In his recent speech Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rightly said that due to the silence of the international community, Balkan-like tragedy is developing in Syria and the whole region might be affected from the worsening situation in the country.
In the Balkan conflict involving Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia, thousands of people lost their lives before the United Nations and the world community realized the gravity of the situation. Now in Syria too, the UN has been excruciatingly slow in chalking out any concrete plan to avoid the bloodshed and loss of thousands of innocent lives.
Neighboring countries are also bearing the brunt of what is happening in Syria. Tension is mounting between Turkey and Syria after killing of six Turkish nationals when a mortar hit their house allegedly fired by the Syrian forces. Turkey has already deployed its fighter jets and heavy weapons to its border with Syria.
Turkey’s Parliament has also passed a resolution granting permission to its forces to retaliate if there is an aggression or provocation from the other side. Turkey is already hosting 80,000 Syrian refugees on humanitarian grounds. Lebanon is also paying a high price and many of its nationals lost their lives in clashes between supporters and opponents of Bashar Assad.
Jordan is also hosting thousands of Syrian refugees. Brutal killings in Houla by the regime forces and humanitarian crises in Homs, Hama and other cities should have been enough for the world community to act before it’s too late. — Khawaja Umer Farooq, Jeddah
Bloodshed in Syria
