An envoy of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has held crisis talks with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, as Turkey pressed its neighbour to end a crackdown that it has called 'savagery'.
The once-close ties between the neighbours appear close to breaking point.
Mr Assad's envoy Hassan Turkmani met for almost three hours with Mr Erdogan, who has expressed impatience over Mr Assad's repressive tactics and slowness to reform, as well as anger over a burgeoning humanitarian crisis.
As of this morning, some 8,500 Syrian refugees were in tented camps on Turkey's side of the border. More have been arriving by the day.
Syrian refugees who have fled to Turkey to escape a fierce military campaign staged protests in one of the camps in the town of Yayladagi.
They chanted 'people want freedom!' and 'Erdogan help us!', before Turkey's foreign minister was to start a tour of the area.
Speaking to journalists before meeting Mr Erdogan in Ankara, Mr Turkmani said the refugees would stay in Turkey for a 'short period of time'.
'Soon they will be returning. We have prepared everything for them, they have started returning,' he said.
Mr Assad asked to send an emissary when he called Mr Erdogan yesterday to congratulate him on winning a third term in office.
Mr Erdogan had said before his re-election that once the election was over he would be talking to Mr Assad in a 'very different manner'.
He said he had expressed revulsion over repression being used against the Syrian people.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu toured one of the refugee camps in Turkey's Hatay province, across from the Syrian city of Jisr al-Shughour, just 20km from the border.
