Erdogan 'never stated' Turkey wants to occupy Afrin

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan never stated Turkey wanted to occupy Syria’s Afrin region, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, Lavrov said Afrin was discussed during the trilateral summit in Ankara on April 5 in the context of Turkey's national security.

"Afrin question was discussed in line with the position, many times stated by President Erdogan, specifically, Turkey, in the conditions when the U.S. started making approaches to Kurdish squads, aiming to create a certain ‘security belt’ on the border with Iraq, President Erdogan saw a threat in such intentions and plans for the interests and security of Turkey," he said.

About Turkey’s presence in Afrin, he said: "And President Erdogan never stated that Turkey intended to occupy Afrin."

He added: "We assume that the simplest way of normalization in Afrin, now, when Turkish representatives say they have reached the fundamental purposes there [in Afrin], is to return the territory of Afrin under control of the Syrian government," he added.

Turkey on Jan. 20 launched Operation Olive Branch to remove YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorists from Afrin. On March 18, Turkish troops and Free Syrian Army members liberated the town of Afrin, on the 58th day of the operation.

Chemical attack

About the recent chemical attack in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta region, Lavrov said it had been orchestrated to launch an anti-Russia campaign.

"I think many of you have seen those photos where children and adults are abundantly watered from the buckets, and it is done by people without protective suits from a possible impact of the substance, which affected those to whom they provide assistance," he said.

Lavrov also added that representatives of the Red Crescent were at the scene and did not find any traces of chlorine.

Speaking about possible U.S. strikes on Damascus in response to the chemical attack, Lavrov recalled that Russian Defense Ministry strongly prevented the U.S. from such actions earlier.

Earlier, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over the chemical attack late Saturday by the Syrian regime which killed dozens of civilians.

At least 70 civilians were killed after forces of the Bashar al-Assad regime struck targets in Eastern Ghouta’s Douma district in an attack in which poison gas appears to have been used, according to the White Helmets civil defense agency.