11/30/11 Turkey Moves to Intensify Sanctions Against Syria (New York Times)

Turkey Moves to Intensify Sanctions Against Syria

By DAN BILEFSKY and ANTHONY SHADID

Published: November 30, 2011

The article starts very briefly:

Turkey took steps on Wednesday to freeze the Syrian government’s financial assets, impose a travel ban on senior Syrian officials and cut off transactions with the country’s central bank, sharply escalating international pressure on Damascus in response to its continuing violence against civilians.

Turkish officials said that the latest measures were enacted to follow the Arab League that imposed broad trade sanctions and are part of a developing international effort to strangle Syria's economy and diminish the power of Syrian government.

The Arab League published a list of 17 senior Syrian officials who could face a ban on travel to other Arab countries. The officials include the ministers of defense and interior.

European, American Turkish officials all said:

they believed Syria’s economic troubles could prove the undoing of Mr. Assad, who to date has managed to maintain the allegiance of Syria’s business elite.

The economic sanctions would be a big damage to Syria.

The European Union and the United States were the first to impose penalties, and European sanctions, in particular, harmed Syria’s oil industry, which once contributed as much as a third of the government’s revenue. Though Europe is Syria’s biggest overall trading partner, Turkey and Arab states make up four of its next five biggest, and the Syrian leadership, along with those tied to it, has large investments in the Persian Gulf.

 There's another thing that Turkey decided:

Turkey also decided, given that Mr. Assad continues to ignore the Arab League’s 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 an increasingly isolated government.

11/25/11 Syria Lets Arab League Deadline on Observers Pass (New York Times)

Syria Lets Arab League Deadline on Observers Pass

By NADA BAKRI

Published: November 25, 2011

Syria ignored an Arab league deadline to accept observers to oversee a peace deal to end the bloodshed that has been lasting more than eight months.

Arab League official said:

if the government of President Bashar al-Assad failed to agree by Friday to sign a protocol detailing the mission of the observers, Arab finance ministers would meet Saturday in Cairo to discuss imposing sanctions that could include halting flights to Syria, curbing trade and stopping transactions with the country’s central bank. (New York Times)

 The new sanctions would deal a severe blow to an economy that is already suffering under the European Union's and the United States's.

Turkey said that its foreign minister would hold talks with foreign ministers from Arab nations in Cairo to discuss Syria's failure to admit several hundred military and civilian observers.

The United Nations estimated that at least 3,500 people have been killed since mid-March in the government's crackdown.

11/7/11 Syria Unleashes Assault to Take an Unbowed City (New York TImes)

Syria Unleashes Assault to Take an Unbowed City

By ANTHONY SHADID

Published: November 7, 2011

The Syrian government has started a cruel assault to retake Homs, which is "Unbowed City" and which is the third largest city in the country. The government faces defectors who have prevented the government from seizing the city. The right side is the map (from New York Times).

The specter of civil war

has long hung over Homs, the most tenacious and determined of cities opposed to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule, where the city’s Sunni Muslim majority has closed ranks behind the revolt. This month, parts of the city have become an urban battlefield, with activists saying government forces have killed 111 people in just five days, opposition groups warning of dire shortages forced by the siege and residents complaining of lawlessness by marauding soldiers and paramilitary fighters. (New York Times)

The article provides more details about the background of  the civil war:

In some ways, Homs is a microcosm of Syria, with a Sunni Muslim majority and minorities of Christians and Alawites, a heterodox Muslim sect from which Mr. Assad draws much of his top leadership. Unlike the countryside, where sectarian tension runs deeper, Homs managed to rely on established ties between communities.

But in the past months, those relationships have frayed. While residents say many Christians have tried to remain on the sidelines, tensions have deepened between Sunnis and Alawites, as the most severe challenge to four decades of the Assad family’s authoritarian grip on the nation continues to burn.