Turkey’s Foreign Ministry blasted on Friday a statement by a senior UN aid official associating the safe zone to be established in northern Syria to Srebrenica genocide.
“IT’S AN IRRESPONSIBLE STATEMENT”
“We strongly condemn and totally reject the statement made by Panos Moumtzis, United Nations Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, in which he relates the safe zone to be established in north-east Syria with the Srebrenica genocide,” ministry’s spokesperson Hami Aksoy said in a statement.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva on Monday, Moumtzis said: ‘‘For us as the UN, the safe zone concept is one that we have a bitter history (with) and actually we never promote or encourage. We don’t think it is something that had worked for the UN, keeping in mind Srebrenica and what had happened in the past.”
Turkey’s reaction to “this irresponsible statement, in which the Regional Coordinator oversteps his limits, has already been conveyed to UN officials,” Aksoy said. He stressed that Turkey made the utmost effort in order to prevent the Srebrenica genocide saying that it is “well known by a UN official coming from this region.”
Turkish public opinion was “highly sensitive on the Srebrenica genocide and thereby its abuse by a distorted mindset is utterly unacceptable,” he added.