President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Bashar Assad's 13-yearlong oppressive rule in Syria inflicted more damage than previously thought, as he called for international support to help rebuild the country.
"The cost of thirteen years of slaughterous policies exceeds $500 billion," Erdoğan said, adding that Turkish expert teams visiting the country warn that the situation is far worse than anticipated.
"With the collapse of the 61-year Baath dictatorship, a new era has begun. Not a day passes without new evidence exposing the barbarity of the Baath regime," Erdoğan said.
He continued by saying that Syria will need time to recover and the international community needs to contribute more to this process.
