ANKARA, May 6(AP/UNB) - Turkey's prime minister is heading to the Syrian border to visit a refugee camp for the first time since Turkey opened its doors to tens of thousands of Syrians more than a year ago.

Turkey hosts some 23,000 Syrian refugees who have fled Syrian President Bashar Assad's bloody crackdown on an uprising that began with civilian protests, but now threatens to become a full-scale, militarized conflict.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has urged Assad to quit and has encouraged the Syrian opposition to unify and present a credible political alternative, will visit the largest refugee camp in Turkey on Sunday.

That camp, housing more than 9,500 refugees near the town of Kilis, has come under cross border fire by Syrian forces last month in an incident that left two refugees dead.