Turkey's FM doubtful on Geneva 2 prospects

Despite the doubts over the prospects of the Geneva II conference, Turkey Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the country is ready to give the event its utmost support. Speaking at the Ministerial Meeting of Syria-bordering Countries held on Friday, Davutoglu criticized the international society for not taking the necessary steps to quench the “human tragedy” experienced in Syria, which has been suffering a civil war since 2011. “The fact that we organized this meeting at a refugee camp is a message in itself to the international public,” Davutoglu said, stressing that the camp holds 14,000 Syrians registered as refugees. The countries represented in the meeting, namely Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, have provided shelter for more than 100,000 Syrian refugees.” Davutoglu accused the Syrian regime of sponsoring the terrorist groups, which seemingly fight the regime but in reality wreak havoc on the opposition front. “Those who fight with terrorism are the Syrian opposition forces,” said Davutoglu, calling on the Syrian opposition to join the peace conference in Geneva as a unified front. Davutoglu added: “We are going to give the utmost support to the conference, but the international public must know that the crisis in Syria cannot be settled only with this [the conference]. More than 100,000 people have been killed in the three-year Syrian conflict, and over two million Syrians are now registered as refugees in neighboring countries, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq, according to the UN.