TURKEY NOT TO INSIST ON ASSAD’S RESIGNATION – TURKISH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Ankara has admitted that a settlement in Syria without Assad “is not realistic.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (Photo: SANA / AFP / File)

Ankara refuses to promote an idea, according to which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must be overthrown, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister, Mehmet Simsek, said during the International Economic Forum in Davos. According to Simsek, the Turkish government does not believe that the process of a settlement in Syria should be considered only after Assad’s resignation.

“We have to be pragmatic, realistic. The facts on the ground have changed dramatically,” Simsek said. “Turkey can no longer insist on a settlement without Assad. It is not realistic.”

At the same time, Simsek said that Assad is responsible for the multiyear war in Syria, as well as for hundreds of thousands of victims of this bloody war.

“As far as our position on Assad is concerned, we think that the suffering of Syrian people and tragedies clearly… the blame is squarely on Assad,” the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister added.

Will remind, at the end of last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the Turkish Army entered the Syrian territory in order to “liberate the country from the Assad regime.” Later, the president’s entourage said that the Turkish president was probably “misunderstood.”

Meanwhile, a few days before the start of the negotiations in Astana, Assad himself gave an interview to the Japanese TBS TV-channel and said that upcoming Astana talks will be focused on the ceasefire. At the same time, he stressed that the truce will not touch those groups that are recognized as terrorist by the UN Security Council.

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