Syria Lashes Out at Jordan and Turkey

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By RICK GLADSTONE

Syria lashed out at Turkey and Jordan on Thursday for what it called their duplicitous work in fomenting the Syrian rebellion, accusing the Turkish prime minister of chronic lies and telling the Jordanians they were “playing with fire” in letting insurgents arm and train on their soil — a possible hint of retaliation.

The criticisms in the state news media appeared to be part of an intensified propaganda response to new rebel gains in the two-year-old conflict and President Bashar al-Assad’s further isolation.

It included snippets of an interview that Mr. Assad had given to a Turkish television station, in which he also denounced the Arab League for granting Syria’s seat to the opposition coalition bent on overthrowing him.

Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was once close to Mr. Assad, has turned into an ardent enemy and repeatedly called for his departure. Turkey is also housing more than 250,000 Syrian refugees and is helping the Free Syrian Army insurgent group, although the Turks insist they are not providing weapons. Syria, which shares a 550-mile border with Turkey, has frequently accused Turkey of arming the rebels.

“Erdogan has not said a single word of truth since the beginning of the crisis in Syria,” Mr. Assad said in the interview with the Ulusal Kanal television channel in Turkey that is to be broadcast on Friday. A brief preview was posted on YouTube.

Mr. Assad appeared to reserve special criticism for the Arab League, which suspended Syria’s membership in November 2011 and awarded the vacant seat to the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, in a formal ceremony on March 26.

“Real legitimacy is not accorded by organizations or foreign officials,” he said. “All these theatrics have no value in our eyes.”

Syria state television, citing reports in The New York Times and other Western news media about Jordan’s role in helping the rebels, said they showed Jordan had “a hand in training terrorists and then facilitating their entry into Syria,” according to a translation by The Associated Press. It quoted state radio as saying Jordan was “playing with fire.”

The Syrian newspaper Al Thawra, also citing those Western news reports, said in a front-page editorial that the Jordanian government could not claim neutrality while actively supporting the insurgents and collaborating with the United States, Saudi Arabia and others hostile to Mr. Assad. “Their attempts to put out the flame that the leaked information caused will fail in allowing them to continue their game of ambiguity because they have gotten really close to the volcanic crater,” the editorial said.

In what appeared to be a veiled threat of retaliation, the editorial also said “it is difficult to prevent sparks from crossing the border.”

There was no comment from Jordan’s government on the warnings, which have come as insurgent activity in southern Syria near the Jordanian border has escalated and posed a new threat to Assad loyalists there. In the past few weeks, rebels have seized territory near the southern city of Dara’a, where the uprising against Mr. Assad first began.

At the same time, Jordan is facing an acute refugee crisis caused by the Syrian conflict. There are at least 320,000 registered refugees in the country, according to the United Nations, and many more who entered Jordan without registering.

United Nations officials have been warning that the refugee crisis could overwhelm Syria’s neighbors, who have collectively absorbed more than 1.3 million Syrians since the conflict began.

On Thursday in Lebanon, home to about 500,000 Syrian refugees, the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Filippo Grandi, said the refugee flows caused by the conflict were becoming “unmanageable and dangerous.”

Mr. Grandi’s agency is responsible for Palestinian refugees, a legacy of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Lebanon, which has a population of four million, is already home to about 460,000 Palestinian refugees, and the Lebanese are increasingly concerned that Syria’s Palestinian refugee population of 530,000 could surge into Lebanon if fighting intensifies in the Damascus area, where many of them live. So far, however, Mr. Grandi said, more than 90 percent have stayed in Syria.

Hala Droubi contributed reporting from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Thanassis Cambanis from Beirut, Lebanon.

A version of this article appeared in print on April 5, 2013, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Jordanians And Turks Are Focus Of Syria’s Ire.

via Syria Lashes Out at Jordan and Turkey – NYTimes.com.


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One response to “Syria Lashes Out at Jordan and Turkey”

  1. Yusuf Ilker Karaaslan Avatar
    Yusuf Ilker Karaaslan

    I need your help to take action against an American academist Joshua M. Landis who blackmails Turkey and our history.
    This is the e-mail I have sent him, copied to Turkish Foreign Ministry and several newspapers to take action.

    Attn. Mr. Joshua M. Landis

    University of Oklahoma
    729 Elm Ave., Hester Hall 116
    Norman, OK 73019

    Mr. Joshua Landis;

    I was shocked by your comments during the live program on Al Jazeera International channel at “Inside Syria” debate on 06 April 2013 Saturday evening as you have been saying “When opposition push in Damascus, Syrian army and government supporters and families will escape from Syria, like 3.000.000 Christians fled from Turkey after 1st World War”

    Sir; First of all you have been talking about Syria, what made you comment about the ear after 1st World War? You could give a recent example to the case that was more relevant like Bosnia, like Iraq, like Kosova etc. where they had a civil war.

    Let me remind you, it was not a civil war during 1914-1918 and after during 1918-1922.

    Allied forces did occupy Turkey for 4 years right after 1st World War that led Turks to rage their Independence War and finally they expelled the occupiers from their land!

    I want to know; were you talking about the so called Armenian claims during a civil unrest erupted during Ottoman era? If so that your claim was based on, it was the case which is still not proved and have been occurred during Ottomans before the 1st World War (so the word “Turkey” you used is wrong as well as timing that you have mentioned besides the number you have given).

    If you were talking about 1.000.000-1.500.000 Armenians who had to leave Anatolia to southern territories of Ottomans (today’s Syrian & Lebanon) during 1st World War again cannot be the base for your claims as these Armenians did not escape, they have organized armed gangs called Tashnak Sutyun & Hinchak that were burning Turkish & Kurdish villages and killing the civilian Muslim population and acting as pathfinders and support units to Russians in occupied Eastern Anatolia that time, therefore the Armenians living in Eastern Anatolia (only) were forced to be re-located by the Ottoman government by the law called “Tehcir bill” to prevent Armenians aiding Russians to occupy Anatolia against Ottomans in another term basically in order to prevent Armenians from treason.

    Or were you talking about the Rum “Greek” minority as they have been subject to a population exchange between Turkey and Greece according to an agreement that was reached between Turkey and Greece after Turkish Liberation War (after 1922) where millions of Turks had to leave Greece and come to Turkey while the same way the Greeks in Anatolia left Turkey and went to Greece… This as well was not an escape.

    So I wish you could explain me who was those 3.000.000 Christians escaping Turkey after 1st World War that you were talking about? When we look at both of the above cases, your comment was irrelevant and since you are a professor, you are not supposed to make your cases on irrelevances. That made me think; you are a big anti-Turkish for a reason and you are after fake slogans, lies and bias… These are not the qualities of an academic person. I protest you and hope that you go back to your books and search more about the Middle East – Turkey & Balkans after 1st World War era to refresh your mind and learn true facts to not to make irrelevant and annoying comments again.

    Regards,

    Yusuf Ilker Karaaslan

    T: +974 55688730

    Doha-QATAR

    PS:

    Joshua M. Landis is Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He is a member of the Department of International and Area Studies in the College of International Studies. He is also the President of the Syrian Studies Association.

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