Erdogan pitches Syria no-fly zone to US, Russia

Turkey will continue rendering humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees, the TRT Haber news channel quoted Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying Sept.5.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Monday on Monday he that proposed a “no fly zone ” in Northern Syria to the USA and Russian Federation, the setting up of a no-fly zone in northern Syria, CNN Turk reports.

And given the frosty faces of Presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama in photographs of them meeting at the G20 summit in China, it seems little surprise that they were unable to reach a deal on ending the violence in Syria.

Turkey launched an ambitious operation inside Syria on August 24, sending tanks and special forces in to back opposition fighters. Ankara, fighting a Kurdish insurgency at home, calls both groups terrorist organisations.

“A no-fly zone could be set up there, and that was my suggestion to both Obama and Putin”.

The Turkish president added that achieving a ceasefire in Aleppo is one of the most important issues for Turkey and Russian Federation.

The G20 agreed to put together an intensive process of gathering all the data, determining steps need to be taken, and which would be reported at next year’s G20 in Hamburg where specific policy decisions will be made, Obama said.

Ankara has often called for a safe-zone inside Syria, backed up with a no-fly zone, as it is now hosting more than 2.5 million refugees who fled the over five-year civil war. An internationally-policed no-fly zone would be needed to protect the area from aerial bombardment.

In China, Erdogan said he told all world leaders at the Antalya summit a year ago that “in Syria a safe zone could be set up. and we could solve the refugee crisis”. “Now at this summit too, we have brought up this issue with all our friends”.