\n Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday accused Russia of acting as a \"terrorist organisation\" in Syria and vowed to deliver a robust response.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"If Russia continues behaving like a terrorist organisation and forcing civilians to flee, we will deliver an extremely decisive response,\" Davutoglu said through an official translator during a visit to Kiev.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Unfortunately, barbaric attacks on civilians are continuing in Syria and these attacks are being waged by both Russia and terrorist groups,\" Davutoglu said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Russia and other terrorist organisations -- first and foremost, the Islamist State in Syria -- are responsible for numerous crimes against humanity,\" he added.\n<\/p>\n
\n Tensions between Russia and Turkey have soared over Moscow's backing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia's intense air campaign against what it claims are \"terrorist\" targets in its allied Middle Eastern state.\n<\/p>\n
\n Turkey has long backed Assad's ouster and like other Western nations accuses Russia of predominantly bombing Syrian rebel groups backed by Washington and its allies instead of the self-proclaimed Islamic State.\n<\/p>\n
\n Assad's forces have most recently used Russian air support to move ever closer to the rebel stronghold of Aleppo in northern Syria.\n<\/p>\n
\n The resulting refugee flood toward Turkey has put renewed pressure on Ankara to open its border with Syria temporarily -- a move Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has until now been unwilling to take.\n<\/p>\n
\n Davutoglu further slammed the Syrian peace talks that were halted after only a few days this month in Geneva as \"diplomatic theatre\" for which \"the international community will ultimately bear responsibility\".<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday accused Russia of acting as a \"terrorist organisation\" in Syria and vowed to deliver a robust response. \"If Russia continues behaving like a terrorist organisation and forcing civilians to flee, we will deliver an extremely decisive response,\" Davutoglu said through an official translator during a visit to Kiev. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-26034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n