Turkey has frozen financial assets and cut strategic links with Damascus, ratcheting up pressure on the regime of Bashar al-Assad to end its violence against protesters, following the Arab League’s decision to impose sanctions.
Ahmet Davutoglu, the foreign minister, said Turkey would also block the delivery of weapons and military equipment and suspend a co-operation agreement with Syria until a new government is in place.
Turkey had drawn closer to Syria in recent years – and is one of its biggest trading partners – but lost patience after encouraging reform rather than repression in response to this year’s Arab spring uprising, which has seen at least 3,500 killed in Syria, according to the UN.
“We will always support the Syrian people and until recently we opposed the attempts to isolate the regime,” Davutoglu said