Erdogan Justifies Entering Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that the peace operation he ordered in northeastern Syria was stimulated by the failure of the international community to help Turkey with millions of immigrants.

Erdogan spoke to the Wall Street Journal and stressed that no country has felt the burden of the humanitarian crisis more severely than Turkey since the Syrian civil war and the Arab Springs in 2011.

Erdogan claims that Ankara has reached its limit, and adds that the international community ignored Turkey's indications of its incapacity to care for more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees without support.

"My administration concluded that the international community wasn’t going to act, so we developed a plan for northern Syria… with no other alternative to deal with the refugee crisis, the international community should either join our efforts or begin taking in refugees." Erdogan told the WSJ.

The Turkish President highlighted that the world community’s futile attempts to prevent the Syrian crisis from pulling an entire region into a frenzy of insecurity has been deemed unsuccessful. He added that many countries have needed to deal with the conflict’s destructive side-effects, involving uncontrollable migration and an increasing number of terrorist attacks.

"Operation Peace Spring represents a second chance to help Turkey end proxy wars in Syria and restore peace and stability to the region. the European Union—and the world—should support what Turkey is trying to do,” Erdogan said.

By Beka Alexishvili

Image source: Wall Street Journal