Hmm.. must be something in the muslim water.. bloody dhimwits, eh?
Turkey unveils sanctions on Syria
BEIRUT--Turkey announced wide-ranging sanctions against Syria on Wednesday in response to a continuing military crackdown on protests by the Syrian government.
Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davtoglu unveiled measures including a freeze on Syrian assets within Turkey and a ban on transactions with the Syrian central bank, capping an eight-day stretch when Turkish rhetoric against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has become increasingly critical.
The sanctions by Turkey, one of Syria’s top trading partners, comes as both the Arab League and the European Union enact their own punitive measures--a triple blow that highlights the growing isolation of the government in Damascus and could significantly impact Syria’s economy.
Syria’s trade and business sectors already are suffering from earlier sanctions and months of unrest, with the once-lucrative tourism industry essentially ruined and trade with the EU--to whom Syrian once sold 90 per cent of its crude oil products--down significantly.
On Thursday, the European Union is set to impose the latest in a number of rounds of sanctions, directly impacting Syria’s oil industry and telecommunications sector and targeting a number of individuals in addition to the regime officials already affected.
The 22-nation Arab League announced its own sanctions last weekend. Although those restrictions are likely to be enforced patchily by Arab countries, they began to bite Wednesday, Reuters reported, when the United Arab Emirates said they would suspend commercial flights to Syria beginning next week.
Turkey has, over the last seven years, become a huge trading partner of Syria, and the sudden loss of Turkish business will be a heavy blow to the business sector, particularly in the larger cities and in the northern part of Syria, along the Turkish border.
Since a free trade agreement was signed between the two countries in 2004 as part of an economic liberalization program led by Assad, trade volume has increased from around $750 million annually to $2.2 billion last year, according to the Turkish ministry of foreign affairs.
A key bastion of support for Assad is the merchant classes, who benefited from his economic reforms, and have enjoyed increased quality of life in Damascus and in Aleppo, insulated from high levels of rural poverty, which have worsened after years of drought.
If the weight of EU, Arab and Turkish sanctions impact heavily on the Syrian business community, that support could quickly erode.
Turkey unveils sanctions on Syria - The Washington Post
Turkey unveils sanctions on Syria
BEIRUT--Turkey announced wide-ranging sanctions against Syria on Wednesday in response to a continuing military crackdown on protests by the Syrian government.
Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davtoglu unveiled measures including a freeze on Syrian assets within Turkey and a ban on transactions with the Syrian central bank, capping an eight-day stretch when Turkish rhetoric against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has become increasingly critical.
The sanctions by Turkey, one of Syria’s top trading partners, comes as both the Arab League and the European Union enact their own punitive measures--a triple blow that highlights the growing isolation of the government in Damascus and could significantly impact Syria’s economy.
Syria’s trade and business sectors already are suffering from earlier sanctions and months of unrest, with the once-lucrative tourism industry essentially ruined and trade with the EU--to whom Syrian once sold 90 per cent of its crude oil products--down significantly.
On Thursday, the European Union is set to impose the latest in a number of rounds of sanctions, directly impacting Syria’s oil industry and telecommunications sector and targeting a number of individuals in addition to the regime officials already affected.
The 22-nation Arab League announced its own sanctions last weekend. Although those restrictions are likely to be enforced patchily by Arab countries, they began to bite Wednesday, Reuters reported, when the United Arab Emirates said they would suspend commercial flights to Syria beginning next week.
Turkey has, over the last seven years, become a huge trading partner of Syria, and the sudden loss of Turkish business will be a heavy blow to the business sector, particularly in the larger cities and in the northern part of Syria, along the Turkish border.
Since a free trade agreement was signed between the two countries in 2004 as part of an economic liberalization program led by Assad, trade volume has increased from around $750 million annually to $2.2 billion last year, according to the Turkish ministry of foreign affairs.
A key bastion of support for Assad is the merchant classes, who benefited from his economic reforms, and have enjoyed increased quality of life in Damascus and in Aleppo, insulated from high levels of rural poverty, which have worsened after years of drought.
If the weight of EU, Arab and Turkish sanctions impact heavily on the Syrian business community, that support could quickly erode.
Turkey unveils sanctions on Syria - The Washington Post