On
Feb 8, 2021
Turkey’s Diyanet Foundation opened a primary school for 1,100 students in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib in November 2020. (AFP/File)
Ankara faces accusations of foreign meddling and violating Syrian territorial sovereignty
ISTANBUL: Ankara has announced that it will open a health care vocational school and a medical faculty in the Cobanbey (Al-Ra’i) town of Syria near the Turkish border.
The surprise decision was published in Turkey’s Official Gazette on Friday night.
Cobanbey, in northern Syria in Aleppo, is a predominantly Turkmen town under Syrian opposition control. The medical school will be established under the auspices of Turkey’s Health Sciences University.
The surprise decision was published in Turkey’s Official Gazette on Friday night.
Cobanbey, in northern Syria in Aleppo, is a predominantly Turkmen town under Syrian opposition control. The medical school will be established under the auspices of Turkey’s Health Sciences University.
While some experts consider such moves a boost to the region’s damaged social infrastructure, others say Ankara may face accusations from Syria of foreign meddling violating its territorial sovereignty.
Since 2018, Turkey has been building hospital university faculties in Syria, including in Afrin, Al-Bab and Idlib, to encourage the return of Syrian refugees. The Turkish lira is also being used in Cobanbey district and Al-Bab.
ANKARA: Turkey’s foreign minister on Tuesday slammed the threat of further US and Western sanctions on Ankara over its military cooperation with Russia as going “against our sovereign rights.” And Mevlut Cavusoglu was joined by his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in vowing to press ahead with strengthening links between the two countries. The comments came as the two ministers met in the Russian resort city of Sochi to discuss regional and international issues ahead of a planned meeting of presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan under the high-level Russian-Turkish Cooperation Council. Among bilateral issues, such as the construction of a nuclear power station and further development of the TurkStream gas pipeline, military cooperation with Ankara was praised by Moscow despite US sanctions under Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), a 2017 law targeting Russian defense industry exports.