Monitoring Desk
ANKARA: Turkey on Tuesday demanded an explanation from Russia after a terrorist was sighted among participants at the Syria congress in Sochi, Russia, diplomatic sources said.
Turkey’s official delegation saw Mihrac Ural, the leader of the THKP-C — a pro-Syrian regime militia at the congress, according to the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry delegation reportedly demanded an explanation from Russia’s Defense and Foreign Ministries.
The delegation expressed their discomfort at the terrorist’s presence at the meeting in the Russian Black Sea city, as he was not included on the list of invited delegates given to Turkey.
In response, Russian officials said they would immediately look into the matter and report back, the sources added.
Turkey blame Ural for a spate of attacks in May 2013 in the town of Reyhanli in Turkey’s southern Hatay pr-ovince that left 52 people dead.
Meanwhile, The Syrian opposition has decided not to participate in Sochi summit and instead it announced that Turkey could do it on its behalf, according to a diplomatic source on Tuesday.
A delegation of the Syrian opposition arrived at the Sochi airport for the summit but later they changed their minds when they saw pictures with Syrian regime flags on it.
After the incident, they did decide not to enter the country and gave Turkey the authority to represent it on its behalf at the summit, the source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on talking to the media, said.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday also confirmed Turkey would represent the Syrian opposition during peace talks in Sochi.
Talking to the media after attending the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party’s group meeting at the parliament in capital Ankara, Cavusoglu said:
“It has been sorted out.
“The opposition has given its authorization to represent them [at Sochi] to Turkey,” foreign minister said.
The foreign minister also said a constitutional commission would be established after the summit and Russia, Turkey and Iran would assign same number of members to it. The commission will be chaired by UN’s Special Envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura.
Also on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov spoke over the phone on the Syria process.
Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Sedat Onal will represent Turkey at the Sochi summit.
The Russian delegation will be headed by Moscow’s envoy on Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev while the Iranian delegation will be led by Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi.
