Turkey will not remain unresponsive to support given to terror organizations: Erdoğan
HAMBURG
Turkey will not remain unresponsive to support to given to terror organizations in the region, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.
“We will definitely not remain silent and unresponsive to support and arms provided to terror organizations next to our borders and the formation of terror islets in the region,” Erdoğan told a press conference at the G-20 summit in Hamburg on July 8.
“We will not hesitate to use our right to self defense against formations threatening the security of our country," he said.
The president also vowed that Turkey would not allow efforts to establish a Kurdish state in northern Syria and said he supported the unity of both Iraq and Syria.
“We will never forgive threats coming from there,” Erdoğan said.
“Iraq will be a strong country as long as it protects its unity,” he added.
Ankara sees the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing, People’s Protection Units (YPG), as being organically linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and has repeatedly called on its allies to cease cooperating with them.
Erdoğan also stated that he hoped the G-20 meeting would mark a “breaking point” to accept the fact that terror targeted everyone without discriminating between religion and race.
Erdoğan also addressed the western countries' stance regarding the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO), accused of orchestrating last year’s coup attempt.
"Militants of the terror group who organized a deadly coup attempt on July 15 last year in my country and martyred 250 of my citizen and left 2,193 other wounded are seeing the Western countries as a safe harbor," he said.
