ANKARA (Dispatches) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Sunday to bring peace and safety to Iraq and areas in Syria not under Turkish control, adding that terrorist organizations in the area would be eliminated.
Speaking in the southeastern province of Mus, Erdogan also said the attacks against Turkey were similar to previous attempts to invade Anatolia, warning that such an event would lead to the collapse of surrounding regions.
"Don’t forget, Anatolia is a wall and if this wall collapses, there will no longer be a Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, Balkans or Caucasus.”
The remarks came days after United Nations Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura invited Iran, Russia and Turkey to talks due to be held in Geneva next month on forming Syria's Constitutional Committee.
"Special Envoy de Mistura continues his consultation on the establishment of a Syrian-led, Syrian-owned and UN facilitated Constitutional Committee within the framework of the Geneva process and in accordance with Security Council Resolution 22-54 2015," Alessandra Vellucci said at a news conference on Friday.
"In this context, Special Envoy de Mistura has invited Iran, the Russian Federation and Turkey for formal consultations at the United Nations office at Geneva on 11 and 12th September 2018 to work on the Constitutional Committee," she added.
The talks on forming a committee to draft a new constitution for Syria will be made up of representatives of the Syrian government and the opposition.
The negotiations are expected to be followed by parallel UN talks involving United States; however, no exact date has been fixed yet.
Iran, Russia and Turkey, as guarantor states for a peace process in Syria, expressed their firm determination in late July to counter any plot aimed at partitioning the Arab country.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the country.
All initiatives with the purpose of putting an end to Syria's seven-year-old conflict have failed so far.
The ninth round of crisis resolution talks between the Syrian government and armed opposition, mediated by Iran, Russia and Turkey, came to an end in the Kazakh capital of Astana in May, building a positive outlook for momentous follow-up negotiations.