Davutoglu on U.S. visit urges Syria peace meet

The international community cannot afford to watch the "massacre" taking place in Syria without acting, Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday during a visit to Washington. Davutoglu is urging an international conference to resolve violence that erupted when demonstrators began demanding last spring Syrian President Bashar Assad be removed from office. The government crackdown on dissidents has killed more than 6,000 people since March 2011, according to human rights organizations. "We cannot let Syrian people die every day and the international community will follow blindly," Davutoglu said during a lecture at George Washington University in the U.S. capital. The Turkish government announced Wednesday it is trying to organize "as soon as possible" an international conference that seeks a peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis. A peace conference also has supporters in the U.S. government, which is organizing its own meeting, called "Friends of Syria," among stakeholders in the uprising. Davutoglu is scheduled to hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Syrian crisis during his stay in Washington. "We want to have an international platform if the U.N. doesn't function in that way, to show solidarity with the Syrian people against this bloodshed, massacre," the Turkish minister said. He was referring to a U.N. Security Council vote last week that struck down a resolution calling for a transition in the Assad government to end the violence. Russia and China vetoed the measure. Davutoglu did not give details on the location or date of the peace conference he proposes. Turkey is a former ally of Syria but broke off relations because of the violent backlash against demonstrators by the Assad regime.(Naharnet)