President of the Syrian Coalition Anas Alabdah said that Turkey has the right to intervene in Syria and establish a safe zone along its border according to the Adana agreement, which was signed by the two countries in 1998.
Speaking in front of students of Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University in the Turkish city of Bilecik during a visit on Wednesday, Alabdah said that this move would allow Turkey to secure its borders with Syria as well as allow the return of the Syrian refugees in Turkey to their homes.
Alabdah was accompanied by member of the Syrian Coalition’s political committee Abdul Ahad Steifo.
Alabdah and Steifo also participated in a conference on the latest developments in Syria that discussed the Syrian Revolution and current regional and international balances.
“Syrian refugees in Turkey cannot now return to their homes because of the systematic bombing against civilians by the Assad regime,” Alabdah said, expressing hope that Turkey will eventually invoke the agreement and establish a safe zone in northern Syria.
“Turkey is an important regional player in the Middle East and it will undoubtedly play an important role in the reconstruction of Syria.”
Alabdah went on to say that the Assad regime “has hijacked the Syrian state and established an unholy alliance with Iran and Russia which has never been in the interests of the Syrian people.”
“Russia and Iran are partners to the crimes the Assad regime commits against the Syrian people,” he stressed.
“Nonetheless, Russia’s massive support for the Assad regime over the past five years, coupled with the Iranian-backed foreign militias fighting alongside the Assad regime, has so far failed to crush the revolution.”
Alabdah pointed out that Iran is seeking to establish itself as a regional power through its intervention in Syria, adding that Iran is using the nuclear deal it signed with the West to further its projects in the region.
Alabdah noted that “the al-Assad regime and its allies, and unfortunately some of our friends, try to use the enormous suffering of the Syrian people to impose unfair political settlement.”
“Those believe that peace, security, and humanitarian aid are the Syrian people’s ultimate demands, unaware of the fact that the revolution will not stop at this point. Indeed, the Syrian people retook to the streets the moment the Geneva talks were restarted, chanting out the slogans they have chanted since the beginning of the revolution, namely; ‘the People want the downfall of the regime.’” (Source: Syrian Coalition)
