After Syria suspended a free-trade agreement with Ankara, Turkey announced a 30% tariff on goods from Syria, and Syria promptly followed suit, Bloomsberg Businessweek reported Wednesday.[1] -- Turkey has been Syria's fifth-largest trading partner in recent years, with their annual trade exceeding two billion euros. -- Ankara is establishing new sea routes to Egypt and Lebanon and is opening different road links for transporting goods through Iraq according to Turkey's economy minister, who said: "It’s very easy for us to bypass Syria." -- Even Hamas, long a beneficiary of support from Syria, is "quietly dismantling its presence in Syria," the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.[2] -- Meanwhile, "Istanbul . . . has become a staging ground to shape Syria’s future with various Syrian opposition groups using the city as a base to coordinate activities inside Syria," Beirut's Daily Star reported Thursday.[3] -- Yet an ABC News reporter who accompanied Barbara Walters to Damascus reported that things seem "normal" in the Syrian capital, where the Syrian president appears to be "calm and confident," but where his word seems to count for little.[4] ...
1.
TURKEY LEVIES 30% TAX ON SYRIAN GOODS AS AL-ASSAD FREEZES TRADE
By Emre Peker
Bloomberg Businessweek
December 7, 2011
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-07/turkey-levies-30-tax-on-syrian-goods-as-al-assad-freezes-trade.html
Turkey will levy taxes of about 30 percent tax on Syrian goods after President Bashar al-Assad suspended a free-trade agreement and imposed taxes on Turkish exports, Customs & Trade Minister Hayati Yazici said.
Another measure barring Syrian vehicles that are 20 years and older from entering Turkey and alternative transit routes to enable Turkish exporters from bypassing its southern neighbor add to efforts targeting Syria’s economy, Yazici told reporters in Ankara today, according to state-run Anatolia news agency.
Relations with Turkey, Syria’s fifth-biggest trading partner and export market, have been deteriorating since August, when Assad failed to take steps he agreed to with Turkey to end his crackdown on dissent, which the United Nations said has cost more than 4,000 lives since mid-March. Since then, Turkey has halted joint energy exploration, joined the Arab League’s sanctions against its once-close ally, threatened to expand embargoes and started shipping routes to Egypt and Lebanon to circumvent Syria, which had been blocking Turkish trucks.
“They are sawing off the branch they’re sitting on,” Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan told reporters in televised remarks from Istanbul. “These aren’t moves that a country with such a need for cash and a seriously pressured economy should be making.”
Syria has responded to Turkish measures in kind, imposing a 30 percent tax on imports from Turkey last week, the state-run Syrian Arab news agency reported.
Turkish exports to Syria last year amounted to 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion) and imports were 460 million euros, or 4.1 percent of all Syrian exports, according to trade data from the European Union, the Arab country’s biggest trading partner.
DROPPING TRADE
Trade between Turkey and Syria through November contracted 8 percent from a year earlier, Caglayan said on Dec. 4, according Anatolia.
Assad’s government also doubled transit fees to $800 for goods headed to Syria and to $1,400 for exports designated to Lebanon, the news agency reported, citing Mustafa Yilmaz, an executive board member at the country’s International Transporters’ Association in Istanbul. Yilmaz told Anatolia that Turkish trucks weren’t allowed entry for five days and that Syria also increased fuel prices for transporters from Turkey.
Syria started letting in Turkish trucks that had been denied entry as Turkey established new sea routes to Egypt and Lebanon and opened more road links for the transport of goods via Iraq, Caglayan said.
“It’s very easy for us to bypass Syria,” said the economy minister, who is responsible for foreign trade. He warned that Turkey would respond “in multitudes” to any threat to its interests.
Syria regrets the developments in its relations with Turkey, Jihad Makdissi, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters today in remarks televised from Damascus.
--Editor: Jennifer M. Freedman. To contact the reporter on this story: Emre Peker in Ankara at
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2.
World now
HAMAS REDUCES ITS PRESENCE IN SYRIA AMID VIOLENCE
Los Angeles Times
December 7, 2011
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/12/hamas-reduces-its-presence-in-syria-amid-violence.html
JERUSALEM -- The Palestinian militant group Hamas has moved the families of some of its members out of its Damascus headquarters and back to the Gaza Strip.
The relocation triggered renewed rumors that Hamas is under pressure to abandon its exile base in Syria, where President Bashar Assad -- a benefactor of the group -- is struggling to retain control of the country amid a popular uprising.
Hamas officials have repeatedly denied reports that they are searching for a new base in another Arab country, including Jordan, Egypt, and Qatar. But observers say the group has been quietly dismantling its presence in Syria for months because of the instability there.
A Hamas spokesman confirmed that some Hamas family members had returned to Gaza in recent days, but said the move was temporary, triggered by the increasing insecurity in Syria. He said Hamas decided to evacuate nonessential staff and their families as a precaution.
3.
Middle East
SYRIANS IN TURKEY EYE UNCERTAIN FUTURE
By Justin Vela
Daily Star
December 8, 2011
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Dec-08/156280-syrians-in-turkey-eye-uncertain-future.ashx#axzz1fuqbDUgE
ISTANBUL -- Normally, Issa does not like big cities such as Istanbul. But conditions are anything but normal in his native Syria, where Bashar Assad’s forces continue a brutal nine-month crackdown on opposition that has left over 4,000 people dead, according to the latest United Nations estimates.
Issa -- who did not wish to give his full name for fear of reprisals against himself or his family -- arrived in Istanbul in August having fled Syria after attending three opposition demonstrations in Damascus and transporting an injured protester to safety after he was hit by a tear gas canister.
Issa, who had previously worked as an Arabic teacher for foreigners in Damascus said there was no longer any work in Syria with the exodus of foreign language students.
After searching for employment in Turkey’s vast unofficial economy, he eventually began to build up a pool of students to teach Arabic and rented a room in Istanbul.
“There are many, many Syrians here, moving around [in Istanbul], he said. “Some leave because they can’t find jobs here, and don’t speak Turkish,” Issa added.
For Syrians such as Issa, Istanbul is merely an escape.
For others, the city has become a staging ground to shape Syria’s future with various Syrian opposition groups using the city as a base to coordinate activities inside Syria.
Most Syrians contacted for this article declined interview requests, citing security concerns.
Many were in Istanbul without government permission and did want their activities described.
But three Syrian men described their frustration following the news of violence in Syria and concern for their families there.
“We don’t really feel like we are outside because all our families are inside [Syria],” said Bekes-who had lived in Istanbul for six years.
Yilmaz Saeed, one of the few Kurdish members of the Syrian National Council, an umbrella civilian opposition organization based in Paris, said he is concerned about the lack of discussion over the future of minorities in a post-Assad Syria.
“The future of Syria does not guarantee the [rights of] minorities,” he said, describing how he was trying to advance the Kurdish voice in the SNC.
“We could come back to the same point, it could be the same.”
Another Kurd, a businessman named Bahzad, added that while Syrians were “everywhere” in Istanbul, Syrian Kurds faced more difficulties than Arabs.
“The Turkish government really has a problem with Kurds,” according to Bahzad.
Only Saeed said he planned to return. “Most of Syria is still quiet. When is Damascus and Aleppo going to join?” he asked.
“The Kurds joined on the first day, the Kurds actually started protesting in 2004. The Syrian revolution started in 2004. The others did not join [then], it was only the Kurds.”
The influx has some worried that the unrest next door is spilling over the border.
“Damascus is already in Istanbul,” wrote Kerim Balci, a columnist at the Turkey’s daily Today’s Zaman, following a Nov. 30 shooting inside the Topkapi Palace -- a popular Istanbul tourist destination -- by a Libyan gunman allegedly driving a car with Syrian license plates on the same day that Ankara announced that was slapping sanctions on Damascus.
“Turkey is in the Middle East . . . The artificiality of the political borders in this region holds, not only for the political authorities, but also for social and economic problems. A prolonged social unrest in Syria will certainly have repercussions for Turkey,” Balci added.
While he felt generally accepted by the Turks, Issa claimed that most had little understanding of the events taking place in Syria.
“The Turks do not seem to have a very good idea what’s going on,” he said. “They are always just asking about [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan. They give me the thumbs and say, ‘Erdogan or Assad?’”
Still, Istanbul is a fresh start for him. He has begun sending some money back to his family who does not support the regime, but are too scared to join demonstrations. They stay inside their house, he said.
His father no longer has work and their savings are running out.
But now he faces a new challenge: His passport will soon expire and other Syrians have warned him against going to the Syrian Consulate to have it renewed.
“They will keep an eye on me [if I go there],” he said. “What I am doing … and if I am against the regime, they will do something against my family. That’s not just in Istanbul, it’s all of Europe.”
4.
INSIDE SYRIA: AN ANCIENT COUNTRY AND A MODERN DICTATOR
By Tom Nagorski
ABC News
December 7, 2011
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/12/inside-syria-an-ancient-country-and-a-modern-dictator/
A reporter’s notebook:
The first impression was simple, as obvious as the chill in the Damascus air: *Things seem normal here*.
We all felt it. Certainly we had known Damascus wasn’t a focal point of the Syrian uprising, and thus had seen nothing like the brutal crackdowns carried out in Homs and other smaller cities. Still, some diplomats and security experts had warned of tensions and possible unrest; one had advised us to “keep as low a profile as possible.”
And we had felt a new anxiety when our evening Royal Jordanian flight from Amman was cancelled, and an apologetic airline official explained that his crews were no longer overnighting in the Syrian capital. “It’s because of the situation,” he said.
So it was odd to find a nearly full flight the next morning, and then to drive from Damascus Airport and find the ancient city bustling and busy, absent demonstrations or checkpoints or other outward signs of a city under siege. Especially odd, knowing that a short drive away, violence was now almost a part of daily life.
Later, we visited generously stocked market stalls, meat, fish, and produce piled high and plenty of customers choosing their goods. Far fewer people seemed to be buying in the covered alleys of the old souk, but here it was crowded too. And across Damascus, traffic moved in its usual noisy, near-miss way.
As we walked and drove around the city, I thought of two other Arab capitals, and tense times nearly a generation apart. I had been in Baghdad in 1990, after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait and before the United States and its allies (including, then, Hafez el-Assad’s Syria) had begun the first Gulf War. That had been a city under siege, tense and frightened, security all around.
I thought also of the earliest days of Egypt’s uprising, nearly a year ago. I hadn’t been in Cairo then, but colleagues had described something like the disconnect we felt now, in Syria: Tahrir Square had been teeming and tense, while the rest of the capital went on about its business. Of course, that teeming square had quickly spread its message, and unrest. Less than a month after the Egyptian protests began, Hosni Mubarak was gone.
It’s hard to imagine the same chaos and upheaval coming to Damascus. But, then again, when you look at the circumstances -- the growing anger of the protest movement, the militarizing of some of Bashar al-Assad’s enemies and the international community’s near-total isolation of Syria -- it’s also hard to see a peaceful way out of the crisis.
Which brings me to a second impression, more jarring than the first.
When you think “dictator,” the mild, soft-spoken and occasionally even goofy mannerisms of Bashar al-Assad just aren’t what come to mind. Again, we knew this to some extent, having watched his televised appearances over the years (Barbara Walters had met with him twice before). But after we met the man at the Presidential Palace, and then listened as he sparred with Walters for nearly an hour, I couldn’t help thinking: This is the author of the region’s most brutal crackdown? This is the leader of the nation a United Nations report blames for the killing and torture of innocent civilians, including more than 300 children?
Where, I thought, was the steely look, the arrogance, the intimidating gesture? Assad didn’t even have a particularly firm handshake. In the interview he chuckled occasionally, and apologized when he misspoke or misunderstood a word (“my English is doctor’s English, political English,” he told Walters). Personality-wise, there’s no Saddam or Gadhafi here. Not even a Hosni Mubarak.
Of course, a leader’s personality doesn’t matter much, certainly not to a protester taken out in cold blood, or a family whose sons have disappeared in the regime’s jails. Assad concedes mistakes -- “When you don’t prepare yourself for a new situation, you are going to make mistakes,” he told Walters -- and acknowledges that innocents have died and that his security forces overreached. But these, he insists, were the failings of “individuals,” not the regime.
That same U.N. report found credible evidence that the regime gave shoot-to-kill orders to the security forces, but Assad says otherwise. “We don’t kill our people,” he said. “No government in the world kills its people, unless it’s led by a crazy person.”
So who fired the bullets that took all those lives, more than 4,000 now, by various counts? What galls the Syrian opposition as much as the carnage itself is the fact that almost no one has been held accountable for the killings. Assad told us investigations were under way into all those “mistakes,” but as one European diplomat in Damascus said, this is a regime famous for rounding up suspects swiftly, with brutal consequences. The idea that such investigations remained unsolved, eight or nine months after the crimes were committed, strains belief.
I had the same reaction to another claim Assad made, another statement delivered in breezy fashion. When he said the majority of violence was now being committed against Syrian military and security forces, Walters asked whether journalists were free to travel the country to see for themselves. “Did anyone tell you where to go or where not to go? Nobody,” Assad told Walters. “You are free to go wherever you want.”
She pressed, saying she meant an open door for reporters generally. Again, he said, there would be no problem. Like most foreign editors, I have spent nearly nine months trying to obtain visas for our correspondents, to no avail.
After the interview, I tested the pledge. Our Middle East correspondent was in Damascus with the group, all of us in the company of government minders. Surely, I said to one of Assad’s top aides, given the president’s pledge, our reporter could now travel outside the capital?
The better part of the day was spent in a back and forth that reminded me of similar haggling in Moscow, in Cold War days. Yes, he could go; no, it would be better another time, on another visit; yes, he could go, but not tomorrow and not just anywhere. It was like Assad’s position on allowing Arab League monitors into his country: Yes, but…
Our reporter Alex Marquardt traveled to Dael and Deraa, where the uprising was born, and found, as he put it, “Not only would our team not be allowed to travel to Dael, but our car would be joined by eight others full of uniformed and plainclothes police, as well as Syrian state media, which filmed and photographed us all day.”
Much of the Assad interview went this way, convincing-sounding statements that seemed dubious at best. Syria wasn’t really isolated, Assad said; the defections in his armed forces weren’t much beyond the usual attrition rates; he hadn’t seen the U.N. report, nor some of the most brutal of the crackdown stories, and anyway, the U.N. wasn’t a “credible institution.”
And yet, sitting there, you felt the man believed much or most of what he was saying. So is Bashar al-Assad naïve? Hard to imagine. A good actor? Maybe. Or is he a firm believer in the brutal ways of his father, who just happened to fit the dictator mold more neatly?
Again, in the end, it might not matter. While we were in Syria, dozens more people, on both sides, were killed. More sanctions went into effect. Syria devalued its already-battled currency. And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced she would meet with members of the Syrian opposition in Europe.
Calm and confident as Assad is, quiet and business-as-usual as his capital seems, we also couldn’t stop wondering, as our plane lifted off from Damascus, whether a nasty future lies ahead, for that ancient city and its modern dictator.
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