Blaming Syrian refugees for Reyhanlı attack is against humanity: Turkish FM

BERLIN - Hürriyet Daily News

“Nobody should expect Turkey to shoulder any terror or political risks,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said. AA photo

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu slammed those who blamed refugees for the Reyhanlı attack. Warning those who put the blame on refugees, Davutoğlu said, “Those who attempt to blame refugees are committing a crime against humanity.”

“Those who want to say the incident was carried out by refugees, and that Turkey has carried out the wrong policies on Syria, they are committing a crime against humanity,” Davutoğlu told a group of journalists late yesterday.

The minister’s reaction came in response to posts on Twitter just after the attack. “They serve certain circles,” he said, calling everyone to “act responsibly and carefully.”

“Whether they are from inside or outside Turkey,” the perpetrators of the attack would be detained, he said.
The minister said the attack would not lead to a change in Turkey’s open door policy for refugees fleeing from the war-torn country.

“Whoever takes refuge here is our guest,” he added. After shouldering the burden of refugees, “Nobody should expect Turkey to shoulder any terror or political risks,” he said. The Reyhanlı incident “showed the urgency of a solution” to the Syrian crisis, he added.

Additional tests abroad for chemical weapons

Asked whether there was any need to call on NATO for action regarding the incident on the Turkish-Syrian border, the minister said there was no need for now.

Turkey has done some blood tests on wounded Syrians fleeing the country and had some indications of chemical weapons being used, according to Davutoğlu. “But in order to make sure, we will do some additional tests both within and outside of Turkey, the minister said, declining to say in which country.

He recalled previous “provocative” attacks in southern Turkey originating from the Syrian regime, which aimed to carry the crisis into Turkish territory. They will not allow the tension over developments in the region to be carried into Turkey, he said, adding that Turkey had the right to take every kind of measure.

He had phone conversations with the Egyptian, Greek and Iranian foreign ministers expressing their condolences, the minister said. Davutoğlu expressed unease on Iran’s support of the Syrian regime, which he said he also mentioned during the phone conversation with the Iranian foreign minister.

“Deterrent policies should be carried out instead of policies encouraging [Bashar] al-Assad in order to prevent these incidents [the Reyhanlı attack],” the minister told Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on the phone, according to Davutoğlu.

Turkey protect Syrian refugees after bombings backlash

Turkish police moved on Sunday to protect Syrian refugees after residents of Reyhanli turned their anger on them in the wake of twin bombings that killed at least 46 people in this border town with Syria.
 
As cranes removed charred debris from the scenes of Saturday's twin car bombings, blamed on pro-Damascus forces, dozens of cars with Syrian plates lay vandalised in the town's streets.
 
There was not much left standing near rain-filled craters hollowed out by the force of the explosions, except for random pieces of torn clothing, stained with blood and mud.
 
There were also hundreds of angry townspeople.