Turkish officials deny Syria "buffer zone" report

Turkish officials denied a report yesterday by a local broadcaster that Ankara was planning a buffer zone along its border with Syria to prevent an influx of refugees. CNN Turk carried the report on-screen and online but later removed the item from its website. It gave no source and did not say what form a buffer zone would take. The name implied some encroachment by Turkish forces beyond the border into Syria. But Defence Minister Ismet Yilmaz said Turkey did not want to establish such an area on the Syrian border. "We do not want to create ... a buffer zone," state-run Anatolian news agency quoted him as saying. Officials from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office and from the foreign ministry also denied the CNN report. It came a day after Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that his military operations against civilians must end immediately and unconditionally. With Assad defying international pressure and Syrian refugees crossing over the border into Turkey, media have previously reported that Turkish political and military leaders were considering setting up a buffer zone inside Syria.