Clinton chides NATO ally Turkey on rights curbs (AP)

ISTANBUL – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, chiding a NATO ally whose support is critical to American goals in the Mideast, said Saturday that Turkey must act on concerns about backsliding on human rights and its secular traditions

Speaking politely but firmly about the moderate Muslim nation, Clinton said the recent arrests of dozens of journalists and curbs placed on religious freedom were "inconsistent" with Turkey's economic and political progress.

She said Turkey should recommit itself to the course of modernization and embrace the democratic institutions of statehood. By doing so, Turkey could serve as a model for Arab nations now in the midst of revolt or transition, America's top diplomat said.

"Across the region, people in the Middle East and North Africa are seeking to draw lessons from Turkey's experience," she told reporters at a news conference with Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. "Turkey's history serves as a reminder that democratic development also depends on responsible leadership."

She called on the Turkish people to use their constitutional reform process to "address concerns ... about recent restrictions on freedom of expression and religion" and boost protection for the rights of minorities.

Those concerns have stalled Turkey's bid to join the European Union and further cement ties with the West. Clinton noted that the U.S. long has backed Turkey's EU membership.

At a town hall event earlier where she took questions from young Turks, Clinton criticized the arrests of journalists. She said the detentions have fed fears about threats to press freedom in the majority Muslim nation.

"I do not think it is necessary or in Turkey's interests to be cracking down. It seems to me inconsistent with all the other advances Turkey has made," she said.

Turkey's institutions should be able to withstand the scrutiny and debate that a free press brings, Clinton said.

Turkish media groups say more than 60 journalists are in jail. The groups accuse authorities of using flimsy evidence to bring the charges.

Government officials said in April there were 26 journalists jail in Turkey for activities unrelated to journalism. Officials have cited the role of some media sectors over the decades in fanning support for coups led by the Turkish military, a staunch supporter of the secular system.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, of which Turkey is a member, says 57 journalists are in jail in Turkey, mostly on anti-terror charges. That includes people with alleged ties to Kurdish rebels and extremists.

Clinton's comments were likely to encourage more liberal Turks but irritate Turkey's leaders, including Davutoglu and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

A small group protested Clinton's visit outside the U.S. Embassy. In Istanbul, one man holding a Turkish flag staged a protest as Clinton met Orthodox Patriarchate Bartholomew, accusing Washington of "killing millions of Muslims."

Erdogan, long seen as a vital bridge between East and West, has worried some by taking steps at odds with U.S. and Western policies.

He insists that his ruling party, which has Islamist roots, is committed to secularism. But since President Barack Obama took office, Erdogan has clashed with Israel and opposed U.N. sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

During George W. Bush's administration, Turkey opposed the war in Iraq and refused to allow troops to enter Iraq from its territory, creating additional divisions over the conflict within NATO.

At the coffee house, Clinton also urged Turks to continue to embrace inclusive traditions and serve as the East-West bridge, without choosing one or the other.

"I don't think there is any reason for Turkey to shift from West to East," she said. "As an outsider, I have always thought the debate is a debate without real meaning to it because why would you give up one for another? You can look both ways and to me that is an incredible advantage."

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Over 1,500 Syrians refugees flee to Turkey (Reuters)

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – More than 1,500 Syrian refugees crossed to Turkey on Thursday, according to state-run Anatolian news agency, as the Syrian army swept up to the border in its campaign to stamp out anti-government protests.

The provincial government in Hatay said on Friday morning that the total number of refugees registered at the temporary shelter camps had reached 11,739, compared with 10,224 a day earlier. Most of Thursday's influx came from people who had set up makeshift camps just inside Syrian territory, who fled once the army appeared.

Reuters reporters in Guvecci, a Turkish village at the frontier, said the camps on the other side of the border fence appeared to be completely deserted, and they saw no more refugees crossing on Friday morning.

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay; writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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Syrian forces prevent refugees fleeing to Turkey (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian forces swept through a northwestern border region Sunday to stem an exodus of refugees to Turkey that is raising international pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, witnesses and a rights activist said.

Syrian human rights campaigner Ammar al-Qurabi also accused pro-government forces of attacking people who were helping the refugees as they tried to escape from a widening military assault to crush protests against Assad's autocratic rule.

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross was due in Damascus Sunday to discuss expanding its relief effort with Syrian officials.

The latest assault followed the biggest protests across Syria Friday in four months of anti-Assad unrest, despite his clampdown on public dissent. Security forces shot dead up to 19 protesters Friday, rights campaigners said.

Assad will make a speech Monday about "current circumstances," the state news agency said, his first speech since April 16 and only his third since the start of the violence.

Authorities blame the violence on armed groups and Islamists, backed by foreign powers. Syria has barred most international journalists, making it difficult to verify accounts from activists and officials.

Qurabi said troops and gunmen loyal to Assad had blocked roads leading to the Turkish frontier in the rich arable region of Jisr al-Shughour, leaving thousands stranded.

"The Syrian army has spread around the border area to prevent frightened residents from fleeing across the border to Turkey," he told Reuters.

People trying to help had come under attack around the small town of Bdama near the Turkish border which Syrian troops and gunmen loyal to Assad stormed Saturday, burning houses and arresting dozens, witnesses said.

"Militiamen close to the regime are attacking people in Bdama and the surrounding areas who are trying to deliver relief and food to thousands of refugees stuck along the border and trying to flee," said Qurabi.

Qurabi's comments could not be independently confirmed, but a local resident backed up his account.

"There are roadblocks everywhere in Bdama to prevent people from fleeing but villagers are finding other routes through valleys to escape to the Turkish border," said Omar, a farmer from Bdama who managed to reach the border area.

Witnesses said pro-Assad forces were firing randomly, ransacking houses and burning crops in Jisr al-Shughour, an area known for its apple groves, olive trees and wheat.

"We received no bread today. There was one bakery operating in Bdama but it has been forced to shut. The 'shabbiha' (Assad's gunmen) are shooting randomly," one refugee, a carpenter who gave his name as Hammoud, told Reuters by telephone.

"One man in Bdama was injured today and we managed to smuggle him to hospital in Turkey. But many fear getting shot if they attempt to cross the border," the refugee added.

Bdama is one of the nerve centers providing food and supplies to several thousand other Syrians who have escaped the violence from frontier villages but chose to take shelter in fields on the Syrian side of the boundary.

TURKISH STRAINS

The number of refugees who have crossed into Turkey from Syria has reached 10,114, and another 10,000 are sheltering by the border just inside Syria, according to Turkish officials.

Sunni Muslim Turkey, seeking to restore its regional role, has improved its ties with Assad, who belongs to Syria's minority Alawite sect, and backed his drive to seek peace with Israel and improve relations with the United States.

But the mass killings of Syrian Sunnis have made Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan increasingly critical of Assad.

Erdogan has warned Syria against repeating a brutal campaign of repression in the 1980s that killed thousands. He has also sent his foreign minister and the head of Turkey's land forces to tour the border refugee region in the last several days.

The International Federation for Human Rights and the U.S.-based Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies said in a statement they had verified from local sources that Syrian forces had killed more than 130 people and arrested over 2,000 in Jisr al-Shughour and surrounding villages in the last few days.

Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), will arrive in Damascus Sunday for talks with Syrian officials on expanding its relief effort in the country, the aid agency said.

The two days of talks follow an appeal by the independent aid agency last week for greater access to the civilian population, including people who have been wounded or detained.

Syrian rights groups say at least 1,300 civilians have been killed and 10,000 people detained since March.

The Syrian Observatory for human rights has said more than 300 soldiers and police have also been killed. Other rights campaigners said tens of security personnel had been killed by loyalist troops for refusing to shoot at unarmed civilians.

Assad has increasingly been using the military to crush protests in areas that have been agitated by the killings. Central neighborhoods in the more mixed cities of Damascus and Aleppo, where security is intense, have not seen large protests.

In the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, where tens of thousands marched Saturday in the funeral of two protesters killed on Friday, activists prepared for another big rally as large army garrisons were deployed around the city's main entrances.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; editing by David Stamp and Jan Harvey)

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Syria forces storm border town near Turkey (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian troops and gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad stormed a town near the Turkish border Saturday, burning houses and arresting dozens, witnesses said, in a persistent military campaign to crush popular revolt.

The latest assault followed another Friday of protests, which have grown in size and scope over the last three months, despite Assad's violent clampdown on public dissent. Activists said security forces shot dead 19 protesters Friday.

"They came at 7 a.m. to Bdama. I counted nine tanks, 10 armored carriers, 20 jeeps and 10 buses. I saw shabbiha (pro-Assad gunmen) setting fire to two houses," said Saria Hammouda, a lawyer living in the border town in the Jisr al-Shughour region, where thousands of Syrians had fled to Turkey after the army clamped down on the area this month.

Bdama is one of the nerve centers providing food and supplies to several thousand other Syrians who have escaped the violence from frontier villages but chose to take shelter temporarily in fields on the Syrian side of the boundary.

"Bdama's residents don't dare take bread to the refugees and the refugees are fearful of arrests if they go into Bdama for food," Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters.

Another witness said government troops were also burning crops on nearby hillsides in an apparent scorched earth policy.

European powers initiated a detente with Assad before the unrest to try to draw the Syrian leader away from Iran and also stabilize Lebanon..

But they now say Damascus should face tougher sanctions over the violence against demonstrators seeking more political freedoms and an end to corruption and poverty.

Syrian rights groups say at least 1,300 civilians have been killed and 10,000 people detained since March. One group has said more than 300 soldiers and police have also been killed.

"SECURITY GRIP IS WEAKENING"S

Tens of thousands rallied across Syria Friday, defying Assad's repression and ignoring a pledge that his tycoon cousin Rami Makhlouf, a symbol of corruption among the elite, would renounce his business empire and channel his wealth to charity.

People rallied in the southern province of Deraa where the revolt began, in the Kurdish northeast, the province of Deir al-Zor near Iraq's Sunni heartland, the city of Hama north of Damascus, on the coast and in suburbs of the capital itself.

"The security grip is weakening because the protests are growing in numbers and spreading. More people are risking their lives to demonstrate. The Syrian people realize that this is an opportunity for liberty that comes once in hundreds of years," opposition figure Walid al-Bunni told Reuters from Damascus.

The Local Coordination Committees, a main activist group linked to protesters, said 10 demonstrators were killed on Friday in Homs, a merchant city of 1 million people in central Syria.

State television said a policeman was killed by gunmen.

One protester was also reported killed in the northern commercial hub of Aleppo, the first to die there in the unrest.

Thousands of people turned up to a funeral of a dead protester in Deir al-Zor, chanting anti-government slogans, Abdulrahman said.

The state news agency said nine people, including civilians and police, were killed in attacks by gunmen. Syria blames armed gangs and Islamists, backed by foreign powers, for the violence.

The Syrian government has barred most international journalists from the country, making it difficult to verify accounts from activists and officials.

Two towns on the main Damascus-Aleppo highway north of Homs were also encircled by troops and tanks, residents said, five days after the army retook Jisr al-Shughour, sending thousands fleeing across the border into Turkey.

Refugees from the northwestern region said troops and gunmen loyal to Assad known as "shabbiha" were pressing on with a scorched earthed campaign in the hill farm area by burning crops, ransacking houses and shooting randomly.

The International Federation for Human Rights and the U.S.-based Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies said in a statement that, according to local sources, Syrian forces had killed more than 130 people and arrested over 2,000 in Jisr al-Shughour and surrounding villages over the last few days.

The number of refugees who have crossed over into Turkey from Syria has reached 10,114, and another 10,000 were sheltering by the border just inside Syria, according to Turkish officials.

Journalists were given a brief tour of the Boynuyogun refugee camp in Hatay, where some 3,500 people were living in 600 tents.

One refugee described how security forces clamped down on anti-Assad demonstrations.

"We wrote anti-regime slogans on the walls. Then the government reacted by erasing the slogans and they arrested the guy who tore down Assad's picture," said a 26-year-old man from Jisr al-Shughour who said his name was Mohammed.

Another refugee named Adam said security forces arrested people in the middle of the night a couple of weeks after the demonstrations.

"They came to my house ... they started hitting me with the butts of their rifles on my back and head. They said "Is this the freedom you're asking for?'"

SECURITY COUNCIL DEADLOCK

Assad has responded to the unrest with a mix of military repression and political gestures aimed at placating protesters.

He has faced international condemnation over the bloodshed, and has seen the first signs of cracks in his security forces after a clash in Jisr al-Shughour earlier this month in which the government said 120 security personnel were killed.

There have been no mass desertions from the military, but the loyalty of Sunni Muslim conscripts might waver if the crackdown on mainly Sunni protesters continues.

Assad's family and many military commanders are members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. In a spillover of the unrest into Lebanon, Sunni and Alawite gunmen clashed in the northern city of Tripoli and four people were killed.

(Additional reporting by Tulay Kardeniz in Guvecci, Yann Le Guernigou and Stephen Brown in Berlin, Tabassum Zakaria in Washington; writing by Dominic Evans and Yara Bayoumy; editing by David Cowell)

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Jolie visits Syrian refugees in Turkey

(CNN) -- Actress Angelina Jolie met with Syrian refugees in Turkey on Friday and drew attention to the anguish faced by families -- and families torn apart -- by the violence in Syria.

More than 9,600 refugees are living in four camps managed by Turkey and the Turkish Red Crescent, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Jolie, a longtime goodwill ambassador for the United Nations' refugee agency, visited the Altinozu camp in Turkey's Hatay province, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Syrian border, the UNHCR said.

"The people in this camp have fled in fear for their lives, and many told me they were distraught about the safety of loved ones still in Syria," Jolie said, according to the refugee agency.

Jolie met with one woman whose husband was killed. The woman fled to Syria late in her pregnancy and gave birth at the camp, the UNHCR said. Another woman told Jolie about her husband who was too afraid to cross the border.

A wave of Syrians have fled their country for Turkey to escape violence, including a military offensive in the Jisr al-Shugur area.

Refugees at Altinozu are housed in warehouses at an old tobacco factory, and they staged a demonstration at the camp in solidarity with the many anti-government demonstrations occurring across the border in Syria.

They held up signs that said, "Our military is killing its own people, please make it stop" and "U.N., help us please." People chanted, "stop killing children" and other anti-regime slogans.

The people in this camp have fled in fear for their lives, and many told me they were distraught about the safety of loved ones still in Syria.
--Angelina Jolie

"I appreciate the opportunity to visit this camp and talk to these families," Jolie said, according to the UNHCR. "It is a really complex situation and everyone needs to be doing all they can for the innocent families caught in the crossfire. I will be following this situation very closely and doing everything I can."

She also praised the Turkish government and the Turkish Red Crescent for their "tremendous generosity" to the refugees.

"The Red Crescent has set up camps really quickly and provided medical and other care. And UNHCR stands ready to assist if the situation starts to escalate," Jolie said, according to the U.N. office.

Jolie was named a goodwill ambassador for the UNHCR in 2001 and has visited more than 20 countries "to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection."

The U.N. office said her interest in "humanitarian affairs was piqued in 2000 when she went to Cambodia to film the adventure film 'Tomb Raider.'"

Jolie has won numerous acting awards, including an Academy Award for best supporting actress for her performance in 1999's "Girl, Interrupted."

CNN's Arwa Damon and Yesim Comert contributed to this report

CNN

Syrian tanks storm town near Turkey border: residents (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian troops and gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad stormed a town near the Turkish border Saturday, burning houses and arresting 70 people, witnesses said, in wide-ranging military assault to crush a three month uprising.

"They came at 7 a.m. to Bdama. I counted nine tanks, 10 armored carriers, 20 jeeps and 10 buses. I saw shabbiha (gunmen) setting fire to two houses," said Saria Hammouda, a lawyer from the small town of Bdama.

The town lies 2 km from the Turkish border, in Jisr al-Shughour region, from where thousands of people have fled to Turkey following military assaults to quell dissent against 41 years of Assad family rule.

(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis; editing by David Stamp)

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Jolie in Turkey to meet Syrian refugees

Angelina Jolie is a U.N. goodwill ambassadorThe actress, and a load of toys, made their way to a refugee campThe number of Syrian refugees in Turkey is approaching 10,000

(CNN) -- Actress Angelina Jolie, a longtime goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency, arrived in southern Turkey on Friday to visit Syrian refugees, a high-profile trip focusing attention on misery faced by ordinary citizens who have escaped violence in turbulent Syria.

Jolie, who is scheduled to visit the Altinozu refugee camp, arrived at the airport in Hatay and was greeted by officials, according to the state-run Anatolian Agency.

Hatay provincial officials had vans for the trip to Altinozu, and "toys unloaded from the plane were loaded to one of the vans in her convoy," the agency reported.

More than 9,600 Syrian men, women, and children have fled their country for Turkey to escape violence, including a military offensive in the Jisr al-Shugur area.

Refugees at Altinozu are housed in warehouses at an old tobacco factory, and they staged a demonstration at the camp in solidarity with the many anti-government demonstrations occurring across the border in Syria.

They held up signs that said "Our military is killing its own people, please make it stop," "U.N., help us please" and people chanted "stop killing children" and other anti-regime slogans.

Jolie was named a goodwill ambassador for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in early 2001 and has visited more than 20 countries "to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection."

The U.N. office said her interest in "humanitarian affairs was piqued in 2000 when she went to Cambodia to film the adventure film 'Tomb Raider.'"

Jolie has won numerous acting awards, including a best supporting actress Academy Award for her performance in 1999's "Girl, Interrupted."

CNN's Arwa Damon and Yesim Comert contributed to this report

CNN

Turkey plans crisis talks as Syrians pour over border

Istanbul (CNN) -- The Turkish prime minister plans to huddle with a special Syrian envoy on Wednesday in an effort help stem the growing tide of refugees racing into Turkey from conflict-wracked Syria.

The number of Syrians who've crossed the border now stands at 8,421, according to Turkey's disaster and emergency management directorate. That flight has been spurred by violence and a military offensive in the conflict-scarred country, and Turkey is worried that the border crisis could deteriorate and destabilize the region.

"It is impossible for us to remain indifferent to the developments there," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters.

"For us, the Syrians are people who have common future and destiny with us. Therefore, it is out of question to close the door to our Syrian brothers or the (refugee numbers) to stop after 10,000. However, when this turns into a big wave, it also has the potential to become a regional and an international matter."

Syrian security personnel have been carrying out a fierce crackdown against anti-government demonstrators over the past three months. Amnesty International says more than 1,100 people have died.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be meeting with the envoy, who is expected to provide an assessment of the refugee situation and the wider political unrest in Syria, an official from Erdogan's office told CNN.

The envoy represents Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the meeting follows a telephone conversation Erdogan and al-Assad had on Tuesday.

Davutoglu, who spoke to journalists at the airport in Ankara before flying to Hatay for a visit with the refugees, said Turkey hopes to initiate reforms that would alleviate the volatile conditions leading to the flight of ordinary citizens. He planned to attend the meeting between Erdogan and the Syrian envoy after his visit to Hatay.

Davutoglu said "escalating violence can increase the refugee wave" and Turkey is working on ways "to prevent escalation of violence."

His government touts a foreign policy dubbed "no problems," a strategy to promote good relations with its neighbors, and the Syrian situation has become a challenge for that policy.

Turkey fears a repeat of the enormous Kurdish refugee exodus from northern Iraq in 1991, and the country has spent the last decade promoting cozy relations and lucrative economic ties with Syria's al-Assad.

Over the last month, Erdogan began calling for reform in Damascus in a bid to curb the escalating violence.

"We hope that Syria changes its attitude towards the civilians to a more tolerant one and realize its steps for reform in a more convincing way for the civilians," Erdogan said last week, according to the semi-official Anatolian Agency.

Davutoglu said that Turkey's "wish and effort is for a process to begin at once that can prevent such a wave to continue increasingly."

He pointed to "reforms to be made as soon as possible, conditions to be eliminated that bring security forces and people against each other and to have a more peaceful approach, beyond focusing on security, in the attitude towards the civilian people. If all these were provided, the refugee wave would lessen."

Of the refugees, 4,368 are children and 73 Syrians are now being treated in Turkish hospitals, the emergency directorate said. More than 1,230 tents have been set up in a number of locations.

Actress Angelina Jolie, a longtime goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency, has submitted an application to visit the refugees in Turkey, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal confirmed to CNN by phone. He says the government is "evaluating" the request.

Many displaced Syrians have fled toward the border but have not made it over. CNN's Arwa Damon met with some of them at a makeshift campsite on Tuesday in Syria, and they described terrible conditions at the site and frightening and deadly violence.

Many of the refugees have fled from a region that includes Jisr al-Shugur, seized by the Syrian military over the weekend, a network of human rights activists said.

The Syrian government insists it is stopping "armed terrorist groups" who carried out a "massacre" in the city -- the killing 120 members of the security forces.

Opposition activists say the government's claims are a ruse to justify a crackdown on demonstrators demanding government reform, in keeping with the wave of political protests across the Middle East and North Africa this year.

But Syrian refugees who have fled to Turkey said some Syrian soldiers rebelled after being ordered to fire on unarmed protesters and instead started fighting among themselves.

Syria's Cabinet on Tuesday hailed efforts by the army and security forces to restore calm in the Jisr al-Shugur area and surrounding villages, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.

Adnan Mahmoud, the information minister, said the Cabinet urged citizens "who were forced to leave their homes to come back after calm and security were restored in the area," SANA said.

The minister said the Cabinet "assigned the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to contact the Turkish Red Crescent for cooperation to facilitate the Syrian citizens' return to their homes, noting that all necessary needs will be provided to secure the return, including medical aid for the patients and the injured."

CNN

Desperately Fleeing Syria: Refugees Cross into Turkey (Time.com)

The young Syrian in the white undershirt cradled a toddler in his arms as he sat beneath a line of laundry strung up between two stout gum trees. He stared out from behind the rusty metal gate of the disused tobacco warehouse that is now home to hundreds of Syrian refugees, most of whom are from the flashpoint town of Jisr al-Shughour, some 40 kilometers south of the Turkish border. A gaggle of frustrated journalists waited across the narrow street from the warehouse grounds, prevented from speaking to the refugees by uniformed Turkish police officers as well as plainclothes security officials who briskly brushed away anyone who approached the gate.

"I'm from Jisr al-Shughour," the Syrian man shouted in response to a question I yelled out in Arabic from across the street. "We came yesterday, we're seven families," he screamed, gesturing to the half a dozen young children playing around him amid the rows of neatly arranged white tents now covering the grounds of the old factory. "It's war, they're shelling civilians," he bellowed as a woman balancing a mattress on her head walked past him toward a tent, and a plainclothes Turkish security official in a green-and-white striped shirt hurriedly approached him. The official stood over the refugee for a few moments before leaving. "Tell me what you saw in your village and along the road to Turkey," I screamed, cupping my hands over my mouth in a bid to carry my voice further. The refugee didn't answer. Instead, he held his hand up to his mouth and shook his head, in a gesture that meant he could no longer speak. "Did they prevent you from talking to me?" I asked. He nodded his head. (Chaos in Syria: Are Army Deserters Helping to Arm the Opposition?)

"I'm just an employee, I'm doing my job," a plainclothes officer later told TIME. "The government says you can't talk to them. We have orders."

More than 2,790 Syrians have streamed across the border into the southern Turkish province of Hatay, the state Anatolia News Agency reported Friday. The government has established two camps, one in Yayladagi, the other in Altinozou, and is planning a third, the agency said. The Turks clearly expect a mass exodus in the coming days and weeks. The Hurriyet daily reported on Friday that the government may establish a buffer zone in the southern border area "if hundreds of thousands [of Syrians] want to seek refuge in Turkey."

That may happen sooner rather than later, given that Syrian state media announced on Friday that an anticipated military offensive had begun in Jisr al-Shughour, a restive Sunni town of some 50,000, "in response to the inhabitants'... call for help." Damascus says "armed gangs" in the area killed more than 120 security personnel last week, a claim vociferously denied by Syrian rights activists who say the killings were due to mutinous units of the military who, rather than shoot unarmed protesters, turned their weapons on their colleagues.

Abu Fady, a resident of Khirbet al-Jouz, not far from Jisr al-Shughour, reached by phone Friday said food supplies were low and that hundreds of people were leaving the village, heading for the Turkish border. "People are scared," he said. "and we should be scared of this regime." Abu Fady said there were hundreds of military vehicles amassed on the Syrian side of the Turkish border, to intimidate or prevent people from crossing. "This is intolerable," he said. "I want to get my family out of here tonight."

France and Britain are rallying support at the United Nations Security Council for a resolution against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, while once-staunch allies of Damascus like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have distanced themselves from the Syrian leader. Erdogan has steadily upped the tempo of his criticism. The images from Syria were "unpalatable," Erdogan told Turkey's ATV television on Thursday night. "They are acting in an inhumane way," he said, referring to the Syrian regime and suggesting that Turkey could support any U.N. move against Assad. "In the face of violence, we cannot continue to support Syria. We have relatives living in Syria," he said. (See why the West won't intervene in Syria.)

There are, in fact, blood ties that bind residents of the Turkish-Syrian border, many of whom on the Turkish side are ethnic Arabs. "Hassan," an 18-year-old Syrian, who said he was from Khirbet al-Jouz, sat along the low concrete wall of a flat-roofed home in the sleepy Turkish hamlet of Guvecci, about 20 minutes drive from the Yayladagi camp. He was red-faced as he squinted into the mid-morning sun, beads of sweat clung above his blonde brows. The young man said he'd walked across the border half an hour ago, to find his Turkish relative Abu Omar, who would help him buy bread. "I just came to get bread and to return," Hassan said. "In our town, there's no food, no bread. When we see the army, we hide, they're shooting at people." Hassan refused to present his national Syrian ID card, saying he feared the consequences of divulging his identity, despite a pledge from me that he would remain anonymous. It's unclear how he managed to evade the Turkish soldiers spread out in the lush fields between the village, which hugs a gently sloping hill, and a paved road in the valley that demarcates the Syrian border.

A hilltop Turkish military outpost sits adjacent to Guvecci's handful of houses. On Friday, a military truck could be seen loading Syrians gathered at the border road, as vehicles, mainly ambulances, continued to stream across the hill from Syria into Turkey. The military kept the media at a distance.

Aisha Gur, sat under a leafy grapevine in the small courtyard of her home in Guvecci. The 45-year-old's modest abode was one of the closest dwellings to the border road, which could be accessed from a steep, sloping village pathway covered in loose stones and animal dung that passed alongside Gur's home. A small flock of sheep meandered along the track, toward an olive grove near flowering orange pomegranate trees. "Look, see that ambulance." Gur said, pointing out toward the road. "We've seen lots of ambulances coming from Syria lately," she said, "but none of us are allowed to speak with the people in them."

The refugees picked up from the informal border post at Guvecci were destined for one of the two nearby camps. As the hours passed, several mini-vans full of tired-looking Syrians disgorged their passengers inside the grounds of the Yayladagi camp. A man inside the fenced tent city limped past on a single crutch, his right foot bandaged. He said he was from Jisr al-Shughour, had been shot by Syrian security forces, and had crossed the border overnight. "The shabihha and security have surrounded us," he said referring to armed gangs of Assad loyalists. It was clear that the man desperately wanted to speak, but a uniformed Turkish policeman was quickly heading toward him. He sighed as he watched him approach. "I can't speak to you," he said. "I want to, but I can't."

See pictures of protests in Syria.

Read about the differences between Syria and Turkey.

View this article on Time.com

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Turkey says offered Gaddafi "guarantee" to quit Libya (Reuters)

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday his country had offered a "guarantee" to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi if he left Libya, but said Ankara had received no answer.

"Gaddafi has no way out but to leave Libya, through the guarantees given to him, it seems," Erdogan told NTV broadcaster in an interview.

"We ourselves have offered him this guarantee, via the representatives we've sent. We told him we would help him to be sent wherever he wanted to be sent. We would discuss the issue with our allies, according to the response we receive. Unfortunately we still haven't got a response from Gaddafi."

Erdogan, whose country is a member of NATO, did not specify what kind of guarantee his country had offered to Gaddafi.

Muslim Turkey had sizeable trade and commercial ties with Gaddafi's Libya, and evacuated more than 20,000 citizens working there as violence engulfed the North African desert nation.

Since the uprising against Gaddafi's rule began in February, Erdogan has distanced himself from the Libyan leader. Ankara has called on Gaddafi several times to order a ceasefire and to quit in order to allow a transition of power.

In the interview, Erdogan expressed frustration at what he called Gaddafi's stalling tactics.

"I have contacted him six or seven times. I sent our special representatives, but we always faced stalling tactics. They tell us they want a cease fire, we tell them to take a step, but the next day you find out that some places were bombed."

"We're asking them 'what are you doing' and they tell us they fired back because they were fired at. There's nothing like that. We were closely watching at that time."

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay)

Yahoo! News

Syrian refugees cross into Turkey

Guvecci, Turkey (CNN) -- About 100 Syrian refugees clustered Wednesday, chanting and holding a Syrian flag, next to a border fence with Turkey, watched closely by several Turkish soldiers pacing in front of them.

During the course of the day, more than 400 others crossed into Turkish territory near the village of Karbeyaz, even though this is not an official border gate, the semi-official Anatolia news agency said.

They were housed in a tent city near Yayladagi, along the border, where nearly 700 people were sheltered in 100 tents, the agency said.

Many of the refugees are from the Syrian border town of Jisr Al-Shugur, from which they say tens of thousands of residents have fled over the past week after scores of people were killed in fighting.

The Syrian government said more than 80 security forces were killed in an ambush by "armed groups" in Jisr Al-Shugur. But residents of the town say those people died after fighting broke out among Syrian soldiers, some of whom mutinied after Syrian troops fired on anti-government demonstrators at the funeral of a slain protester.

"My friend was shot next to me when we were at a funeral for a martyr," said one Syrian refugee, speaking by telephone to CNN from a stand of trees on the Syrian side of the hilly border area. "There is no milk for children, no water" in Jisr Al-Shugur, he said. "They poisoned the water and there is no more bread."

The refugee, who asked not to be identified, said he did not plan to flee into Turkey unless Syrian troops threatened him and his family at this makeshift frontier haven.

Activist Fadi Mustafa Soufi, speaking via Skype with CNN from the cluster of refugees along the frontier, said shortly after noon that two women wounded in fighting in Jisr Al-Shugur had arrived in a vehicle. "One woman was shot in the face, but she's not dead yet," Soufi said.

Several dozen soldiers who had defected and changed into civilian clothes were among the refugees, Soufi said.

On Tuesday night, a refugee woman named Um Ahmed told CNN she had fled to the border with her daughters to escape what she expected would be a Syrian government attack on Jisr Al-Shugur.

A growing number of Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey over the past month and a half, raising the possibility of a refugee exodus.

In late April, about 250 Syrian civilians fled across the border to the Turkish village of Guvecci. There, they have been housed in tents and fed by the Turkish Red Crescent at an old tobacco factory. Turkish authorities have denied journalists permission to speak with the refugees and have refused to allow the refugees to leave the compound.

Turkish officials speaking on condition of anonymity told CNN that 41 Syrians -- several of them wounded -- crossed the border Saturday.

A doctor, also speaking on condition of anonymity, told CNN that more than 30 Syrians with gunshot and shrapnel wounds had been treated at a hospital in Turkey in recent days.

Meanwhile, Soufi, the activist from Jisr Al-Shugur, said he saw the bodies of two wounded Syrian men who died while being driven to the Turkish border.

In the past, the Turkish government has made a show of evacuating wounded civilians from Iraq and Libya. But Ankara has taken a different approach with dozens of wounded civilians fleeing Syria.

Turkey fears a repeat of the 1991 exodus of large numbers of Kurdish refugees from Northern Iraq. Ankara has also spent the past decade promoting cozy relations and lucrative economic ties with Syria's 45-year-old president, Bashar al-Assad.

The United Nations reports more than 1,000 people have been killed during anti-regime protests in Syria in less than three months. Over the past month, the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has begun calling for reform in Damascus in a bid to curb the escalating violence.

"It is out of (the) question that we close the border at this point. The developments in Syria are saddening. We are watching in worry," Erdogan said Wednesday.

"We hope that Syria changes its attitude towards the civilians to a more tolerant one and realizes its steps for reform in a more convincing way for the civilians."

Erdogan has been furiously campaigning ahead of Turkish parliamentary elections scheduled to take place on June 12.

CNN's Ivan Watson, Yesim Comert and journalist Rasha Qass Yousef contributed to this report.

CNN

Turkey: 10 suspected al-Qaida affiliates detained (AP)

ANKARA, Turkey – Police on Tuesday arrested 10 people suspected of links to an al-Qaida terrorist network in southern Turkey, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Police captured nine of the suspects in simultaneous raids in the southern city of Adana and another one in the city of Hatay, near the Syrian border, it said. Police would not say whether the suspects were preparing to stage an attack but no weapons or explosives were seized in the raids.

Adana is home to the Incirlik Air Base, which is used by the United States for the transfer of non-combat supplies to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Authorities have said Islamic militants tied to al-Qaida planned to attack Incirlik in the past but were deterred by high security.

Homegrown Islamic militants tied to the al-Qaida attacked the British consulate, a British bank and two synagogues in Istanbul, killing 58 people in 2003. In 2008, an attack blamed on al-Qaida-affiliated militants outside the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul left three assailants and three policemen dead.

Turkish authorities have said dozens of Islamic militants have received training in Afghanistan.

However, Al-Qaida's austere and violent interpretation of Islam receives little public backing in Turkey.

Several other radical Islamic groups are also active in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim but officially secular country.

Yahoo! News

Turkey defends Internet filtering plans (AP)

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey's government has defended a new regulation that will filter the Internet and restrict access to websites that show pornography, bomb-making and violent content.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said Tuesday that among websites the government wants restricted are also those "explaining how to kill your wife."

Critics say the new regulation, set to come into effect in August, amounts to more censorship in an already heavy-handed effort to control information.

Yahoo! News

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