Europe owes its security to Turkish sacrifices – Erdogan

Europe owes its current peace to the “sacrifices of Turkey” and its people, Erdogan said earlier on Saturday.

In a televised interview, Turkey’s President Erdogan also floated the idea of visiting Washington after March, adding that the European Council’s decision on whether ascension talks with Turkey should be shelved “has no bearing”

“The European people are living in peace and security “because of the sacrifices of Turkey and the Turkish nation,” Erdogan said, adding “They [Syrians] want to return to their homeland as soon as possible.”

He said around 311,000 Syrians have returned to areas in Afrin, Jarablus and Idlib that were cleared of terrorists by Turkish forces and its allies.

Erdogan noted that Turkey was pushing to make the region of Idlib totally secure and said Ankara had made “significant progress” in talks with Russia and Iran in this regard.

He underlined if cooperation from these countries was not possible, Ankara was determined to reach this goal through its own efforts.