Erdogan also urged to create a safe zone in the region which could help stem the influx of migrants coming to Europe from Arab countries.
This was not the first time Ankara has called for a no-fly zone in Syria. For over a year, the Turkish government has repeatedly called for the measures but all proposals have been rejected by the international community.
"The Syrian citizens in our country and those would want to migrate from Syria can now find the opportunity to live more peacefully in their own land and their own houses. […] A no-fly zone could be set up there, and that was my suggestion to both Obama and Putin. This could be achieved with the coalition forces. We are in an effort to take this step," Erdogan told a press-conference, as quoted by Reuters.
However, Washington has yet again downplayed the need for such a measure in Syria.
Turkey’s proposal to establish a no-fly zone in Syria has yet to be received positively by the US, an article in the Hurriyet Daily News read.
According to article, the actual reason behind is that Kurds, who are Washington’s ally in the region, are opposed to a no-fly zone in Syria.
"Because Washington cannot say this openly, it opts for other justifications. The US does not want to break or weaken the PKK-PYD-YPG [Kurdish] front. It still views the YPG as the 'land force of the US' in Syria. It knows that such a no-fly or security zone would block the targets of PKK-PYD-YPG in northern Syria," it read.
What is more, Moscow, another major player in the region, has also long opposed a no-fly zone in northern Syria.
Creation of no-fly zones in Syria could have very serious consequences, Spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said at a press-briefing in late-August.
"There has been the experience of creating a no-fly zone in Libya in world practice, we all remember how it ended. We remember who initiated them, moreover they have been tested and approved by the UN Security Council. But the way this was implemented in practice, I believe it is difficult to talk about zones after that, about unilateral actions on their establishment, because we remember how the recent experience ended," she said.
"Creation of demilitarized zones and a no-fly zone would be a violation of Syria’s sovereignty," retired Syrian Brigadier General Ali Maksud commented to the Russian newspaper Izvestia.
The territorial integrity of Syria should be respected. If certain zones with special forms of governance are created this would deepen the problem of terrorism, Russian lawmaker Anvar Makhmutov told Izvestia.
"Syrian forces would have to leave such areas and they will be filled with terrorists again. Aleppo will turn into an epicenter of terrorism. As for a no-fly zone, it risks repeating the Libyan scenario in Syria," he said.
