Ankara Concerned With 'Cutting Corridor' Between Turkey, Syria's Aleppo

ANKARA (Sputnik) — The city of Aleppo is controlled by the forces opposition to the official Damascus. Moscow has repeatedly accused Ankara of creating supply chains for opposition groups and terrorists in the vicinity of Aleppo. In February, the routes that led from Aleppo to the Turkish-Syrian border had been cut as a result of the offensive conducted by the Syrian army along with patriotic militias.

"Hundreds of thousands of refugees are waiting on the other side of the [Syrian-Turkish] border, because of the cutting the corridor between Turkey and Aleppo they are in a very desperate situation and we are very worried whether there could be new waves of refugees," Davutoglu said at a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

He added that Ankara was also concerned by the threat to the Turkish security coming from the territories of both Syria and Iraq, posed by the Islamic State (Daesh) militant group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces fighting against numerous opposition factions and extremist groups, such as Daesh and the Nusra Front, which are outlawed in many countries including Russia.