ANKARA, February 18. /TASS/. The countries willing to keep Syria from falling apart should deal with President Bashar Assad, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News published on Monday.

"Assad is the legitimate president of Syria; he is the leader of that country. You may or may not like him. He is a state leader, he has a people, armed forces and intelligence. If you want to be among countries that want to save the destiny of Syria, you should deal with Assad," Peskov said.

According to Peskov, "Western countries are making mistakes all the time, but we should make the same mistakes."

"There was [former Libyan leader Muammar] Gaddafi… He was said to be a bad guy, he was killed later. The country was also killed along with him," Peskov stressed.

"Now they are saying [Venezuelan President Nicolas] Maduro is a bad guy and that we should change him. What if tomorrow they say they don’t want Erdogan or [Russian President Vladimir] Putin? What happens then? Who has the right to decide on this? We should not make a mistake," he stated.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly stated that it’s impossible to cooperate with Assad. According to Erdogan’s Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, if needed the Turkish and Syrian intelligence services could hold direct or indirect contacts to solve certain issues.