FM Davutoğlu: Supporters of Syria shoul be isolated
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Friday called for greater pressure on Russia and China to push them to stop supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, as the minister joined a gathering of Western and Arab nations in Paris supporting the Syrian opposition.
Davutoğlu, addressing the meeting of about 100 delegations from countries around the world and international organizations, also insisted that the Syrian regime has lost its legitimacy and that it should be replaced with a transitional government.
“We should increase pressure on the Syrian regime and those who support that regime, increasingly isolate them,” Davutoğlu told the Friends of the Syrian People meeting. “We should also support the opposition, those who work and fight against the regime,” he said.
The foreign minister also proposed that the next gathering of the Friends of the Syrian People group be held during the UN General Assembly meetings, apparently in order to highlight that those who support the Syrian regime are isolated. The UN General Assembly regularly convenes every year in September in New York.
The growing number of participants of the Friends of the Syrian People, up from 74 during the first meeting of the group in Tunis in February to 83 in Istanbul in April and 107 in Paris, is itself a sign that the Syrian regime is increasingly isolated, according to Davutoğlu.
His call for greater pressure on supporters of the Syrian regime was in parallel with strong words from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also attended the Paris gathering. “It is frankly not enough just to come to the Friends of the Syrian People (meeting) because I will tell you very frankly, I don’t think Russia and China believe they are paying any price at all for standing up on behalf of the Assad regime,” Clinton said during her speech. “The only way that will change is if every nation represented here directly and urgently makes it clear that Russia and China will pay a price because they are holding up progress — blockading it — (and) that is no longer tolerable,” she said.
Russia and China have in the past vetoed UN Security Council resolutions designed to pressure Assad, who has sought to crush a rebellion against his family’s 42-year rule. Neither of the two permanent members of the UN Security Council were present at the Paris gathering of the Friends of the Syrian People.
The Paris meeting came days after major world powers adopted a UN-brokered plan for political transition in Syria during a June 30 meeting in Geneva. Clinton said there should be “real and immediate consequences for non-compliance, including sanctions” against the Assad regime, repeating a US call for a Security Council resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which allows the council to authorize actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention.
In his speech, Davutoğlu said the Geneva plan was misinterpreted by Assad as allowing him to stay in power. He said that preparations for the post-Assad period should begin in all fields without wasting time and dismissed concerns that the departure of Assad will plunge Syria into deeper chaos. He said there is already chaos in Syria and warned that the situation will become more dangerous if the process of transition is delayed.
Milosevic vs. Assadovic
Prior to the meeting, Davutoğlu dismissed domestic criticism of the Turkish government’s active support for the Syrian opposition and said he goes to sleep peacefully at nights because he is confident about Turkey’s policy on Syria which he described as “principled.”
Stating that Turkey condemns the Syrian regime for humanitarian reasons, Davutoğlu noted: “The Syrian crisis is a litmus test [for all factions of Turkish society]. Criticism [of Turkey’s Syria policy] comes either from Islamists, or liberals or ultranationalists.”
“Right now there are 27 torture centers in Syria and 20,000 people have died. What kind of a liberalism or leftism is this? Could these massacres be tolerated in terms of justice? Ultranationalists are trying to create an excuse for why Assad downed our plane. This is incomprehensible,” Davutoğlu said.
He added that Turkey should not be expected to condone Assad’s human rights violations just because he is Muslim. “Should we be tolerant when Assad does what [former Yugoslavian President Slobodan] Milosevic did? Should we be silent because his name is not Assadovic?” he asked.
07.07.2012
SOURCE: TODAYS ZAMAN
