Syria Needs Peace not Military Escalation Says Austria’s Chancellor

VIENNA, (ST)- Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has criticized the Turkish regime’s aggression on the Syrian territories and called for halting negotiations on Turkey’s European Union membership.

“Berliner Morgenpost” newspaper reported that in a statement to reporters shortly before the holding of an EU-Turkish summit in the Black Sea resort town of Varna on Monday, Kurtz criticized Turkey over its aggression on and occupation of the Syrian city of Afrin in Aleppo northern countryside. He warned that this aggression will “worsen the humanitarian situation in Syria.”

 The Austrian Chancellor urged Erdogan’s regime to play a constructive role in Syria and the region, because it needs peace instead of military escalation. He pointed out that the political solution to the crisis in Syria through  the UN mediation should be the topic of discussion at the EU-Turkish summit.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Kurtz called for halting negotiations on Ankara’s membership in the EU in the light of the large-scale violations of human rights and democratic values committed by the Turkish regime under the pretext of attempts to launch coup in Turkey.

Some 50 thousand people were imprisoned by in the Turkish regime because of the coup claims, Kurtz said, suggesting that relations between the EU and Turkey should remain within the context of neighborhood ties.

Hamda Mustafa