Turkish president calls on Assad to agree to proposals

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

President Gül waves before departing for Tunisia. ‘We have lost confidence in the administration in Syria and Syrian regime was behaving blindly,’ Gül says. AA photo

Turkey has urged the Syrian administration to agree to settlement proposals made by the international community, President Abdullah Gül said yesterday.

“Very soon they may regret not having done so today,” Gül told reporters in a press conference before his flight to Tunisia yesterday.

Incidents in a country became an issue of humanity and the international community if they exceeded a certain level, Gül said, stressing that assault in Syria was not a domestic issue as the number of casualties increased every day.

“We have lost confidence in the administration in Syria,” the president said, adding that the Syrian regime was behaving blindly.

The Syrian regime must pay attention to the international community’s efforts, he said.
Recalling the proposals of the Arab League for the Syrian administration to hand power over to a national unity government, Gül said “If they don’t accept those proposals today, it will be too late in the future.”

If the Syrian regime approved those proposals, it would be better not only for the Syrian administration but also for the Syrian state and Syrian people, the president said.

Elaborating on incidents of the Pozantı juvenile prison, Gül said nothing in “new Turkey” could remain hidden, and officials had taken necessary measures over the incidents.

Meanwhile, the Turkish foreign minister has pledged continued support for Syrians fleeing a violent crackdown on the opposition movement.

“Tens of thousands of people want to leave their country [Syria]. Turkey has given shelter for some 11,000 Syrian refugees so far. We are doing our best to help these people, and we will continue to extend help to our neighbors,” Ahmet Davutoğlu in Rotterdam, Netherlands March 6.