Turkish PM warns Russia by recalling Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

ANKARA

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“Do not worry at all, the tyrants who turned Syria, my precious Aleppo and Bayırbucak into a lake of blood will one day definitely pay the price for what they have done,” Davutoğlu said on Feb. 9. “Nobody should forget how the Soviet forces, which were a mighty, super force during the Cold War and entered into Afghanistan, left Afghanistan in a servile situation. Those who have entered Syria today will also leave Syria in a servile way,” Davutoğlu said.



The Soviet Union stayed for nearly a decade in Afghanistan after being invited in by the government in Kabul before withdrawing in 1988. Russia’s armed campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria and its open-ended military presence in the war-torn country marked Moscow’s first major foreign intervention since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.



“Russia is continuing to mercilessly bomb civilian targets which don’t have anything to do with terror. We have information on the locations of each bomb dropped by Russia, one by one. Ninety percent of more than 6,000 sorties targeted civilians and moderate opposition and only 10 percent DAESH,” Davutoğlu said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIL, as he addressed a parliamentary group meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).



“We have information on locations where each bomb has been dropped and the entire international community, the United States and the United Nations, know it as well. Now it is time to put a lid on this,” he said.



Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has warned Russia over the possible consequences of its moves in neighboring Syria, suggesting they might be about to become mired in the country as the Soviet Union did in Afghanistan in 1979.