Zaman: Over 300 Turkish intellectuals demand a ban on the military operation in Syria

Turkish Zaman newspaper, revealed that 308 Turkish intellectuals, including academics, journalists, writers and representatives, issued a joint statement calling on the opposition to take action to prevent a possible military operation in Syria.

The statement condemned the military operation in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, noting that the possible military operation in Syria lacks any correct reference, and considered that the talk about an “enemy threatening Türkiye from the Syrian side” is an excuse fabricated by the ruling coalition.

Referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statements that he wants to carry out a military operation in northern Syria to establish a “safe zone” with a depth of 30 km, the statement made it clear that the targeted area includes a people who are defending their occupied lands, rights and property, suffering from great pain and being killed.

The statement stressed that the possible military operation will not benefit anyone but the ruling authority, and that this military operation will cause great harm to the rest of the Turkish people, in addition to “the young people who are forced to fight and kill on foreign lands and the martyrs who fall for the survival of the ruling authority and not for the sake of the homeland”.

The statement added that allocating huge funds for arms and war in a country where millions of citizens live on the line of starvation and face great difficulties in all areas, starting from food, housing and educating children to health, will exacerbate the economic problems of the citizens of the state and the difficulties of daily life.

The statement denounced the opposition’s failure to take a firm stance on the matter, stressing that failure to show a firm stance toward the authority’s policy will make the opposition “complicated in the bloodshed and crimes committed against humanity, Türkiye and its people”.

The statement called on opposition parties “not to get involved in any of the crimes of the ruling authority and to participate in that war, by preventing it from being passed by Parliament”.