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Assad Must Go Before Syria Can Change, Says Yildirim

July 14, 2016 

 

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, July 14, 2016	Site of a Syrian regime air strike on Idlib, July 13, 2016

 

Assad must go before Syria can change, Yildirim says

Turkish prime minister rules out change in policy towards Syrian regime

By Hale Turkes and Sinan Polat

Anadolu News, ANKARA

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim reiterated that Turkey’s Syrian policy will not change while Bashar al-Assad remains in power in comments broadcast Thursday.

In an interview with the BBC’s HARDtalk program, the prime minister reacted to speculation that Ankara was prepared to soften its stance on Assad leaving to bring the civil war to an end.

“Surely things need to change in Syria but first of all Assad should change,” he said in an interview in Turkey. “Unless Assad changes, nothing changes in Turkey. Assad has the main responsibility for turning things this way.”

Pressed by interviewer Zeinab Badawi on whether Assad could stay in power in the interim, Yildirim replied: Well, on one hand you have Assad and on the other you have Daesh. So which one do you prefer? Assad or Daesh?

“If you’re asking me which one, we won’t prefer any. Both have to go because it’s trouble for the Syrians.”

When asked if one should be prioritized over the other, Yildirim said destroying Daesh would not solve the situation in Syria.

“As long as Assad is there, the problem won’t be solved,” he said. “We’ll have some other terrorist organization coming up because it’s the attitude of the Syrian regime which created Daesh.

“It’s their method of rule in Syria which created that. They’re deliberately sending their people to death.”

Yildirim, who came to office in May, said more than 500,000 Syrians had been killed in the conflict, which began in March 2011, and more than 9 million displaced, 3 million of whom are in Turkey.

“We welcome them as our guests,” he said.

The prime minister defended the decision to grant citizenship to Syrians, which has caused a backlash in some sections of Turkish society.

“We paid over $11.5 billion for the refugees so far,” he said, noting that refugees from Syria had already been granted permission to work and that only those with skills useful to Turkey would be given nationality.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan previously said skilled workers such as doctors, engineers and teachers should be given citizenship rather than be left working illegally.

http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/assad-must-go-before-syria-can-change-yildirim-says/607152

Syrian regime airstrikes kill 28 in Western Syria: Local source

Airstrikes target opposition-held parts of Syria’s Idlib and Homs provinces, according to local civil defense source

By Halit Suleyman

Anadolu News, IDLIB, Syria

At least 28 people were killed Wednesday by regime airstrikes in opposition-held areas of Syria’s western Idlib and Homs provinces, a civil defense source told Anadolu Agency.

The source, who spoke anonymously due to fears of reprisal, said 15 civilians had been killed in three separate airstrikes that targeted a busy market in the town of Al-Rastan on Homs’ northern outskirts.

Due to a chronic shortfall of medical equipment, those injured by the strikes could not be treated at a local field hospital and were taken instead to the nearby town of Talbiseh.

The same source said a separate round of airstrikes in Idlib’s town of Ariha had left another 13 dead and 22 injured.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

According to the Syrian Center for Policy Research, an NGO, as many as 470,000 people have been killed over the course of the five-year-long conflict.

http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/regime-airstrikes-kill-28-in-w-syria-local-source/607022

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