Sinan Uslu
ANKARA: Turkish and Iranian presidents on Thursday spoke over the phone and hailed the increased cooperation between the two countries on security issues and on fight against terrorism, according to presidential sources.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hassan Rouhani discussed latest developments in Syria.
The two leaders also hailed progress made at Sochi talks, which was started by Russia and supported by Turkey and Iran.
Syrian National Dialogue Conference was held in the southern Russian city of Sochi on Jan. 29-30.
At the Sochi meeting — which included representatives from Syria and the guarantor countries Russia, Iran, and Turkey — a proposal to form a constitutional committee was agreed by all parties.
Erdogan and Rouhani agreed to hold a summit of the leaders of Turkey, Russia and Iran in Istanbul on the Syrian conflict.
Earlier on Thursday, Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin also agreed to hold a trilateral meeting with Iran on Syria, while the two leaders spoke over the phone.
On Nov. 22, Erdogan, Putin and Rouhani have also met in Sochi to discuss pro-gress made in the Astana pe-ace talks and changes in de-escalation zones across Syria.
Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since March 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
While UN officials say hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, regime officials say the death toll is closer to 10,000.
Meanwhile, President Erdogan on Thursday strongly rejected a call by the main opposition leader to establish contact with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.
“He says: ‘Sit on a table with Assad and discuss this issue’,” he said referring to remarks by Republican People’s Party (CHP) head Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
“What will we talk about to a murderer who has killed 1 million of his citizens,” Erdogan said in his address to mukhtars — heads of Turkish villages and neighborhoods — at the presidential complex in capital Ankara.
“You can go arm in arm with terrorists when necessary … But, we haven’t so far walked with those taking that path with permission of terror organizations, and we will not walk in the future,” he added.
On Tuesday, in his address to his party workers, Kilicdaroglu called on the government to establish contact with the Assad regime to resolve the conflict in Syria.
Erdogan said the ongoing operation in northern Syria will pave the way for refu-gees, currently being hosted by Turkey, to return home.
“We will solve the Afrin and Idlib issues. We want our refugee brothers to return to their own lands and homes. Surely, we will not keep 3.5 million [Syrians] here [in Turkey] forever. After all, they want to return to their own lands as soon as possible,” Erdogan added.
On Jan. 20, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch to clear PYD/PKK and Daesh terrorists from Afrin, northwestern Syria.
Since the beginning of the operation 1,028 PYD/PKK and Daesh terrorists have been “neutralized” — a term which denotes the terrorists have either surrendered or been killed, the Turkish military said Thursday.
According to Turkish General Staff, the operation aims to establish security and stability along Turkish borders and the region as well as to protect the Syrian people from the oppression and cruelty of terrorists. The operation is being carried out under the framework of Turkey’s rights based on international law.
