Unimportant to say 'Assad must go:' Turkey FM

Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu on Saturday questioned whether it was important to say the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must step down to secure peace in the war-torn country.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu on Saturday questioned whether it was important to say the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must step down to secure peace in the war-torn country.

“We have to find a political solution in Syria. And, is it important if I or someone else says ‘Assad must go?’ What matters is the Syrian people’s say,” said Cavusoglu.

The Foreign Affairs Minister added his words did not mean consenting to Assad, according to state-run Anadolu Agency.

Cavusoglu was speaking at a local business chamber in the Mediterranean Turkish city of Antalya, once a top destination for millions of Russian tourists flocking annually to its beaches.

He also rejected accusations Turkey “had sold out Aleppo” whose eastern sector the Syrian Army recaptured this week from Turkish-backed rebels in a years-long battle.

The Turkish government centralized its Syria policy on the departure of Assad since the beginning of the civil war turned uprising, and militarily helped the opposition and Islamist rebels fighting Damascus.

The Turkish FM’s remarks followed a trilateral Syria declaration he negotiated with his Russian and Iranian counterparts in Moscow on Tuesday.

The negotiations came hours after an off-duty Turkish policeman assassinated the Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov in an Ankara art gallery.

“We have to pull Iran as well into the equation. Everybody must shoulder some responsibility. The joint [Turkish-Russian-Iranian] declaration is important,” said Cavusoglu.

Additionally, he stated the three sides agreed to a countrywide ceasefire, political solution, humanitarian aid, and national unity in Syria.

Both Iran and Russia have over the course of the war been strong allies of the Syrian Ba’ath regime.

Iran had been on the ground with Shia militias as early as late 2012 and Russia in the skies with its air force since 2015.

Turkey’s alliance with Sunni groups created an indirect confrontation with Iran and Russia which culminated with the November 2015 Turkish shoot-down of a Russian warplane near the Syrian border.

Moscow restored relations with Ankara after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in summer 2016.

The apology paved the way for the ongoing Turkish incursion into northern Syria to block the US-backed Kurdish forces from capturing more territory from the Islamic State group.

 

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany