Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday refused to link his government strengthening its cooperation with Russia and Iran, the biggest supporters of Syria, and the change in Ankara's position on the latter.
"We believe that the survival of [Syrian President Bashar] Assad in power is a murder, because he practised state terrorism against his people, and killed more than a million so far," Erdoğan said in an interview with Reuters, according to the presidency's official web page.
As for the new candidate who will come to power in Syria after the departure of Assad, Erdoğan said that "this is up to the Syrian people, they choose who they want, this is what we should encourage if we believe in the state of democracy and law."
