"Our priority in Idlib is the immediate return to the Sochi Memorandum"

 

Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın held a press conference following the meeting of the Presidential Cabinet at the Presidential Complex.

“Today, several presentations were made during the 23rd Cabinet Meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Cabinet Meeting began with Mr. President’s remarks. Reviewing the general agenda, Mr. President addressed his visit to Pakistan last week. He also touched upon his foreign visits in the period ahead. As you know, we will pay a visit to Azerbaijan on February 25, and hold the meeting of the High Level Strategic Council there.

We will have an important guest tomorrow. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan will pay a visit to our country. As you know, we have both historical and cultural relations, and increasingly strengthening political and economic relations.

Also, as you know, the Presidential Library will be inaugurated on Thursday. Besides being the biggest library of Turkey, the Presidential Library, we believe, will bring about a significant paradigm shift in reading, library science and in other fields in Turkey by serving everyone around the clock. On this occasion, a very important section of the Presidential Complex will have been completed, too. As you know, the library’s construction, which started in 2016, has recently been completed. Our books have been put on the shelves, and inshallah when it will be inaugurated on Thursday, nearly 1.5 million publications, including periodicals, will be in our library. And, this figure will rapidly increase from now on. As you know, there is almost no limit there in terms of e-books. Our library will, inshallah, have ushered in a new era in this field as well. As you know, there are very important collections in our library. Our library houses collections of many esteemed scholars, from the late Mehmet Şevket Eygi to Prof. İlber Ortaylı. We are very excited to inaugurate this library on Thursday.

The developments occurring in Syria and Idlib were obviously on top of our agenda. As you know, last week we discussed here with the Russian delegation especially the developments in Idlib. And our delegation held yesterday and today talks in Moscow as well.

Obviously, our priority in Idlib is the immediate return to the Sochi Memorandum. Our relevant officials held various talks and negotiations on taking necessary steps to protect especially our observation posts and civilians by once again sticking to the boundaries of the Idlib de-escalation zone, which we previously determined. They exchanged documents. The decision for the time being is to continue the negotiations.

We see from time to time that some statements of the Russian side do not accurately reflect the realities on the ground. We particularly see that some remarks and evaluations are made as to redraw the map by taking the changing circumstances into consideration. Let me correct this issue here.

First of all, the changing circumstances are not the realities of the ground but imposed ones. The boundaries of the Idlib de-escalation zone are clear. The boundaries, which were agreed upon nearly two years ago, and the positions of our military observation posts are clearly laid out. Our 12 military observation posts have been positioned based on that map. I would like to clearly note that consolidating certain impositions here or imposed conditions as the changing conditions on the ground is unacceptable for us. The Sochi memorandum, upon which we all agreed, is the reality of the ground. The second matter here is the security of our military observation posts there. The third matter is the situation of refugees and civilians. The fourth matter is ongoing political process in Syria, which has not been able to make progress due to regime’s sabotages.

It would be more felicitous to describe the realities on the ground like this. Turkey does not have its eye on Syria’s or any other countries’ lands. Let me also note that the argument that these lands belong to the regime, the state of Syria and it can conduct operations there anyway it wishes has no validity in our eyes. It cannot be imagined that Turkey and the international community stand idly by while hundreds of thousands of people are killed there and millions become refugees. We have fulfilled our humanitarian and political responsibilities and will continue to do so. President Erdoğan very clearly conveyed, during his address to the parliamentary group last week, our messages to the regime. Changing the locations of our military observation posts is out of the question. We will continue our fortifications and shipments there in order to protect our military observation posts and civilians. All should rest assured that in case of any attack or harassment against our troops, it will be responded in the strongest way possible as we did in recent weeks.

Another topic of international importance is of course the Libya issue, regarding which we maintain our adherence to the Berlin process that is carried on under the UN roof. Within this framework, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Çavuşoğlu had a follow-up meeting with relevant ministers on the margin of Munich Conference last week. He also held numerous bilateral talks. We have a very clear stance on this issue; that is we will continue to stand by the people of Libya within the framework of our relations with the Government of National Accord, which is recognized by the UN and the international community.

In this regard, I would like to note that we fully support the Berlin Conference’s decisions for the establishment of ceasefire and the convocation of political and military committees. However, this roadmap, recommended by the UN and agreed upon by the relevant countries, unfortunately keeps being violated, breached and undermined by Haftar on a daily basis. What is more, all these decisions notwithstanding, the Haftar side still continues to receive military aid. Militia forces, legionnaires and mercenaries continue under various names to sabotage the ceasefire process in Libya. Yet again, the Haftar side continues to blockade the oil reserves in Libya, thus causing harm to the entire Libya, including its people and economy. It is of course telling that the international community remains silent to this reckless, thuggish and spoilt attitude.

Amid all this, as you know, there emerged in the last two days some news suggesting that the EU was planning to launch a mission in order to inspect the arms embargo on Libya. First of all, I need to underline the following point: As overtly and clearly stipulated by the UN resolutions, such an inspection can only be undertaken under the UN roof and in consultation and cooperation with the Government of National Accord. This is a binding aspect of the relevant UN resolutions.

Secondly, the origin of these weapons and militias currently employed in Libya must be closely scrutinized. As such, I would like to emphasize the need to bring under control the eastern and southern regions. It is known by all the entire community from where and how these weapons and mercenaries are being delivered to Libya and how they undermine the political and military process in the country. The UN as well as all the relevant countries and neighboring states such as Algeria and Tunisia must take necessary steps in cooperation in order to put an end to these violations.

Our Minister of Health made a presentation about the measures taken against coronavirus. Turkey has taken the necessary measures against coronavirus, originating in Chinese city of Wuhan. Thankfully, we have not had any serious cases so far. It is predicted that the measures will continue to be effective.

Let me also note that the Chinese government has taken serious measures, been exerting significant efforts and managing the situation in a very transparent way. Since the beginning of the outbreak, they have implemented quarantine, shared information with the World Health Organization and other stakeholders and they did well in this test. Surely, they are faced with a huge challenge. No country desires to have such an outbreak on their lands. I would like to state that we will continue to stand by the Chinese government in the fight against coronavirus. We have sent certain supplies to China, including masks and medical equipment. More will come. At the directive of President Erdoğan, we will continue to cooperate closely with the Chinese authorities.

If our citizens have any questions or concerns about that matter, they can contact the relevant units of our Ministry of Health.

According to some estimations, it will peak in the days ahead and we hope the fight against the virus will be concluded soon. In this regard, we as Turkey will continue to be in close contact with China, the World Health Organization and other stakeholders.

As the final topic, I would like note that the issue of the fight against Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) was also on the agenda of the Cabinet meeting.

We have all seen how this organization had infiltrated various state bodies in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s; deceiving our citizens, innocent people and their young children; inflicting harm on Islam under the guise of faith, service and sincerity; and polarizing and playing our people off against one another, which all culminated in a bloody coup attempt on July 15. What we, as the whole nation, need to do is to cooperate and fight against this terrorist organization, which is an enemy of all Turkish citizens. We must all act in cooperation without making any such distinction as your side or my side in order to fully erase any trace and influence of this terrorist organization and to prevent it from resurfacing on these lands ever again. To this end, we will resolutely maintain the fight both at home and abroad in every field. No one should have any doubt on this issue. Let me underline that our unity and solidarity will be our most important response to this terrorist organization.”