Turkey increases military presence along border with Syria

Source:Xinhua Published: 2012-7-31 15:51:34

Turkey has increased its military presence, including tanks and ground-to-air missile batteries, along the Turkish-Syrian border after some border districts of northern Syria fell into the hands of Kurds.

Turkish military's deployment came after the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria, which is affiliated with the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), took control of Syrian cities of Efrin, Kobane and Amude near southern Turkey.

In the meantime, the military has asked Turkish meteorology institution for detailed weather forecasts in Syria in order to more accurately direct artillery strikes, local media reported Monday.

Some PKK members have crossed from Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq to northern Syria, local media quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as saying on Tuesday.

The relations between the PKK and the PYD have "now turned into a terror activity" for Turkey, the Turkish foreign minister told Hurriyet Daily News.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms in 1984 in an attempt to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Since then over 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the group.

Turkey is also alerted as clashes between Syrian military and rebels are getting increasingly fierce in the northern province Aleppo, only 50 km away from the Turkish border. Ankara is worried about the possibility of tens of thousands refugee influx into its territory as people escape violence in Syria.

In the case of 100,000 Syrians attempting to flee Syria, Turkey would consider hosting them inside the Syrian border in coordination with the international community, Davutoglu said.

Ankara has prepared necessary contingency plans to respond to a massive influx from Aleppo as well, he added. "Aleppo is the most sensitive city in the region. Breaking the public order in this city will directly hurt Turkey's stability and order. That's why we should take every precaution," the minister said.

"Turkey will do whatever it can to stop another massacre just over its border with Syria," the minister said, without elaborating what those measures would be.

Keeping up its efforts to mobilize the international community on the Syrian crisis, Turkey has given refuge to large numbers of army defectors, who have formed the kernel of Free Syrian Army, as well as tens of thousands of civilian refugees.

The deputy police chief of Syria's Latakia city defected and fled to Turkey late Sunday with 11 other Syrian officers, a Turkish official told Xinhua. Meanwhile, another 600 Syrians crossed the border in one day, bringing the total number of Syrian refugees in Turkey to around 43,500, the highest number since the start of the 17-month unrest.

Turkey, once a close ally to Syria, has imposed a series of sanctions, including an arms embargo, on the unrest-torn country due to its alleged crackdown on anti-government protesters. The Turkey-Syria relations strained further after Syria shot down a Turkish military jet, which crashed into the Mediterranean Sea in June.

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