Russia removes military personnel from Syria

Russia has withdrawn all its military personnel from Syria and left its strategic Tartus naval centre unstaffed because of the escalating security threat in the war-torn country, the Vedomosti daily said Wednesday.

The respected business daily cited an unnamed source in the Russian defence ministry as saying that no Russian defence ministry military or civilian personnel were now present in Syria, a Soviet-era ally of Moscow.

The source said the decision was taken to limit the dangers posed to Russians amid a raging civil war and to reduce the threat of political damage that could result from Russians being killed by either side.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov had appeared to confirm the evacuation of military staff in an interview with the London-published Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat published on Friday.

"Today, the Russian defence ministry does not have a single person in Syria," he said.

"In Tartus, we never had a base in the first place. It is a technical facility for maintaining ships sailing in the Mediterranean," he added.

The facility in the Mediterranean port of Tartus, located in the Alawite Muslim heartland region of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, is Russia's only such asset outside the former Soviet Union.

Created as the result of an agreement between Damascus and Moscow in 1971, the Tartus facility was believed in recent months to have been staffed by just a few dozen Russian defence ministry personnel.

Russia always insisted on calling it not a base but a "point of military-technical supply of the Russian Navy". But analysts have always seen its sheer existence as a huge asset for Moscow.

The Vedomosti report said the decision to remove defence ministry personnel did not cover technical experts who are hired by the Syrian government to help train its army use Russian-issued weapons.

Russia supplies ground-to-surface interceptor missiles to Syria as well as warplanes and helicopters and other heavy machinery meant for national self-defence.

Moscow defends its military sales to Syria by arguing that it is only fulfilling contracts signed before the current conflict broke out in March 2011.

Syria represents Russia's last strategic ally in the Middle East and the fall of Assad would deal a significant blow to Moscow's geopolitical aspirations.

Russia now intends to keep between three and five warships permanently stationed in the region as a show of its strategic interest in the Middle East, the Vedomosti report said.

Russia sending three landing ships to Syria base

Russia sent three large landing ships, with soldiers on board, bound for its naval base in Tartus, Syria, reported today Russian news agencies quoted a member of the General Staff.

Each vessel would count up to 120 soldiers. Currently in the Mediterranean Sea, they should arrive in Tartus at the end of this week, according to this source, who did not specify the purpose of this mission. Russia has however said that mid-June it was preparing to send marines in Syria in case it needs to protect its staff and equipment to repatriate its naval maintenance facility.

Russia has a maintenance and repair facility at Tartus, manned by fewer than 100 personnel.

                         

Russia sent three large landing ships, with soldiers on board, bound for its naval base in Tartus, Syria, reported today Russian news agencies quoted a member of the General Staff.

                         The landing ships sent by Moscow are probably Ropucha class (Project 775) tank landing ships.

Designed to sea-lift a landing force and land it on enemy coast, Ropucha class large landing ships are roll on - roll off type vessels with a 540 square meter tank deck extending through the entire length from the bow to the stern ramp.

The ships were produced from 1974 to 1991 in two series: Project 775 (12 ships) and Project 775.III (16 ships).

Basic characteristics:

Displacement (tons): 2,200 tons standard / 3,200 tons full load

Speed (kts): 16-18 knots

Dimensions (m): 112.5 x 15 x 3.7

Endurance: 30 days

Range: 6000 nm at 12 knots

Crew: 98

Military lift: 482 tons, approx 150 troops, 10 tanks with crew

Weapons:

-Strela-3M SAM (32 missiles, 4 launchers)

-2x AK-725 57mm guns or 2x AK-176 76mm guns

-2x 120mm Grad-M artillery launchers (320 rockets)

Turkey V Syria - Not war, but serious enough

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s denouncing of the al-Assad regime in Syria as a visible and present danger to Turkey’s security, “as well as to his own people,” marks an escalation in tension between the two neighbors, following Syria’s downing of a Turkish military reconnaissance plane last week.

Erdoğan said that new rules of engagement for the Turkish Armed Forces had been put into effect and that every military activity on the Turkish border would be interpreted as a threat. This is the highest alert status for border troops, according to military experts talking to the Hürriyet Daily News; Turkish troops now have a license to shoot at will at any military border violation from the Syrian side.

Erdoğan’s denouncement is a reference to the “self-defense” clause (Article 51 of the U.N. Charter) of the United Nations charter, especially when read together with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

This is the second time in recent Turkish history that it has made an unnamed reference to the self-defense clause, and the first one was against Syria too. That was on Oct. 1, 1998 during the opening of the new legislative term of Parliament. Then-Turkish President Süleyman Demirel openly threatened Syria for its harboring of Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). That time, Egypt and Iran intervened and Hafez “Father” al-Assad had to extradite Öcalan on the sixth day. The Turkish army was put on alert that time, too.

This time the situation is a bit different. The al-Assad regime has had trouble within the country for more than a year now, and according to U.N. observers the situation has turned into a civil war. Turkey has already shifted its position against the regime from the beginning, opening its territories not only for refugees but also for the Syrian National Council, the main opposition body, and what is called the Free Syrian Army, the opposition’s military wing that is mainly run by defecting former Syrian military officers. Erdoğan said yesterday that from now on Turkey was going to give every kind of support to the Syrian opposition, without specifically mentioning the supply of weapons.

In addition, Russia, which does not want to lose its only Mediterranean navy and intelligence presence in the Syrian port of Tartus, is backing the Syrian government, despite the open backing Turkey received from NATO yesterday. In a way, it is turning into a proxy war or a small-scale Cold War between the U.S. and Russia.

It is not war yet, but the situation is tense enough. Any violation of the Turkish border by the Syrian military could end up in a hot conflict, in which global partners might be in a position to have to pick sides.