Erdogan policy on Syria grave mistake, Kilicdaroglu says

The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party Kemal Kilicdaroglu has described as “grave mistake” the policy of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan toward Syria.

“Ankara’s government has committed a grave mistake in its positions on Syria,” Kilicdaroglu has told Turkey’s Sky TV .

Kilicdaroglu, who heads the Republican People’s Party (CHP), said more Syrians are being killed as a result of Ankara’s financial and military support for the Syrian opposition.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of Army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.

The Syrian government has said that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and that a very large number of the militants operating in the country are foreign nationals.

Several international human rights organizations have accused foreign-sponsored militants of committing war crimes.

 Kilicdaroglu expressed regret over Turkey’s current approach and called on the government to help resolve the crisis in Syria through inviting all sides to negotiations, rather than supporting the armed opposition.

He rejected any foreign intervention in Syria’s internal affairs and said any decision on ending the crisis in Syria should be made by Syrians themselves.

On February 15, the Syrian government sent a letter to the United Nations, blasting Turkey’s “destructive” role in the conflict that has ravaged the country for the past 23 months.

In the letter, the Syrian Foreign Ministry accused Ankara of publicly supporting and financing militants fighting against the Syrian government and allowing Turkey’s soil to be used for training and housing anti-Damascus terrorist groups.

It also accused Turkey of taking “increasingly hostile stances towards Syria, by blocking measures taken by Damascus for a political solution to end the crisis”

M.W