President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has defended his decision to send ground troops into Syria, saying that his military’s incursion had helped establish “peace, balance and stability in a region taken over by hopelessness.”
Erdogan urged world leaders gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly to find an immediate political solution to the Syrian crisis that does not tolerate the “starve-or-surrender policy” employed by the Syrian government against opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.
Erdogan also renewed his request for a no-fly zone over the border area between Turkey and Syria. He has long pushed to establish a safe zone across the border to accommodate Syrian refugees and help curb the flow of migrants through Turkey and on to Europe.
Erdogan also called on world leaders to take measures against the organization of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric living in self-imposed exile in the United States whom Erdogan has accused of orchestrating a recent coup attempt in Turkey. Mr Gulen has denied involvement.
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