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World Bulletin / News Desk

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that what has been happening in Syria is a new Karbala.

"What happened in Karbala 1,332 years ago is what happens in Syria today," Premier Erdogan said at his speech at an international conference titled "Arab Spring and Peace in the New Middle East: Muslim and Christian Perspectives" conference in Istanbul.

Erdogan said that he knew that killing was forbidden not only in Islam but also in all divine religions.

Premier Erdogan said that they would never forget the tragedy of Karbala and that painful incident must be a lesson to all, referring to a battle between supporters and relatives of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein ibn Ali on the one side and a military detachment from the forces of Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph, on the other in 680. Hussein ibn Ali was martyred during the battle of Karbala.

Islam considered human being as the most sacred one in all creatures regardless of his/her faith, sect or status, he said, adding that Turkey did not have any prejudices toward any ethnical origin, religion or any sect.