CHP failed to inform Foreign Ministry about all but one Syria visits: Statement

ANKARA

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said it had been informed about only the first of the main opposition party’s visits to Damascus in a statement issued May 29. The other visits, including the much-debated meeting of a delegation of four Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputies with the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad on March 7, came to the ministry’s attention through media reports, according to the statement.   

“There was no information sent to our ministry before the visit. An assessment note was sent to our ministry on March 15, 2013,” the statement read, adding, that three other visits were only seen by media reports. 

Only the details of the visit of the delegation headed by CHP’s deputy head Faruk Loğoğlu on 4 to 6 September, 2011, were shared with the Ministry, it added. 

CHP’s last meeting with al-Assad has stirred new controversies as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused the Syrian guide that arranged the visit of being directly involved with the Reyhanlı bombings on May 11 that killed 52 and wounded more than 100.