Syrian activists claimed that there was a rare, small protest in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Wednesday. As my colleagues Sebnem Arsu and Katherine Zoepf report, activists pointed to video posted on YouTube that appeared to show protesters on a street in the well-to-do district of Sha’alan, an area with fashionable stores and food stalls.
Razan Zeitouneh, a Syrian human rights lawyer, told The Times that the protest drew “about 300? people in what she called the largest protest to date “in the heart of Damascus, in such wealthy area in Damascus.”
Two colleagues who have lived in Damascus agreed that video clips posted on two YouTube channels, both said to show Wednesday’s demonstration, appear to have been filmed in the city’s Sha’alan district.
• Libya: Pro-Gaddafi forces have launched a fierce attack on the area around Misrata, western Libya, inflicting heavy rebel casualties, and killing up to 22 people (see 12.48pm). Norway has announced it will withdraw from the Nato operation against Gaddafi by 1 August (see 3.12pm).
• Syria: Government forces seem to have begun their attack on Jisr al-Shughour, in north-western Syria near the Turkish border (see 12.13pm). There have been accusations of Iranian involvement in the Syrian attack (see 2.18pm). There has been a large rally in Damascus, where three protesters have reportedly been killed (see 3.19pm). Two protesters have reportedly been shot dead in Busra al-Harir, while scores were injured when troops fired on demonstrators in Deraa (see 12.46pm). Syria's ally, the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has condemned Damascus's crackdown on protesters as "inhumane" (see 11.21am). Robert Gates, the outgoing US defence secretary, has accused Assad of slaughtering innocent civilians (see 2.48pm).
• Israel: Diplomats have been told to do everything they can to prevent the UN recognising Palestine as an independent state in September (see 12pm and 2.46pm).
4.58pm: Another vast anti-government demonstration took place in the Yemeni capital Sana'a today, according to this footage. Significantly the film appears to have been taken with the apparent permission of a soldier standing by surveying the scene from his machine-gun turret.
Court rules to arrest one more Turkish officer on coup charges 10 June 2011, Friday / TODAYSZAMAN.COM,
Gen. Balanli was arrested last month.
One more Turkish military officer was arrested on Friday as part of an ongoing investigation into newly seized documents concerning the suspected Sledgehammer coup plot.
Four active duty military officers testified on Friday to the Istanbul prosecutor overseeing the investigation, with the prosecutor referring three of them to court for arrest.
A colonel, a captain and two lieutenant colonels arrived at the Besiktas Courthouse early on Friday and testified to Istanbul specially authorized prosecutor Hüseyin Ayar over the documents. The Istanbul 12th High Criminal Court ruled to arrest the colonel while releasing the two lieutenant colonels and the captain.
The documents in question were seized in the Eskisehir home of retired Col. Hakan Büyük during a police search in February. After a detailed examination of the documents, the Istanbul Police Department concluded that their contents support the Sledgehammer coup plan. The documents include copies of Sledgehammer as well as copies of the Oraj and Suga plans, both sub-plans in the Sledgehammer plot.
A total of 15 individuals, including War Academies Commander Gen. Bilgin Balanli and Air Force Academies Commander Maj. Gen. Ismail Tas, were arrested earlier as part of the probe into the documents seized in Eskisehir. However, one day after his arrest, Balanli was hospitalized at the Gülhane Military Academy of Medicine (GATA) due to high blood pressure.
Sledgehammer is a suspected coup plot believed to have been devised in 2003 with the aim to unseat the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government through violent acts. According to the Sledgehammer plan, the military was to systematically foment chaos in society through violent acts, among which were planned bomb attacks on the Fatih and Beyazit mosques in Istanbul. http://www.todayszaman.com/news-246847-court-rules-to-arrest-one-more-turkish-officer-on-coup-charges.html
See also .. Top Struggles in the Arab Spring Today Syria is important to the US as a major country abutting the Eastern Mediterranean, neighboring NATO ally Turkey, as well as non-NATO allies Jordan and Israel. It also shares a border with Lebanon and with Iraq. It is central to the Palestinian-Israeli struggle and had been part of Turkey’s hopes for a big expansion of regional trade in the Middle East. The Damascus regime is allied with Iran and so is on the wrong side of the geopolitical divide in the region from an American, Israeli and Saudi point of view. The one-party, authoritarian Baath Party has ruled with an iron fist for decades. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63840200
Grantbud asked about President Bashar's tactics and whether he could use events in Syria as an opportunity to push through his own reforms:
"From my understanding, Bashar is relatively popular in Syria, especially compared with the rest of the people in the regime. I'm curious why Bashar wouldn't use this opportunity to enact reforms that would leave him personally in power (and greatly popular), but would let him flush out some internal (factional) threats to his power that inevitably comes with one party states?" .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63999798
Chuckle .. ow! .. closer to home in sort of a right-left, right wrong role reversal ..
Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has lashed out at the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, warning him that Syria's future 'can't be built on the blood of the oppressed'. It's the latest sign that the Syrian regime is fast losing regional support.
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