Turkish prime minister tells Syria’s president to step down

Bashar al AssadThe Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged the Syrian president to step down, warning that he might suffer the same fate as the Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had earlier remarked that he would fight till death to resist foreign forces. But the Turkish Prime Minister rebuked Al-Assad saying that he is fighting his own people.

The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reminded the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that this was ‘cowardice’ and the list of people who fought till death included names such as Adolf Hitler, Mussolini and Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania.

Bashar al Assad has ignored mounting calls for his resignation in recent weeks as international outcry over his government’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests has intensified.

The Arab League last week suspended Syria from membership while the humanitarian committee of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday voted 122-13 to condemn the violence in Syria and express its support for the Arab League initiative.

The resolution passed Tuesday calls for an end to all violence and it condemned the continued grave and systematic human rights violations by the Syrian authorities, such as arbitrary executions, excessive use of force and the persecution and killing of protesters and human rights defenders and many more violations.

Bashar al Assad continues to ignore the criticism from national or international community and had vowed to fight till death.

The Syrian government had said it has been fighting internal terrorists and the numbers of casualties were much lower than what the independent bodies has said.

Turkish prime minister tells Syria’s president to step down

Report by Adhir Roy Chowdury