Reply #1: NYT: Turkey Intensifies Sanctions Against Syrian Regime

[pampango]

Sharply escalating pressure on Syria, Turkey on Wednesday froze financial assets of the Damascus government, imposed a travel ban on senior regime officials and cut off transactions with the country’s central bank in response to continuing violence against civilians.

The sanctions, announced by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Ankara, also included an extensive ban on military sales to Syria and a blockade of weapons deliveries from third countries at Turkey’s land and sea borders with Syria, he said. “Every bullet fired, every bombed mosque has taken away the legitimacy of the Syrian leadership and has widened the gap between us," Mr. Davutoglu said. "Syria has wasted the last chance that it was given."

On Tuesday, Turkish officials said they would consider having their military cross the border to impose a safety zone if the Assad government failed to stop killing citizens demanding democratic change. In that warning, Mr. Davutoglu said that his government was hopeful that an incursion would be unnecessary and that Syria would respond to sanctions imposed Sunday by the Arab League. But the Syrian government has shown no willingness to abide by its neighbors’ demands, declaring the Arab League move “economic war.”

Turkey was once one of Syria’s closest regional allies, and the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was once close to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. But as the political crisis has churned in Syria for months, with government forces killing at least 3,500 demonstrators, according to the United Nations, Turkey has severed its ties, called on Mr. Assad to step down and threatened ever-increasing pressures if the killing does not stop.

Turkey also decided, given that Mr. Assad continues to ignore Arab League calls for peace and political reform, to divert all of its Middle Eastern trade away from routes that traverse Syria, siphoning off yet another source of income for Syria and severing yet another global tie for an increasingly isolated government.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/01/world/middleeast/turkey-intensifies-sanctions-against-syrian-regime.html?_r=1

"a blockade of weapons deliveries from third countries at Turkey’s land and sea borders with Syria" - Russia is Syria's main weapons supplier and is "sending a flotilla of warships to its naval base in Syria" (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/28/us-russia-syria-warships-idUSTRE7AR0S820111128).