Turkey will not "close its doors" to refugees fleeing unrest in Syria, prime minister Tayyip Erdogan said today after reports of more than 120 Syrians crossing the border overnight.
Mr Erdogan said Ankara was monitoring developments in Syria with concern and called on Damascus to show more tolerance towards its citizens after latest clashes in northwest Syria by the border with Turkey.
Syrians have fled the town of Jisr al-Shughour fearing bloodshed as troops with tanks approached, under orders to hit back after the government accused armed bands there of killing scores of security men.
"We are monitoring developments in Syria with concern," Mr Erdogan told a news conference ahead of a June 12 parliamentary election which his AK Party is expected to win comfortably.
"Syria should change its attitude towards civilians and should take its attitude to a more tolerant level as soon as possible."
"It is out of the question for Turkey to close its doors to refugees coming from Syria," he added.
A total 122 Syrians, including women and children, entered Turkey overnight and were being housed in tents set up by the Red Crescent in the Yayladagi district of southern Turkey's Hatay province, state-run Anatolian news agency reported.
A Turkish foreign ministry official said around 420 people have crossed the border from Syria since the bloody protests started there in March.
Turkish television pictures showed wounded people being taken to hospitals in southern Turkey.
Accounts of killing in Jisr al-Shughour range from an official version of gunmen ambushing troops to residents' reports of an army mutiny. It has triggered international alarm that violence may enter a new and bloodier phase after three months of popular unrest that has left over 1,000 dead.
Civilians have fled the town as troops with tanks approached, under orders to hit back after the government accused armed bands there of killing scores of its security men.
"The army is taking up position around Jisr al-Shughour," one anti-government activist told Reuters by telephone, saying residents have seen troops approaching the northeastern town from Aleppo, Syria's second city, and from Latakia on the coast.
"Most people have left the town because they are scared," he said, asking not to be named for his own safety. "They know the deaths will be high. People have gone to nearby villages close to the Turkish border. The doctors and nurses have also left."
On Monday, information minister Adnan Mahmoud said army units would carry out their "national duty to restore security".
Turkey has built strong ties with Syria in recent years and has been exerting growing pressure on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, with foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu calling on him to introduce "shock therapy" reforms to end the trouble.
Last month, Mr Erdogan said Syrian issues were almost a domestic policy issue for Turkey. But for all Turkey's efforts to persuade Mr Assad to pursue reform the violence in Syria has escalated.
The Syrian government has expelled independent journalists, making it hard to determine clearly what is happening in the country.
Despite enthusiasm for pro-democracy movements that have unseated dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, few Western leaders - let alone their autocratic Arab partners - have shown a will to intervene in Syria, an Iranian ally whose volatile mix of ethnic and religious groups sits astride a web of regional conflicts.
Neighbouring countries, including Israel and Turkey, worry that a collapse into chaos could set off sectarian conflict and the emergence of violent, radical Islamists, as happened in neighbouring Iraq after the US invasion of 2003.
Speaking in Brussels, Russia's envoy to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, said: "The prospect of a UN security council resolution that's along the same lines as Resolution 1973 on Libya will not be supported by my country ... The use of force, as Libya shows, does not provide answers."
Veto-holding Russia abstained on the Libya vote, allowing Nato to begin a bombing campaign that Western powers say saved civilians in rebel-held Benghazi from an onslaught by Col Gadafy's forces, but which has failed to dislodge the Libyan leader.
Syria's ambassador to France strongly denied a report yesterday that she had resigned in protest at the government's repression of protests, saying it was part of a campaign of disinformation against Damascus.
Lamia Chakkour, shown standing in front of a portrait of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in the Paris embassy, told France's BFM television that a report by news channel France 24, featuring a telephone interview with a woman claiming to be her, was false.
Reuters