Search

ISTANBUL -- Turkish officials continued Tuesday to step up pressure on Syria, saying they would consider having their military cross the border to impose a safety zone if the Assad government failed to stop killing citizens demanding democratic change. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Tuesday that his government was hopeful that an incursion would be unnecessary and that Syria would respond to sanctions imposed Sunday by the Arab League. But the Syrian government has shown no willingness to abide by its neighbors' demands, declaring the Arab League move ''economic war.'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey and Syria held a day of meetings and ceremonies on Tuesday that signaled an era of improving relations between the countries, signing agreements to remove visa restrictions on their shared border and pledging to build ''a common future.'' The meetings were intended to forge a new era of cooperation that would have been inconceivable a decade ago, when tensions ran high because Turkey believed that Syria was abetting attacks by the separatist militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or P.K.K. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]