Syria: Erdogan exploiting intl. forums to market his 'suspicious schemes'

The Syrian government has expressed strong opposition to Ankara’s decision to create a so-called safe zone in the northeastern part of the Arab country, warning that the Turkish president is using international forums as a tool to promote his “suspicious schemes.”

“[Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan is trying again to exploit international forums for marketing his suspicious schemes about the so-called safe zone, using the file of the refugees’ return as a pretext to deport one million Syrian people to areas where he has occupied in the northeastern part of Syria in the framework of a mass forced displacement process for residents of those areas and replace others in their places,” an unnamed official source at the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates told Syria’s official news agency SANA on Thursday.

The source added that Erdogan’s plans to loot the Syrian oil resources and use them to finance his “perverted schemes” have once again revealed his real intentions which are based on "occupation, aggression, and violation of international law."

The statement came after Erdogan told the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva on Tuesday that the safe return of refugees is “key to permanent stability and normalization in Syria just like anti-terror efforts,” according to Turkish media.

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The Syrian source further said that the issue of “open-door policy” that Erdogan raised during his speech at the forum is, in fact, a mere policy used by him to “dispatch thousands of foreign terrorists in Syria via borders, arm and fund them, and to push the Syrians, in return, to the coercive displacement via borders escaping from terrorist crimes, supported by the Turkish regime.”

The source urged the United Nations and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to take a clear stance regarding Turkey’s polices and plots which are in violation of the UN Charter and conventions, including the 1951 Refugee Convention. 

Syria will spare no effort to defend its people, sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of the Turkish aggression and crimes, the statement concluded.

On October 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Erdogan signed a memorandum of understanding that asserted YPG militants had to withdraw from the Turkish-controlled "safe zone" in northeastern Syria within 150 hours, after which Ankara and Moscow would run joint patrols around the area.

The Kurdish-led administration in northeastern Syria says the Turkish offensive has killed 218 civilians, including 18 children, since its outset.

Ankara has threatened to launch another military operation in the swathe of land bordering Turkey unless the pullout of Kurdish forces from the area is completed.

Ankara wants to see a 32-kilometer “safe zone” established in northeastern Syria which is clear of Kurdish militants and where it can relocate a great percentage of more than three million Syrian refugees living in Turkey.

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