Turkey wants ‘to contribute to the establishment of a new Syria’

ANKARA

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said Turkey’s aid to the Syrian people and its support of the opposition forces was based on the “responsibility to contribute to the foundation of a new Syria.” DHA photo

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said Turkey’s aid to the Syrian people and its support of the opposition forces was based on the “responsibility to contribute to the foundation of a new Syria.”

In his answer to a parliamentary question by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Atilla Kart, regarding the claims that Saudi Arabian cargo planes used Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport as a base to channel arms to the Syrian rebels, Davutoğlu said the planes only carried humanitarian aid.

“Various countries apply for flight permissions to carry humanitarian aid to Syrians that have taken shelter in our country, and Saudi Arabia is among them,” Davutoğlu said in his answer that came four months after the motion was filed. “At the basis of Turkey’s support to the Syrian people and the opposition lies the will and responsibility of contributing to the establishment of a new Syria where democracy and peace will prevail. Our basic desire is that Syria finds stability and the Syrian people, who are our friends and brothers, can live together in peace.”

CHP lawmaker Kart said talking about “a new Syria” was a clear breach of the Constitution.

“Does the authority to establish a new Syria have any place in the Constitution and the international law?” he asked in a written statement today. “Talking about a new Syria clearly shows which side the government has taken in the Syrian conflict.”

Kart also said 16 Saudi Arabian C-130 planes had landed in Ankara as of April 18. “Similar flights took place on Aug. 15-17, we have the information and footage,” Kart said. “Esenboğa is being used as a logistics base for the intervention in Syria, that is the actual situation.”