Turkey has a strategy to shelter “terrorist groups that enter Syrian territories, attack civilians and destroy the infrastructure,” Muallem said in a letter addressed to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
He said Turkey was harboring terrorist and turning a blind eye to the attacks they launch across the border to “terrorize civilians at the borders and force them to flee into Turkey so as to create a refugees’ crisis and then request human corridors and a buffer zone be implemented.”
The accusations came in response to Turkey accusing Syria of violating its sovereignty by opening fire across the border at a refugee camp. The Monday shootout left two Syrian nationals dead and some two dozen people wounded, including a Turkish aid worker.
[source : Truce under threat: Clashes near Syrian border with Turkey, Russia Today, http://rt.com/news/syria-border-clashes-blame-965/, 13/04/2012]
This comes after terrorists attacked a checkpoint on the Syria side of the Turkey-Syria border, killed six Syrian military personnel and fled to Turkey to find sanctuary. This follows another report from RT about the FSA operating from Turkey using the refugee camps.
The Syrian army’s pursuit of rebels across the Turkish border has shed light on claims of rebel groups using refugee camps as safe havens. Reports suggest the Free Syrian Army could be treating them as springboards to launch incursions into Syria.
RT correspondent Sara Firth interviewed an anonymous source on the Syrian-Turkish border following the incident, who said that members of the Free Syrian Army were operating in the border region.
“They [Syrian rebels] cross the border, then they walk back again. Maybe the Turkish army finds some and takes them back to the camp, others just come by themselves. A lot of these people work with the Free Syrian Army,” he said.
He added that the Turkish government turns a blind eye to their movements and “lets them go back to fight.”
[source : Syrian rebels ‘using Turkish refugee camps as base’, Russia Today, http://rt.com/news/rebels-refugee-camp-attack-665/, 10/04/2012]
The Guardian confirms that the FSA is operating from Turkey, interviewing several members in a refugee camp in Turkey, one of whom is a child soldier of 13! The report implies that the operation on the day of the interview was to smuggle "medical supplies". But no mention of what happened the days before or was planned for the days after. One interviewee wants NATO assistance. A second interviewee states that neither he or his friends want paying to fight.
On the Turkish-Syria border, in a "safe house", news of a ceasefire spreads desultorily among the small throng of Free Syria Army fighters. Some smoke or drink tea. Others fiddle with laptops and phones, sharing video clips of FSA men roaring their fealty to the cause.
Several of the men are preparing for a night-time mission: to spirit medical supplies across the border into northern Syria. The truce doesn't mean that everything stops. These are soldiers who are convinced they will fight again.
...And young fighters at that. Several are in their teens. Asked if there are any minors in their ranks, they indicate a small figure sitting on a mattress toying with his mobile phone. They call him the "little chicken". He is 13.
...Through the defiance, a weariness shows through. Some have been living on wits and weapons for four or five months. Ahmed for one wants to see Nato intervene to take the pressure off the rebels.
..."Neither me nor any of my friends in the Free Syrian Army want to be paid."
[source : Syrian rebels at Turkish border: 'The revolution is not over', The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/13/syrian-rebels-revolution-not-over, 13/04/2012]
So these FSA fighters don't want paying to fight, just weapons. So we now know that the $100 million donated by Saudi Arabia and Qatar will probably be spent on weapons not "salaries" as implied. But these fighters also want NATO to join in on their side.
These people do not sound like they are giving up their armed fight. And they are on Turkish soil.
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