Turkey lashes out at Syria over massacre

Turkey strongly condemned Syria for mass killings of dissidents in Homs in southern Syria late Feb. 3 and described its rulers as "illegitimate" while strongly criticizing Russia and China for vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution against Damascus. "We wish that this mistake would be corrected as soon as possible and the international community as a whole would stand with the Syrian people and be on the right side of history at these challenges being faced in Syria," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement released late Feb. 4. "It is extremely difficult to comprehend why this constructive resolution, which was co-sponsored also by Turkey and contained no more than the general support to the efforts of the Arab League, has been rejected." Turkey strongly condemned the killings that it called "massacre" and said, "The shelling by a country's official security forces of its own cities constitutes the most concrete indication that the government of that country has totally lost its legitimacy to rule. We condemn in the strongest possible terms and reprobate this massacre." The statement called on the international community to shoulder the responsibility.