Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said there is always a "third and real alternative" for the Syrian people stuck between the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus and the extremist ISIS movement.
"It [this alternative] is obviously a democratic Syria, a new Syria to be built in a peaceful atmosphere where all Syrians can live side-by-side as brothers," Davutoğlu said on Friday.
The Turkish premier was speaking as he met the opposition Syrian National Coalition, or SNC, plus members of the country's caretaker government in Ankara.
The SNC is the main Istanbul-based political body representing Syrian opposition groups.
Davutoğlu stressed that the Syrian people are now suffering under the threat of a "double clamp of a regime that oppresses its people in a cruel and barbaric way, and ISIS, which long cooperated with the regime, spread videos of its atrocities to the world and harms the dignified name of Islam."
The PM said that he had conveyed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a visit to New York earlier this month that the Syrian people could not be left under the tyranny of these two "bad alternatives."
He described SNC as the most legitimate representative of the Syrian people, the symbol of an "unprecedented honorable fight and resistance."
Davutoğlu noted that the democratic wave of the 2011 Arab Spring in the Middle East now seems to have been replaced by oppressive methods and terror.
"Syria is the key country here," said the premier, adding that if democracy is restored and the Syrian revolution reaches its goals of four years ago, not only the Syrian people but all peoples of the Middle East could set a new course for themselves.
"Accordingly, your [SNC's] success will not only be Syria's success but also that of all peoples of the region who fight for their dignity," he said.
