Ansamed

(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, NOVEMBER 15 - The sanctions announced by Turkey against Syria are more symbolic than substantial, but are nonetheless aimed at hurting the pockets of Bashar al Assad's family members. Turkey has been enraged by the attacks by regime supporters on its diplomatic representations in Syria and the sanctions are against the Damascus regime's bloody suppression of popular revolt. The measures include a freezing of joint oil drilling operations and they do not rule out the cutting of electricity supplies to the country. Turkey's Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned his former friend, Syrian President Assad: you are approaching a "precipice". While Erdogan was calling for a more substantial apology than the one muttered over Saturday's attacks on the Turkish Embassy in Damascus and on the country's consulates in Aleppo and Latakya, his Energy Minister, Taner Yildiz, announced that Turkey had halted oil explorations in six wells managed by Turkey's state-run company TPAO alongside its Syrian counterpart.

Back at the beginning of October, leaks in the press indicated that Ankara would be aiming at the banking and energy sectors in the package of sanctions it had been drawing up with the USA over the previous two weeks. This had included the suspension of joint gas and oil explorations - a sanction carefully directed at a sector in which Chinese and Russian interest is high and the family of Al Assad and his regime elite have vested interests.

The Minister also spoke of revising the accords stipulated in 2006 for supplying electricity to Syria. However, the Minister warned that this option would be made by the Premier. And so it is not certain that it will come to such a cut, especially as Turkey's Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, in confirming that his country was ready to impose "the most effective sanctions" on Syria following "consultations" with the Arab League, went on to say that the measures should "have an impact that avoids affecting the Syrian population". Given that Syria itself produces more electricity than it consumes, and that it draws supplies from Jordan and Lebanon as well, this sanction would have more of a political than a material impact on the population.

Since August, Ankara has been enacting an arms embargo on Syria and has already cancelled a planned banking collaboration with Damascus. And while the papers speak of Turkish plans to create a 'buffer zone' on the Syrian border, Erdogan has once again admonished Assad: "The government of Damascus is on a very dangerous and narrow path, as narrow as the blade of a knife," the Turkish Premier said, stating further that it is "our common desire that it should turn back from this path which is leading it to a precipice". This wish seems a vain one, however, to the Premier's own entourage: Foreign Minister Davutoglu has claimed that Damascus has already missed its "last chance" for putting an end to the violent repression of anti-regime protests.

(ANSAmed).