Damascus Slams Turkey’s Plan to Open Schools in Syria

Date: 08 February 2021 - 21:24

News ID: ۸۷۴۱۲

DAMASCUS (Dispatches) –Damascus has categorically rejected Turkey’s decision to open a faculty and higher institute affiliated to Istanbul University north of Syria’s Aleppo, as a dangerous act and a flagrant violation of the international law.
"Syria rejects the Turkish regime’s decision to open a faculty and higher institute affiliated to Istanbul University in al-Raei town, north of Aleppo,” an official source at Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The statement added that the Turkish step is a dangerous act which aims to expand Turkey’s invasions of territories under Syria’s sovereignty in a flagrant violation of the international law and the UN Charter.
It added that the decision constitutes a continuation of Turkey’s practices in igniting and prolonging the crisis in Syria, and supporting terrorist parties and organizations to serve the agendas of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s "regime and to achieve his ambitions and Ottoman illusions”.
"Syria affirms that the attacks of the Turkish regime on its sovereignty, including the building of the so-called (separation wall) and adopting the policy of Turkification at the schools, in addition to dealing in the Turkish Lira, and opening an authority for the Turkish Post have been pretexts behind which this regime hides to justify its terrorist practices,” a source said.
The source renewed Syria’s demand that the UN Security Council shoulder its responsibilities in preserving international peace and security and ending the "crimes and attacks launched by the Turkish regime” against the Syrian people and the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The reaction came after Ankara announced it will open a healthcare vocational school and a medical faculty in Syria’s al-Rai town.
Ankara said the medical school will be established under the auspices of Turkey’s Health Sciences University in Aleppo province’s northern town, which is under the control of Turkish-backed militants.
In another incident, Turkish-backed militants have deprived several villages in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah of electricity for more than a month, as they continue to commit various crimes against local populations.
Syria’s official news agency SANA quoted Director of Hasakah Electricity Department Anwar al-Okleh as saying on Monday that a total of 24 villages in the Tal Tamer region of the Kurdish-populated province have been suffering from persistent power outages for more than a month due to the Turkish-backed militants’ deliberate attacks on the electricity networks.
He also noted that the militants have stolen transformers and high voltage transmission lines, making it impossible to provide electricity to four villages in the southwestern countryside of Tal Tamer that are fed with electricity through the lines coming from the Mabruka electricity transformer station.
Mabruka power station is located within the areas occupied by the Turkish occupation mercenaries, and it cannot be currently fed with electricity from Tal Tamir station as this requires networks and towers, and they are not available currently, according to the official.
Turkey has been involved militarily in the Syrian conflict since early 2011. It has provided the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) with military assistance throughout the conflict.
In 2018 and 2019, Turkey launched cross-border military operations in northern Syria with the declared aim of eliminating Syrian Kurdish militants of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara regards as a terrorist organization tied to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The Turkish military presence is viewed by the Syrian government as an attack against the Arab country’s sovereignty.