TURKEY-MIDEAST CRISIS/ERDOGAN Erdogan renews call for buffer zone inside Syria

Record ID: 217761

  • Title: TURKEY-MIDEAST CRISIS/ERDOGAN Erdogan renews call for buffer zone inside Syria
  • Date: 26th September 2014
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (SEPTEMBER 26, 2014) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** TURKISH PRESIDENT TAYYIP ERDOGAN HOLDING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) TURKISH PRESIDENT, TAYYIP ERDOGAN, SAYING: "There are three important steps that need to be taken. One of them is to launch a no-fly zone and to maintain the security of a no-fly zone. Secondly, a secure zo
  • Embargoed: 11th October 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA87WRTOQB4CVEI1EEQ6CKYJ3D1
  • Story Text: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan repeated his call on Friday (September 26) for a buffer zone along the border inside Syrian territory, a safe haven for refugees he envisaged would be protected by an internationally-policed no-fly zone.
    Erdogan said Turkey will discuss three steps that should be taken to protect the borders and resolve the conflict.
    "There are three important steps that need to be taken. One of them is to launch a no-fly zone and to maintain the security of a no-fly zone. Secondly, a secure zone should be established inside Syria," Erdogan told reporters after returning from the United Nations (UN) meetings in New York.
    "Thirdly, we will liaise on the details of with whom we will be managing this process based on an understanding of training and supplies," he added.
    Turkey has so far declined to take a front-line role in the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) but strongly denied Kurdish accusations it is supporting the insurgents, saying they posed a grave threat to its national security.
    Kurdish forces said on Thursday (September 25) they had pushed back the advance on Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, but appealed for air strikes on the insurgents' tanks and heavy weapons.
    Kobani sits on a road linking northern and northwestern Syria, and Kurdish control of the town has prevented IS from consolidating its gains. The group tried to take the town in July but was repulsed by local forces backed by Kurdish fighters from Turkey.
    Turkey has been slow to respond to calls for a coalition to fight IS in Syria, worried in part about links between Syrian Kurds and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade armed campaign against the Turkish state for greater rights in Turkey's southeast.
    The PKK has urged Turkey's Kurds to join the fight to defend Kobani and accused Ankara of supporting Islamic State. Residents in the border area say hundreds of youths have crossed the frontier in defiance of Turkish security forces.
    Turkey denies having given any form of support to the Islamist militants, but Western countries say its open borders during Syria's three-year-old civil war have allowed Islamic State and other radical groups to grow in power.
    The Turkish military has in the past fired back when shells from Syria's civil war strayed into Turkish territory, and the intensifying battle for Kobani is heightening pressure on Ankara to take a more robust stance against the insurgents.
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