ISTANBUL, December 7. /TASS/. Turkey has no territorial claims to Syria and stands for a prompt peace settlement in the neighboring country, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a congress of the ruling Justice and Development Party, according to TRT Haber television.
"I would like to say very loud and clear that we have no territorial claims to Syria. We want the neighboring country to find, as soon as possible, peace, stability and tranquility, which it has been craving for 13 years now," he said.
"Our brothers and sisters, Turkey is a country that wants for its neighbors what it wants for itself. Only the Syrian people will decide the future of their country. It will not help anyone to pour oil on the fire," Erdogan went on to say, calling on leading countries and international organizations to help a political settlement in Syria.
"We want to see a Syria where people of different ethnicities and faiths live side by side, where no one's rights and freedoms are infringed and peace reigns," the president continued. "New realities have come to Syria. We hope to see this Syria in the very near future."
On November 27, the Jabhat al-Nusra extremist group (banned in Russia) carried out a major attack in northern Syria. The Syrian military command later said the army had to fall back from Aleppo to regroup and prepare for a counterattack.
On December 5, the command of the Syrian Armed Forces announced that militants infiltrated into several neighborhoods of Hama. According to a statement from the command, government forces in charge of defending Hama were pulled out of the city.