ANKARA

The motion brought to the Parliament by the government is not aiming at broadening the struggle against terror, but Syria, according to main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

“We would support a motion on the struggle against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] or the Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK], in short, terrorist organizations. This was also what the Western coalition was looking for: A struggle against the terrorist organization of ISIL,” he said during an Ankara meeting Oct. 2 with journalists from the International Press Institute (IPI) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

“This is not the motion that came to the Parliament. On the contrary, it is to struggle against Syria,” he said.

Many items were put into the bill, he also said.

The opposition leader said there was a perception in the west that Turkey was backing ISIL.

“This perception is correct. ISIL has offices in Turkey. They have units that gather members in Turkey.
All of these are known things,” he said, adding he was against sending Turkish soldiers to another country.

“Turkey should take an open stance if it wants to fight against ISIL.”

The opposition leader was speaking before the motion was voted on at Parliament.

October/02/2014