Even though President Erdogan of Turkey Is also Sunni like ISIS purports itself to be, I think ISIS(ISIL) is becoming a threat more and more to Turkey as well as all the other governments in the Middle East. (ISIS) Wants to overthrow all governments there). So, this indicates Turkey is feeling threatened more by ISIS(ISIL) too at this point.
Turkish Minister Urges Fight Against Extremists in Syria
| ABC News | - |
The world never had a plan to end the worsening Syrian
conflict, Turkey's prime minister said Thursday. Ahmet Davutoglu told a
news conference that all countries should fight the Islamic State group
but also keep Syria's government from committing "war ...
Turkish Minister Urges Fight Against Extremists in Syria
The world never had a plan to end the worsening Syrian conflict, Turkey's prime minister said Thursday.
Ahmet Davutoglu
told a news conference that all countries should fight the Islamic
State group but also keep Syria's government from committing "war
crimes" in Aleppo, Syria's largest city. He warned that if the attacks
in Aleppo continue, "there may be hundreds of thousands of refugees
approaching to Turkey," which already hosts two million Syrians who have fled.
Davutoglu praised the plan for a freeze in fighting in Aleppo recently
proposed by U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura but said the Syrian
government wasn't keeping its promises. The fragile plan would have the
government and opposition stop heavy-weapons attacks throughout the city
for six weeks so that the U.N. could deliver unhindered aid, but the
opposition in Aleppo has rejected it. They fear the Syrian government
will use the pause in fighting to regroup elsewhere.
The Turkish prime minister accused the Syrian government of increasing
airstrikes on Aleppo in recent days because the government "has been
spoiled" by the easing of international pressure as the world's focuses
on fighting the Islamic State group.
He said that even if a freeze in hostilities is achieved in Aleppo, it
doesn't mean anything significant for people suffering in other Syrian
cities, and he urged a comprehensive solution to the crisis, which
enters its fifth year this month.
The Syrian people should not be forced to "make a choice between a
brutal regime and a brutal terrorist organization," Davutoglu said.
"There is a need of a third option, a moderate political solution."
The U.N. estimates that 220,000 people have been killed in the conflict,
which has been further complicated by the rise last year of the Islamic
State group in Syria's north and east.
More than 3 million people have fled Syria into neighboring countries
including Turkey, and those countries have warned that they are severely
overstretched. Davutoglu said Turkey has spent $5 billion on those
living in camps.
"No country has been affected more than Turkey because of the Syrian crisis," he said.
As worries soar about foreign fighters entering the conflict in Syria
and then returning to launch attacks at home, the prime minister said
his country last year deported about 2,000 people and blocked about
10,000 from entering. He gave no further details.
Davutoglu said Turkey expects the international community to do more to
resolve the Syrian conflict "because that is the source of all the
evils," and it expects more cooperation on intelligence to keep would-be
foreign fighters from entering the country.
But the U.N. Security Council
has been almost completely blocked from taking action because of the
threat of a veto from permanent member Russia, a close ally of Syria's
Assad regime.
In a public discussion Thursday night at the Council on Foreign
Relations, Davutoglu turned down the idea of putting Turkish ground
troops inside Syria, saying, "Why Turkey should take risks if there is
no grand strategy accepted by all?"
He called for arming Syria's moderate opposition and lamented that the
United States and its European allies didn't do it four years ago.
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