicly spoke about it without shame," he told a news conference.

Moscow, which has also been critical of further sanctions slapped on Syria by Western and Arab League states, has close political and strategic relations with Assad's government and has been one if its main arms suppliers.

Alluding to Western powers and the Arab League, Lavrov said it was time to "stop using ultimatums" to pressure Damascus and repeated Russia's calls for dialogue between the government and its foes, whom Moscow says share blame for the bloodshed.

"For the most part, armed groups are provoking the authorities. To expect the authorities to close their eyes to this is not right," Lavrov said.

A UN commission of inquiry said on Monday that Syrian military and security forces had committed crimes against humanity including murder, torture and rape, and called for an arms embargo on Syria.

Russia teamed up with China last month to veto a Western-backed U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Assad's government. Both countries have oil concessions in Syria while Russia also has a little-used naval base there and provides military advisers to the Syrian army.

"The longer what is happening in Syria goes on, the more it troubles us," added Lavrov.
Moscow has urged Assad to implement reforms but rejects calls for his resignation and accused Western nations of trying to set the stage for armed intervention.

Syria accounted for 7 percent of Russia's total of $10 billion in arms deliveries abroad in 2010, according to the Russian defense think-tank CAST.

Davutoglu said the possible scenarios included setting up a buffer zone to contain any mass influx of Syrian refugees.

"If tens, hundreds of thousands of people start advancing towards the Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey borders, not only Turkey but the international community may be required to take some steps such as buffer zone. We don't want that to happen but we must consider and work on that scenario," he said.

The Turkish army set up a security buffer zone inside northern Iraq during in 1991 and has maintained small detachments there ever since.

A former friend of Syria, Turkey has fallen out with Assad and has said it will implement some sanctions agreed by the Arab League over the weekend. Davutoglu said he was making the same mistakes as Gaddafi and Iraq's Saddam Hussein by unleashing oppression that only fueled more opposition.

However, he said Damascus still had a chance to accept international observers proposed by the Arab League.

Another Turkish minister said Ankara would conduct trade with the Middle East via Iraq if the violence worsened in Syria.

Turkey's state-run Anatolian news agency quoted Transport Minister Binali Yildirim on Tuesday as saying that Ankara would open new border gates with Iraq if necessary.

Yildirim said the sanctions would not harm the Syrian people. "We plan to conduct transit shipments through new border gates in Iraq if the conditions in Syria worsen," Yildirim said.

Turkey will selectively impose those sanctions announced by the Arab League to avoid harming the Syrian people, the Turkish newspaper Sabah reported on Tuesday.

The Arab League imposed the sanctions on Sunday and the European Union weighed in one day later.

Sabah said Syrian government accounts at the Turkish central bank will be suspended, official sales to the Syrian state will be halted and a travel ban will be imposed on Assad and his family.

However, civil aviation flights will not be halted and Turkish Airlines services to Damascus will continue. It did not identify sources for the story.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east ... n-1.398486

[Sávio Ricardo]

Temos tantos pré-conflitos no mundo hoje que eu nem posso imaginar nosso futuro

Temos OTAN x Siria e Russia que vai da merda

Temos EUA na Australia x China que vai da merda

Temos Israel x Irã que vai da merda

Será que vamos ver o tão temido 20-12-2012?

[rodrigo]

Terrorist Discloses Turkey's Role in Unrests in Syria

TEHRAN (FNA)- A captured terrorist in Syria revealed the role played by the foreign countries, including Turkey, in Syrian unrests, saying that Ankara paid him a considerable sum of money to smuggle weapons to terrorists in the Middle-Eastern state.

"My main responsibility was smuggling weapons from Turkey to Syria," Osman Ziyad said, adding that he and his terrorist collaborators received a considerable amount of money to smuggle boxes of weapons and caches of ammo from Turkey to Syria.

"Of course it was a very hard and risky job but I did it for the considerable amount of money that they would give me," he said.

Ziyad said that their Turkish liaisons had told them that the Syrian government would soon collapse and promised them good jobs and governmental posts in the new government after Bashar Assad's government.

Syria experienced unrest for several months with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.

The government blamed outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest was orchestrated from abroad.

In October, calm was eventually restored in the Arab state after President Bashar al-Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but the US and Israeli plots could spark some new unrests in certain parts of the country.

Syrian state television has broadcast reports showing seized weapons caches and confessions by terrorist elements describing how they obtained arms from foreign sources.

In confessions broadcast on the Syrian TV in September, a captured terrorist revealed the tactics used by armed terrorist groups to stir tension in Syria and the role played by the foreign elements in Syrian unrests.

The terrorist, Ammar Ziyad al-Najjar, confessed that he received foreign aid and instructions from contacts in Saudi Arabia and Jordan to deface Damascus.

Al-Najjar stated that he was involved in a group that received instructions on how to kidnap people and blame it on the Syrian government.

The man also confessed to, among other crimes, purchasing firearms and distributing them among outlaws.

He also recounted how groups of outsiders, many of whom not Syrians, showed up during the attacks on police stations in Hama.

Najjar said the men would distribute food and drink to demonstrators, sometimes slipping money into the food to encourage protests and adding stimulant powders at other times.

There was another type of pills that made people more aggressive - pills that were given openly to members of the foreign-backed terror squads, he explained.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9007276457

[marcelo l.]

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... roundabout

Como a zona do euro experimenta a pior crise de sua história, pelo menos um país - Turquia - está feliz no lado de fora olhando para dentro Sua economia triplicou desde o primeiro-ministro Recep Tayyip Erdogan assumiu o cargo, e seu governo articulou uma visão para se tornar 10 maior economia do mundo em 2023 - o 100 º aniversário da república turca. A pedra fundamental para a história da Turquia sucesso é forte liderança do governo, que, em contraste com os líderes europeus, está empenhada em prosseguir a reforma e focado em aproveitar as oportunidades inerentes à atual crise.


Três fatores tornam provável que a Turquia irá gerenciar os riscos do período atual e continuar a cumprir o seu potencial. Primeiro, ele tem em grande parte resolvida sua crise de identidade. Em vez de enquadrar a identidade em termos de oposição entre europeus ou do Médio Oriente, religioso ou secular, orientais ou ocidentais, a Turquia agora é enquadrar as suas vantagens em termos de parceria: muçulmanos e secular, ocidental e oriental, regional e global. No processo, a Turquia tem formado uma narrativa que utiliza todas as facetas de sua rica cultura, história e localização, na busca da sua visão de se tornar um player global. Segurança humana e Estado de Direito se tornaram temas centrais desta narrativa.

Em segundo lugar, o governo turco adquiriu a confiança necessária para fazer difíceis decisões políticas. Administração de Erdogan deu início a reformas fiscais e monetários ao mesmo tempo, compromisso difícil uma revisão da Constituição por meio de um intenso processo público.

Muito do crédito para esse senso de confiança pertence à equipe impressionante que regem a Erdogan montou, que superou o problema clássico de um líder forte rodeado por seguidores fracos, e merece o seu quinhão do crédito para esse senso de confiança: Ali Babacan, o vice-primeiro-Miniter; Egmen Bagis, ministro dos assuntos europeus e negociador-chefe; Ahmet Davutoglu, ministro dos Negócios Estrangeiros, e Mehmet Simsek, ministro das finanças articular uma visão compartilhada para os desafios da Turquia e aderir a uma abordagem comum para as políticas que precisam ser implementadas.

Partido de Erdogan Justiça e do Desenvolvimento também possui laços profundos de muitos cidadãos turcos. Ele fornece o veículo para uma narrativa compartilhada, a aparelhos para mobilizar eleitores, e um canal de ascensão social da geração mais jovem.

Terceiro, o governo firmou uma parceria orgânica com o sector privado, introduzindo uma profunda mudança na formação e funcionamento da esfera econômica. No passado, a elite empresarial turca dependia de patrocínio do governo e proteção. Economia fechada da Turquia era um sistema propenso a crises, a economia onde a inflação periodicamente limpos e infligiu um pedágio enorme sobre os pobres.

cont.

[marcelo l.]

Turquia acordou, parando de colocar mais lenha na fogueira.

http://www.juancole.com/2012/01/turkey- ... deast.html

Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu Ahmet Davutoglu warned Wednesday in Tehran against a Sunni-Shiite civil war in the Middle East, which he said was being encouraged by some (unnamed) forces.

Among the flashpoints in the area has been the confrontation between Iran and the United States at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Iran conducted a 10-day military exercise there, warning of its ability to close off the waterway to world trade, thus depriving it of one-sixth of petroleum supplies.

But an unstated element in this Iran-US confrontation is the US backing for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, both Sunni powers, against Iran. Bahrain’s citizen population is 58% Shiite, after tens of thousands of Saudis, Pakistanis and other Sunnis were granted citizenship by the Sunni monarch of the islands. The Bahrain monarchy has cracked down hard on the protest movement seeking a constitutional monarchy. Saudi Arabia sent 1,000 troops to help the Bahrain king, Sheikh Hamad b. Isa Al Khalifah. The United States has a naval base in Manama that serves as the HQ of the Fifth Fleet, which is charged with keeping the oil flowing from the Persian Gulf.

This weekend, there were rallies against the Bahrain government in the Shiite hinterland, and one woman was killed by a teargas cannister.

Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu got where he is by advocating a policy in Turkey of “good relations with neighbors.” It was this policy that doubled Turkish trade with the Middle East after 2002, and which led to the reemergence of Turkey as an influential country in the region, after long decades in which it had turned almost exclusively toward Europe.

Turkey is a Sunni-majority country and the current Justice and Development Party government has strong Sunni Muslim constituencies, including the Naqshbandi Sufi order, which is important in Iraq and Syria. But the government has striven, despite significant tensions, for correct relations with Iran. Turkey imports natural gas from Iran and the two countries did more than $15 billion in trade with one another in 2011, up 55% over the previous year. Turkey, like South Korea, is seeking an exemption from upcoming US sanctions on sales of petroleum and gas via Iran’s central bank. Its Halkbank handles India’s purchase of Iranian petroleum.

Sunni-Shiite tensions have flared in Iraq. On Wednesday, a series of bombs went off in Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, killing 23 persons; the bombers clearly want to reignite Iraq’s sectarian civil war. At the same time, a political crisis continues to unfold. Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused Sunni vice president Tariq al-Hashimi of involvement in terrorist attacks, one of them aiming to assassinate al-Maliki itself. Al-Hashimi fled to Kurdistan and sought to have any legal proceedings against him take place there. An Iraqi court has instead ordered him to Baghdad. He is likely to flee the country rather than face al-Maliki- appointed judges. Al-Maliki’s charges against Hashimi have caused the largely Sunni Iraqiya Party to suspend its participation in his government of national unity. Al-Maliki blames Saudi influence for Sunni Arab violence against Shiites in Iraq.

There is also a latent Sunni-Shiite dimension to the ongoing crisis in Syria. On Wednesday, some 26 persons died across the country as security forces continued to snipe at demonstrators. Some 19 of those deaths occurred in Homs, where there were big anti-government rallies. The ruling Baath Party is dominated at its upper echelons by members of the heterodox Shiite sect of the Allawites, whereas most of the urban centers that have come out against the regime are Sunni in character, and the Muslim Brotherhood plays a significant role in organizing them.

Turkey has taken a strong stand against government repression of the demonstrators, and has come out strongly against the Allawite president Bashar al-Asad. The Justice and Development Party’s Sunni constituencies in Anatolia may be among the drivers of this stance in favor of the Syrian National Council. It represents and about-face; the party came to power in 2002 determined to repair relations with Damascus, in which objective it largely had succeeded before last spring’s uprising. Turkey had done some $2 bn. a year in trade with Syria and was working on a free trade zone with Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

Davutoglu is likely attempting to mediate between the US and Saudi Arabia on the one hand and Iran on the other. Unlike the former, Turkey is not spoiling for a fight. Davutoglu’s brilliant strategy of expanding trade with the Middle East has been deeply inconvenienced by the troubles in Syria and Iraq. Turkey’s truck trade with the Arab world went through Syria. Al-Arabiya reports in Arabic that Turkey is planning to ship the trucks to the Egyptian port of Alexandria, from which they can take their goods anywhere in the Arab world. But the shipping costs will obviously reduce profits.

Turkish trade policy, which depends on harmonious relations among neighbors, impels it to attempt to tamp down sectarian conflict. Iran and Saudi Arabia, as oil states, do not absolutely require regional trade for their prosperity, and so they have the independence to conduct a struggle with one another if they (unwisely) so choose.

Whatever Davutoglu’s specific mission, which has not been revealed, his general emphasis on tamping down tensions couldn’t be more essential.

[marcelo l.]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeas ... 43769.html

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, primeiro-ministro turco, alertou para o perigo crescente de uma crescente guerra civil na vizinha Síria.


"A Turquia tem que assumir um papel de liderança aqui, porque a situação atual representa uma ameaça para a Turquia", disse ele.

Erdogan, que exortou o presidente sírio, Bashar al-Assad a demitir-se e impôs sanções a Damasco, não disse o que faria para Ankara impedir o país de descendente em uma guerra civil.

Ankara tem avançado a ideia de criar uma zona tampão em solo sírio se a luta desencadeia uma avalanche de refugiados representa uma ameaça imediata à segurança da Turquia.

Mas mesmo assim, a Turquia, que compartilha uma fronteira de 900 km de extensão com a Síria, disse que iria procurar o apoio da ONU.

Enquanto isso, figuras da oposição síria disse na segunda-feira que a missão da Liga Árabe, que começou a trabalhar há duas semanas para julgar se Damasco está a cumprir um plano de paz, até agora só conseguiu dar o governo de Assad de mais tempo para esmagar violentamente seus opositores.

"Dar tempo de regime"

Depois de uma reunião de avaliação no Cairo no domingo, o bloco regional disse que Damasco tinha apenas parcialmente implementado as suas promessas, que incluem a retirada das tropas das cidades, libertação de prisioneiros eo diálogo político.

Adnan Khodeir, chefe da sala dos monitores operações na capital egípcia, disse que os observadores mais árabe chegaria a Síria esta semana, trazendo força da equipe para 200 de 165.

Mas Rima Fleihan, escritor e membro do bloco de oposição, o Sírio Conselho Nacional (SNC), disse: "O relatório inicial é demasiado vaga, e ela essencialmente compra o regime mais tempo."

"Precisamos saber o que a Liga vai fazer se o regime continua a sua ofensiva na presença dos monitores. Em um ponto ele precisa para se referir à Síria Conselho de Segurança da ONU", disse ela.

Rússia e China se opuseram a qualquer movimento do Conselho de Segurança sobre a Síria, enquanto as potências ocidentais crítica de Assad até agora mostraram pouco apetite para a Líbia de estilo de intervenção em um país que fica em uma área muito mais combustível do Oriente Médio.

No chão, explodiu perto de um tiroteio carro que transportava monitores árabes longe de uma demonstração anti-Assad que tinham participado na cidade de Homs turbulenta na segunda-feira, mas ninguém ficou ferido, disseram ativistas.

Rami Abdulrahman, o fundador do Observatório sediada no Reino Unido Síria para os Direitos Humanos, disse que manter os monitores árabes na Síria sem um aumento substancial em seus números só "dar ao regime mais tempo para lidar com a revolução síria".

Ele disse que autoridades sírias tinham escondido em tanques compostos militares e de segurança ou repintado veículos blindados da polícia nas cores azul para monitores enganar.

Apenas uma pequena parte dos milhares de presos detidos durante os distúrbios tinham sido libertados, acrescentou.

Síria não será humilhado "

Autoridades sírias dizem que estão lutando "terrorismo" por subversivos armados do estrangeiro, e não uma revolta de base ampla contra mais de quatro décadas de Assad regra familiar.

As autoridades dizem que seus inimigos mataram 2.000 membros das forças de segurança.

Funcionários da Liga Árabe disse que o futuro da missão de monitoramento, deve fazer um relatório completo em 19 de janeiro, dependia o compromisso do governo sírio para acabar com o derramamento de sangue diariamente.

"Se o relatório ... sai dizendo que a violência não parou, a Liga Árabe terá a responsabilidade de agir sobre isso", Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, o primeiro-ministro do Qatar, disse em entrevista coletiva após a reunião do Cairo .

Não houve resposta formal do governo da Síria para a reunião do Cairo, mas mufti Ahmed Hassoun Síria indicado pelo Estado, a maior autoridade sênior muçulmano, deu uma mensagem desafiadora.

"A terra de Sham (Síria) não será humilhado", disse ele em uma igreja de Damasco durante multi-fé orações para 26 pessoas do governo disse que foram mortos por um homem-bomba nesta sexta-feira.

"Aqueles que querem a Síria a ser uma arena para a sua própria agenda contra a vontade do seu povo, eu digo para a Liga Árabe e à Organização das Nações Unidas que a Síria tem anjos ... que vai voar sobre ele até o dia da ressurreição", disse Hassoun .

O comunicado da Liga chamou a oposição síria para apresentar sua própria visão política e pediu ao secretário-geral da Liga de convocar uma reunião da oposição síria.

Grupos de oposição sírios têm se esforçado para unificar e aceitação da intervenção militar como uma solução para a crise Acredita-se que permanecem a maior fonte de divisão entre os dois grupos, o SNC e do Comité de Coordenação Nacional (NCC).

Líderes da oposição reunidos em Istambul, na segunda-feira deu Burhan Ghalioun uma prorrogação de um mês como chefe do SNC, após rejeitar um acordo anterior projecto que tinha assinado com NCC.

[WalterGaudério]

Temos tantos pré-conflitos no mundo hoje que eu nem posso imaginar nosso futuro

Temos OTAN x Siria e Russia que vai da merda

Temos EUA na Australia x China que vai da merda

Temos Israel x Irã que vai da merda

Será que vamos ver o tão temido 20-12-2012?

POis é..., SE eu me casar de novo, vou marcar para o dia 22/12/2012..., por via das dúvidas...sabe cumu é...

[rodrigo]

Turkish Artist: Erdogan's Policy against Syria Implements US Dictations

ANKARA, (SANA)- Famous Turkish Actor, Cuneyt Arkin said that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan adopts hostile policies against Syria in implementation of US dictations and demands in way that threatens the Turkish national interests.

Participating in a TV program broadcast on Wednesday by the Turkish TV, Channel 8, Arkin indicated to the close relations which were binding Syria and Turkey, affirming that Syria is a neighboring and friendly country to Turkey, and the Turkish Government must put this into its considerations away from the US dictations.

The program in which Arkin participated is watched on a large scale in Turkey.

http://www.sana.sy/eng/22/2012/01/12/393792.htm

[rodrigo]

Turkey stops 'Freedom convoy' entering Syria

Police prevent 150 Syrian expatriate activists from crossing border to deliver aid to people affected by uprising.

Turkish police have stopped an aid convoy of Syrian expatriates from crossing into Syria to deliver blankets, medicine and food to people affected by the government's crackdown on protests.

The "Freedom Convoy to Syria", including activists from Europe, North America and the Arab world, was stopped outside the town of Kilis, about 15km from the Oncupinar border crossing.

The provincial governor offered to take a small group of activists to the border to see if they could pass.

Up to 150 activists, brought together by a campaign on the social networking website Facebook, had left the southeastern city of Gaziantep in buses and cars earlier on Thursday.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Muhyedin Lazikani, a Syrian writer taking part in the convoy, said: "We come with food, medicine, blankets, to give to the people under siege in Syria.

"We are ready to put our tents up and stay here as long as it takes."

The UN estimates more than 5,000 people have been killed during a crackdown by the Syrian authorities on an uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

Syria says it is fighting foreign-backed "terrorists" and that 2,000 soldiers and police have been killed.

Belal Dalati, a 42-year-old Syrian businessman from California, said his cousin had been shot dead in the Syrian town of Zabadina, near the Lebanese border last week.

"We are watching people dying, women, children and the elderly too are getting killed in this conflict ... just because
the regime wants to stay in power," Dalati said.

"We are calling for foreign military intervention, creating a safe zone for people to flee and for a free army to be organised."

Turkey's foreign ministry told the Reuters news agency that it had been in touch with people in the convoy but did not say whether Ankara supported the campaign.

Convoy oganisers said they were unsure whether they would be allowed to cross the border, given the deteriorating security situation.

Turkish criticism

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised Syria's crackdown on protests, calling on former ally Assad to step down and slapping sanctions on Damascus.

Turkey, which shares a 900km long border with Syria, is hosting several thousand refugees, including members of the rebel Syrian Free Army, at camps, while the opposition Syrian National Council meets regularly in Istanbul.

Convoy member Samir Jisri, a 35-year-ol computer graphics teacher from Toronto, said he wanted to return to the country he left as an infant.

"The Syrian revolution is an orphaned revolution because nobody is sticking up for it, not even the Arab League. The last hope we have is Turkey."

Moayad Skaif, a 30-year-old Syrian journalist from Qatar, who was on one of the coaches, said: "We want to go to Syria to show to the whole world what is happening in Syria. Assad does not want the truth to come out."

Journalist killed

Meanwhile, the death of a French TV cameraman during a government-sponsored trip to Syria has renewed calls for an independent assessment of the violent conflict in the country, as the government and the opposition traded blame.

The French government, human rights groups and the opposition demanded an independent investigation into the killing of Gilles Jacquier while filming a pro-government rally in the restive city of Homs Wednesday.

Jacquier, who worked for France-2 Television, became the first Western journalist to be killed in the 10-month-old Syrian uprising.

He was among a group of 15 journalists on the government trip when they were hit by several grenades, and his death was likely to become a rallying cry for both sides.

Separately, the Arab League announced that it was delaying sending more monitors to the country after an attack on its team this week.

The Arab League currently has 165 observers in Syria, and recently said it would increase the numbers.

Late on Wednesday, the Arab League said it was postponing a decision to send more observers to Syria after 11 of its monitors were injured in an attack earlier this week.

"The Arab League will not send more observers to Syria for the time being until the situation calms down," an unnamed official of the regional bloc told Al Jazeera.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeas ... 28857.html

[rodrigo]

Alleged Russia arms ship docks in Syria despite vow to change course

Turkish officials say ship, which was briefly held in Cyprus, arrives at Syrian port of Tartus after ship turning off its tracking device.

Turkey says a Russian ship, allegedly carrying tons of weapons, has docked at a Syrian on port on Thursday after Cypriot officials allowed it to leave.

The ship had made an unscheduled stop in Cyprus, violating an EU embargo on arms shipments to Syria, which has killed thousands in a crackdown on dissent. Cyriot officials on Wednesday allowed the ship to leave after it changed its destination to Turkey.

But Turkish Foreign Ministry official Selcuk Unal said the ship docked Thursday at the Syrian port of Tartus, according to Turkey's navy.

The ship had turned off its tracking device and the information could not be independently verified.

The ship, owned by the St. Petersburg-based Westberg Ltd, was carrying "tens of tons of munitions," according to Cyprus state radio.

Earlier this week week, a large Russian naval force arrived at Tartus, the French AFP news agency reported, in what the regime of President Bashar Assad is calling a show of "friendship."

Citing the official Syrian news agency SANA on Sunday, AFP reported that a large Russian naval flotilla, led by an aircraft carrier, is making a six-day port call to Tartus. SANA also quoted a Russian naval officer as saying that the a visit was "aimed at bringing the two countries closer together and strengthening their ties of friendship."

"The commanders of the Russian naval vessels docked in Tartus took turns to express their solidarity with the Syrian people," SANA added.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east ... e-1.406957

[joao fernando]

Temos tantos pré-conflitos no mundo hoje que eu nem posso imaginar nosso futuro

Temos OTAN x Siria e Russia que vai da merda

Temos EUA na Australia x China que vai da merda

Temos Israel x Irã que vai da merda

Será que vamos ver o tão temido 20-12-2012?

POis é..., SE eu me casar de novo, vou marcar para o dia 22/12/2012..., por via das dúvidas...sabe cumu é...

Minimo, tirou as palavras da minha boca...

[FoxHound]

Turquia se prepara para entrar suas tropas em Síria.
O canal televisivo estatal iraniano Press TV informou, fazendo referências às fontes nas autoridades supremas do país, que, conforme o plano, preparado pelos EUA e outros países ocidentais, as tropas da Turquia planejam uma intrusão no território da Síria.

As tropas turcas, como afirma o canal televisivo, armarão os oposicionistas sírios, Israel atacará as bases militares sírias e derrubará Bashar Assad. Depois, da Líbia virão as forças americanas junto com guerreiros wahabitas.
http://portuguese.ruvr.ru/2012/02/07/65560624.html

[Brasileiro]

Turquia se prepara para entrar suas tropas em Síria.
O canal televisivo estatal iraniano Press TV informou, fazendo referências às fontes nas autoridades supremas do país, que, conforme o plano, preparado pelos EUA e outros países ocidentais, as tropas da Turquia planejam uma intrusão no território da Síria.

As tropas turcas, como afirma o canal televisivo, armarão os oposicionistas sírios, Israel atacará as bases militares sírias e derrubará Bashar Assad. Depois, da Líbia virão as forças americanas junto com guerreiros wahabitas.
http://portuguese.ruvr.ru/2012/02/07/65560624.html

NOssa, mas que coisa mais......

..... do mal!

Maquiavélico, sei lá.


abraços]