"Subtly & implicitly, their hearts are beating with the Sunnis of Syria"

"KONYA, Turkey — ..."Now what he needs is shock therapy to gain the heart of his people,” Mr. Davutoglu said in an interview as he campaigned in his hometown, Konya, for a parliament seat in next month’s elections. “As early as possible,” he added. Asked what would happen if the Syrian president failed to bring dramatic reform, Mr. Davutoglu replied, “We don’t know. That’s why we say shock therapy.”...
In an interview this week, Mr. Erdogan was blunt in saying that that Syria was a different case. “The situation in Syria is the equivalent of internal politics for Turkey,” he said, calling Turkey “quite concerned and annoyed” by events there...
Though Turkey has sought to escalate its shows of disapproval of the crackdown — from criticism delivered via a three-hour meeting Mr. Davutoglu held with Mr. Assad in April to sharper statements by Mr. Erdogan that have deeply angered Syrian officials — it seems intent on maintaining at least a channel to engage the leadership in Damascus. Mr. Davutoglu himself said he believed Mr. Assad could still reform. But, he added, “what can be delivered, we will see.”...
The specter of sectarian strife in Syria, a country with a Sunni Muslim majority and large minorities of Christians and heterodox Muslim sects, poses a challenge to Mr. Erdogan himself. Ideologically, some factions in his government are closer to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, some of whose leaders have recently spent time in Istanbul... And while Mr. Erdogan has gone to lengths to portray himself as anti-sectarian... “When it comes to Syria, they will never take a sectarian stand,” said Cengiz Candar, a prominent Turkish columnist and analyst on Arab affairs in Istanbul. “But subtly and implicitly, their hearts are beating with the Sunnis of Syria.”