Feltman: Turkey is playing an important role

YAYINLAMA
GÜNCELLEME

US  Assistant Secretary of  State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said Turkey had a positive and important role regarding developments in Syria.Feltman said Turkey was playing an extremely positive and important role regarding developments in Syria."It's worth remembering that one of, I think, the Assad family's foreign policy successes -- probably from their own view -- would be the rapprochement that first the father, then the son were able to have with Turkey from 1998 moving forward.," Feltman said during a hearing of the Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs Subcommittee.Feltman said Turkey had played an important role in a couple of areas, first of all Turkey had provided basically save haven on Turkish soil for Syrian refugees."Turkey is hosting somewhere between 7,500 and 8,000 refugees roughly on Turkish soil now, protecting them from the brutality of the Assad regime that they fled," he said.Feltman said, "second, Turkey's providing facilitation space for opposition to organize, for the opposition to talk to themselves. There's very little ability for these courageous activists inside Syria to get together because they clearly have no rights for peaceful protests, their rights for speech, freedom of expression, not being at all respected. And so Turkey is providing some space for the organization, for the opposition forces to meet to discuss, to try tolay out a vision. So it's an extremely important role that Turkey's playing.""And Turkey has, in essence, put on a de facto arms embargo to make sure that arms aren't flowing through Turkey back to the clique around Bashar al-Assad to use against his own people. So I -- we think Turkey's playing an extremely positive, important role here. Feltman said the United States wanted Turkey to continue what it was doing because it was having a real impact."