MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Ankara has long been calling for a buffer zone on the border with Syria, where camps for refugees could be set up to take the load off overcrowded camps on the Turkish side of the border.
"It is more probable that they will become shelter areas for armed Islamists militants, where they will receive new weapons and where supplies to them will be provided. This would further prolong bloodshed in Syria," Chizhov said in an interview with German weekly Die Welt.
Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Sputnik that he regretted the fact that Turkey was blackmailing EU countries into accepting the idea of a safe zone in Syria.
Washington did not support the idea of such safe zones either.
