Idlib has become a 'deep wound': Turkey's MHP leader

By Sibel Ugurlu

ANKARA

Idlib has become "a deep wound" that bleeds more every day, Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli said on Thursday.

"The cruel [Bashar] al-Assad and Russia are launching military operations at certain intervals. The possible emergence of large-scale and bloody clashes at any moment is a precursor to upcoming harsh developments," Bahceli said at a groundbreaking ceremony in capital Ankara.

Bahceli said, "Idlib has become a deep wound that has been bleeding more day by day, turning into a gangrene."

The opposition party leader said the arrest of Yusuf Nazik, a key plotter of the 2013 Reyhanli attack from the Syrian port city of Latakia, revealed that the instigator of the deadly attack that killed 53 people in southern Turkey was undoubtedly Syrian leader Assad.

The Turkish Intelligence Agency (MIT) on Wednesday brought Nazik to Turkey and began an interrogation on the deadly Reyhanli attack.

Nazik, 34, who was marked in the blue category of the Interior Ministry's wanted terrorists list, confessed that on a from Syrian intelligence units, he scouted the crime scene prior to the attack and moved explosives from Syria to Turkey.

"The confessions of this murderer have shown that there is no need for much talk. The presence of fingerprints of Assad on Reyhanli proved to be an example of how a bloody hand has been governing Syria."

Bahceli also warned those whom he described as "regional and global scriptwriters" to watch their steps; adding Turkey would not allow chaos and conflicts on the other side of its borders.

"I warn once more, those countries and circles which serve for the chaos and conflicts on the other side of our national borders by taking part in overt activities should understand that Turkey will not take a step back."

Bahceli stressed that Turkey "has no province to hand over, no land to lose, no borders to draw or no person to abandon."

Located near the Turkish border, Idlib province is home to more than 3 million Syrians, many of whom fled from other cities following attacks by regime forces.

The Syrian regime has recently announced plans to launch a major military offensive to the area, long controlled by various armed opposition groups.

The UN warned that such an offensive would lead to the "worst humanitarian catastrophe in the 21st century".