Turkish PM urges world to 'hear screams' of Syria

[November 17, 2011]  ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey's prime minister says the world must urgently "hear screams" from Syria and do something to stop the bloodshed.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan says measures must be taken for the safety of energy supplies as well as global peace. Erdogan did not specify any possible actions.

He spoke Thursday at an international energy conference in Istanbul.

However, he is calling on the international community to be sensitive to the plight of Syrian people as much as they were to the uprising in oil-rich Libya. He says the Syrian conflict posed a global threat.

Syrian President Bashar Assad's brutal repression of the 8-month-old Syrian uprising has left an estimated 3,500 dead and crippled the country's exports of heavy crude oil after the European Union banned oil imports from Syria.

[Associated Press]

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