Failure of Istanbul Meeting, Ankara Hostile Towards Syrian Protester against Meeting

The majority of the Turkish media highlighted the failure of the so-called "Friends of Syria" meeting in Istanbul despite the attempts of pro-government media to show the opposite.Writers specialized in the international affairs underlined that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu failed to persuade the participants in the meeting to issue concrete decisions against Syria. Turkish TV channels and newspapers talked about the aggressive and provocative stance of the Turkish security forces against the Syrian pro-government protesters in Istanbul who condemned the meeting. The renown Turkish journalist Asli Aydintash from Milliyet Newspaper asked " what democratic message could Ankara send to President Bashar al-Assad through the democracy of burner pepper gas, which couldn't stand the shouting of only thirty people." Cumhuriyet newspaper revealed that foreign ministers of western countries, including the USA, Britain and Germany refused a Turkish proposal on granting the UN special envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, two weeks only for his mission, as they also rejected another Turkish proposal on arming the opposition and the militia of the so called "Free Army" and granting monetary aid. The participants of the Meeting also ruled out discussing the idea of establishing a buffer zone on the Turkish-Syrian border.