Syrians Fleeing ISIL Allowed To Cross Into Turkey

Turkish troops on the border with Syria allowed Syrian Kurds fleeing advances by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to cross into Turkey after skirmishes with locals on the Turkish side of the border who wanted to help the displaced.

The troops did not allow the thousands of Syrian Kurds to cross when they began to gather on the Syrian side of the border on Thursday. Of about 3,000 people, most reluctantly returned to the villages they had left after they were denied permission to cross into Turkey that night, but many came back in the morning amid continued ISIL attacks.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said the government preferred that the Syrians receive help on the Syrian side of the border but that Turkey was ready to help in other ways if that is not possible.

He said some 4,000 people arrived at the border on Friday morning, prompting him to order the authorities to let them in. "Because this is a development that unfolded very fast, authorities are trying to get organized as quickly as possible [to provide shelter]," he told reporters in Azerbaijan, where he is on an official visit. "We will allow in all [seeking refuge in Turkey], regardless of their ethnicity or sect. ...This period will go down in history as a golden era for us."

Davutoğlu said late on Thursday that the governors of border provinces in Turkey had been ordered to extend aid to refugees on the Syrian side of the border. "We're ready to help our brothers who are gathering along the border regardless of their ethnicity, religion and sect. But our priority is to deliver aid within Syria's borders," he then told reporters in Ankara.

Private broadcaster NTV said the Syrians were being taken to a nearby school as a temporary shelter after crossing into Turkey.

News repors said that skirmishes between troops and locals erupted prior to the opening of the border, with locals throwing stones at the troops in protest of their refusal to let the Syrians pass and the troops using tear gas and water canon to disperse the crowd. A man speaking to NTV said most people waiting on the other side of the border are relatives of the residents of the Turkish village of Dikmetaş, 20 kilometers from the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane (Ayn al-Arab in Arabic).

A woman on the Syrian side was injured when she stepped on a mine amid scuffles, NTV also reported. The woman was taken to a hospital in Turkey right before troops allowed thousands of the Syrian Kurds to cross onto the Turkish side.

Many were seen too tired to walk, sitting on the ground to rest as soon as they were let onto Turkish soil.

Turkish troops had initially refused to let the Syrians in, telling them instead to go to Kobane, a town controlled by the Syrian-Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

The Syrians did not want to go to Kobane because of fears they will be required to fight ISIL militants, since all men except the elderly must join the forces fighting to defend Kobane, the private Doğan news agency said.

Turkish military had earlier stepped up security measures along the border, with ISIL attacks on the Syrian side continuing. Doğan said the number of troops patrolling the border has been increased and armored military vehicles have been deployed close to it. Military reinforcements, including troops and military vehicles, have also been sent to some districts of the border province of Şanlıurfa.

ISIL's attacks in the area are part of the terrorist group's efforts to establish control over a belt of territory near the border with Turkey, expanding out of its strongholds further east in the provinces of Raqqa and Deir al-Zor, which borders Iraq.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a terrorist group that the PYD has links with, called on Thursday for the youth of Turkey's mostly Kurdish Southeast to join the fight against ISIL to defend Kobane.

Speaking to Reuters, Redur Xelil, spokesman for the PYD's armed wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG), said ISIL had encircled Kobane.
The group was using tanks, rockets and artillery in the attack. "We call on world powers to move to halt this barbaric assault by ISIS," he told Reuters via Skype, using another acronym for terrorist group ISIL.

SHOTLIST
TURKEY, ŞANLIURFA, 19 SEP 2014

VAR of the Turkish security forces allow Syrians to enter Turkey
Dozens of Syrins pass into Turkey
Security forces at the scene
Women and children carrying their goods
Crying little children
Turkish soldiers help Syrian refugees
Barbed wires on the borderline
Soldiers give water to children

DURATION: 04:13