Turkey calls on Assad to step down from office

Turkey called on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad yesterday to step down for the sake of his people and the Middle East, tightening regional pressure on Damascus after Arab states threatened sanctions over its crackdown on unrest.

“For the welfare of your own people and the region, just leave that seat,” prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said in a televised speech.

He reminded Mr Assad of the bloody end of former Libyan leader Colonel Muammar al- Gaddafi and those of past dictators, including Adolf Hitler.

“If you want to see someone who has fought until death against his own people, just look at Nazi Germany, just look at Hitler, at Mussolini, at Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania,” he said. “If you cannot draw any lessons from these, then look at the Libyan leader who was killed just 32 days ago.”

Activists said 11 civilians were killed in Syria yesterday, as the UN General Assembly’s human rights committee condemned Damascus for its eight-month crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in a vote backed by western nations and a number of Arab states.

The resolution, drafted by Britain, France and Germany, received 122 votes in favour, 13 against and 41 abstentions.

Arab states that voted for it included co-sponsors Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well as Egypt.

Russia and China, which vetoed a European-drafted resolution that would have condemned Syria in the UN Security Council last month, abstained.

Syrian UN ambassador Bashar Ja’afari said: “The draft resolution was presented by three European states, however it is no secret that the United States is ... the main mind behind the political campaign against my country.”