Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 1
By Orkhan Quluzade – Trend:
Turkey aims to completely clear Syria up from the “Islamic State” (IS, aka ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) terrorist group, TRT Haber reports citing the country’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Cavusoglu made the remarks at the joint press conference with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The Turkish army is currently is Syria for this purpose, according to Cavusoglu.
"It is not possible to completely remove the terrorist threat in Syria without securing political stability. We see the future restoration of the political stability in Syria without Assad's reign, and this is the main difference in our views with Russia,” he said.
However, such divergence in positions on a number of issues is quite normal, Cavusoglu added.
On Aug. 24 morning, the Turkish Air Force, with the support of the coalition aircraft, launched an operation to liberate the city of Jarabulus from the IS militants in northern Syria, near Aleppo.
The operation was dubbed the Shield of the Euphrates. Syria has been suffering from an armed conflict since March 2011, which, according to the UN, has so far claimed over 500,000 lives.
Militants from various armed groups are confronting the Syrian government troops. The IS, YPG and PYD are the most active terrorist groups in Syria.