A four-way summit on Syria will be in Turkey

LONDON

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that the next quadrilateral meeting on Syria will be held in Istanbul in February.

All four leaders had agreed to hold talks at least once a year from now on, he said, speaking to reporters in London after a NATO summit, where the leaders of Turkey, France, Germany and Britain held talks on Syria.

In the quadrilateral meeting on Dec. 3, Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring was also discussed, he said. “Here I have presented them with documents, information,” the president stated.

Other parties had a topic, and they asked when Turkey will retreat from Syria, Erdoğan said. “’So what are you doing here?’ we asked. ‘Do you have a border here?’ No. ‘And is there harassment against you?’ No. ‘Is there an attack?’ No. ‘So, what are you doing here?’ We have a 911-kilometer border here.”

“In Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ayn, the length of this place is 120 kilometers, the depth is 32 kilometers; it is not possible to leave these places without establishing peace. Because we entered here for peace, and we will establish this peace here. What about their safety? It’s our responsibility, too,” Erdoğan said, elaborating on talks with European leaders.

If these countries want to play a role in this region, they, along with Turkey, can stablish security as the logistics, the president said. Erdoğan noted he expressed criticism to them for standing by the YPG.

Erdoğan said they had a “fruitful” meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.

“We brought up some problematic areas. We talked to them again. These issues will be followed by our friends: bilateral relations, especially on this $100 billion trade volume. We also discussed the NATO Summit and the regional issues. Our colleagues, who have been assigned to S-400 and F-35, will continue their work,” he said.

Turkey approved a NATO defense plan for the Baltics and Poland after some allies demanded support, he also said, adding that allies must not abandon Ankara in its fight against terror.

“Just as we take the security threats of the alliance seriously, all our allies should take our security concerns seriously. We focused on this. We also show that this solidarity cannot be realized without an ally. That is the need to be an ally. All partners need to stand on this. We raised these issues both during the summit and in the bilateral meetings,” Erdoğan said.