TURKEY: Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan reiterates that Turkey would take part in any international coalition against Syria

Record ID: 217678

  • Title: TURKEY: Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan reiterates that Turkey would take part in any international coalition against Syria
  • Date: 4th September 2013
  • Summary: ANKARA, TURKEY (SEPTEMBER 4, 2013) (REUTERS) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER TAYYIP ERDOGAN ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER TAYYIP ERDOGAN SAYING: "We have said that we are ready to take part in any kind of coalition and we perceive this as a coalition of volunteers. However, Mr. Obama's decision to seek Congress authorization m
  • Embargoed: 19th September 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAB5WDM0I1V6DYOERJG8U9IZJVA
  • Story Text: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan reiterated on Wednesday (September 4) that Turkey would take part in any international coalition against Syria, but stopped short of saying whether that would include military action.
    "We have said that we are ready to take part in any kind of coalition and we perceive this as a coalition of volunteers," Erdogan said without elaborating, shortly before leaving for the Group of 20 meeting in St. Petersburg.
    Foreign ministers will also attend the G20 summit and will meet to discuss Syria.
    On Wednesday, state agency Interfax quoted a military source as saying Russia is sending a missile cruiser to the east Mediterranean to take over the navy's operations in the region, as the United States prepares for a possible military strike in Syria.
    President Barack Obama has won backing from key figures in the U.S. Congress in his call for limited U.S. strikes on Syria to punish President Bashar al-Assad for his suspected use of chemical weapons against civilians.
    The ship, Moskva, will take over operations from a naval unit in the region that Moscow says is needed to protect national interests. It will be joined by a destroyer from Russia's Baltic Fleet and a frigate from the Black Sea Fleet.
    Moscow has been Assad's most powerful ally, protecting him from consecutive U.N. security resolutions aimed at pressuring him to end violence. Russia insists the conflict must be solved through political dialogue in which Assad must take part.
    Nonetheless, President Vladimir Putin, in an interview released on Wednesday, did not rule out approving a military operation if clear evidence showed Damascus had carried out the attacks, but said any attack would be illegal without U.N. support.
    Last week, the Defence Ministry said new warships, including the Moskva, were being sent to the Mediterranean but described the movements as routine deployments.
    Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Russia has no intention of getting dragged into any military conflict over Syria.
    Earlier this week, Interfax reported that Russia was also sending a reconnaissance ship to the region but that it would operate separately from the naval unit.
    Foreign ministers will also attend the G20 summit and will meet to discuss Syria.
    The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said in a statement on Tuesday (September 3) that a near tenfold increase over the past 12 months in the rate of refugees crossing Syria's borders into Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon - to a daily average of nearly 5,000 men, women and children - had pushed the total living abroad above two million.
    That represents some 10 percent of Syria's population, the UNHCR said. With a further 4.25 million estimated to have been displaced but still resident inside the country, that leaves close to a third of all Syrians living away from home.
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