Syria-Turkey: more bombings, risk of a war

The situation remains tense today on the border between Syria and Turkey. Ankara's artillery is continuing to hit Syrian army targets in response to Syria's shelling yesterday of the Turkish border town of Akcakale in which five people died. Islamic nationalist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented this morning an urgent motion to the Great Assembly in Ankara in a closed-door meeting in which he sought a one-year authorization for cross-border military operations in Syria. In the motion, Erdogan said that the ongoing crisis in Syria threatens stability and security in the region. A war between the two countries, with unforeseeable consequences for the entire Middle East, has never appeared this close. At Turkeys request, NATO and the UN Security Council held emergency meetings last night. The Atlantic Alliance sided with Ankara denouncing the flagrant breach of international law by Damascus. The Security Council is expected to take a stance today. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which is close to Sunni rebels, several Syrian troops were killed by Turkish fire along the border. The Syrian government has announced an inquiry into the mortar attack against Akcakale yesterday. It is still unclear who is behind the shelling. The area has been at the centre of fierce fighting between the army and Sunni rebels for the past 15 days. Syrias Information Minister Omran Zoabi expressed Damascus condolences to the families of the Turkish victims. Syria has ruled out that Akcakale was deliberately hit by its troops. Ankaras stance remains muscular. Erdogan, who supports Sunni rebels in Syria fighting his former ally Assad, said that Turkey will never leave unanswered this type of provocation by the Syrian regime against our national security. The Turkish premier asked parliament to authorize for a year possible military action in Syria, an indication that Ankara could go beyond its current retaliatory artillery strikes. The motion should be approved with the votes of Erdogans party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) known as the Grey Wolves in spite of the opposition of the Social Democrats with CHP and Kurds with BDP. According to the Turkish press, Erdogan has been considering the option of a no-fly zone in Syria and a buffer area along the border, as repeatedly requested by anti-Assad Sunni rebels, which is however opposed by the US. Turkish analyst Asli Aydintasbs wrote today in the Milliyet newspaper that Turkey could not fail to respond to the incident in Akcale. Denouncing it to the UN and NATO without doing anything would have destroyed Turkeys aspirations to become a regional power and would have damaged its prestige, he wrote.