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Monday, Jun 25, 2012 1:44 PM UTC

Syrian officers defect

Several Syrian officers and soldiers have crossed over the border to Turkey, according to Turkish media

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Topics: GlobalPost, Middle East, Syria, Human Rights, NATO,

Syrian officers defectSyrians look at a destroyed military tank at the northern town of Ariha, on the outskirts of Idlib, Syria. (AP/Khalil Hamra)
This article originally appeared on GlobalPost.

Several members of Syria’s military have defected and are sheltering in Turkey, Turkish media says.

Global Post

A Syrian general, two colonels, two majors, a lieutenant and around 30 other soldiers crossed the border into Turkey last night, according to state television reports cited by Reuters.

They and their families were reportedly among some 200 people who made their way to Turkey’s southern Hatay province overnight. They have been taken to a refugee camp a few miles inside the border, the BBC said.

Turkey says 12 other Syrian generals have already defected, but according to Reuters, “there has been little indication of any broader trend to desertion in the senior ranks of the armed forces, bound often to Assad by their Alawite background.”

Most defectors so far have been “low-level conscripts,” Al Jazeera said.

One Syrian colonel, one of at least four officers reported to have defected last week, told the network that many more members of the military wanted to join the opposition, but feared violent repercussions for their families.

If other countries were to support a secure “buffer zone” for refugees on the Syria-Turkey border, Abdal Fareed Zakaria said, “in one week you will not see anyone with the regime.”

The latest reported defections come as Turkey prepares to announce how it will respond after Syria shot down one of its military jets. The Turkish cabinet is due to discuss the question today, while NATO will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow, at Turkey’s request.

“No one should try to test the capacity of Turkey,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu wrote on Twitter last night, according to the New York Times. “Turkey has never acted alone concerning Syria. Has always been part of regional and [international] initiatives.”

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