Turkish army awaits orders to launch a military act against Syria

Two Turkish dailies today quoted Turkish Prime Minister Mesout Yilmaz as saying that the Turkish Army awaits orders to carry out a military act against Syria.

However, AFP reported that no Turkish official confirmation was made from the office of Yilmaz for such a statement, which was quoted by two well-known Turkish papers Malleit and Hurriet while Yilmaz was on board of a plane from Ankara to Istanbul.

AFP quoted Yilmaz as saying to journalists that " Syria is persistent to proceed with its policy in support of the Kurdistan Workers Party. Thereby, it will always be on the agenda of the Turkish national security council."

On Wednesday, the council, considered the highest military political commission in the country, discussed a series of economic, political and military sanctions against Syria.

In a speech he delivered marking the beginning of the new session of the Turkish Parliament, the President Suleiman Demirel said on Thursday: "We preserve our right to repel Syria, which does not give up its aggressive stand against Turkey despite our peaceful initiatives and repeated warnings."

Meanwhile, the Turkish daily Hurreit said today that the Turkish military leaders are embarking on studying the possibility of establishing an area on the Syrian borders for intervention or temporary invasion.

In its editorial today, the paper said that at a time when the Turkish President Suleiman Demirel warned Syria through his speech Thursday at the parliament, several army leaders were holding a very important meeting at the headquarters of the army leadership in which they studied taking necessary measures along the Syrian-Turkish borders, in addition to other measures aimed at obstructing Greek support for Syria in case a hot confrontation takes place between Syria and Turkey.

The paper added that the Turkish military and army leaders concentrated on means of creating a situation in Syria similar to that in northern Iraq, so it can carry out provisional military acts beyond the Turkish border.