Syrian opposition figures said President Bashar Assad's regime has lost its legitimacy and urged him to step down at simultaneous meetings Saturday in Damascus and Turkey to discuss ways for a peaceful transition to democracy Some 400 people are taking part in the "National Salvation Conference" in Istanbul where participants were expected to come up with a working paper and elect a unified opposition front composed of Syria-based opposition figures and those in exile. Opposition figure Mashaal Tammo told The Associated Press that a similar conference that was to be held in Damascus in tandem was canceled after security forces fired on protesters Friday, killing at least 28 people, most of them in Damascus. At least 14 of those killed died near a hall in the Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun, where Saturday's conference was to be held. However, a small group of opposition figures, including Tammo, met in a private location in the Syrian capital Saturday and spoke by phone with the conference in Istanbul. One of the main organizers of the joint Damascus-Istanbul conference is Syria's most prominent opposition figure, Haitham al-Maleh. The 80-year-old lawyer who has spent years in Syrian prisons for his political activism recently left Syria, fearing for his life. Addressing the conference on Saturday, al-Maleh denounced Assad's "Fascist" regime and praised the "heroic people of Syria" rising up against it. "The regime had kidnapped the entire state, and we want it back," he said. "This regime cannot rob us of our freedom." Al-Maleh said the aim of the conference was to "discuss alternatives to move the country from this darkness to a bright tomorrow." Tammo, addressing the conference by phone from Damascus, said Assad had lost his legitimacy to rule and called on him to step down. In an emotional speech, he said the "the existence of the regime was no longer justified," and called for a peaceful transition to a civil, pluralistic and democratic state. Assad is struggling to crush the four-month-old uprising against his family's 40-year rule. Activists say the crackdown has killed some 1,600 people, most of them unarmed protesters. The government disputes the toll and blames a foreign conspiracy for the unrest, saying religious extremists — not true reform-seekers — are behind it. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians mounted the largest protests Friday since the uprising began, pouring into areas where the government crackdown has been most intense in a sign that security forces cannot break the revolt. Syrian authorities fired on the crowds, killing at least 28 people and wounding more than 300, activists said. In a significant show of the uprising's strength, thousands turned out in Damascus, which had seen only scattered protests. Until now, much of the dissent against Assad has been in impoverished, remote areas.
