Baladi News - Media
Turkey’s president on Monday (Sep. 10) urged the international community to be aware of its responsibilities in Syria as an assault on Idlib looms, AA reported.
Erdogan evaluated the latest developments in northwestern Idlib province and Turkey’s position on the matter in an article he wrote for the US daily The Wall Street Journal.
“All members of the international community must understand their responsibilities as the assault on Idlib looms. The consequences of inaction are immense,” Erdogan said in the article titled ‘The world must stop Assad’.
Erdogan also said the Syrian people could not be left to the mercy of the Assad regime.
“A regime assault [in Idlib] would also create serious humanitarian and security risks for Turkey, the rest of Europe and beyond,” he added.
He recalled the regime’s criminal acts --arbitrary arrests, systematic torture, summary executions, barrel bombs, chemical and conventional weapons -- which targeted the Syrian people for seven years.
"As a result of the Syrian war, which the United Nations Human Rights Council calls ‘the worst man-made disaster since World War II’, millions of innocent people have become refugees or have been internally displaced," he said.
He also recalled Turkey’s role in protecting the Syrian people, as it hosts the largest number of refugees in the world, at 3.5 million.
Erdogan said despite being the target of terror groups ISIS and the PKK, Turkey did not lose its resolve to help Syrians.
"We have brought the Syrian opposition to the negotiating table in Geneva and launched the Astana process alongside Russia and Iran," he said, adding Turkey consequently managed “to broker ceasefires, create de-escalation zones and evacuate civilians from areas under regime attack".
He also said that stopping the “next bloodshed” in Syria was not only the West’s obligation, but Turkey’s partners in the Astana peace process -- Russia and Iran -- were also responsible for preventing a “humanitarian disaster”.
Erdogan called for “a more comprehensive international counterterrorism operation” to eradicate terrorists and extremists in Idlib, stating that certain designated terrorist groups were active in the area.
Source: Orient Net