Tensions rise between Syria and Turkey

Tension has been escalated between Turkey and Syria because of the Kurdistan Labor Party question. The Turkish president Suleman Demirel threatened Syria and pledged to take revenge on what he claimed Syrian support for the Kurds revolutionaries. "Our patient has elapsed" he said.

While, the Turkish dailies said that more than 10,000 Turkish soldiers were dispatched to the borders with Syria, the Turkish Defense Minister Esmat Sezgin denied such news. However, an official at the Turkish intelligence said the army is sending new military armored vehicles to the borders to replace the old ones. But he did not explain the reason of the exchange operation at the meantime.

The Turkish national security council, on the other hand discussed the military, political and economic measures which Ankara will take against Syria. The Turkish campaign falls in the course of the Turkish campaign against Syria under the criticism made by Damascus against the increased military cooperation between Turkey and Israel and the minimized water flow permitted by the Turkish authorities from the waters of the Euphrates.

Ankara accuses Syria of giving logistic support to the Kurdistani Labor Party and of giving a shelter for its leader Abdullah Auj in the Syrian territories or in the Lebanese Bekaa plain.

Damascus denies the Turkish accusation and blames Ankara for minimizing the water flow of the Euphrates by building dams on the river which springs from Turkey before it crosses the borders to Syria. Damascus, in addition, denounces the military cooperation between Ankara and Israel and viewed it as directed against its interests.