Shaaban Tells Turkey Not to 'Inflame' Violence

Syria on Monday warned Turkey against "inflaming" unrest in the country, where more than 3,000 people are estimated to have died in six months of protests against President Bashar Assad.

Buthaina Shaaban, media adviser to the Syrian president, who has repeatedly promised reforms, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur that "armed gangs" were responsible for the violence.

"We had the best relations as you know and therefore we expected Turkey to support the march for pluralism and democracy in Syria rather than give statements that are helping to inflame the situation in Syria and to support the armed gangs there," she said.

Shaaban is touring Malaysia and Indonesia -- two major Southeast Asian Muslim countries -- to seek international support for Assad's regime.

Kuala Lumpur has cultivated close ties with the Assad government, with some 220 Malaysian students studying in Syria. Both countries are members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

But Turkey, formerly an Assad ally, has kept constant pressure on Damascus by hosting gatherings of Syrian dissidents and repeatedly calling on the regime to introduce reforms.

Turkey has expressed frustration with Assad for failing to listen to the Syrian people, whose almost daily pro-democracy rallies have been met with violent repression, at a cost of more than 3,000 lives according to the U.N.

Last month, Turkey stopped a shipload of weapons destined for Syria and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week that his government would announce sanctions against its neighbor.

Shaaban also said "some countries" were arming and financing armed groups to incite sectarian violence to split the country.

"The problem we are facing is that there are other parties who are financing and arming groups in Syria, that are introducing sectarian violence... in an attempt to try and tear the country apart," she said.