H.E. Mr. Levent Murat Burhan:

No, I will try to give succinct answers. Several distinguished members have mentioned the current situation in Syria. As I have said to the people who I met over the last couple of weeks, the reason Turkey had to intervene in Syria was because of an existential national security threat. To us, the situation in Syria is what Brexit is for Ireland and the EU.

Some members said Turkey was against the Kurds. I respectfully disagree because I cannot accept that we are against the Kurds. One must differentiate between the Kurds and PKK, the terrorist organisation. YPG is an offshoot of the PKK in Syria and I have provided some information in that context. It is the same terrorist organisation and does not represent any segment of Syrian society or Syrian Kurds. The YPG forces control areas in northern Syria but 350,000 Syrian Kurds took refuge in Turkey. Why?

We want to protect the territorial integrity of Syria, and we always state that at all levels but that is not the same for YPG, which is a terrorist organisation. I have provided a list of attacks. More than 300 rocket and mortar attacks have been launched across the border into the Turkish side and caused civilian casualties during the last two years. In addition, our friends and allies provide arms and ammunition to the YPG forces because they said they would fight Daesh. However, the same arms and ammunition have been smuggled through tunnels into the Turkish side and given to the PKK whose members are fighting Turkish security forces and caused a lot of deaths in the civilian population.

Deputy Crowe mentioned Abdullah Öcalan. He is the leader of the PKK organisation and YPG is part of the umbrella organisation of Koma Civakên Kurdistaný, KCK, whose members also recognise Abdullah Öcalan as their leader. The organisations use different names but they are all part of the same terrorist organisation and we should not consider them as representing Kurdish people anywhere in the region.

We have excellent relations with the northern Iraqi-Kurdish administration. I have been in Erbil, for example. A lot of trade takes place and many Turkish companies are active in the region. If one checks the figures about Turkey on the Internet one will see that the ruling party gets more votes in the south-eastern region and provinces than the party that claims to represent Kurdish people. One cannot say that Turkey is against the Kurds, rather one must remember that Turkey is fighting a terrorist organisation. My Government and State have an obligation and responsibility to protect its own citizens. Many terrorist attacks came from the Syrian side so we had to intervene. We have intervened twice before. First, it was Operation Euphrates Shield, which was completely against the Daesh forces. Our allies claimed that YPG forces were fighting Daesh. However, during the Iraq co-operation the BBC discovered the special deals that the YPG terrorists made with the Daesh terrorists and how they let them go. The same thing happened during the recent operation. The YPG opened a prison and set all of the Daesh prisoners free. Today, the Minister of the Interior in Turkey released a statement that one of the important guys of Daesh was caught in Syria. The YPG has a completely different agenda and does not support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Syria. In fact, we do.

In terms of YPG, international reports have been mentioned. I have provided reports by Amnesty International and other international organisations on how the YPG violated human rights and treated the local people, which led to 360,000 people seeking refuge in Turkey. The YPG oppressed and intimidated the local population, particularly Syrian Kurds. The YPG forcibly displaced them, and forcibly recruited child soldiers and underage soldiers.

We have to make the differentiation that there was really a national security threat which is accepted also as a legitimate security concern by the US, Russia and in some EU documents these legitimate security concerns are recognised. As is the case with the previous two interventions we tried to establish stability in that region. First we tried to stop this security threat on the Turkish side and then establish stability and security there to lay the ground for the safe and voluntary return of displaced Syrians. That has been the case in the western part of Syria, next to the borders with the Afrin region. For example, 365,000 were returned to the Afrin region according to the latest figures. This region is a majority Syrian-Kurdish populated area and now a local administration has been set up there composed of a Syrian-Kurdish majority. The chair of that local administration is also a Syrian Kurd. We have no secret, hidden agenda vis-à-visSyria. Our aim is to prevent any kind of terror threat towards Turkish national security; to enforce Syria's territorial integrity and unity; to free local people from YPG's operation; and to lay the ground for the safe and voluntary return of Syrians. When I say safe and voluntary they have, as I said, returned 365,000 to Afrin. They returned voluntarily to their original places of residence. We are not forcing anybody. We are working with the UN especially with UN in order to co-ordinate this in accordance with international humanitarian laws.

In this Afrin region, which has a majority Syrian-Kurd population, we built three new hospitals, three more were repaired and equipped by us and now 2,000 Syrians are employed in these six hospitals. We have built and refurbished schools for 330,000 students in the Afrin region. We have repaired the Mydanki dam providing running water; infrastructure has been repaired; electricity is provided in the Azaz region with generators provided by us; and the Jarablus region receives electricity from Turkey. We opened a new border from Afrin to Turkey in order to facilitate trade routes and supported the agriculture there. We do not have any secret agendas vis-à-visSyria. We just want Syria to have stability, security and peace because it is also in our interests to have stability and security along our borders. This has not been the case so far. If we look to the future of Syria we want the future of Syria to be decided by a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process based on UN Security Council Resolution 2254. The constitutional committee has been established and we have contributed to the formation of this committee and hope that it will finalise its work as quickly as possible. We want the return of the Syrian refugees but this return should be safe, dignified, voluntary and to their original places of residence and should be co-ordinated with the UN. We are ready to help them to improve; as I said there is a humanitarian infrastructure and we are giving the same kind of humanitarian aid liberated by the Turkish peacekeeping operation in the eastern part of the Turkish Syria border. We have provided assistance, together with our Red Crescent and AFAD which is the national agency for natural disasters and emergencies and we are co-operating with the UN Disaster Risk Reduction, UNDRR, and other UN-related non-governmental organisations.