Erdoğan reiterates call for ‘safe zone’ in Syria

Stating that despite his previous calls for a no-fly zone being formed inside Syria with the aim at helping solve the migrant crisis not receiving any return, Erdoğan said he once again brought the issue up with the leaders of the world’s top 20 economies who attended the G-20 Summit on Sept. 4-5. 

“We raised the issue of the formation of a safe zone in Syria to all our friends at the summit,” Erdoğan said, during a televised press conference on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in China’s Hangzhou on Sept. 5. 

Erdoğan said that works were ongoing about not only a safe zone inside Syria but also the housing of Syrian migrants in various Turkish provinces. 

Erdoğan said that even though no country had objected the safe-zone idea, no concrete steps had been taken. 

“On the contrary, the Syrian crisis has become inextricable with new countries setting foot on the ground,” Erdoğan said. 

Turkey hosts around 3 million refugees, around 2.7 million of whom are Syrians who fled the more-than-five-year-old civil war. 

Erdoğan also said that a no-fly zone in northern Syria needed to be established in order to secure the region’s security, adding that he had proposed this option to both U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin during his meetings with the leaders over the weekend on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in China. 

“We are in the endeavor to take this step,” Erdoğan said.