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Obama supports Turkey's right to defend its territory

December 2, 2015 at 10:28 am

US President Barack Obama said his country supports Turkey’s right to defend itself, its airspace and its territory.

Speaking after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Paris, France, where he has been attending the climate summit, Obama said: “We discussed how Turkey and Russia can work together to de-escalate tensions and find a diplomatic path to resolve this issue.” Stressing that Turkey is an important NATO ally.

Obama explained that he discussed with his Turkish counterpart ways to ease tensions in Syria, stressing on the need to solve the crisis through diplomatic and political means.

“We all have a common enemy, and that is ISIL, and I want to make sure that we focus on that threat,” he said, using another acronym for Daesh.

Remarking on Turkey’s support for refugees, the US president said: “Ankara behaved generously on the issue of refugees.”