23 February 2016•Update: 23 February 2016
ANKARA
Turkey will respond positively to the cease-fire agreement reached between the U.S. and Russia over the Syria conflict, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Monday.
Addressing a news conference following a Cabinet meeting chaired by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Monday, Kurtulmus said: "The announcement of the cease-fire and starting of the cease-fire process is positive for us also".
A halt to ongoing hostilities in Syria is scheduled to go into effect Saturday, the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia announced Monday. Daesh and al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate, the Nusra Front, are excluded from the cease-fire as well as other unspecified UN Security Council-designated terrorist organizations.
Meanwhile, Turkey expressed its determination to continue its counter terrorism efforts during the Cabinet meeting.
"During the Cabinet meeting, we discussed once again continuing the fight against terrorism decisively, and at the same time, making all necessary arrangements in our action plan without compromising our unity, peace and democracy," Kurtulmus said.
He said that terrorism in Turkey and developments within the scope of counter terrorism and the developments around Turkey were discussed during the meeting.
"Besides, cross border sources of terrorism and threats of these sources on Turkey were also talked about," he said. Kurtulmus added that the preparations were being made to deal with those threats.
Ankara was hit by a bomb on Feb. 17 that left 28 people -- 20 of them military personnel -- dead and 81 people injured. The attack, which was blamed on the terror groups PKK and YPG, came four months after twin bombings attributed to Daesh killed 103 people in the capital, marking it as the deadliest attack in Turkish history.
The YPG is the armed wing of the PYD, the PKK’s Syrian affiliate. Turkey sees all three groups to be terrorist organizations.
