Don’t shoot unless targeted, Turkey says

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

A cotainer refugee camp in southeastern Kilis province hosts Syrian refugees. Turkish soldiers are waiting with ‘their hands on the trigger,’ sources say. AA photo

As shots fired by Syrian forces struck a Syrian refugee camp inside Turkey on April 10 evening, Turkish forces patrolling the camps have been told to be cautious but not to shoot unless targeted.

Diplomatic sources said the Turkish troops are waiting with “their hands on the trigger” but are not authorized to shoot unless Syrian forces directly target them, daily Radikal reported yesterday. Turkish forces were also told to confiscate any guns carried by Syrians fleeing to Turkey, and not to allow refugees into the camps with any weapons.

On the evening of April 10, shots fired by Syrian forces hit a Syrian refugee camp just across the border with Turkey, Turkish media reported. Bullets hit a nearby camp of prefabricated buildings without wounding anyone, but causing panic among the refugee population, Agence France-Presse reported.

Bullets also hit a car owned by a Turkish family while they were visiting their relatives in Aleppo, Doğan news agency reported. Neither Burhan Dalkılıç, the car’s owner, nor any of his family members were wounded; they were not in the automobile when it was shot.

Turkey’s EU Minister Egemen Bağış said yesterday that Turkey would not remain silent about the massacre in Syria, the Anatolia news agency reported. The world is going through times when some people can still kill their own people for their personal ambitions and interests and to protect their political position, he said, adding: “We cannot ignore what is going on in Syria right now. The international community and all United Nations member countries should raise their voices to end the attacks on innocent people.”