* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)
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President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has spoken at the weekly group meeting of his party.
Erdoğan previously announced that he would declare what steps would be taken about the escalating tension and recent attacks in Syria's Idlib at the AKP group meeting today (February 12).
Accordingly, President Erdoğan has indicated that "as of today, if any harm comes to Turkey's troops at the observation posts or anywhere else, Turkey will hit the regime forces anywhere without limiting itself to Idlib and to the boundaries of the Sochi Memorandum."
Erdoğan has made the following remarks about the latest situation in Idlib and Turkey's planned course of action as of now:
'We won't be a mere onlooker'
"Those who keep talking about human rights, children, women and civilian concerns have lapsed into a deep silence in the face of all these attacks. We also know well that some of the statements of concern about Idlib are driven not by respect for human life and dignity but by other motives.
"Turkey will not be a mere onlooker to this situation even if everyone turns a blind eye to, turns their backs on and puts their conscience on hold about it.
"Let me reiterate that most of the attacks carried out in Idlib by the regime and the Russians as well as by the forces, who act together with the regime, target directly civilians, not terrorists.
"The aim there is to empty the ground completely by forcing local people to move towards our borders in order to easily occupy the area.
'By the end of February...'
"We are determined to push the regime out of the borders of the Sochi Memorandum - back behind our observation posts - by the end of February.
"To achieve that, we will do whatever is necessary on the ground and in the air without any hesitation and without allowing any stalling.
"We will not wait for the outcome of those endless meetings and will take steps to do whatever we need to do right now.
'We will exert all our power'
"On the ground, we will chase the regime forces out of the borders we have determined. I hereby declare that, as of today, if any harm comes to our troops at the observation posts or anywhere else, we will hit the regime forces anywhere without limiting ourselves to Idlib and to the boundaries of the Sochi Memorandum [signed by Russia and Turkey in October 2019].
"Anyone who targets Turkey must know that they will pay the price everywhere, not only on the site of the attack.
"With the awareness that if we today abstain from engaging in struggle in Syria, we will have to do it on our lands tomorrow, we will exert all our power.
"It must not be forgotten that the Syrian people's fight for freedom is also a struggle for permanence of 83 million citizens of the Republic of Turkey." (TP/SD)
