Damascus, SANA – The Syrian Foreign and Expatriates Ministry sent two identical letters to the head of the Security Council and the UN Secretary-General on the Turkish government’s continuing illicit involvement in providing support to terrorist organizations.

The Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said the recent terrorist attacks on the city of Jisr al-Shughour and the town of Eshtabraq, and before that on Idleb, Kassab, and Aleppo, were carried out under logistic support and intense fire cover from the Turkish army, which constitutes a direct Turkish aggression against Syria and proves the open involvement of the Turkish government in supporting terrorism and violating the sovereignty of a UN member country in blatant violation of the UN Charter and Security Council resolutions on counterterrorism.

The Ministry said that following up on prior letters on the indirect Turkish involvement in supporting terrorist organizations and these organizations’ criminal activities that target Syria’s stability and security, Syria would like to relay to the Security Council and the UN Secretary-General information of the utmost gravity about the Turkish government’s clear and open support that allowed hordes of terrorists to infiltrate the cities of Idleb and Jisr al-Shughour and the town of Eshtabraq two days prior to this date.

The letters said that terrorist organizations, including Jabhet al-Nusra which was provided with training and weapons by the Turkish government, committed massacre two days ago in Eshtabraq in the countryside of Jisr al-Shughour, with terrorists slaughtering around 200 civilians, most of them women and children, leaving the victims’ bodies lying around in farmlands in the open, showing not only the barbarism of Jabhet al-Nusra, but also the barbarism of those who support them including Turkish, Saudi, and Qatari officials, adding that the Syrian government will provide information to the Security Council about those innocent civilian victims.

The Ministry went on to note that officers from Turkish intelligence agencies based in an advanced center on the Turkish-Syrian borders, with support from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, provided and managed logistic support to facilitate the infiltration of around 5,000 foreign terrorists – most of them from Jabhet al-Nusra which is listed among terrorist organizations by the Security Council – into Syrian territories, with the hordes of Jabhet al-Nusra terrorists storming Jisr al-Shughour after firing thousands of rocket shells on it for several days, running amok in its neighborhoods and murdering entire families, which caused the forced displacement of thousands of civilians.

The letters noted that the Turkish government has and continues to provide arms, funding, and training for thousands of terrorists for the purpose of destroying Aleppo city and displacing its people and occupying Idleb city, and before them the target was Kasab city, and that resulted in the murder of hundreds of Syrians, the mutilation of their bodies, and the decapitation of many at the hands of terrorists, which constitutes war crimes and entails that the sides and states that commit or fund or instigate these atrocities be held accountable.

The Ministry concluded by stating that Syria demands the Security Council exercise its authority to stop this Turkish aggression and hold its perpetrators and their supporters accountable as it constitutes a threat to security and peace in the region and the world, in addition to demanding that immediate and deterrent steps be taken against the Turkish government for its aggression against Syria and its violation of Security Council resolutions on counterterrorism, specifically resolutions no. 2170 issued in 2014, no. 2178 issued in 2014, and no. 2199 issued in 2015.

Hazem Sabbagh