Al-Assad: Turkey Supports Terrorists Killing Syrians
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused Turkey of supporting terrorists who commit atrocities against the people in Syria.
In an interview with the Turkish Cumhuriyet daily published Wednesday, al-Assad stressed that "Turkey has supplied all logistic support to the terrorists who have killed our people."
"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 in Syria," he added.
According to the Syrian President, the "period is historical during which the map of the whole region is being drawn."
"During the past fifteen months, i.e. since the crisis began, we tried to work on more than one front. First, to solve the internal crisis in Syria and confront the terrorists," he confirmed.
Al-Assad highlighted that his leadership "tried and maintained what was achieved in the Syrian-Turkish relations. However, with every speech, with every step, with every decision taken by the current Turkish government there was an attempt to destroy these relations."
"The Turkish people know that this Turkish government wants to drag it to a confrontation for private interests, not for national interests," he assumed.
On the recently downed Turkish jet, Al-Assad clarified the following: "There are two options: that we downed it deliberately, as they claim, or that we downed it by mistake outside our territorial waters. If there was a mistake, and we downed the aircraft outside our territorial waters, we have no problem to say so and to apologize officially.
What happened in fact is that the aircraft was downed with the smallest caliber gun used against aircraft. Its range is between two and two and a half kilometers....Let them publish what they have. But they are lying. We downed the aircraft, and we didn't know its identity until it was announced by Turkey. Up till now, we want to assume goodwill, that there was a mistake made by the pilot maybe. We in Syria dealt with the subject as we deal with any other accident.
We do not wish for such an incident to happen with any non-hostile aircraft, let alone with a Turkish aircraft. But on the other hand, any unidentified aircraft, an in the same circumstances, even if it the aircraft were Syrian, it would be considered an enemy aircraft. These are military rules of engagement, not political rules, and I believe that they exist in most countries of the world.
On the Geneva Syrian meeting, al-Assad mentioned that "there were clear points in what Kofi Annan and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said. First, that the Syrian people decide, and this is our position in Syria. Violence should stop first, and this is our position in Syria."
He also mentioned that "the armed groups should be disarmed, and this is our position. Hands stained with Syrian blood, as Kofi Annan said, do not exist only in Syria, but outside Syria as well. This shows the role of the other countries which have been involved."
These points are essential for us, but the most important thing is that everything should be decided inside Syria, not outside it.
In parallel, the Head of the Syrian state highlighted that "what American officials say has no credibility in general as the American position is already hostile to Syria in this crisis."
"They are part of the problem. They support the terrorists very clearly," he said.
Al-Assad emphasized: "Regionally and internationally they have nothing to do with us. We do not accept anything imposed on us from the outside. Everything will be decided internally."
" If I personally were interested in just holding this office, I would have implemented America's dictates and the demands made through petrodollars, I would have accepted to sell my stances and principles in return for petrodollars, and what's more important, I would have accepted the installation of a missile shield in Syria," he explained.
Source: SANA, Edited by moqawama.org
