Assad Accuses Turkey of Meddling in Syrian Affairs
14:56 04/07/2012
MOSCOW, July 4 (RIA Novosti) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has accused Turkey of meddling in Syrian internal affairs by providing support to the opposition, in an interview with Turkish Cumhuriyet daily published on Wednesday.
"Turkey's desire to interfere in Syria's internal affairs has put it in a position which unfortunately makes it a party to all the bloody activities," Assad said, adding that Turkey “has supplied all logistic support to the terrorists who have killed our people.”
Assad, who has been a close friend of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan until recently, said that Ankara had “its own agenda” towards Syria.
“He [Erdogan] would like the terrorists in Syria to be free, not to be pressured and arrested,” Assad said.
Assad’s comment comes after the Turkish state broadcaster TRT Haber said on Tuesday that 85 Syrian soldiers, including an artillery general and 14 lower-ranking officers had defected and fled to Turkey where they are to be given logistic support and are allowed to freely cross the border.
Ankara however has denied arming the rebels.
More than 35,000 Syrians have fled into Turkey since violence broke out in Syria in March 2011 as the government cracked down on a popular uprising against Assad, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).
In the first part of Assad’s interview with Cumhuriyet, the Syrian leader said that he regretted that Syrian troops had shot down a Turkish warplane, an F-4 Phantom on June 22.
Syria has insisted it engaged the fighter "according to the laws that govern such situations" after it strayed into its airspace. Turkey says the plane was in international airspace.
In an interview with another Turkish paper, Vatan, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu dismissed on Tuesday Assad’s regrets, calling them a “lie.”
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