TURKEY: Addressing the nation, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan says it's high time to take action on Syria and slams the United Nations Security Council for their inability to take action

Record ID: 217677

  • Title: TURKEY: Addressing the nation, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan says it's high time to take action on Syria and slams the United Nations Security Council for their inability to take action
  • Date: 31st August 2013
  • Summary: INCIRLIK, TURKEY (AUGUST 31, 2013) (REUTERS) U.S. CARGO PLANE TAXIING ON TARMAC AT INCIRLIK NATO AIR BASE IN TURKEY
  • Embargoed: 15th September 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1UIAI2FU7XOPZHZDFGL54K2R5
  • Story Text: In a televised address to the nation on Saturday (August 31) Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said that it was time to take action on Syria and condemned the United Nations for not taking action.
    Erdogan rebuked Russia and China for blocking a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria and called on the international community to establish a volunteer coalition to stop the killings in Syria.
    "Unfortunately, the United Nations Security Council cannot take any decisions because of two countries that uphold an attitude that block the process. The United Nations Security Council has become a non-functioning body. Therefore, we have decided to act together for Syria where 100,000 people have been killed," he said.
    On Friday (August 30) U.S. President Barack Obama said the United States, which has five cruise-missile equipped destroyers in the region, was planning "limited, narrow" military action to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for an attack that Washington said killed 1,429 people.
    The Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack - the deadliest single incident of the Syrian civil war and the world's worst use of chemical arms since Iraq's Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of Kurds in 1988 - has galvanized a reluctant Washington to use force after two and a half years on the sidelines.
    During his address, Erdogan also said it was time to take a stand for human rights.
    "We can establish a volunteer coalition, but now it's high time to take a step. It's time to stop the killings. It's time to take a step together with those who value human rights and who stand for the declaration of international human rights," he said.
    Turkey has previously said it would be ready to take part in any international action against Assad, even outside the auspices of the United Nations, and has put its armed forces on alert to guard against threats from Syria.
    On Friday (August 30), Erdogan said that any international military intervention against Syria should be aimed at bringing an end to the rule of Assad.
    Meanwhile U.S cargo planes landed at Turkey's Incirlik air base on Saturday, a NATO air base outside the city of Adana where U.S. troops are also stationed.
    Syria's civil war has killed more than 100,000 people and driven millions from their homes since 2011, when Assad's forces cracked down on street protests and his enemies took up arms.
    The war splits the Middle East on its main faultline between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims and has already spread to neighbouring Iraq and Lebanon, threatening to reignite their own civil wars.
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