Turkey made concessions for closure of al-Ya’rubiyah crossing: Syrian politician
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – Turkey has made a lot of concessions for the sake of the closure of al-Ya’rubiyah/Tel Kocher crossing on the Syrian-Iraqi border and depriving areas of northeast Syria of humanitarian aid, a Syrian politician said on Thursday.
Two years ago, the al-Ya’rubiyah/Tel Kocher crossing was closed to UN humanitarian access to north and east Syria due to the veto of Russia and China, which exacerbated the challenges facing the region, according to civil organizations.
Turkey gave up a lot of political deals for the sake of closing the al-Ya’rubiyah crossing and limiting the aid access through only its territory in order to exacerbate political pressure on the region, Assistant Secretary-General of the Future Syria Party, Ahmad Sultan, said.
One of these concessions made by Turkey is opening a crossing between the Syrian government-held areas and those of the opposition in northwest Syria in order to allow the secret entry of a percentage of the aid to the government-held areas through commercial routes, according to Sultan.
This is taking place in light of the Turkish silence regarding the government and Russian shelling of areas run by Turkey especially in Zawiya Mountain and north of the M4 Highway.
Additionally, Turkey contributed to the remove the militants of Muslim Abu Walid al Shishani (commander of Junud al-Sham), who were insurmountable for both Russia and the Syrian government, from the town of al-Kabinah, north of Latakia, to the Kurdish city of Afrin, north Syria, Sultan told North Press.
Moreover, the vast majority of the humanitarian assistance, which are assigned to IDPs residing in camps, that enter Syria through Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey reach the extremist military factions and not to mention the economic benefit that Turkey makes, according to the politician.
He noted that Russia and Syria, through the closure of the al-Ya’rubiyah crossing, sought to involve the humanitarian issue within the political deals in the region.
The intervention of most of the influential states in the Syrian crisis, at the beginning of the Syrian war, and the decisions by the UN Security Council all were in favor of Syria, “but all were countered by several Russian-Chinese vetoes including the closure of al-Ya’rubiyah crossing,” he said.
The Russian-Chinese veto has increased the sufferings of the Syrians, who are already harmed by the raging war over years, and turned millions of them into IDPs throughout Syria, according to followers on the Syrian issue.
On July 8, the UN Security Council issued a decision to extend the mechanism of the entry of humanitarian aid through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey into northwest Syria, without adding any other crossings.
Meanwhile, the Assistant Secretary-General of the Future Syria Party called on the UN and the influential powers in the United Nations Security Council to reconsider the issue of reopening of al-Ya’rubiyah crossing in light of the camp’s IDPs needs to the UN relief assistance with the onset of winter.