Antakya , Turkey ( CNN ) -- Demonstrators congregated in central squares in Istanbul on Sunday , blowing giant bubbles , blaring music and chanting `` down with the government '' for a `` Peace Day '' rally . The annual anti-war protest was organized amid a Turkish government effort to push the U.S. to intervene militarily in neighboring Syria . Turkey 's prime minister has made no secret of the fact that he would like the U.S. to lead an effort to topple Syrian president Bashar al-Assad . On condition of anonymity , Turkish government officials have shown respect for the American democratic decision-making process , while also expressing disappointment at President Barack Obama 's announcement Saturday that he would seek congressional approval before launching any attack on Syria . `` We are not thrilled with the delay and uncertainty that today 's announcement entails , '' wrote one Turkish official , describing his government 's reaction . On Friday , as the Obama administration was still mulling the possibility of a strike against the al-Assad regime , Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told journalists `` a limited intervention will not satisfy us . '' `` It should be like the one in Kosovo , '' he added , referring to the 1998-99 U.S.-led campaign to drive Serbian troops out of that contested region in the Balkans . `` The intervention should n't be a one- to two-day hit and run . It should bring the regime to the brink of giving up , '' Erdogan said . Erdogan 's outspoken opposition to the al-Assad regime , and his government 's overt and covert support to armed Syrian rebels , have proven divisive in Turkey . A senior Turkish official concedes that the Syrian policy has been criticized as `` un-Islamic '' by some influential members of Erdogan 's ruling Justice and Development Party . `` Before the prime minister expressed support for the rebels , Assad had killed only 5,000 people , '' the official said , on condition of anonymity . `` But now more than 100,000 people have died , and it has gone from being a sectarian conflict to a sectarian war . '' In the Turkish border province of Hatay , which has absorbed some of the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who have flooded into Turkey since the conflict erupted more than two years ago , leftist opposition groups prepared to stage their own anti-war rallies in the provincial capital of Antakya . There is substantial sympathy among some members of Hatay 's Alawite religious minority for al-Assad , who is also a member of the Alawite sect . Critics accuse Erdogan of supporting Syria 's overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim armed opposition . The ranks of its armed fighters have swelled over the last year with jihadi volunteers traveling through Turkey to Syria from North Africa , Europe and North America .
Demonstrators at Sunday anti-war gathering chant `` down with the government '' Turkey 's prime minister wants a Turkey attack on Turkey that will bring down the government . PM Erdogan 's opposition to Syria 's CNN regime has proven divisive in U.S. .