Turkey to support potential US-led no-fly zone on Syria: Erdogan

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan says Ankara will support the United States if Washington plans to impose a no-fly zone on Syria.

“Right from the beginning… we would say ‘yes,’” Erdogan stated in response to a question during an interview with NBC News on Thursday that whether Turkey would back such a potential move by the US against Syria.

The Syrian government says Turkey has been playing a key role in fueling the unrest in Syria by financing, training, and arming the militants since the turmoil erupted in March 2011.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in April that Turkey’s government “officially harbors terrorists and sends them into Syria.”

On March 19, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) Admiral James Stavridis, who is the commander of US European Command, said the member states of the military alliance had held negotiations over enforcing a no-fly zone over Syria and providing lethal support to the militant groups, the Washington Post reported.

In another part of the NBC interview, the Turkish premier further reiterated claims that Syria had used chemical weapons in its fight against foreign-sponsored militants.

Contrary to Erdogan’s unfounded allegations, the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria said on May 5 that it found testimony from victims and medical staff that showed militants had used the nerve agent sarin in Syria, which has been classified as a weapon of mass destruction in UN Resolution 687.

The UN commission of inquiry also said that it could not find any evidence that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons against militants.

On March 19, over two dozen people were killed and many others injured when militants fired missiles containing a chemical substance into a village near the northwestern city of Aleppo, according to a report by Syria’s official news agency SANA.

The Turkish prime minister also said in the interview that the United States should “assume more responsibilities and take further steps” regarding the issue of chemical weapons in Syria, “And what sort of steps they will take, we are going to talk about this.”