Turkish foreign minister leaves for Syria

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu left for Syria on Tuesday. The Turkish minister will meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and convey Turkey''s views and messages regarding the crisis in that country. Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would shape up upcoming process according to the response it saw from Syria during Davutoglu''s visit. "We do not see Syria as a foreign problem, Syria is our domestic problem because we have an 850-kilometer border with this country, we have historical and cultural ties, we have kinship," Erdogan said. Erdogan said therefore, Turkey could never be just a spectator of what was going on in Syria, but on the contrary, Turkey had to hear the voices and do what was necessary. Some 7,412 Syrians are staying in tent-sites in southern Turkey as they escaped from the violence in their country. Hundreds of people have been killed during protests in Syria since January 2011. On Monday, US Ambassador in Ankara Francis J. Ricciardone met Ibrahim Kalin, chief advisor to Prime Minister Erdogan, within the scope of the consultations on Syria. Also, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke on the phone with Davutoglu, discussing the ongoing violence and security operations in Syria.