Turkey: Israel ‘disturbed’ as they couldn’t split Syria

By Sibel Ugurlu

ANKARA

Turkey's foreign minister said on Monday that the Israeli premier "lately seemed disturbed because he knows he couldn't divide Syria."

Speaking at a news conference alongside his Tunisian counterpart Khemaies Jhinaoui, Mevlut Cavusoglu said Benjamin Netanyahu had sympathy for the PKK terrorist group as "he was planning to divide Syria using PKK/YPG."

"When his plan collapsed, he seemed disturbed ... The common feature of the PKK and Netanyahu is that they are both baby killers," said Cavusoglu.

On Sunday, Netanyahu attacked the Turkish president over Turkey's counter-terror operation and Cyprus issues on Twitter.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people.

The foreign minister reiterated Turkey's determination "to eliminate the terrorist organizations in Turkey and outside of Turkey, wherever they are."

"Turkish soldiers have killed more than 3,000 Daesh terrorists in Syria and nearly 1,000 in Iraq," Cavusoglu added.

Asked about the situation in Libya, Cavusoglu said Turkey asked NATO to increase its training support in the country.

"But beyond that, we fully support the ongoing political process [in Libya] and the efforts of the United Nations, as well as the efforts of [the UN envoy to Libya] Ghassan Salame together with Tunisia. That's why I visited Libya two days ago," he said.

Cavusoglu also congratulated Tunisia for its democratic and successful local elections.

"We need to further develop our economic relations. Turkey also does not think differently from Tunisia about having a balanced trade.

"We will take the necessary steps together in all areas, including investment and cooperation, for this purpose," he said.

The top diplomat emphasized that the cooperation between the two countries would continue in other fields including the defense and security industry, and vowed to provide all kinds of support to strengthen the partnership between companies.

Jhinaoui, for his part, said the matters pertaining to Turkish and Tunisian efforts "to bring the different groups in Libya on a negotiation table without any discrimination" was discussed in the meeting.

The Tunisian foreign minister highlighted that they also discussed regional issues, especially the crisis in Syria and Libya.

The two leaders agreed that the crisis in Syria and Libya "can only be solved through a peaceful political means."