Turkey urges West to act against Assad

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday called on the West to pay attention to children, women and civilians being "martyred" in the Syrian town of Douma.

"When will you [the West] turn around and look at the children, women and humans slaughtered and martyred in Eastern Ghouta so we can say 'they act fair'?," President Erdoğan said at the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party's ordinary provincial congress in southeastern Siirt province, as reported by Anadolu Agency.

"Shame on those who turn humanitarian tragedy in our region into their internal political accounts and their own benefits. Your democracy, human rights, your understanding of diplomacy is a shame," he said.

Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement yesterday strongly condemning the chemical attack. "We strongly condemn the attack that bears strong suspicions that it was carried out by the regime, whose record in the use of chemicals weapons is known by the international community," the statement said, pointing to the Assad regime as its perpetrator. The statement added that this incident shows that U.N. Security Council resolutions on chemical weapons use in Syria numbered 2118, 2209 and 2235 were once again ignored.

As part of growing world condemnations, U.S. President Trump yesterday said Bashar Assad will have a "big price to pay" for launching a deadly chemical weapons attack on civilians, and blamed Iran and Russian President Vladimir Putin for backing the "animal Assad." "President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay," he wrote.