Turkish authorities suspected on Saturday that two men are allegedly monitoring the movement of defected Syrian cleric Sheikh Abdul Jalil al-Saeed, who revealed recently that Syria was planning on assassinating Mufti of Tripoli and the North Sheikh Malek al-Shaar.
According to Future television a Lebanese and a Palestinian are suspected of monitoring Saeed's movement in Istanbul.

The fall of the Syrian regime is "only a matter of time", Turkey's foreign minister said on Wednesday, calling on other countries to help make the transition period as brief as possible.
"It is clear that if a regime loses legitimacy and fights against its own people, that regime will lose that fight," Ahmet Davutoglu said at a press conference after meeting with his Finnish counterpart Erkki Tuomioja in Helsinki.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu urged Tehran on Tuesday to use its leverage and "send a clear message" to Syria's embattled regime to stop the violence against its own people.
"Instead of criticizing the (Patriot missile) system, Iran should say stop to the Syrian regime that has been continuously oppressing its own people and provoking Turkey through border violations," Davutoglu told reporters in Ankara.

In a Turkish town across the border from Syria, a few dozen exiled schoolteachers have established a makeshift school for children displaced by their native country's brutal civil war.
The school, on the ground floor of a three-story building in southwest Kilis, lacks all but the the most basic of supplies while all the teachers work for no pay in cramped classrooms where five children often squeeze into desks made for three.

Turkey has made a new proposal to Russia for an orderly peaceful transition in war-ravaged Syria in the post-regime era, a Turkish newspaper reported on Monday.
The proposal calls for President Bashar Assad to step down in the first three months of 2013 and for the transition process to be undertaken by the opposition National Coalition, which was recognised as the sole representative of Syrians by Arab and Western states last week, the Radikal newspaper reported.

Planned deployment of U.S.-made Patriot missiles in Turkey is a "provocative" action which could bring about "uncalculated" results, Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday.
"The deployment of Patriot missiles will achieve nothing but to provoke and, God forbid, result in being forced into an uncalculated action," Ali Akbar Salehi said in remarks reported by the official IRNA news agency.

The German parliament approved by a wide majority on Friday the deployment of Patriot missiles to help Turkey defend its border against conflict-riven Syria as part of a NATO mission.
The vote clears the way for Germany to deploy the missiles to southern Turkey along with up to 400 German soldiers after NATO member state Turkey asked the alliance for help.

The United States will deploy two Patriot missile batteries to Turkey along with 400 troops to help defend its ally against potential threats from neighboring Syria, U.S. officials said Friday.
The move was part of a wider NATO effort to bolster Turkey's air defenses amid growing tension on the Turkish-Syrian border, with Ankara siding with opposition forces battling President Bashar Assad's regime.

The mass trial of almost 300 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan entered its closing stages on Thursday as defense lawyers make their final arguments before a Turkish court.
A verdict in the four-year long case involving 275 defendants, including Turkey's former military chief Ilker Basbug and other army officers as well as lawyers, academics and journalists, is expected in the coming weeks.

Lebanon met the required costs to Turkish power company Karadeniz after a long delay, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Thursday, pointing out that the first power-generating vessel is expected to arrive in April.
According to the daily, the Finance Ministry transferred the money to Electricite du Liban on November 7, which in turn transferred the cost of acquiring the two ships to the Turkish company on Wednesday after procedures with the Central Bank ended.
