NEW YORK - Turkey intends to keep up its diplomatic efforts to establish a buffer zone in Syria, despite the United Nations’ failure last week to reach a resolution at the Security Council meeting on Thursday.
“How long are we going to sit and watch while an entire generation is being wiped out by random bombardment and deliberate mass targeting?" Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu asked after last Thursday’s meeting ended in deadlock.
"I was expecting this meeting to produce tangible solutions to the suffering of the Syrian people," he said. "We don't have anything new to say to thousands of Syrians who suffer at the hands of the regime as the UN is entrapped by inaction."
Davutoglu’s remarks come on the heels of a statement he made earlier in the week urging the UN to create a safe haven within Syria. "We will emphasize that this burden now needs to be shared by the whole international community, not just by Syria's neighbors," he said.
If a buffer zone were to be implemented, it would require a UN resolution for a no-fly zone -- a measure that is unlikely to be approved since Security Council members Russia and China consider it a violation of Syria's sovereignty.
The council said that no contingency plan would be ruled out, but at the same time no new details were revealed about when such plans would be considered seriously.
Turkey has seen a mass influx of refugees seeking asylum from the bloodshed in Syria. Ankara said it is now housing as many as 100,000 refugees and cannot handle any more, even as streams of people continue turning up at the border. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees anticipates that the number could soon reach 200,000.
Terrorists training in the camps?
Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari also took a stab at Turkey, calling it “Syria’s Executioner.” He accused powers within the Security Council of "promoting imminent military intervention under humanitarian pretexts."
"It is clear that certain states do not see the issue of humanitarian aid in any way other than as part of a biased political agenda," he said.
Following the meeting, he went on to accuse Turkey of training terrorists within the refugee camps and sending them out against the Syrian government with weapons and war tactics.
