Reuters. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday (March 10) that Turkey was advising Syrian authorities to help ease tensions and welcomed interim Syrian President Ahmed Sharaa's commitment to punishing those who acted outside the law.
"Since December 8, Mr. Sharaa has been following an inclusive policy without falling into the trap of revanchism. If this continues to grow stronger, it will thwart the games aimed at Syria," Erdogan said after a cabinet meeting in Ankara.
Clashes between loyalists of deposed President Bashar al-Assad and the country's new Islamist rulers have killed more than 1,000 people, mostly civilians, in Assad's coastal heartland in recent days, according to a war monitoring group.
The instability could damage Ankara's hopes of ending a decades-old conflict with Kurdish militants, some based in Syria, and possibly slow a flow of Syrians returning home from Turkey in recent months after 13 years of war in Syria.
