ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu has told a panel at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) that Ankara is using its “legitimate right of self-defense” in its intervention against Kurdish militia groups in northwestern Syria. Participating in a panel discussion, which featured former US Secretary of State John Kerry, Cavusoglu was responding to an appeal for restraint from fellow panelist Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, the secretary general of the Arab League. “Mr. Secretary-General, we are there to defeat a terrorist organization, and we are using our legitimate right of self-defense — this is a right emanating from international law, UN Security Council resolutions, as well as Article 51 of the UN Charter. This is for sure,” Cavusoglu insisted. “You are talking about your system. I hope your system is strong enough to prevent the leader of one of your member states from killing at minimum half a million people and use of chemical weapons — first,” Cavusoglu said, criticizing the Arab League’s response to the Syrian conflict and President Bashar al-Assad. “I hope your system dares to remind other countries in Syria not to stay. As far as I know only Iran and Russia are invited, but the others are also there as a coalition to defeat Daesh [ISIS]. [So] is your problem with Daesh or the YPG?” he added. Afrin, in northwestern Syria, has been under assault by the Turkish military and its proxies since January 20, with the stated aim of pushing back the mostly-Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers a terrorist organization. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the deaths of 94 civilians in Afrin as of Saturday. During his contribution to the debate, Aboul-Gheit offered a bleak assessment of the Syrian conflict, decrying the presence of so many foreign forces in the country, including Turkey. “I see an ugly, ugly confrontation in Syria, and I see great powers competing amongst themselves and the regional powers intervening in Syrian affairs that [will] for sure lead to an unsettlement in Syria. There will not be a settlement in Syria. You know why? Because the Russians are on the coast, the Americans are inside Syria, the Iranians are all over the place,” said Aboul-Gheit. “And I have to admit I have been always trying to understand the Turkish behavior. However, I appeal to my Turkish colleague and brother and friend [Cavusoglu], also take care [in the way] that you are intervening in an Arab country south of your borders. So lay down certain principals prior to the way you are acting.”
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