Syrian industry sues Turkey for ‘looting’

DAMASCUS - Agence France-Presse

A Syrian rebel produces mortar shells in Aleppo. Syria’s industry body has filed a case against the Turkey for allegedly sponsoring terrorism.

Syria’s industry body has filed a case in a European court against the Turkey for allegedly sponsoring terrorism and looting factories in strife-torn Syria, a report said yesterday.

The Syrian Chamber of Industry filed the case in an unspecified European country, and accused Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of backing armed gangs against the national interest of Syria, pro-regime daily Al-Watan reported.

“This is a case aimed at asserting our rights, regardless of our political opinion,” Al-Watan quoted the chamber’s President Fares Shehabi as saying. He said that several Syrian unions have signed on to the complaint.

“We have the necessary documents... to prove Erdoğan’s obvious involvement in sponsoring acts of banditry and terrorism.” He said the chamber accuses Erdoğan of contributing to the “transfer of factory (machinery from Aleppo province in northern Syria) to Turkey,” and of “supporting armed gangs who are committing crimes against the national economy.”

In January, Syria accused Turkey of plundering factories in Aleppo, once the country’s commercial hub, and called on the U.N. to help put a stop to what Damascus described as “an illegal act of aggression that amounts to piracy.”