“We say the bloodshed needs to stop”.
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“Turkey we will be more active in the Syria issue in the coming six months as a regional player”.
But the premier stressed that Assad has no role to play in Syria’s future. “This means to not allow Syria to be divided on any ethnic base, for Turkey this is crucial”, Yildirim said.
“That is our objective”. We have even left it late.
Turkey is one of the main supporters of rebels fighting to overthrow Assad, and hosts more than 2.7 million Syrian refugees.
Turkey is opposed to Syria’s division along ethnic lines and the future government should not be based on an ethnic group and instead all groups including Arabs, Kurds and Alawites should be represented, Yildirim noted.
Turkey fears the strengthening of Kurdish militant groups in Syria will further embolden its own Kurdish insurgency, which flared anew following the collapse of a ceasefire between militants and the state previous year.
“There can be ups and downs in the two countries’ relations (but) we need to remove elements that harm our relations”, Yildirim told journalists in Istanbul, referring to the Pennsylvania-based cleric.
Ankara has for years accused Gulen of running a “parallel state” in Turkey and it also blamed him for ordering the failed putsch of July 15.
Yildirim also confirmed a technical delegation would arrive on August 22 for talks with Turkey’s judicial authorities ahead of Biden’s visit.
Yildirim also denied news reports that Russian Federation was seeking to use Turkey’s southern air base of Incirlik for its operations in Syria.
The United States has used the Incirlik base in the southern province of Adana as a highly convenient launch pad for bombing raids against Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria since 2015.
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“They have no request for Incirlik”, Yildirim said.
