ANKARA
Turkey warned the international community that the former Iraq government's exclusion of Sunni's would lead to problems in the region, said Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu Monday evening in an interview broadcast by private channels, NTV and Star.
Davutoglu stressed that neither Assad in Syria, nor former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki "listened to us while we pleaded for nine months" and that the "current chaotic situation" could have been avoided had the international community also listened to Turkey's warnings.
Sunni politicians were sidelined one by one Davutoglu said, "[former Iraqi Vice President] Tariq Hashimi, Rafi Isavi, Nujaifi... there was no Sunni politician left, Where does a non-political formation go? It tends to this kind of actions to protect itself."
In several diplomatic attempts Turkey pleaded with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki to include Sunnis and all other groups in his government, however, consistent dissociation of Sunnis -- the largest sect after the Shia in Iraq -- from the political process, resulted in a strong insurgency in the form of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.
"I am telling it to international community: Turkey does not have to prove anything. Turkey has always displayed a determined approach around the facts it believes in," said Davutoglu.
"If some people have to prove anything to move international community, the United Nations should prove it before these oppressed people (of Syria and Iraq), 350 thousand people have been killed, there are 4 million refugees, if anyone has to prove something, international community should prove its existence first."
Syria's civil war has resulted in the deaths of an estimated 191,400 people since it began three years ago, according to a UN report.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement that the figures had doubled in the past year but "tragically it is probably an underestimate of the real total number of people killed."
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