This is one of the important issues that we are closely monitoring: Turkey's Foreign Minister

Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has stated that it is unacceptable for his country to have armed groups operating independently from the central government alongside state power structures in Syria. He made this statement during a panel discussion on Syria at the Munich Security Conference.

“We see that the authorities in Syria are now taking the right steps towards the unification of armed groups. In our opinion, there should only be one legitimate power structure in any UN member country. Syria will have its own armed forces, its own law enforcement agencies, but they must be governed and subordinated to the government. We cannot tolerate the presence of armed groups, regardless of what they stand for,” said Fidan.

He added that “the longstanding presence of armed groups in the region has only led to chaos.” “Therefore, to ensure order and the security of people, the issue of armed groups must be resolved by integrating them into the national army. I believe that this process is underway. This is one of the important issues that we are closely monitoring,” the Turkish Foreign Minister noted.