Turkey Condemns ‘Loathsome Murder’ of Kurdish Activist in Syria

Turkey has condemned the "loathsome assassination" of top Kurdish activist Meshaal Tamo as well as attacks against leading opposition figures in Syria, the foreign ministry said.

"We... strongly condemn the attempts aiming to suppress the Syrian opposition and the increase in attacks targeting main representatives of the opposition," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement posted on its web site late on Saturday.

Turkey is deeply sorry for the "loathsome assassination" of Tamo, as well as the wounding of prominent dissident Riad Seif who was injured after being beaten on Friday in Damascus, the statement said.

"Turkey expects the Syrian government to realize as soon as possible that practices of violence aiming to suppress the Syrian opposition will not reverse the course of history," it said.

Tamo was gunned down on Friday in city of Qamishli in north Syria and his funeral became a mass rally with more than 50,000 demonstrators calling for the fall of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, activists have said.

Syrian security forces killed at least two mourners and wounded several others when they fired on the funeral, according to rights groups.

Syria closed one of its border gates with Turkey and barred Turkish nationals from entering Syria following the bloody clashes in Qamishli, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Seif, a former lawmaker, had to be given hospital treatment after being beaten outside a mosque in the capital's commercial neighborhood of Medan.