{"id":46095,"date":"2011-10-28T22:21:20","date_gmt":"2011-10-28T19:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=46095"},"modified":"2023-04-08T12:48:59","modified_gmt":"2023-04-08T09:48:59","slug":"turkey-shelters-anti-assad-group-the-free-syrian-army","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2011\/10\/28\/turkey-shelters-anti-assad-group-the-free-syrian-army\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey Shelters Anti-Assad Group, the Free Syrian Army"},"content":{"rendered":"

By LIAM STACK<\/p>\n

\"Ed
Ed Ou for The New York Times Col. Riad al-As'aad defected from the Syrian military.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ANTAKYA, Turkey \u2014 Once one of Syria\u2019s closest allies, Turkey is hosting an armed opposition group waging an insurgency against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, providing shelter to the commander and dozens of members of the group, the Free Syrian Army, and allowing them to orchestrate attacks across the border from inside a camp guarded by the Turkish military.<\/p>\n

The support for the insurgents comes amid a broader Turkish campaign to undermine Mr. Assad\u2019s government. Turkey is expected to impose sanctions soon on Syria, and it has deepened its support for an umbrella political opposition group known as the Syrian National Council, which announced its formation in Istanbul. But its harboring of leaders in the Free Syrian Army, a militia composed of defectors from the Syrian armed forces, may be its most striking challenge so far to Damascus.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the group, living in a heavily guarded refugee camp in Turkey, claimed responsibility for killing nine Syrian soldiers, including one uniformed officer, in an attack in restive central Syria.<\/p>\n

Turkish officials describe their relationship with the group\u2019s commander, Col. Riad al-As\u2019aad, and the 60 to 70 members living in the \u201cofficers\u2019 camp\u201d as purely humanitarian. Turkey\u2019s primary concern, the officials said, is for the physical safety of defectors. When asked specifically about allowing the group to organize military operations while under the protection of Turkey, a Foreign Ministry official said that their only concern was humanitarian protection and that they could not stop them from expressing their views.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time all of these people escaped from Syria, we did not know who was who, it was not written on their heads \u2018I am a soldier\u2019 or \u2018I am an opposition member,\u2019 \u201d a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on the condition of anonymity in keeping with diplomatic protocol. \u201cWe are providing these people with temporary residence on humanitarian grounds, and that will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the moment, the group is too small to pose any real challenge to Mr. Assad\u2019s government. But its Turkish support underlines how combustible, and resilient, Syria\u2019s uprising has proven. The country sits at the intersection of influences in the region \u2014 with Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Israel \u2014 and Turkey\u2019s involvement will be closely watched by Syria\u2019s friends and foes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will fight the regime until it falls and build a new period of stability and safety in Syria,\u201d Colonel As\u2019aad said in an interview arranged by the Turkish Foreign Ministry and conducted in the presence of a Foreign Ministry official. \u201cWe are the leaders of the Syrian people and we stand with the Syrian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The interview was held in the office of a local government official, and Colonel As\u2019aad arrived protected by a contingent of 10 heavily armed Turkish soldiers, including one sniper.<\/p>\n

The colonel wore a business suit that an official with the Turkish Foreign Ministry said he purchased for him that morning. At the end of the meeting, citing security concerns, the colonel and a ministry official advised that all further contact with his group be channeled through the ministry.<\/p>\n

Turkey once viewed its warm ties with Syria as its greatest foreign policy accomplishment, but relations have collapsed over the eight months of antigovernment protests there and a brutal crackdown that the United Nations says has killed more than 3,000 people.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey was personally offended by Mr. Assad\u2019s repeated failure to abide by his assurances that he would undertake sweeping reform. Turkish officials predict that the Assad government may collapse within the next two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis pushes Turkish policy further towards active intervention in Syria,\u201d said Hugh Pope, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. He called Turkey\u2019s apparent relationship with the Free Syrian Army \u201ccompletely new territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

via Turkey Shelters Anti-Assad Group, the Free Syrian Army – NYTimes.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By LIAM STACK ANTAKYA, Turkey \u2014 Once one of Syria\u2019s closest allies, Turkey is hosting an armed opposition group waging an insurgency against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, providing shelter to the commander and dozens of members of the group, the Free Syrian Army, and allowing them to orchestrate attacks across the border from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":46097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[3883,8432,7415,7190],"class_list":["post-46095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-syria","tag-bashar-al-assad","tag-bashar-assad-regime","tag-free-syrian-army","tag-syrian-opposition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}