Erdogan said that Turkey can no longer cope with the growing refugee problem alone and calling on the EU to expand burden-sharing.
“Depending on the depth of the safe zone, we can provide the settlement of two to three million Syrian asylum-seekers who are currently in Turkey and Europe by securing the east of Euphrates,” Erdogan said speaking on the occasion of the start of the new academic year in Ankara on Sept. 18.
Erdogan’s remarks came as Turkey and the U.S. are in a process of accomplishing the technicalities about a safe zone they agreed to on Aug. 7 to set up in the Kurdish region of Syria.
They have established a joint coordination center in Akcakale district of the border province of Sanliurfa and carried out a ground patrolling mission as well as five reconnaissance flights in the region. However, there is still no clarity on the depth of the zone and by whom it will be controlled. Turkey presses on the U.S. that the enclave should be 30 kilometers deep in Syria.
Erdogan warned that Turkey will have to act unilaterally and enter the northeastern Syria if the U.S. does not agree on the terms of the safe zone in two weeks.
“We will activate our own operation plan [for safe zone] if there would be no result [out of these talks] in two weeks,” he stressed.
Turkey has reinforced its military deployment along the Turkish-Syrian border in a sign of its preparedness for a unilateral incursion into northeastern Syria.
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