Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he rejected the call of the Turkish opposition to begin negotiations with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, amid escalation in Idlib
ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th February, 2020) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he rejected the call of the Turkish opposition to begin negotiations with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, amid escalation in Idlib.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's opposition People's Republican Party, earlier urged Erdogan to restore direct dialogue between Ankara and Damascus.
"The head of our opposition suggests that I meet with Assad. I spoke with Assad before, but I saw that he has no conscience. I asked why he did not issue passports to the Kurds. And now he attacks our soldiers," Erdogan told the parliamentary faction of the ruling Justice and Development Party.
Erdogan said earlier that Turkey had not yet reached a satisfactory result in negotiations with Russia. The Turkish leader also said that he had called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to exert pressure on Assad to stop the offensive in the Idlib province and withdraw from Turkish observation posts by the end of February, otherwise threatening with a military response.
Earlier in February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Turkey had not fulfilled several key commitments on Idlib, including its failure to distinguish between the armed opposition, which is ready for dialogue with the government within the framework of the political process, and terrorists. In turn, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay has claimed that Ankara had fulfilled its obligations in Idlib.
A Russian delegation will arrive in Ankara on Wednesday for a new round of talks on the situation in Idlib.
