Turkey: Erdogan warns countries against backing terror

ANKARA

In a veiled reference to world powers supporting the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned countries against backing terrorism.

"If some countries support a person involved in terrorism [Bashar al-Assad], then that means these countries are also involved in terrorism. History won’t forgive these countries," Erdogan said at an opening ceremony in the central Turkish province of Cankiri on Wednesday.

"Every intervention in Syria made without realizing this fact will first of all trouble that country undertaking it," he added.

About the recent Ankara bombing, the president said: "While Turkey makes a sincere struggle against all terrorist organizations, those who held the state, government and even me responsible for such incidents should know that they are supporting terrorist organizations."

At least 97 people were killed and more than 240 were injured in Saturday's twin bombings in front of Ankara’s main train station.

The president also touched upon the current global refugee problem, saying that refugees, who were forcing the doors of western countries, only left because their country had been made unlivable.

"As long as Syria is not turned into a country for Syrians, it is not possible to solve the refugee and terrorism problems based in that country," he said.

Millions of Syrian refugees have fled their country since war broke out more than four years ago. The UN said in June the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide has "for the first time in the post-World War II era, exceeded 50 million people".

Turkey is hosting nearly 2 million refugees who fled their country since the Syrian civil war broke out more than four years ago. It is the world’s largest Syrian refugee population.