Turkish FM Meets with Assad as Deaths Mount

Envoys hope for a diplomatic end to Syria's crackdown that's claimed more than 2,000 lives.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had the unenviable task of meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad today to discuss the latter's rather violent attempts to suppress his country's five-month-long civilian uprising. Turkey, which borders Syria and had long been one of its key trading partners, has taken on the role of being just about the only broker in the Middle East between Syria and the international community, whose condemnation of the crackdown grows each day. Just yesterday, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait pulled their ambassadors from Damascus in protest of the 2,000 or so civilians killed in the uprising. Davutoglu was to impart a “strong message” to Assad that his tendency toward slaughtering innocent citizens must come to an end one way or another, although it hardly seems like the message stuck. India, Brazil, and South Africa are also sending diplomats to Syria to try to bring an end to the conflict.