Turkey says has lost confidence in Syrian regime

ISTANBUL: Turkey has lost confidence in the Syrian regime as its deadly crackdown on protestors continues, the Anatolia news agency quoted President Abdullah Gul as saying on Sunday.

"Actually (the situation in Syria) reached a level that everything is too little, too late. We lost our confidence," Gul told Anatolia in an interview to mark his fourth year in office, referring to unfulfilled promises Syria's President Bashar al-Assad had made to halt the onslaught.

"Today in the world there is no place for authoritarian administrations, one-party rule, closed regimes. Those either will be replaced by force, or the governors of states will take the initiative to administer," Gul said.

"Everyone should know that we are with the Syrian people ... What is fundamental is the people," he said.

Ankara, whose ties with Damascus have flourished in recent years, has repeatedly called on Assad to initiate reforms but has stopped short of calling for his departure.

The Syrian regime has sought to crush weeks of protests with brutal force, killing more than 1,600 civilians and arresting at least 12,000 dissenters, rights activists say.

The latest bloodletting claimed two lives in Syria on Saturday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

On Monday, UN leader Ban Ki-moon had said it was "troubling" that Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has repeatedly failed to keep promises including one to halt his military onslaught against the opposition.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011