LATEST: PM Davutoglu “We Will Not Allow Our Citizens to Fight in Syria Against Islamic State”

Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has defined the borders of “safe havens” in Syria being proposed by Anakra.

The area is wider than initially expected, stretching along the Turkish-Syrian border from the Mediterranean to Iraq.

He spoke of a connection of the Turkish border with northern Latakia Province in western Syria to “certain areas in al-Hasakah” Province in the east, as well as the areas of Jarablus, Kobane, Tel Abyad, Idlib, and Afrin to protect Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmens.

Davutoğlu stressed that the depth of the safe zone could change according to varying humanitarian situations.

“The buffer zone we mean here is not a military definition, but a humanitarian safe zone under military protection,” Davutoğlu said in an interview with Al-Jazeera Arabic on Wednesday.

However, the Turkish Prime Minister repeated that Turkey would not act unilaterally to secure the havens. Instead, an international force would be backed by air cover.

Davutoglu said authority could come outside the United Nations, citing the precedent of safe havens in the 1990s in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq:

The United Nations Security Council can’t take any decisions due to certain vetoes. Then, the international coalition that was created for an intervention in Syria and the coalition of the willing can take certain decisions and provide air protection.

So far, the US, which began airstrikes inside Syria last month, has resisted Ankara’s proposal.


PM Davutoglu “We Will Not Allow Our Citizens to Fight in Syria Against Islamic State”

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Wednesday that Ankara will not allow its citizens to cross the border into Syria to fight against the Islamic State, including the defense of the Kurdish center of Kobane.

“We don’t want our citizens to fight in Syria and we are trying to stop those who illegally cross the border,” Davutoğlu said at his press conference.

See Syria Daily: US Military — “We Killed 100s of Islamic State Fighters Near Kobane”

Davutoglu said he felt “sorrow” about Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin who had died during the fighting. However, he criticized the leaders of the Kurdish-leftist bloc of the Peoples’ Democratic Party for statements that “tens of thousands of Kurdish youth” were ready to fight against the Islamic State if the border was opened.

“If any Syrian wants to go to Syria for fighting, the border gates are open for them, but even they themselves do not want to go,” Davutoglu maintained. “Just a small group of them want to cross the border to fight ISIL militants, whereas the majority wants to stay safely in Turkey.”