Photo Courtesy of UN Photo/Neeraj Singh
The usually blunt Turkish foreign minister on Wednesday compared the situation in Syria to the massacres in Bosnia in the 1990s, fearing the repeat of an apology that came too late. Speaking of the United Nations working to stop the Syrian violence, Ahmet Davuto?lu was quoted by Today’s Zaman as saying that “[unless it takes action] another UN secretary-general will have to apologize as the current one did for Bosnia.”
Thousands of Syrians have been killed by the government in a brutal crackdown on civilians and opposition forces, and still others have died in the fighting between the opposition and authorities. The once peaceful protests that were met with violence from the Syrian military have now taken on elements of a civil war with regional repurcussions.
Turkey and Syria have seen their once warming relations collapse against the backdrop of the Damascus regime’s assault on dissidents. The conflict has included Syrian shells killing Turks across the border and other incidents between the nations, buy genuine phentermine online with the Turks responding with cross-border fire in recent weeks.
Today’s Zaman quoted Foreign Minister Davuto?lu as comparing the slow response of the world to the killings in Serbia with the current crisis in Syria. “The first and foremost responsibility of the international community is to stop these massacres [in Syria],” he told reporters. “It was too late in Bosnia and the international community had to apologize later on.”
In comments loaded with implied warning of even more tragedy in Syria unless the globe intervenes, Davuto?lu noted that in Serbia, “It took the Srebrenica massacre for them to act.”
Today’s Zaman did not present a clear vision from Davuto?lu on how the world should respond. Notably, Turkey has green-lighted military self-defense against Syria but has stressed they aren’t seeking a war. Despite being one of the strongest critics of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and having multiple incidents of cross-border attacks, the Turks have so far not attempted to make any significant military moves on Syria.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, October 18, 2012)