Qatar could back Turkey’s plans to settle more than a million Syrian refugees in northeast Syria after its offensive against Kurdish militia in the region, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, as cited by broadcaster NTV on Tuesday.
Erdogan told journalists on his return flight from a visit to Doha that he presented his plans to Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, adding that “Mr Tamim liked our projects,” according to the report.
Ankara launched a military incursion against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia last month, seizing a 120-km strip of land along its southeastern border. Turkey has urged Western allies to back its plans to build new towns in northeast Syria, where it says up to half of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees it currently hosts could be settled.
Western officials say they would be reluctant to fund any project which involved involuntary returns or changes to Syria's demographics – something Ankara denies it is planning, Reuters said.