During a joint press conference with Belgian Foreign Minister Bernard Quentin: “Our proposal in Turkey is that the Syrian government take over the detention centers of ISIS prisoners as soon as possible and return these fighters to their countries of citizenship. If that government cannot do that, Turkey is ready to play a major role in this file.”
Fidan added that “cooperating with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to fight ISIS is a wrong strategy,” noting that “Sunni Arabs were forced to leave their homes in Syria and become refugees during the rule of the Assad regime and the Baath Party, and we rejected that.”
He stressed that “Turkey emphasizes the need to protect minorities in Syria, regardless of who that minority is. The new Syrian administration is working within this framework. We are always with the oppressed and against the oppressor.” Fidan stressed that “the Kurdistan Workers’ Party organization does not only threaten the unity of Syria, but also threatens the stability of the entire region.”
The Turkish Foreign Minister stressed that the new Syrian administration “must take over the management of the camps and prisons in which ISIS members and their families are being held.”
Talk about the renewed activity of ISIS in Syria has returned to the forefront, in light of the developments that have changed the reality on the ground and the map of control in the country.
