Turkey's government is very worried about a Syrian tank presence on its border and is watching the situation closely, the Turkish
Hurriyet reported Saturday.
Hurriyet
quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu as telling reporters he
had shared his “concerns and thoughts about the situation” with his
Syrian counterpart.
RELATED:More Syrian refugees pour into TurkeySyrian security forces shoot 15 protesters, activists sayDavutoğlu
told Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem that Turkey was skeptical of Syria's claims that troops and tanks were massing at the border
solely in a bid to catch terrorists. He reminded reporters that the
majority of Syrians he had encountered in border camps were civilians,
not soldiers, a great many of whom were women and children.
The
Turkish foreign minister said the flood of Syrian refugees crossing
into Turkey was directly caused by the actions of Syria's government,
who have been carrying out a bloody crackdown for months against
protesters raging against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.