Turkey's opposition to Kurdish participation in intra-Syrian talks undermines chance to salvage Syria - Churkin
MOSCOW. Feb 11 (Interfax) - Turkey's position on the issue of Kurdish involvement in the intra-Syrian talks undermines the idea of preserving Syria's territorial integrity, said Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations.
"It is for that reason that Russia has favored the Syrian Kurds' participation in the talks, while the Turkish government, odd as it may seem, has been opposed to it, and by pushing the Syrian Kurds away from the negotiating table, it has thus been pushing away the idea of preserving the territorial integrity of the Syrian state. This Turkish strategy is very odd," Churkin said on the Russia Today television channel on Thursday.
He was commenting on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's accusations that Russia is planning to create a dwarf state within Syria.
