Syria op prevented establishment of terror state: Çavuşoğlu

ANTALYA

Turkey's anti-terror "Operation Peace Spring" into northeastern Syria has prevented the establishment of a terror state, Turkish foreign minister has said.

"We have spoiled a very big game, and tossed it off on them [terrorists]. We did not only toss it off on terrorists, but also those who wanted to establish a terror state," Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Nov. 8.

The minister's remarks came during a speech at an event in southern Antalya province.

"We will also provide support to the people who will return [to Syria]," he added.

Çavuşoğlu said that during Turkey's anti-terror operation, the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) provided medical assistance to 500 people, on a daily basis, in the Tal Abyad town. 

Turkey follows its founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's foreign policy on "Peace at home, peace abroad," Çavuşoğu said.

"With this principle, we shape our foreign policy to be powerful both at the table and in the field," he said.

"We say this is an initiative and humanitarian policy. We need to initiate because there are a lot of problems in the world," he added.

The minister said that the international system fails to cope with these issues because it is "inadequate."

"Some 60% of there conflicts happen in our region. If we fail at humanitarian policies, being initiative would not mean anything," he said.

He added that Kızılay is one of the main partners of the Foreign Ministry in adopting these policies.

Furthermore, Çavuşoğlu said there are 350,000 Kurds in Turkey and 300,000 in northern Iraq.

He refuted claims that the YPG/PKK terror group is the voice of Kurds and said nearly 650,000 Kurdish people did not return to the area which is controlled by the YPG.