Ankara Condemns Anti-Turkey Protests in North Syria
Ankara has condemned anti-Turkey demonstrations in northern Syria, asserting that a recent child abuse incident involving a Syrian man and subsequent protests in Kayseri were "exploited for provocations."
"Turkey's efforts and principled stance for the well-being of the Syrian people are above all provocations," said a Foreign Ministry statement issued late on July 1.
Clashes between armed protesters and Turkish forces in Syria's Ankara-controlled northwest have resulted in four deaths, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Protests followed a rampage against Syrian businesses and properties in central Turkey where a Syrian man had been accused of harassing a child a day earlier.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X that the child involved was also a Syrian girl related to her alleged harasser.
The Britain-based monitor said hundreds of people demonstrated throughout the territory, with three killed in Afrin and one in Jarablos.
Armed gunmen reportedly fired at Turkish trucks in Al-Bab, and other protesters removed Turkish flags and attempted to storm the Jarablus border crossing, prompting border guards to open fire.
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç announced a probe into the incidents in northern Syria, citing charges of "insulting the signs of the sovereignty of the state."
Earlier on July 1, Turkish police detained 67 individuals following the rampage in Kayseri.
"These acts against the Turkish Republic will not be allowed in any way," local media quoted security sources as saying.
The Interior Ministry and police were coordinating and monitoring events both inside Turkey and in northern Syria, "taking the necessary interventions," the sources added.
The interim government in Syria also condemned the acts against the Turkish flag in a written statement.
"Our people living in the liberated areas not to heed provocative calls aiming to undermine the existing alliance between the Turkish and Syrian people and to attack properties and institutions built with the sacrifices of the Turkish army and the Syrian National Army," it said.
Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pointed to a possible meeting with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, saying it was "not impossible."
Source: HDN
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