Turkish ambassador calls on UN to say 'stop' to massacre in Syria

Turkish Ambassador to United States Namik Tan stated Tuesday that the world continued to watch the massacre although many Syrian people had died, calling on the United Nations Security Council to help put an halt to it. Speaking at the "32nd annual conference" in Washington, Tan recalled the current condition in Syria and said Turkey would continue to stand by the Syrian people during this process. "are the lives of Syrian people worth less than others' lives? Do Syrians, who demand same values as ours, deserve less support than us? When will UN Security Council say 'enough is enough' or remind the word never ever?" Tan stated. On Turkey-Israel relations, Tan expressed his hopes for acceleration of the normalization process and said, "We, as the two countries, can start our significant cooperation again. Such a progress will also support US efforts to revive the Middle East peace process". Tan mentioned Iran, saying that nobody wanted nuclear weapons in the region and that he was against a military intervention in Iran. He emphasized that such an intervention might have a destructive impact on the already fragile region and stated that "diplomacy is only viable option" there. - Free trade agreement between Turkey-US Tan stated that a well studied and comprehensively negotiated free trade agreement was one of the tools that would strengthen the model partnership between Turkey and US, adding that it would create new opportunities for further trade and investments. "I'm convinced that our model partnership in the coming years will benefit Turkey, the US and the countries in our region for writing new and successful chapters," he said.