Turkey is preparing a new approach to the unrest in Syria as thousands of people fleeing violence in the neighboring country mass at the Turkish border, where food, shelter and access to clean water is sparse.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who recently strengthened his criticisms of the Syrian regime, meanwhile spoke by phone Tuesday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to convey Ankara’s concerns. In the conversation, Erdoğan once more urged al-Assad to stop the violent crackdown, while pressing him to schedule reforms the Syrian leader promised previously, Prime Ministry officials told the Hürriyet Daily News.
The flow of Syrian refugees to the Turkish border continued Monday and Tuesday. According to Turkish Foreign Ministry officials, a total of 8,538 Syrians have come to Turkey thus far, many fleeing violence in the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughour and surrounding villages in Syria.
The Syrians massed on the other side of the border, a group that includes many women and children, are trying to survive without drinkable water, food and shelter tents, observers said. They also claimed that many people are drinking water from the stream near the border, increasing the risk of epidemic illnesses in the area. Some of the Syrians are staying in hotels in cities close to the border, while others are crossing back and forth to try and secure supplies, the Daily News has learned.
Many people come to the Turkish villages close to the border in order to find water and bread. Men and children take bread from the villages and cross the border again to bring the food to their families. Residents of Güveççi village in Turkey are also buying bread and medicine every day and taking these supplies to the refugees waiting on the Syrian side of the border, as there is still not an organized aid flow to the people there.
“All these people would be dead if these villages didn’t exist,” a resident of Güveççi told the Daily News on Tuesday.
Ankara is meanwhile expected to shift its Syrian policies following a coordination meeting Monday between the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Ministry chaired by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.
Ankara has once more pressed al-Assad to keep his distance from regime hardliners such as his brother Maher al-Assad, the commander of the Republican Guard that has been accused of bloody assaults on civilians. Turkey has also urged the Syrian president to set a new election date and allow other political parties to be involved in domestic politics.
Erdoğan also suggested that the general amnesty al-Assad announced be better implemented, the Daily News has learned. In their conversation, Erdoğan also addressed the influx of Syrian people to Turkey and the pro-Assad demonstrations in front of the Turkish Embassy in Damascus and the Turkish Consulate General in Aleppo. Al-Assad meanwhile congratulated Erdoğan on his party’s election victory Sunday.
Hope for return
As officials debate their response to the turmoil, the situation appears to be worsening on the border, where some Syrians say they hope to return to their homes while others claims they are being kept from crossing over into Turkey.
“We came three days ago from Jisr al-Shughour and we have been staying under the trees near the border since then. Last night it rained really heavily and all our children got wet in the rain,” a Syrian refugee identified by the initials B.S. said while taking five loaves of bread to his four children on the other side of the border. B.S., 34, said many children became sick because of the heavy rain Monday and that there was no baby food left for the infants in the group.
“We want to enter Turkey, but they are taking us group by group. Right now there are not enough places for all of us, the Turkish authorities said, so thousands of people are kept waiting near the border,” B.S. said.
Other Syrian refugees said they are waiting near the border because they still have hope that the situation might change in Syria. “Some of us are from the nearby villages and when al-Assad’s soldiers attacked, we left everything behind before coming here. We fled only with the clothes we were wearing. We are still waiting to see if maybe the situation might become better and we can go back to our homes,” said another refugee, H.A., 24.
Turkish soldiers are meanwhile reportedly gathering near the border in Görentaş village as the Syrian army arrives in Taybed village, five kilometers from the Turkish border.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said all the Syrians seeking refuge in Turkey will be given shelter in Turkey, but the thousands massed at the border cannot all be accommodated at once and must be taken across in smaller groups.
The unrest in Syria tops Ankara’s post-election refocusing on the latest regional developments, an effort that is bringing 27 Turkish ambassadors to Middle East countries and some major Western capitals – including the United States, Russia, France, Germany, England and permanent delegations to the United Nations, NATO and the European Union – to Ankara on Wednesday for a brainstorming session to discuss uprisings in the region.
The issue was also discussed in Cabinet meetings Tuesday, government spokesman Cemil Çiçek said, emphasizing Ankara’s stance that Damascus should avoid the excessive use of force on protesters and reforms should be implemented immediately.
Prime Minister Erdoğan has said his country will not close its doors to Syrians seeking refuge in Turkey. An official from the Turkish Foreign Ministry likewise said Ankara’s open-door policy would continue despite the massive influx.
Some of the 15,000 Syrians who arrived in Hırıptıjöz village next to the Turkish border have been crossing over into Turkey, the Doğan news agency, or DHA, reported Tuesday.
Experts from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have arrived in Turkey’s border province of Hatay to “investigate the abuses” in Syria and are awaiting permission from the Turkish government, a U.N. official told the Daily News.
Since March 15, more than 1,200 anti-government protesters have died in Syria and another 10,000 have been arrested, according to rights groups. Such numbers are difficult to verify since journalists are not allowed to circulate freely in the country.
* Sevil Küçükkoşum contributed to this report from Ankara bureau.
Note : Another bloody dictator massacaring his own people.
