Alwaght- Syria criticized Turkey's Parliament for renewing for two years authorization of military operations on Syrian territory, saying the policies of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pose a direct threat to regional and international peace and security.
Erdogan continues to carry out military attacks on the Syrian territories in violation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions, Syria’s official SANA news agency quoted an official source at the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry as saying in a statement on Saturday.
The source slammed inaction of the Security Council in the face of the continued Turkish occupation of the Syrian territories, which has led to the continuation of the Turkish president's crimes and acts of aggression against Damascus.
The statement emphasized that the UN silence has also allowed Erdogan to continue the occupation of the Syrian territories, impose demographic change, cut off water of the Euphrates River to civilians and support terrorist groups.
"Syria reserves its absolute right, based on the [UN] Charter and the international law, to defend its independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty over all of its land and take all practical and legal measures guaranteed by international legitimacy in order to repel the Turkish aggression," the source said.
The international community should hold Turkey accountable for war crimes and acts of aggression it committed against Syria, the statement added.
It emphasized that Turkey must compensate Syria for all the losses it has caused against the Syrian civilians, the country’s infrastructures, private and public property, natural resources and its historical heritage.
Earlier this month, Turkey's parliament extended the military's mandate to launch cross-border operations in neighboring Syria and Iraq.
The Turkish military deployment mandate was first approved by parliament in October 2014, and has been renewed each year since then.
The motion was approved in large part to counter the geographic control of Syrian Kurdish forces close to the Turkish border and to confront Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants rear-bases in Iraq.
Ankara claims its mission is aimed at fighting terrorists but Damascus has time and again condemned the Turkish presence on its soil and accused Turkey of supporting terrorist groups.
Turkey views the US-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown PKK, which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984.
Turkey has played a major role in supporting terrorists in Syria ever since a major foreign-backed insurgency overtook the country more than ten years ago.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other senior officials have said the Damascus government will respond through all legitimate means available to the ongoing ground offensive by Turkish forces and allied Takfiri militants in the northern part of the war-battered Arab country.
