InfoAnda - Analysis: Syria crisis shows limits of rising Turkish power |

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

Well, at least Canadian viewers liked the Oscars | 1 March 2011
First-class return for surprise rugby league world champs NZ | 23 November 2008
Iran, big power rep may meet next month: Ahmadinejad | | 25 September 2010

Muslims stone devil as accident-free haj nears end | International | | 9 December 2008

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Analysis: Syria crisis shows limits of rising Turkish power |

Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Home Business Business Home Economy Technology Media Small Business Legal Deals Earnings Social Pulse Business Video The Freeland File Markets Markets Home U.S. Markets European Markets Asian Markets Global Market Data Indices M&A Stocks Bonds Currencies Commodities Futures Funds peHUB World World Home U.S. Brazil China Euro Zone Japan Mexico Russia India Insight World Video Reuters Investigates Decoder Politics Politics Home Election 2012 Campaign Polling Tales from the Trail Political Punchlines Supreme Court Politics Video Tech Technology Home MediaFile Science Tech Video Tech Tonic Social Pulse Opinion Opinion Home Chrystia Freeland John Lloyd Felix Salmon Jack Shafer David Rohde Bernd Debusmann Nader Mousavizadeh Lucy P. Marcus David Cay Johnston Bethany McLean Anatole Kaletsky Edward Hadas Hugo Dixon Ian Bremmer Lawrence Summers Susan Glasser The Great Debate Steven Brill Jack & Suzy Welch Frederick Kempe Christopher Papagianis Mark Leonard Breakingviews Equities Credit Private Equity M&A Macro & Markets Politics Breakingviews Video Money Money Home Tax Break Lipper Awards 2012 Global Investing MuniLand Unstructured Finance Linda Stern Mark Miller John Wasik James Saft Analyst Research Alerts Watchlist Portfolio Stock Screener Fund Screener Personal Finance Video Money Clip Investing 201 Life Health Sports Arts Faithworld Business Traveler Entertainment Oddly Enough Lifestyle Video Pictures Pictures Home Reuters Photographers Full Focus Video Reuters TV Reuters News Article Comments (0) Full Focus Photos of the week Our top photos of the week. See more Images of June Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes eye settlement: reports 08 Jul 2012 Parasite tied to self-harm, suicide attempts 06 Jul 2012 Texas to test 1965 voting rights law in court 08 Jul 2012 Obama team targets Romney over taxes, Republicans cry foul 08 Jul 2012 Obama invites Egypt's Islamist leader to U.S. 08 Jul 2012 Discussed 254 In California, immigration bill designed as the ”anti-Arizona” 113 Scientists to unveil milestone in Higgs boson hunt 82 U.S. hiring seen stuck in low gear in June Watched Vote counting continues into the night in Libya Sun, Jul 8 2012 Military vehicles enter Syrian cities, as Annan arrives for negotiations. Sun, Jul 8 2012 Rocket launch a boost for California start-up Fri, Jul 6 2012 Pictures Reuters Photojournalism Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography. See more | Photo caption Dalai Lama in exile A look at the life of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. Slideshow Space odysseys From the scientists on the ground to stunning views from space, a look at man's continuing exploration into the final frontier. Slideshow Libya’s Arab Spring Almost a year after ousting Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed rebellion, Libyans head to the polls. Slideshow Analysis: Syria crisis shows limits of rising Turkish power Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Annan starts talks with Assad in Damascus 3:41am EDT Annan arrives in Damascus, Syria tests missiles Sun, Jul 8 2012 Syria's fighting spills into Lebanon, five killed Sat, Jul 7 2012 Defection cheers anti-Assad coalition at Paris meet Thu, Jul 5 2012 Syria pummels rebels as battered city collects bodies Wed, Jul 4 2012 Analysis & Opinion Oil price slide – easy come, easy go? The Powerful League of Missing Persons Related Topics World » Turkey » Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Chief of Staff General Necdet Ozel (R) attend funeral ceremony of fallen Air Force Lieutenant Hasan Huseyin Aksoy in Istanbul July 6, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Tolga Bozoglu/Pool By Alistair Lyon ANKARA | Mon Jul 9, 2012 4:08am EDT ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's bark seems worse than its bite. Ask the Syrians, who shot down a Turkish reconnaissance jet on June 22 and got away with it. Turkish leaders shrilled up their rhetoric. They sent anti-aircraft missiles to the border and repeatedly scrambled F-16 fighters when Syrian helicopters flew too close. Ankara won supportive noises from its NATO allies. But that was it. Ask the Israelis, who killed nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists on the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara aid ship in 2010, and got away with it. Turkey threatened to send its navy to protect future flotillas to Gaza, but never followed through. The danger for Turkey is that its truculence, whether over the Mavi Marmara ship incident with Israel or over the loss of its F-4 off the Syrian coast, begins to look toothless. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has likened Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on his opponents in the past 16 months to the practices of Nazi Germany - only to be accused in turn of being implicated in the bloodshed. "With his desire from the beginning to interfere in our internal affairs, unfortunately ... (Erdogan) has made Turkey a party to all the bloody acts in Syria," Assad told Turkey's Cumhuriyet newspaper last week. "Turkey has given all kinds of logistical support to the terrorists killing our people." After Erdogan announced that Turkey had toughened its rules of engagement on the Syrian border, the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, accused him of playing poker with national interests. "Whatever the prime minister said at the time of the Mavi Marmara incident, he said the same thing today. If you bluff, you lose your deterrence internationally," Kilicdaroglu said. So far, neither Turkey nor Syria seems eager for a confrontation, although the pricklier Turkish military posture raises the danger of an accidental one along a border that winds 900 km (550 miles) from the Mediterranean to the Tigris river. ZERO PROBLEMS Turkey is a serious regional power with a powerful military and an economy far more dynamic than any comparable nation in the Middle East, where many envy its combination of new-found prosperity and democracy under a party with Islamist roots that finally tamed the generals who for decades called the shots. A simplistic image of Turkey, perhaps, but one whose appeal resonated in the Middle East when Erdogan reached out to a region long seen by Turks as more problematic than promising, with a policy breezily dubbed "zero problems" with neighbors. For much of the past decade, it worked well. Turkey maintained its strong alliance with Israel, while avoiding friction with Iran and cultivating new friendships with old foes such as Syria and the Kurds in Iraq, smoothing out tensions with trade, construction and development aid. Erdogan and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad became personal friends. It began to unravel when Israel assaulted the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in December 2008, drawing acid criticism from Turkish leaders who until then had worked hard to broker a peace deal between Israel and Syria over the occupied Golan Heights. When unrest in Arab police states spread to Syria in March 2011, Turkey urged Assad to defuse protests with genuine reform. Instead, he tried to crush them with ferocious violence. Turkish leaders, feeling betrayed by Assad's spurning of their advice, turned decisively against him in September. But Assad, defying their predictions that he would go the same way as other Arab autocrats challenged by their people in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, is still clinging to power. Turkey embraced the Syrian opposition and gave sanctuary to the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) as well as to Syrian refugees, even talking of setting up some kind of buffer zone inside Syria if that desperate human inflow turned into a flood. But Ankara cautioned that it would do nothing militarily without NATO or backing from the U.N. Security Council, which has been paralyzed on Syria by Russian and Chinese vetoes. That means its practical options are limited, particularly since it is still struggling with its own Kurdish insurgency in the southeast that has festered for nearly 30 years, costing about 40,000 lives, including an estimated 500 in the past year. HEARTS RULING HEADS? Some worry that Erdogan, who stalked off a Davos stage he was sharing with Shimon Peres in 2009 saying the Israeli president knew "how to kill", is prone to add pique to the more conventional foreign policy mix of pragmatism and principle. "Turkey could have pursued a more cautious, measured policy toward Syria," said Lale Kemal, Ankara bureau chief of Turkey's Taraf daily. "Outspoken Turkish policy has provoked the Assad regime. Turkey made the mistake of thinking Assad will go soon." She argued that Turkey should not have flown jets near an "irrational" country like Syria in the throes of a civil war. "Syria has demonstrated to Turkey by downing the jet that 'Look, we have the power, we can shoot down your aircraft. You are a NATO member, but we also have big firepower'." Former Turkish Foreign Minister Ilter Turkmen said his country had been unwise to swing so fast from being Assad's chum to his most virulent critic, dismissing the idea that support for Syrian rebels might pay off for Turkey later. "I don't think countries are ever grateful," he said, predicting that any future post-Assad government would be extremely nationalistic, perhaps reviving problems with Turkey, whose Hatay province has long been claimed by Syria. "We have been prisoners of our own rhetoric," Turkmen said, adding that any unilateral Turkish military intervention in Syria would be folly. "You can get in, but how do you get out?" For much of its modern history, Turkey has avoided foreign entanglements, intervening unilaterally only in Cyprus in 1974, while standing ready to join U.N.-backed peacekeeping missions in troublespots around the world, from Somalia to Afghanistan. Turkey remains widely admired in the Middle East, but the excitement at Erdogan's tough talk against Israel that made him so popular in the Arab world a couple of years ago has cooled. And for all their military might and economic muscle, the Turks now find themselves with almost no leverage in Damascus. "They can sell stuff. Lots of Middle Eastern people have Turkish goods in their homes," said International Crisis Group analyst Hugh Pope. "But their ability to project power into those dysfunctional states in the Middle East is very small." (Editing by Peter Graff) World Turkey Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Back to top Reuters.com Business Markets World Politics Technology Opinion Money Pictures Videos Site Index Legal Bankruptcy Law California Legal New York Legal Securities Law Support & Contact Support Corrections Connect with Reuters Twitter Facebook LinkedIn RSS Podcast Newsletters Mobile About Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices Copyright Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation Thomsonreuters.com About Thomson Reuters Investor Relations Careers Contact Us Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Other News on Monday, 9 July 2012
Mexican electoral officials confirm Pena Nieto win |
Egypt president recalls parliament, generals meet |
Saudi police arrest prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric |
Congo rebels seize strategic eastern town |
As Panasonic TVs flicker, new chief offers tough love |
Netflix shares could continue to rise: Barron's |
Nokia-born startup to launch MeeGo smartphone |
Chris Brown's Fortune spins to top of UK charts |
Libya's Jibril calls for grand coalition |
Gunmen kill seven in attack on Pakistan military camp |
Annan starts talks with Assad in Damascus |
Analysis: Syria crisis shows limits of rising Turkish power |
Egypt president recalls parliament, generals meet |
Russia mourns floods victims, Putin faces awkward questions |
Greek government wins confidence vote, bigger battles loom |
Little first-quarter growth seen for India outsourcers, recovery hopes fade |
Sharp to pay $198.5 million to Dell, two others to settle TFT case |
Netflix shares could continue to rise: Barron's |
Privacy risk from ads in apps rising: security firm |
Gartner raises global tech market growth forecast |
Oscar-winning actor Ernest Borgnine dead at 95 |
New Spider-Man comes out swinging in box office win |
Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes eye settlement: reports |
EU, Iran diplomats to meet for nuclear talks in July |
Kenya trials at war crimes court to start in April |
Mexican leftist refuses to accept election result |
Brazilian strategists star in Venezuela election |
Congo rebels withdraw from eastern town |
Hollande to stand by ban on Armenian genocide denial |
Ultra-Orthodox feel they are in dialogue of deaf with secular Israel |
Samsung wins court case against Apple because it's not as cool |
As TVs struggle, new Panasonic chief prepares thorough review |
Cell phone companies see spike in surveillance requests |
Microsoft to buy display maker Perceptive Pixel |
Palo Alto, Kayak set expected IPO price range |
Sirius XM raises 2012 growth target on subscriber boost |
Global tech market growth stabilizing: Gartner |
EU drafts bill to speed up music copyright pay |
Socialite Denise Rich dumps U.S. passport |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph		BlogMeter 1.01