Erdogan: Turkey Will Not Allow A New State in North Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that Turkey will never allow the formation of a new state in northern Syria.

    We will never allow the founding of this kind of state, despite efforts to do so, Erdogan told Turkeys Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) in Istanbul, According to Turkey's news agency (Anadolu).

    He also reiterated Turkeys 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 is not dealt with, Gaziantep is always hanging by a thread, Kilis is always hanging by a thread, Sanliurfa is hanging by a thread," he added, mentioning three border provinces. 

    The Turkish president also pointed to the Syrian refugees' crisis saying that his country is hosting about 3 million Syrian refugees and the cost of that was around USD 20 billion. He added that the European Union (EU) pledged to contribute euro 3 billion to assist Turkey with the refugees expenses as of the first of July, but provided only euro 677 million of that pledge.

Source: QNA