Turkish FM Issues Ankara’s “Final Words” to Assad

Local Editor

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu issued on Monday Ankara’s “final words” to Syria, calling President Bashar al-Assad to “immediately” halt the unrest taking place across the country. "This is our final word to the Syrian authorities, our first expectation is that these operations stop immediately and unconditionally", Davutoglu told a news conference. "If these operations do not stop there will be nothing left to say about the steps that would be taken", he said, without elaborating. MILITARY INTERVENTION AND NEWSPAPERS Few days earlier, Turkish "Hurriyet" newspaper reported that Turkey may consider cooperating with international powers in the event they decide to intervene militarily in Syria. The newspaper quoted Turkish officials as saying: Turkey had initially tried to convince its Western allies to grant Assad time to implement reforms eight months ago. We have been as friendly toward Syria as we could, but a regime that doesn’t listen to advice from its friend and neighbor cannot be a friend of Turkey”. Last Thursday, Turkish daily, Today’s Zaman, reported Turkey has summoned retired military officers to duty and assigned them to border provinces with Syria. “The General Staff sent duty summons to every officer retired from the military in the past five years. More personnel have been deployed in bases and strategically important outposts”, the daily said on Thursday. The daily also said that the majority of the officers summoned were positioned in stations near the border, adding that the security measures at the İskenderun Naval Base were doubled. SYRIAN SOURCE DENIES NAVY SHELLING ON COASTAL NEIGBORHOOD Meanwhile, an official military source denied on Monday as “completely untrue” what satellite channels reported that a navy boat shelled al-Ramel al-Janoubi neighborhood in Lattakia, Syrian official news agency said. The source stressed that the navy boats “do their usual duties represented in the protection of the Syrian coasts, preventing the smuggling of weapons into the country across the sea as it happened in other areas”, SANA added.

Source: Agencies

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