Turkey's President Tayyip
Erdogan.(Reuters / Umit Bektas)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan vowed he would wash his hands of Joe Biden if reports that the US vice
president blamed Turkey in part for the rise of the so-called Islamic State
(IS, formerly ISIS) were true.
On Thursday, Biden said his “old
friend” Erdogan had admitted to making a mistake in allowing foreign fighters
to cross the Turkish border into Syria.
“You were right. We let too many
people through.' Now they're trying to seal their border," Biden quoted Erdogan as
saying.
U.S. Vice President Joe
Biden.(Reuters / Jonathan Ernst )
In comments to reporters in Istanbul
after morning prayers for Eid al-Adha – Feast of the Sacrifice – in Istanbul on
Saturday, Erdogan aggressively refuted Biden’s remarks.
"If Biden told these words,
then he will be history to me. I never uttered such remarks," Turkish daily Hurriyet cites Erdogan as saying.
Speaking back on his time as prime
minister, Erdogan said his government had not provided “even the smallest
amount of support” to the IS or any other terrorist organization.
“Nobody can prove it. Foreign
fighters never crossed from Turkey to Syria. There were people coming to Turkey
as tourists and went to Syria, but nobody can suggest that they were armed
while crossing the border,"
Erdoğan said.
"I view [Biden's remarks] with
regret. I never admitted any mistake, nor did we tell them that they 'were
right' during my visit to the US. If Mr. Biden uttered these remarks at
Harvard, he should apologize. I'm saying this clearly. And we won't accept
slender, indirect explanations,"
Erdogan said.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu added it was “impossible” to accept Biden’s remarks, adding
that it is Turkey which has borne the brunt of the Syrian refugee crisis.
"All the US authorities and
Biden very well know that Turkey, on its own, has hosted millions of refugees
for four years,” Hurriyet cites the Turkish PM as
saying.
“If all the warnings that Turkey
made had been taken into consideration, [the IS] would not be an issue
today."
Reuters / Alaa Al-Marjani
Meanwhile, Erdogan warned that
Turkey “would not hesitate” to retaliate against IS militants if they
launched attacks against Turkish troops stationed at the Tomb of Suelyman, a
Turkish enclave inside of Syria.
“Forty of our soldiers are stationed
in this zone, which is Turkish territory,”
AFP cites Erdogan as saying on Saturday.
“If one so much as touches a hair on
their heads, Turkey with its army will do all that is necessary and everything
will change from that moment on,”
he added.
His warning came just two days after
Turkey’s top general promised troops at the site that help would be on the way “the
moment we hear a single word from you.”
The Tomb of Suleyman Shah has been
considered sovereign Turkish territory since the 1921 Treaty of Ankara signed
between Turkey and France. Recent reports suggest that IS has controlled the
territory surrounding the enclave for months.
On Friday, the Turkish military
received the green light from the country’s parliament to
engage IS militants in Syria and Iraq.
The previous day, lawmakers had gave
the go-ahead for foreign forces to operate on Turkish soil if conducting
missions against the IS.
"The rising influence of
radical groups in Syria threatens Turkey's national security...The aim of this
mandate is to minimize as much as possible the impact of the clashes on our
borders," Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz told
parliament.
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