REYHANLI: Turkey said yesterday it had arrested nine people over bombings that killed 46 in a town near the Syrian border and warned Damascus a red line had been crossed.
The Syrian government denied involvement in the twin car bombs that sowed death in Reyhanli on Saturday but Ankara said it was holding suspects who had confessed and accused Damascus of dragging Turkey into its civil war.
The attacks were the deadliest case of what observers see as an increasing regionalisation of the conflict that started in March 2011 and came as key brokers Washington and Moscow made an unprecedented joint push for peace talks.
“They want to drag us down a vile path,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a rally in Istanbul, urging Turks to be “level-headed in the face of each provocation aimed at drawing Turkey into the Syrian quagmire.”
Speaking during a visit in Berlin, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called the attacks a breach of Turkey’s “red line” and warned that Ankara reserved the right to “take any kind of measure” in response to the deadly bombings.
Cranes were seen lifting debris from buildings destroyed by Saturday’s blasts in Reyhanli, a major Turkish hub for Syrian refugees and rebels.
The attacks provoked a backlash against Syrian refugees as dozens of cars were wrecked by rampaging crowds, according to witnesses.
The attack sowed panic in Reyhanli, a town of about 60,000 people.
“I heard the first blast, walked out, thinking it was a missile being fired from Syria. Then I found myself on the ground, my arms and right leg hurting, my ears ringing. It must have been the second bomb,” said Hikmet Haydut, a 46-year-old coffee shop owner who had minor injuries to his head and body.
“I am alive, but all I have is gone.”
Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay told a news conference that nine people — all Turks — were detained for questioning and that some had confessed involvement in the attacks, which also left dozens wounded.
The suspects were said to belong to a Turkish Marxist organisation with direct links to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s regime.
Damascus rejected the allegations that it masterminded the attacks.
“Syria did not commit and would never commit such an act because our values would not allow that,” Information Minister Omran Al Zohbi said.
“It is Erdogan who should be asked about this act... He and his party bear direct responsibility,” he added.
Nato member Turkey distanced itself from its erstwhile ally soon after Assad started cracking down on pro-democracy protests in 2011.
Ankara has since become a rear base for the Syrian rebellion, and Damascus has already been blamed for a string of attacks on Turkish soil.
Can Dundar, a columnist at Turkey’s Milliyet newspaper, argued that it was late to warn against attempts to drag Ankara into the Syrian conflict.
“Turkey seems to be sinking into the Syrian swamp... It has become a stakeholder in this civil war by directly supporting the opposition,” he wrote.
The Syrian opposition National Coalition said the attacks were designed to drive a wedge between Turks and Syrians and called for more robust international action against Assad’s regime.
Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Antakya yesterday.
Several hundred people, mostly leftist and nationalist demonstrators, marched through the centre of the city no more than 50km from the Syrian frontier, carrying banners and shouting anti-government slogans while onlookers cheered.
Many in this frontier province of Hatay, a melting pot of sectarian, ethnic and religious groups, some of whom share Assad’s Alawite creed, blame their own government and its policy on Syria for the bloodshed spilling onto Turkish soil.
Turkey has taken in more than 400,000 Syrian refugees, many of whom have settled in Hatay, and has thrown its full weight behind the armed opposition fighting to overthrow Assad, although it denies supplying weapons.
Agencies
