Turkey urged its nationals to leave Syria yesterday amid growing signs that it is considering mounting a cross border military operation to enforce a buffer zone.
Syrian refugees protest against President Bashar al-Assad at Boynuyogun refugee camp on the Turkish-Syrian border Photo: REUTERS
By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent and Rosa Prince in New York
7:30PM GMT 16 Mar 2012
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister and one of the Syrian regime's foremost critics, gave warning that Ankara's patience was waning after a surge in the number of refugees fleeing into Turkey.
"A buffer zone, a security zone, are things being studied," he said.
Although Mr Erdogan has signalled he would not take any action without some form of international backing, his comments have given renewed urgency to diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Syria.
Kofi Annan, the United Nations and Arab League special envoy to Syria, yesterday urged the world's leading powers to show a united front and support his faltering peace mission.
Mr Annan, the UN's former secretary general, acknowledged that his overtures to President Bashar al-Assad had elicited a "disappointing" response during a peace mission he made to Damascus last weekend.
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But he appeared to apportion blame for the lack of a breakthrough on divisions within the international community after Russia and China both vetoed UN Security Council Resolutions seeking to hold Mr Assad accountable for the violence.
Briefing the Security Council in New York, he urged members "to speak with one voice", saying: "The stronger and more unified your message, the better chance we have of shifting the dynamics of the conflict."
Mr Annan said he planned to return to Syria to resume his efforts to bring an end to the bloodletting that has claimed an estimated 9,000 lives during the year-long uprising against Mr Assad.
But there was little sign of his pleas for unity being heeded with Russia continuing to reject the most recently proposed Security Council resolution on the grounds that it places the onus for ending the violence on Mr Assad rather than his opponents.
Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, indicated that Western powers would reject any attempt by Moscow to shield Mr Assad, its long-time client, from blame.
"I cannot accept that we put the oppressors and victims in the same boat," he told the French newspaper Le Monde. "The regime must initiate the cessation of hostilities."
With Western states holding out little hope for Mr Annan's mission, the prospect of the impasse in Syria being broken is increasingly falling to the Middle East's regional powers.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia have both said they favour arming the rebels, while any Turkish operation in northern Syria would undoubtedly give a major boost to the opposition's weakening military position. Rebel forces have suffered a series of setbacks in recent weeks after being driven out of the cities of Idlib and Homs.
Any attempt to impose a buffer zone would carry serious risks for Turkey, with its troops almost certain to come into conflict with President Assad's forces.
But with the number of refugees growing and allegations that two Turkish reporters have been seized by Syrian police and tortured, Mr Erdogan is facing growing pressure from his public to be more assertive.
With hostility between the two neighbours mounting, his foreign ministry said that Syria was no longer a safe place for Turks to be.
"Developments in Syria pose serious security risks to our nationals," it said in a statement. "It is strongly recommended that Turkish nationals in Syria leave and return home."
Meanwhile, despite pledges that it would cooperate with Mr Annan, the Syrian government renewed hostilities against its civilian population yesterday, with activists reporting that unarmed demonstrators had come under fire in three cities.
There were also clashes between rebels and government forces on the outskirts of Damascus, weeks after the regime claimed to have regained control of the area - a sign that, despite recent battlefield victories, Mr Assad has been unable to subdue the most restive parts of his country.
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