ANKARA: Turkey will consider imposing sanctions on Kurdish northern Iraq over its planned independence referendum, President Tayyip Erdogan was cited by state-run Anadolu news agency as saying.
Turkey escalated its opposition to the Kurdish referendum on Tuesday, training tank guns and rocket launchers across the southern border and saying the break-up of its neighbors could lead to global conflict.
Erdogan, who is attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, told world leaders on Tuesday that the referendum in northern Iraq could lead to fresh conflicts in the Middle East.
Speaking to reporters outside his hotel, Erdogan said Turkey’s national security council and cabinet would discuss potential sanctions on northern Iraq when they meet on Friday.
“As the national security council, we will advise the government on our decision. With it, the cabinet will meet and discuss this. It will both evaluate this and put forth their own stance on what kind of sanctions we can impose, or if we will, but these will not be ordinary,” Erdogan was quoted by Anadolu as saying.
Turkey has strong trade ties with northern Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government, which pumps hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day through Turkey and has approved plans for Russian oil major Rosneft to invest in pipelines to export gas to Turkey and Europe.
“We will announce our final thoughts on the issue with the cabinet meeting and national security council decision,” Erdogan said. “I think it would be better if they saw this.”
Erdogan says Turkey to consider sanctions over Kurdish independence vote — Anadolu
Erdogan says Turkey to consider sanctions over Kurdish independence vote — Anadolu
Syrian Alawites protest in coastal heartland after mosque bombing
- Syrian Alawites took to the streets on Sunday in the coastal city of Latakia to protest after a mosque bombing that killed eight people in Homs two days before
LATAKIA: Syrian Alawites took to the streets on Sunday in the coastal city of Latakia to protest after a mosque bombing that killed eight people in Homs two days before.
The attack, which took place in an Alawite area of Homs city, was the latest against the religious minority, which has been the target of several episodes of violence since the December 2024 fall of longtime ruler Bashar Assad, himself an Alawite.
Security forces were deployed in the area, and intervened to break up clashes between demonstrators and counter-protesters, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
“Why the killing? Why the assassination? Why the kidnapping? Why these random actions without any deterrent, accountability or oversight?” said protester Numeir Ramadan, a 48-year-old trader.
“Assad is gone, and we do not support Assad... Why this killing?“
Sunday’s demonstration came after calls from prominent spiritual leader Ghazal Ghazal, head of the Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and Abroad, who on Saturday urged people to “show the world that the Alawite community cannot be humiliated or marginalized.”
“We do not want a civil war, we want political federalism. We do not want your terrorism. We want to determine our own destiny,” he said in a video message on Facebook.
Protesters carried pictures of Ghazal along with banners expressing support for him, while chanting calls for decentralized government authority and a degree of regional autonomy.
“Our first demand is federalism to stop the bloodshed, because Alawite blood is not cheap, and Syrian blood in general is not cheap. We are being killed because we are Alawites,” Hadil Salha, a 40-year-old housewife said.
Most Syrians are Sunni Muslim, and the city of Homs — where Friday’s bombing took place — is home to a Sunni majority but also has several areas that are predominantly Alawite, a community whose faith stems from Shiite Islam.
The community is otherwise mostly present across their coastal heartland in Latakia and Tartus provinces.
Since Assad’s fall, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor and Homs province residents have reported kidnappings and killings targeting members of the minority community.
Alawite massacres
The country has also seen several bloody flare-ups of sectarian violence.
Syria’s coastal areas saw the massacre of Alawite civilians in March, with authorities accusing armed Assad supporters of sparking the violence by attacking security forces.
A national commission of inquiry said at least 1,426 members of the minority were killed, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor put the toll at more than 1,700.
Late last month, thousands of people demonstrated on the coast to protest fresh attacks targeting Alawites in Homs and other regions.
Before and after the March bloodshed, authorities carried out a massive arrest campaign in predominantly Alawite areas, which are also former Assad strongholds.
Protesters on Sunday also demanded the release of detainees.
On Friday, Syrian state television reported the release of 70 detainees in Latakia “after it was proven that they were not involved in war crimes,” saying more releases would follow.
Despite assurances from Damascus that all Syria’s communities will be protected, the country’s minorities remain wary of their future under the new Islamist authorities, who have so far rejected calls for federalism.
