Sasha
12th May 2013, 15:06
REYHANLI, Turkey—Turkish officials on Sunday said Syrian intelligence was behind two car bombs that killed 46 people in a border town on Saturday, marking the latest and most deadly sign that Syria's civil war is spilling onto Turkish territory.
Ankara said on Sunday that nine Turkish nationals with links to Syria's intelligence services had been arrested in connection with the bombings. Turkish officials queued up to pledge that Ankara would respond, but there was little sign that Turkey was a planning military retaliation on the scale of Israel's strikes against Syrian targets earlier this month.
In Damascus, Syria's Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi rejected Turkey's allegations, telling a news conference Sunday that "no one has the right to make false accusations" and that the bombs weren't the behavior of the Syrian government.
Saturday's bombings, which exploded less than 15 minutes apart in this small town close to Turkey's border with Syria, came just days after Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would support a U.S.-enforced no-fly zone in Syria and before the Turkish leader's visit to meet President Barack Obama in Washington on May 16.
Turkish officials took to the airwaves and social media on Sunday to claim the hand Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime was behind the bombings. Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay and Interior Minister Muammer Guler alleged the involvement of Syria's Mukhabarat, its intelligence agency, with the assistance of groups within Turkey.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said those behind the bombings in Reyhanli on Saturday were the same group thought to have carried out an attack on the Syrian coastal town of Banias a week ago, in which fighters backing Mr. Assad were reported to have killed at least 62 people.
"Whoever committed the Baniyas massacre organized these bombings," Mr. Davutoglu said, describing Saturday's attack as a provocation intended to scapegoat Syrian refugees.
In Reyhanli on Sunday, locals were struggling to come to terms with what analysts have labeled one of the most deadly terrorist attacks in Turkey's history. Groups of residents loitered around the detritus of the two huge car bombs, which ripped through buildings along the town's main thoroughfare and carved craters in the concrete. Amid court-imposed restrictions on the any reporting that could impact on the investigation, local officials said they expected more bodies to be pulled from the rubble.
As the town buried their dead, anger against Syrian refugees who had moved to the town in thousands was palpable, with some residents vowing to eject Syrians from the town. One woman who earlier Sunday buried a brother in law killed in the blast blamed Turkey's Prime Minister for bringing Syrians to Reyhanli and demanded they leave the town.
"I don't want this government, I don't want Syrians here. Why weren't they taken somewhere further? They're among us," the woman, who identified herself as Figen, said. "We are tired of seeing Syrian fighters, it was the rebels who caused this," added a male relative, angrily.
Additional security forces were brought from different parts of Turkey to keep the peace as groups of young men roamed the town's main thoroughfare looking for Syrians that hadn't fled the town. The few Syrians left in the town kept a low profile: one group of Syrian men said they would cross into Syria once Turkey reopened the border gate.
"For two, three days we will do our best to avoid Reyhanli residents and keep out of sight," said one man, who refused to give his name for fear of repercussions.
Reyhanli is situated in a region of southern Turkey inhabited by both Turkish Sunnis and members of the Alawite sect of Mr. Assad. The communities have cohabited peacefully for the last three decades, but the intensification of the Syrian civil war has put strains on that coexistence. Turkish officials have moved some Syrian refugees, most of them Sunni Muslims, away from Alawite-inhabited areas in Hatay.
"There have been rising tensions between Syrian refugees and local people in Hatay for some weeks, though the Turkish government has been keeping them out of most of the media," said Wolfango Piccoli, managing director at Teneo Intelligence, a political risk consultancy.
Lethal violence has spilled across the frontier twice on several occasions in recent months, but Saturday's attacks were far more deadly. In February, a minibus blew up at a border crossing near Reyhanli, killing 14 people mostly of Syrian nationality, and wounding dozens more.
Turkey, which shares a 565-mile border with Syria, has been a crucial supporter of the Syrian rebel cause and Ankara has allowed its territory to be used as a logistics base and staging center for Syrian insurgents.
The U.S. and other Western powers are reluctant to intervene directly and Turkey has sought to avoid full conflict with Damascus, but many analysts have repeatedly warned that Syria's war could increasingly impact neighboring territory. Turkish media reported that local people attacked Syrian refugees and cars with Syrian number plates after the attacks.
The attacks drew a quick warning from Ankara not to test Turkey's resolve, but it was unclear whether Ankara would opt for a military response.
Analysts said that attention would be focused on Ankara's reading of the explosions and how it will respond if it concludes the explosion was the work of forces loyal to Mr. Assad.
"One scenario here is that this could have been done by elements in Syria that want to give a message to the Turkish leadership to make them pay for the support for the rebels," said Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat who now works at the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace. "If Turkey is able to prove one way or another that this is linked to the Syrian regime then there will be immense pressure to retaliate," he said
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323716304578478631250320680.html
Ankara said on Sunday that nine Turkish nationals with links to Syria's intelligence services had been arrested in connection with the bombings. Turkish officials queued up to pledge that Ankara would respond, but there was little sign that Turkey was a planning military retaliation on the scale of Israel's strikes against Syrian targets earlier this month.
In Damascus, Syria's Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi rejected Turkey's allegations, telling a news conference Sunday that "no one has the right to make false accusations" and that the bombs weren't the behavior of the Syrian government.
Saturday's bombings, which exploded less than 15 minutes apart in this small town close to Turkey's border with Syria, came just days after Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would support a U.S.-enforced no-fly zone in Syria and before the Turkish leader's visit to meet President Barack Obama in Washington on May 16.
Turkish officials took to the airwaves and social media on Sunday to claim the hand Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime was behind the bombings. Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay and Interior Minister Muammer Guler alleged the involvement of Syria's Mukhabarat, its intelligence agency, with the assistance of groups within Turkey.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said those behind the bombings in Reyhanli on Saturday were the same group thought to have carried out an attack on the Syrian coastal town of Banias a week ago, in which fighters backing Mr. Assad were reported to have killed at least 62 people.
"Whoever committed the Baniyas massacre organized these bombings," Mr. Davutoglu said, describing Saturday's attack as a provocation intended to scapegoat Syrian refugees.
In Reyhanli on Sunday, locals were struggling to come to terms with what analysts have labeled one of the most deadly terrorist attacks in Turkey's history. Groups of residents loitered around the detritus of the two huge car bombs, which ripped through buildings along the town's main thoroughfare and carved craters in the concrete. Amid court-imposed restrictions on the any reporting that could impact on the investigation, local officials said they expected more bodies to be pulled from the rubble.
As the town buried their dead, anger against Syrian refugees who had moved to the town in thousands was palpable, with some residents vowing to eject Syrians from the town. One woman who earlier Sunday buried a brother in law killed in the blast blamed Turkey's Prime Minister for bringing Syrians to Reyhanli and demanded they leave the town.
"I don't want this government, I don't want Syrians here. Why weren't they taken somewhere further? They're among us," the woman, who identified herself as Figen, said. "We are tired of seeing Syrian fighters, it was the rebels who caused this," added a male relative, angrily.
Additional security forces were brought from different parts of Turkey to keep the peace as groups of young men roamed the town's main thoroughfare looking for Syrians that hadn't fled the town. The few Syrians left in the town kept a low profile: one group of Syrian men said they would cross into Syria once Turkey reopened the border gate.
"For two, three days we will do our best to avoid Reyhanli residents and keep out of sight," said one man, who refused to give his name for fear of repercussions.
Reyhanli is situated in a region of southern Turkey inhabited by both Turkish Sunnis and members of the Alawite sect of Mr. Assad. The communities have cohabited peacefully for the last three decades, but the intensification of the Syrian civil war has put strains on that coexistence. Turkish officials have moved some Syrian refugees, most of them Sunni Muslims, away from Alawite-inhabited areas in Hatay.
"There have been rising tensions between Syrian refugees and local people in Hatay for some weeks, though the Turkish government has been keeping them out of most of the media," said Wolfango Piccoli, managing director at Teneo Intelligence, a political risk consultancy.
Lethal violence has spilled across the frontier twice on several occasions in recent months, but Saturday's attacks were far more deadly. In February, a minibus blew up at a border crossing near Reyhanli, killing 14 people mostly of Syrian nationality, and wounding dozens more.
Turkey, which shares a 565-mile border with Syria, has been a crucial supporter of the Syrian rebel cause and Ankara has allowed its territory to be used as a logistics base and staging center for Syrian insurgents.
The U.S. and other Western powers are reluctant to intervene directly and Turkey has sought to avoid full conflict with Damascus, but many analysts have repeatedly warned that Syria's war could increasingly impact neighboring territory. Turkish media reported that local people attacked Syrian refugees and cars with Syrian number plates after the attacks.
The attacks drew a quick warning from Ankara not to test Turkey's resolve, but it was unclear whether Ankara would opt for a military response.
Analysts said that attention would be focused on Ankara's reading of the explosions and how it will respond if it concludes the explosion was the work of forces loyal to Mr. Assad.
"One scenario here is that this could have been done by elements in Syria that want to give a message to the Turkish leadership to make them pay for the support for the rebels," said Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat who now works at the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace. "If Turkey is able to prove one way or another that this is linked to the Syrian regime then there will be immense pressure to retaliate," he said
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323716304578478631250320680.html