Syria at dead end, says President Gül

Turkey is increasing its pressure on the Syrian government. During his visit to London, Turkish President Abdullah Gül declared the situation in the Republic of Syria is reaching an end creating a change which, as he specified, it should not come through intervention from other countries. According to him, external intervention is not the right way; it should be the people who make the change. He had spoken to Assad regularly until a few months ago and advised him at the time to allow free elections, release political prisoners and announce a clear timetable for reforms, but now it is too late for that. The Turkish president said his country would not remain indifferent to Syria’s crisis and would support the demands of the Syrian people.

Not only the President, but also the Prime Minister is criticizing the Syrian leader, who compared al-Assad with post dictators who has fought until death.

Hundreds of thousands refugees are coming from Syria. Turkey had already said in previous months that the Syrian operations against civilians must end immediately. However, as we can read in the article the words of President Gül “Syria has reached a dead end”, he is prepared for worst. As the International Community, Turkey does not want to get involved in the war. Along with the U.S. and Switherland, it intervenes keeping Syrian government funds frozen. Therefore Turkey has lost every confidence in a possible change of the Syrian leader, if there was still some. At the moment, we do not know who will end this war, and who eventually will lead the government of this country, what we know is Syria’s neighboring country remains in a more passive attitude of non intervention.

Source: Hurriyet daily news.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=syria-at-dead-end-says-president-gul-2011-11-22

Syrian Health Services Questioned

Syrian security forces have been accused of violating human rights in Syria over the last months. It has been said that Syria has been targeting doctors and raiding hospitals in order to find wounded protesters who are against the Syrian regime. Groups such as Human Rights Watch and Local Coordination Committees (LCC) have seen how a number of doctors and pharmacists have been arrested in the last couple of weeks and how patients have also been taken away from hospitals, preventing doctors from treating them.

This is not the first time this issue is raised. In August the Syrian authorities were also accused of “attacking” people working in health, and those in need of medical facilities, through a report issued by Physicians for Human Rights, based in the United States.

Hospitals have also been controlled by security forces that have forced doctors and nurses to inform them of who enters the hospitals. This was, in most cases, not allowing the health services in the country to help people in need because they were protesters. This situation also led to the arrest of many patients and the decision of others who decided to heal their wounds at home.

It is believed that the uprising is becoming increasingly militarized, something worrying for the civilians, who are starting to suffer the consequences in their own skin; LCC and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have confirmed that at least 12 civilians were killed on Monday in Homs by Syrian security forces.

In my opinion this is a clear violation of human rights. The right of health assistance should not depend on the side a person takes in a conflict, and even less in one like this where the uprising has been going on for about five months and does not look like it is going to end soon.

A large number of Syrians are involved in this uprising and if security forces continue to control hospitals, or try to control them more than they already are, things can get worse. I think it is not going to benefit the Syrian security forces as I think it will only produce more unrest and bitterness among the protesters.

There is proof behind all these allegations so I guess it could get to the point where an international intervention to support human rights might be necessary, but we will have to wait and see how the conflict evolves.

Article: http://www.heraldonline.com/2011/10/17/3449469/syrian-regime-accused-of-targeting.html#ixzz1b4lIjYox