Ankara denies any land operation remark on Syria by Turkish PM in US media interview

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is set to meet with US President Barack Obama May 16. DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

The Turkish Prime Ministry denied May 10 reports suggesting that Erdoğan voiced support for a prospective U.S.-led ground operation into Syria during an interview with Ann Curry of the US private broadcaster NBC.

The denial was released by the press office of the Prime Ministry in response to news reports taht quoted Erdoğan as saying “Right from the beginning ... we would say ‘yes,’” when asked whether Turkey would support a U.S.-enforced no-fly zone in Syria, or U.S. soldiers on the ground in the Arabic republic.

The reports “do not reflect the truth,” Erdoğan’s press office said in a written statement, while providing “the word-for-word” response by Erdoğan.

“Of course, we have been looking at this positively since the beginning: Right now, [if] the United Nations Security Council would discuss [this] in detail, if the United Nations Security Council would take such decision, we would look at it positively. And we would do our part. Here, there is a very important task for the United Nations Security Council, especially for Russia and China,” Erdoğan said “word-for-word” when asked about forming a no-fly zone in Syria, according to the statement. 

“As can be clearly understood from this section from the Turkish deciphering of the interview – exactly contrary to the news reports in some media – our Mr. Prime Minister not only never mentioned the possibility of the United States sending soldiers to the region or any kind of support for it, he also did not make any assessments on this matter,” the statement said.

Obama is set to meet with Erdoğan in Washington on May 16.