ANKARA
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended his policy on Syria saying Turkey had to embrace victims of aggression by Assad regime.
Erdogan in his address to AK Party deputies gave the example of Saddam Hussain's attacks on Iraqi Kurds in 1980s. "If we had not embraced our Kurdish brothers escaping from Halabja massacre, how could we've looked at Irbil now?" said Erdogan replying to the criticisms against the government's Syria policy.
Stating that the Syria policy rested on two axis, Erdogan said, "First, we want peace in the region for Turkey's own peace and safety. Turkey has paid the price of being indifferent to Palestine, and other Arab countries in the past. It paid the price of past mistakes which cost lives because of terror. In this difficult geography, the solution never comes with closing the doors or building walls. Such an isolated state can never be a great state. It can't have economic growth, raise its welfare, and will not have reputation. Turkey for long years turned its back on its brothers and made no headway, damaged its reputation."
Erdogan stressed that the second axis of the policy towards Syria was humanitarian. Emphasizing that AK Party government sided with the oppressed, not the oppressor, Erdogan said that during the bloody events in Syria for more than two years, they had been continuing to work for the stepping-down of the "oppressor" Assad regime.
"If Turkey remained indifferent to massacres in Bosnia Herzegovina, could it look at Sarajevo again? If we had not embraced our Kurdish brothers escaping from Halabja massacre, how could we've looked at Irbil?" said Erdogan.
Syrian regime 'illegal'
Erdogan said the Syrian regime lost its legitimacy and was "illegal" as it was waging a war against its own people.
"The administration in Damascus is illegal in my opinion," Erdogan said in a press conference he held at the Esenboga airport in Ankara just before departing for Washington for his official US visit.
"The Syrian people do not accept this administration. The government has fallen. There is now a regime in Syria, which is at war with its own people."
Syrian regime had been using its military might to kill close to 100,000 people, displacing 3 million others, Erdogan said.
"Do we expect those who perpetrate such atrocities to say 'we did it?' We are ready for cooperation, but there is no one there to cooperate with us. Most senior military officials have already defected and left their country," Erdogan said.
New era with IMF?
Touchig upon Turkey's paying off its debt to International Monetary Fund (IMF)on Tuesday, Erdogan said it was a "historic" but a "heavy hearted" day because of the May 11 Reyhanli blasts.
After briefing the deputies on his two-day official visit to the United States, Erdogan said "Reyhanli will recover soon. After returning from the US, the first thing I would do is going to Reyhanli and other districts closeby in Hatay."
