Turkey will never allow a new state in northern Syria, Erdogan says
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Dec. 24 that Turkey will never allow the formation of a new state in northern Syria, The Hurriyet Daily News reported.
"We will never allow the founding of this kind of state,” despite efforts to do so, Erdogan told Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) in Istanbul, as quoted by the source.
Erdogan also reiterated Turkey’s wish to see a “terror-free safe zone” in northern Syria for the safety of its southeastern border provinces.
"We have been saying this from the beginning. If this [issue] isn’t dealt with, Gaziantep is always hanging by a thread, Kilis is always hanging by a thread, Şanlıurfa is hanging by a thread," he added, mentioning the country’s three border provinces.