ISTANBUL. Turkey: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Russia must be held accountable for the people it has killed in Syria, saying Moscow and Damascus were together responsible for 400,000 deaths there, Dogan News Agency reported on Friday.
Speaking at a joint press conference with his Senegalese counterpart while on a state visit to the West African country, Erdogan also said Russia was engaged in an invasion of Syria and accused it of trying to set up a “boutique state” for its longtime ally President Bashar al Assad.
“Russia must be held accountable for the people it has killed within Syria’s borders,” Dogan quoted him as saying. “By cooperating with the regime, the number of people they have killed has reached 400,000.”
NATO's secretary general said that Russian airstrikes in Syria that mainly target opposition forces are "undermining efforts to find a political solution to the conflict."
Jens Stoltenberg says that increased Russian air force activity in Syria also is leading to increased violations of Turkish airspace.
Stoltenberg said Friday that "this creates risks, heightened tensions and is of course a challenge for NATO because they're violations of NATO's airspace."
He was speaking on the sidelines of an informal meeting of European Union defense ministers in Amsterdam.
A Turkish fighter jet downed a Russian bomber at the border with Syria on Nov. 24, the first time in more than half a century that a NATO member had shot down a Russian plane.
Turkey said another Russian warplane violated its airspace a week ago, and Turkish President Erdogan warned Moscow that it would be forced to "endure the consequences" if its jets continue to violate Turkish airspace.
'Let them in"
Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said some 15,000 Syrians fleeing Syrian and Russian bombings of Aleppo, Syria's largest city, have reached Turkey's borders, adding that tens of thousands more could also be on the way.
In a televised speech Friday, Davutoglu promised that Turkey would not leave the displaced "without food or shelter" but did not say whether the country intended to let them in.
The border gate between Syria and Turkey was closed on Friday and no refugee has been admitted, prompting the human rights advocacy group Amnesty International to call on Turkey to allow those who have massed at the border to cross in.
Amnesty's Global Issues Director Sherif Elsayed-Ali says Turkey "must not close its doors to people in desperate need of safety."
A Turkish charity said 50,000 people fleeing intense fighting in northern Syria have arrived at a Syrian-Turkish border crossing.
Serkan Nergis of the Islamic charity IHH says displaced Syrians began streaming toward the Bab al-Salam border crossing Thursday.
Nergis said Friday that the group is setting up tent camps in Syria near the crossing to provide temporary shelter. The charity runs about 10 camps for displaced Syrians along the frontier.
Earlier this week, Syrian troops backed by allied militias and intense Russian air strikes launched an offensive in northern Syria. It appears aimed at eventually encircling the contested city of Aleppo, Syria's largest.
Iranian troops
Iran's supreme leader, meanwhile, said Iranian forces must fight the Daesh group in Syria and Iraq to prevent the militant organization spreading to Iran.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comments, which were reported by Tasnim news agency Friday, closely followed the announced death of a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander in Syria.
Iranian officials have said that Iranians have an "obligation" to protect Syrian Shiite shrines.
Iran, a longtime ally of Assad, acknowledges that Iranian officers are providing an advisory role in Syria, but denies sending combat troops.
Several Iranian troops, including high-ranking officers, have been killed in Syria. On Saturday Iran will hold a funeral for Gen. Mohsen Ghajarian, a senior commander killed in recent fighting.
Erdogan: Russia must be held accountable for Syria killings
Erdogan: Russia must be held accountable for Syria killings
German parliament speaker visits Gaza
- Germany has been one of Israel’s staunchest supporters as the European power seeks to atone for the legacy of the Holocaust
BERLIN: The speaker of Germany’s lower house of parliament briefly visited the Israeli-controlled part of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the body told AFP.
Julia Kloeckner spent “about an hour in the part of Gaza controlled by Israeli army forces,” parliament said, becoming the first German official to visit the territory since Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023 that sparked the devastating war.
Since the start of the conflict, Israel has drastically restricted access to the densely populated coastal strip.
In a statement shared by her office, Kloeckner said it was essential for politicians to have access to “reliable assessments of the situation” in Gaza.
“I expressly welcome the fact that Israel has now, for the first time, granted me, a parliamentary observer, access to the Gaza Strip,” she said.
However, she was only able to gain a “limited insight” into the situation on the ground during her trip, she said.
Kloeckner appealed to Israel to “continue on this path of openness” and emphasized that the so-called yellow line, which designates Israeli military zones inside the Gaza Strip, must “not become a permanent barrier.”
The German foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.
Germany has been one of Israel’s staunchest supporters as the European power seeks to atone for the legacy of the Holocaust.
But in recent months, Chancellor Friedrich Merz has occasionally delivered sharp critiques of Israeli policy as German public opinion turns against Israel’s actions in Gaza.
In August, Germany imposed a partial arms embargo on Israel, which was lifted in November after the announcement of what has proved to be a fragile ceasefire for Gaza.
Merz visited Israel in December and reaffirmed Germany’s support.
But in a sign of lingering tension, Germany’s foreign ministry on Wednesday criticized Israeli plans to tighten control over the occupied West Bank as a step toward “de facto annexation.”
