ISTANBUL – Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he would press Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad to defuse unrest by making reforms sought by the Syrian people when he speaks to him on Monday, newspapers reported on Saturday. “Beyond governmental change, there were expectations on removal of emergency rule, release of political prisoners and a new constitution,” Erdogan told journalists who accompanied him on Friday on his way back from an official visit to London. “If those expectations do not take place, we will say this to Mr Assad on Monday,” Erdogan was quoted as saying in a report published by the Hurriyet newspaper. Erdogan has spoken by telephone with Assad twice since trouble first broke out in Turkey’s southeast neighbour last month.
