Turkish FM: Turkey and Canada have similar positions on Syria crisis

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Saturday that Turkey and Canada share a common approach on the Syria crisis. Davutoglu met his Canadian counterpart John Baird who arrived in Turkey last Thursday for his first official visit since taking office. Speaking at a joint press conference, Davutoglu said Baird and himself agreed that the massacre against the civilians in Syria were condemned strongly. "The latest development in the form of a chemical weapons attack was in the form of a crime against the humanity which has to be punished and the international accountability of that attack should be taken into consideration, too,"  Davutoglu said referring to an alleged August 21 chemical weapons attack which Syrian opposition blamed on the Assad regime inSyria. "The massacre in Syria should be brought to a stop and those who are responsible for this attack should be punished," Davutoglu said, adding that Davutoglu said the attack claimed 1,700 lives. Davutoglu said the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria would be a very positive development which Turkey would approve and added "But this will not eradicate the crimes of the past and it will never erase the memory of 1,700 people including women and children who were killed in the chemical weapons attack." When asked about Syria's asking for another month to declare the number of chemical weapons it possesses, he said "Syria is playing with time and trying to sweep this crime against the humanity by asking for additional time. It will take the Syrian regime one month to declare the number of chemical weapons. I wonder how long it will take to hand over them but meanwhile the attacks and massacres will continue." He said Turkey has always supported the destruction of chemical weapons and called on the international community not to buy into the pretext of the Syrian regime in order to gain time by asking for additional time to declare its chemical weapons. "Turkey will never remain silent in the face of massacres. Whenever we see something wrong, we are never intimidated by calling it wrong and we will continue to voice our concerns," added. Baird expressed his disappointment over the G-20 talks which took place in Saint Petersburg last week and said there was not a strong, resolute and condemnation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "We greatly appreciate the leadership of Turkey in condemning the use of chemical weapons," Baird said. "We welcome any diplomatic efforts to find a solution to end this conflict." He said Canada praises Turkey's efforts and assures that Assad must be punished not just because more than 1,000 people died in the chemical weapons attack but also because of the long war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. When asked if Canada would offer any assistance on the destruction of chemical weapons of Syria,  Baird saidCanada would support the US and the UN in efforts to destroy the chemical weapons. He also thanked Turkey for "the significant amount of humanitarian support to the victims of Assad's war." The two-and-a-half year civil war killed more than 100,000 people and over 2 million Syrians had to flee to neighboring countries, according to the UN. The alleged chemical weapons use on August 21 -- which the US believes was staged by the Syrian regime -- claimed more than 1,400 lives, and pushed the Obama administration to the verge of launching airstrikes against Syria. - Turkey and Canada to strengthen bilateral relations   Davutoglu said the mutual relations and high level visits have been gaining enormous momentum since 2012. "Turkey and Canada work together in G- 20 and NATO and we are allies. There have been certain developments in our mutual relations and we will do everything in order to further deepen our relations," Davutoglu said. "We have a trade volume of $2.5 billion and there is significant number of Canadian tourists visiting Turkey and Turkish tourists visiting Canada." Davutoglu said they also the free trade agreement negotiations between the two countries and added: "Both countries are willing to launch it as soon as possible which will play an important role in further strengthening our mutual relations." He said Turkey and Canada will strengthen transportation services by increasing flights of the Turkish Airlines -- Turkey's state-owned air carrier -- between Canada and Turkey in order to provide incentives to tourism. He also announced that Canadian Consulate in Istanbul will be elevated to the level of Consulate General and all the formalities have been completed. Meanwhile Baird said the trade volume between the two countries could be much better and added: "Both our governments are committed to working together to strengthen the bilateral relations to create more jobs more opportunities to contribute to prosperity both in Turkey and Canada." "We are looking forward to building on bilateral relations to strengthen our friendship and partnership," he said.