Turkish PM Says Syria has Become a 'Terrorist State'

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that Syria had become a "terrorist state" carrying out massacres against its own people.

"The regime in Syria has become a terrorist state," Erdogan told his ruling AKP meeting in Ankara. "Syria is not an ordinary country to us. We do not have the luxury to remain indifferent to what's happening there."

Turkey, once a strong ally of Syria, broke with Damascus after President Bashar Assad's regime began cracking down on dissent, in a conflict which monitoring groups say has claimed more than 26,000 lives since March 2011.

Erdogan once again accused Damascus of committing "mass murders" against its own people and described Assad as "up to his neck in blood".

He also chided the international community for remaining indifferent to the murder of Muslims by the Syrian regime.

Turkey is home to more than 80,000 Syrian refugees registered in camps along the 910-kilometre (560-mile) border as well as the rebel leadership.

Regardless of their ethnic origin or race, said Erdogan, Turkey will continue to embrace refugees fleeing the unrest just as it welcomed half a million Iraqi Kurds who fled after the 1991 Gulf War.