Syria issue is not an adventure for Turkey – Erdogan

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey is not in Syria for oil or land, but to secure its borders and to help Syrian civilians.

President Erdogan says Turkey is in Syria not upon Assad regime's invitation but people of Syria and won't leave until the Syrian nation asks for it at a meeting with his ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party’s Istanbul deputies on February 29, 2020.
AA

President Erdogan says Turkey is in Syria not upon Assad regime's invitation but people of Syria and won't leave until the Syrian nation asks for it at a meeting with his ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party’s Istanbul deputies on February 29, 2020.

Turkey is not in Syria for an “adventure” or to expand its borders, the nation’s president said on Saturday.

“Syria issue is never an adventure or effort to expand its borders for Turkey,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting with his governing Justice and Development (AK) Party’s Istanbul deputies.

He said nearly four million refugees are recently moving towards Turkey’s border with Syria due to the bloody attacks of Bashar al-Assad regime on civilians, while 1.5 million of them are already at the southern border.

“We have no interest in oil or the land there, we want to secure our borders with a safe zone,” Erdogan said.

Turkish soldiers are working to protect local civilians under the September 2018 deal with Russia under which acts of aggression are prohibited in the region.

But more than 1,300 civilians have been killed in attacks by Assad and Russian forces in the zone since then, as the cease-fire continues to be violated.

The attacks on Turkish troops in Idlib have surged in recent weeks as the regime and its allies continue flouting the cease-fire.

Late Thursday, at least 33 Turkish soldiers were martyred and dozens of others injured in an airstrike by Assad regime forces in Idlib, a de-escalation zone in northwestern Syria, just across Turkey’s southern border.

Turkey pledged that such assaults would not go unanswered.

The de-escalation zone is currently home to four million civilians, including hundreds of thousands displaced in recent years by regime forces throughout the war-torn country.

AA

Children play where irregular migrants wait at Turkey's border with Greece in Edirne, Turkey on February 29, 2020. Irregular migrants, including women and children, have been heading towards border villages of the country’s western provinces of Edirne and Canakkale to reach Greece.

Turkey cannot handle another refugee influx

With Turkey already hosting 3.7 million Syrians, Erdogan said it cannot handle another refugee influx.

He recalled that Turkey warned other countries months ago that it might have to open its border gates if the situation remains the same.

“They were disturbed. They did not believe in it. But what did we do yesterday? [We] opened the gates,” he said.

“As of this morning around 18,000 [migrants] forced their way out of the gates. But the number might reach 25,000-30,000 today. We will not close the doors in the coming process.”

Since the eruption of the bloody civil war in Syria in 2011, Turkey has taken in 3.7 million Syrians who fled their country, making it the world’s top refugee-hosting country.

Putin and Merkel

Erdogan said he had spoken to Russian President Vladmir Putin to find out what is it he wants in Syria.

"Yesterday, I also asked Mr Putin "What's your business there [in Syria]? If you want to have a military or air base in Syria, then do it. But get out of our way and let us deal with the regime and we'll do what's necessary."

He added that US President Donald Trump also wanted to know what Putin's agenda was in Syria.

"I said to Trump, Putin wants the oil there, but it's not as much as expected."

He also discussed his conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel when he had asked her for help with refugees.

He said Merkel committed $27.5M and after a very long time, no money had been transferred to Turkey.

When he spoke to her again, he told her that "no money had been transferred. You can keep it to yourself. Instead, we'll send you refugees plus $110M."

Route 6