Syrians protest as Annan urges UN action Syrians defied a campaign of regime violence by mounting street protests across the country on Friday as Kofi Annan urged the UN Security Council to unite in action over the crisis. Demonstrators took to the streets in most regions of Syria, including the two main cities of Damascus and Aleppo, activists said, in a riposte to Bashar al-Assad's efforts to crush the bloody year-long uprising against him. The fresh protests - in the face of brutal security crackdown and weeks of army bombardments of civilian areas - came just a day after the regime tried to project an image of strength by staging pro-government rallies on the first anniversary of the revolt. Activists reported a particularly large demonstration in the previously quiet province of Raqqa, which they said was violently dispersed. Clashes between regime forces and armed rebels were reported in the Damascus suburbs on Friday. Speaking after addressing a closed-door session of the UN Security Council, Mr Annan said he had urged the international community to speak as "one voice" to halt the violence in Syria. Mr Annan, who is the special envoy on Syria for the UN and the Arab League, warned Security Council members "any miscalculation that leads to major escalation will have impact in the region which would be extremely difficult to manage." UN diplomats said Mr Annan had insisted that he would go ahead with talks with the Syrian government and opposition groups, even though the initial response from the Assad regime had been "disappointing." A spokesman for Mr Annan said earlier that some of his colleagues would visit Damascus next week to discuss the deployment of international monitors in the country. As the number of Syrians fleeing to Turkey surged to near record levels on Friday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish prime minister, made his most explicit reference yet to creating a buffer zone on the Syrian side of the border, which would need to be safeguarded by international forces. "A buffer zone, a security zone - we are evaluating many alternatives," Mr Erdogan told reporters. Turkish officials say a buffer zone remains a step of last resort, only to be implemented if the number of people crossing the border reaches unmanageable levels or if massacres within Syria escalate and would preferably be implemented as part of a multilateral effort. Turkey urged its citizens to leave Syria on Friday, citing security concerns. Four Gulf Arab countries announced their decision to follow Saudi Arabia in closing their embassies in Syria on Thursday night, underscoring Mr Assad's increasing international isolation. Russia, Syria's strongest ally in the Security Council, said on Friday that it had told Damascus to co-operate with Mr Annan. He is trying to push Mr Assad to agree to a ceasefire but the Syrian president is said to be insisting that the rebels are urged to implement one simultaneously. France, a Security Council member, says that constitutes a "red line," as it implies equivalence between the two. Mr Assad is also thought to be demanding that the rebels give up their weapons as a condition of withdrawing the military from towns. Activists said Mr Assad's apparent confidence that he has prevailed over the uprising is misplaced. Wissam Tarif, a researcher with Avaaz, the campaign group, said despite brutal campaigns to regain control of places where armed rebels calling themselves the Free Syrian Army (FSA) had a presence, Mr Assad was no closer to containing the rebellion. "He has proven that he is able to take a stronghold of the FSA, but not eliminate the FSA because the FSA are civilians who picked up weapons, and they will emerge elsewhere," he said.