Off the wire
• Roundup: Fighting continues in Afghanistan's Helmand as 32 more Talibans killed  • Podolski resigns from Germany squad  • Russia fears terrorists to benefit from humanitarian aid airdrops in Syria  • DR Congo declares 3-day national mourning after massacre  • Economic Watch: Connecting the dots of the transforming Chinese economy  • Transparent political funding key to ensure fair elections: Namibian official  • Europe's biggest hot air balloon festival concludes in Bristol  • Aussie swimming requires major overhaul before Tokyo 2020: Aussie swim greats  • Russia, Germany urge all parties to focus on peace process in Ukraine  • Urgent: Zambia's incumbent President Lungu wins re-election  
You are here: 　 Home

Turkey PM proposes 3-step roadmap on Syria crisis

Xinhua, August 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has proposed a three-step roadmap to solve a five-year-old war in Syria, local media reported on Monday.

In an interview with daily Karar, Yildirim said that the time has come for Turkey to mend relations with Syria after Ankara took steps for rapprochement with Israel and Russia.

In his roadmap, Yildirim called for excluding the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria from the political process.

"A state structure like the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria will be out of the question," he said.

Turkey considers the PYD and its military wing, the People's Protection Unit (YPG) as offshoots of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU.

But the U.S. sees the PYD and YPG as reliable partners in the fight against the Islamic State (IS).

Yildirim said that any of Syria's sectarian, ethnic or regional formations should have no supremacy over the others, and that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will have no place in the long run.

He demanded that Syrians who fled their war-torn country to other regional states, including Turkey, should return to their homeland under a plan.

Turkey hosts around 3 million refugees, most of whom from Syria.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011. Since then, more than 250,000 people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to the United Nations, which stopped counting two years ago. Endit