Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Wednesday on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to send tanks back into barracks to prove that it is fully implementing an international peace plan.

"Unless tanks go back into barracks, we cannot say the six-point peace plan is being implemented," Erdogan said at a press conference televised by private NTV news channel.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Thursday accused the Syrian regime of failing to abide by the ceasefire and peace plan hammered out by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.

"There's a six-point plan put forward by Annan... Is it being implemented? I'm not of the opinion it is being implemented," Erdogan told reporters before leaving for Saudi Arabia where he was to have talks on the Syrian crisis.

NATO said Thursday it takes its responsibility to defend allies "extremely seriously" after member state Turkey said it may seek help after shootings along its border with Syria.

"We are deeply concerned by events in Syria, particularly the recent incidents on the border with our ally Turkey," NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero told Agence France Presse.

Shots fired from Syria at a Syrian refugee camp inside Turkey are a "clear violation" of the common border between the two countries, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.

"It was a very clear violation of the border," Erdogan told reporters in Beijing, where he is on an official visit. "Obviously we will take the necessary measures," he was quoted as saying by the Turkish news agency Anatolia.

Turkey's prime minister has warned of as yet unspecified "steps" if the government of neighboring Syria fails to abide by an April 10 deadline to cease violence, local media reported on Sunday.

"We will patiently follow the process until April 10," Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying by daily Hurriyet.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was leaving Saturday for the first official visit to China by a Turkish premier in 27 years, an aide from his office told Agence France Presse.

Erdogan will first make a stopover in China's far-west Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region, the aide said Saturday speaking on condition of anonymity.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday called on neighboring Iran to act honestly after Tehran's about-face on Istanbul as the venue for nuclear negotiations.

"It is necessary to act honestly. They continue to lose prestige in the world because of a lack of honesty," Erdogan told a televised press conference in the latest salvo in the war of words between the two countries.

Turkey's landmark trial of the two surviving leaders of the 1980 military coup began on Wednesday at an Ankara court.

Turkey's 94-year-old former general Kenan Evren and his co-conspirator Tahsin Sahinkaya, 86, are charged with ousting the civilian government on September 12, 1980. The pair are absent from the trial due to their poor health.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the efforts exerted by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi to Turkey to maintain stability in Lebanon, stressing that Turkey hasn’t witnessed a visit like this since the Ottoman empire.

Erdogan stressed on the importance of the visit of al-Rahi, saying “it comes at a time everyone needs to go back to dialogue and reconciliation.”

Syria should heed the will of its people by implementing political reforms and allowing free elections, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on a visit to Tehran in remarks reported by Iranian media Friday.

"The Syrian regime should be receptive to the will of its people, who want elections and democracy," Erdogan said, according to an interview aired on Iranian state television late Thursday.