No tolerance for threats from Syria: PM

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said Turkey will not allow any de facto entities in Syria to present a threat to Turkey’s security and peace, vowing to carefully follow the developments in its turmoil-stricken neighbor.

“Everyone should be cautious and have common sense in the face the al-Assad regime’s efforts to throw those groups, the identities of which it did not even recognize, into the fire. Surreptitious moves and stances will not bring any benefits to anyone,” Erdoğan said in an address to the nation July 31. Erdoğan was referring to the Democratic Union of Kurdistan’s (PYD), which is known as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) in Syria, seizing control of a number of towns in northern Syria after Syrian troops left the area.

Erdoğan said Turkey would not close its eyes to provocative moves on the part of the al-Assad regime that could endanger Turkey’s stability and security, saying “Turkey will never tolerate these kinds of de facto moves. We will continue to stand against any act targeting our peace and comfort, or threatening our security.” Turkey has always defended the territorial integrity of Syria, Erdoğan said, adding that it would stand against calls for the partitioning of its neighbor on the basis of sects and ethnicity.