‘Turkey shot self in foot over Syria’

The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party Kemal Kilicdaroglu says that Ankara has shot itself in the foot with its hostile anti-Syria policy.

During a speech in the southern city of Adana, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) condemned Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s stance towards Damascus.

Kilicdaroglu accused Erdogan of siding with Saudi Arabia and Qatar against the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

He said that the Turkish government’s stance towards Syria is not in line with his country’s national interests, but instead serves that of the US, Germany, and France.

The opposition leader further warned Ankara against anti-Syria policies by saying that they would leave Turkey isolated in the region. He said Turkey should focus on gaining allies in the region instead of turning them away.

Qatar has recently allowed the Syrian opposition to open an embassy in its capital Doha. This is while the original Syrian embassy in Doha remains closed.

In February, Kilicdaroglu criticized Erdogan’s policy regarding Syria, calling it a “grave mistake.” He also said that as a result of Ankara’s financial and military support for the Syrian opposition, increasing numbers of Syrian people were losing their lives.

Protests have been held in Turkey against the government’s anti-Syria policies over the past months.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of Army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.

The Syrian government has said that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and that a very large number of the militants operating in the country are foreign nationals.

Several international human rights organizations have accused foreign-sponsored militants of committing war crimes.