FM Davutoglu: Turkey Following Syria Closely

Turkey is closely monitoring the situation in Syria but change may take time, Ankara’s top diplomat said Thursday amid claims that Damascus has launched new attacks since he delivered a stern warning earlier this week.

“It is difficult to expect an immediate pull-back under such conditions when tensions have escalated so much,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday, told reporters.

Asked to comment on allegations that Syria had launched new military operations in some residential areas close to the Turkish border following his visit to Damascus, Davutoğlu said they had not received any news that day regarding an operation near the border.

“We expect urgent measures to prevent loss of lives and civilian losses, and to end operations, especially in Hama and Deyr’uz Zur,” he said. Emphasizing the need to open Syrian cities to international news agencies, Davutoğlu said it is difficult to assess the reliability of the news as long as these cities remain largely closed to journalists.

“I am a close follower [of the issue]. We hope Muslims in all Syrian cities will have a calm day of Ramadan [the holy Muslim fasting month] tomorrow. That is all we want. We’ll monitor it very closely,” Davutoğlu said.

Responding to claims that tanks had entered the Syrian city of Hama again Wednesday night, the minister said Turkey had not yet received any official information about that.

“We received this information late at night Wednesday. I immediately telephoned Turkish Ambassador Ömer Önhon. I was also planning to call my counterpart [in Damascus] if needed. We talked to the governor of Hama. He said there were no tanks or heavy weapons in Hama,” Davutoğlu said.

The minister said he also spoke to the executive of the TV channel that broadcast that news to ask if there was any photograph or video footage of the alleged events, adding that the news reports were mostly based on witnesses’ claims.

“A delegation of journalists is currently in Syria. It is important that those cities are open to international media,” Davutoğlu said.

August 11, 2011
SOURCE: Hürriyet Daily News