Turkish PM accuses Assad of behaving autocratic
- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during the Istanbul Conference on Somalia in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 1, 2012. <File Photo=Xinhua/Ma Yan>
ANKARA, June 3 (Xinhua) — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused on Sunday Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of behaving autocratic and harming peace, playing down the recent elections held in Syria.
“So far, I haven’t seen him approach reforms with a democratic understanding,” Erdogan told reporters in Turkey’s southeastern province of Sanliurfa, accusing Assad of behaving autocratic.
“I believe that it is very difficult to achieve peace in Syria as long as this approach continues,” he added.
Erdogan’s remarks came as a response to Assad who praised the recent May 7 elections held in Syria in his address to the new parliament on Sunday.
The Turkish prime minister noted that the Syrian election was not democratic, urging Assad to “take lesson” from life imprisonment sentence for Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak.
Turkey, once a close ally of Syria, has imposed on Damascus a series of sanctions, including an arms embargo, due to its alleged crackdown on anti-government protesters.
Last week, Turkey ordered Syrian diplomats at the embassy in Ankara to leave the country following the killings of more than 100 civilians in Syria’s central village of Houla.
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