MIDEAST-CRISIS/TURKEY MINISTER Turkish Foreign Ministry says 'secure zone' needed amid fears of refugee wave

Record ID: 148552

  • Title: MIDEAST-CRISIS/TURKEY MINISTER Turkish Foreign Ministry says 'secure zone' needed amid fears of refugee wave
  • Date: 3rd July 2015
  • Summary: ANKARA, TURKEY (JULY 3, 2015) (REUTERS) TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN TANJU BILGIC WALKING UP TO PODIUM MEDIA WATCHING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN, TANJU BILGIC, SAYING: "There is a large number of people living in the west side of the line that goes down from Mare and Azaz to Aleppo. The population is very crowded in that
  • Embargoed: 18th July 2015 13:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4TZNUZ37GZ34G7PCTOR2IWO90
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Turkey's foreign ministry said on Friday (July 3) it was concerned about the possibility of a wave of some one million Syrians heading for Turkey as a result of clashes in Syria.
    "There is a large number of people living in the west side of the line that goes down from Mare and Azaz to Aleppo. The population is very crowded in that area. An offensive by the Islamic State group could trigger a massive wave of migration to our country," Tanju Bilgic, a foreign ministry spokesman said during a news conference in Ankara.
    "We want this burden on Turkey to stop getting heavier and we don't want more people to be displaced. We want Syrian immigrants to lead normal lives," he added.
    Bilgic said that a number of options for handling the migrant crisis were being discussed with the United States.
    "From all these options, the most probable would be forming a safe zone and a no fly zone," he said.
    U.S. Ambassador to Ankara John Bass told reporters on Thursday (July 2) that Turkey and the United States were working together to address the threat posed by the presence of Islamic State fighters in northern Syria.
    But the U.S. State Department said it had no "solid evidence" Turkey was considering a buffer zone in Syria.
    Syrian government forces mounted heavy air strikes on Friday against rebel positions in and around Aleppo, the focus of an insurgent offensive aimed at capturing areas controlled by President Bashar al-Assad.
    A Turkish official said Ankara was uncomfortable both with the presence of hardline Islamic State militants there and the prospect of Kurdish forces controlling the whole border.
    He said Turkey's link to Aleppo was of critical importance and Ankara would act if Kurdish forces took control of Jarablus, a Syrian town just west of the Euphrates river across the border from Turkey's Karkamis.
    Turkey has deployed additional troops and equipment along part of its border with Syria as fighting north of the city of Aleppo intensifies.
    Intense fighting, including explosions, could be heard from the Turkish border town of Kilis late on Thursday, about 50 km. (30 miles) north of the Syrian city of Azaz, witnesses said. They said the situation was quiet on Friday morning.
    The security sources said the Azaz fighting was between Islamic State militants and a joint force of al Qaeda's Syrian offshoot Nusra Front and Western-backed rebels, who have been clashing in the north Aleppo countryside for weeks.
    The Syrian army and allied militias hold western districts of Aleppo.
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