Türkiye urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to embrace reform and respond to the demands his citizens had been pressing for years, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday. Erdogan made the remarks to reporters in Ankara before departing for a visit to Iraq.
He said he had spoken with Assad twice over the previous three days and pointed to Türkiye's direct stake in the situation, citing the two countries' 800-kilometer shared border and family ties between their populations. "We cannot remain silent," he said.
Assad had not rejected the reform calls, Erdogan added, and he expected the Syrian leader to announce plans publicly within a day or two. He also disclosed that the head of Türkiye's national intelligence agency (MIT) had traveled to Syria the day before for consultations.
Syria had been gripped by two weeks of anti-government protests. Facing mounting pressure, Syrian authorities announced they would lift emergency rule, a legal framework that had been in continuous effect since the Baath party took power in March 1963.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in March 2011, in its own words.