Turkey Urges Syria Opposition to Shun Violence, Warns of Civil War

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Monday of a "civil war" in neighboring Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad's regime is persisting with a deadly crackdown on opponents.

"The situation that has emerged there is right now heading towards a religious, sectarian and racial civil war. This must be stopped," Erdogan said at a televised press conference.

"Turkey must play a leading role here. A civil war which could emerge would put us in difficulty ... and pose a threat to us," he said.

Turkey, which shares a 910-kilometer border with Syria, has stepped up criticism of Assad's crackdown on opposition protests, which has claimed more than 5,000 lives since mid-March, according to U.N. estimates.

Erdogan has previously openly called on his one-time ally Assad to step down.

"Syria right now has an administration which mercilessly murders its own citizens. Nobody can expect us to applaud ... authoritarian regimes," said Erdogan.

Erdogan added that Turkey had begun implementing sanctions against the Syrian leadership, adding that they would increase according to the situation on the ground.

Earlier on Monday, Turkey called on the Syrian opposition to continue its uprising against the Assad regime through "peaceful means," a foreign ministry spokesman.

"The Syrian opposition demands democracy and we told them during a meeting yesterday (Sunday) that this should be done through peaceful means," the spokesman told Agence France Presse, referring to Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's talks in Istanbul with the opposition Syrian National Council.

Davutoglu's meeting with a 10-member delegation led by SNC chief Burhan Ghalioun, is the third after his contacts with the group on October 13 and November 17, said the spokesman.

The Syrian National Council has an office in Istanbul, he noted.

A team of Arab League monitors has been in Syria since December 26, trying to assess whether Assad's regime is complying with a peace accord aimed at ending its deadly crackdown on dissent.

Critics say it has been completely outmaneuvered by the government and has failed to make any progress towards stemming the crackdown. They have called for the mission to pull out.

Ankara says that around 7,500 Syrians have fled across the border with its southern neighbor in the face of the crackdown.

Colonel Riad al-Asaad, who heads a group of defectors called the Free Syrian Army, is based in a Turkish border camp.

But Turkish officials have said repeatedly that Ankara will not let its territory be used to launch attacks against the Syrian regime after Syria-based news reports cited armed groups' infiltrations from the Turkish side.