Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday welcomed airstrikes launched by the US, UK and France against the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
“We find the operation appropriate,” Erdoğan said during a congress of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Istanbul’s Fatih district.
According to the report Erdoğan also said he would be in contact with the leaders of the US and Russia.
“My colleagues are in close contact with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. We will talk with him and the US today, [or] tomorrow.”
Ankara was informed ahead of US, British and French strikes on Syria, AKP spokesman Mahir Ünal said in a televised interview on CNN Türk, Reuters reported.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry in a Saturday statement described the airstrikes against the Syrian government as an “appropriate response to the chemical attack which caused the deaths of many civilians in Douma on 7 April.”
Deputy Turkish Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag tweeted that Turkey’s İncirlik Air Base was not used in the attack against Syria.
İncirlik, located in Turkey’s southern province of Adana, has been used by the US-led coalition to counter the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to launch attacks against ISIL in neighboring Syria.