Turkey Not to Cooperate With Assad Nor to Move Him by Force - Erdogan's Aide

Anakra is not going to cooperate with Damascus, neither it seeks to forcibly remove Syrian President Bashar Assad from power, Ilnur Cevik, a senior adviser to Turkish President Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told the RT broadcaster in an interview.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Turkey has repeatedly accused the authorities in Damascus of killings of Syrian civilian population and Ankara supports a number of Syrian opposition groups demanding from Assad to leave the post.

"Turkey is not going to go into a confrontation and moving Assad by force. That is why Turkey, Russia and Iran are holding the Astana talks, so, here using force against Assad, I do not think, is on board," Cevik said.

According to Cevik, Turkey will never cooperate with Assad and this issue is out of question.

The second round of negotiations brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran on the Syrian crisis in Astana took place on February 15-16. The talks resulted in the agreement of the participants to set up a ceasefire monitoring group including Iran, Russia and Turkey, that would report to the United Nations.

The civil war in Syria between government troops and numerous opposition and terrorist organizations has been raging since 2011.