February 17, 2016•Update: February 17, 2016
ANKARA
The West is incapable of slowing the flow of refugees from Syria, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday.
“No matter [if] the West acts in a rough, relentless, unconscientious way, they cannot control the refugee influx,” he told a meeting of local administrators at the presidential palace in Ankara. “There has to have a consensus immediately on finding a resolution to the Syrian issue.”
He warned the refugee crisis, which saw more than 1.1 million cross into Europe last year, would spiral if the conflict in Syria was not brought to an end.
“In this process that the oppressors and oppressed people's supporters are divided, Turkey became the voice of the global conscience,” Erdogan said. “Turkey has taught a humanity lesson to whole world by looking after its Syrian brothers without making any discrimination on religion, language, sect or ethnicity.”
Referring to the retaliatory shelling Turkey has been carrying out in recent days against the PYD and YPG, the Syrian affiliates of the PKK terror group, the president said Turkey had “no plans to stop artillery fire” conducted within Turkey’s rules of engagement.
He said Turkey was acting in “its own defense” so “all our steps are legitimate.”
Turkey did not have the luxury of monitoring the PYD’s activities from a distance, Erdogan added, noting that Turkey would not let a “new Qandil mountain” - a reference to the PKK base in northern Iraq – develop on its southern flank.
