Ankara announces its sanctions on the Syrian regime, including a travel ban and a freeze state assets

Ankara announces its sanctions on the Syrian regime, including a travel ban on 20 businessmen and a freeze on state assets, along with financial and military bans.

Turkey has implemented a raft of sanctions against Syria due to its ongoing anti-opposition crackdown, including measures to freeze state assets, suspend ties with Syria’s central bank and ban all military sales.

“The basic principle regarding the measures is to avoid hurting the Syrian people and avoid punishing them or having them suffer for the mistakes of the regime,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said yesterday. Turkey will place travel bans on 20 businesspeople close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Davutoğlu said Turkey would suspend transactions with the Syrian Trade Bank and Syrian central bank while also putting a hold on Turkish-based assets that belong to the Syrian government. All credit relations with the Syrian government will be halted, Davutoğlu said. “Similar measures will be taken against some well-known businessmen who are strong advocates of the Syrian regime.”

Turkey’s measures include a ban on Syrian officials visiting Turkey, along with a suspension of a high-level strategic council mechanism under which ministers from both countries convene a few times a year to discuss joint projects.

Turkey has banned any arms and military equipment transfers from third countries to Syria via Turkey, he said. “Syria has squandered the last chance it was given,” Davutoğlu said, adding that Turkey had no secret agenda in either Syria or the region.

Turkey cannot remain silent, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said. Turkey is carefully implementing its newly announced sanctions against Syria to avoid harming its people, Turkish President Abdullah Gül said yesterday.

01.12.2011
SOURCE: Hürriyet Daily News