Victory is near, Ankara tells Syrians

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GAZIANTEP, Turkey, May 7 (UPI) -- Victory for the Syrian people isn't too far away because brutal dictators inevitably pay the price for their deeds, the Turkish prime minister said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited a refugee camp housing roughly 9,000 Syrians along the southern border. He assured them that victory for the Syrian people wasn't far off.

"Brutality is not eternal," he was quoted by Turkish daily newspaper Hurriyet as saying. "All those pharaohs and dictators in the past paid the price for their brutality and passed away, leaving an indelible black stain."

Syrians took part in elections for the People's Assembly amid a backdrop of violence that's entering its second year. Information Minister Adnan Mahmoud said the election suggested Syria was intent on addressing the challenges posed by terrorism and those international powers expressing their opposition to the country, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reports.

Sporadic violence was reported during the weekend in Syria. SANA suggested violence in the country was down in part because of the presence of a U.N. observer mission.

Damascus agreed to a mid-April cease-fire under the terms of a peace plan brokered by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. SANA said there were 70 observers on the ground as part of a mission expected to swell to 300 members by the end of the month.