Turkey's PM warns of 'civil war' in Syria

World

Turkey's PM warns of 'civil war' in Syria

Close

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that civil war was looming in Syria.

10 January,2012 04:58 am

Turkeys Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Monday that civil war was looming in neighbouring Syria as President Bashar al-Assads regime was continuing to mercilessly murder its own people.The situation that has emerged there is right now heading towards a religious, sectarian and racial civil war. This must be stopped, Erdogan said at a televised press conference.Turkey must play a leading role here. A civil war which could emerge would put us in difficulty... and pose a threat to us, he said.Turkey, which shares a 910-kilometre (570-mile) border with Syria, has stepped up criticism of Assads bloody crackdown on opposition protests, which has claimed more than 5,000 lives since mid-March, according to UN estimates.Erdogan has already openly called on his one-time ally Assad to step down.Syria right now has an administration which mercilessly murders its own citizens. Nobody can expect us to applaud... authoritarian regimes, said Erdogan.Turkey is home to around 7,500 Syrians who have fled across the border with its southern neighbour in the face of the crackdown and Ankara fears an influx of refugees on its border amid the continuing violence.The government is also fearful that the bloodshed in Syria could stoke further unrest in Turkey and possibly lead the Kurdish communities on both sides of the border to rise up.Ahead of Erdogans warning about the risk of a full-blown civil war, a foreign ministry spokesman in Ankara had called on the Syrian opposition to pursue its resistance through peaceful means.The spokesmans comments followed a meeting on Sunday in Istanbul between Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and members of the umbrella opposition group the Syrian National Council.