Turkey sends letter to UN on jet downed by Syria

Turkey sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council on June 24 over Syria’s downing of a Turkish warplane in the eastern Mediterranean two days previously.

The letter, published by the New York Times, calls the shooting incident a "serious threat to peace and security in the region" and gives information on the coordinates of the location where the plane was struck and where it crashed.

Both Turkish and Syrian radar and radio records testified that the plane was shot in international air space and added that "thirds parties' radar records would substantiate these facts as well."

Click here to read the full letter from Turkey to the U.N. (From online dispatches-Hürriyet Daily News)

Sabancı appointed to UN advisory post

Turkish businesswoman Güler Sabancı has been appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the UN’s highest-level advisory body.

Ban has appointed 14 new members to the Global Compact Board, the U.N.’s highest-level advisory body involving business, civil society, labor and employers’ organizations, a statement from the U.N. Global Compact said. Sabancı Holding executive board chairperson Sabancı is among these new members.

“The new appointments bring the total number of board members to 31, representing all regions of the world and a wide range of industrial sectors. The increase in the number members reflects the board’s expanded mandate to advise the secretary-general on the rapidly evolving U.N.-business partnership agenda,” the statement said.

Recommendations for new appointments are made by the board’s nominations committee, taking into account suggestions from the Global Compact’s local networks and other stakeholders.

Sabancı is currently the chairperson of the family-controlled Sabancı Holding, Turkey’s second largest industrial and financial conglomerate. In 2010, she was listed third in the Financial Times’ “2010 Women at the Top” ranking of 50 prominent businesswomen around the world. In 2011, Sabancı received the Clinton Global Citizen Award. (Anatolia News Agency-hurriyetdailynews)

UN unanimously approves Syria observer force

The UN Security Council on Saturday unanimously voted for a resolution to approve international ceasefire monitors going to Syria.

UN Resolution 2042 approved the first 30 unarmed military monitors, who are expected to to leave within days. A new resolution with a full mandate will be required for the full monitoring mission of more than 200 observers. (hurriyetdailynews)

Fragile lull in Syria as UN expects more steps

An uneasy peace descends over Syria as a partially observed truce comes into effect but UN officials demand more action from Damascus

A cease-fire appears to be holding, but Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must carry out all parts of an agreed peace plan, U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said yesterday.

“Syria is apparently experiencing a rare moment of calm on the ground,” Annan said in a statement, released as he briefed the U.N. Security Council on the crisis. However, Syria has not fully complied with the terms of his peace plan and urged the 15-nation body to demand the withdrawal of troops and heavy weapons from towns, council diplomats said.

Annan also told council members that Syria’s fragile truce needed support and called for the swift deployment of a first wave of unarmed observers to monitor implementation of his six-point peace plan, to be followed by a second wave of observers later, diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also said the situation in Syria looked calmer and said that plans were being made to send an observer team to Syria as soon as possible following the start of a ceasefire. “We are working to send an observer team as promptly as possible,” Ban told a news conference in Geneva.

Three civilians, one officer killed
However, the cease-fire that took effect in Syria at dawn is only being “partially observed,” as heavy weapons and government troops remain deployed in cities, the main opposition movement said yesterday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group, also said a man had been shot dead in the central town of Safsafiyeh in Hama province.

A grassroots opposition group, the Local Coordination Committees, said regime forces carried out arrests in the Damascus suburb of Maadamiyah. It also reported anti-regime protests at universities in the southern city of Daraa and the eastern city of Deir el-Zour.

Blast hits soldiers’ bus: Syrian TV
Meanwhile, Damascus accused “terrorists” of planting a roadside bomb that blew up in Aleppo, killing one officer and wounding at least 24 cadets and officers, in an attempt to sabotage the ceasefire, state media said yesterday. The blast killed a lieutenant colonel and civilians were among the wounded, it said.

Spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army Col. Kassem Saadeddine denied any involvement in the attack, saying that they were fully committed to the truce. “The regime is being devious. We are 100 percent committed to the ceasefire. We shall not be provoked by the regime,” he said.

Damascus calls on migrants
“There is no evidence of a significant withdrawal,” the Syrian National Council’s (SNC) spokeswoman Basma Qadmani told a news briefing in Geneva. “The ceasefire is ... only being partially observed ... To us it’s clear that a ceasefire implies the withdrawal of all heavy weaponry from cities and populated areas, but this has not happened.” Qadmani said three people had been killed in the towns of Idlib and Hama yesterday.

The SNC’s leader, Burhan Ghalioun, urged Syrians to demonstrate peacefully on Friday, the traditional day of weekly protests since the uprising began. “Tomorrow, like every Friday, the Syrian people are called on to demonstrate even more and pressure the regime to honor its responsibilities and the international community to honor its responsibilities,” he said.

Syria’s government yesterday offered an amnesty to opposition gunmen “without blood on their hands,” urging them to surrender as a U.N.-backed ceasefire entered into force. “The interior ministry calls on gunmen whose hands have not been stained with Syrian blood to hand themselves in, along with their weapons, to the nearest police station. They will be released and all legal procedures against them would be terminated,” it was quoted by state television as saying.

The government also urged tens of thousands of people who fled inside or outside the country due to violence to return home. “The interior ministry calls on brother citizens, who were forced to flee their homes, whether to areas within the country or to neighboring states, to return home, and ignore propaganda and misleading news,” it said in a statement.

Some 25,000 Syrians have so far fled to Turkey. In Jordan, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR has registered between 5,000 to 8,000 Syrians, but the Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said more than 90,000 Syrians had sought refuge in the country.

Compiled from AFP, AP and Reuters stories by the Daily News staff. (hurriyetdailynews)

Annan says Syria ceasefire 'appears to be holding'

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said today that a ceasefire in Syria appears to be holding but President Bashar al-Assad must carry out all parts of an agreed peace plan.

"Syria is apparently experiencing a rare moment of calm on the ground," Annan said in a statement released as he briefed the UN Security Council on the 13-month-old crisis in which the UN says more than 9,000 people have been killed.

A ceasefire came into effect in Syria on Thursday and Annan said: "I am encouraged by reports that the situation in Syria is relatively calm and that the cessation of hostilities appears to be holding." Annan added, however, that the Syrian government must carry out of all the agreed peace plan which includes a withdrawal of troops and heavy weapons from Syria's cities.

"All parties have obligations to implement fully the six-point plan. This includes both the military provisions of the plan and the commitment to move to a political process," he said. (hurriyetdailynews)

More Syria flow as Turkey eyes UN help

Turkey has raised the alarm over the accelerating influx of Syrian refugees over its borders, urging the United Nations and the international community to step in if the trend continues.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu made an urgent telephone call to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on April 6 to implore the international body to become more active on the issue. Davutoğlu told Ban that Syrian military activity near the border with Turkey had increased and added that roughly 2,500 Syrians had crossed into Turkey in the last 24 hours, the largest one-day total so far.

The minister also said U.N. officials could come to observe the developments from the Turkish side of the border, a Turkish diplomat told the Hürriyet Daily News, adding that Syrian security forces, backed by helicopters, were carrying out operations in regions near Turkey. “I told Ban we expect an immediate initiative and an end to the clashes,” Davutoğlu told reporters on April 6. Turkey said there were now 23,835 Syrian refugees on its territory.

Red Crescent ready

Ankara “is seriously concerned” about the escalation of the crackdown against the Syrian opposition following initial “cautious optimism” for U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s plan, Davutoğlu said.

As the Syrian administration’s repression continues, people are trying to escape to neighboring countries, Davutoğlu said, noting that the situation was putting pressure on Turkey. Turkey has offered to shelter Syrian refugees since it cannot remain indifferent to their tragedy, he said. “The international community should also take a clear position on these refugees.” The Turkish Red Crescent, meanwhile, said it was ready to bring humanitarian aid into Syria if such an international call is made. The Turkish Red Crescent’s chairman, Ahmet Lütfi Akar, said his organization was unable to open a humanitarian aid corridor under its own initiative. “In the event that the U.N. or countries taking joint action with Turkey decide to open an aid corridor, the Turkish Red Crescent can enter Syria and extend humanitarian aid,” Akar told Anatolia news agency April 6.

A foreign intervention in Syria would be “wrong,” and the U.S., the EU and the U.N. should join forces to stop the bloodshed and force a political transition in Syria, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said April 6. Turkey’s main opposition party has also warned the government about its role in the Syrian crisis.

Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy chair Faruk Loğoğlu said April 6 that the government’s policies on Syria and Iran were dragging Turkey “not only into isolation in the region but also into a future of tension.”
(hurriyetdailynews)