AFP, Oncupinar, 17 August 2012 – French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Friday called for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to be “smashed fast” as he visited Turkey’s largest refugee camp near the Syrian border.
“The Syrian regime should be smashed fast,” Fabius told reporters. “After hearing the refugees and their account of the massacres of the regime, Mr Bashar al-Assad doesn’t deserve to be on this earth,” he said.
“It is an operation of destruction of an entire people that he is trying to accomplish,” he said.
Fabius made the remarks at the refugee camp near the Oncupinar border crossing in the Kilis province, on the last stop of a regional tour.
Turkey is also providing sanctuary to rebel forces made up of army defectors in a separate camp where security is tighter.
During his regional tour to Jordan and Lebanon, Fabius had renewed calls for Assad to go in the face of the relentless onslaught against Syrian civilians and predicted more “spectacular” defections to come soon.
The foreign minister was expected to fly to Ankara later in the day for talks with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu on the Syria crisis.
Turkey has been one of the main regional powers denouncing Assad’s regime, and frequently calls on the international community for financial aid to share the refugee burden.
