In Turkey's strongest condemnation of its one-time ally Syria, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called on Tuesday for Syria's president to step down and likened Damascus's crackdown on protesters to the tactics of Nazi Germany. "Without spilling any more blood, without causing any more injustice, for the sake of peace for the people, the country and the region, finally step down," Erdogan said in comments aimed directly at Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In a speech to his ruling AK Party, Erdogan said Assad should learn a lesson from the fate of Muammar Gaddafi - the Libyan leader toppled by rebels in August and killed after his capture last month. Erdogan said his criticism did not mean Turkey was calling for any international military action to stop the violence in Syria, echoing earlier comments from Turkey's president.
In a further signal Turkey was stepping up pressure on Syria, Turkish media reported that Turkey's land forces commander had travelled to a city near the Syrian border to inspect Turkish frontier troops. Turkish leaders have sharpened their criticism of Assad and his crackdown on an 8-month-old uprising, saying it was impossible for him to stay in power but Tuesday's comments were the first time Turkey has made a direct public call for the Syrian leader to quit. "Fighting your own people until the death is not heroism, it's cowardice. If you want to see someone who fights his people to the death, look at Nazi Germany, look at Hitler, look at Mussolini," he said.
"If you cannot learn a lesson from them, look at the killed Libyan leader who turned his guns on his own people and only 32 days ago used the same expressions as you." For years Turkey built up political and commercial ties with Syria, signalling a "common future" together after the two almost went to war in the late 1990s over Kurdish guerrillas harboured by Damascus. Turkey is now Syria's largest trading partner with bilateral trade in 2010 worth $2.5 billion, both countries waived visa requirements for their citizens in 2009 and Erdogan even held cabinet meetings with Assad at one time.