Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan commented on the events in the Syrian city of Latakia and its surroundings. Minister Fidan stated, “We see that the policy that the Syrian government has maintained for weeks without falling into any provocation is being derailed with a provocation.”

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Minister of National Defense Yaşar Güler, and MIT Chief İbrahim Kalın attended a meeting in Amman with the foreign and defense ministers of Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria, along with the chiefs of staff and intelligence. After the meeting, Minister Fidan appeared in front of the cameras and made statements regarding the events in Syria.

Regarding the events in Latakia, Fidan said, “We see that the policy the Syrian government has maintained for weeks without falling into any provocation is being derailed with a provocation.”

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN LATAKIA? The death toll is increasing in the events occurring in Latakia and its surroundings in Syria. According to a statement from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the death toll has exceeded a thousand. It was noted that over 700 of the deceased were civilians killed by close-range shooting. It was announced that 148 pro-Assad elements and 125 personnel from the Syrian government forces were killed in the clashes. The director of the Human Rights Observatory, Rami Abdulrahman, had previously mentioned that the majority of the civilians killed were Alawites. HOW DID THE EVENTS IN LATAKIA BEGIN? It is claimed that the spark that ignited the events in Latakia and its surroundings was an attack by elements of the Assad regime on the security forces. In this attack that took place in the Jableh district of Latakia on March 6, 11 security personnel were killed. Following the attack, the Syrian army dispatched reinforcement units consisting of hundreds of vehicles to Latakia and Tartus. An operation was launched to capture the elements of the Assad regime.