Military Review English Edition March-April 2014 | Page 46

danger. He warned that Turkey would consider
any military element approaching the border from
Syria a threat and treat it as a military target. On
24 June, Turkey invoked Article 4 of the NATO
charter, which allows consultations with allies if a
member considers its security to be under threat.
The NATO meeting took place on 26 June 2012 in
Brussels, where the alliance expressed solidarity
with Turkey.
The situation was significant in several ways. In
addition to escalating the conflict to a regional level,
it also put the crisis on NATO’s agenda. Turkey’s
activation of NATO marked a new phase in a crisis
that had so far focused on U.N. diplomacy.

Border Security
The number of refugees living in camps along
the Turkish side of the Syrian border has increased
from 500,000 late in 2012 to over 600,000 early
in 2014. Small border violations started occurring
in April 2012 when Syrian forces attacked one of
these refugee camps, killing two Syrian refugees
and wounding two Turks. Over time, fighting
between the FSA and Assad reached the TurkishSyria border. FSA forces captured several Syrian
border posts, but Assad’s forces continued to fight
back with bombs. The Turkish Army sent troops,
armored personnel carriers, and missile batteries
to the Syrian border to strengthen its defenses. In
mid-July 2012, Bab al-Hawa, an important border
crossing, fell into Syrian rebels’ hands and rapidly
became a jihadist gathering point. Tourism in
the region quickly vanished, hurting many local
businesses.
The border violations continued through fall
2012. On 3 October 2012, mortar fire from Syria
hit the Turkish town of Akçakale, killing five
Turkish citizens (two women and three children).
The Turkish Armed Forces responded swiftly
and sharply, shelling Syrian tanks and armored
vehicles, leading to six days of exchanged artillery
fire. The Turkish parliament passed a bill authorizing the government to send troops to Syria if
necessary. This was followed by an incident on
12 November 2012, when Syrian warplanes hit
opposition targets less than a quarter mile from
the Turkish border, prompting Turkish F-16s to
be dispatched to the area on a reconnaissance and
patrol mission. The planes were armed and the
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pilots were instructed to hit Syrian planes if there
was any border violation.
On 21 November 2012, Turkey officially applied
to NATO for the deployment of Patriot surfaceto-air missile systems on its border with Syria;
they were deployed in early February 2013. The
Netherlands, Germany, and the United States
provided the advanced PAC-3 model missiles
that Turkey needed to intercept ballistic missiles,
and they were stationed about 60 miles north of
the border.3 Both Iran and Russia criticized the
deployment and made statements that this was
not a deterrent but a provocation or an excuse for
NATO to be in the region. A high-ranking Iranian
military official commented that this move would
lay the groundwork for a world war.4
The greatest damage to Turkish life was the terrorist attack on 11 May 2013. This was the largest
terrorist attack in Turkey since the 2003 al-Qaida
attacks in Istanbul. Twin car bomb attacks struck
Reyhanlı, a city near Turkey’s Syria border where
many Syrian refugees had sought refuge, killing over
50 and injuring hundreds of Turkish citizens. Turkish
officials believed the perpetrators were connected
to Syria’s intelligence agency, linked to the Assad
regime, and had conducted the attack in response to
Turkey’s Syria policy. The incident also had domestic
implications. It created an uproar in Turkey, with
many criticizing the Turkish government’s Syria
policy and claiming that policy had led to the attack.5

Northern Syria = Western
Kurdistan?
An important aspect of the crisis that directly
affects Turkey is the potential formation of an
autonomous Kurdish region in Syria, adjacent to
the one in Iraq. Turkey has long feared that such
a scenario would embolden efforts for Kurdish
autonomy in Turkey or lead to similar territorial
claims among its own Kurds. The Kurds in Syria
are organizing themselves and trying to establish their own region. Turkey perceives this as a
threat to its territorial integrity, given that almost
half of the estimated Kurdish population of 30
million lives in Turkey. Therefore, the Turkish
government’s position regarding Syria has been
that the regime should go, but Syrian unity should
be preserved. Turkey does not want to see Syria
fragmented along ethnic lines.6
March-April 2014

MILITARY REVIEW