TURKEY PM : TALKS WITH ASSAD LIKE HANDSHAKE WITH HITLER

Ankara, 28 Jumadil Awwal 1436/19 March 2015 (MINA) – Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said yesterday that negotiating with Syrian regime President Bashar Al-Assad is inexcusable and likened it to negotiating with Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler.

The Anadolu Agency reported Davutoglu telling a parliamentary group meeting of his Justice and Development Party: “There is no difference if you shake hands with Hitler, or Milosevic, or Radovan Karadzic or Saddam Hussein or Assad”, Middle East Monitor (MEMO) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

“If you sit down with Al-Assad and shake hands, it will never be erased from the memory of the conscience of humanity,” he said.

Davutoglu’s remarks come in response to US Secretary of State John Kerry who pointed to the possibility of negotiating with Al-Assad to attaining a lasting peace in Syria.

“The United States would eventually have to negotiate with Bashar Al-Assad for political transition,” Kerry said during an interview with CBS News which aired on Sunday.

On Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu voiced similar criticism saying: “What is there to negotiate [with Al-Assad]? How will you negotiate with a regime that has killed more than 200,000 people and used chemical weapons? What result have you been able to get from negotiations so far?” (T/P002/P3).

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)