Prime Minister Erdogan warnes Assad: Draw lessons from Gadhafi and Hitler

Turkey made its first direct appeal yesterday to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to cede power, warning that he risked suffering the fate of slain Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi 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 [Italy's Benito] Mussolini, at Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday speaking to his party deputies in Parliament. "If you cannot draw any lessons from these [leaders], then look at the Libyan leader, who was killed just 32 days ago." He also called the crackdown in Syria "cowardice," and "Quit power before more blood is shed ... for the peace of your people, your region and your country. Bashar al-Assad is saying he will fight to the death. Fighting your own people ... is not heroism but cowardice," he said. Erdogan's criticism of the Syrian leader has been mounting for weeks, but yesterday was the first time the premier directly called for al-Assad to abandon power. Still, he stressed that Turkey had no intention of interfering in Syria's domestic affairs. Erdogan called on the Syrian administration to find the perpetrators of the attacks on Turkish diplomatic missions as well as the pilgrims and "deliver them to justice at once."