TURKEY'S PM URGES U.N. TO TAKE ACTION AFTER SYRIA PHOTOS

Brussels, 20 Rabi’ul Awwal 1435/22 January 2014 (MINA) – Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to take decisive steps regarding the Syrian crisis, following the release of several thousand photos documenting war crimes committed by Syria’s Assad regime.

Speaking at a joint press conference with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, Erdogan stressed that Turkey was extremely disturbed by the Syria photos.

The photos, which document war atrocities, were published on Monday by leading news agencies, including the Anadolu Agency, alongside a report by forensic experts.

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The 55,000 photographs purportedly revealed evidence of systematic torture by the Syrian regime. They were taken by a former Assad official over a two year period.

Erdogan added: “They show how serious the savageness, massacre, and genocide (in Syria is). I wish to reiterate from Brussels that mankind must take immediate action and the necessary steps in the face of the developments in Syria.”

Erdogan also noted that any inaction would amount to a failure of responsibility by the international community, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The Geneva II conference, scheduled to convene on Wednesday, aims to end the ongoing and escalating violence in Syria.

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More than 100,000 people have been killed in the three-year conflict in Syria, while more than eight million Syrians have become refugees in the neighboring countries of Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq, according to the UN.

Iran has blasted Monday’s revelation of photos documenting potential war crimes in Syria, calling it anti-government propaganda.

Marzieh Afkham, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson in Tehran, said the timing of the report and photos published by Anadolu Agency (AA) late on Monday, is “suspicious, aiming to undermine the profile of Syrian government.”

Speaking to Anadolu Agency in exclusive, Afkham responded to the question whether the photos revealing the evidence of the systematic torture by the Syrian regime against detainees, would lead to any change of attitude on the Iranian side regarding the civil war in Syria. (T/P09/E1).

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Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).