ERDOGAN SLAMS ISIL CLAIMS AGAINST TURKEY

Erdogan was speaking after an iftar organization and an award ceremony for The Turkish Red Crescent in Istanbul late Friday. (Photo: AA)

Istanbul, 11 Ramadan 1436/28 June 2015 (MINA) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed claims associating Turkey with terrorist groups, amid renewed fighting between Kurdish forces and the Islamic State of Syam and the Levant (ISIL) militants in the Syrian town of Kobani near Turkish border.

Erdogan was speaking after an iftar organization and an award ceremony for The Turkish Red Crescent in Istanbul late Friday, Anadolu Agency reports as quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

“I am calling on those who have been tweeting ‘Terrorist Turkey’, How dare you could define a country that has provided shelter for Kobani residents [escaping Daesh attacks] as a terrorist country?” he said.

Erdogan said Turkey supports the fight for freedom in Syria, “but we never act in unison with terrorist groups.”

“Nobody can associate Turkey with [Bashar] Assad regime — a state terrorizing its people — or with the other terror groups,” Erdogan added.

On Thursday, nearly two dozens of people were killed and at least 130 others wounded as ISIL militants attacked Kobani with two bomb-laden vehicles, sparking a new bout of fighting between Kurdish forces and ISIL after the Kurdish-majority town was overrun by the group last September.

Syrian state television and some Kurdish politicians had claimed that ISIL militants crossed through Turkish territory to strike Kobani — which has been strongly rejected by Turkish authorities, a stance also confirmed by Kurdish fighters on the ground.

The president also reiterated that Turkey would not tolerate the establishment of a new state in the northern part of civil war-torn Syria.

“We will continue our struggle to stop it [a new state] at any cost,” he stressed. (T/P001/NMT)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)