Turkey issues ‘final word’ to Syria over civilian assault

By OREN KESSLER AND REUTERS, JPOST

Syrian forces shelled residential districts in Latakia on Monday, the third day of an assault on Sunni neighborhoods of the ancient port city that had seen mounting protests against President Bashar Assad’s autocratic rule.

Meanwhile, thousands of people fled a Palestinian refugee camp in the coastal city, some fleeing gunfire and others leaving on orders from authorities, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency said.

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Davutoglu took a firmer tone.

“This is our final word to the Syrian authorities. Our first expectation is that these operations stop immediately and unconditionally,” the Turkish foreign minister said in Ankara’s strongest rhetoric yet against its once close ally. “If these operations do not stop, there will be nothing left to say about the steps that would be taken,” he told a news conference, without elaborating.

“We have been in contact and have repeated our demands and have emphasized our expectations,” he said. “In the context of human rights this cannot be seen as a domestic issue.”

Davutoglu visited Damascus last week and held talks with Assad.

Jordan joined the fray on Monday as well. Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit reportedly told his Syrian counterpart, Adel Safar, by phone, “There is a need to stop violence immediately, start implementing reforms and resort to dialogue,” state news agency Petra reported.

Western-backed Jordan has said little about Syria since the start of the uprising and refrained from overtly criticizing its northern neighbor, with which it has close trade and political ties despite diverging views on Arab-Israeli peace talks. But Amman, with strong ties to Saudi Arabia, has been under pressure to condemn Damascus’s increasingly violent campaign.

In a pattern seen in other population centers across Syria attacked by core military forces loyal to Assad, tanks and armored vehicles deployed around dissident neighborhoods in Latakia and essential services were cut before raids and arrests, and bombardment, residents said.

“People are trying to flee, but they cannot leave Latakia because it is besieged. The best they can do is to move from one area to another within the city,” a witness told Reuters.

The Syrian Revolution Coordinating Union, a grassroots activists group, said three people, among them a 22-yearold man named Ahmad Soufi, were killed by Assad forces on Monday, bringing the total killed in the three-day sea and land assault on Latakia to at least 31 civilians, including a two-yearold girl.

Unlike most other Syrian cities, which are predominantly Sunni, Latakia has a large population of Assad’s Alawite sect because of its proximity to the Alawite Mountains and because Assad and his father encouraged co-religionists to move from their traditional mountain region, offering them cheap land and jobs in the public sector and the security apparatus.

Assad also replaced the governor of the northern province of Aleppo on Monday, the Syrian official news agency said, following the breakout of pro-democracy protests in Aleppo city, Syria’s main commercial hub and capital of the province.

“The minority regime is playing with fire. We are coming to a point where the people in the street will rather take any weapon they can put their hand on and fight than be shot at, or arrested and humiliated,” one activist said.

“We are seeing civil war in Syria, but it is one-sided. The hope is for street protests and international pressure to bring down the regime before it kills more Syrians and drives them to take up arms.”