Ankara discusses Syria's future providing its territorial integrity with Russia, Iran - Turkish PM
MOSCOW. Dec 7 (Interfax) - Ankara is holding negotiations with Moscow and Tehran on the future of the Syrian Arab Republic with an emphasis on the preservation of Syria's territorial integrity and the elaboration of a new constitution, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said.
"No doubt, our biggest interest is the future of tomorrow's Syria. We are maintaining close contacts with Russia, Iran and other regional countries on this subject and are discussing what will happen to Syria in the future. Hopefully, we will soon reach good agreements to the effect," he told Interfax in an interview, following the visit to Moscow and the meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
"It is now possible to build a new Syria on condition that its territorial integrity is preserved and a new constitution is drafted with due account of interests of every ethnic element present on that territory," he said.
As to whether federalization of Syria is possible and whether it was being discussed between Turkey and other countries, he said, "Turkey does not want any change in Syria's national and territorial integrity."
"From the very beginning, we have been explicitly adherent to our original statement: Syria's territorial integrity must be preserved, and Syria must exist only for Syrians and must belong only to Syrians. People of various nationalities should live side-by-side: local Syrians, Syrian Turkmen, Turkmen, Kurds and Alawites, all those who were successfully co-existing on that territory in the past and who could do so in the future," the Turkish prime minister said.
"We want the ongoing humanitarian tragedy on that territory to stop and we want peace to be brought to that land. Our country is affected in the first turn by the refugee situation and terrorist attacks," Yildirim said.